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Title: OPTIMAL ROUTING ALGORITHMS IN ENERGY-HARVESTING WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS
Creator: Martinez, Gina
Date: 2014, 2014-12
Description: Harnessing energy from environmental sources such as solar and wind is an attractive solution to the critical energy limitation problem in...
Show moreHarnessing energy from environmental sources such as solar and wind is an attractive solution to the critical energy limitation problem in wireless sensor networks. Energy harvesting can potentially provide the network with perpetual and sustainable operation, or it can prolong network lifetime even for high consumption applications so as to justify the high cost of deployment. However, in order to efficiently utilize harvested energy, the energy source dynamics need to be incorporated into the network design. One way to do so is to make the network layer routing algorithm energy-harvest-aware. One common property of environmental energy sources is that they are generally only intermittently available. To address this, a storage unit such as a rechargeable battery can be introduced into the system. However, this is only a partial solution due to finite buffer storage capacities that cause harvested energy to be wasted when full. In this work, we aim to maximize the network lifetime by optimizing the energy availability and consumption alignment. To realize this objective, we first show that the minimization of energy wastage is a necessary condition to the maximization of available network energy. We then propose an on-demand routing algorithm that maximizes the total residual network energy by minimizing the energy consumption and wastage. Next, we illustrate the tradeoff between the two objectives of maximizing the total network energy and maximizing the minimum network energy in prolonging network lifetime. Then, we propose a linear-programming routing solution that maximizes a utility objective function based on this tradeoff. Although these routing approaches are shown to achieve high energy utilization, they are still based on deterministic harvest and consumption models. In the last part of this work, we propose a routing algorithm by applying the Semi-Markov Decision Process. Using this method, we are able to incorporate a comprehensive consideration of stochastic solar availability and traffic models, heterogeneous network properties such as non-uniform energy buffer capacities and consumption rates, and the optimization of an analytical formulation for network lifetime.
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, December 2014
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Title: DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF CONFIGURABLE PASSIVE COMPONENTS FOR CMOS MILLIMETER-WAVE INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
Creator: Liu, Gui
Date: 2011-05-10, 2011-05
Description: With the rapid growth of wireless communications, there is an increasing demand for low cost, low power consumption, high data rates and high...
Show moreWith the rapid growth of wireless communications, there is an increasing demand for low cost, low power consumption, high data rates and high density integrated circuits. The continuous scaling of CMOS technologies promises to achieve higher frequencies of operation in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency regime. To enable lager bandwidth for higher data rates wireless applications, many efforts have been focused on the design of mm-wave CMOS integrated circuits. The emerging mm-wave wireless commercial applications such as Wireless Hi-definition Video (60 GHz), automotive radar (77 GHz) and mm-wave imaging system (94 GHz) have brought new challenges in devices technology and systems. There is an ever increasing demand for multi-band and multi-mode integrated wireless communication systems which have the advantages of power and area savings. Therefore, flexible and configurable mm-wave on-chip components and circuits are needed to accommodate a wide variety of wireless communication standards. On the other hand, the first silicon success of the challenging mm-wave integrated circuits requires superior and robust design capabilities in cutting-edge technologies. To satisfy customers by providing them with the fastest time-to-market and the lowest total cost, the configurable multiband mm-wave solution is preferred. Design of on-chip passive components operating at millimeter wave frequencies presents several challenges due to the ohmic loss, parasitic inductance and capacitance. Therefore, it requires both an accurate model and electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools to characterize the passive components. The other challenge of design of mm-wave on-chip passives is process variations which can have a significant effect on the robustness of the passive components and circuits. Methodology to compensate and adjust for process variations is needed. Passives that can be configured after fabrication would be an attractive way to obtain accurate parameters and overcome effects of process variations. The configurable Multilayer Coplanar Waveguide (MCPW) based transmission lines offer convenient method to alleviate the problem of process variations and obtain accurate inductor values. This dissertation focuses on the design of mm-wave passive components and their applications. Model, EM simulation, and optimization of several novel MCPW-based configurable inductors are presented. A 77-GHz voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and a 77-GHz receiver employing the configurable inductors have been realized. The 77-GHz VCO with MCPW-based configurable inductor exhibits low phase noise and wide frequency tuning range. The 77-GHz receiver achieves low power and state-of-the-art performance. The successful implementations of several individual configurable passive components, a 77-GHz VCO, and a 77-GHz receiver demonstrate the feasibility to achieve good performance and robust design with configurable passive components.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, May 2011
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Title: THE POLYMORPHIC DIAGRAM: CONCEPTS FOR DESIGN TECHNOLOGY TO MODEL SPATIAL CRITERIA IN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
Creator: Hamadah, Qutaibah
Date: 2012-11-03, 2012-12
Description: In Architectural design, reasoning about space and its configuration lies at the center of the conceptual design workflow. The process unfolds...
