Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Application Of The Fokker-Planck Equation For Quantifying Initial Condition Uncertainty Of Reversible Dynamic Systems, Troy S. Newhart

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Characterizing the behavior of dynamic systems requires the inclusion of initial conditions to propagate behavior forward in time. More realistic representations of system behavior quantify uncertainty about the initial conditions to assess sensitivity, reliability, and other stochastic response parameters. In many engineering applications, the uncertain initial conditions may be unknown given a desired response. This research applies the Fokker-Planck equation to reversible dynamic systems of select multi-dimensional nonlinear differential equations as a means for predicting the uncertainty about initial conditions. An alternating directions implicit numerical scheme is used to numerically solve the Fokker-Planck equation for both forward and reversed equations …

Development Of One And Two Current Transition Amplitudes With Two Body Final States, Keegan H. Sherman

Physics Theses & Dissertations

One of the biggest challenges facing modern day nuclear physics is understanding the structure of states within the hadronic spectrum of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). We have shown this spectrum to be quite rich with hundreds of allowed states; however, if we wish to better grasp the dynamics of QCD, then it is necessary that we start investigating the internal structure of these states. This may be done by probing these states with external currents, but this requires a description of the intersection of QCD with the electroweak sector. This work acts as a stepping stone in this direction. Working to …

Time Series Models For Predicting Application Gpu Utilization And Power Draw Based On Trace Data, Dorothy Xiaoshuang Parry

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This work explores collecting performance metrics and leveraging various statistical and machine learning time series predictive models on a memory-intensive application, Inception v3. Trace data collected using nvidia-smi measured GPU utilization and power draw for two runs of Inception3. Experimental results from the statistical and machine learning-based time series predictive algorithms showed that the predictions from statistical-based models were unable to capture the complex changes in the trace data. The Probabilistic TNN model provided the best results for the power draw trace, according to the test evaluation metrics. For the GPU utilization trace, the RNN models produced the most accurate …

Comparison Of Emissions Across Tobacco Products: A Slippery Slope In Tobacco Control, Ahmad El-Hellani, Ayomipo Adeniji, Hanno C. Erythropel, Thomas Lamb, Qixin Wang, Vladimir Mikheev, Robert Strongin, Multiple Additional Authors

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this narrative review, we highlight the challenges of comparing emissions from different tobacco products under controlled laboratory settings (using smoking/ vaping machines). We focus on tobacco products that generate inhalable smoke or aerosol, such as cigarettes, cigars, hookah, electronic cigarettes, and heated tobacco products. We discuss challenges associated with sample generation including variability of smoking/vaping machines, lack of standardized adaptors that connect smoking/vaping machines to different tobacco products, puffing protocols that are not representative of actual use, and sample generation session length (minutes or number of puffs) that depends on product characteristics. We also discuss the challenges of physically …

Measuring Jury Perception Of Explainable Machine Learning And Demonstrative Evidence, Rachel Edie Sparks Rogers

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Subjective pattern comparison has been subject to increased scrutiny by the courts and by the general public, resulting in an increased interest in pattern comparison algorithms that provide quantitative assessments of similarity for use by forensic scientists. While these algorithms would mark an improvement over current subjective comparison methods, individuals without a statistical background may struggle with the statistical concepts and language necessary for describing algorithmic methods. If algorithms are to be used, examiners must be able to testify about their use in a way that is accessible to the jury. In a series of studies, we conduct an assessment …

Exploration Of The Mental Health Impacts Of Drought On Rural Nebraskans Via Remembered Perceptions, Grace Schleining

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Drought is a sociological phenomenon. It is a well-known occurrence across the midwestern United States; the drying out of the soil, the failing of crops, and the constant dryness and heat… this is all drought. Inspired by my earliest memory of this climate phenomenon I sought to determine whether we can identify evidence of negative mental health impacts and/or well-being in rural Nebraskans due to drought, thus my research question: Can we identify negative effects of drought on rural Nebraskan mental health and/or wellbeing? In this study, rural Nebraska community members, who are involved with the agricultural sector, were interviewed. …

