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Comparison Of A Modified And Traditional Rapid Infiltration Basin For Treatment And Control Of Nutrients In Wastewater Effluent, Jessica Cormier Aug 2018

Comparison Of A Modified And Traditional Rapid Infiltration Basin For Treatment And Control Of Nutrients In Wastewater Effluent, Jessica Cormier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rapid infiltration basins (RIB) have been historically used in Florida for groundwater recharge, effluent disposal, or a combination of both. However, this technique has proven ineffective in providing nitrogen control unless the RIB is modified in some manner. In this study, a traditional RIB was compared to a modified RIB constructed with manufactured biosorption activated media (BAM) to evaluate nitrate removal from reclaimed water. The RIBs are used for reclaimed and excess storm water disposal. Few, if any, studies have been published where BAM-modified RIBs have been used for this purpose. In this work, a mixture of clay, tire crumb, …


Electrochemical Microsensors For In Situ Monitoring Of Chemical Compounds In Engineered And Natural Aquatic Systems, Jared Church Aug 2018

Electrochemical Microsensors For In Situ Monitoring Of Chemical Compounds In Engineered And Natural Aquatic Systems, Jared Church

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The adaption of needle-type electrochemical microsensor (or microelectrode) techniques to environmental science and engineering systems has transformed how we understand mass transport in biotic and abiotic processes. Their small tip diameter (5-20μm) makes them a unique experimental tool for direct measurements of analytes with high spatial and temporal resolutions, providing a quantitative analysis of flux, diffusion, and reaction rate at a microscale that cannot be obtained using conventional analytical tools. However, their applications have been primarily limited to understanding mass transport dynamics and kinetics in biofilms. With the advancement of sensor fabrication and utilization techniques, their potential applications can surpass …


Nanofiltration Of Perfluorinated Compounds As A Function Of Water Matrix Properties, Hadi Toure Aug 2018

Nanofiltration Of Perfluorinated Compounds As A Function Of Water Matrix Properties, Hadi Toure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have been manufactured and used in various industries including food packaging, paintings, and coating industries. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) are the most commonly investigated PFCs that have bioaccumulative properties and a strong persistence in environment. Despite the growing interest in using membrane technology to remove PFOA and PFOS from water, little information is available on the impact of natural water matrices on the removal of PFOA and PFOS when using nanofiltration (NF). The presence of natural organic matter (NOM) and cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) in water matrices and their interactions with the PFCs …


A Framework For Assessing Sustainability Impacts Of Truck Routing Strategies, Haluk Laman Aug 2018

A Framework For Assessing Sustainability Impacts Of Truck Routing Strategies, Haluk Laman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The impact of freight on our transportation system is further accentuated by the fact that trucks consume greater roadway capacity and therefore cause more significant problems including traffic congestion, delay, crashes, air pollution, fuel consumption, and pavement damage. Assessing the actual effects of truck traffic is a growing need to support the ability to safely and efficiently move goods and people in areas where roadway expansion is not the best option. On one hand, trucks need to efficiently serve commerce and industry, while at the same time their activities need not contribute to a decline in the quality or public …


Large Scale Cryogenic Storage With Active Refrigeration, Adam Swanger Aug 2018

Large Scale Cryogenic Storage With Active Refrigeration, Adam Swanger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Storage and transfer of cryogenic liquefied gases on volume scales from under 10 liters for lab use, up to hundreds of millions of liters for industrial applications is of paramount importance across a vast range of industries. Traditionally, these commodities have been stored at or near the normal boiling point due to relative ease of operation and safety-related considerations; however, this also means that some percentage will always be lost due to environmental heat leaking into the vessel and causing boiloff. These losses become more concerning as scales increase, and are of particular importance for high-cost commodities such helium and …


Autonomous Discovery And Maintenance Of Mobile Frees-Space-Optical Links, Mahmudur Khan Aug 2018

Autonomous Discovery And Maintenance Of Mobile Frees-Space-Optical Links, Mahmudur Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Free-Space-Optical (FSO) communication has the potential to play a significant role in future generation wireless networks. It is advantageous in terms of improved spectrum utilization, higher data transfer rate, and lower probability of interception from unwanted sources. FSO communication can provide optical-level wireless communication speeds and can also help solve the wireless capacity problem experienced by the traditional RF-based technologies. Despite these advantages, communications using FSO transceivers require establishment and maintenance of line-of-sight (LOS). We consider autonomous mobile nodes (Unmanned Ground Vehicles or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), each with one FSO transceiver mounted on a movable head capable of scanning in …


