Engineering Commons^™

Multi-Dimensional Drought Risk Assessment Based On Socio-Economic Vulnerabilities And Hydro-Climatological Factors, Ali Ahmadalipour

Dissertations and Theses

Drought is among the costliest natural hazards developing slowly and affecting large areas, which imposes severe consequences on society and economy. Anthropogenic climate change is expected to exacerbate drought in various regions of the globe, making its associated socioeconomic impacts more severe. Such impacts are of higher concern in Africa, which is mainly characterized by arid climate and lacking infrastructure as well as social development. Furthermore, the continent is expected to experience vast population growth, which will make it more vulnerable to the adverse effects of drought. This study provides the first comprehensive multi-dimensional assessment of drought risk across the …

Analysis Of The Acid-Base Balance Of Mainstream Tobacco Smoke And Its Effect On The Gas/Particle Partitioning Of Nicotine, Amy Kathleen Devita-Mcbride

Dissertations and Theses

Tobacco smoke particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of condensed organic compounds, with about 5 to 10% water. Its general properties are similar in some respects to that of atmospheric organic aerosol PM and thus provides a useful surrogate when studying atmospheric PM. Due to its ability to undergo acid-base chemistry, nicotine is of particular interest in the tobacco smoke system. The gas/particle partitioning of nicotine depends on the protonation state of nicotine in the particles, so the distribution of nicotine between these phases provides a means of understanding the acid-base balance in the tobacco smoke system. The goal …

Generalized Differential Calculus And Applications To Optimization, R. Blake Rector

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis contains contributions in three areas: the theory of generalized calculus, numerical algorithms for operations research, and applications of optimization to problems in modern electric power systems. A geometric approach is used to advance the theory and tools used for studying generalized notions of derivatives for nonsmooth functions. These advances specifically pertain to methods for calculating subdifferentials and to expanding our understanding of a certain notion of derivative of set-valued maps, called the coderivative, in infinite dimensions. A strong understanding of the subdifferential is essential for numerical optimization algorithms, which are developed and applied to nonsmooth problems in operations …

Utilization Of Remote Sensing In Drought Monitoring Over Iraq, Yousif Almamalachy

Dissertations and Theses

Agricultural drought is a creeping disaster that overshadows the vegetative cover in general and cropland specifically in Iraq, a country that was well known for its agricultural production and fertile soil. In the recent years, the arable lands in Iraq experienced increasing land degradation that led to desertification, economic losses, food insecurity, and deteriorating environment. Remote sensing is employed in this study and four different indices are utilized, each of which is derived from MODIS satellite mission products. Agricultural drought maps are produced from 2003 to 2015 after masking the vegetation cover. Year 2008 was found the most severe drought …

Application Of Numerical Modeling To Study River Dynamics: Hydro-Geomorphological Evolution Due To Extreme Events In The Sandy River, Oregon, Sarkawt Hamarahim Muhammad

Dissertations and Theses

The Sandy River (OR) is a coastal tributary of the Columbia River and has a steep hydroshed 1316 square kilometers which is located on the western side of Mount Hood (elevation range 3 m to 1800 m). The system exhibits highly variable flow: Its average discharge is ~40 m³/s, and the highest recorded discharge was 1739 m³/s in 1964. In this study I model the geomorphic sensitivity of an 1800m reach located the downstream of the former Marmot Dam, which was removed in 2007. The hydro-geomorphic response to major flood has implications for system management and …

Power-Aware Datacenter Networking And Optimization, Qing Yi

Dissertations and Theses

Present-day datacenter networks (DCNs) are designed to achieve full bisection bandwidth in order to provide high network throughput and server agility. However, the average utilization of typical DCN infrastructure is below 10% for significant time intervals. As a result, energy is wasted during these periods. In this thesis we analyze traffic behavior of datacenter networks using traces as well as simulated models. Based on the insight developed, we present techniques to reduce energy waste by making energy use scale linearly with load. The solutions developed are analyzed via simulations, formal analysis, and prototyping. The impact of our work is significant …

Hydrodynamic And Water Quality Modeling Of The Chehalis River Using Ce-Qual-W2, Sarah Van Glubt

Dissertations and Theses

The Chehalis River Basin is located in the southwest region of Washington State, originating in the Olympic Mountains and flowing to Grays Harbor and the Pacific Ocean. The Chehalis River is over 125 miles, exists within five counties, and flows through agricultural, residential, industrial, and forest land areas. Four major rivers discharge to the Chehalis River, as well as many smaller creeks, five wastewater treatment plants, and groundwater flows.

Flooding is a major problem in the relatively flat areas surrounding the cities of Chehalis and Centralia, with severe consequences for property, safety and transportation. As a result, construction of a …

Enzymatically Active Microspheres For Self-Propelled Colloidal Engines, Jungeun Park

Dissertations and Theses

Micro- and nano-motors have attracted numerous attentions from various scientific areas due to their potential applications. Most studies on self-propelled colloidal engines have exploited catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to drive the motor. Since the hydrogen peroxide is caustic, it is not suitable to use in biological applications, encouraging people to develop “greener” fuels. The aim of this research is to study a new transduction mechanism for self-propulsion not tied to hydrogen peroxide, and which can in particular be used with biological molecules as fuels. In this study, we focus on making particles with enzymatic activity which can effectively decompose …

2d Vector Map And Database Design For Indoor Assisted Navigation, Luciano Caraciolo Albuquerque

Dissertations and Theses

In this paper we implemented a 2D Vector Map, map editor and Database design intended to provide an efficient way to convert cad files from indoor environments to a set of vectors representing hallways, doors, exits, elevators, and other entities embedded in a floor plan, and save them in a database for use by other applications, such as assisted navigation for blind people.

A graphical application as developed in C++ to allow the user to input a CAD DXF file, process the file to automatically obtain nodes and edges, and save the nodes and edges to a database for posterior …