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Title: AN ENERGY-PRESERVING SCHEME FOR THE POISSON-NERNST-PLANCK EQUATIONS
Creator: Kabre, Julienne
Date: 2017, 2017-07
Description: Transport of ionic particles is ubiquitous in all biology. The Poisson-Nernst- Planck (PNP) equations have recently been used to describe the...
Show moreTransport of ionic particles is ubiquitous in all biology. The Poisson-Nernst- Planck (PNP) equations have recently been used to describe the dynamics of ion transport through biological ion channels (besides being widely employed in semiconductor industry). This dissertation is about the design of a numerical scheme to solve the PNP equations that preserves exactly (up to roundoff error) a discretized form of the energy dynamics of the system. The proposed finite difference scheme is of second-order accurate in both space and time. Comparisons are made between this energy dynamics preserving scheme and a standard finite difference scheme, showing a difference in satisfying the energy law. Numerical results are presented for validating the orders of convergence in both time and space of the new scheme for the PNP system. The energy preserving scheme presented here is one dimensional in space. A highlight of an extension to the multi-dimensional case is shown.
Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, July 2017
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Title: UNDERSTANDING VACCINATION ATTITUDES AND DETECTING SENTIMENT STIMULUS IN ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA
Creator: Kadam, Mayuri
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: Vaccination being one of the most important decisions for public health, has become a debatable topic with the rise in anti-vaccination...
Show moreVaccination being one of the most important decisions for public health, has become a debatable topic with the rise in anti-vaccination sentiments in recent years. Knowing that vaccines have eradicated many endemic diseases, the rise in antivaccination sentiments jeopardizes the human health by altering the vaccine decisions. Rapidly changing information sources with the increased reach of online social media provide users with a huge amount of information and misinformation. Users exposed to these media perceive the provided information and hold an attitude towards it. Being an open platform of discussions and opinion expressions, online social media provides a great source for understanding people’s behavior. We use supervised learning for understanding the flow of vaccine sentiments and analyzing the user attitudes through online social media. In this thesis, we determine the events and incidences responsible for amplifying pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination sentiments. We investigate user behaviors and important topics of interest for these users. We develop a model for predicting a new user’s attitude utilizing that user’s recent Twitter activity.
M.S. in Computer Science, May 2017
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Title: INVESTIGATION OF PERFORMANCE AND DURABILITY OF POLYMER ELECTROLYTES FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL ENERGY STORAGE AND CONVERSION TECHNOLOGIES
Creator: Jung, Min-suk
Date: 2016, 2016-07
Description: Polymeric ion exchange membranes are integral components of electrochemical conversion/storage devices such as fuel cells, water electrolyzers...
Show morePolymeric ion exchange membranes are integral components of electrochemical conversion/storage devices such as fuel cells, water electrolyzers, and redox flow batteries. There has been dramatic progress in the research and development of cation exchange membranes (CEM). Nafion® (perfluorosulfonic acid membranes) is one example of a state-of-the-art CEM and has been successfully demonstrated in various electrochemical energy devices. Unlike CEMs, anion exchange membranes (AEMs) have been of limited utility to date due to their drawbacks, including poor chemical/mechanical stability and low ionic conductivity. However, alkaline environments result in better activity for electrochemical reactions and afford the possibility of using non-platinum group metal (PGM) electrocatalysts. AEMs, therefore, are still being studied in order to resolve existing challenges in terms of conductivity and stability in alkaline media and in strongly oxidizing solutions. In this work, AEMs derived from different types of polymer backbones were prepared, and their chemical stability and electrochemical property were investigated. Polysulfone (PSF) AEMs were prepared by first chloromethylating polysulfone, then by functionalizing chloromethylated polysulfone (CMPSF) with different base reagents. PSF-trimethylamine (TMA) AEMs showed a 40-fold reduction in vanadium (IV) ion (VO2+) permeability when compared to a Nafion® membrane and exceptional oxidative stability after exposure to a 1.5 M vanadium (V) ion (VO2 +) solution for 90 days. PSF-TMA AEMs were successfully demonstrated in the all-vanadium redox flow battery. Excellent energy efficiencies (>75 %) were attained and sustained over 75 chargedischarge cycles for a vanadium redox flow battery prepared using the PSF-TMA separator. Crosslinking of poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) AEMs using diamine was tried with intentions to improve the mechanical stability and electrochemical property of PPO AEM. Crosslinked PPO AEMs (30 ± 4 % at 25 oC) showed less liquid water uptake than non-crosslinked PPO AEMs (46 ± 5% at 25 oC) while maintaining comparable ionic conductivities (hydroxide ion conductivity of 45 mS/cm at 60 oC). Crosslinked PPO AEMs maintained mechanical integrity and still showed some mechanical stability (ultimate tensile strength of 3~4 MPa and elongation at break of 13~17 %) after exposure to 1 M KOH at 60 oC for 14 days, while noncrosslinked PPO AEMs completely lost their mechanical durability. Finally, this dissertation presents research related to perfluorinated AEMs prepared using a Grignard reagent. These membranes exhibited 0.7 mmol/g of Cl- ion exchange capacity (IEC), 20 mS/cm of hydroxide ion conductivity at 20 oC, and 10 % of water uptake at room temperature. The membranes also maintained 90 % of their initial conductivity after an exposure to 1.5 M VO2+ in 3 M H2SO4 solution for seven days.