Room Temperature Operation Of Quantum Cascade Lasers Monolithically Integrated Onto A Lattice-Mismatched Substrate, Rowel Go Aug 2018

Room Temperature Operation Of Quantum Cascade Lasers Monolithically Integrated Onto A Lattice-Mismatched Substrate, Rowel Go

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) are semiconductor devices that, currently, have been observed to emit radiation from ~ 2.6 μm to 250 μm (1 to 100 terahertz range of frequencies.) They have established themselves as the laser of choice for spectroscopic gas sensing in the mid-wavelength infrared (3-8 μm) and long-wavelength infrared (8-15 μm) region. In the 4-12 μm wavelength region, the highest performing QCL devices, in terms of wall-plug efficiency and continuous wave operation, are indium phosphide (InP) based. The ultimate goal is to incorporate this InP-based QCL technology to silicon (Si) substrate since most opto-electronics are Si-based. The main …


Methods For Online Feature Selection For Classification Problems, Alaleh Razmjoo Aug 2018

Methods For Online Feature Selection For Classification Problems, Alaleh Razmjoo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Online learning is a growing branch of machine learning which allows all traditional data mining techniques to be applied on an online stream of data in real-time. In this dissertation, we present three efficient algorithms for feature ranking in online classification problems. Each of the methods are tailored to work well with different types of classification tasks and have different advantages. The reason for this variety of algorithms is that like other machine learning solutions, there is usually no algorithm which works well for all types of tasks. The first method, is an online sensitivity based feature ranking (SFR) which …


Modeling The Innovation Ecosystem And Development Of A Dynamic Innovation Index, Henriette Schoen Aug 2018

Modeling The Innovation Ecosystem And Development Of A Dynamic Innovation Index, Henriette Schoen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The topic of innovation currently generates a tremendous amount of interest around the world. Innovation is considered an essential part of the solution to creating more jobs and improving the socio-economic conditions of many countries around the globe. Innovation comes about through the existence of many interrelated solutions to socio-economic problems in an extensively interconnected network, which create value for each other. Such a complex creativity and innovation value-creating network is here called an Innovation Ecosystem (IE). The main objective of this dissertation research is to improve the current understanding of the IE by developing a simulation model that uses …


Thermodynamic Modeling And Transient Simulation Of A Low-Pressure Heat Recovery Steam Generator Using Siemens T3000, Andres Caesar Aug 2018

Thermodynamic Modeling And Transient Simulation Of A Low-Pressure Heat Recovery Steam Generator Using Siemens T3000, Andres Caesar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With world energy consumption rising, and nonrenewable energy resources quickly depleting, it is essential to design more efficient power plants and thereby economically utilize fossil fuels. To that end, this work focuses on the thermodynamic modeling of steam power systems to enhance our understanding of their dynamic and transient behavior. This thesis discusses the physical phenomena behind a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and develops a mathematical description of its system dynamics. The model is developed from fundamentals of fluid dynamics, phase change, heat transfer, conservation laws and unsteady flow energy equations. The resulting model captures coupled physical phenomena with …


An Agent Based Model To Assess Crew Temporal Variability During U.S. Navy Shipboard Operations, Kevin Muhs May 2018

An Agent Based Model To Assess Crew Temporal Variability During U.S. Navy Shipboard Operations, Kevin Muhs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the factors that affect human performance variability as well as their temporal impacts is an essential element in fully integrating and designing complex, adaptive environments. This understanding is particularly necessary for high stakes, time-critical routines such as those performed during nuclear reactor, air traffic control, and military operations. Over the last three decades significant efforts have emerged to demonstrate and apply a host of techniques to include Discrete Event Simulation, Bayesian Belief Networks, Neural Networks, and a multitude of existing software applications to provide relevant assessments of human task performance and temporal variability. The objective of this research was …


Fusing Freight Analysis Framework And Transearch Data: An Econometric Data Fusion Approach, Salah Uddin Momtaz Jan 2018

Fusing Freight Analysis Framework And Transearch Data: An Econometric Data Fusion Approach, Salah Uddin Momtaz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A major hurdle in freight demand modeling has always been the lack of adequate data on freight movements for different industry sectors for planning applications. Freight Analysis Framework (FAF), and Transearch (TS) databases contain annualized commodity flow data. The primary motivation for our study is the development of a fused database from FAF and TS to realize transportation network flows at a fine spatial resolution (county-level) while accommodating for production and consumption behavioral trends (provided by TS). Towards this end, we formulate and estimate a joint econometric model framework grounded in maximum likelihood approach to estimate county-level commodity flows. The …


