Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Exploring A Fly Ash-Based Grouting Material For Toughening Through In Situ Polymerization Of Acrylamide, Zhang Yuehong, Wang Xiaodong, Wang Hai, Wu Boqiang, Ji Zhongkui, Zhu Shibin, Han Le, Feng Longfei

Coal Geology & Exploration

Efficiently controlling the water inflow (loss) of burnt rocks in the roof of coal mining faces requires grouting reinforcement materials with excellent compressive toughness. Silicate cement-based grouting materials, characterized by low costs, have been extensively applied to grouting reinforcement in coal mines. However, their hardened grout is susceptible to deformation, exhibiting poor toughness. By employing the in-situ polymerization of acrylamide (AM) for toughening, this study investigated the effects of AM, cross-linking agent, initiator, and water-cement ratio on the setting time, swelling capacity, compressive strength, and toughness index of the fly ash-based grouting materials. Furthermore, the microstructures of the hardened grout …

Sequential Optimization For Stressor-Informed Test Planning Through Integration Of Experimental And Simulated Data, Jacob Brecheisen

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This technical report details an innovative approach in reliability engineering aimed at maximizing system durability through a synergistic use of physical experimentation and computer-based modeling. Our methodology explores the efficient design and analysis of computer experiments and physical tests to facilitate accelerated reliability growth, while leveraging a sequential integration of data from these two distinct sources: costly physical experiments, characterized by random errors, and inexpensive computer simulations, marked by inherent systematic errors. The key innovation lies in the adoption of a closed-loop design and analysis method. This method begins by identifying a viable subset of important environmental stressors—such as temperature, …

Cost-Risk Analysis Of The Ercot Region Using Modern Portfolio Theory, Megan Sickinger

Master's Theses

In this work, we study the use of modern portfolio theory in a cost-risk analysis of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Based upon the risk-return concepts of modern portfolio theory, we develop an n-asset minimization problem to create a risk-cost frontier of portfolios of technologies within the ERCOT electricity region. The levelized cost of electricity for each technology in the region is a step in evaluating the expected cost of the portfolio, and the historical data of cost factors estimate the variance of cost for each technology. In addition, there are several constraints in our minimization problem to …

Milp Modeling Of Matrix Multiplication: Cryptanalysis Of Klein And Prince, Murat Burhan İlter, Ali Aydın Selçuk

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) techniques are widely used in cryptanalysis, aiding in the discovery of optimal linear and differential characteristics. This paper delves into the analysis of block ciphers KLEIN and PRINCE using MILP, specifically calculating the best linear and differential characteristics for reduced-round versions. Both ciphers employ matrix multiplication in their diffusion layers, which we model using multiple XOR operations. To this end, we propose two novel MILP models for multiple XOR operations, which use fewer variables and constraints, proving to be more efficient than standard methods for XOR modeling. For differential cryptanalysis, we identify characteristics with a probability …

Complete Solution Of The Lady In The Lake Scenario, Alexander Von Moll, Meir Pachter

Faculty Publications

In the Lady in the Lake scenario, a mobile agent, L, is pitted against an agent, M, who is constrained to move along the perimeter of a circle. L is assumed to begin inside the circle and wishes to escape to the perimeter with some finite angular separation from M at the perimeter. This scenario has, in the past, been formulated as a zero-sum differential game wherein L seeks to maximize terminal separation and M seeks to minimize it. Its solution is well-known. However, there is a large portion of the state space for which the canonical solution does not …

Preliminary Study On The Effects Of Vinegar As Pre- Treatment For The Oven-Drying Of Pacific Yellowtail Emperor (Lethrinus Atkinsoni) Fillets, Nurisa A. Suhaili, Rafael S. Jamih, Normina A. Abubakar, Jaro O. Ajik, Merilyn Q. Amlani

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

This study aimed to assess the impact of various vinegar compositions used as pre-treatment for Pacific Yellowtail Emperor (PYE) fillets during the oven-drying process, with a focus on moisture content and optimal drying conditions. Two types of commercially available vinegar, Superior Vinegar and Datu Puti Vinegar, were compared, and different drying temperatures were evaluated. The investigation revealed that the drying temperature significantly influenced the moisture content of the dried PYE fillets. Among the tested temperatures (40°C, 60°C, and 80°C), the most favorable outcome in terms of moisture content was achieved when fillets were dried at 80°C for a duration of …

Optimal Algorithm For Managing On-Campus Student Transportation, Youssef Harrath Dr.

