Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Smart City Management Using Machine Learning Techniques, Mostafa Zaman

Theses and Dissertations

In response to the growing urban population, "smart cities" are designed to improve people's quality of life by implementing cutting-edge technologies. The concept of a "smart city" refers to an effort to enhance a city's residents' economic and environmental well-being via implementing a centralized management system. With the use of sensors and actuators, smart cities can collect massive amounts of data, which can improve people's quality of life and design cities' services. Although smart cities contain vast amounts of data, only a percentage is used due to the noise and variety of the data sources. Information and communication technology (ICT) …

Role Of Inhibition And Spiking Variability In Ortho- And Retronasal Olfactory Processing, Michelle F. Craft

Theses and Dissertations

Odor perception is the impetus for important animal behaviors, most pertinently for feeding, but also for mating and communication. There are two predominate modes of odor processing: odors pass through the front of nose (ortho) while inhaling and sniffing, or through the rear (retro) during exhalation and while eating and drinking. Despite the importance of olfaction for an animal’s well-being and specifically that ortho and retro naturally occur, it is unknown whether the modality (ortho versus retro) is transmitted to cortical brain regions, which could significantly instruct how odors are processed. Prior imaging studies show different …

Computational Analysis Of Drug Targets And Prediction Of Protein-Compound Interactions, Sina Ghadermarzi

Theses and Dissertations

Computational prediction of compound-protein interactions generated a substantial amount of interest in the recent years owing to the importance of the knowledge of these interaction for drug discovery and drug repurposing efforts. Research suggests that the currently known drug targets constitute only a fraction of a complete set of drug targets, limiting our ability to identify suitable targets to develop new drugs or to repurpose current drugs for new diseases. These efforts are further thwarted by our limited knowledge of protein-drug (and more generally protein-compound) interactions, where only a subset of drug targets is typically known for the currently used …

Asymmetric Cuh-Catalyzed Reductive Coupling Of Alleneamides With Carbonyl Electrophiles And The Mechanistic Investigation Into The Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Couplings Of Electron-Deficient Systems, Samantha L. Gargaro

Theses and Dissertations

Most natural products and other biologically active small molecules contain multiple stereogenic heteroatoms throughout their carbon scaffold. As a result, methods to install these multi-heteroatom functionalities efficiently are highly desirable. Reductive coupling reactions have been studied extensively, and reductive allylation has been a key method for generating chiral secondary and tertiary allylic alcohols. This work focuses on utilizing naturally abundant and inexpensive Cu for the asymmetric reductive coupling of alleneamides with carbonyl electrophiles to access highly functionalized multi-heteroatom scaffolds that are difficult to produce via traditional methods. Described herein are methods for these asymmetric reductive coupling reactions. Chapter 1 describes …

The Derivation Of Geologic Ecosystem Services From Geodiversity In The Black Hills Region Of South Dakota And Wyoming, James Campbell Cooke

Dissertations and Theses

The ecosystem services approach seeks to recognize the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, in order to highlight society’s dependence on natural systems. Ecosystem services fall into four categories: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Most of the ecosystem services research literature is focused on services that arise from biotic components of ecosystems. Ecosystems are dynamic complexes of biotic communities and their physical, non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit. The emphasis on biotic ecosystem services leaves understudied and undervalued the role of the abiotic, physical environment, especially in providing geologic ecosystem services. Geologic ecosystem services have been the focus …

Ecological Changes Of The Lower Niobrara River Valley And Lewis And Clark Lake Delta From Past To Present, Madalyn Christine Bollig

Dissertations and Theses

Over half of the world’s large river systems are impacted by dams. These may prevent sediment flow downstream, resulting in accumulation in the upstream reservoir. On the Missouri River, deltas and associated backwater-affected areas occur in nine locations across six reservoirs. One of these, the Lewis and Clark Lake delta-backwater, is influenced by sediment inputs from both the Missouri River and the Niobrara River. While the extension of the prograding delta into the reservoir has been well documented, there has been little research on upstream (backwater) effects of the delta on the lower Niobrara River. This study examined ecological changes …

