Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Design And Evaluation Of Miniaturized Ion Trap Mass Analyzers Using Simulation, Radhya Weligama Gamage

Theses and Dissertations

Mass spectrometry is a technique that analyzes the chemical compositions of compounds based on the mass-to-charge ratio of their ionized constituents. Miniaturized ion trap mass spectrometry finds application in a wide range of fields where portable, rugged, and reliable analytical instruments are required. Ion traps of various designs have been introduced over the past decades, each with their own unique advantages and capabilities. However, the process of developing a novel miniaturized ion trap mass spectrometer continues to be fraught with challenges. This dissertation discusses simulation studies pertaining to the development of a novel dual ion trap, the simplified coaxial ion …

A Simulation Framework For Traffic Safety With Connected Vehicles And V2x Technologies, Md Abu Sayed

Theses and Dissertations

With the advancement in automobile technologies, existing research shows that connected vehicle (CV) technologies can provide better traffic safety through Surrogate Safety Measure (SSM). CV technologies involves two network systems: traffic network and wireless communication network. We found that the research in the wireless communication network for CV did not interact properly with the research in SSM in transportation network, and vice versa. Though various SSM has been proposed in previous studies, a few of them have been tested in simulation software in limited extent. On the other hand, A large body of researchers proposed various communication architecture for CV …

The Wargaming Commodity Course Of Action Automated Analysis Method, William T. Deberry

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents the Wargaming Commodity Course of Action Automated Analysis Method (WCCAAM), a novel approach to assist wargame commanders in developing and analyzing courses of action (COAs) through semi-automation of the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). MDMP is a seven-step iterative method that commanders and mission partners follow to build an operational course of action to achieve strategic objectives. MDMP requires time, resources, and coordination – all competing items the commander weighs to make the optimal decision. WCCAAM receives the MDMP's Mission Analysis phase as input, converts the wargame into a directed graph, processes a multi-commodity flow algorithm on …

Equations Of State For Warm Dense Carbon From Quantum Espresso, Derek J. Schauss

Theses and Dissertations

Warm dense plasma is the matter that exists, roughly, in the range of 10,000 to 10,000,000 Kelvin and has solid-like densities, typically between 0.1 and 10 grams per centimeter. Warm dense fluids like hydrogen, helium, and carbon are believed to make up the interiors of many planets, white dwarfs, and other stars in our universe. The existence of warm dense matter (WDM) on Earth, however, is very rare, as it can only be created with high-energy sources like a nuclear explosion. In such an event, theoretical and computational models that accurately predict the response of certain materials are thus very …

Qwasi: The Quantum Walk Simulator, Warren V. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

As quantum computing continues to evolve, the ability to design and analyze novel quantum algorithms becomes a necessary focus for research. In many instances, the virtues of quantum algorithms only become evident when compared to their classical counterparts, so a study of the former often begins with a consideration of the latter. This is very much the case with quantum walk algorithms, as the success of random walks and their many, varied applications have inspired much interest in quantum correlates. Unfortunately, finding purely algebraic solutions for quantum walks is an elusive endeavor. At best, and when solvable, they require simple …

Initial Stage Of Fluid-Structure Interaction Of A Celestial Icosahedron Shaped Vacuum Lighter Than Air Vehicle, Dustin P. Graves

Theses and Dissertations

The analysis of a celestial icosahedron geometry is considered as a potential design for a Vacuum Lighter than Air Vehicle (VLTAV). The goal of the analysis is ultimately to understand the initial fluid-structure interaction of the VLTAV and the surrounding airflow. Up to this point, previous research analyzed the celestial icosahedron VLTAV in relation to withstanding a symmetric sea-level pressure applied to the membrane of the structure. This scenario simulates an internal vacuum being applied in the worst-case atmospheric environmental condition. The next step in analysis is to determine the aerodynamic effects of the geometry. The experimental setup for obtaining …

Evaluating An Educational Cybersecurity Playable Case Study, Tanner West Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The realities of cyberattacks have become more and more prevalent in the world today. Due to the growing number of these attacks, the need for highly trained individuals has also increased. Because of a shortage of qualified candidates for these positions, there is an increasing need for cybersecurity education within high schools and universities. In this thesis, I discuss the development and evaluation of Cybermatics, an educational simulation, or playable case study, designed to help students learn and develop skills within the cybersecurity discipline.