Research & Publications

This study analyzed the transportation issues at the University of Bahrain Sakhir campus, where a bus system with an unorganized and fixed number of buses allocated each semester was in place. Data was collected through a survey, on-site observations, and student schedules to estimate the number of buses needed. The study was limited to students who require to move between buildings for academic purposes and not those who choose to ride buses for other reasons. An algorithm was designed to calculate the optimal number of buses for each time slot, and for each day. This solution could improve transportation efficiency, …

Segac: Sample Efficient Generalized Actor Critic For The Stochastic On-Time Arrival Problem, Honglian Guo, Zhi He, Wenda Sheng, Zhiguang Cao, Yingjie Zhou, Weinan Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper studies the problem in transportation networks and introduces a novel reinforcement learning-based algorithm, namely. Different from almost all canonical sota solutions, which are usually computationally expensive and lack generalizability to unforeseen destination nodes, segac offers the following appealing characteristics. segac updates the ego vehicle’s navigation policy in a sample efficient manner, reduces the variance of both value network and policy network during training, and is automatically adaptive to new destinations. Furthermore, the pre-trained segac policy network enables its real-time decision-making ability within seconds, outperforming state-of-the-art sota algorithms in simulations across various transportation networks. We also successfully deploy segac …

Novel Approach For Non-Invasive Prediction Of Body Shape And Habitus, Emma Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While marker-based motion capture remains the gold standard in measuring human movement, accuracy is influenced by soft-tissue artifacts, particularly for subjects with high body mass index (BMI) where markers are not placed close to the underlying bone. Obesity influences joint loads and motion patterns, and BMI may not be sufficient to capture the distribution of a subject’s weight or to differentiate differences between subjects. Subjects in need of a joint replacement are more likely to have mobility issues or pain, which prevents exercise. Obesity also increases the likelihood of needing a total joint replacement. Accurate movement data for subjects with …

Distributed Control Of Servicing Satellite Fleet Using Horizon Simulation Framework, Scott Plantenga

Master's Theses

On-orbit satellite servicing is critical to maximizing space utilization and sustainability and is of growing interest for commercial, civil, and defense applications. Reliance on astronauts or anchored robotic arms for the servicing of next-generation large, complex space structures operating beyond Low Earth Orbit is impractical. Substantial literature has investigated the mission design and analysis of robotic servicing missions that utilize a single servicing satellite to approach and service a single target satellite. This motivates the present research to investigate a fleet of servicing satellites performing several operations for a large, central space structure.

This research leverages a distributed control approach, …

Addressing The Challenged Of Dcop Based Decision-Making Algorithms In Modern Power Systems, Luis Daniel Ramirez Burgueno

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Natural disasters have been determined as the leading cause of power outages, causing not only huge economic losses, but also the interruption of crucial welfare activities and the arise of security concerns. Because of the later, decision-making considering grid modernization, power system economics, and system resiliency has been a crucial theme in power systemsâ?? research. The need to better withstand catastrophic events and reducing the dependency of bulky generating units has propelled the development and better management of behind-the-meter generation or distributed energy resources (DERs). DERs can assist in the grid in different manners, not only by meeting energy demand …

A Machine Learning Approach For Predicting Clinical Trial Patient Enrollment In Drug Development Portfolio Demand Planning, Ahmed Shoieb