Econometric Modeling Analysis Of Public Transit Ridership: Application For Orlando Region, Moshiur Rahman Jan 2018

Econometric Modeling Analysis Of Public Transit Ridership: Application For Orlando Region, Moshiur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Policy makers are considering several alternatives to counter the negative externalities of personal vehicle dependence. Towards this end, public transit investments are critical in growing urban regions such as Orlando, Florida. Transit system managers and planners mostly rely on statistical models to identify the factors that affect ridership as well as quantifying the magnitude of the impact on the society. These models provide vital feedback to agencies on the benefits of public transit investments which in turn act as lessons to improve the investment process. We contribute to public transit literature by addressing several methodological challenges for transit ridership modeling. …


Understanding How, Where And How Much Freight Flows Using 2012 Commodity Flow Survey Data, Nowreen Keya Jan 2018

Understanding How, Where And How Much Freight Flows Using 2012 Commodity Flow Survey Data, Nowreen Keya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, with increased economic globalization, growing e-commerce and internet based shopping, freight movement patterns are undergoing a transformative change. The shipment size distribution is moving towards a higher share of smaller size shipments affecting transportation mode and vehicle type requirements. In addition, freight transportation mode is closely affected by the destination location (and its attributes). In our dissertation, we contribute to freight research by developing a comprehensive framework to examine the how, where and how much freight flows in US. Specifically, we study the following dimensions of freight flow: (1) transportation mode, (2) mode and shipment weight choice …


Nondestructive Testing Methods Aided Via Numerical Computation Models For Various Critical Aerospace Power Generation Systems, Peter Warren Jan 2018

Nondestructive Testing Methods Aided Via Numerical Computation Models For Various Critical Aerospace Power Generation Systems, Peter Warren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A current critical necessity for all industries which utilize various equipment that operates in high temperature and extreme environments, is the ability to collect and analyze data via non destructive testing (NDT) methods. Operational conditions and material health must be constantly monitored if components are to be implemented precisely to increase the overall performance and efficiency of the process. Currently in both aerospace and power generation systems there are many methods that are being employed to gather several necessary properties and parameters of a given system. This work will focus primarly on two of these NDT methods, with the ultimate …


Influence Of Transverse Slot Jet On Premixed Flame Acceleration, Dylan Tarrant Jan 2018

Influence Of Transverse Slot Jet On Premixed Flame Acceleration, Dylan Tarrant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work aims to identify the key flow parameters that influence flame acceleration in a semi-confined square channel. A transverse fluidic jet was used as an active flow blockage mechanism and to introduce turbulence into the propagating flame. Three experimental parameters were used to examine the relative influence of (1) mixture reactivity defined here as system equivalence ratio (SER), (2) jet mixture composition (JMC), and the momentum ratio (MR) on the acceleration of laminar premixed methane flame. High-speed PIV and schlieren photography were utilized to characterize the instantaneous flow-field conditions throughout the flame-jet interaction. Using these diagnostic techniques, flame front …


Artificial Neuron Using Mos2/Graphene Threshold Switching Memristor, Hirokjyoti Kalita Jan 2018

Artificial Neuron Using Mos2/Graphene Threshold Switching Memristor, Hirokjyoti Kalita

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the ever-increasing demand for low power electronics, neuromorphic computing has garnered huge interest in recent times. Implementing neuromorphic computing in hardware will be a severe boost for applications involving complex processes such as pattern recognition. Artificial neurons form a critical part in neuromorphic circuits, and have been realized with complex complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry in the past. Recently, insulator-to-metal-transition (IMT) materials have been used to realize artificial neurons. Although memristors have been implemented to realize synaptic behavior, not much work has been reported regarding the neuronal response achieved with these devices. In this work, we study the IMT in …


Different Facial Recognition Techniques In Transform Domains, Taif Al Obaidi Jan 2018

Different Facial Recognition Techniques In Transform Domains, Taif Al Obaidi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The human face is frequently used as the biometric signal presented to a machine for identification purposes. Several challenges are encountered while designing face identification systems. The challenges are either caused by the process of capturing the face image itself, or occur while processing the face poses. Since the face image not only contains the face, this adds to the data dimensionality, and thus degrades the performance of the recognition system. Face Recognition (FR) has been a major signal processing topic of interest in the last few decades. Most common applications of the FR include, forensics, access authorization to facilities, …


Cost And Environmental Impacts Of Leachate Nitrogen/Phosphorus Management Approaches, Alaa Alanezi Jan 2018

