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Three-Dimensional Knapsack Problem With Pre-Placed Boxes And Vertical Stability, Hanan Mostaghimi Ghomi
Three-Dimensional Knapsack Problem With Pre-Placed Boxes And Vertical Stability, Hanan Mostaghimi Ghomi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A three-dimensional knapsack problem packs a subset of rectangular boxes inside a bin with fixed size such that the total value of packed boxes is maximized. Each box has its own value and size and can be freely rotated into any of the six positions while its edges are parallel to the bin's edges. A Mixed Integer Linear Programming is developed for the 3D knapsack problem, while some practical constraints such as vertical stability are considered. However, the given model can be applied to two dimensional problems as well. The proposed solution methodology is based on the sequence triple. Simulated …
Designing And Implementing A Hospital Environmental Management Framework, Taylor Purdy
Designing And Implementing A Hospital Environmental Management Framework, Taylor Purdy
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Modern Canadian hospitals are large generators of landfilled waste. However, much of the waste disposed of by hospitals is divertible. A Hospital Environmental Management Framework (HEMF) was designed and implemented in a local hospital in an effort to control the organization's landfilled waste and improve environmental performance. Environmental issues are gaining awareness among businesses in other sectors, but are not commonly addressed in hospitals, where patient care takes priority over the environment. While specific, recommended waste reduction initiatives tailored to hospital operations have been widely published, information on how to implement these initiatives is lacking. The results from this research …
Experimental Comparison Of Store-And-Forward And Wormhole Noc Routers For Fpga's, Krunal Jetly
Experimental Comparison Of Store-And-Forward And Wormhole Noc Routers For Fpga's, Krunal Jetly
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Network on Chip (NoC) is an interconnection paradigm which is scalable and efficient for connecting increasing number of components on Field Programmable Systems on Chip (FPSOC). The router is a key component in NoC that impacts area performance, power consumption, etc. In this thesis we evaluate and compare two different router designs using real world benchmark. The first router uses Store-And-Forward strategy (SAF) and XY routing algorithm and the second router uses Wormhole (WH) as forwarding strategy and source routing algorithm. These routers were used to implement 4x4 mesh NoCs. A multi processor system benchmark obtained from Altera was implemented …
An Fpga Based Controller For A Mems Tri-Mode Fmcw Radar, Sabrina Zereen
An Fpga Based Controller For A Mems Tri-Mode Fmcw Radar, Sabrina Zereen
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this thesis a Xilinx Virtex 5 FPGA platform based signal processing algorithm has been developed and experimentally verified for use in a MEMS based tri-mode 77GHz FMCW automotive radar to determine range and velocity of targets in the vicinity of a host vehicle. The Xilinx Virtex 5 FPGA based signal processing and control algorithm dynamically reconfigures a MEMS based FMCW radar to provide a short, medium, and long-range coverage using the same hardware. The MEMS radar comprises of MEMS SP3T RF switches, microfabricated Rotman lens and a microstrip antenna embedded with MEMS SPST switches, in additional to other microelectronic …
Shrinkage And Penalty Estimation Strategies In Some Spatial Models, Marwan Al-Momani
Shrinkage And Penalty Estimation Strategies In Some Spatial Models, Marwan Al-Momani
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this dissertation, we study the asymptotic properties of pretest and shrinkage estimators of the large-scale effect in some spatial regression models, and compare their relative performance with respect to the classical maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) analytically and numerically through Monte Carlo experiments and real data examples. The shrinkage estimators were also numerically compared with three penalty estimators, namely, the LASSO, adaptive LASSO, and the SCAD penalty functions. A linear model with conditional autoregressive errors was studied in Chapter 2. The asymptotic properties of the shrinkage estimators, under local alternatives, were established, including the derivations of the asymptotic distributional bias, …
Automated Classification Of Medical Percussion Signals For The Diagnosis Of Pulmonary Injuries, Bhuiyan Md Moinuddin
Automated Classification Of Medical Percussion Signals For The Diagnosis Of Pulmonary Injuries, Bhuiyan Md Moinuddin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Used for centuries in the clinical practice, audible percussion is a method of eliciting sounds by areas of the human body either by finger tips or by a percussion hammer. Despite its advantages, pulmonary diagnostics by percussion is still highly subjective, depends on the physician's skills, and requires quiet surroundings. Automation of this well-established technique could help amplify its existing merits while removing the above drawbacks. In this study, an attempt is made to automatically decompose clinical percussion signals into a sum of Exponentially Damped Sinusoids (EDS) using Matrix Pencil Method, which in this case form a more natural basis …