Show moreIn Architectural design, reasoning about space and its configuration lies at the center of the conceptual design workflow. The process unfolds in a reflective and adaptive modeling methodology, through which architects structure their understanding of the design problem, and mediate its responsive and sensitive resolution. Paradoxically, however, modeling and representing spatial information – knowledge about the design problem’s spatial requirements and its relational orders – is perhaps the least welldeveloped feature in modern design systems. With all its importance in architecture design, existing design technology offers only limited assistance to one of architecture’s most critical and difficult design workflows, the definition of space, its layout and configuration. Moving forward, modern design systems must extend their ability to assist the architect in modeling spatial and relational design criteria. They must profit an integrated workflow where the problem definition, and the solution proposition develop in unison. In particular, it should pay heed to the architect’s cognitive and generative parameters, which necessarily relies on an adaptively and reflective modeling workflow, one that bridges between the problem definition and its solution proposition using multiple forms of representation. Towards this end, this dissertation presents the Polymorphic Diagram: a concept for a design technology to assist the architect in modeling spatial and relational design criteria using an interactive, graph-based, multi-representational medium.
PH.D in Architecture, December 2012
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Title: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF POSTTRAUMATIC SYMPTOMS AND POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH IN ONCOLOGY PATIENTS
Creator: Thilges, Sarah R
Date: 2013, 2013-07
Description: Cancer has been observed and studied within the development of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG)...
Show moreCancer has been observed and studied within the development of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) although reported prevalence rates of PTSD vary greatly and PTG rates are even less established. The current longitudinal study seeks to elucidate which factors are related to endorsing PTSD and PTG symptoms among oncology patients. One hundred and twenty-five patients completed measures at Time 1 assessing rates and predictors of PTSD and within the same sample, 75 patients completed measures assessing rates and predictors of PTG four years later (Time 2). A model containing utilization of venting along with greater trauma impact ratings significantly predicted PTSD symptoms at Time 1, although none of the variables were independent significant predictors. At Time 2, results indicate using spirituality as support and greater obsessive and depressive symptoms at T1 predicted PTG although only spirituality was a significant independent predictors. Results have implications for clinical and research work to address and monitor potential risk factors for distress and strengths which may promote PTG.
PH.D in Psychology, July 2013
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Title: ANTI-STIGMA PROGRAMS: STIGMA IN CAMPUS POlICE OFFICERS
Creator: Rafacz, Jennifer D.
Date: 2012-07-19, 2012-07
Description: It has been proposed that the most effective way to combat mental illness stigma is to focus on power groups who have a direct impact on the...
Show moreIt has been proposed that the most effective way to combat mental illness stigma is to focus on power groups who have a direct impact on the lives of persons with serious mental illness. With the increase of violence and need for mental health services on college campuses, campus police officers are seen as an important power group for persons with serious mental illness. This study assessed the effects of online contact versus online education anti-stigma programs on campus police officers attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness. The study also considered moderators of contact specifically level of familiarity, state empathy, and trait empathy. It was found that the online program was not effective in changing attitudes. The research also suggested that the attitudes of the campus police officers were generally non-stigmatizing other than the endorsement of fear/danger. Both state and trait empathy were found to be moderators helping behaviors and social distance. Level of familiarity was not found to be a moderator of social distance. The findings suggest that future research and stigma work with campus police officers should focus on in vivo behaviorally driven interventions such as crisis intervention training with a focus on danger/fear.
Ph.D. in Psychology, July 2012
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Title: A COMPARISON OF META-ANALYTIC PROCEDURES WHEN PRE- AND POSTTEST VARIANCES ARE HETEROGENEOUS
Creator: Collins, Michael W.
Date: 2011-11, 2011-12
Description: Meta-analysis is a statistical method for aggregating summary results from archival research. Traditional meta-analysis procedures that...
Show moreMeta-analysis is a statistical method for aggregating summary results from archival research. Traditional meta-analysis procedures that involve repeated measures assume homogeneous variances in pretests and posttests, an assumption which is often violated in training evaluation contexts due to variance inflation in posttests. A new meta-analytic procedure that allows for heterogeneous variance in pretests and posttests was tested in the context of leadership and managerial training programs. Application of the new method revealed greater sampling variance and less between-study variance than traditional meta-analysis with little effect on estimation of the mean effect size. However, the procedure screened out a large number of studies due to the intensive data requirements, which limited the number of usable studies for the meta-analysis.
Ph.D. in Psychology, December 2011
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Title: FROM FIREPLACE TO STEAM: DOMESTIC HEATING TECHNOLOGY IN NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES, 1840-1890
Creator: Morais, Caroline
Date: 2012-12-07, 2012-12
Description: Why study nineteenth-century domestic heating technology? Besides its pop- ular appeal and utilitarian value, domestic heating technology is...
