Digital Commons Network^™

Investigation Of Pattern Classification And Feature Selection Of Gaussian Processes, Vivek Ramaprasad

Masters Theses

"This thesis focuses on the application of statistical techniques for pattern classification where the patterns are power spectra of the recorded acoustic signals of occluded objects. Different approaches used to classify are : The Bayes linear and piece-wise linear classifiers, the correlation classifier, classification using error spectra and the clustering algorithm. Classifiers were designed and experiments were conducted to investigate the performance. The performance is evaluated in terms of the percentage efficiency by counting the number of vectors identified correctly and the number of vectors which were misclassified. The feature vectors from primitive measurement space is then reduced to lesser …

Voice Command Controller, Hoang Nghia Nguyen

Theses : Honours

Signal processing technology has been strongly developed and it has attracted interest from scientists and engineers around the world from the last decade. Speech synthesis and speech recognition are particular topic in the field that have been widely used and developed in many different area such as business, controlling, education and entertainment. The project's main objective is to study and develop an application program with the Speech SDK through design and implementation of Tele-Control system based on the commercial product of National Semiconductor: Carrier-Current Transceiver (LM 1893) and Speech development kit (Speech SDK4.0) from Microsoft Corporation. The project is suitable …

The Effect Of Heat On Fingertip Sensitivity Of Meat Processing Workers, Brian James Finder

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Current research indicates that acute non-freezing cold exposure elicits short-term performance problems; namely reduced upper extremity temperature, blood flow, tactile sensitivity, and dexterity. However, various animal-related studies indicate that humans are at increased risk of incurring semi-permanent upper extremity nervous system dysfunction as a result of repeated cold exposure.

The purpose of this research was to examine various factors that may contribute to hand/arm nervous system impairment of individuals who work in a refrigerated meat-processing environment. The methodology used was primarily the Experimental Method and from studies conducted by other researchers, was driven by the following questions:

(1) How would …

The Factors That Affect The Implementation Of Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) In The International Arab Gulf States And United States Companies With Special Emphasis On Sap Software, Saud Al-Sehali

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate and determine the factors affecting the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) in companies in the Arab Gulf States and the United States, using SAP software as an example.

A random sample was selected of 150 companies in the Arab Gulf States and in the United States that had implemented an ERP system using SAP software. Of the 150 respondents, 30 were companies from the Arab Gulf States and 120 from the United States. A total of 67 questionnaires were returned, a return rate of 44.7%.

The Statistical Package for the …

An Analysis Of Manufacturing Facility Characteristics And Four-Year Manufacturing Engineering Technology Competencies For Abet Accredited Programs In North Carolina, Richard Eugene Temple

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of correlation between four-year ABET/MET competencies and company demographics of plant location and plant size and usage of manufacturing technologies, and to determine the overall rating per SIC classification of validated MET competencies. This purpose is reflective of the literature, which indicated that there is a need for further development of manufacturing engineering technology competencies to meet the industry needs of a region or state.

A questionnaire was used to collect data. It was mailed to 440 randomly selected practicing manufacturing engineers in North Carolina. The sample size was 50. …

Pre-Inoculation Effect Of Sic In Production Of Thin Wall Ductile Iron Castings, Nikolay Y. Laukhin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Pre-inoculation effect of SiC additions and its effect on castability, microstructure, and magnesium recovery in thin wall ductile iron plates have been studied. Experimental results were compared with alternative FeSi75 furnace pre-inoculation additions.

The first series of experiments aimed to set the baseline of iron quality, when using FeSi75 pre-inoculant

In the second series of experiment, different methods of introduction of Sic into liquid iron were studied. It was established that Sic added into the stream during the tapping into the flow-through chamber or added directly into the flow-through chamber produced lower Si recovery. The most effective method of introduction …

An Evaluation Of The Ductile Iron Casting Training Program At The Industrial Technology Department Of A Midwestern University, Khalid D. Alkarimy

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study is to determine how efficient this training program is as measured by (a) increasing the knowledge of new employees about the ductile iron casting process and other casting processes as perceived by the participants, (b) participants achievement of the program learning objectives as perceived by the participants, and (c) a positive reaction and attitude toward the program contents, instructors, facility and handout as perceived by the participants. The problem of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Ductile Iron Casting Training program offered by the Industrial Technology department of a Midwestern University to …