Biodiversity In Residential Yards For Sustainability In Small Cities: Understanding Public Attitudes, Opportunities And Limitations In Vermillion, Sd, Rina Thapa

Dissertations and Theses

As urban areas are expanding with the growing size of human population, it is increasingly important to understand the role that residential yards can play in biodiversity conservation because they often comprise a large proportion of green spaces in cities. Most of the research performed to date on the role of residential yards in biodiversity conservation has been conducted in large cities. The role of residential yards in biodiversity conservation in small cities is still largely unknown. In this research, I discuss the relationship between biodiversity and the structure of green space, public attitudes towards the presence of wildlife, public …

Estimating The Ecosystem Service Of Aleutian Cackling Goose Droppings On Pastures, Brian G. Fagundes

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Aleutian cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii leucopareia) experienced a population low of 790 geese in 1974 and has recovered to the current estimate of 186,100 geese in 2021. Private livestock producers view geese as pasture competitors and use hazing and hunting to scare geese from private lands to adjacent public lands. I investigated if geese provide an ecosystem service via dropping fertilizing effects to improve pastures in northern California.

A greenhouse experiment was conducted from February-August 2019 at Cal Poly Humboldt, divided into two experiments: freshly sown ryegrass pasture and established plant and soil communities removed intact from …

Drought Responses Across Diverse Conifer Species, Habitats, And Competitive Gradients In Northern California, Gabriel J. Roletti

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Frequent and intense drought events are rapidly altering stand dynamics in western North American forests. Climate, competition, and site characteristics can affect the growth responses of individual trees to drought stress. The ecological and geographical diversity of northern California provides a unique opportunity to measure these responses across species, habitat types, and levels of competitive pressure. This study used dendrochronological techniques and linear mixed-effects models to assess growth responses to drought in four montane and two coastal conifer species across 54 study sites (nine sites per species and 540 trees total) in northern California. Growth was evaluated from 2002-2018 and …

Late Quaternary Glacier Fluctuations At Picayune Lake, Northern California, Aidan Patrick Cowan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Klamath Mountains are a 233-km-long (north to south) mountain range located in northern California that shows extensive geomorphic evidence of Pleistocene glaciation. Within the Klamath’s there are many highland lakes, which record evidence of glacial deposition, one of which is Picayune Lake. Lake sediment data collected from Picayune Lake offers insights into the glaciation, and broader depositional history of the Picayune Lake Valley, as well as the climate history of the Klamath Mountains region. I measured magnetic susceptibility, loss on ignition, and grain size in sediment cores and used radiocarbon dating to determine a chronology of glacier fluctuations in …

Comparison Of Environmental Dna And Underwater Visual Count Surveys For Detecting Juvenile Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus Kisutch) In Rivers, Jason T. Shaffer

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Environmental DNA (eDNA) has developed into a useful tool for determining the distribution of rare aquatic species, but relatively few studies have directly compared the detection probabilities of this method with other conventional survey techniques. These comparisons can inform which method may be better suited to address study objectives. In this study, the overall goal was to compare the ability of eDNA and underwater visual count (UVC) surveys to detect juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), a species of conservation concern at the southern extent of its geographic range. Specifically, I address two objectives: (1) compare the ability of …

Geomorphic Evaluation Of The Goose Lake Fault And Fluvial Terraces At The Yager Creek–Van Duzen River Confluence, Northern Coastal California, Samuel E. Bold

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Upper-plate deformation in the southern Cascadia subduction zone is dynamic and complex, situated in the transition between northward translation to westward convergence. Rock uplift and incision rates characteristic of this dynamic region are preserved in suites of fluvial and marine terraces. Fluvial terraces at the Yager Creek–Van Duzen River confluence record fluvial incision rates, and are crosscut by the understudied Goose Lake fault, an upper plate structure. In this work, I use high resolution lidar imagery to map terrace surfaces, and use optically stimulated luminescence, radiocarbon, and Beryllium-10 geochronology to bracket terrace ages and calculate incision and slip rates. With …

Interpretable Design Of Reservoir Computing Networks Using Realization Theory, Wei Miao, Vignesh Narayanan, Jr-Shin Li