Masters Theses

One of the biggest challenges the clinical research industry currently faces is the accurate forecasting of patient enrollment (namely if and when a clinical trial will achieve full enrollment), as the stochastic behavior of enrollment can significantly contribute to delays in the development of new drugs, increases in duration and costs of clinical trials, and the over- or under- estimation of clinical supply. This study proposes a Machine Learning model using a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) that is trained on a dataset of 100,000 patient enrollment data points including patient age, patient gender, patient disease, investigational product, study phase, blinded …

A Novel Covid-19 Herd Immunity-Based Optimizer For Optimal Accommodation Of Solar Pv With Battery Energy Storage Systems Including Variation In Load And Generation, Sumanth Pemmada, Nita Patne, Divyesh Kumar, Ashwini Manchalwar

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The world has now looked towards installing more renewable energy sources type distributed generation (DG), such as solar photovoltaic DG (SPVDG), because of its advantages to the environment and the quality of power supply it produces. However, these sources' optimal placement and size are determined before their accommodation in the power distribution system (PDS). This is to avoid an increase in power loss and deviations in the voltage profile. Furthermore, in this article, solar PV is integrated with battery energy storage systems (BESS) to compensate for the shortcomings of SPVDG as well as the reduction in peak demand. This paper …

The Electromagnetic Bayonet: Development Of A Scientific Computing Method For Aperture Antenna Optimization, Michael P. Ingold

Theses and Dissertations

The quiet zone of a radar range is the region over which a transmitted EM field approximates a uniform plane wave to within some finite error tolerance. Any target to be measured must physically fit within this quiet zone to prevent excess measurement error. Compact radar ranges offer significant operational advantages for performing RCS measurements but their quiet zone sizes are constrained by space limitations. In this work, a scientific computing approach is used to investigate whether equivalent-current transmitters can be designed that generate larger quiet zones than a conventional version at short range. A time-domain near-field solver, JefimenkoModels, was …

Scheduling Electric Vehicle Charging For Grid Load Balancing, Zhixin Han, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Capretz, Syed Mir

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

In recent years, electric vehicles (EVs) have been widely adopted because of their environmental benefits. However, the increasing volume of EVs poses capacity issues for grid operators as simultaneously charging many EVs may result in grid instabilities. Scheduling EV charging for grid load balancing has a potential to prevent load peaks caused by simultaneous EV charging and contribute to balance of supply and demand. This paper proposes a user-preference-based scheduling approach to minimize costs for the user while balancing grid loads. The EV owners benefit by charging when the electricity cost is lower, but still within the user-defined preferred charging …

Quantum Computing And Its Applications In Healthcare, Vu Giang

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper serves as a review of the state of quantum computing and its application in healthcare. The various avenues for how quantum computing can be applied to healthcare is discussed here along with the conversation about the limitations of the technology. With more and more efforts put into the development of these computers, its future is promising with the endeavors of furthering healthcare and various other industries.

Personalizing Student Graduation Paths Using Expressed Student Interests, Nicolas Dobbins, Ali R. Hurson, Sahra Sedigh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes an intelligent recommendation approach to facilitate personalized education and help students in planning their path to graduation. The goal is to identify a path that aligns with a student's interests and career goals and approaches optimality with respect to one or more criteria, such as time-to-graduation or credit hours taken. The approach is illustrated and verified through application to undergraduate curricula at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Optimal Design And Operation Of Integrated Hydrogen Generation And Utilization Plants, Ijiwole Solomon Ijiyinka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

There are considerable efforts worldwide for reducing the use of fossil fuel for energy production. While renewable energy sources are being increasingly used, fossil fuel still contribute about 80% of the energy used worldwide. As a result, the level of CO₂ is still increasing fast in the atmosphere currently exceeding about 410 parts per million (ppm). For reducing CO₂ build up in the atmosphere, various approaches are being investigated. For the electric power generation sector, two key approaches are post-combustion CO₂ capture and use of hydrogen as a fuel for power generation. These two solutions can also …

Peer-To-Peer Energy Trading In Smart Residential Environment With User Behavioral Modeling, Ashutosh Timilsina

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Electric power systems are transforming from a centralized unidirectional market to a decentralized open market. With this shift, the end-users have the possibility to actively participate in local energy exchanges, with or without the involvement of the main grid. Rapidly reducing prices for Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs), supported by their ease of installation and operation, with the facilitation of Electric Vehicles (EV) and Smart Grid (SG) technologies to make bidirectional flow of energy possible, has contributed to this changing landscape in the distribution side of the traditional power grid.

