Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling And Simulation Of The Thermoforming Process In Thermoplastic-Matrix Composite Materials, Philip M. Bean

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thermoplastic-matrix composite materials have unique advantages over traditional thermosets including faster processing, improved fracture toughness, and recyclability. These and other benefits have caused increasing interest in the use of these materials in both aerospace and automotive industries. Due to the differences in behavior, these materials require a different type of manufacturing process to thermoset matrix composites. This manufacturing process generally involves using pre manufactured tape-layers. These layers, containing both thermoplastic-matrix and fiber-reinforcement, are aligned to the desired orientation, and stacked up into a “tailored blank” using an automated tape layup machine. They are then heated to the thermoplastic melting temperature …

An Adaptive Inventory Management System For Hospital Supply Chain, Pradeep G. Pai

Theses

In healthcare, delivering high quality care to the patients typically requires significant investment in supply chain management systems. Inventory management is an important part of any supply chain system. Researchers have indicated great potential for optimizing existing healthcare inventory systems, especially within hospitals. With ever changing needs, product prices and policies, managing inventory of products in hospitals becomes difficult. As time progresses, the inventory policies of products become sub-optimal. In this research, we study multiple echelons of a hospital supply chain considering the distributors, to address the need for an efficient and effective hospital inventory management system. We propose a …

Cfd Modeling Of Smoke Movement In An Atrium, Robin Wu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the behavior of smoke movement in an atrium. Thus gives first responders and civilians in and out of building a better understanding

With the advancements of modern technology, computers and softwares make simulation models possible such as fire models to simulate fire and smoke movements. In this paper, a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) is used to conduct a series of atrium tests to investigate the effectiveness of smoke exhaust systems. FDS solves the Navier-Stokes equations appropriate for low speed flows (Ma < 0.3) with an emphasis on smoke, heat transport and CO2 concentrations from fires. The default turbulence model used in FDS simulation is the Large Eddy Simulation (LES), which is the solution of Navier-Stokes equations at low speed.

The compartment tested was 9 …

Combining Footprinting Mass Spectrometry And Molecular Dynamics Simulation For Structural Studies In Membrane Proteins, Fengbo Zhou

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Membrane proteins are essential in many cellular processes and represent ~60% of all current drug targets. Due to technical limits, membrane proteins of various types were not studied extensively in the past and the biochemistry and functionality of them remain unclear. The structural biology methodologies require pure isolated protein samples for us to resolve their structure and study their biochemical functions. For such in vitro studies, however, membrane proteins often become unstable when isolated from their native lipid bilayer environment. To overcome the challenge, I employed a novel methodology of solubilizing membrane proteins in solution without detergent. I reconstituted ferroportin, …

Nursing Partnership With Patients, Parents And Families For Safety Through Simulation, Courtnay Caufield

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Abstract

Problem: The importance of communication between nurses, patients, and their family members with respect to treating each other as partners in safety cannot be overstated. It is imperative that families and patients feel empowered to speak up and report clinical errors at any time and be able to communicate effectively to prevent harm and encourage communication.

Context: This is especially important in the acute care setting, where patients may be in contact with multiple people and processes daily. Attention to this safety partnership can be established through improvements in patient satisfaction scores, which are usually collected from patients and …

Evaluating An Educational Cybersecurity Playable Case Study, Tanner West Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The realities of cyberattacks have become more and more prevalent in the world today. Due to the growing number of these attacks, the need for highly trained individuals has also increased. Because of a shortage of qualified candidates for these positions, there is an increasing need for cybersecurity education within high schools and universities. In this thesis, I discuss the development and evaluation of Cybermatics, an educational simulation, or playable case study, designed to help students learn and develop skills within the cybersecurity discipline.

This playable case study was designed to allow students to gain an understanding of the field …

Design And Beam Test Results For The Sphenix Electromagnetic And Hadronic Calorimeter Prototypes, Rusty Towell

Engineering and Physics

No abstract provided.

Financial Outcomes From Selection Of Insurance Intervals, Shana Anderson Stewart

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential value of enrolling in rainfall-index for pasture, rangeland, and forage insurance for Utah producers. A stochastic optimization model is used to identify the optimal selection of insurance intervals that will provide the maximum indemnity payments less premiums. Four Utah counties were selected for analysis. Results indicate that positive returns will occur greater than 60% of the time in all counties with the selected insurance intervals. The optimal months to insure varied in each county.