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, July 2016
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Title: INVESTIGATION ON THE INTERACTION BETWEEN NATURAL ORGANIC MATTER AND CALCITE
Creator: Zhu, Junjie
Date: 2012-07-12, 2012-07
Description: Fox River water was supersaturated with respect to calcite; natural organic matter (NOM) might play a key role in this phenomenon. Fox River...
Show moreFox River water was supersaturated with respect to calcite; natural organic matter (NOM) might play a key role in this phenomenon. Fox River NOM (FRNOM) adsorption on the calcite surface is probably an important mechanism to explain this condition. Fox River water contained moderate ultraviolet absorbance (UVA) of NOM (0.19 1/cm), high concentration of calcium (70 mg/L), suspended solids with relatively high specific surface area (SSA) (6.9 m2/g), and moderate pH value (8.4) based on historical data. To test whether the phenomenon was caused by NOM adsorption, a series of experiments was conducted to explore the interaction between NOM and calcite in conditions similar to those of the Fox River. Suwannee River NOM (SRNOM) and Nordic Reservoir NOM (NRNOM) were used as surrogate NOM. The results show that SRNOM inhibited calcite dissolution significantly after 10 min based on measuring of the decrease in the free calcium concentration. The decrease in the free calcium was not solely due to formation of NOM-calcium complexes, because these complexes made up only about 3% of the total free calcium concentration. Therefore, NOM adsorption onto calcite was probably largely responsible for the inhibited calcite activity. Experimental results also showed that NOM adsorption increased with increasing NOM concentration in the range from 2 to 14 mg NOM/L, which is a common range for river water. Higher charge density also seems to promote sorption onto calcite; relative to NRNOM, SRNOM has a higher charge density and SRNOM has a higher affinity for calcite. Other factors that promoted NOM adsorption onto calcite included higher concentration of calcium and larger SSA of calcite seed. Based on water quality characteristics, the Fox River provides a suitable environment for NOM adsorption on calcite, and it seems likely that Fox River NOM (FRNOM) adsorption on calcite can inhibit calcite precipitation. This understanding of interaction between NOM and calcite could be used by WTPs along the Fox River for better optimization and improvement in treatment and operation.
M.S. in Environmental Engineering, July 2012
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Title: MEASUREMENT MODEL OF IONOSPHERIC ELECTRON CONTENT WITH CYGNSS
Creator: Zhang, Jordi Xing
Date: 2013, 2013-12
Description: Global ionospheric imaging is currently limited by a lack of significant quantities of observations over the oceans. This deficiency of...
Show moreGlobal ionospheric imaging is currently limited by a lack of significant quantities of observations over the oceans. This deficiency of measurements arises because coverage from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) remote sensing tools is typically limited to regions over land by using ground-based receivers. This dissertation presents the opportunity to estimate ionospheric data over the oceans by using reflected GNSS signals received by the upcoming Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS). CYGNSS is currently being developed by NASA primarily for hurricane predictions. Its eight micro-satellites will have a single-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver onboard and zenith and nadir antennas that collect GPS signals reflecting from the ocean surface of Earth. This study investigates the possibility of leveraging CYGNSS for a secondary science mission, using GNSS-Reflectometry for ionospheric remote sensing. A mathematical model is developed that retrieves ionospheric electron content by using ranging measurements from direct and ocean-reflected GPS signals onboard CYGNSS satellites. The measurement model terms can be grouped as geometric raypath and signal refraction components due to the troposphere and the ionosphere. Each term of the model is analyzed and quantified by applying fundamental physical principles and empirical models. The implementation of a multi-orbit simulation estimates the magnitudes of anticipated electron content measurements with CYGNSS.
