Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Cost-Effective Load Scheduling For Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems, Avinash Shashikala Rajendra

Theses and Dissertations

Hybrid renewable energy systems offer great promise for the future. However, some lingering concerns regarding stability and cost efficiency still exist. If a private party installs the system and maintains full control, the party may itself alleviate some of these problems by wisely optimizing the benefits offered by the system. One of the ways to do so is to develop a schedule for their load such that the cost incurred is minimized; this is done by maximally utilizing the renewable sources of energy before using the backup options of more conventional energy sources. Creating such a schedule involves considering several …

A Parallelized Implementation Of Cut-And-Solve And A Streamlined Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Model For Finding Genetic Patterns Optimally Associated With Complex Diseases, Michael Yip-Hin Chan

Theses

With the advent of genetic sequencing, there was much hope of finding the inherited elements underlying complex diseases, such as late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but it has been a challenge to fully uncover the necessary information hidden in the data. A likely contributor to this failure is the fact that the pathogenesis of most complex diseases does not involve single markers working alone, but patterns of genetic markers interacting additively or epistatically. But as we move upwards beyond patterns of size two, it quickly becomes computationally infeasible to examine all combinations in the solution space. A common solution to solving …

A Cost Benefit Analysis Of Using A Battery Energy Storage System (Bess) Represented By A Unit Commitment Model, Nemanja Mihailovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to provide a general overview of a cost and benefit analysis of incorporating a battery energy storage system within unit commitment model.

The deregulation of the electricity market in the U.S. has only been around for the last two decades. With renewable energy and energy storage systems becoming less expensive, a decentralized market scheme is becoming more popular and plausible. The scope of this work is to provide a fundamental understanding of unit commitment and a cost analysis of applying a battery energy storage system to an already established power system.

A battery energy storage system (BESS) …

Developing Optimization Techniques For Logistical Tendering Using Reverse Combinatorial Auctions, Jennifer Kiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In business-to-business logistical sourcing events, companies regularly use a bidding process known as tendering in the procurement of transportation services from third-party providers. Usually in the form of an auction involving a single buyer and one or more sellers, the buyer must make decisions regarding with which suppliers to partner and how to distribute the transportation lanes and volume among its suppliers; this is equivalent to solving the optimization problem commonly referred to as the Winner Determination Problem. In order to take into account the complexities inherent to the procurement problem, such as considering a supplier’s network, economies of scope, …

Optimization Studies And Applications: In Retail Gasoline Market, Daero Kim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study of the retail gasoline market is of great interest in financial economics, since it allows many theories about price formation, oligopolistic markets, and consumer search to be tested. In addition, the risk management of gasoline prices is an important instance of the management of any consumable commodity cost. For the retailer, the tool of dynamic pricing may be found to be useful.

This thesis contributes to the study of retail gasoline markets in three main ways, each in its own paper. The first paper tests various economic models to confirm earlier results about pricing behavior in retail gasoline …

Optimizing Tensegrity Gaits Using Bayesian Optimization, James Boggs

Honors Theses

We design and implement a new, modular, more complex tensegrity robot featuring data collection and wireless communication and operation as well as necessary accompanying research infrastructure. We then utilize this new tensegrity to assess previous research on using Bayesian optimization to generate effective forward gaits for tensegrity robots. Ultimately, we affirm the conclusions of previous researchers, demonstrating that Bayesian optimization is statistically significantly (p < 0:05) more effective at discovering useful gaits than random search. We also identify several flaws in our new system and identify means of addressing them, paving the way for more effective future research.

Optimization Of Superhydrophobic Surface Production Using Ambient-Dried Silica-Based Aerogels, Elizabeth Donlon

Honors Theses

Superhydrophobic surfaces exhibit particular properties that make them functional in various anti-sticking, anti-contamination, self-cleaning and drag reduction applications. Though such surfaces are found in nature - most notably the lotus leaf - they are difficult to produce. There are numerous methods and techniques for fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces. One such method is the sol-gel method, in which aerogel, a highly porous and lightweight material that can be made hydrophobic or superhydrophobic, is coated onto a surface. The purpose of this project is to devise a simple and repeatable procedure for making hydrophobic silica aerogel coatings that can be used for drag …

