Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Full Tilt: Universal Constructors For General Shapes With Uniform External Forces, Jose Balanza-Martinez, Austin Luchsinger, David Caballero, Rene Reyes, Angel A. Cantu, Robert Schweller, Luis Angel Garcia, Tim Wylie

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We investigate the problem of assembling general shapes and patterns in a model in which particles move based on uniform external forces until they encounter an obstacle. In this model, corresponding particles may bond when adjacent with one another. Succinctly, this model considers a 2D grid of “open” and “blocked” spaces, along with a set of slidable polyominoes placed at open locations on the board. The board may be tilted in any of the 4 cardinal directions, causing all slidable polyominoes to move maximally in the specified direction until blocked. By successively applying a sequence of such tilts, along with …

Crazy Sequential Representations Of Numbers For Small Bases, Tim Wylie

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Throughout history, recreational mathematics has always played a prominent role in advancing research. Following in this tradition, in this paper we extend some recent work with crazy sequential representations of numbers− equations made of sequences of one through nine (or nine through one) that evaluate to a number. All previous work on this type of puzzle has focused only on base ten numbers and whether a solution existed. We generalize this concept and examine how this extends to arbitrary bases, the ranges of possible numbers, the combinatorial challenge of finding the numbers, efficient algorithms, and some interesting patterns across any …

Content-Based Music Retrieval Of Irish Traditional Music Via A Virtual Tin Whistle, Pierre Beauguitte, Hung-Chuan Huang

Conference papers

We present a mobilephon eapplication associating a virtual musical instrument (emulating a tin whistle) to a content based music retrieval system for Irish Traditional Music (ITM). It performs tune recognition, following the architecture of the existing query-by-playing software Tunepal (Duggan & O’Shea, 2011). After explaining the motivation for this project in Section 2 and presenting some relatedworkinSection3,wedescribeourproposedapplicationinSection4. Section5discussescurrentshortcomings of our project and potential future directions.

Explorobot: Rapid Exploration With Chart Automation, Tamara Matthews, Rohan Goel, John Mcauley

Conference papers

General-purpose visualization tools are used by people with varying degrees of data literacy. Often the user is not a professional analyst or data scientist and uses the tool infrequently, to support an aspect of their job. This can present difficulties as the user’s unfamiliarity with visualization practice and infrequent use of the tool can result in long processing time, inaccurate data representations or inappropriate visual encodings. To address this problem, we developed a visual analytics application called exploroBOT. The exploroBOT automatically generates visualizations and the exploration guidance path (an associated network of decision points, mapping nodes where visualizations change). These …

On The Inability Of Markov Models To Capture Criticality In Human Mobility, Vaibhav Klukarni, Abhijit Mahalunkar, Benoit Garbinato, John Kelleher

Conference papers

We examine the non-Markovian nature of human mobility by exposing the inability of Markov models to capture criticality in human mobility. In particular, the assumed Markovian nature of mobility was used to establish an upper bound on the predictability of human mobility, based on the temporal entropy. Since its inception, this bound has been widely used for validating the performance of mobility prediction models. We show that the variants of recurrent neural network architectures can achieve significantly higher prediction accuracy surpassing this upper bound. The central objective of our work is to show that human-mobility dynamics exhibit criticality characteristics which …

Intelligent Intrusion Detection Using Radial Basis Function Neural Network, Alia Abughazleh, Muder Almiani, Basel Magableh, Abdul Razaque

Conference papers

Recently we witness a booming and ubiquity evolving of internet connectivity all over the world leading to dramatic amount of network activities and large amount of data and information transfer. Massive data transfer composes a fertile ground to hackers and intruders to launch cyber-attacks and various types of penetrations. As a consequence, researchers around the globe have devoted a large room for researches that can handle different types of attacks efficiently through building various types of intrusion detection systems capable to handle different types of attacks, known and unknown (novel) ones as well as have the capability to deal with …

Agent-Based Iot Coordination For Smart Cities Considering Security And Privacy, Iván García-Magariño, Geraldine Gray, Rajarajan Muttukrishnan, Waqar Asif