Publications

The reservoir computing networks (RCNs) have been successfully employed as a tool in learning and complex decision-making tasks. Despite their efficiency and low training cost, practical applications of RCNs rely heavily on empirical design. In this article, we develop an algorithm to design RCNs using the realization theory of linear dynamical systems. In particular, we introduce the notion of α-stable realization and provide an efficient approach to prune the size of a linear RCN without deteriorating the training accuracy. Furthermore, we derive a necessary and sufficient condition on the irreducibility of the number of hidden nodes in linear RCNs based …

Fact Sheet, Yale University Office Of Institutional Research

Fact Sheets

No abstract provided.

Zero Trust Architecture, Ahmed Abdullah Syed

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and IT organizations need to continue to modernize their approaches to cybersecurity in light of today's dynamic cyber threat environment. Cybersecurity professionals must adopt a zero-trust security model and the mindset needed to engineer and operate a system specifically designed to operate according to zero trust principles in order to ensure the security of sensitive data, systems, and services as enterprise networks become increasingly dispersed and complex.

Odu Undergraduate Students Addressing The Societal Problems Of Parking Control, Classroom Seating, And Flood Monitoring In Hampton Roads, Stephanie K. Trusty, Gabriel Del Razo, Nathan Potter, Soad Ibrahim, Ayman Elmesalami

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

During the summer of 2021, ODU undergraduate computer science students undertook image processing research projects. These projects focused on utilizing the Raspberry Pi computer and camera module to address three real-world problems concerning parking control, classroom seating, and flood monitoring. The parking lot occupancy project aimed to develop a system that monitors the occupancy of parking spaces in a lot and communicates the status of the lot of drivers and the lot attendants. The COVID-19 classroom occupancy project sought to enforce social distancing protocols in a classroom environment by detecting seating violations and notifying the instructor and the impacted students …

High-Tide Floods And Storm Surges During Atmospheric Rivers On The Us West Coast, Christopher G. Piecuch, Sloan Coats, Sönke Dangendorf, Felix W. Landerer, J. T. Reager, Philip R. Thompson, Thomas Wahl

CCPO Publications

Amospheric rivers (ARs) effect inland hydrological impacts related to extreme precipitation. However, little is known about the possible coastal hazards associated with these storms. Here we elucidate high-tide floods (HTFs) and storm surges during ARs through a statistical analysis of data from the US West Coast during 1980-2016. HTFs and landfalling ARs co-occur more often than expected from random chance. Between 10%-63% of HTFs coincide with landfalling ARs, depending on location. However, only 2%-15% of ARs coincide with HTFs, suggesting that ARs typically must co-occur with anomalously high tides or mean sea levels to cause HTFs. Storm surges during ARs …

Drivers Of 20th Century Sea-Level Change In Southern New Zealand Determined From Proxy And Instrumental Records, Ed Garrett, W. Roland Gehrels, Bruce W. Hayward, Rewi Newnham, Maria J. Gehrels, Craig J. Morey, Sönke Dangendorf

CCPO Publications

In this paper we present new proxy-based sea-level reconstructions for southern New Zealand spanning the last millennium. These palaeo sea-level records usefully complement sparse Southern Hemisphere proxy and tide-gauge sea-level datasets and, in combination with instrumental observations, can test hypotheses about the drivers of 20th century global sea-level change, including land-based ice melt and regional sterodynamics. We develop sea-level transfer functions from regional datasets of salt-marsh foraminifera to establish a new proxy-based sea-level record at Mokomoko Inlet, at the southern tip of the South Island, and to improve the previously published sea-level reconstruction at Pounawea, located about 110 km to …

The Atlantic Surfclam Fishery And Offshore Wind Energy Development: 1. Model Development And Verification, Daphne M. Munroe, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klinck, Andrew M. Scheld, Sarah Borsetti, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

