Engineering Commons^™

What We Have Learned About Experience, Time Pressure, And Difficult Tradeoffs From Experiments With Firefighters In Virtual Reality, Nir Keren

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Presentations, Posters and Proceedings

In general, attendees will learn that experience does not guarantee faster and more accurate decisions. Furthermore, experienced firefighters demonstrated higher level of threat‐related stress than inexperienced firefighters.

Evaluating Program Outcomes Via Decision Making Simulations, Steven A. Freeman, Nir Keren

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Presentations, Posters and Proceedings

Decision making-based methodology was proposed for evaluating program outcomes. The methodology was tested to measure the effect of safety enhancing curriculum on Safety Awareness, one of the 15 competencies ABE is using in program outcome evaluations. The results indicated a significant increase in safety awareness and shift in cognitive processes following implementation of the curriculum. Since ABE measures competencies via supervisory evaluation of graduates, the authors examine the opportunity of developing a longitudinal study for measuring the magnitude of impact of curriculum on outcomes at the workplace.

Student Professional Development: Competency-Based Learning And Assessment, Jacqulyn A. Baughman, Thomas J. Brumm

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Presentations, Posters and Proceedings

The audience will understand the need for student professional development, as well as, the role that competencies and the 360-degree feedback assessment process play. Additionally, a foundational framework for further research studies in competency-based learning and assessment will be presented.

Holistic Student Professional Development In A Lean Manufacturing Course, Jacqulyn A. Baughman, Thomas J. Brumm

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Presentations, Posters and Proceedings

The audience will understand the need for a “holistic” student professional development approach using competency-assessment and backwards design. Specifically, the course design and approach can help provide U.S. manufacturers with the employees they need in order to implement and sustain a lean manufacturing structure vital for competitiveness.

Measurement Of Quality-Based Risks In The Bulk Material Supply Chain, Gretchen A. Mosher

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Presentations, Posters and Proceedings

The audience will learn about the process used to identify, quantify, and evaluation quality risks in the bulk material supply chain. Use of the process map will be discussed from a quality management perspective. Implications for industrial practice will be shared.

Factors Considered In The Development Of Curricular Content In Engineering Technology For Diverse Audiences, Gretchen A. Mosher, Chad M. Laux

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Presentations, Posters and Proceedings

The audience will learn about the curricular needs of process-based supply chain professionals and how engineering technology is poised to meet these needs. The development of core learning competencies and delivery options will also be shared.

Optimal Breast Cancer Screening Policies, Junxiang Chen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Master's Theses

Breast cancer is the most common non-preventable cancer among women. Although it has been demonstrated in randomized trials that mammography screening reduces the breast cancer mortality rate, the optimal screening policy is not known. When screening should start and stop, and the optimal interval between screening sessions are controversial issues. In this thesis, we present dynamic programming algorithms that find optimal variable-interval screening policies that can either minimize lifetime cancer mortality risk or maximize life expectancy. We evaluate these policies using a simulation based on the MISCAN-Fadia breast cancer model. By applying the optimal policies, we can typically either increase ...

Bibliotherapy: Tracing The Roots Of A Moral Therapy Movement In The United States From The Early Nineteenth Century To The Present, Len L. Levin, Ruthann Gildea

Library Publications and Presentations

Introduction: Hospital libraries, including ones designed for patient use, share a common history with hospitals in the evolution of health care delivery 1. The library as a component of the early “insane asylum” in the United States is well documented, and many had been established by the mid-nineteenth century. While these libraries certainly existed as a means of recreation for asylum patients, this historical communication will demonstrate they also served as a center for “bibliotherapy,” the use of reading as a means of healing.

A Power Line Inspector Device, Brendan Gates

Honors College

The goal of this project is to create a functional power line inspection device which could replace the old inspection method of using helicopters. This microchip based robotic device is able to ride along a conductor and send video feed, encoder readouts, and temperature measurements to the user. The user operating system consists of an LCD screen, two potentiometers for motor control, and a screen to display video feed. Achieved specifications include a battery lifetime of 1 hour and 45 minutes, distance measurements within 1 inch, and temperature accuracy within 2 °C. This thesis includes a brief discussion on previous ...

The Public Library As Health Information Resource?, Mary Grace Flaherty

iSchool Information Science and Technology - Dissertations

Public libraries have adapted a variety of services into their institutional missions, including: promoting early literacy, publicly available Internet access, children's summer reading programs, and the dissemination of tax forms. Libraries are disproportionately rural institutions, often serving people with limited health care access. Thus, by public demand they have evolved to become important resources for rural health consumers to acquire information. Some public libraries have approached this role by subscribing to health databases, or by providing a link on their homepage to a health resource such as MedlinePlus, but most have undertaken little organizational change to meet growing patron ...

Social Technologies And Informal Knowledge Sharing Within And Across Organizations, Jarrahi Mohammad Hosein

iSchool Information Science and Technology - Dissertations

This doctoral dissertation is focused on both empirical and conceptual contributions relative to the roles social technologies play in informal knowledge sharing practices, both within and across organizations. Social technologies include (a) traditional social technologies (e.g., email, phone and instant messengers), (b) emerging social networking technologies commonly known as social media, such as blogs, wikis, major public social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), and (c) enterprise social networking technologies controlled by a host organization ( e.g., SocialText). The rapid uptake of social technologies, combined with growing interest in their broader social implications, raises pertinent questions about ...