Conference papers

The interest in Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing steeply, and the use of their smart objects and their composite services may become widespread in the next few years increasing the number of smart cities. This technology can benefit from scalable solutions that integrate composite services of multiple-purpose smart objects for the upcoming large-scale use of integrated services in IoT. This work proposes an agent-based approach for supporting large-scale use of IoT for providing complex integrated services. Its novelty relies in the use of distributed blackboards for implicit communications, decentralizing the storage and management of the blackboard information in the …

The Evolution Of Cognitive Load Theory And The Measurement Of Its Intrinsic, Extraneous And Germane Loads: A Review, Giuliana Orru, Luca Longo

Conference papers

Cognitive Load Theory has been conceived for supporting instructional design through the use of the construct of cognitive load. This is believed to be built upon three types of load: intrinsic, extraneous and germane. Although Cognitive Load Theory and its assumptions are clear and well-known, its three types of load have been going through a continuous investigation and re-definition. Additionally, it is still not clear whether these are independent and can be added to each other towards an overall measure of load. The purpose of this research is to inform the reader about the theoretical evolution of Cognitive Load Theory …

Fuzzy-Gra Trust Model For Cloud Risk Management, Abdul Razaque, Muder Almiani, Meer Jaro Khan, Basel Magableh, Ayman Al-Dmour, Amer Al-Rahayfeh

Conference papers

Cloud computing is not adequately secure due to the currently used traditional trust methods such as global trust model and local trust model. These are prone to security vulnerabilities. This paper introduces a trust model based on the fuzzy mathematics and gray relational theory. Fuzzy mathematics and gray relational analysis (Fuzzy-GRA) aims to improve the poor dynamic adaptability of cloud computing. Fuzzy-GRA platform is used to test and validate the behavior of the model. Furthermore, our proposed model is compared to other known models. Based on the experimental results, we prove that our model has the edge over other existing …

Brexit: A Granger Causality Of Twitter Political Polarisation On The Ftse 100 Index And The Pound, James Usher, Lucia Morales, Pierpaolo Dondio

Conference papers

BREXIT is the single biggest geopolitical event in British history since WWII. Whilst the political fallout has become a tragicomedy, the political ramifications has had a profound impact on the Pound and the FTSE 100 index. This paper examines Twitter political discourse surrounding the BREXIT withdrawal agreement. In particular we focus on the discussions around four different exit strategies known as “Norway”, “Article 50”, the“Backstop” and “No Deal” and their effect on the pound and FTSE 100 index from the period of rumblings of the cancellation of the Meaning Vote on December 10th 2018 inclusive of second defeat on the …

A Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor Search For Electromagnetic Signals Coincident With Gravitational-Wave Candidates In Advanced Ligo's First Observing Run, E. Burns, A. Goldstein, C. M. Hui, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present a search for prompt gamma-ray counterparts to compact binary coalescence gravitational wave (GW) candidates from Advanced LIGO's first observing run (O1). As demonstrated by the multimessenger observations of GW170817/GRB 170817A, electromagnetic and GW observations provide complementary information about the astrophysical source, and in the case of weaker candidates, may strengthen the case for an astrophysical origin. Here we investigate low-significance GW candidates from the O1 compact binary coalescence searches using the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM), leveraging its all sky and broad energy coverage. Candidates are ranked and compared to background to measure the significance. Those with false …

Modelling And Evaluation Of Electrical Resonance Eddy Current For Submillimeter Defect Detection, Yew San Hor, Vinod K. Sivaraja, Yu Zhong, Bui V. Phuong, Christopher Lane

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Eddy current (EC) inspection is used extensively in non-destructive testing (NDT) to detect surface-breaking defects of engineering components. However, the sensitivity of conventional eddy current inspection has plateaued in recent years. The ability to detect submillimetre defects before it becomes critical would allow engineering components to remain in-service safely for longer. Typically, it is required that higher frequency EC is employed to achieve a suitable sensitivity for detection of such submillimetre defects. However, that would lead to significant electromagnetic noise affecting the sensitivity of the inspection. To overcome this issue, the electrical-resonance based eddy current method has been proposed, where …

Properties Of The Binary Neutron Star Merger Gw170817, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