Show moreWhy study nineteenth-century domestic heating technology? Besides its pop- ular appeal and utilitarian value, domestic heating technology is one of the most signi cant yet least explored subjects in American history. American processes of industrialization, manufacturing, and transportation are well known, however, the impact of technological changes on the home is less familiar. Understanding past everyday lives is crucial to recognize the processes of adjusting to new technologies, particularly those technologies essential to today's American lives that have been overlooked. This dissertation examines the shift in domestic heating modes in North- eastern United States between the decades of 1840 and 1890. After carefully reviewing the literature on the subject of nineteenth-century heating technology, I asked myself why the domestic setting has received little schol- arly or historical attention in comparison to those of industrial and commercial set- tings. The answer lies on the fact that, traditionally, historians have been more interested in public events than in those within the private environment. The signi - cance of domestic heating technology has also been reduced duo to divisions between scholarly elds and disciplines. Also, the interpretation of artifacts has been more the eld of anthropologists than that of historians. Thus, few studies have narrowed their focus to a speci c topic of technology and the di erences in form, function, and cultural settings of its development. Investigating a historically obsolete technology and understanding the way people used it can be challenging. Domestic heating technology has advanced, and attitudes towards it have changed over time. It has been di cult to nd physical evidence of early examples in the form in which people originally used it daily. Addi- tionally, few people took the time to record their everyday-life interactions with the equipment and actual models of the old technology are hard to nd. Mid-nineteenth iv century American household heating apparatuses are a clear example of that. The ine ciency of systems previous to central heating challenged inventors and manufac- tures to search for and invest in more convenient and economical options to improve the quality of life. With the development of household heating technology, people gradually abandoned replaces and stoves and adopted furnaces and central heating as their primary source of heating. My goal was to explore the evolving meaning of domestic heating systems as a technological symbol. By analyzing the changing responses from one technological development to the other, I was able to identify some main points that made appro- priate domestic heating and ventilation a necessity for both comfort and health of Americans who lived in the focused period. I chose the ve decades between 1840 and 1890 because most of the modern conveniences were introduced into American homes for the rst time during those years and for their signi cance to the country's technological history. The Northeastern region was chosen as the geographical focus because the dispersion of knowledge began there, especially knowledge in heating and ventila- tion technology and apparatus manufacturing. The sources for the study included domestic advice manuals, architectural pattern books, engineering and architectural periodicals, patent records, manufacturers' and dealers' sales catalogs, and census schedules. The technological development of heating and ventilation systems culmi- nated with the advent of central heating, which currently represents the technology of domestic heating methods. In the design of American homes, central heating systems have superseded previous apparatuses such as replaces and stoves. They have become an option rather than a necessity of a comfortable and convenient domestic life. This disserta- tion is a brief study of that moment of transition. My intention was to expand on v basic assumptions about the technological development of the American home, not to challenge them. There has already been a considerable amount of attention given to the study of the American home and home life. Therefore, I see my research as an addition to the growing knowledge of the history of American domestic technology and the people and innovations that enabled its development.
PH.D in Philosophy in Architecture, December 2012
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Title: HARDWARE-EFFICIENT VLSI IMPLEMENTATION FOR PARALLEL LINEAR-PHASE DIGITAL FIR FILTER
Creator: Tsao, Yu-chi
Date: 2011-11, 2011-12
Description: Along with the explosive growth of multimedia applications, the number of gates required and the area consumed in very-large-scale integration...
Show moreAlong with the explosive growth of multimedia applications, the number of gates required and the area consumed in very-large-scale integration (VLSI) for digital signal processing (DSP) is getting higher and higher. Therefore, the demand for low-complexity and low-cost VLSI architectures for DSP, which occupies area as small as possible while remaining high performance, is imperatively needed. Finite impulse response (FIR) digital filter is one of the most widely used fundamental devices performed in DSP systems, ranging from wireless communications to video and image processing. Furthermore, when narrow transition band characteristics are required, the much higher order in the FIR filter is unavoidable. For instance, a 576-tap digital filter is used in video ghost canceller for broadcast television, which reduces the effect of multi-path signal echoes. On the other hand, parallel and pipelining processing are two techniques used in DSP applications, which both can be exploited to reduce the power consumption. Parallel processing applied on FIR digital filter can either increase the throughputs for high-speed processing or reduce the power consumption of the original sequential filter by lower supply voltage. Hence, there have been several architectures for parallel FIR digital filter proposed in the past. However, for symmetric convolutions, linear phase digital FIR filter, these proposed architectures are not beneficial in terms of hardware consumption. In this dissertation, new parallel FIR digital filter architectures which can save significant hardware cost by exploiting the inherent nature of symmetric convolutions, namely linear phase digital FIR filter, are presented. This dissertation is mainly divided into four chapters. In chapter one, some prerequisites as the background related to parallel finite impulse response (FIR) digital xi filter design and implementation are introduced, including conventional parallel FIR digital filter architectures, parallel FIR digital filter structures based on fast FIR algorithm (FFA), previously proposed architectures for parallel FIR filter, maximum absolute difference (MAD) quantization algorithm, canonic signed digit (CSD) representation and CSD multipliers for constant multiplications, are introduced and reviewed. In chapter two, the proposed parallel FIR digital filter structures for symmetric convolutions of even length are presented, in which the complexity and experimental results are analyzed and compared with FFA-based parallel FIR digital filter and other previously proposed structures. In chapter three, the proposed parallel FIR digital filter architectures for symmetric convolutions of odd length are presented, in which the complexity and the benefit of structures are analyzed and compared with FFA-based parallel FIR digital filter and other previously proposed structures The last chapter, chapter four, gives the summary and the conclusion of the proposed parallel linear-phase FIR digital filter.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, December 2011
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Title: PARTICLE FILTERING ESTIMATION APPROACH IN ADVANCED DIGITAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
Creator: Huang, Lun
Date: 2013, 2013-05
Description: The ever-increasing volume of users and the demand for more communication services bring about many advanced modulation and demodulation...