M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, December 2013
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Title: DEVELOPING INTELLIGENT AND ADAPTIVE BUILDING SYSTEMS FOR OUR DIGITAL ECOLOGY
Creator: Hansen, Kai
Date: 2013, 2013-07
Description: Our world is being changed by a dynamic digital presence. The marriage of virtual and physical represents an ecology which has become...
Show moreOur world is being changed by a dynamic digital presence. The marriage of virtual and physical represents an ecology which has become intertwined with the lives of nearly everyone, fundamentally altering how our society functions. While we have evolved in this sense, the built environment has become outmoded and strains to meet emerging occupant requirements. To correct this, it has become necessary to develop environments that are capable of intelligently responding to shifting requirements. As curators of the built environment, architects are responsible for seeking out and engaging new mechanisms to achieve spaces that occupants find desirable. An experiential summary of the architectural-digital-hacking process will be given. A more traditional research method was followed when possible while engaged in this learning process. This research focuses on utilizing readily available digital tools that are capable of simultaneously mitigating issues associated with occupant requirements and energy consumption. It will also address shortcomings related to occupant comfort and energy consumption observed in our buildings by producing a series of working prototypes that will be tested and analyzed. Results will be presented, and will consist of components used and how they were used to serve as a reference for future development.
M.S. in Architecture, July 2013
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Title: Behavior of E. Coli 0157:H7 in Packaged Spinach after Exposure to Sanitizing Solution
Creator: Lu, Yin
Date: 2011-12-13, 2011-12
Description: Leafy greens have been associated with multiple outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EC) infection in recent years. More information is...
Show moreLeafy greens have been associated with multiple outbreaks of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EC) infection in recent years. More information is needed on EC survival during post-harvest processes, and our study aimed at evaluating survival in packaged spinach after treatment of cells with sodium hypochlorite. A green fluorescent protein-expressing strain of EC was exposed to sodium hypochlorite in two different ways, i.e., exposed in solution or on the spinach leaves. For exposure in the solution, EC was inoculated into 1 ppm sodium hypochlorite for 30 seconds, then the cells were inoculated onto the spinach leaves. For exposure on the spinach leaves, EC was first inoculated onto leaves; then the inoculated spinach leaves were dipped into 100 ppm sodium hypochlorite. After inoculation, the spinach was packaged to obtain high-oxygen (20%O2/3%CO2) and low-oxygen (0%O2/15%CO2) atmospheres, respectively. The packages were stored at 4°C or 15°C, and EC populations were quantified at six sampling points during 14 days of storage. The data were analyzed by DMFit and Microfit to demonstrate the growth curve and kinetics. In general, there were no apparent differences in EC behavior between the chlorine treated and control groups for most of the conditions. However, in certain conditions, the chlorine-treated cells showed a faster decrease and/or slower increase in population than the control packages. Generally, low temperature and high oxygen conditions led to lower survival than high temperature and low oxygen. For EC exposed in solution, the EC population showed a greater reduction and faster decrease in the high-oxygen than low-oxygen packages at 4°C. At 15°C, the lowoxygen condition resulted in a faster growth rate (+0.43 log CFU/ml/day) than high oxygen packages (+0.17 log CFU/ml/day). Also, in the 4°C high-oxygen condition, the chlorine-treated cells showed a greater population decrease (-0.95 log CFU/ml) than the control groups (-0.57 log CFU/ml). For EC exposed on the spinach, the low-oxygen packages showed greater population levels and faster growth rates compared to the highoxygen packages at 15°C. At 4°C, chlorine treated groups and control groups showed no apparent differences for both low- and high- oxygen packages. At 15°C, the chlorine treated packages showed less increase in population (+0.79 log CFU/ml) than the controls (+1.58 log CFU/ml) in low-oxygen; and the control groups increased at a faster growth rate (+0.57 log CFU/ml/day) than the chlorine treated ones (+0.25 log CFU/ml/day).