On August 17, 2017, the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors observed a low-mass compact binary inspiral. The initial sky localization of the source of the gravitational-wave signal, GW170817, allowed electromagnetic observatories to identify NGC 4993 as the host galaxy. In this work, we improve initial estimates of the binary's properties, including component masses, spins, and tidal parameters, using the known source location, improved modeling, and recalibrated Virgo data. We extend the range of gravitational-wave frequencies considered down to 23 Hz, compared to 30 Hz in the initial analysis. We also compare results inferred using several signal models, which …

Search For Multimessenger Sources Of Gravitational Waves And High-Energy Neutrinos With Advanced Ligo During Its First Observing Run, Antares, And Icecube, A. Albert, M. André, M. Anghinolfi, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, such as binary neutron star and black hole mergers or core-collapse supernovae, can drive relativistic outflows, giving rise to non-thermal high-energy emission. High-energy neutrinos are signatures of such outflows. The detection of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from common sources could help establish the connection between the dynamics of the progenitor and the properties of the outflow. We searched for associated emission of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical transients with minimal assumptions using data from Advanced LIGO from its first observing run O1, and data from the Antares and IceCube neutrino observatories from …

Resonance Strengths For Kll Dielectronic Recombination Of Highly Charged Mercury Ions And Improved Empirical Z -Scaling Law, Zoltan Harman, Chintan Shah, Antonio J. Gonzalez Martinez, Ulrich D. Jentschura, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Theoretical and experimental resonance strengths for KLL dielectronic recombination (DR) into He-, Li-, Be-, and B-like mercury ions are presented, based on state-resolved DR x-ray spectra recorded at the Heidelberg electron-beam ion trap. The DR resonance strengths are experimentally extracted by normalizing them to simultaneously recorded radiative recombination signals. The results are compared to state-of-the-art atomic calculations that include relativistic electron correlation and configuration mixing effects. Combining the present data with other existing ones, we derive an improved semiempirical Z-scaling law for DR resonance strengths as a function of the atomic number, taking into account higher-order relativistic corrections, which are …

Self-Consistent Two-Gap Description Of Mgb₂ Superconductor, Hyunsoo Kim, Kyuil Cho, Makariy A. Tanatar, Valentin Taufour, Stella K. Kim, Sergey L. Bud'ko, Paul C. Canfield, Vladimir G. Kogan, Ruslan Prozorov

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

A self-consistent two-gap γ-model is used to quantitatively describe several thermodynamic properties of MgB₂ superconductor. The superconducting coupling matrix, vij, was obtained from the fitting of the superfluid density in the entire superconducting temperature range. Using this input, temperature-dependent superconducting gaps, specific heat, and upper critical fields were calculated with no adjustable parameters and compared with the experimental data as well as with the first-principles calculations. The observed agreement between fit and data shows that γ-model provides adequate quantitative description of the two-gap superconductivity in MgB₂ and may serve as a relatively simple and versatile self-consistent description of …

Modeling Land Subsidence Using Insar And Airborne Electromagnetic Data: Dataset, Ryan G. Smith, R. Knight

Research Data

Supporting dataset for article published in Water Resources Research, Volume 55, Issue 4, pages 2801-2819

Facial Re-Enactment, Speech Synthesis And The Rise Of The Deepfake, Nicholas Gardiner

Theses : Honours

Emergent technologies in the fields of audio speech synthesis and video facial manipulation have the potential to drastically impact our societal patterns of multimedia consumption. At a time when social media and internet culture is plagued by misinformation, propaganda and “fake news”, their latent misuse represents a possible looming threat to fragile systems of information sharing and social democratic discourse. It has thus become increasingly recognised in both academic and mainstream journalism that the ramifications of these tools must be examined to determine what they are and how their widespread availability can be managed.