Competing pressures imposed by climate-related warming and offshore development have created a need for quantitative approaches that anticipate fisheries responses to these challenges. This study used a spatially explicit, ecological-economic agent-based model integrating dynamics associated with Atlantic surfclam stock biology, decision-making behavior of fishing vessel captains, and fishing fleet behavior to simulate stock biomass, and fishing vessel catch, effort and landings. Simulations were implemented using contemporary Atlantic surfclam stock distributions and characteristics of the surfclam fishing fleet. Simulated distribution of fishable surfclam biomass was determined by a spatially varying mortality rate, fishing by the fleet was controlled by captain decisions …

The Atlantic Surfclam Fishery And Offshore Wind Energy Development: 2. Assessing Economic Impacts, Andrew M. Scheld, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Daphne M. Munroe, Eric N. Powell, Sarah Borsetti, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck

CCPO Publications

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) fishery generates approximately USD 30 million in landings revenues annually, distributed across ports throughout the US Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Overlap between areas of Atlantic surfclam harvests and offshore wind energy leasing make the fishery vulnerable to exclusion and effort displacement as development expands in the region. An existing integrated bioeconomic agent-based model, including spatial dynamics in Atlantic surfclam stock biology, heterogeneous captain behaviour, and federal management processes, was extended to incorporate costs and revenues for fishing vessels and processors and used to evaluate the potential economic effects of offshore wind development on the …

A Unified Health Information System Framework For Connecting Data, People, Devices, And Systems, Wu He, Justin Zuopeng Zhang, Huanmei Wu, Wenzhuo Li, Sachin Shetty

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the necessity for pervasive data and system interoperability to manage healthcare information and knowledge. There is an urgent need to better understand the role of interoperability in improving the societal responses to the pandemic. This paper explores data and system interoperability, a very specific area that could contribute to fighting COVID-19. Specifically, the authors propose a unified health information system framework to connect data, systems, and devices to increase interoperability and manage healthcare information and knowledge. A blockchain-based solution is also provided as a recommendation for improving the data and system interoperability in healthcare.

Assessment Of Temperature Optimum Signatures Of Corals At Both Latitudinal Extremes Of The Red Sea, Guilhem Banc-Prandi, Nicolas R. Evensen, Daniel J. Barshis, Gabriela Perna, Youssouf Moussa Omar, Maoz Fine

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Rising ocean temperatures are pushing reef-building corals beyond their temperature optima (T_opt), resulting in reduced physiological performances and increased risk of bleaching. Identifying refugia with thermally resistant corals and understanding their thermal adaptation strategy is therefore urgent to guide conservation actions. The Gulf of Aqaba (GoA, northern Red Sea) is considered a climate refuge, hosting corals that may originate from populations selected for thermal resistance in the warmer waters of the Gulf of Tadjoura (GoT, entrance to the Red Sea and 2000 km south of the GoA). To better understand the thermal adaptation strategy of GoA corals, …

Dynamic Modeling Of Inland Flooding And Storm Surge On Coastal Cities Under Climate Change Scenarios: Transportation Infrastructure Impacts In Norfolk, Virginia Usa As A Case Study, Yawen Shen, Navid Tahvildari, Mohamed M. Morsy, Chris Huxley, T. Donna Chen, Jonathan Lee Goodall

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-lying coastal cities across the world are vulnerable to the combined impact of rainfall and storm tide. However, existing approaches lack the ability to model the combined effect of these flood mechanisms, especially under climate change and sea level rise (SLR). Thus, to increase flood resilience of coastal cities, modeling techniques to improve the understanding and prediction of the combined effect of these flood hazards are critical. To address this need, this study presents a modeling system for assessing the combined flood impact on coastal cities under selected future climate scenarios that leverages ocean modeling with land surface modeling capable …

The Effect Of Touch Simulation In Virtual Reality Shopping, Ha Kyung Lee, Namhee Yoon, Dooyoung Choi

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This study aims to explore the effect of touch simulation on virtual reality (VR) store satisfaction mediated by VR shopping self-efficacy and VR shopping pleasure. The moderation effects of the autotelic and instrumental need for touch between touch simulation and VR store satisfaction are also explored. Participants wear a head-mounted display VR device (Oculus Go) in a controlled laboratory environment, and their VR store experience is recorded as data. All participants’ responses (n = 58) are analyzed using SPSS 20.0 for descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and the Process macro model analysis. The results show that touch simulation …