This playable case study was designed to allow students to gain an understanding of the field …

A Discrete-Event Simulation Approach For Modeling Human Body Glucose Metabolism, Buket Aydas

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes CarbMetSim (Carbohydrate Metabolism Simulator), a discrete-event simulator that tracks the blood glucose level of a person in response to a timed sequence of diet and exercise activities. CarbMetSim implements broader aspects of carbohydrate metabolism in human beings with the objective of capturing the average impact of various diet/exercise activities on the blood glucose level. Key organs (stomach, intestine, portal vein, liver, kidney, muscles, adipose tissue, brain and heart) are implemented to the extent necessary to capture their impact on the production and consumption of glucose. Key metabolic pathways (glucose oxidation, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis) are accounted for by …

Optimal Design Of Green Roofs: Mathematical Model And Experimental Evidence, Jing Hong

Theses and Dissertations

Green roofs ease the heat island effect and decrease stormwater runoff. Optimizing green roof design helps achieve these goals more efficiently. This dissertation proposes energy and mass models of green roofs and validates them through experimental evidence.

The energy and mass transfer models proposed in this dissertation can be programmed in any simulation tools, and benefits architects and engineers optimizing their green roof design. The mathematical models of green roofs were validated by the measured soil temperature and water content of the Golda Meir Library green roof.

Using energy and mass balance models, this research found the effects of the …

Water Dynamics And The Effect Of Static And Alternating Electric Fields, Mohammadmahdi Shafiei Alavijeh

Theses and Dissertations

Having a net dipole moment, water molecules tend to align with an external electric field. The re-orientation of water molecules to align with the field direction can result in structural and dynamic changes in liquid water. Studying these changes can help us to understand the role of an E-field in many biological systems, chemical reactions, and many technological advancements.

In short, the application of static electric fields causes molecules to stay aligned with the field, so, fewer hydrogen bonds break, and molecules have slower dynamics. This type of field can be used when the mobility of water molecules needs to …

Comparison Of The Performance Of Simple Linear Regression And Quantile Regression With Non-Normal Data: A Simulation Study, Marjorie Howard

Theses and Dissertations

Linear regression is a widely used method for analysis that is well understood across a wide variety of disciplines. In order to use linear regression, a number of assumptions must be met. These assumptions, specifically normality and homoscedasticity of the error distribution can at best be met only approximately with real data. Quantile regression requires fewer assumptions, which offers a potential advantage over linear regression. In this simulation study, we compare the performance of linear (least squares) regression to quantile regression when these assumptions are violated, in order to investigate under what conditions quantile regression becomes the more advantageous method …

A Coverage Metric To Aid In Testing Multi-Agent Systems, Jane Ostergar Linn

Theses and Dissertations

Models are frequently used to represent complex systems in order to test the systems before they are deployed. Some of the most complicated models are those that represent multi-agent systems (MAS), where there are multiple decision makers. Brahms is an agent-oriented language that models MAS. Three major qualities affect the behavior of these MAS models: workframes that change the state of the system, communication activities that coordinate information between agents, and the schedule of workframes. The primary method to test these models that exists is repeated simulation. Simulation is useful insofar as interesting test cases are used that enable the …

Development Of General Purpose Liquid Chromatography Simulator For The Exploration Of Novel Liquid Chromatographic Strategies, Lena N. Jeong

Theses and Dissertations

The method development process in liquid chromatography (LC) involves optimization of a variety of method parameters including stationary phase chemistry, column temperature, initial and final mobile phase compositions, and gradient time when gradient mobile phases are used. Here, a general simulation program to predict the results (i.e., retention time, peak width and peak shape) of LC separations, with the ability to study various complex chromatographic conditions is described. The simulation program is based on the Craig distribution model where the column is divided into discrete distance (Δz) and time (Δt) segments in a grid and is …

A Statistical Approach To Characterize And Detect Degradation Within The Barabasi-Albert Network, Mohd-Fairul Mohd-Zaid

Theses and Dissertations

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is widely used by the intelligence community when analyzing the relationships between individuals within groups of interest. Hence, any tools that can be quantitatively shown to help improve the analyses are advantageous for the intelligence community. To date, there have been no methods developed to characterize a real world network as a Barabasi-Albert network which is a type of network with properties contained in many real-world networks. In this research, two newly developed statistical tests using the degree distribution and the L-moments of the degree distribution are proposed with application to classifying networks and detecting degradation …

Application Of Computer Modeling And Simulation Techniques For Optimization Of Factory Floor Operations In Small To Medium- Sized Businesses, Brian P. Romano

Theses and Dissertations

The rationale and motive for this thesis was to prove that no matter the size of a company and its particular value stream, the application of applied computer science principles with a reliance on computer modeling and simulation onto the factory floor process improves efficiencies and throughput through the reduction of downtime and/or process waiting. This thesis research specifically emphasized small businesses of between $2 and $20 million and was purposely limited to factory floor production processes and utilized standardized applied computer science techniques including simulation and modeling, microprocessor based factory floor intelligence devices. The results of this applied technology …