Comparing Performance Of Gene Set Test Methods Using Biologically Relevant Simulated Data, Richard M. Lambert

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Today we know that there are many genetically driven diseases and health conditions. These problems often manifest only when a set of genes are either active or inactive. Recent technology allows us to measure the activity level of genes in cells, which we call gene expression. It is of great interest to society to be able to statistically compare the gene expression of a large number of genes between two or more groups. For example, we may want to compare the gene expression of a group of cancer patients with a group of non-cancer patients to better understand the genetic …

A Scalable, Chunk-Based Slicer For Cooperative 3d Printing, Jace J. Mcpherson

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cooperative 3D printing is an emerging technology that aims to increase the 3D printing speed and to overcome the size limit of the printable object by having multiple mobile 3D printers (printhead-carrying mobile robots) work together on a single print job on a factory floor. It differs from traditional layer-by-layer 3D printing due to requiring multiple mobile printers to work simultaneously without interfering with each other. Therefore, a new approach for slicing a digital model and generating commands for the mobile printers is needed, which has not been discussed in literature before. We propose a chunk-by-chunk based slicer that divides …

Opensim Versus Human Body Model: A Comparison Study For The Lower Limbs During Gait, Antoine Falisse, Sam Van Rossom, Johannes Gijsbers, Frans Steenbrink, Ben J. Van Basten, Ilse Jonkers, Antonie J. Van Den Bogert, Friedl De Groote

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Musculoskeletal modeling and simulations have become popular tools for analyzing human movements. However, end users are often not aware of underlying modeling and computational assumptions. This study investigates how these assumptions affect biomechanical gait analysis outcomes performed with Human Body Model and the OpenSim gait2392 model. The authors compared joint kinematics, kinetics, and muscle forces resulting from processing data from 7 healthy adults with both models. Although outcome variables had similar patterns, there were statistically significant differences in joint kinematics (maximal difference: 9.8 degrees {[}1.5 degrees] in sagittal plane hip rotation), kinetics (maximal difference: 0.36 {[}0.10] N.m/kg in sagittal plane …

Modeling And Simulation Methodologies For Spinal Cord Stimulation., Saliya Kumara Kirigeeganage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of neural prostheses to improve health of paraplegics has been a prime interest of neuroscientists over the last few decades. Scientists have performed experiments with spinal cord stimulation (SCS) to enable voluntary motor function of paralyzed patients. However, the experimentation on the human spinal cord is not a trivial task. Therefore, modeling and simulation techniques play a significant role in understanding the underlying concepts and mechanics of the spinal cord stimulation. In this work, simulation and modeling techniques related to spinal cord stimulation were investigated. The initial work was intended to visualize the electric field distribution patterns in …

Rethinking Emergency Response To Mass Casualty Incidents: Disaster Medicine Education And The Role Of Medical Students, Claire Zurlo, Edward Jasper, Md, Mph

Phase 1

Introduction: The threat of a mass casualty incident (MCI) is one that must be taken seriously and for which hospitals must be prepared. In the wake of a disaster, emergency departments are often taxed beyond their ability to handle the demands of incoming traumas. In response to this, Dr. Edward Jasper, an emergency physician at Thomas Jefferson Hospital, designed the Hospital Emergency Response Team (HERT) to alleviate the pressure on the ED during a MCI. The HERT is a team of nursing and medical students who are FEMA trained to respond in the event of a MCI.

Objective: The primary …

Use Of Musculoskeletal Modeling To Find The Balance Between Performance And Injury Prevention In Sports – A Proof Of Concept, Dhruv Gupta, Cyril Donnelly, Richard Neptune, Lawrence Abraham, Jody Jensen, Jeffrey A. Reinbolt

ISBS Proceedings Archive

In this study we used musculoskeletal modelling with mathematical optimization tools to find whole-body kinematics that simultaneously reduce risk of injury and enhance sports performance. Combining these objectives has long been the goal of sports science research. We focused on improving hang-time parameters in volleyball (Gupta et al., 2015). We were able to preserve an advantage of hang-time (late swing) and address its disadvantage (potential loss in peak height of the hitting arm) by increasing the height of the hitting wrist by 1 cm, while at the same time not increasing the shoulder moments. This study provided a proof …

Which Joint Angle Changes Have Most Effect On Ball Release Speed In Overarm Throwing?, Nurhidayah Omar, Mark King, Prof. M. R. (Fred) Yeadon

ISBS Proceedings Archive

An eight-segment angle-driven simulation model of the trunk and upper limbs plus ball was developed to determine which joint angle changes have most influence on ball release speed. 15 overarm throwing trials were recorded, and the joint angle time histories of each trial were input into the simulation model. Systematically replacing specific joint angle time histories with a constant value and observing the effect on ball release speed showed that overarm throwing was most sensitive to trunk extension/flexion, trunk ext./internal rotation, scapula ext./internal rotation, upper arm flexion/extension, upper arm add/abduction, upper arm ext./internal rotation and forearm extension/flexion. During coaching or …