This research project seeks to examine …

Ionic Liquid Based Polymer Gel Electrolytes For Use With Germanium Thin Film Anodes In Lithium Ion Batteries, Louise M. Mcgrath, John Jones, Edwin Carey, James F. Rohan

Articles

Thermally stable, flexible polymer gel electrolytes with high ionic conductivity are prepared by mixing the ionic liquid 1‐butyl‐1‐methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (C₄mpyrTFSI), LiTFSI and poly(vinylidene difluoride‐co‐hexafluoropropylene (PVDF‐HFP). FT‐IR and Raman spectroscopy show that an amorphous film is obtained for high (60 %) C₄mpyrTFSI contents. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) confirms that the polymer gels are stable below ∼300 °C in both nitrogen and air environments. Ionic conductivity of 1.9×10⁻³ S cm⁻² at room temperature is achieved for the 60 % ionic liquid loaded gel. Germanium (Ge) anodes maintain a coulombic efficiency above 95 % after 90 cycles in …

Fluorescence Quenching-Based Mechanism For Determination Of Hypochlorite By Coumarin-Derived Sensors, Karolina Starzak, Arkadiusz Matwijczuk, Bernadette Creaven, Alicja Matwijczuk, Sławomir Wybraniec, Dariusz Karcz

Articles

A fluorescence quenching-based mechanism for the determination of hypochlorite was proposed based on spectroscopic and chromatographic studies on the hypochlorite-sensing potency of three structurally similar and highly fluorescent coumarins. The mode of action was found to rely upon a chlorination of the coumarin-based probes resulting from their reaction with sodium hypochlorite. Importantly, the formation of chlorinated derivatives was accompanied by a linear decrease in the fluorescence intensities of the probes tested. The results obtained suggest the applicability of a coumarin-dependent hypochlorite recognition mechanism for the detection of, as well as for quantitative determination of, hypochlorite species in vitro.

Spheroid-3d And Monolayer-2d Intestinal Electrochemical Biosensor For Toxicity/Viability Testing: Applications In Drug Screening, Food Safety, And Environmental Pollutant Analysis, Evangelia Flampouri, Shahzad Imar, Kieran O'Connell, Baljit Singh

Articles

The rise of three-dimensional cell culture systems that provide in vivo-like environments for pharmaco-toxicological models has prompted the need for simple and robust viability assays suitable for complex cell architectural structures. This study addresses that challenge with the development of an in vitro enzyme based electrochemical sensor for viability/cytotoxicity assessment of two-dimensional (2D) monolayer and three-dimensional (3D) spheroid culture formats. The biosensor measures the cell viability/toxicity via electrochemical monitoring of the enzymatic activity of nonspecific esterases of viable cells, through the hydrolysis of 1-naphthyl acetate to 1-naphthol. The proposed sensor demonstrated strong correlation (r = 0.979) with viable …

Electrochemical Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (E-Elisa) For Parasitic Nematode: Ostertagia Ostertagi (Brown Stomach Worm) Infections In Dairy Cattle, Baljit Singh, Evangelia Flampouri, Eithne Dempsey

Articles

A sensitive electrochemical immunoassay (e-ELISA) has been developed for the detection of the gastrointestinal parasitic nematode Ostertagia ostertagi (brown stomach worm) in infected and control serum samples. An antigen-indirect immunoassay format was employed to detect the presence of O. ostertagi antibodies, coupled with an anti-species monoclonal horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugate. ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)) and TMB (3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine/hydrogen peroxide) were investigated as both chromogenic visualising reagents for optical ELISA and electroactive substrates for electrochemical ELISA in the HRP catalysed oxidation reaction. Coulometry was applied for the detection of O. ostertagi antibodies (via TMB electrochemistry) and compared with the commercial optical ELISA (ABTS …

Offshore Wind Farms And Maritime Navigational Risks, Syed Raza Ali Mehdi

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

The offshore wind energy sector (OWE) has experienced significant growth in the last few decades. Since the inception of the very first offshore wind farm (OWF) – Vindeby – in 1991, there have been major improvements in materials, structures, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics technologies, as well as substantial developments in installation, operations, maintenance and decommissioning strategies. These advances have led to a rapid increase in the numbers and sizes of both offshore winds turbines (OWTs) and OWFs, and driven down the cost of OWE generation. With further improvements imminent, and increasing societal popularity, the strong evolution of the OWE sector is predicted …

Electroencephalogram (Eeg) For Delineating Objective Measure Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sampath Jayarathna, Yasith Jayawardana, Mark Jaime, Sashi Thapaliya