Minimization Of Electrical Losses In A Vector Controlled Induction Machine Drive, Debarshi Biswas
Minimization Of Electrical Losses In A Vector Controlled Induction Machine Drive, Debarshi Biswas
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Induction motors have found application in household goods as well as in industries. These machines are rugged and very easy to maintain, making them a favorite with the consumers. With the introduction of vector control induction motor drives have gained a lot of popularity. Induction motors, however, prove to be inefficient at low speeds when compared to other AC machines. Hence there is a need to improve the efficiency of induction machines over their entire speed range. Thus it is desirable to design a loss minimization controller which can improve the efficiency. This thesis therefore documents the following: 1. Modeling …
Thermal Conductivity Sensors In Automotive Applications, Weijun Deng
Thermal Conductivity Sensors In Automotive Applications, Weijun Deng
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Over the last decade, there has been a growing research interest in the on-board fuel generated hydrogen in automotive application. In this thesis, in order to find a suitable sensor to work in a complex gas mixture, currently commercialized hydrogen sensors have been compared. Furthermore, a thermal conductivity sensor has been selected and studied. The concentrations of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon monoxide gas mixtures were simulated in Matlab. Simulation results demonstrate that the thermal conductivity of the gas mixture is measurable. Carbon monoxide, which is as a main interference gas to the hydrogen detection, does not influence the detecting. Moreover, …
Micro Surface Texturing For Friction Control, Ola Rashwan
Micro Surface Texturing For Friction Control, Ola Rashwan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Recently, surface texturing has gained momentum as a way to control the friction which is involved in various applications and systems, such as components of internal combustion engines, dies and punches of the metal forming processes and Micro-electrical-mechanical Systems (MEMS). This dissertation demonstrates that under dry sliding, there is a specific significant surface texturing parameter at which the coefficient of friction should be at a minimum. This dissertation met this objective through an extensive study of the relevant literature on surface texturing and friction, analysing the friction mechanisms involved in dry sliding, and highlighting the key factors that control friction …
Proactive And Efficient Spare Parts Inventory Management Policies Considering Reliability Issues, Jingyao Gu
Proactive And Efficient Spare Parts Inventory Management Policies Considering Reliability Issues, Jingyao Gu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Spare parts inventory management plays an important role in many industries. They exist to serve the maintenance planning and a good planning can significantly reduce maintenance cost. This thesis developed a series of non-linear programming models to obtain optimal spare parts replenishment policies for failure-based maintenance in a single period. Both single Part Number case and multiple Part Numbers case with a budget constraint are addressed. Compared with traditional forecasting methods which only consider historical data, our proposed inventory policies take into account reliability issues and predict impending demands based on part failure distributions from two perspectives: failure time and …
A Role-Based Access Control Schema For Materialized Views, Hassaan Yousafi
A Role-Based Access Control Schema For Materialized Views, Hassaan Yousafi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis research presents a framework that enhances security at the level of materialized views. Materialized views can be used for performance reasons in very large systems such as data warehouses or distributed systems, or for providing a filtered selection of data from a more general database. Existing proposed techniques provide rule-based access control for materialized views, however, the administration of such systems is time consuming and cumbersome in a large environment. This thesis presents a role-based access control schema for materialized views in which data authorization rules are associated with roles and defined in Datalog syntax in plain text …
Investigation Of In-Vehicle Speech Intelligibility Metrics For Normal Hearing And Hearing Impaired Listeners, Nikolina N. Samardzic
Investigation Of In-Vehicle Speech Intelligibility Metrics For Normal Hearing And Hearing Impaired Listeners, Nikolina N. Samardzic
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The effectiveness of in-vehicle speech communication can be a good indicator of the perception of the overall vehicle quality and customer satisfaction. Currently available speech intelligibility metrics do not account in their procedures for essential parameters needed for a complete and accurate evaluation of in-vehicle speech intelligibility. These include the directivity and the distance of the talker with respect to the listener, binaural listening, hearing profile of the listener, vocal effort, and multisensory hearing. In the first part of this research the effectiveness of in-vehicle application of these metrics is investigated in a series of studies to reveal their shortcomings, …