M.S. in Food Safety and Technology, December 2011
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Title: LOAD ANALYSIS BASED ON MACHINE LEARNING IN POWER SYSTEMS
Creator: Lu, Dan
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: The dissertation is composed by four parts, first, load sampling for SCUC based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Kernel Density...
Show moreThe dissertation is composed by four parts, first, load sampling for SCUC based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Kernel Density Estimation (KDE); second, load forecasting based on PCA and Bayesian ridge regression; third, anomalies detection based on Machine Learning methodology; fourth the long-term planning of Battery-based Energy Storage Transportation (BEST) in power system. Mathematical models are constructed to fulfill the research of the three targets, and numerical examples are used to test the models. The first three parts are based on PCA, which reduced the load dimensions. In the first part, a robust power system Unit Commitment (UC) is the aim to fulfil the possible load. In the second part, a novel short-term nodal load forecasting is raised to give better prediction of the next day load to improve the next data UC scheduling. In the third part, anomalies are detected in the reduced power flow space based on the pattern identified in the lower dimensional space. The purpose of the fourth part is to find ways of better utilizing the existing resources from integrating the frontier technology, the mobility of more compact and higher capacity batteries. Mix-integer programming (MIP) is used in the formulation.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, May 2017
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Title: THE TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEPRESSION AND THE CONVERSION TO DEMENTIA: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS
Creator: Rog, Lauren
Date: 2011-07, 2011-07
Description: A relationship between depression and the dementing process has been fairly well established in both patients with mild cognitive impairment ...
Show moreA relationship between depression and the dementing process has been fairly well established in both patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia (e.g., Apostolova and Cummings, 2008; Lyketsos et al., 2002; Starkstein et al., 2005). However, less clear is the temporal role depression plays in the dementing process, with the possibilities including depression as a risk factor, a prodrome, or a consequence of dementia. Variables that have been considered to affect this relationship include gender, depression severity, lifetime history of depression, and etiology of cognitive decline. The current study examined the temporal relationship between depression and dementia in a sample of 218 patients with MCI or dementia who were seen for at least one follow-up visit at the neuropsychology service of an urban university medical center. Results did not reveal support for either the prodrome or the risk factor hypothesis of the depression-dementia relationship. However, it was found that people with a past history of depression who did not show depressive symptoms concurrent with their cognitive decline converted most quickly to dementia, suggesting a unique depression-dementia relationship in people with earlier-life depression.
Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, July 2011
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Title: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF HEAT AFFECTED ZONE IN HPS 100W STEEL
Creator: Lu, Junhua
Date: 2011-11-21, 2011-12
Description: In the present investigation, thermal simulated specimens were used to investigate the effect of peak temperature during welding on...
Show moreIn the present investigation, thermal simulated specimens were used to investigate the effect of peak temperature during welding on characteristic fracture toughness and microstructural features of the heat-affected zones (HAZ) of HPS 100W Steel. HPS 100W is a new grade of bridge steel included in ASTM A709 Standard. The material was subjected to varying thermal profiles to simulate the different subzones of HAZ and the resultant microstructures were observed and mechanical properties determined. HAZ simulation was carried out in a Gleeble 3500 at different peak temperatures of 850oC, 1100oC and 1300oC with heat inputs of 3kJ/mm along with specimens transverse or longitudinal to the rolling direction. Subsequently, impact toughness data were obtained at different temperatures by means of a Charpy test. Finally, the different microstructures were characterized using optical microscopy, SEM and TEM in order to correlate the structure-property relationship of the HAZ for HPS 100W steel. Due to small heat-input and accelerated cooling, the grain size in HAZ is relatively small and the structures are ductile. The Charpy impact results show the transverse rolling direction toughness for lower peak temperature and base material have lower values than that of longitudinal direction samples. Nevertheless even the lowest Charpy values obtained are well above minimum values required for structural application transportation. The HAZ showed higher absorbed impact energy in lower temperature. Also, precipitation dissolution study of NbC and Cu was carried out in the end. Cu element is the strengthening element. The NbC have grain refining effect at elevated temperature.
M.S. in Science and Engineering, December 2011
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Title: HOUSING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION WITHIN A SOCIAL CONDENSER
Creator: Loman, Catherine
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: Throughout the United States and Canada the railroad, a system that was once the central method of transportation through the countries, has...