Determining The Optimal Work Breakdown Structure For Government Acquisition Contracts, Brian J. Fitzpatrick

Theses and Dissertations

The optimal level of Government Contract Work Breakdown Structure (G-CWBS) reporting for the purposes of Earned Value Management was inspected. The G-Score Metric was proposed, which can quantitatively grade a G-CWBS, based on a new method of calculating an Estimate At Completion (EAC) cost for each reported element. A random program generator created in R replicated the characteristics of DOD program artifacts retrieved from the Cost Analysis Data Enterprise (CADE) system. The generated artifacts were validated as a population, however validation at the demographic combination level using an artificial neural network was inconclusive. Comparative WBS forms were created for a …

Design & Analysis Of A Computer Experiment For An Aerospace Conformance Simulation Study, Ryan W. Gryder

Theses and Dissertations

Within NASA's Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration # 1 (ATD-1), Interval Management (IM) is a flight deck tool that enables pilots to achieve or maintain a precise in-trail spacing behind a target aircraft. Previous research has shown that violations of aircraft spacing requirements can occur between an IM aircraft and its surrounding non-IM aircraft when it is following a target on a separate route. This research focused on the experimental design and analysis of a deterministic computer simulation which models our airspace configuration of interest. Using an original space-filling design and Gaussian process modeling, we found that aircraft delay assignments …

Modeling And Simulation Of Evacuation Plan For Hancock Stadium, Nirmal Neranjan Weerasekara

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to use Modeling and Simulation of Evacuation Plan (MSEP) to support management to execute proper evacuation plan in case of emergency at Hancock Stadium in Illinois State University. Analyses of the research literature and evacuation scenarios are used to build a simulation system that will connect a description of emergency and evacuation situation with its context. It shows how an evacuation plan actually functions. The results of the study will help safety managers to understand the current situations of evacuation according to the specific simulation scenarios. The evacuation simulation is categorized according to the …

Considerations For Screening Designs And Follow-Up Experimentation, Robert D. Leonard

Theses and Dissertations

The success of screening experiments hinges on the effect sparsity assumption, which states that only a few of the factorial effects of interest actually have an impact on the system being investigated. The development of a screening methodology to harness this assumption requires careful consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of a proposed experimental design in addition to the ability of an analysis procedure to properly detect the major influences on the response. However, for the most part, screening designs and their complementing analysis procedures have been proposed separately in the literature without clear consideration of their ability to perform …

The Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model For Fast, Accurate, Non-Linear Elasticity, Anthony R. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

We introduce to computer graphics the Pseudo-Rigid-Body Mechanism (PRBM) and the chain algorithm from mechanical engineering, with a unified tutorial from disparate source materials. The PRBM has been used successfully to simplify the simulation of non-linearly elastic beams, using deflections of an analogous spring and rigid-body linkage. It offers computational efficiency as well as an automatic parameterization in terms of physically measurable, intuitive inputs which fit naturally into existing animation work flows for character articulation. The chain algorithm is a technique for simulating the deflection of complicated elastic bodies in terms of straight elastic elements, which has recently been extended …

American Spread Option Models And Valuation, Yu Hu

Theses and Dissertations

Spread options are derivative securities, which are written on the difference between the values of two underlying market variables. They are very important tools to hedge the correlation risk. American style spread options allow the holder to exercise the option at any time up to and including maturity. Although they are widely used to hedge and speculate in financial market, the valuation of the American spread option is very challenging. Because even under the classic assumptions that the underlying assets follow the log-normal distribution, the resulting spread doesn't have a distribution with a simple closed formula. In this dissertation, we …

Optimized Simulation Of Granular Materials, Seth R. Holladay

Theses and Dissertations

Visual effects for film and animation often require simulated granular materials, such as sand, wheat, or dirt, to meet a director's needs. Simulating granular materials can be time consuming, in both computation and labor, as these particulate materials have complex behavior and an enormous amount of small-scale detail. Furthermore, a single cubic meter of granular material, where each grain is a cubic millimeter, would contain a billion granules, and simulating all such interacting granules would take an impractical amount of time for productions. This calls for a simplified model for granular materials that retains high surface detail and granular behavior …

Performance Evaluation Of Optimal Rate Allocation Models For Wireless Networks, Ryan Michael Padilla

Theses and Dissertations

Convex programming is used in wireless networks to optimize the sending or receiving rates of links or flows in a network. This kind of optimization problem is formulated into a rate allocation problem, where each node in the network will distributively solve the convex problem and all links or flows will converge to their optimal rate. The objective function and constraints of these problems are represented in a simplified model of contention, interference, and sending or receiving rates. The Partial Interference model is an optimal rate allocation model for use in wireless mesh networks that has been shown to be …