Comparison Of Austempering And Quench-And-Tempering Processes For Carburized Automotive Steels, Andrew Clark
Comparison Of Austempering And Quench-And-Tempering Processes For Carburized Automotive Steels, Andrew Clark
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Austempering was examined as a replacement for the current quench-and-tempering process as a method of heat treating carburized low alloy steel automotive components. Three carburizing grade steels, SAE 8620, 4320, and 8822, were carburized and heat treated by both processes. Twelve austempering and three quench-and-tempering parameters were used. The effect of heat treatment on the case and core microstructures was examined. Distortion was characterized using Navy C-ring samples, which were measured before and after the carburizing and heat treatment process. X-ray diffraction was used to measure residual stress and retained austenite. Charpy impact and Rockwell C hardness testing were performed. …
Distributions Of Welding-Induced Residual Stresses In Steel Plate Structures, Sara Yaye Kenno
Distributions Of Welding-Induced Residual Stresses In Steel Plate Structures, Sara Yaye Kenno
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
One of the leading factors of early failure in welded steel structures is caused by the presence of residual stresses. These stresses are caused by the welding process and they can be as high as the yield stress of the material. The residual stresses along with the other service loads experienced by a structure can lead to premature failures. This study was completed to obtain a full understanding of the residual strains and stresses found in various steel plated welded structures. Several factors affecting the welding process were examined such as the welding heat input, the stiffener spacing, the thickness …
Theory Of A Hybrid Plasmonic - Waveguide Biosensor For The Detection Of Turbid Analytes, Daniel-Anthony Travo
Theory Of A Hybrid Plasmonic - Waveguide Biosensor For The Detection Of Turbid Analytes, Daniel-Anthony Travo
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The characterization of turbid media, such as colloidal suspensions such as milk, is a challenging task due to the attenuation of incident fields within the medium. In this work, the potential performance of a novel sensing technology is assessed for the characterization of such media. The device is a hybrid plasmonicwaveguide biosensor and consists of an array of gold nanoparticles deposited atop a waveguide multilayer structure. The performance of the device is modelled using a Green function approach and is benchmarked to a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. The results of the analysis show the hybrid sensor to be several …
Impairment-Aware Dynamic Routing And Wavelength Assignment In Translucent Optical Wdm Networks, Sriharsha Venkata Varanasi
Impairment-Aware Dynamic Routing And Wavelength Assignment In Translucent Optical Wdm Networks, Sriharsha Venkata Varanasi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) is a widely discussed design problem in the optical networks literature. Physical layer impairments (PLI) degrade the quality of transmission (QOT) of a propagating optical signal inside the optical fiber and they have a significant impact on the RWA process. 3R regeneration, which is based on the expensive optical-to-electronic-to-optical (OEO) conversion technology, is a popularly used technique to restore the degraded QOT of an optical signal. In order to minimize both capital and operational costs, it is highly desirable to use a translucent optical network, in which the 3R regenerators are sparsely yet strategically placed. …
Utilization Of Phenolic Precipitates To Enhance Soybean Peroxidase-Catalyzed Wastewater Treatment, Wei Feng
Utilization Of Phenolic Precipitates To Enhance Soybean Peroxidase-Catalyzed Wastewater Treatment, Wei Feng
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Studies on soybean peroxidase-catalyzed phenolic precipitates revealed that SBP trapped in precipitates during phenol polymerization retains activity. Contrary to the end-product inactivation model, recycling precipitates effectively utilized the active SBP. The minimum SBP concentration required for the subsequent batch reaction removal of 1 mM phenol from aqueous solution was reduced from 1.2 to 0.5 U/mL. SBP adsorption on precipitates was proven to be reversible by the addition of Triton X-100. Thus, a new explanation of the fate of SBP during the reaction is suggested: SBP is immobilized in-situ in an active form with reduction of specific activity rather than inactivation. …
Development Of A New Forming Process To Fabricate A Wide Range Of Phantoms That Highly Match The Acoustical Properties Of Human Bone, Adrian Wydra
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the various stages of developing diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, the use of phantoms can play a very important role in improving the process, and help with implementation, testing and calibrations. However, devices that use different physical factors, such as MRI, Ultrasound, CT Scan, etc. require the phantom to be made with different physical properties. This thesis deals with ultrasound and it introduces a novel composite material and a new forming process to fabricate a wide range of phantoms that highly match the acoustical properties of human bones. In contrast to ex vivo tissues, the proposed material can maintain its …