Using Biodiversity To Link Agricultural Productivity With Environmental Quality: Results From Three Field Experiments In Iowa, Matthew Z. Liebman, Matthew J. Helmers, Lisa A. Schulte-Moore, Craig A. Chase

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications and Papers

Agriculture in the US Corn Belt is under increasing pressure to produce greater quantities of food, feed and fuel, while better protecting environmental quality. Key environmental problems in this region include water contamination by nutrients and herbicides emitted from cropland, a lack of non-agricultural habitat to support diverse communities of native plants and animals, and a high level of dependence on petrochemical energy in the dominant cropping systems. In addition, projected changes in climate for this region, which include increases in the proportion of precipitation coming from extreme events could make soil and water conservation in existing cropping systems more ...

The Impact Of Cultural Assumptions About Technology On Choctaw Heritage Preservation And Sharing, Jake A. Dolezal

iSchool Information Science and Technology - Dissertations

Neither the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on culture nor the cultural roles of ICT are widely understood, particularly among marginalized ethno-cultures and indigenous people. One theoretical lens that has received attention outside of Native American studies is the theory of Information Technology Cultures, or "IT Culture," developed by Kaarst-Brown. This theory was a groundbreaking and foundational way to understand underlying assumptions about IT and the conflicts surrounding IT use. Kaarst-Brown identified five archetypal cultural patterns or sets of "underlying cultural assumptions" about IT that impacted strategic use, conflict, and technology innovation. These dimensions included assumptions about the ...

Improving The Performance Of Gis/Spatial Analysts Though Novel Applications Of The Emotiv Epoc Eeg Headset, Justin Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Geospatial information systems are used to analyze spatial data to provide decision makers with relevant, up-to-date, information. The processing time required for this information is a critical component to response time. Despite advances in algorithms and processing power, we still have many “human-in-the-loop” factors. Given the limited number of geospatial professionals, analysts using their time effectively is very important. The automation and faster humancomputer interactions of common tasks that will not disrupt their workflow or attention is something that is very desirable. The following research describes a novel approach to increase productivity with a wireless, wearable, electroencephalograph (EEG) headset within ...

Rank Based Anomaly Detection Algorithms, Huaming Huang

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Dissertations

Anomaly or outlier detection problems are of considerable importance, arising frequently in diverse real-world applications such as finance and cyber-security. Several algorithms have been formulated for such problems, usually based on formulating a problem-dependent heuristic or distance metric. This dissertation proposes anomaly detection algorithms that exploit the notion of ``rank," expressing relative outlierness of different points in the relevant space, and exploiting asymmetry in nearest neighbor relations between points: a data point is ``more anomalous" if it is not the nearest neighbor of its nearest neighbors. Although rank is computed using distance, it is a more robust and higher level ...

Investigation Of Usage Of Velocity And Pressure Data Within A Water Distribution Lab Model For Calibrating Hydraulic Models, Robert Craig Ashby

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Water distribution modeling for hydraulics and water quality is an important tool for managing system performance of water utilities. An important component of a water distribution model is the calibration of a network model with field data in the real world system. The calibration effort requires a protocol or selection criteria for the location of field measurements that best support the calibration effort. A water distribution model was constructed at the University of Kentucky hydraulics lab for the purpose of investigating the performance of water distribution models. The lab model contains numerous hydraulic (pressure, flows) and water quality (concentrations) sensors ...

Semicontinuous Separation Of Dimethyl Ether From Biomass, Alicia A. Pascall

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Environmental concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and energy security are the main drivers for the production of alternative fuels from bio-based feedstock. Dimethyl ether has attracted interest of many researches and is touted as “A fuel for the 21^st century” due to its versatility. However, the production of DME from biomass is dependent on the overall economics of its production.

This thesis considers the application of semicontinuous distillation to improve the economics of the separation section in a biomass-to-DME facility. Semicontinuous distillation systems operate in a forced cycle to effect multiple separations using a single distillation column integrated with ...

Feasability Of Nickel Sulphide As A Cathode In A Galvanic Coupled Anodic Protection System For Use In Concentrated Sulphuric Acid Systems, Aniruddho Pal

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Anodic protection has shown to be a viable method for reducing corrosion rates of stainless steels over a wide range of temperatures and is used to protect equipment in H₂SO₄ manufacturing. While effective at controlling corrosion in H2SO4 manufacturing, Impressed Current Anodic Protection (ICAP) systems have shown to have a number of issues. They require a constant source of current to ensure reliable corrosion protection; are relatively complex systems and expensive to install; improper potential control can lead to loss of corrosion protection; and some issues with cathode fouling and erosion have been reported. Galvanic Coupled Anodic ...

Retrofit Of Structural Steel Columns Using Frp-Concrete Composite Systems, Joel Linde

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) - confined concrete-steel composite columns have been recently introduced as a retrofit technique for structural steel columns. This technique involves placing an FRP tube around an in situ steel column and subsequently filling the void between the steel section and the FRP tube with concrete to create a composite column. The composite action occurs due to the concrete encasing the steel section and the FRP confining the concrete. An experimental investigation has been undertaken to evaluate: the effect of adding a steel W section to confined concrete; the effect of using a split tube system as a ...

Surface Modification Of Polydimethylsiloxane With A Covalent Antithrombin-Heparin Complex For Blood Contacting Applications, Jennifer M. Leung

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Medical devices used for diagnosis and treatment often involve the exposure of the patient’s blood to biomaterials that are foreign to the body, and blood-material contact may trigger coagulation and lead to thrombotic complications. Therefore, the risk of thrombosis and the issue of blood compatibility are limitations in the development of biomaterials for blood-contacting applications. The objective of this research was to develop a dual strategy for surface modification of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to prevent thrombosis by (1) grafting polyethylene glycol (PEG) to inhibit non-specific protein adsorption, and (2) covalently attaching an antithrombin-heparin (ATH) covalent complex to the distal end ...