Engineering Commons^™

Multichannel Low-Cost Sensor For Iaq Monitoring: Implementation And Guidelines, Isaac Ntiamoah

LSU Master's Theses

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is adversely affected by both indoor and outdoor environments, and rental homes occupied by low-income families suffer the most. Poor indoor air can be detrimental to the health of occupants, especially for susceptible populations like those with respiratory diseases such as asthma. Although IAQ monitoring is necessary, it is a challenging, costly, and time-intensive task. Moreover, the protocol for assessing IAQ in residential settings varies, and additional research is needed to establish a standard operating procedure that incorporates new monitoring technologies, such as low-cost air sensors. However, there is a dearth of comprehensive, evidence-based protocols for …

The Impact Of Case Management Intervention For Insured Asthma Patients In Louisiana, An Empirical Study, Mohamed Mohamed Ohaiba

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Asthma is a chronic condition whose symptoms are managed/prevented using medication and interventions. The overarching objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of patients' demographics on case management enrollment and healthcare utilization, as well as to develop machine learning models to predict high-cost patients.

To accomplish these goals, the Man-Whiteness test, the chi-squares test, logistic regression and odds ratios, and machine learning models were implemented. The average cost of the non-enrolled CM group was significantly higher than the enrolled group (p-value .0001). In addition, the non-enrolled groups had considerably more visits to the emergency department than the other …

Effect Of Automation Level On Cognitive Workload When Collaborating With A Robotic Assistant, Mitchell A. Champagne

LSU Master's Theses

Manufacturing robotics have been used for decades to perform repetitive tasks, or tasks that require increased levels of speed, strength, or precision to meet production and specification requirements. Determining the appropriate degree of automation for both the human and robot collaborative team members is critical to optimize production as well as user experience. If the degree of automation is too high, the human will be out of the loop which can result in the loss of situational awareness and be detrimental to intervention time and accuracy. If the degree of automation is too low, then the human may experience greater …

A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach With Prioritized Experience Replay And Importance Factor For Makespan Minimization In Manufacturing, Jose Napoleon Martinez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this research, we investigated the application of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to a common manufacturing scheduling optimization problem, max makespan minimization. In this application, tasks are scheduled to undergo processing in identical processing units (for instance, identical machines, machining centers, or cells). The optimization goal is to assign the jobs to be scheduled to units to minimize the maximum processing time (i.e., makespan) on any unit.

Machine learning methods have the potential to "learn" structures in the distribution of job times that could lead to improved optimization performance and time over traditional optimization methods, as well as to adapt …

Designing For The Future: Sensor And Gauge Assembly Work Cell Design, Kaitryana Leinbach

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

An Improved Earned Value Management Method Integrating Quality And Safety, Brian Briggs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The construction industry invests significant time and money to improve quality and safety while reducing cost and schedule impacts. The industry has a sincere desire to improve construction project management methods to improve efficiency. Historically, quality and safety underperformances result from undermanaged quality control and safety activities. The cost and schedule impacts associated with poor quality work have always had an impact on construction operations. The unprecedented challenges and uncertainties of COVID-19 highlighted the need to improve the Earned Value Management (EVM) method within construction to reflect these quality and safety activities. The central goal of this dissertation is to …

The Effect Of Aircraft Manufacturing Riveting Tools On Hand-Arm Vibrations And Muscle Fatigue, Lou Toua Vi

LSU Master's Theses

The overall objective of this research was to compare four types of rivet guns varying by manufacturer and piston material (Tungsten vs. Steel), two rivet gun handle positions (Horizontal and Vertical), and three bucking bars including two with similar dimensions bars made of tungsten and steel, and a Honsa new technology spring dampener and tungsten combined bucking bar based on their impact on hand-arm vibrations and the effect of these vibration levels on muscle fatigue. This objective was covered in three parts. The first part consisted of examining the impact of these factors on riveters’ vibration exposure and muscle fatigue, …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Continuing Education At Emergency Medical Services, Tasmia Mustaquim

LSU Master's Theses

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) require staff to recertify periodically, which involves a significant amount of continuing education. Great effort is given to designing and delivering a continuing education program, but it is also important to know if the training had all of the intended impacts. Nationally, there is no evidence-based system in place for training evaluation at EMS. This research proposes a framework being used at East Baton Rouge Parish Emergency Medical Services (EBRP-EMS) to evaluate a course, generate reports to indicate the performance of staff, and identify areas of improvement.