Cost And Environmental Impacts Of Leachate Nitrogen/Phosphorus Management Approaches, Alaa Alanezi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Landfill leachate is a challenging wastewater to discharge into municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), the most common approach for leachate management, due to the presence of contaminants that may affect the performance of the treatment plant. Treatment, disposal, and transportation of leachate are expensive and therefore a concern. Currently, sidestream treatment is becoming increasingly common in WWTPs prior to returning the liquid to the plant influent. For this research, a new treatment scheme is introduced combining centrate and leachate to reduce contaminants, recover phosphorous and nitrogen through struvite precipitation, and reduce energy requirements through anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox). By combining …


Safety Investigation Of Traffic Crashes Incorporating Spatial Correlation Effects, Khalid Alkahtani Jan 2018

Safety Investigation Of Traffic Crashes Incorporating Spatial Correlation Effects, Khalid Alkahtani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One main interest in crash frequency modeling is to predict crash counts over a spatial domain of interest (e.g., traffic analysis zones (TAZs)). The macro-level crash prediction models can assist transportation planners with a comprehensive perspective to consider safety in the long-range transportation planning process. Most of the previous studies that have examined traffic crashes at the macro-level are related to high-income countries, whereas there is a lack of similar studies among lower- and middle-income countries where most road traffic deaths (90%) occur. This includes Middle Eastern countries, necessitating a thorough investigation and diagnosis of the issues and factors instigating …


Categorical Range Reporting In 2d Using Wavelet Tree, Swathi Kanthareddy Sumithra Jan 2018

Categorical Range Reporting In 2d Using Wavelet Tree, Swathi Kanthareddy Sumithra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research involved optimizing the space and bounding the output time by the output size in categorical range reporting of points within the given rectangle query Q in two dimension using wavelet trees and range counting. The time taken to report those points and space to tore n points in set S can be done using wavelet tree and range counting. Consider set S consisting of n points in two-dimension. An orthogonal range reporting query rectangle Q = [a,b] x [c,d] on set S is sent to report the set of points in S which interacts with the query rectangle[Q]. …


Managing Io Resource For Co-Running Data Intensive Applications In Virtual Clusters, Dan Huang Jan 2018

Managing Io Resource For Co-Running Data Intensive Applications In Virtual Clusters, Dan Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today Big Data computer platforms employ resource management systems such as Yarn, Torque, Mesos, and Google Borg to enable sharing the physical computing among many users or applications. Given virtualization and resource management systems, users are able to launch their applications on the same node with low mutual interference and management overhead on CPU and memory. However, there are still challenges to be addressed before these systems can be fully adopted to manage the IO resources in Big Data File Systems (BDFS) and shared network facilities. In this study, we mainly study on three IO management problems systematically, in terms …


Simultaneous Measurement Of Isotope-Free Tracer And Interdiffusion Coefficients In Sandwich Type Diffusion Couples, Esin Schulz Jan 2018

Simultaneous Measurement Of Isotope-Free Tracer And Interdiffusion Coefficients In Sandwich Type Diffusion Couples, Esin Schulz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The experimental determination of the tracer or self-diffusion coefficient as a function of composition can be quite burdensome in alloys since separate measurements must be carried out for each alloy composition. A new formalism recently developed by I.V. Belova, N.S. Kulkarni, Y.H. Sohn and G.E. Murch, based on linear response theory combined with the Boltzmann–Matano method allows determination of tracer and interdiffusion coefficients simultaneously from a single, isotope-free solid to solid diffusion couple experiment. In this study, for the first time, an experimental investigation with an analytical approach based on the new formalism has been carried out in the binary …


A Localized Blended Rbf Collocation Method For Effective Shock Capturing, Michael Harris Jan 2018

A Localized Blended Rbf Collocation Method For Effective Shock Capturing, Michael Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Solving partial differential equations (PDEs) can require numerical methods, especially for non-linear problems and complex geometry. Common numerical methods used today are the finite difference method (FDM), finite element method (FEM) and the finite volume method (FVM). These methods require a mesh or grid before a solution is attempted. Developing the mesh can require expensive preprocessing time and the quality of the mesh can have major effects on the solution. In recent years, meshless methods have become a research interest due to the simplicity of using scattered data points. Many types of meshless methods exist stemming from the spectral or …


Flutter Stability Of Shrouded Turbomachinery Cascades With Nonlinear Frictional Damping, Alex Torkaman Jan 2018