Show moreThroughout the United States and Canada the railroad, a system that was once the central method of transportation through the countries, has had a large downfall in the popularity and development after the introduction of the car into the city and the surrounding area. With the downfall of the train came the downfall of the use of the train station, a space that was once a local temple of the city has now become an economic center with no larger connection to the city. If a new high-speed rail system is to be introduced into North America then there is the need for a new method of looking at what the train station can be and how it can interact with the larger city around it. With an in-depth study of the city that the station is located in the local nature of the city will become prevalent and play a key role in the conceptual design of the station and how it can create a stronger social presence within the city and within the line.
M.S. in Architecture, December 2016
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Title: STATISTICAL LEARNING IN SOCIAL INTERACTIONS: ANTICIPATION OF CAREGIVER FEEDBACK TO COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOR IN PRELINGUISTIC INFANTS
Creator: Lossia, Amanda Kathryn
Date: 2014, 2014-05
Description: A growing body of literature has demonstrated that infants are able to detect patterns in structured external environmental stimuli through a...
Show moreA growing body of literature has demonstrated that infants are able to detect patterns in structured external environmental stimuli through a statistical learning mechanism. The present study examines whether statistical learning operates as a learning mechanism in social interactions as well. Prior research using an ABA experimental design demonstrated that infants modified their communicative behavior when the level of contingent caregiver feedback to infant gestures was altered (Miller & Lossia, 2013). These findings are extended in the present study by examining whether the infants developed modified expectations for caregiver feedback when the pattern of contingent feedback was altered, which might function as a possible mechanism for the changes seen in infant communicative behavior. Anticipatory looking to the caregiver was used as a measure of infants’ expectations for caregiver responsiveness. Results showed differences in anticipatory looking to the caregiver across periods. The pattern of anticipatory looking did not fully explain the changes seen in infant communicative behavior. However, the findings do suggest that infants detected the change in caregiver feedback and modified their expectations, providing support for the presence of a statistical learning mechanism in social interactions.
M.S. in Psychology, May 2014
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Title: INTERPRETATION OF ADAPTIVE REUSE ISSUES IN MULTIPLE SCALES, BUILDING, NEIGHBORHOOD, CITY
Creator: Loukas, Panagiota
Date: 2015, 2015-12
Description: The purpose of this study is to interpret the topic of adaptive reuse, focusing on the reuse of existing buildings and new structures inserted...
Show moreThe purpose of this study is to interpret the topic of adaptive reuse, focusing on the reuse of existing buildings and new structures inserted into them. The issues related with adaptive reuse are not a new field in architecture but is related to previous practices such as preservation and conservation. Focusing on the issue of adaptive reuse in order for existing structures to cover the new needs of an emerging society, giving a new use. Other disciplines, such as social and political are forming and guiding those decisions. The topic of what to keep and what to discard is global and various solutions has been given in the past years, focusing on monuments and landmarks conservation, preservation or practices of adaptation in the cities history. The research analysis in various scales, engaging the site to its surrounding, through neighborhood analysis and its urban context are important. Understanding the problem means focusing the research not only on the aspect of architecture agenda since there are political and social practices engaging with the transformation. It means focusing on the issue of adaptive reuse as an important cultural topic related with social, political and economic factors.
M.S. in Architecture, December 2015
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Title: STEREO-BASED DEPTH MAP PROCESSING: ESTIMATION AND REFINEMENT
Creator: Loghman, Maziar
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: During the past decade, research in 3D video has become a hot topic owing to advancements in both hardware and software. Amongst different...
Show moreDuring the past decade, research in 3D video has become a hot topic owing to advancements in both hardware and software. Amongst different methods proposed for representing 3D data, multi-view video plus depth (MVD) format has gained a lot of attention. Most of such 3D algorithms rely on a per-pixel depth representation of the scene called a depth map. Depth maps are very useful for rendering virtual views and have lead to advancements in 3D compression algorithms. Generating an accurate and dense depth map is one of the important prerequisite for many 3D video applications. In this thesis, we highlight the following major problems in MVD. * Depth map estimation * Depth map refinement * Depth map coding In order to generate an accurate depth map, we propose a method based on Census transform with adaptive window patterns and semi-global optimization. A modified cross-based cost aggregation technique is proposed which helps to calculate a more reliable depth map. In order to further enhance the quality of the generated depth map, a novel multi-resolution anisotropic diffusion based algorithm is presented. The proposed depth refinement algorithm computes a dense depth map in which the holes have been filled and the object boundaries are sharpened. The next part of the research is based on depth map coding. In depth map coding, a considerable amount of time is required to investigate the mode decision pro- cess for every block of depth pixels. However, in real-time purposes, we can partially skip the mode selection step. In this thesis, we propose a novel depth intra-coding scheme for 3D video coding based on HEVC standard. The core idea of the proposed method is motivated by the fact that depth maps have specific characteristics that distinguish them from those of color images. By analyzing the reference depth maps based on homogeneousness of different regions, for some particular blocks, the DMM full-RD search is skipped and the mode is selected based on the previous similar tree- blocks. By this means, the time complexity of the encoding process is significantly reduced.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, December 2016
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Title: The low temperature distillation of a Wyoming coal
Creator: Bolte, C.l., Durant, R.f.