Adjustment In The Takeoff Phase Of 1-M Springboard Forward Dives, Mohsen Sayyah, Dr Mark A. King, Dr Michael J. Hiley, Prof. M. R. (Fred) Yeadon

ISBS Proceedings Archive

The aim of this study was to investigate whether any adjustment is made during the board contact phase of 1-m springboard forward dives. Variability of body orientation angle at landing from hurdle (touchdown) and at takeoff together with joint angle time histories of 15 forward pike dive takeoffs, performed by an international diver, were determined using video analysis. A computer simulation model of a diver and springboard was used to determine the effects of perturbations of initial conditions on takeoff variability. The variation at takeoff obtained in the simulation outcome was much greater than in the actual performance, indicating that …

Simulations Grow Nursing Students’ Real-Life Experience, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Cedarville University’s school of nursing is already known for developing highly prepared health care professionals, but since the construction of its high-fidelity simulation center in 2012, the school of nursing has increased the use of hands-on learning in clinical courses. This should ensure that Cedarville meets and exceeds industry standards for years to come.

Performance Indicators Analysis Inside A Call Center Using A Simulation Program, Ditila Ekmekçiu, Markela Muça, Adrian Naço

International Journal of Business and Technology

This paper deals with and shows the results of different performance indicators analyses made utilizing the help of Simulation and concentrated on dimensioning problems of handling calls capacity in a call center. The goal is to measure the reactivity of the call center’s performance to potential changes of critical variables. The literature related to the employment of this kind of instrument in call centers is reviewed, and the method that this problem is treated momentarily is precisely described. The technique used to obtain this paper’s goal implicated a simulation model using Arena Contact Center software that worked as a key …

Effects Of Moving Bottlenecks On Traffic Operations On Four-Lane Level Freeway Segments, Jianan Zhou

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) was developed to provide capacity and level of service analyses for roadway facilities. Trucks may adversely affect the quality of traffic flow on a roadway. In HCM, the passenger car equivalent (PCE) of a truck, which represents the number of passenger cars that have an equivalent effect on traffic flow, is used to account for the impacts of trucks. However, in the past ten years rural freeways in the western rural U.S. have experienced conditions that lie outside the standard HCM conditions. Also, the current HCM truck PCEs may not be appropriate for the western …

The Impact Of Selective Genotyping On The Response To Selection Using Single-Step Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction, Jeremy T. Howard, Thomas A. Rathje, Caitlyn E. Bruns, Danielle F. Wilson-Wells, Stephen D. Kachman, Matthew L. Spangler

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Across the majority livestock species, routinely collected genomic and pedigree information has been incorporated into evaluations using single-step methods. As a result, strategies that reduce genotyping costs without reducing the response to selection are important as they could have substantial economic impacts on breeding programs. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to investigate the impact of selectively genotyping selection candidates on the selection response using simulation. Populations were simulated to mimic the genome and population structure of a swine and cattle population undergoing selection on an index comprised of the estimated breeding values (EBV) for 2 genetically correlated …

The Incorporation Of Evidence-Based Simulated Activities In An Existing Nurse Residency Program, Wendy Partin Thompson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As new graduate nurses are challenged with caring for patients with complex disease processes, nurse residency programs are designed to ease the transition into practice. A community based hospital, in the southern United States has recently implemented such a program. However, the organization continues to have problems with nursing turnover. This problem is especially evident in nurses with less than one year of clinical experience. Research has shown that nurse residency programs without simulative activities eliminate vital critical thinking activities which prepare novice nurses for clinical practice. The purpose of this project was to design evidence-based simulative activities to increase …

Adjusting For Guessing And Applying A Statistical Test To The Disaggregation Of Value-Added Learning Scores, Ben O. Smith, Jamie Wagner

Economics Faculty Publications

In 2016, Walstad and Wagner developed a procedure to split pre-test and post-test responses into four learning types: positive, negative, retained, and zero learning. This disaggregation is not only useful in academic studies; but also provides valuable insight to the practitioner: an instructor would take different mitigating actions in response to zero versus negative learning. However, the original disaggregation is sensitive to student guessing. This article extends the original work by accounting for guessing and provides adjusted estimators using the existing disaggregated values. Further, Monte Carlo simulations of the adjusted learning type estimates are provided. Under certain assumptions, an instructor …

A Coalescent Sampler Successfully Detects Biologically Meaningful Population Structure Overlooked By F‐Statistics, Eric Crandall, Robert J. Toonen, Kimberly Selkoe

Eric Crandall

Hearing Voices Simulation: Impact On Occupational Therapy Students, Rebecca Ozelie, Paige Panfil, Nicole Swiderski, Elizabeth Walz