Flutter Stability Of Shrouded Turbomachinery Cascades With Nonlinear Frictional Damping, Alex Torkaman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prediction of flutter in shrouded turbomachinery cascades is difficult due to i) coupling of aerodynamic drivers and structural dynamics of the cascade through shrouds, and ii) presence of nonlinear dry friction damping as a result of relative motion between adjacent shrouds. An analytical framework is developed in this dissertation to determine flutter stability of shrouded cascades with consideration of friction damping. This framework is an extension to the well-established energy method, and it includes all contributing factors affecting stability of the cascade such as aerodynamic excitation and the stabilizing effects of dry friction damping caused by nonlinear contact forces between …


Evaluation And Augmentation Of Traffic Data From Private Sector And Bluetooth Detection System On Arterials, Yaobang Gong Jan 2018

Evaluation And Augmentation Of Traffic Data From Private Sector And Bluetooth Detection System On Arterials, Yaobang Gong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traffic data are essential for public agencies to monitor the traffic condition of the roadway network in real-time. Recently, public agencies have implemented Bluetooth Detection Systems (BDS) on arterials to collect traffic data and purchased data directly from private sector vendors. However, the quality and reliability of the aforementioned two data sources are subject to rigorous evaluation. The thesis presents a study utilizing high-resolution GPS trajectories to evaluate data from HERE, one of the private sector data vendors, and BDS of arterial corridors in Orlando, Florida. The results showed that the accuracy and reliability of BDS data are better than …


Probing The Effects Of Substrate Stiffness On Astrocytes Mechanics, Ariege Bizanti Jan 2018

Probing The Effects Of Substrate Stiffness On Astrocytes Mechanics, Ariege Bizanti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Astrocytes are among the most functionally diverse population of cells in the central nervous system (CNS) as they are essential to many important neurological functions including maintaining brain homeostasis, regulating the blood brain barrier, and preventing build-up of toxic substances within the brain, for example. Astrocyte importance to brain physiology and pathology has inspired a host of studies focused on understanding astrocyte behavior primarily from a biological and chemical perspective. However, a clear understanding of astrocyte dysfunction and their link to disease has been hampered by a lack of knowledge of astrocyte behavior from a biomechanical perspective. Furthermore, astrocytes (and …


Adiabatic Film Cooling Effectiveness Of A Transpiration-Cooled Leading Edge Fabricated By Laser Additive Manufacturing, Luisana Calderon Jan 2018

Adiabatic Film Cooling Effectiveness Of A Transpiration-Cooled Leading Edge Fabricated By Laser Additive Manufacturing, Luisana Calderon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) is an emerging technology capable of fabricating complex geometries not possibly made by investment casting methods for gas turbine applications. LAM techniques consist of building parts in a layer-by-layer process by selectively melting metal powders. In the present study, a mock leading edge segment of a turbine blade fabricated by LAM of Inconel 718 powders is investigated. For this particular design, the traditional showerhead film cooling holes have been replaced by two strips containing engineered-porous regions with the purpose of simulating the effect of transpiration cooling. Transpiration cooling has been considered a promising external convective cooling …


Evaluating The Integration Of Chlorine Dioxide Into A Coagulation, Sedimentation, And Filtration Process Treating Surface Water, Martin Coleman Jan 2018

Evaluating The Integration Of Chlorine Dioxide Into A Coagulation, Sedimentation, And Filtration Process Treating Surface Water, Martin Coleman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Methods of optimizing the coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration (CSF) process at a conventional surface water treatment plant (WTP) were conducted to investigate opportunities for the reduction of disinfection by-product (DBP) precursor material. The research had two primary components: (1) optimize coagulant dosage and associated operating pH and (2) investigate pretreatment oxidation with chlorine dioxide (ClO2) and potassium permanganate (KMnO4). To accomplish the first component, jar tests were conducted at various pH and aluminum sulfate (alum) dosages to model current and potential treatment conditions during the CSF process at a WTP. Isopleths were developed to examine the removal efficiencies of …


Accommodating Exogenous Variable And Decision Rule Heterogeneity In Discrete Choice Models: Application To Bicyclist Route Choice, Bibhas Dey Jan 2018

Accommodating Exogenous Variable And Decision Rule Heterogeneity In Discrete Choice Models: Application To Bicyclist Route Choice, Bibhas Dey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thesis contributes to our understanding of incorporating heterogeneity in discrete choice models with respect to exogenous variables and decision rules. Specifically, we evaluate latent segmentation based mixed models that allow for segmenting population based on decision rules while also incorporating unobserved heterogeneity within the segment level decision rule models. In our analysis, we choose to consider the random utility framework along with random regret minimization approach. Further, instead of assuming the number of segments (as 2), we conduct an exhaustive exploration with multiple segments across the two decision rules. Within each segment we also allow for unobserved heterogeneity. The …