Material Logistics Management: Strategies And Methodologies Development For Economic And Environmental Optimization, Andrea Caratti
Material Logistics Management: Strategies And Methodologies Development For Economic And Environmental Optimization, Andrea Caratti
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis is focused on finding solutions able to maximize logistics processes efficiency and reduce the impact of transportation on the environment at the same time. The main purposes of the research have been two: finding strategies and methodologies for the reduction of the standard container management complexity and the development of a model for the selection of the optimal container solution both from an economic and environmental perspective. The model has been implemented into a tool able to automate all the computations and evaluations. The outputs of the model/tool have been operationally validated using data from Chrysler and Fiat …
An Investigation Of A Diesel Liquid Injector In A Simulated Exhaust Flow, Shouvik Dev
An Investigation Of A Diesel Liquid Injector In A Simulated Exhaust Flow, Shouvik Dev
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Certain exhaust after-treatment devices used in modern diesel engines need an injector to spray a liquid, including a fuel, into the exhaust stream. For optimum performance, it is desired that the liquid must atomize and vaporize before it enters the device. The spray of an after-treatment injector was simulated in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) suite, and showed that evaporation increased with increase in the gas flow rate and gas temperature. The results of the calculations were used to design an experimental setup to study a diesel after-treatment injector. Water was injected into air flowing with a speed of 1.4 …
Effect Of Linoleic Acid And Hydraulic Retention Time On Anaerobic Sulfate Reduction In High Rate Reactors, Purnima Chakrapani Mallelwar
Effect Of Linoleic Acid And Hydraulic Retention Time On Anaerobic Sulfate Reduction In High Rate Reactors, Purnima Chakrapani Mallelwar
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Metal precipitation using sulfide produced biologically by sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) is an attractive alternative for the treatment acid mine drainage (AMD). The process can be affected by competition from methane producing bacteria (MPB) when organic carbon is limited. This study shows that linoleic acid (LA) can be used to selectively inhibit MPB in high rate semi-continuous upflow anaerobic hybrid reactors (UAHR) to make more organic carbon available to SRB. At a slug LA dose of 1000 mg/L in LA-treated UAHR, ∼ 100% of organic carbon reduced was diverted to sulfate reduction as compared to 74 - 59% in the …
An Automatic Email Mining Approach Using Semantic Non-Parametric K-Means++ Clustering, Gunjan Soni
An Automatic Email Mining Approach Using Semantic Non-Parametric K-Means++ Clustering, Gunjan Soni
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Email inboxes are now filled with huge varieties of voluminous messages and thus increasing the problem of "email overload" which places financial burden on companies and individuals. Email mining provides solution to email overload problem by automatically grouping emails into meaningful and similar groups based on email subjects and contents. Existing email mining systems such as Kernel-Selected clustering and BuzzTrack, do not consider the semantic similarity between email contents, also when large number of email messages are clustered to a single folder they retain the problem of email overload. This thesis proposes a system named AEMS for automatic folder and …
Head Gasket Finite Element Model Correlation, Jeffrey Scott Eagleson
Head Gasket Finite Element Model Correlation, Jeffrey Scott Eagleson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Finite element analysis studies are increasingly being relied upon to improve the design and decrease overall production time of powertrain components. Multi-layer steel head gaskets are important, passive sealing components that exist in almost all internal combustion engines and are crucial for proper engine performance. In industry there currently exist many different approaches for studying this component using finite element analysis. This study attempted to give insight into what finite element methods are currently being used by analysts and if their results correlate with physical test results. The category of finite elements studied for use in the gasket assembly were …
Comparative Study Of Sampling Methods For Online Social Networks, Hao Wang
Comparative Study Of Sampling Methods For Online Social Networks, Hao Wang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The properties of online social networks are of great interests to the general public as well as IT professionals. Often the raw data are not available and the summaries released by the service providers are sketchy. Thus sampling is needed to reveal the hidden properties and structure of the underlying network. This thesis conducts comparative studies on various sampling methods, including Random Node (RN), Random Walk (RW) and Random Edge (RE) samplings. The properties to be discovered include the average degree and population size of the network. Additionally, this thesis proposes a new sampling method called STAR sampling and applies …
Finding Differential Splice Junctions In Rna-Seq Data As Transcriptional Biomarkers For Prostate Cancer, Ahmad Tavakoli