The Kirkpatrick Model, which is a 4-level evaluation, is …

Barriers And Facilitators Influencing Compliance With Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Protocol: A Qualitative Study, Paige Boudreaux

LSU Master's Theses

Standardization in many industries has proven to lead to improved productivity and efficiency, however, standard practice in healthcare has proven difficult due to patient and physician variation. Evidence-based practices provide an opportunity to create more standardization. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programs are attempting to standardize the surgical pathways of patients by implementing standard evidence-based steps, beginning in the surgeons office and continuing through a patients discharge (Ljungqvist, Scott, & Fearon, 2017). Implementing ERAS to standardize the surgical care of patients has shown to improve patient outcomes, reduce length of stay and reduce readmissions, however, there is a lack of …

Rfid Item-Level Tagging In A Grocery Store Environment, Brian Truman

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to investigate how effective item-level Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging would be using current RFID technology as a replacement for barcodes in a supermarket/grocery store environment.

To accomplish this, an experiment was be performed that utilized commercially available RFID technology. Passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID Tags were affixed to various grocery store items of different material categories (Food, Metal, Plastic, Liquid, and Glass), and placed in a metal shopping cart. Eight (8) antenna arrangements were created, comprised of different combinations of four (4) antennas in different locations around the cart.

The experiment was …

Systems Approach To Evaluating Mih-Cp (Mobile Integrated Healthcare – Community Paramedicine): A Case Study Of East Baton Rouge Parish (Ebrp) Emergency Medical Services (Ems) Community Paramedicine Program Initiative, Oluwakemi Aiyedun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study applied a holistic method of healthcare program assessment, known as systems approach, to evaluate the efficacy of the East Baton Rouge Parish (EBRP) EMS Community-integrated Health Program (CIHP). The author developed assessment metrics following the Quadruple Aim Framework: IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement) Triple Aim + Provider Experience.

Results showed that the CP program in this study delivers high ratings on patient experience and provided a 51% return on investment (ROI) through reduced emergency service utilization, ED visits and inpatient hospital admissions. However, findings did not demonstrate meaningful improvement in patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and self-efficacy …

Identifying Key Factors Associated With High Risk Asthma Patients To Reduce The Cost Of Health Resources Utilization, Amani Ahmad

LSU Master's Theses

Asthma is associated with frequent use of primary health services and places a burden on the United States economy. Identifying key factors associated with increased cost of asthma is an essential step to improve practices of asthma management.

The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with over utilization of primary health services and increased cost via claims data and to explore the effectiveness of case management program in reducing overall asthma related cost.

Claims data analysis for Medicaid insured asthma patients in Louisiana was conducted. Asthma patients were identified using their ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, forward variable …

The Effect Of Rest Period On Fatigue Using Electromyography During Manual Lifting, Nandakumar Prabhakar

LSU Master's Theses

Manual materials handing (MMH) is the main cause and concern for injuries in the working population which lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). MSDs significantly contribute to the cost of workers’ compensation and loss of productivity, thus impacting economy of the United States. MSDs are mainly caused due to over exertion and fatigue experienced by workers involved in manual materials handling. In addition to over-exertion and fatigue, lack of short and frequent rest intervals between tasks contributes to the risk of MSDs. The objective of this research was to study the effect of rest period on muscle fatigue using electromyography (EMG) …

Quality Function Deployment Method And Its Application On Wearable Technology Product Development, Mir Salahuddin

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate consumers and product developer’s expectations of wearable technology products in the context of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) framework. The specific objectives were to: 1) Explore the quality features that consumers consider most important when purchasing wearable technology product. 2) Explore the technical features product developers consider most important in the development of wearable technology. 3) Identify the technical features that wearable technology product developers need to focus on to meet the customer requirements.

The Qualtrix online survey system was used to collect demographic, quantitative and essay length written responses from participants. …

The Evaluation Of The Integration Of Sustainability In Industrial Engineering Education At Louisiana State University, Kloe’ M. Liner

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.