Using Agent-Based Models To Understand Multi-Operator Supervisory Control, Yisong Guo

Theses and Dissertations

As technology advances, many practical applications require human-controlled robots. For such applications, it is useful to determine the optimal number of robots an operator should control to maximize human efficiency given different situations. One way to achieve this is through computer simulations of team performance. In order to factor in various parameters that may affect team performance, an agent-based model will be used. Agent-based modeling is a computational method that enables a researcher to create, analyze, and experiment with models composed of agents that interact within an environment [12]. We construct an agent-based model of humans interacting with robots, and …

Broadband Pumping Effects On The Diode Pumped Alkali Laser, Paul Nathaniel Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks to gain greater insight on the mechanics of The Diode Pumped Alkali Laser through analytic modeling techniques. This work is an extension to a previous model developed by Dr. Gordon Hager, and focuses on the addition of pump-beam bandwidth. Specifically, it seeks to determine the effect that broadband pumping has on laser performance. The model incorporates all the fundamental parameters within the laser system, including alkali concentrations, collision partner concentrations, pump bandwidth, length and temperature of gain medium, transmission, and reflectivity. Baseline operating conditions set Rubidium (Rb) concentrations ranging from 10¹² - 10¹⁴ atoms/cm^{3 …}

Simulating The Fticr-Ms Signal Of A Decaying Beryllium-7 Ion Plasma In A 2d Electrostatic Pic Code, Michael Takeshi Nakata

Theses and Dissertations

Beryllium-7 (Be-7) only decays by electron capture into lithium-7 (Li-7) with a half life of 53 days. We study the effect of ionization on this decay rate. We do so by trapping a Be-7 ion plasma in a cylindrical Malmberg-Penning trap and measuring Be-7 and Li-7 concentrations as functions of time by using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS). We have simulated these signals in a 2-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) code. The two spectrum peaks merge at high ion densities whereas at low ion densities they can be resolved. The merged peak shifts linearly according to the relative …

Simulation And Visualization Of Environments With Multidimensional Time, Luther A. Tychonievich

Theses and Dissertations

This work introduces the notion of computational hypertime, or the simulation and visualization of hypothetical environments possessing multidimensional time. An overview of hypertime is provided,including an intuitive visualization paradigm and a discussion of the failure of common simulation techniques when extended to include multidimensional time. A condition for differential equations describing hypertime motion to be amenable to standard time-iterative simulation techniques is provided,but is not satisfied by any known model of physics. An alternate simulation algorithm involving iterative refinement of entire equations of motion is presented,with an example implementation to solve elastic collisions in hypertime. An artificial intelligence algorithm for …

An Adaptive Bayesian Approach To Bernoulli-Response Clinical Trials, Andrew W. Stacey

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional clinical trials have been inefficient in their methods of dose finding and dose allocation. In this paper a four-parameter logistic equation is used to model the outcome of Bernoulli-response clinical trials. A Bayesian adaptive design is used to fit the logistic equation to the dose-response curve of Phase II and Phase III clinical trials. Because of inherent restrictions in the logistic model, symmetric candidate densities cannot be used, thereby creating asymmetric jumping rules inside the Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. An order restricted Metropolis-Hastings algorithm is implemented to account for these limitations. Modeling clinical trials in a Bayesian framework …

A Simulation-Based Approach For Evaluating Gene Expression Analyses, Carly Ruth Pendleton

Theses and Dissertations

Microarrays enable biologists to measure differences in gene expression in thousands of genes simultaneously. The data produced by microarrays present a statistical challenge, one which has been met both by new modifications of existing methods and by completely new approaches. One of the difficulties with a new approach to microarray analysis is validating the method's power and sensitivity. A simulation study could provide such validation by simulating gene expression data and investigating the method's response to changes in the data; however, due to the complex dependencies and interactions found in gene expression data, such a simulation would be complicated and …

A Selective Approach To Bandwidth Overbooking, Feng Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Overbooking is a technique used by network providers to increase bandwidth utilization. If the overbooking factor is chosen appropriately, additional virtual circuits can be admitted without degrading quality of service for existing customers. Most existing implementations use a single factor to accept a linear fraction of traffic requests. High values of this factor may cause the degradation of quality of service whereas low overbooking factors will result in underutilization of bandwidth. Network providers often select overbooking factors based only on aggregate average virtual circuit utilization. This paper proposes a selective overbooking scheme based on trunk size and usage profile. Experiments …