Finding Differential Splice Junctions In Rna-Seq Data As Transcriptional Biomarkers For Prostate Cancer, Ahmad Tavakoli
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Alternative RNA splicing is a naturally occurring phenomenon that has been associated with different types of cancer. Detecting splice junctions in the genome of an organism is the key to the study of alternative splicing. RNA-Seq as a high-throughput sequencing technology has recently opened new horizons on the studying of various fields of transcriptomics, such as gene expression, chimeric events and alternative splicing. In this research, we study prostate cancer from the viewpoint of splicing events as the second most common cancer in North America. We have proposed a method for differentially detecting splice junctions, and in a broader sense …
Phosphorus Management In Primary Treatment At The Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant, Katharina Freund
Phosphorus Management In Primary Treatment At The Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant, Katharina Freund
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Phosphorus is a vital nutrient for biological wastewater treatment plants, but it is also a regulated pollutant. The Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant (LRWRP), located in Windsor, Ontario, uses chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) with alum and anionic polymer to remove phosphorus and suspended solids (SS). The plant was upgraded in 2007 to include biological aerated filter (BAF) as secondary treatment, and is currently adding phosphorus (∼0.2 - 1 mg/L) following CEPT for the proper functioning of the BAF. Jar tests experiments revealed that alternate combinations of the currently used alum and anionic polymer were not able to reduce the …
Effect Of Blockage On Cylindrical Bridge Pier Local Scour, Carlo D'Alessandro
Effect Of Blockage On Cylindrical Bridge Pier Local Scour, Carlo D'Alessandro
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Our understanding of the scouring process and the current empirical design equations is based on laboratory data that may have exceeded acceptable blockage. Previous literature indicates that scour may only be significantly affected when blockage ratio is greater than 10%. Also, some recent literature indicates that blockage may have a significant effect on the scour profile for blockage ratios less than 10%. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of blockage (wall interference) on local pier scour for circular piers in clear water conditions by varying channel width and pier diameter to obtain blockage ratios between 2.5% …
A 5 Meter Range Non-Planar Cmut Array For Automotive Collision Avoidance, Jonathan Hernandez Aguirre
A 5 Meter Range Non-Planar Cmut Array For Automotive Collision Avoidance, Jonathan Hernandez Aguirre
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A discretized hyperbolic paraboloid geometry capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array has been designed and fabricated for automotive collision avoidance. The array is designed to operate at 40 kHz, beamwidth of 40° with a maximum sidelobe intensity of -10dB. An SOI based fabrication technology has been used for the 5x5 array with 5 sensing surfaces along each x and y axis and 7 elevation levels. An assembly and packaging technique has been developed to realize the non-planar geometry in a PGA-68 package. A highly accurate mathematical method has been presented for analytical characterization of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) built …
Long Term Trend And Source Apportionment Of Ambient Vocs In Windsor, Zhi Li
Long Term Trend And Source Apportionment Of Ambient Vocs In Windsor, Zhi Li
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Ambient VOC concentrations measured at Windsor West Station from 2001 to 2009 were used for a VOC source apportionment study using Chemical Mass Balance model. The ranking of source contribution estimates was: "Vehicle Emission", "Commercial Natural Gas", "Industrial Refinery", "Liquefied Petroleum", "Coke Oven", "Architectural Coating", and "Biogenic Emission". From 2003 to 2009, PAMS measurements in Windsor decreased by approximately 37%. Source contribution reduction of "Vehicle Emission" accounted for 57.6% of total source contribution reduction. Source contribution reduction percentages of "Vehicle Emission", "Architectural Coating", and "Biogenic Emission" were above PAMS reduction percentage; however, source contribution reduction percentages of "Commercial Natural Gas", …
Multiple Alignment Of Protein Interaction Networks By Three-Index Assignment Algorithm, Arushi Arora
Multiple Alignment Of Protein Interaction Networks By Three-Index Assignment Algorithm, Arushi Arora
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Bio-molecular networks have led to many discoveries in molecular biology. The most atypical of them are protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. In PPI networks the nodes refer to proteins and edges refer to interactions between nodes. The comparison of PPI networks can be demonstrated as a powerful approach for examining interactions in these networks and predicting protein functions. This thesis contributes a new alignment algorithm for aligning three PPI networks. We examine how Three-Index Assignment Problem via Hungarian Pair Matching algorithm is used to maximize the complete match between the three networks to identify protein triplets with higher similarity. We have …