Engineering Commons^™

Cloudskulk: Design Of A Nested Virtual Machine Based Rootkit-In-The-Middle Attack, Joseph Anthony Connelly

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Virtualized cloud computing services are a crucial facet in the software industry today, with clear evidence of its usage quickly accelerating. Market research forecasts an increase in cloud workloads by more than triple, 3.3-fold, from 2014 to 2019 [33]. Integrating system security is then an intrinsic concern of cloud platform system administrators that with the growth of cloud usage, is becoming increasingly relevant. People working in the cloud demand security more than ever. In this paper, we take an offensive, malicious approach at targeting such cloud environments as we hope both cloud platform system administrators and software developers of these …

Identifying Restaurants Proposing Novel Kinds Of Cuisines: Using Yelp Reviews, Haritha Akella

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

These days with TV-shows and starred chefs, new kinds of cuisines appear in the market. The main cuisines like French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Indian are always appreciated but they are no longer the most popular. The new trend is the fusion cuisine, which is obtained by combining different main cuisines. The opening of a new restaurant proposing new kinds of cuisine produces a lot of excitement in people. They feel the need to try it and be part of this new culture. Yelp is a platform which publishes crowd sourced reviews about different businesses, in particular, restaurants. For some …

Development Of In-Vitro And In-Vivo Devices To Study The Mechanobiology Of Ligament Healing, John Bayard Everingham

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Ligament injuries are the most common sports injury in the United States. The current clinical practice for treating ligament injuries leaves many patients with significant pain and joint laxity for years following the initial injury. Controlled mechanical stimulation of the tissue after injury is necessary for robust healing, but the optimal mechanical environment for ligament healing is not fully understood. Alternative therapies, such as instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM), offer a form of mechanical stimulation that is non-invasive and has shown promising clinical outcomes but the optimal dosage for IASTM treatments is unknown. The objective of this study was …

Effects Of The Internal Magnetic Field On The Magneto-Mechanical Properties Of Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys, Anthony Hobza

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Shape memory alloys are a class of functional material which recover from large strains without permanent deformation. The strain is accommodated by the displacement of twin boundaries in the martensite phase. The shape memory alloy Ni-Mn-Ga is also ferromagnetic. Ni-Mn-Ga preferentially magnetizes along a certain crystallographic axis. This direction of easy magnetization changes across twin boundaries, such that the directions in neighboring twin domains are nearly perpendicular.

The interaction of magnetic moments and interfaces including the crystal surface and twin boundary interfaces has a large role in the magnetization process of the material. The goal of this study is to …

Thermodynamics And Kinetics Of Dna Origami Cross-Tile Array Formation, Brett Michael Ward

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As the cost to continue scaling photolithography to pattern smaller semiconducting devices increases exponentially, new materials and fabrication approaches are being sought to extend and enhance current capabilities. DNA nanostructures have been identified as a promising material for patterning nanoscale devices, and several studies have demonstrated the ability to program DNA nanostructures to self-assemble into large scale arrays. These DNA arrays can be designed to create the patterns necessary for fabricating semiconductor device features. However, these structures are far from ideal and contain a number of defects that limit the adoption of this approach for manufacturing. In order to create …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Hybrid Geosynthetic Reinforcement System To Mitigate Differential Heave On Flexible Pavement Due To Expansive Subgrades, Mir Md. Tamim

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Transportation industries encounter substantial challenges with respect to ride quality and serviceability when they deal with expansive soils underneath roadway structures. These soils exhibit swell-shrink behavior with moisture variations, which cause surficial heaving on the pavement structure and cost billions of dollars for the maintenance of pavements. For the past four decades, a particular stretch of US-95 (Oregon line to Elephant Butte) exhibited recurrent swelling distresses due to the underlying expansive soils. Despite remedial measures that exhibited satisfactory results for most of the sections, recurrent damage still continued in few sections. Further research indicated that the problematic soils were located …

Thermoelectric System Modeling And Design, Buddhima Pasindu Gamarachchi

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) convert heat to electricity by way of the Seebeck effect. TEGs have no moving parts and are environmentally friendly and can be implemented with systems to recover waste heat. This work examines complete thermoelectric systems, which include the (TEG) and heat exchangers or heat sinks attached to the hot and cold sides of the TEG to maintain the required temperature difference across the TEG. A 1-D steady state model is developed to predict the performance of a TEG given the required temperatures and device dimensions. The model is first validated using a 3-D model and then is …

Wind Farm Power Prediction In Complex Terrain, Micah Sandusky

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

There has been increasing interest in predicting the velocity field within wind farms in complex terrain for resource assessment, turbine siting, and power forecasting. These capabilities are made possible by advancements in computational speed from a new generation of computing hardware and numerical methods. The current thesis research focuses on two technical components to advance the current state in wind power forecasting. The first component is improved prediction of wind flow over complex terrain using the versatile immersed boundary method to represent surface boundary conditions on a fixed Cartesian mesh. The proposed approach embodies the law-of-the-wall for rough surfaces and …

Feasibility Of Melville Marginalia Authorship Differentiation, Aaron Burdin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

We examine the feasibility of using image processing techniques to determine differentiation in authorship of historical pencil marks. Pencil marks with unattributed and attributed authorship are segmented from digital images of historical books. Analysis is performed on five features that are extracted from the "vertical" pencil marks, with those features used as a basis for authorship of marks. These marks consist of single stroke marks that are interspersed in the same document. We describe the challenges of the digital format that we were given and the steps taken in using autonomous segmentation to save pixel locations of marks. Five mark …