A Neural Network Methodology For Path Planning And Coordination Of Car-Like Robots, Prasanna Venkatesan Sadagopan

Masters Theses

"A car-like indoor mobile robot is a kinematically constrained robot that can be modeled as a 2D object translating and rotating in the horizontal plane among well- defined obstacles. The kinematic constraints impose that the linear velocity of the robot is along its main axis (no sideways motion is possible) and restrict the range of admissible values for the steering angle. The goal of this study is to combine neural network techniques and motion planning algorithms to create a new methodology for coordinating the motion of multiple car-like robots avoiding collision with polygonal obstacles in a work environment. An incremental …

Reconstitution And Characterization Of Membrane Proteins, Sarah Mia Pates

Masters Theses

“A membrane protein, cytochrome c reductase, was crystallized and examined using transmission electron microscopy. Two-dimensional crystals were prepared by two methods. In Method 1, the protein was solubilized in 50 mM Tris-Acetate (pH 6.0)/0.5 mM EDTA70.05% (w/v) Triton X-100 and reconstituted into a mixture of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine (4:1), dissolved in the same buffer. The Triton X-100 was removed from the mixture by dialysis in the presence of Bio-beads (SM-2) at approximately 25-30 °C. Method 2 was the same as Method 1, except that the vesicles were fractionated before reconstitution, and the pH and temperature for crystallization were 7.0 and …

Cellular Automata Study Of The Feasibility Of A Parallel Optical Computer, Jason Robert Lane

Masters Theses

"The speed of modern electronic computers has inherent design limitations which will soon be reached. A possible substitute is the optical computer. In this project, the feasibility of the optical computer is explored by designing and building a parallel optical system. This system is used to test the basic principles that would govern a parallel optical computer. The system is based on the principle of cellular automata, which is a simulation technique used to study interactions of objects in a system. The following goals were set. The system would be based on cellular automata. A one-dimensional array with nine cells, …

Intelligent Approaches To Vlsi Routing, Maolin Tang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Very Large Scale Integrated-circuit (VLSI) routing involves many large-size and complex problems and most of them have been shown to be NP-hard or NP-complete. As a result, conventional approaches, which have been successfully used to handle relatively small-size routing problems, are not suitable to be used in tackling large-size routing problems because they lead to 'combinatorial explosion' in search space. Hence, there is a need for exploring more efficient routing approaches to be incorporated into today's VLSI routing system. This thesis strives to use intelligent approaches, including symbolic intelligence and computational intelligence, to solve three VLSI routing problems: Three-Dimensional (3-D) …

Accessing Timesheets Via Internet Through Asp And Odbc, Varshi Challa

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project is to develop a computerized timesheet application. Using this application, an employee of a company can log onto the company's Web site and fill out a timesheet from anywhere in the world. The project involved automating timesheet data entry and approval procedures using contemporary technologies like Active Server Pages (ASP), JavaScript, VB Script, Component Object Model (COM), Components and Open Database connectivity (ODBC).

Billing And Receivables Database Application, Sushma Lukalapu

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project is to design, build, and implement an information retrieval database system for the Accounting Department at CSUSB. The database will focus on the financial details of the student accounts maintained by the accounting personnel. It offers detailed information pertinent to tuition, parking, housing, boarding, etc.

Developing A Parametric Cost Model For Operating Costs Of Army Ground Combat Weapon Systems, James O. Winbush Jr.

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a parametric cost model for predicting operating costs of Army ground combat weapon systems. The model is intended to be used during the first two phases of the Army's acquisition process. The research necessary to develop the model was guided by two questions: what weapon system characteristics (such as weight, horsepower, fuel consumption, primary mission, NBC protection, fire control and night fighting capability) impact directly on operating ground combat systems; and what is the form of the parametric model for operating costs for ground combat systems? The study extends the bounds of …

Bandwidth Management And Quality Of Service, Adalbert Engel

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the advent of bandwidth-hungry video and audio applications, demand for bandwidth is expected to exceed supply. Users will require more bandwidth and, as always, there are likely to be more users. As the Internet user base becomes more diverse, there is an increasing perception that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should be able to differentiate between users, so that the specific needs of different types of users can be met. Differentiated services is seen as a possible solution to the bandwidth problem. Currently, however, the technology used on the Internet differentiates neither between users, nor between applications. The thesis focuses …