Differences In The Metabolic Outputs Of Caulobacter Crescentus Modify The Kinetics Of Silver Nanoparticle Dissolution, Tyler M. Hicks , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used within commercial products due to their distinct antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. As their utilization continues to increase, their inevitable improper disposal could present lasting environmental ramifications due to their nonspecific biotoxicity. One microorganism of interest is Caulobacter crescentus, a common freshwater bacterium found in locations where AgNPs end after their disposal. C. crescentus has two distinct cell types—a stalked and a swarmer form—each with their own unique function and metabolic outputs. Approximately 15% of the C. crescentus metabolome varies with cell cycle, thus making this an interesting and environmentally relevant model organism for …

Thinking Outside The Membrane: Investigating The Structure Of The Influenza A M2 Ectodomain, Kyra Roepke , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Influenza A leads to annual epidemics that result in three-to-five million cases of severe illness each year and occasional devastating pandemics. Some current prevention and treatment methods target the M2 membrane protein on the surface of the virus. However, viral mutability and drug resistance require the targeting of more conserved parts of the protein.

The goal of this thesis was to investigate the secondary structure and dynamics of the M2 ectodomain (M2e), which is highly conserved across influenza viruses and across evolutionary time. The structure of M2e has previously been challenging to study because of its flexibility. In this study, …

Exploring N-H Bond Activation And C-H Bond Activation By Tripodal Tris(Nitroxide) Aluminum And Gallium Complexes, Vivian W. Guo , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

The activation of H–X (X = O, N, C) bonds is a common primary step in introducing alcohols, amines, and hydrocarbons into catalytic processes used in various industries. Precious metal complexes are commonly used as catalysts to activate H–X bonds through formal metal-based oxidative addition. However, since precious metals are scarce, expensive, toxic, and environmentally harmful, developing non-precious metal coordination complexes for H–X bond activation is essential. As a result, we investigate the activation of O–H, N–H, and C–H bonds through tripodal tris(nitroxide) aluminum and gallium complexes to develop a green strategy for broad-based H–X bond activation. Past members of …

Features Selection In Regression Models Using Variance-Based Sensitivity Analysis, Jakob Spiller

Honors Theses

Variance-based sensitivity analysis serves as a crucial tool for assessing the variability of inputs on the output of complex mathematical models. In this thesis, we study Sobol indices, a class of variance-based sensitivity analysis, to quantify the importance of each input variable on the overall variability of the model output. We initially discuss Sobol’s first and total order indices. This includes a brief demonstration through two examples: the Sobol G-function and a polynomial function each with six input variables. These examples serve to highlight the theoretical foundations and practical applications of Sobol’s indices in analyzing model sensitivities. Mainly, we apply …

Ct Image Segmentation Using Optimization Techniques Under Neutrosophic Domain, Doaa El-Shahat, Nourhan Talal, Jun Ye, Wen-Hua Cui

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

In this paper, we introduce a hybrid technique between optimization algorithms and neutrosophic theory. This new hybridization can deal with uncertainties in brain computed tomography (CT) images in three different memberships very effectively. To prove the real-time application of this theory, a new segmentation method for brain CT medical images is presented. The grayscale medical image suffers from uncertainties and inconsistencies in the gray levels due to their bad luminance. The proposed technique addressed this problem by performing neutrosophic operations on gray levels based on the S membership function.

Physical And Chemical Methods To Assess Performance Of Tpo-Modified Asphalt Binder, Rebecca M. Herndon, Jay Balasubramanian, Klaus Woelk, Magdy Abdelrahman

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Demand for Effective Asphalt Additives is Growing as Road Infrastructure Ages and More Sustainable Pavement Solutions Are Needed. Tire Pyrolysis Oil (TPO) is an Example Material that Has Been Gaining Attention as a Potential Asphalt Additive. While Physical Performance Grade (PG) Temperatures Are the Predominant Performance Requirements for Asphalt Binders, Chemical Properties Are Also Significant in the Evaluation of Asphalt Performance. There is a Need to Chemically Characterize the Aging of Asphalt Binders Modified with TPO and Link Chemical Changes in Binder Components to Binder Performance. This Study Compares 2%, 4%, and 8% TPO and Asphalt Binder Blends Via …