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Auditory hallucinations, which are symptoms of schizophrenia, can significantly disrupt individuals’ daily lives. Occupational therapists (OTs) can address both the daily needs of people with schizophrenia and address cultural stigmas against mental illness. To combat stigma and increase empathy for patients with mental illnesses, auditory hallucinations simulations were developed. The purpose of this study was to determine if the Hearing Voices That Are Distressing (HVTAD) Simulation impacts OT students’ attitudes toward patients with auditory hallucinations and to explore the students’ perceptions of the simulation’s effectiveness as a teaching method. The participants completed a pretest Attitudes to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ) …

Cognitive Load Measurement, Worked-Out Modeling, And Simulation, Jayne Josephsen

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using a cognitive load theory framework, this study investigated implementation of a worked-out modeling (WOM) prebriefing intervention on postsimulation knowledge acquisition and cognitive load experienced. A quasi-experimental quantitative design was used with a convenience sample of 61 senior-level nursing students who had previously participated in a simulation. The treatment group received the WOM intervention before simulation participation, and the control group received the usual presimulation interventions. A presimulation and postsimulation knowledge survey and a cognitive load measurement tool were administered after the simulation. Data indicated increased knowledge related to falls and situation, background, assessment, and recommendation in the treatment group …

A Unique Marketing Education Tool: The Marketing In A New Era Simulation Game, Stamatina Kotsakou, Cory Walters, Jessica Groskopf, Robert Tigner

The Journal of Extension

This article describes a novel grain marketing simulation game called Marketing in a New Era (MINE) that was developed for use in Extension producer meetings and other educational settings. Key benefits of MINE are that users can personalize the game's marketing simulation environment by incorporating information specific to their operations or regions, users receive immediate feedback about their marketing simulation performance, and users can engage in numerous marketing simulations within a short time period.

Using A Socioeconomic Segregation Burn-In Model To Initialise An Agent-Based Model For Infectious Diseases, Elizabeth Hunter, Brian Mac Namee, John D. Kelleher

Articles

Socioeconomic status can have an important effect on health. In this paper we: (i) propose using house price data as a publicly available proxy for socioeconomic status to examine neighbourhood socioeconomic status at a more fine grained resolution than is available in Irish Central Statistics Office data; (ii) use a dissimilarity index to demonstrate and measure the existence of socioeconomic clustering at a neighbourhood level; (iii) demonstrate that using a standard ABM initialisation process based on CSO small area data results in ABMs systematically underestimating the socioeconomic clustering in Irish neighbourhoods; (iv) demonstrate that ABM models are better calibrated towards …

A Kidney Biopsy Simulation Training Program: First Year's Results, Maria E. Roumelioti, Jonathan Owen, Christos Argyropoulos, Yue H. Ng, Mark Unruh

HSC Education Days

BACKGROUND: Nephrology attracts fewer medical graduates despite the growing care and workforce demand. Interventional Nephrology could re-foster interest in this subspecialty. Percutaneous kidney biopsy (PKB) is the most common procedure and should be adequately taught through simulation training according to ACGME requirements. We initiated a PKB simulation training program and we designed a two-year study in order to examine its effect on the confidence level, the procedural competence and the satisfaction with this training of Nephrology fellows compared to historical controls (fellows trained on PKBs before the initiation of the program).

METHODS: All fellows were consented and trained at UNM’s …

Thermal Performance Of Pcm-Glazing Unit Under Moderate Climatic Conditions, Anna Wieprzkowicz, Dariusz Heim

International Building Physics Conference 2018

Considering physical properties, transparent or translucent building components like windows or glazing facades are the weakest elements of building envelope. The heat transfer coefficient of such elements is approximately four times higher than for opaque partitions, which causes considerable increase of heat loss during winter. In summer relatively high solar transmittance is a source of heat gains which results in undesirable overheating. Application of phase change materials in glazing components affects its thermal performance by the increase of its heat capacity and decrease of solar heat gains, with regard to the current physical state of the PCM. The aim of …

Considerations On The Thermal Modelling Of Insulated Metal Panel Systems, Ligia Moga, Ioan Moga

International Building Physics Conference 2018

The very strict regulations imposed by the European directives regarding low energy consumptions of buildings imposes the availability of thermal and energy efficient solutions for the building envelope. One common solution is given by insulated metal penal systems, which are typically used for industrial buildings but lately also used for other types of buildings (e.g. residential buildings, hotels, hospitals). These types of solutions must be properly addressed from the thermal modelling and simulation point of view considering a different thermal behaviour due to its detail components. For insulated metal penal systems the typical calculations are done by considering only the …