Trading energy among users in a decentralized fashion has been referred …

Data-Driven Reachability Of Non-Linear Systems Via Optimization Of Chen-Fliess Series, Ivan Perez Avellaneda

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A reachable set is the set of all possible states produced by applying a set of inputs, initial states, and parameters. The fundamental problem of reachability is checking if a set of states is reached provided a set of inputs, initial states, and parameters, typically, in a finite time. In the engineering field, reachability analysis is used to test the guarantees of the operation’s safety of a system. In the present work, the reachability analysis of nonlinear control affine systems is studied by means of the Chen-Fliess series. Different perspectives for addressing the reachability problem, such as interval arithmetic, mixed-monotonicity, …

Mitigating Popularity Bias In Recommendation With Unbalanced Interactions: A Gradient Perspective, Weijieying Ren, Lei Wang, Kunpeng Liu, Ruocheng Guo, Ee-Peng Lim, Yanjie Fu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recommender systems learn from historical user-item interactions to identify preferred items for target users. These observed interactions are usually unbalanced following a long-tailed distribution. Such long-tailed data lead to popularity bias to recommend popular but not personalized items to users. We present a gradient perspective to understand two negative impacts of popularity bias in recommendation model optimization: (i) the gradient direction of popular item embeddings is closer to that of positive interactions, and (ii) the magnitude of positive gradient for popular items are much greater than that of unpopular items. To address these issues, we propose a simple yet efficient …

Low-Reynolds-Number Locomotion Via Reinforcement Learning, Yuexin Liu

Dissertations

This dissertation summarizes computational results from applying reinforcement learning and deep neural network to the designs of artificial microswimmers in the inertialess regime, where the viscous dissipation in the surrounding fluid environment dominates and the swimmer’s inertia is completely negligible. In particular, works in this dissertation consist of four interrelated studies of the design of microswimmers for different tasks: (1) a one-dimensional microswimmer in free-space that moves towards the target via translation, (2) a one-dimensional microswimmer in a periodic domain that rotates to reach the target, (3) a two-dimensional microswimmer that switches gaits to navigate to the designated targets in …

Model-Based Deep Learning For Computational Imaging, Xiaojian Xu

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses model-based deep learning for computational imaging. The motivation of our work is driven by the increasing interests in the combination of imaging model, which provides data-consistency guarantees to the observed measurements, and deep learning, which provides advanced prior modeling driven by data. Following this idea, we develop multiple algorithms by integrating the classical model-based optimization and modern deep learning to enable efficient and reliable imaging. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithms by validating their performance on various imaging applications and providing rigorous theoretical analysis.

The dissertation evaluates and extends three general frameworks, plug-and-play priors (PnP), regularized …

Development Of A Reverse Engineered, Parameterized, And Structurally Validated Computational Model To Identify Design Parameters That Influence American Football Faceguard Performance, William Ferriell

All Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) continues to have the greatest incidence among athletes participating in American football. The headgear design research community has focused on developing accurate computational and experimental analysis techniques to better assess the ability of headgear technology to attenuate impacts and protect athletes from TBI. Despite efforts to innovate the headgear system, minimal progress has been made to innovate the faceguard. Although the faceguard is not the primary component of the headgear system that contributes to impact attenuation, faceguard performance metrics, such as weight, structural stiffness, and visual field occlusions, have been linked to athlete safety. To improve …

Development Of A Hybrid System Based On Abc Algorithm For Selection Of Appropriate Parameters For Disease Diagnosis From Ecg Signals, Ersi̇n Ersoy, Gazi̇ Erkan Bostanci, Mehmet Serdar Güzel