Does The Use Of Media And Other Information Sources Cause The Perceived Experience Of Climate Change Or Is It The Other Way Around?, Sonny Rosenthal, Pengya Ai

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The perceived experience of climate change can be an important motivator of individual climate action. Recent scholarship argued that the use of media and other information sources is a basis of perceived experience. The current study analyzed a cross-lagged panel model to know if the use of information causes perceived experience or vice versa. Analysis of longitudinal data from a sample of Singapore residents (N = 466) showed that the use of traditional media, but not social media or interpersonal sources, explained change in perceived experience. In contrast, perceived experience explained change in the use of traditional media and interpersonal …

Testing The Capability Of Ai Art Tools For Urban Design, Connor Phillips, Junfeng Jiao, Emmalee Clubb

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This study aimed to evaluate the performance of three artificial intelligence (AI) image synthesis models, Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, in generating urban design imagery based on scene descriptions. A total of 240 images were generated and evaluated by two independent professional evaluators using an adapted sensibleness and specificity average metric. The results showed significant differences between the three AI models, as well as differing scores across urban scenes, suggesting that some projects and design elements may be more challenging for AI art generators to represent visually. Analysis of individual design elements showed high accuracy in common features like …

Random Forest Algorithm To Measure The Air Pollution Standard Index, Ariyono Setiawan, Untung Lestari Wibowo, Ahmad Mubarok, Khoirunnisa Larasati

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

This study uses the Random Forest algorithm to measure and predict the Air Pollution Standard Index (APSI) at Blimbing Banyuwangi Airport. Air pollution data, including concentrations of O3, CO, NO2, SO2, PM2.5, and PM10, were collected from air monitoring stations at the airport from April 15-30, 2024. APSI measurement followed established formulas by relevant authorities. Data analysis utilized statistical approaches and computational algorithms. The findings reveal that air quality at the airport is generally "Moderate," with occasional "Good" days. The Random Forest algorithm effectively predicts APSI based on existing pollution data. These results provide insights for improving air pollution management …

Structure, Dynamics, And Redox Reactivity Of An All-Purpose Flavodoxin, Sharique Khan, Ahmadullah Ansari, Monica Brachi, Debarati Das, Wassim El Housseini, Shelley Minteer, Anne Frances Miller

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Flavodoxin Of Rhodopseudomonas Palustris CGA009 (Rp9Fld) Supplies Highly Reducing Equivalents To Crucial Enzymes Such As Hydrogenase, Especially When The Organism Is Iron-Restricted. By Acquiring Those Electrons From Photodriven Electron Flow Via The Bifurcating Electron Transfer Flavoprotein, Rp9Fld Provides Solar Power To Vital Metabolic Processes. To Understand Rp9Fld's Ability To Work With Diverse Partners, We Solved Its Crystal Structure. We Observed The Canonical Flavodoxin (Fld) Fold And Features Common To Other Long-Chain Flds But Not All The Surface Loops Thought To Recognize Partner Proteins. Moreover, Some Of The Loops Display Alternative Structures And Dynamics. To Advance Studies Of Protein–protein Associations …

Computational Modeling And Analysis Of Facial Expressions And Gaze For Discovery Of Candidate Behavioral Biomarkers For Children And Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Megan Anita Witherow

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Facial expression production and perception in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) suggest the potential presence of behavioral biomarkers that may stratify individuals on the spectrum into prognostic or treatment subgroups. High-speed internet and the ease of technology have enabled remote, scalable, affordable, and timely access to medical care, such as measurements of ASDrelated behaviors in familiar environments to complement clinical observation. Machine and deep learning (DL)-based analysis of video tracking (VT) of expression production and eye tracking (ET) of expression perception may aid stratification biomarker discovery for children and young adults with ASD. However, there are open challenges in 1) facial …

Diagnosing Discharge Events Within A Novel Miniature Simplified Coaxial Ion Trap Mass Analyzer, David Virgil Sirbescu-Stanley