Multi-Stop Routing Optimization: A Genetic Algorithm Approach, Abbas Hommadi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this research, we investigate and propose new operators to improve Genetic Algorithm’s performance to solve the multi-stop routing problem. In a multi-stop route, a user starts at point x, visits all destinations exactly once, and then return to the same starting point. In this thesis, we are interested in two types of this problem. The first type is when the distance among destinations is fixed. In this case, it is called static traveling salesman problem. The second type is when the cost among destinations is affected by traffic congestion. Thus, the time among destinations changes during the day. In …

A Holistic Computational Approach To Boosting The Performance Of Protein Search Engines, Majdi Ahmad Mosa Maabreh

Dissertations

Despite availability of several proteins search engines, due to the increasing amounts of MS/MS data and database sizes, more efficient data analysis and reduction methods are important. Improving accuracy and performance of protein identification is a main goal in the community of proteomic research. In this research, a holistic solution for improvement in search performance is developed.

Most current search engines apply the SEQUEST style of searching protein databases to define MS/MS spectra. SEQUEST involves three main phases: (i) Indexing the protein databases, (ii) Matching and Ranking the MS/MS spectra and (iii) Filtering the matches and reporting the final proteins. …

Gradient Estimation For Attractor Networks, Thomas Flynn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It has been hypothesized that neural network models with cyclic connectivity may be more powerful than their feed-forward counterparts. This thesis investigates this hypothesis in several ways. We study the gradient estimation and optimization procedures for several variants of these networks. We show how the convergence of the gradient estimation procedures are related to the properties of the networks. Then we consider how to tune the relative rates of gradient estimation and parameter adaptation to ensure successful optimization in these models. We also derive new gradient estimators for stochastic models. First, we port the forward sensitivity analysis method to the …

Integrated Strategies For Sustainable Wastewater-Based Algal Biofuel Production And Environmental Mitigation In The Us, Javad Roostaei

Wayne State University Dissertations

Integration of algae cultivation with wastewater treatment has received increasing interest as a cost-effective strategy for biofuel production. However, there has been no full assessment of algal biofuel production with wastewater on macro-scale by taking into account wastewater resources, land availability, CO2 emission resources, and geographic variation. This research addressed and evaluated the use of wastewater for algae cultivation, in terms of modeling and laboratory experiments. The first goal of this research was to develop a spatially explicit lifecycle model, by integrating life cycle assessment (LCA), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, for the evaluation of the environmental and economic …

Optimization And Control Of An Array Of Wave Energy Converters, Jianyang Lyu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study explored optimal configuration of both the array layout and the dimension of each WEC in the array. The array contains heaving buoys with full interaction and exact hydrodynamics. Optimization of dimension was done on each WEC in the array with a given optimal layout, and a higher q-factor was achieved. Both impedance matching optimal control and derivative control were employed, which provides both theoretical maximum energy and a more realistic case. Then the work was expanded to optimization of both the array layout and the dimension of each WEC in the array. An average of 39.21% higher q-factor …

Some Results On A Class Of Functional Optimization Problems, David Rushing Dewhurst

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

We first describe a general class of optimization problems that describe many natu- ral, economic, and statistical phenomena. After noting the existence of a conserved quantity in a transformed coordinate system, we outline several instances of these problems in statistical physics, facility allocation, and machine learning. A dynamic description and statement of a partial inverse problem follow. When attempting to optimize the state of a system governed by the generalized equipartitioning princi- ple, it is vital to understand the nature of the governing probability distribution. We show that optimiziation for the incorrect probability distribution can have catas- trophic results, e.g., …

Highly-Configurable Multi-Objective Optimization For Physical Parameter Extraction Using Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy, Andrew John Niklas

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The use of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy provides one of the most versatile and promising techniques for the robust determination of optical parameters, which is needed to enable identification of materials for quality control, materials science advancement, tamper prevention, drug enforcement, and hidden explosives detection. Previously, the state-of-the-art relied on legacy error measures for minimization of simulation error and the standard practice was to use a single unique measurement for each unknown material in a sample. Successful optical parameter extraction for uniformly varying optical property materials is correlated with low variation in extracted optical properties. This work advances the state-of-the-art in …