Artificial Intelligence (Ai): The New Look Of Customer Service In A Cybersecurity World, Sharon L. Burton

Publications

Cybersecurity leaders are not adequately developed to guide the re-engineering of quality customer service (QCS) workflows, designed with automation and AI, that interrelate with people through customers’ perceptions. Realizing re-engineering processes should be a team effort with well-versed leadership and stakeholders guiding the successful design through a follow-up process. Leaders must shape compelling and straightforward needs to learn and teach employees and chat boxes indispensable customer service skills demonstrating patience, self-discipline, flexibility, and resourcefulness in communication with irritated customers or difficult circumstances. Whether the analysis, design, development, and implementation struggles are vacuums in cybersecurity knowledge, skill, and abilities or a …

Strategy: A Business And Cybersecurity Intertwined Necessity, Sharon L. Burton

Publications

Strategy development and application continue to shift. Evolving leadership with well-informed judgment relating to generating sound strategy within the realm of cybersecurity strengthening methods remains perplexing in this COVID-19 pandemic epoch. Investigated in this paper is the shaping of this context regarding the leadership position to study spats, procedures, and the way that this data clarifies the organization and outcomes of cybersecurity awareness, proficiency, know-how, practice, actions, purposes, harmonization, in addition to know-how immersion. This investigation’s documentation is geared toward the expansion of the context and semi-structured purposive sampling interview outcomes as this context is rationalized via the proper instrument …

Deep Reinforcement Learning For Open Multiagent System, Tianxing Zhu

Honors Papers

In open multiagent systems, multiple agents work together or compete to reach the goal while members of the group change over time. For example, intelligent robots that are collaborating to put out wildfires may run out of suppressants and have to leave the place to recharge; the rest of the robots may need to change their behaviors accordingly to better control the fires. Thus, openness requires agents not only to predict the behaviors of others, but also the presence of other agents. We present a deep reinforcement learning method that adapts the proximal policy optimization algorithm to learn the optimal …

Error Handling Approaches In Programming Languages, Joey Aldrin Rees-Hill

Honors Papers

Error handling is a part of nearly every computer program, but it is rarely the main focus of a program's developers. Nevertheless, correct error handling is important because it can enable a program to recover from abnormal circumstances and continue to function and serve its purpose. Programming languages offer a variety of tools and approaches for programs to detect and handle errors. I investigated the different approaches to error handling in contemporary programming languages. I found three general paradigms of error handling approaches. One paradigm was Special Return Value, in which certain return values of a function signify that an …

Assessing Inter-Metric Correlation For Multi-Document Summarization Evaluation, Michael Ridenour

Maseeh Summer Undergraduate Research Experience

Background: (i) Automatic Text Summarization involves generating concise summaries of natural language text documents by using machine learning systems. (ii) Most prior research has focused on developing systems that can summarize a single document (for example a news article), but recent research has developed systems that can summarize a cluster of multiple documents (for example Tweets or customer reviews). (iii) Multi-document summarization is more challenging due to the higher diversity of information in the source documents.

Safety, Regulatory And Environmental Issues Related To Breeding And International Trade Of Edible Insects In Africa, S. Niassy, E. R. Omuse, N. Roos, A. Halloran, J. Eilenberg, J. P. Egonyu, C. Tanga, F. Meutchieye, R. Mwangi, S. Subramanian, R. Musundire, P. O.Y. Nkunika, J. P. Anankware, J. Kinyuru, A. Yusuf, S. Ekesi

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Insect breeding or farming for food and feed is an emerging enterprise that can address the ever-growing demand for protein and curb high unemployment rates in Africa and beyond. However, for the sector to prosper, its value chain needs to be regulated to ensure sustainability and safety for consumers and the environment. Although a few African countries, such as Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, have promulgated standards on the use of insects as food and feed, greater efforts are needed in other countries, and relevant policies governing the sector need to be formulated. All over the globe, attention to the regulation …