Show moreThe ever-increasing volume of users and the demand for more communication services bring about many advanced modulation and demodulation technologies which are developed to increase the spectrum efficiency and cope with challenging transmission conditions in digital communications. However, it is difficult to improve the performance of those traditional modulation and demodulation approaches without increasing transmit power and lowering spectrum efficiency. This thesis studies the application of powerful Particle Filtering methods to the problems associated with the interference cancellation, equalization, demodulation, and decoding of the signals over communication channel. In this thesis, theoretic models of using particle filtering approaches in digital communications are investigated, and several specific algorithms and schemes are considered as applications of the theoretic models. First, the application of particle filtering in delayed decision feed-back sequence estimation equalization is addressed. The particle filtering approach is then introduced to an efficient particle filtering receiver for inter-carrier interference cancellation and demodulation of M-ary modulated signals in OFDM/OFDMA system under time-variant Rayleigh fading channels. Subsequently, an efficient sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) demodulation approach for Polynomial Phase Modulation (PPM) is discussed. The interference cancellation and demodulation algorithm for MIMO-PPM scenario is then derived. The analysis of performance and computational complexity for SMC particle filtering approach is also provided. Comprehensive simulation results confirm that the proposed sequential Monte Carlo particle filtering approaches have better performance than the conventional methods.
PH.D in Electrical Engineering, May 2013
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Title: EXPANDING FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS’ ADAPTATION OF STREAMING TECHNOLOGY
Creator: Johnson Winston, Patty D.
Date: 2011-07-18, 2011-05
Description: In the field of technical communication there exist few studies that specifically address faith-based organizations’ use of communication...
Show moreIn the field of technical communication there exist few studies that specifically address faith-based organizations’ use of communication technology. The purpose of this dissertation was to show how these organizations can expand their use of streaming technology by using principles and practices that are common in technical communication. This was addressed in three phases. First, a review of the relationship between religion and media was conducted. It revealed that faith-based organizations are early adaptors of communication technology. Communication technology is used to widely broadcast their organizational missions, tenets and goals. By accomplishing these tasks, faith-based organizations seek to educate and reinforce cultural norms, images, and belief systems among their adherents and attract new members. Second, an examination of theories and instructional practices found in technical communication was conducted. It was determined that adapting a learning-centered approach to instruction can be applied to a distance education model for faith-based education. Third, faith-based websites were analyzed to determine types and current uses of communication technology. It was established that most of the organizations that offer educational courses do not conduct them online, even if they already use streaming media for other purposes. The findings suggest that faith-based organizations’ use of streaming technology for educational purposes is an area of inquiry that should be further explored by technical communicators. Technical communication provides a rich array of disciplines from which to draw, such as Instructional Design, Information Architecture, and Usability.
Ph.D. in Technical Communication, May 2011
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Title: TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN SCIENCE EDUCATION: A STUDY OF HOW TEACHERS USE MODERN LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES IN BIOLOGY CLASSROOMS
Creator: Gnanakkan, Dionysius Joseph
Date: 2017, 2017-07
Description: This multiple case-study investigated how high school biology teachers used modern learning technologies (probes, interactive simulations and...
Show moreThis multiple case-study investigated how high school biology teachers used modern learning technologies (probes, interactive simulations and animations, animated videos) in their classrooms and why they used the learning technologies. Another objective of the study was to assess whether the use of learning technologies alleviated misconceptions in Biology documented by American Association for the Advancement of Science. The sample consisted of eight teachers: four rural public school teachers, two public selective enrollment school teachers, and two private school teachers. Each teacher was followed for two Units of instruction. Data collected included classroom observations, field notes, student assignments and tests, teacher interviews, and pre-and post-misconception assessments. Paired t-tests were done to analyze the pre-post test data at a significance level of 0.05 and the qualitative data was analyzed using the constant comparative method. Each case study was characterized and then a cross-case analyses was done to find common themes across the different cases. Teachers were found to use the learning technologies as a tool to supplement instruction to visualize abstract processes, collect data, and explore abstract concepts and processes. Teachers were found to situate learning, use scaffolding and questioning and make students work in collaborative groups. The genetics, photosynthesis, and evolution misconceptions were better alleviated than cellular respiration. Student work that was collected demonstrated a superficial understanding of the concepts under discussion even when they had misconceptions. The teachers used the learning technologies in their classrooms for a variety of reasons: visual illustrations, time-saving measure to collect data, best way to collect data, engaging and fun for students and the interactive nature of the visualization tools and models. The study’s findings had many implications for research, professional development, teacher education, teaching practice, administrators, and learning technology developers. More detailed research within similar school settings (public, charter, and private) is needed to verify the common findings across the different cases in this study. An implication is that learning technology integration could be modeled with instructional scaffolds and questioning and incorporating higher order thinking tasks. Learning technology developers should consider the collaborative learning groups while developing these technologies.