Subsurface Characterization Of Flexible Pavements Constructed Over Expansive Soil Subgrades And Selection Of Suitable Rehabilitation Alternatives, Kazi Moinul Islam

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Expansive soils present significant engineering challenges, with annual costs associated with repairing structures constructed over expansive soils estimated to run into several billion dollars. Volume changes in expansive soil deposits induced by fluctuations in the moisture content can result in severe damage to overlying structures. A flexible pavement section near the Western Border of Idaho has experienced recurrent damage due to volume changes in the underlying expansive soil layer; traditional stabilization methods have provided partial success over the years. The main objective of this research effort was to characterize the problematic soil layer contributing to the recurrent pavement damage and …

Integrity Coded Databases: Ensuring Correctness And Freshness Of Outsourced Databases, Ujwal Karki

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, cloud storage has become an inexpensive and convenient option for individuals and businesses to store and retrieve information. The cloud releases the data owner from the financial burden of hiring professionals to create, update and maintain local databases. The advancements in the field of networking and the growing need for computing resources for various applications have made cloud computing more demanding. Its positive aspects make the cloud an attractive option for data storage, but this service comes with a cost that it requires the data owner to relinquish control of their information to the cloud service provider. …

Effect Of Particle Size Distribution And Packing Characteristics On Railroad Ballast Shear Strength: A Numerical Study Using The Discrete Element Method, S. M. Naziur Mahmud

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Railroad infrastructure plays a significant role in sustaining the economy of a country, and facilitates fast, safe and reliable transportation of passengers as well as commodities. Significant capital investments are required for the construction and maintenance of a railroad network that is structurally and functionally adequate. The ballast layer is one of the main structural components of a conventional rail track system, and comprises coarse-grained unbound particles, often as large as in size. The ballast as a load-bearing layer resists train-induced stresses through particle-particle interaction. Accordingly, particle-size distribution and packing characteristics are important factors that govern the mechanical behavior of …

In Situ Tem Micropillar Compression Testing In Irradiated Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Alloys, Kayla Haruko Yano

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to determine the validity of in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micro-compression of pillars in as received and ion-irradiated Fe-9%Cr oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloy. The growing role of charged particle irradiation in the evaluation of nuclear reactor candidate materials requires the development of novel methods to assess mechanical properties in near-surface irradiation damage layers just a few micrometers thick. In situ TEM mechanical testing is one such promising method, yet size effects must be understood to validate the technique. In this work, a micro-compression pillar fabrication method is developed. Yield strengths measured directly …

The Mechanism Of Radiation-Induced Nanocluster Evolution In Oxide Dispersion Strengthened And Ferritic-Martensitic Alloys, Matthew John Swenson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to evaluate the mechanism of irradiation-induced nanoparticle evolution in a model Fe-9%Cr oxide dispersion strengthened steel and commercial ferritic-martensitic alloys HCM12A and HT9. Each alloy is irradiated with Fe²⁺ ions, protons, or neutrons to doses ranging from 1-100 displacements per atoms at 500°C. The morphology of nanoclusters are characterized using atom probe tomography. The evolution of clusters in each alloy are notably different with each irradiating particle, and the competing effects of ballistic dissolution and radiation-enhanced, diffusion-driven growth are attributed to the respective differences in cluster evolution. A phase evolution model, originally theorized …

Hexarray: A Novel Self-Reconfigurable Hardware System, Fady Hussein

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Evolvable hardware (EHW) is a powerful autonomous system for adapting and finding solutions within a changing environment. EHW consists of two main components: a reconfigurable hardware core and an evolutionary algorithm. The majority of prior research focuses on improving either the reconfigurable hardware or the evolutionary algorithm in place, but not both. Thus, current implementations suffer from being application oriented and having slow reconfiguration times, low efficiencies, and less routing flexibility. In this work, a novel evolvable hardware platform is proposed that combines a novel reconfigurable hardware core and a novel evolutionary algorithm.

The proposed reconfigurable hardware core is a …

Hardware Realization Of A Residential Static Var Compensator, Muhammad Kamran Latif

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Conservation by Voltage Reduction (CVR) is the implementation of a distribution voltage strategy whereby all distribution voltages are lowered to the minimum allowed by the equipment manufacturer. This strategy is rooted in the fact that many loads consume less power when they are fed with a voltage lower than nominal. Electric utility companies consider CVR as a potential solution for managing power in distribution networks. However, a difficult challenge is to keep end-of-line (EOL) voltages within an acceptable range of the ANSI Standard C84.1. Therefore, to achieve maximum benefit from CVR, electric utilities should be able to regulate residential voltages …

Computational Modeling Of Electrical And Phonon Properties Of Skutterudites And Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, Izaak Gene Williamson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation documents the computational modeling of skutterudite and two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (2D TMD) materials for energy and electronic applications by analyzing the effects of materials doping and heterostructure formation on structural, energetic, electrical, phonon, and thermal properties. These topics remain largely unexplored and can accelerate materials development by providing insight on structure-properties-performance relationships.

Skutterudites are commonly studied for thermoelectric applications because they are low-cost, easy to process, and offer good intrinsic transport properties. They also exist as large, open structures which can be altered through filler atoms or substitutional dopants. A density functional theory (DFT)-based investigation of dopant …