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that often impairs a child's normal development of the brain. According to CDC, it is estimated that 1 in 6 children in the US suffer from development disorders, and 1 in 68 children in the US suffer from ASD. This condition has a negative impact on a person's ability to hear, socialize, and communicate. Subjective measures often take more time, resources, and have false positives or false negatives. There is a need for efficient objective measures that can help in diagnosing this disease early as possible with less effort. EEG measures the …

Code Readability: A Proposal On The Effects Of Psychology And Comprehension In Software Development And Maintenance, Ethan Brian Sankey

Honors Program Theses

Because of the diversity and complexity of the hundreds of coding languages out there, code readability has become more and more of an issue as the years have passed and as the popularity of technology that required built-in computers has increased. With so many different formats, styles, and restrictions on each language, even a developer with experience in only a few common languages may have trouble remembering which language allows for certain indentation, which language requires variable instantiation, which language requires return statements at the end of functions. While I can appreciate the diversity and efficiency that having many different …

Variation In Reproductive Timing For The Northern Long-Eared Myotis (Myotis Septentrionalis) Across Nebraska, Keith Geluso, Cliff Lemen, Patricia Freeman, Brett R. Andersen, Jeremy A. White, Heather M. Johnson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The northern long-eared myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), a federally threatened species, occurs in extreme northern, eastern, and southern Nebraska. These regions vary in climate due to geographic location, topography, and elevation. During a 1-week period in early July 2015, we surveyed bats across the state and observed striking variation in the reproductive status for M. septentrionalis. We examined whether or not growing degree days, an abiotic climatic factor used mainly for agricultural practices, was associated with this reproductive variation in a mammalian species. In early July, we captured only pregnant females in the Pine Ridge region of northwestern Nebraska, …

Isotopic Composition Of Groundwater And Precipitation In Nebraska, Usa, Mikaela L. Cherry, Troy E. Gilmore, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Didier Gastmans, John Gates

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Groundwater is vital worldwide for water supply, agriculture and industry. Nearly 60% of all water use in Nebraska is from groundwater. Over 90% of groundwater is used for irrigation in Nebraska, which has the largest area of irrigated land in the United States. Many Nebraskans depend on groundwater for drinking water, both from private wells and municipal wells. The sustainability of groundwater resources is dependent on groundwater recharge. The recharge processes, as well as climatic patterns, influence the stable isotope signatures.

Based on weekly samples collected at two monitoring stations managed by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), Harvey (2001) …

Ieee Access Special Section Editorial: Wirelessly Powered Networks, And Technologies, Theofanis P. Raptis, Nuno B. Carvalho, Diego Masotti, Lei Shu, Cong Wang, Yuanyuan Yang

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is, by definition, a process that occurs in any system where electrical energy is transmitted from a power source to a load without the connection of electrical conductors. WPT is the driving technology that will enable the next stage in the current consumer electronics revolution, including battery-less sensors, passive RF identification (RFID), passive wireless sensors, the Internet of Things and 5G, and machine-to-machine solutions. WPT-enabled devices can be powered by harvesting energy from the surroundings, including electromagnetic (EM) energy, leading to a new communication networks paradigm, the Wirelessly Powered Networks.

Automatic Slide Generation For Scientific Papers, Athar Sefid, Jian Wu, Prasenjit Mitra, C. Lee Giles

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We describe our approach for automatically generating presentation slides for scientific papers using deep neural networks. Such slides can help authors have a starting point for their slide generation process. Extractive summarization techniques are applied to rank and select important sentences from the original document. Previous work identified important sentences based only on a limited number of features that were extracted from the position and structure of sentences in the paper. Our method extends previous work by (1) extracting a more comprehensive list of surface features, (2) considering semantic or meaning of the sentence, and (3) using context around the …

Enterprise Risk Management Strategies For Organizational Sustainability, Kaleb Matthew Wyma

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this single case study was to explore enterprise risk management strategies that nonprofit business leaders used to maintain and improve organizational sustainability. The study population included 3 executive leaders from a rehabilitation and social services nonprofit agency located in the northeastern United States. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations integrated enterprise risk management framework was the conceptual lens used in this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with the 3 executive leaders of the client organization and review of internal, external, and publicly available documents. Data and information from documents and interviews were manually coded. Findings were …