Ph.D. in Science Education, July 2017
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Title: COORDINATED DRIVING IN CONNECTED AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE SYSTEM -- OPTIMAL ADVANCE LANE CHANGE ZONES AND COORDINATED PLATOON CAR FOLLOWING CONTROL
Creator: Gong, Siyuan
Date: 2017, 2017-07
Description: The connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) system enables countless innovative coordinated driving approaches, such as coordinated lane change...
Show moreThe connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) system enables countless innovative coordinated driving approaches, such as coordinated lane change and car-following in microscopic CAV control, and coordinated rounding and parking in macroscopic traffic flow guidance, which will improve the performance of our transportation system by enhancing traffic mobility, providing safe driving environment and reducing fuel consumption. Since the lane change and car-following behavior are indicated as crucial factors of traffic safety and efficiency, this dissertation focuses on developing the coordinated driving schemes in microscopic control and operation of lane change and car-following maneuvers. In particular, I develop an lane change zone optimization strategy and the coordinated platoon car-following control for a pure CAV platoon and a mixed platoon (i.e. mixed with human-drive vehicles and CAVs) respectively. This dissertation first explore the management strategy of the mandatory lane change near a two-lane highway off-ramp by optimizing the location of advance warning. The proposed approach considers that the area downstream of the advance warning includes two zones: the green and yellow zones corresponding to their respective most like lane change maneuvers. An optimization model is proposed to search for the optimal green and yellow zones. Traffic flow theory such as Greenshield model and shock wave analysis are used to analyze the impacts of the S-MLC and D-MLC maneuvers on the traffic delay. Numerical experiments indicate that the proposed optimization model can identify the optimal location to set the advance MLC warning nearby an off-ramp so that the traffic delay resulting from lane change maneuvers is minimized, and the corresponding capacity drop and traffic oscillation can be efficiently mitigated. Then, this research develops a novel car-following control scheme for a platoon of connected and autonomous vehicles on a straight highway. The platoon is modeled as an interconnected multi-agent dynamical system subject to physical and safety constraints. A constrained optimization based control scheme is proposed to ensure an entire platoon’s transient traffic smoothness and asymptotic dynamic performance. This dissertation develops dual based distributed algorithms to compute optimal solutions with proven convergence. Furthermore, the asymptotic stability of the unconstrained linear closed-loop system is established. These stability analysis results provide a principle to select penalty weights in the underlying optimization problem to achieve the desired closed-loop performance for both the transient and the asymptotic dynamics. By the motivation that CAVs and human-drive vehicles will co-exist on the road for a long period in the near future, the third part of this dissertation extends the pure CAV coordinated platooning control to the mixed flow environment. By integrating the Newell car-following model, a real-time curve matching algorithm is implemented to calibrate the ca-following model and anticipate the movement of human-drive vehicle by the real-time trajectory data. The constrained MPC are developed for each CAV platoon, considering their movement interaction through the human-drive vehicle platoon. Furthermore, this study provide a modified dual based distributed algorithm to improve convergence speed of the primal problem for the dual based distributed algorithm in Chapter 4. Several requirements of the penalty weights selection are provided by stability analysis under the unconstrained conditions. The numerical experiments based on field data will be conducted to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed the solution approach and the platoon control schemes.
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, July 2017
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Title: HARDWARE/SOFTWARE CO-DESIGN PARTITIONING ALGORITHM FOR MACHINE VISION APPLICATIONS
Creator: Gonnot, Thomas
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: Advancements in FPGA technologies now allows the implementation of machine vision using hardware component rather than processors for...