Masters Theses

Mass spectrometry is a technique that organizes material samples by mass to reveal their chemical composition by forming a spectrum. Since their invention, ion trap mass spectrometers have undergone significant enhancements. This work, funded by the National Science Foundation and in collaboration with Brigham Young University, the Simplified Coaxial Ion Trap (SCIT), attempts to simplify ion trap geometry and combine three ion traps into one device. Successful demonstration of the SCIT functionality could reduce costs, reduce manufacturing complexity, and shrink total instrument volume. At the same time, trapping capacity and analytical efficiency will be increased. However, as discussed within, challenges …

Comparison Of Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization And Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry For The Direct Analysis Of Hops Bittering Compounds, Chhiring Sherpa

Masters Theses

Hops acids are essential components in the beer brewing process containing alpha acids (α-acids) and beta acids (β-acids) as the major hops bittering compounds. Quantifying these acids is vital for quality control and determining bitterness levels and hops variety profiles. Current industry standards, like High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) and Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (UV-Vis), though effective, are time-consuming and solvent-intensive, providing incomplete information.

This research introduces a novel method using mass spectrometry with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI-MS) to analyze hops bittering acids without chromatographic separations. This approach offers rapid analysis, high throughput, and eco-friendliness.

Comparison with direct electrospray …

Bibliography For "Earth Day Display: Planet Vs Plastics: A Book Display Increasing The Awareness Of The Harms Of Plastic In Our Ecosystem", Arianna Tillman, Isabella Piechota, Kalea Brown

Library Displays and Bibliographies

A bibliography created to accompany a display about Earth Day, sustainability, and the harms of plastic during April 2024 at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University.

Research On Word Segmentation Of Ancient Books Based On Domain Large Language Model, Danhao Zhu, Zhao Zhixiao, Na Wu, Xiyu Wang

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]In this paper, we take the automatic text segmentation of ancient books as an entry point, introduce the "Xunzi" series of large language models, and explore the performance of large language models on the task of word division of ancient texts. [Method/process]This paper constructs an instruction dataset based on the Zuozhuan, with data cleaning and organisation.on this basis, 1 000 pieces were extracted from it as test data, then 500, 1 000, 2 000, and 5 000 pieces of data were used as training data to fine-tune the instructions and test their performance, respectively. [Result/conclusion]The experimental results show that only …

Sentiment Analysis Of Online Healthy Community Based On Semantic Enhancement, Pu Han, Ye Dongyu

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]In order to make full use of the value of text dependent syntactic information and prior emotion knowledge in emotion analysis， a semantic enhanced online healthy community emotion analysis model was proposed. [Method/process]Firstly， feature vectors for pre-processed online health community data are generated by Word2Vec and BERT; then local and global information of online review text are extracted using TextCNN and BiLSTM respectively based on dual-channel idea; then sentiment knowledge and dependency grammar information are merged in graph attention networks for semantic enhancement; finally， dual-channel features are fused and perform online health community sentiment classification in fully connected layer. [Result/conclusion]The …

Research On The Construction Of Knowledge Graph Of Intangible Cultural Heritage From The Perspective Of Aigc, Yucheng Chen, Li Yang, Jiangfeng Liu, Fan Yang

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]Intangible cultural heritage is an important component of human civilization, which is of great significance for protecting and promoting national spirit, enhancing national identity and cohesion. [Method/process]This paper explores how to utilize the advantages of  AIGC, combined with traditional deep learning methods, then construct a comprehensive and efficient map of intangible cultural heritage knowledge. [Result/conclusion]In the classification study of intangible cultural heritage projects, the fine-tuned Baihuan-7B has the best effect, with an macro-F1 value of 0.7688. In the extraction of intangible cultural heritage attribute information, RoBERTa has the best effect, with an F1 value of 0.7085. The …

Tungsten Stable Isotope Composition Of The Upper Continental Crust, Sarah E. Mazza, Richard M. Gaschnig, Roberta L. Rudnick, Thorsten Kleine

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

Tungsten (W) stable isotope data for twenty-four composites made from the fine-grained matrix of glacial diamictites, deposited between the Mesoarchean and the Paleozoic, as well as two Archean tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorites (TTG) are used to refine the W isotope compositions (expressed as δ186W deviations from the NIST 3163 W standard) of the upper continental crust (UCC). To do this we evaluate W isotope fractionation in the diamictites as the result of both magmatic and low-temperature processes. The δ186W values of the diamictites are heterogeneous (0.017 ± 0.011 ‰, 2SE to 0.182 ± 0.007 ‰, 2SE), encompassing the range of previously published values …