Date: 2009, 1917
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/lowtemperaturedi00bolt
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: ISOLATION AND KINETIC COMPARISON OF INDIRECT FLIGHT MUSCLE MYOSIN IN MANDUCA SEXTA
Creator: Liu, Yang
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: The indirect flight muscles (IFM) of insects are nature’s versatile engines highly specialized to produce power for flight. Myosin, the motor...
Show moreThe indirect flight muscles (IFM) of insects are nature’s versatile engines highly specialized to produce power for flight. Myosin, the motor protein, plays an important role in this process, supporting the rapid wingbeat frequency and converting chemical energy into mechanical force. A novel efficient protocol for preparing functional myosin from Manduca sexta flight muscle is described in this study. We tested the biochemical properties of myosin from the dorsal subunit and ventral subunit of the dominant flight muscle. High salt solubilization and low salt precipitation was used to extract myosin from the homogenate of moth split thorax muscles since low ionic strength allows filament formation and precipitation of myosin while high ionic strength helps myosin solubility. Coomassie Blue stained 10% SDS PAGE analysis showed the purity was 50% and the result was confirmed by western blot with anti-myosin antibody MAC 147. This revealed the final pellet of purification was myosin and was of moderate purity and homogeneity, showing that this method was feasible for isolating myosin from this species. The focus of this study was to compare the catalytic efficiency of extracted ventral DLM1 myosin and dorsal DLM1 myosin in vitro, as myosin was the dominant catalytic protein which hydrolyze ATP to utilize energy in muscle contraction. The rate of an identical ATP hydrolysis reaction was measured catalyzed by myosin extracted from DLM1D and DLM1V, and the activation energy (Ea) was calculated using Arrhenius equation. The reaction catalyzed by dorsal myosin exhibited higher Ea than that catalyzed by ventral myosin, which meant a lower catalytic efficiency of DLM1D myosin. This indicated catalytic heterogeneity of DLM1D and DLM1V myosin in a single muscle. Additionally, a significant within muscle Ea difference of ATP hydrolysis could be partially responsible for the known temperature gradient, within the DLM1 of Manduca demonstrated previously(Nicole T George & Daniel, 2011), considering that the hydrolysis of ATP is responsible for the heat generated during muscle contraction as well as muscle force and lengthening.
M.S. in Biology, May 2016
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Title: Location of the Overton County railroad
Creator: Pratt, Edmund A.
Date: 2009, 1907
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/locationofoverto00prat
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1907 B.S. in Civil Engineering, 1907

Title: MATRIX: MANY-TASK COMPUTING EXECUTION FABRIC FOR EXTREME SCALES
Creator: Rajendran, Anupam
Date: 2013-05-01, 2013-05
Description: Scheduling large amount of jobs/tasks over large-scale distributed systems play a significant role to achieve high system utilization and...
Show moreScheduling large amount of jobs/tasks over large-scale distributed systems play a significant role to achieve high system utilization and throughput. Today’s state-of-the-art job management/scheduling systems have predominantly Master/Slaves architectures, which have inherent limitations, such as scalability issues at extreme scales (e.g. petascales and beyond) and single point failures. In designing the next-generation job management system that addresses both of these limitations, we argue that we must distribute the job scheduling and management; however, distributed job management introduces new challenges, such as non-trivial load balancing. This thesis proposes an adaptive work stealing technique to achieve distributed load balancing at extreme scales, those found in todays’ petascale systems towards tomorrow’s exascale systems. This thesis also presents the design, analysis and implementation of a distributed execution fabric called MATRIX (MAny-Task computing execution fabRIc at eXascales). MATRIX utilizes the adaptive work stealing algorithm for distributed load balancing and distributed hash tables for managing task metadata. MATRIX supports both high-performance computing (HPC) and many-task computing (MTC) workloads. We have validated it using synthetic workloads up to 4K-cores on a IBM BlueGene/P supercomputer. Results show that high efficiencies (e.g. 90%+) are possible with certain workloads. We study the performance of MATRIX in depth, including understanding the network traffic generated by the work stealing algorithm. Simulation results are presented up to 1M-node scales which show that work stealing is a scalable and efficient load balancing approach for many-core architectures to extreme-scale distributed systems.