Show moreAdvancements in FPGA technologies now allows the implementation of machine vision using hardware component rather than processors for increased efficiency. The combination of hardware and software implementations, however, can provide even more efficient results by combining the advantages of both technologies. This leads to the problem of partitioning the machine vision algorithms between hardware and software. The hardware/software partition problem is NP-hard, which means that a solution to the problem can be checked in polynomial time, but the time to find the solution is not predictable. Automated methods based on a genetic algorithm or discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm allow a designer to implement computer vision algorithms without concerns for the hardware/software partitioning. Their reliance on randomness to explore different partitioning selections, however, means that the optimum result might not be reached and that the processing time cannot be predicted. This dissertation introduces a model for image processing and computer vision algorithms in a set of elementary blocks, each of which is assigned one or more configuration. This configuration can be either hardware or software and is linked to the corresponding resource utilization and performance. A procedure is also introduced to allocate the different blocks to either hardware or software, and a cost function is defined to evaluate the relevance of the generated design. The implementation of the model and procedure allows for the partitioning of any image processing in polynomial time by checking various implementations and selecting the optimum solution. This thesis includes two test cases used to test the efficiency of the method. The shift-invariant features transform is used to demonstrate the viability of the partitioning results on an algorithm containing multiple image convolution operations in parallel. The neural network, on the other hand, is used to demonstrate the performances of the procedure when machine vision algorithm contains many blocks. Finally, this dissertation present a set of machine vision applications, such as object tracking, object recognition, optical character recognition, facial recognition, and visually impaired assistance. The proposed model and procedure could be included in the design flow of hardware/software co-design tools and provide a library of image processing blocks ready to be implemented. This would allow image processing and computer vision designers would be able to implement any algorithm efficiently in hardware/software co-design without the need to know how to partition it.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, May 2017
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Title: ADVANCES IN VEHICLE-TERRAIN INTERACTION MODELING FOR SMALL, RIGID-WHEELED VEHICLES OPERATING ON DEFORMABLE TERRAIN
Creator: Meirion-griffith, Gareth
Date: 2012-04-22, 2012-05
Description: This thesis presents advances in the eld of terramechanics, the study of ve- hicle mobility performance, for small, rigid-wheeled vehicles...
Show moreThis thesis presents advances in the eld of terramechanics, the study of ve- hicle mobility performance, for small, rigid-wheeled vehicles operating on deformable terrain. Speci cally, the thesis proposes new models for vehicle performance model- ing through the development of novel pressure-sinkage equations. The semi-empirical equations of terramechanics, rst developed by Bekker in the 1950s, couple vehicle mobility systems and terrain geotechnical properties to yield an understanding of the manner in which traction is developed o -road. This is important because on de- formable terrain mobility is often limited not by the vehicle's torque or power, but by the strength of the terrain and its ability to support locomotion. Classical terramechanics models have proven to be instrumental in the design, modeling, and operation of large, man-driven vehicles for applications such as agri- cultural, military, and commercial transport. However, these models are not appro- priate for vehicles with wheels less than approximately 50 cm in diameter [MGS11a] [SMGSM08] [RBC02]. This is a critical problem because of the increasing prolifer- ation of small, robotic vehicles. In particular, space agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the European Space Agency (ESA) have shown great interest in the application of terramechanics to planetary exploration rover mobility. At the inception of the author's research, several independent sources had noted the limited accuracy of classical terramechanics models for small-wheeled vehi- cles. However, an understanding of the cause of these inaccuracies was absent. This thesis provides an understanding of these inaccuracies, their cause, and a solution. Using laboratory experiments, fi eld test data, theoretical development, and vehicle simulation, this thesis proposes a modi fied terramechanics framework for predicting small, rigid-wheel traction.
Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, May 2012
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Title: CAPACITY ANALYSIS OF MULTI-RADIO MULTI-CHANNEL (MR-MC) WIRELESS NETWORK
Creator: Li, Hongkun
Date: 2012-11-15, 2012-12
Description: The multi-radio multi-channel (MR-MC) networking provides a generic computing platform for a wide range of next-generation wireless networks,...
Show moreThe multi-radio multi-channel (MR-MC) networking provides a generic computing platform for a wide range of next-generation wireless networks, e.g., wireless mesh networks based on the IEEE 802.16, 4G cellular networks based on the long term evolution (LTE), and cognitive radio networks based on the dynamic spectrum sharing. Multiple radio interfaces and channels allow more flexible network configuration to achieve higher network capacity. However, the capacity of the MR-MC networking is not well studied due to the lack of effective tool addressing the complex interactions of the channel assignment and radio interface allocation problem. Moreover, how to efficiently utilize multiple interfaces and channels is unexplored. Generally, we have the four main contributions in this work. 1) an efficient methodology is proposed to compute the optimal capacity of MR-MC network and the concept of critical set is revealed. 2) two sufficient conditions are developed for the flow assignment, which can be constructed and verified in distributed manner. Both conditions achieve a provable portion of the optimal capacity region. 3) a novel framework and efficient algorithms are developed for the dynamic network control in the MR-MC network. 4) a new routing metric is proposed to consider both delay and interference for path selection, and a routing protocol is designed correspondingly. Specifically, we originally construct a new multi-dimensional conflict graph (MDCG) to describe all the interference relationship in the MR-MC network. Based on MDCG, we formulate a multi-commodity flow (MCF) problem augmented with maximal independent set (MIS) constraint to compute the optimal capacity, so that the optimal capacity planning in MR-MC networks can be transformed from integer programming regime to linear programming regime. We further provide the new concept of critical MIS set, and estimate the upper bound of the size of critical MIS set. Therefore, a heuristic algorithm is designed to systematically compute those MISs, which are more likely to be involved in critical set. Moreover, we develop the sufficient conditions for the flow rate assignment, which achieve viii a provable portion of the optimal capacity region, termed as efficiency ratio. These sufficient constraints could be constructed and verified in the distributed and localized manner. We develop new method to compute the efficiency ratio for each sufficient condition by exploring the disruptively different geometric property of MR-MC networks compared with single radio single channel network. Then we develop a new framework to systematically study the resource allocation problem considering the dynamic network control in the MRMC network. The framework not only facilitates the formulation of throughput-optimal scheduling for the MR-MC network, but also allows us optimally solving the joint resource allocation problem, including routing, channel/interface assignment, flow allocation and scheduling. At last, a new routing metric is proposed to consider not only the transmission delay also queuing delay. In addition, in the MR-MC context, the inter-flow interference and intra-flow interference are taken into account. An AODV-based routing protocol is designed to implement the new metric.