Development Of Self-Adaptive Back Propagation And Derivative Free Training Algorithms In Artificial Neural Networks, Shamsuddin Ahmed

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Three new iterative, dynamically self-adaptive, derivative-free and training parameter free artificial neural network (ANN) training algorithms are developed. They are defined as self-adaptive back propagation, multi-directional and restart ANN training algorithms. The descent direction in self-adaptive back propagation training is determined implicitly by a central difference approximation scheme, which chooses its step size according to the convergence behavior of the error function. This approach trains an ANN when the gradient information of the corresponding error function is not readily available. The self- adaptive variable learning rates per epoch are determined dynamically using a constrained interpolation search. As a result, appropriate …

The Application Of Object-Oriented Techniques To Preliminary Design Problems, Patrick S. Mackessy

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Preliminary structural design is an early stage in building design during which the engineer formulates and assesses a number of different structural schemes. It is conceptual in nature and involves decision making, which relies on heuristics. Whilst preliminary structural design has not been well supported by PC software, recent research has indicated the potential for knowledge-based, object-oriented systems to assist in the area. This thesis explores the issues that arise when object-oriented techniques arc used to develop knowledge-based software. lt reviews certain basic principles of structural design, methods of representing structural design knowledge and earlier approaches to the design of …

Analogue-To-Digital Conversion And Image Enhancement Using Neuron-Mos Technology, Joseph W. Austin-Crowe

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis describes the development of two novel circuits that use a newly developed technology, that of neuron-MOS, for the purposes of analogue-to-digital conversion and image enhancement. Neuron-MOS has the potential to reduce both the complexity and number of transistors required for analogue and digital circuits. A reduced area, low transistor-count- analogue-to-digital converter that is suitable for inclusion in a massively parallel array of identical image processing elements is developed. Supporting the function of the array some fundamental image enhancement operations, such as edge enhancement, are examined exploiting the unique features of neuron-MOS technology.

Piezoceramic Actuator Placement For Acoustic Control Of Panels, Jeffrey S. Bevan

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Optimum placement of multiple traditional piezoceramic actuators is determined for active structural acoustic control of flat panels. The structural acoustic response is determined using acoustic radiation filters and structural surface vibration characteristics. Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control is utilized to determine the optimum state feedback gain for active structural acoustic control. The optimum actuator location is determined by minimizing the structural acoustic radiated noise using a modified genetic algorithm. Experimental tests are conducted and compared to analytical results.

Anisotropic piezoceramic actuators exhibit enhanced performance when compared to traditional isotropic piezoceramic actuators. As a result of the inherent isotropy, these advanced …

Effects Of Ventilation On Human Thermal Comfort In Rooms, Ahmed F. Alfahaid

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Nowadays, the majority of people spend up to 90% of their time indoors; as a result, the maintenance of optimal indoor climate conditions has become important for their overall health and comfort. The main goal of this study is to predict numerically the flow and temperature patterns and the human thermal comfort conditions in an indoor environment using displacement ventilation.

A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code has been used to analyze thermal comfort conditions for a fullscale ventilated room. Unstructured grids have been used to discretize the numerical domain. Before undertaking a detailed investigation, the code was validated by comparing …

Effect Of Antioxidants On Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (Uhmwpe), Clifford Schrader

Masters Theses

This thesis presents a study on the effects of antioxidants on the oxidative induction time (OIT), thermal behavior, and hardness property of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). The antioxidants were dissolved into methanol alcohol before the solution was mixed with UHMWPE powder. The mixture was degassed under vacuum, and then compression-molded into disks 1.25 in. in diameter.

Different antioxidants were evaluated at concentrations up to 0.6 percent. A 0.6 percent concentration was used to screen the effectiveness of various antioxidants. Effect of antioxidant concentration was investigated in the range between 0 and 0.6 percent. OIT was evaluated on UHMWPE …

Multicast Services For Multimedia Collaborative Applications, Emad Eldin Mohamed Mohamed

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

This work aims at providing multicast services for multimedia collaborative applications over large inter-networks such as the Internet. Multimedia collaborative applications are typically of small group size, slow group membership dynamics, and awareness of participants' identities and locations. Moreover, they usually consist of several components such as audio, video, shared whiteboard, and single user application sharing engines that collectively help make the collaboration session successful. Each of these components has its demands from the communication layer that may differ from one component to another. This dissertation identifies the overall characteristics of multimedia collaborative applications and their individual components. It also …