Exploring The Potential Of Chatgpt In Automated Code Refinement: An Empirical Study, Qi Guo, Shangqing Liu, Junming Cao, Xiaohong Li, Xin Peng, Xiaofei Xie, Bihuan Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Code review is an essential activity for ensuring the quality and maintainability of software projects. However, it is a time-consuming and often error-prone task that can significantly impact the development process. Recently, ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model, has demonstrated impressive performance in various natural language processing tasks, suggesting its potential to automate code review processes. However, it is still unclear how well ChatGPT performs in code review tasks. To fill this gap, in this paper, we conduct the first empirical study to understand the capabilities of ChatGPT in code review tasks, specifically focusing on automated code refinement based on given …

W4-Groups: Modeling The Who, What, When And Where Of Group Behavior Via Mobility Sensing, Akansha Atrey, Camellia Zakaria, Rajesh Krishna Balan, Prashant Shenoy

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Human social interactions occur in group settings of varying sizes and locations, depending on the type of social activity. The ability to distinguish group formations based on their purposes transforms how group detection mechanisms function. Not only should such tools support the effective detection of serendipitous encounters, but they can derive categories of relation types among users. Determining who is involved, what activity is performed, and when and where the activity occurs are critical to understanding group processes in greater depth, including supporting goal-oriented applications (e.g., performance, productivity, and mental health) that require sensing social factors. In this work, we …

Improving Automated Code Reviews: Learning From Experience, Hong Yi Lin, Patanamon Thongtanunam, Christoph Treude, Wachiraphan Charoenwet

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Modern code review is a critical quality assurance process that is widely adopted in both industry and open source software environments. This process can help newcomers learn from the feedback of experienced reviewers; however, it often brings a large workload and stress to reviewers. To alleviate this burden, the field of automated code reviews aims to automate the process, teaching large language models to provide reviews on submitted code, just as a human would. A recent approach pre-trained and fine-tuned the code intelligent language model on a large-scale code review corpus. However, such techniques did not fully utilise quality reviews …

Beyond A Joke: Dead Code Elimination Can Delete Live Code, Haoxin Tu, Lingxiao Jiang, Debin Gao, He Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Dead Code Elimination (DCE) is a fundamental compiler optimization technique that removes dead code (e.g., unreachable or reachable but whose results are unused) in the program to produce smaller or faster executables. However, since compiler optimizations are typically aggressively performed and there are complex relationships/interplay among a vast number of compiler optimizations (including DCE), it is not known whether DCE is indeed correctly performed and will only delete dead code in practice. In this study, we open a new research problem to investigate: can DCE happen to erroneously delete live code? To tackle this problem, we design a new approach …

Impact Of Government Outsourcing Contracts On High-Tech Vendors: An Empirical Study, Yi Dong, Nan Hu, Yonghua Ji, Chenkai Ni, Jing Xie

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Outsourcing is an important strategic decision of high-tech firms. However, while the research has extensively studied the implications of outsourcing to high-tech clients, its impact on high-tech vendors remains underexplored. This study empirically estimates the impact of government outsourcing contracts on high-tech vendors. Employing the earnings-return analyses framework, we find that, for high-tech vendors engaged in government outsourcing contracts, the stock market places a higher value on each unit of unexpected earnings compared to other firms. Additionally, this impact becomes stronger for contracts with longer terms, for contracts outsourced by the U.S. government or by countries with better political and …

Heat Mitigation Impacts Of Agriculture, Greenspace, And Riparian Forest In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Brennan Davis

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Albuquerque, New Mexico, alongside the larger American desert Southwest, is already living the reality of climate change – temperatures have risen faster than the global average and, left unchecked, will continue to rise at an ever-increasing pace (NOAA 2022, Garfin et al. 2014). Alongside this disproportionate warming, the Southwest has experienced worsening drought which further stresses an already arid system (White et al. 2023, Dunbar et al. 2022). At the intersection of these changes lie a myriad of interrelated consequences for both ecosystems and communities. The urban heat island effect is one of many such consequences and is responsible for …