PH.D in Electrical and Computer Engineering, December 2012
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Title: CHILD TEMPERAMENT AND PARENTING BEHAVIOR AT AGE 5: DO THEY PREDICT CHILD COPING AT AGE 6?
Creator: Hwang, Maria D’aniello
Date: 2014, 2014-07
Description: Coping has been shown to be related to many positive outcomes in children, including better psychological adjustment, positive social...
Show moreCoping has been shown to be related to many positive outcomes in children, including better psychological adjustment, positive social relationships and higher achievement. Additionally, coping abilities in childhood and adolescence can serve as risk or protective factors for psychopathology. Both parenting and child temperament have been shown to be related to child coping; however, these variables have never been examined simultaneously. The transition from kindergarten to grammar-school is considered to be important because children must learn to adjust to this critical, more structured environment. As a result, it is important to determine what factors contribute to adaptive coping at the time when children begin formal school. The aim of this study was to: (a) examine the relationship between child negative affect (NA), effortful control (EC), parenting variables (support/scaffolding, support/engagement, and hostility/coercion), and child coping; and (b) to determine if parenting moderates the effects of temperament on adaptive coping. Participants included 796 (391 males and 405 females) children and their primary caregivers. Children were assessed at ages 5 and 6 years. NA and EC were assessed by parent-report with the Child Behavior Questionnaire. EC also was assessed with an observer-rated task, Gift Delay, which measures the child’s ability to delay a prepotent response, and with two subtests from the NEPSY; Knock and Tap, and Statue. Parenting variables (support/engagement and hostility/coercion) were assessed by parent-report with the Parenting Behavior Inventory and through an observation task, which was assessed by a factor-analyzed composite of variables rated during the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development 3-Boxes Task (support/scaffolding). Coping adaptability was assessed using the Early Childhood Coping Puppet Interview. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that NA, EC, support/scaffolding, support/engagement, and hostility/coercion were not related to child coping adaptability. There also was no evidence of moderation of the relationship between temperament and coping by parenting. Post hoc analyses indicated that for males, lower SES was related to more adaptive coping. Implications of these findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Ph.D. in Psychology, July 2014
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Title: AN EVALUATION OF THE FEASIBILITY OF AN ONLINE FAMILY-BASED INDICATED PREVENTION PROGRAM FOR ADOLESCENT EATING DISORDERS
Creator: Lebow, Jocelyn R.
Date: 2011-10, 2011-12
Description: Adolescent eating disorders are highly impairing class of mental illness, marked by chronicity and recurrence. Data indicate that early...
Show moreAdolescent eating disorders are highly impairing class of mental illness, marked by chronicity and recurrence. Data indicate that early intervention, before anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) symptoms become entrenched, leads to an increased likelihood of positive outcomes (Fisher, Schneider, Burns, Symons & Mandel 2001; Le Grange, Loeb, Van Orman & Jellar, 2004). As such, numerous prevention programs have been developed for adolescent eating disorders, with mixed success (Shaw, 2008, Stice, Shaw & Marti, 2007). Most recently, programs have utilized the technology of the Internet to make prevention and early intervention more accessible and cost effective for affected teens and families. The current study assessed the feasibility of an original Internet-based indicated prevention program for families of adolescents with subsyndromal eating disorders. The program was based on the empirically-supported Family Based Treatment (FBT) for adolescent AN and BN. Seven families (comprised of 7 caregivers and 7 adolescents with subthreshold levels of eating disorder symptoms) were enrolled in the study, and 4 families successfully completed all program requirements. Four separate aims were assessed including: evaluation of program acceptability, identification of recruitment and retention patterns, assessment of program compliance and dosage received, and analysis of preliminary outcomes. Results suggested that the program was acceptable to all participants, and that the program format and content were positively received. Preliminary outcome data was limited due to the small sample size, however, descriptive analyses showed that the program had a significant effect on the reduction of all cognitive and behavioral eating disorder symptoms, as well as on the reduction of adolescent depressive symptoms. Adolescent ix self esteem was not significantly impacted by program participation. Compliance results were less straightforward. Program adherence was mixed, and further investigation is needed to clarify patterns of compliance and retention. Finally, the recruitment strategies used were found to not be feasible. Despite a wide-ranging and multi-faceted recruitment strategy, rates were very slow. Further, a large percentage of interested potential participants had to be excluded, calling into question the appropriateness of the applicant pool that was accessed through the implemented program of recruitment. Implications of these findings, possible explanations and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Ph.D. in Psychology, December 2011
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Title: ESSAYS IN ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE
Creator: Li, Jing
Date: 2013, 2013-07
Description: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a mechanism de ned in the Ky- oto protocol that incentivizes parties to the protocol to fund...