M.S. in Computer Science, May 2013
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Title: MAXIMIZATION OF SYSTEM UTILITY VALUE FOR TIME-SENSITIVE APPLICATIONS
Creator: Li, Shuhui
Date: 2014, 2014-12
Description: Many applications are time-sensitive in the sense that the usefulness or the quality of their end results depends on their completion time....
Show moreMany applications are time-sensitive in the sense that the usefulness or the quality of their end results depends on their completion time. Examples of this type of applications are threat detections in air defense systems [97], radar trackings [36, 85], mobile navigations by Google [79, 44], and online gaming by Nintendo [38], to name a few. Take the threat detection application as an example, clearly, the earlier a threat is detected, the higher utility the application provides, as earlier detection provides more time to eliminate the threat [97]. This demonstrates the time-sensitivity of its utility. Here, the term `utility' means the actual bene t that accrues from the delivery of services [16]. The dependence between an application's accrued utility and its completion time is often modeled by a Time Utility Function (TUF). Apparently, when a system has multiple time-sensitive applications competing for the resources, a question arises: how to schedule their execution orders such that the system can yield maximal accrued utility? This thesis is to address the question. In this thesis, two categories of scheduling problems for time-sensitive applications are investigated: single-task applications in uni-processor systems and parallel multi-task applications in multi-processor systems. For the rst category, a two-TUF application model with given execution time is introduced and two scheduling algorithms for this model are proposed. Di erent from the conventional one-TUF model which only considers the gain utility, the developed model can deal with both the gain and the penalty utilities. The model is further extended to cope with applications whose exact execution times are not known at a priori, rather only their probabilistic execution time distributions are known. For applications with variable execution times, the di culty is how to make judicious decisions about when to start, continue or abort the applications. For the second category, i.e., for parallel multi-task applications in multi-processor systems, di erent from the widely investigated sequential multi-task applications, a parallel multi-task application's execution can have both spatial and temporal in uence on other applications. We propose a metric to measure the spatial-temporal interference among parallel multi-task and time-sensitive applications with respect to accrued utility. Based on the metric, a 2-approximation algorithm is introduced for systems operate in discrete time domains and its lower bound of system total accrued utility value is proved. We also develop a heuristic scheduling algorithm to maximize system's total accrued utility value for continuous time systems. Finally, the thesis discusses how methodologies developed in the thesis can be applied to reduce system's operational cost without sacri cing applications' quality of service. We propose a model to bridge together two orthogonal scheduling criteria, i.e., the system operational cost and application response time, and solve the problem by transforming it to a system accrued utility value optimization problem. The research uses both theoretical and experimental approaches. Theorems and lemmas are developed to provide the foundations for our solutions, and at the same time, extensive experiments are conducted to empirically evaluate the performances of the developed solutions.
Ph.D. in Computer Science, December 2014
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Title: CLAIMS IN CONSTRUCTION: ANALYSES OF CLAIMS BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND GREEN/SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
Creator: Tackey-otoo, Ebenezer
Date: 2014, 2014-07
Description: Construction professionals, irregardless of their experience, go through all these problems. These problems which in turn becomes disputes...
Show moreConstruction professionals, irregardless of their experience, go through all these problems. These problems which in turn becomes disputes arise from the various stages or phases in the construction process - the pre-design stage, the design stage, bidding/negotiating stage and the construction stage. The introduction of green/sustainable building construction has raised a lot of questions in the construction industry. Unlike the traditional building process, disputes in the green building construction process are not well known, with issues ranging from materials through to the certification process. This research seeks to analyze the different disputes that arise from both the traditional and green building processes and determine which process has more risk associated with it.
M.S. in Civil Engineering, July 2014
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