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The number of people who die due to cardiovascular diseases is quite high. In our study, ECG (electrocar-diogram) signals were divided into segments and waves based on temporal boundaries. Signal similarity methods such as convolution, correlation, covariance, signal peak to noise ratio (PNRS), structural similarity index (SSIM), one of the basic statistical parameters, arithmetic mean and entropy were applied to each of these sections. In addition, a square error-based new approach was applied and the difference of the signs from the mean sign was taken and used as a feature vector. The obtained feature vectors are used in the artificial …

Development Of Software Tools For Efficient And Sustainable Process Development And Improvement, Jake P. Stengel

Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructure is a key component in the well-being of our society that leads to its growth, development, and productive operations. A well-built infrastructure allows the community to be more competitive and promotes economic advancement. In 2021, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) ranked the American infrastructure as substandard, with an overall grade of C-. The overall ranking suffers when key infrastructure categories are not maintained according to the needs of the population. Therefore, there is a need to consider alternative methods to improve our infrastructure and make it more sustainable to enhance the overall grade. One of the challenges …

An Adaptive Search Equation-Based Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm For Transportation Energy Demand Forecasting, Durmuş Özdemi̇r, Safa Dörterler

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This study aimed to develop a new adaptive artificial bee colony (A-ABC) algorithm that can adaptively select an appropriate search equation to more accurately estimate transport energy demand (TED). Also, A-ABC and canonical artificial bee colony (C-ABC) algorithms were compared in terms of efficiency and performance. The input parameters used in the proposed TED model were the official economic indicators of Turkey, including gross domestic product (GDP), population, and total vehicle kilometer per year (TKM). Three mathematical models, linear (A-ABCL), exponential (A-ABCE), and quadratic (A-ABCQ) were developed and tested. Also, economic variables were generated using the "curve fitting" technique to …

Multi-Device Data Analysis For Fault Localization In Electrical Distribution Grids, Jacob D L Hunte

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The work presented in this dissertation represents work which addresses some of the main challenges of fault localization methods in electrical distribution grids. The methods developed largely assume access to sophisticated data sources that may not be available and that any data sets recorded by devices are synchronized. These issues have created a barrier to the adoption of many solutions by industry. The goal of the research presented in this dissertation is to address these challenges through the development of three elements. These elements are a synchronization protocol, a fault localization technique, and a sensor placement algorithm.

The synchronization protocol …

A Surrogate Assisted Quantum-Behaved Algorithm For Well Placement Optimization, Jahedul Islam, Amril Nazir, Moinul Hossain, Hitmi Khalifa Alhitmi, Muhammad Ashad Kabir, Abdul-Halim Jallad

All Works

The oil and gas industry faces difficulties in optimizing well placement problems. These problems are multimodal, non-convex, and discontinuous in nature. Various traditional and non-traditional optimization algorithms have been developed to resolve these difficulties. Nevertheless, these techniques remain trapped in local optima and provide inconsistent performance for different reservoirs. This study thereby presents a Surrogate Assisted Quantum-behaved Algorithm to obtain a better solution for the well placement optimization problem. The proposed approach utilizes different metaheuristic optimization techniques such as the Quantum-inspired Particle Swarm Optimization and the Quantum-behaved Bat Algorithm in different implementation phases. Two complex reservoirs are used to investigate …

Data-Driven Decarbonization Of Residential Heating Systems: An Equity Perspective., John Wamburu, Emma Grazier, David Irwin, Christine Crago, Prashant Shenoy

Publications

Since heating buildings using natural gas, propane and oil makes up a significant proportion of the aggregate carbon emissions every year, there is a strong interest in decarbonizing residential heating systems using new technologies such as electric heat pumps. In this poster, we conduct a data-driven optimization study to analyze the potential of replacing gas heating with electric heat pumps to reduce carbon emissions in a city-wide distribution grid. We seek to not only reduce the carbon footprint of residential heating, but also show how to do so equitably. Our results show that lower income homes have an energy usage …