Show moreThe Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a mechanism de ned in the Ky- oto protocol that incentivizes parties to the protocol to fund sustainable development projects in countries that are not party to the protocol. In the rst chapter of this paper, I introduce the CDM and how the nancing mechanism works. In the second chapter, I analyze a target contract nancing structure for di erent CDM projects in order to see under what conditions the nancing structure is e cient and to explore the contract's allocation of pro t among the rms. In the two broad categories of CDM projects I consider, I nd the optimal investment decision for the investor and for the overall system. I also analyze how the residual value of technology would a ect the nancing, target contract's e ciency, and allocation of pro t. In the third chapter, I conduct empirical analysis on the actual CDM outputs, Certi ed Emission Reduction units (CERs), for a sample of wind CDM projects in China. I nd that CDM projects greatly under perform relative to the promises they make. Based on this under-performing records, in the fourth chapter, I analyze the economic bene ts investors could gain if they were able to directly fund a portfolio of CDM projects and obtain returns from the anticipated CER issuances and underlying energy generated from the portfolio of CDM projects. I consider a variety of funding constraints that the CDM fund/portfolio manager (CDM-PM) may face and determine their economic performance against actual CDM project data for wind CDM projects in China.
PH.D in Management Science, July 2013
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Title: STIGMA AND MENTAL ILLNESS: THE ROLE OF STEREOTYPE THREAT ON PERFORMANCE OF COGNITIVE MEASURES
Creator: Hautamaki, Julie Bilyeu
Date: 2013, 2013-05
Description: Deficits in cognitive functioning observed in people with schizophrenia are well-documented; however, social psychologists recognize that...
Show moreDeficits in cognitive functioning observed in people with schizophrenia are well-documented; however, social psychologists recognize that additional societal factors, such as stigma and discrimination, may further contribute to these observed deficits in functioning. This study investigated the role of stereotype threat on cognitive functioning of people with schizophrenia. This group encounters stigma in various realms such as employment, relationships and housing. The negative stereotypes regarding this population have been well-documented and studied. In the current study, 60 participants were randomized into a control or stereotype condition. The participants completed a series of cognitive tests and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I). Participants in the stereotype threat condition were primed with a statement and questions to induce stereotype threat. The order of test administration was part of the threat induction. Stereotype threat was not found to impact the performance of cognitive measures for this group. In-group identification, stigma endorsement, and anxiety levels did not predict performance on cognitive measures.
PH.D in Psychology, May 2013
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Title: VISUAL TRAINING AT ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: AESTHETICS IN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
Creator: Jones, Kristin
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: Over the course of 78 years, an aesthetic ideal which embodies architectural values has been collectively cultivated through Visual Training...
Show moreOver the course of 78 years, an aesthetic ideal which embodies architectural values has been collectively cultivated through Visual Training at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) school of architecture in Chicago. This dissertation provides a comprehensive explanation of Visual Training as it has been conducted at IIT. It promotes a better understanding of the background of Visual Training, the pedagogical practice of the Visual Training exercises, and the ongoing value of the course. The dissertation traces the underpinnings of Visual Training through the writings of Walter Peterhans, founder and Professor of Visual Training at IIT from 1938-1960, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Professor and Director of Architecture at IIT from 1938-1958 and other key figures. The thesis shows how the Visual Training program at IIT was influenced by movements in philosophy and mathematics in early 20th century Germany and how existing pedagogy at the Bauhaus was adapted to serve its aim. The dissertation includes an explanation of each exercise in the Visual Training program. It makes explicit the point of each exercise, how each one is conducted and why. Original detailed descriptions, illustrated with examples, show what a student gains from each exercise and how the process of performing the exercise achieves that end. The dissertation compares the way in which the Visual Training program originally developed in relation to other courses in the architecture curriculum to disclose the meaning of architecture, and what has happened in Visual Training as the architecture program at IIT has continued to evolve. The thesis brings to light enduring epistemological tensions underlying architectural education.
Ph.D. in Architecture, May 2016
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