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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

High Flux Isolated Attosecond Pulse Generation, Yi Wu Jan 2013

High Flux Isolated Attosecond Pulse Generation, Yi Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis outlines the high intensity tabletop attosecond extreme ultraviolet laser source at the Institute for the Frontier of Attosecond Science and Technology Laboratory. First, a unique Ti:Sapphire chirped pulse amplifier laser system that delivers 14 fs pulses with 300 mJ energy at a 10 Hz repetition rate was designed and built. The broadband spectrum extending from 700 nm to 900 nm was obtained by seeding a two stage Ti:Sapphire chirped pulse power amplifier with mJ-level white light pulses from a gas filled hollow core fiber. It is the highest energy level ever achieved by a broadband pulse in a …


Understanding The Capabilities And Limitations Of Advanced Interactive M&S: A Cricothyroidotomy Simulation Case Study, Lillian Campbell-Wynn Jan 2013

Understanding The Capabilities And Limitations Of Advanced Interactive M&S: A Cricothyroidotomy Simulation Case Study, Lillian Campbell-Wynn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Simulation for surgical education and training is increasingly perceived as a valuable contribution to traditional teaching methods providing a structured learning experience. Surgical simulations allow surgeons to practice tactics, techniques and procedures numerous times without the cost, limitations and ethical problems of using cadaver-based models. The goal of this research is to advance the use of modeling and simulation in support of emergency medical training. This research explores questions identified through a case study of two different modeling and simulation techniques – virtual reality and mannequins - in the support of combat emergency medical education and training. To reduce the …


Design Optimization Of Llc Topology And Phase Skipping Control Of Three Phase Inverter For Pv Applications, Utsav Somani Jan 2013

Design Optimization Of Llc Topology And Phase Skipping Control Of Three Phase Inverter For Pv Applications, Utsav Somani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The world is heading towards an energy crisis and desperate efforts are being made to find an alternative, reliable and clean source of energy. Solar Energy is one of the most clean and reliable source of renewable energy on earth. Conventionally, extraction of solar power for electricity generation was limited to PV farms, however lately Distributed Generation form of Solar Power has emerged in the form of residential and commercial Grid Tied Micro-Inverters. Grid Tied Micro-Inverters are costly when compared to their string type counterparts because one inverter module is required for every single or every two PV panels whereas …


First Principle Studies Of Cu-Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Structures With Emphasis On The Electronic Structures And The Transport Properties, Chengyu Yang Jan 2013

First Principle Studies Of Cu-Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Structures With Emphasis On The Electronic Structures And The Transport Properties, Chengyu Yang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbon nanotubes have been regarded as ideal building blocks for nanoelectronics and multifunctional nanocomposites due to their exceptional strength, stiffness, flexibility, as well as their excellent electrical properties. However, carbon nanotube itself has limitations to fulfill the practical application needs: 1) an individual carbon nanotube has a low density of states at the Fermi level, and thus its conductivity is only comparable to moderate metals but lower than that of copper. 2) Metallic and semiconducting nanotubes are inherently mixed together from the synthesis, and the selection/separation is very difficult with very low efficiency. 3) Carbon nanotubes alone cannot be used …


Routing, Localization And Positioning Protocols For Wireless Sensor And Actor Networks, Mustafa Akbas Jan 2013

Routing, Localization And Positioning Protocols For Wireless Sensor And Actor Networks, Mustafa Akbas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs) are distributed systems of sensor nodes and actors that are interconnected over the wireless medium. Sensor nodes collect information about the physical world and transmit the data to actors by using one-hop or multi-hop communications. Actors collect information from the sensor nodes, process the information, take decisions and react to the events. This dissertation presents contributions to the methods of routing, localization and positioning in WSANs for practical applications. We first propose a routing protocol with service differentiation for WSANs with stationary nodes. In this setting, we also adapt a sports ranking algorithm to …


The Study Of Photo-Reduction Of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles In Presence Of Dextran: An Attempt In Understanding The Functionality Of The System, Swetha Barkam Jan 2013

The Study Of Photo-Reduction Of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles In Presence Of Dextran: An Attempt In Understanding The Functionality Of The System, Swetha Barkam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Malignant melanoma cancer is the sixth common cancer diagnosed in the United States. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are some of the successful techniques in killing tumor cells. However, in these techniques, it is not easy to distinguish tumor cells from the healthy once which inadvertently get exposed to chemical agent/radiation. Therefore it is required to develop an anticancer agent which selectively kills the cancer cells, while still protecting the normal tissues. In our preliminary work, we have shown that Dextran (1000Da) coated Cerium oxide nanoparticles (Dex-CNPs) selectively kills the cancer cells (50% killing at a concentration of 150μM) without inducing …


Influence Of Task-Role Mental Models On Human Interpretation Of Robot Motion Behavior, Scott Ososky Jan 2013

Influence Of Task-Role Mental Models On Human Interpretation Of Robot Motion Behavior, Scott Ososky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The transition in robotics from tools to teammates has begun. However, the benefit autonomous robots provide will be diminished if human teammates misinterpret robot behaviors. Applying mental model theory as the organizing framework for human understanding of robots, the current empirical study examined the influence of task-role mental models of robots on the interpretation of robot motion behaviors, and the resulting impact on subjective ratings of robots. Observers (N = 120) were exposed to robot behaviors that were either congruent or incongruent with their task-role mental model, by experimental manipulation of preparatory robot task-role information to influence mental models (i.e., …


The Effects Of Assumption On Subspace Identification Using Simulation And Experiment Data, Yoonhwak Kim Jan 2013

The Effects Of Assumption On Subspace Identification Using Simulation And Experiment Data, Yoonhwak Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the modern dynamic engineering field, experimental dynamics is an important area of study. This area includes structural dynamics, structural control, and structural health monitoring. In experimental dynamics, methods to obtain measured data have seen a great influx of research efforts to develop an accurate and reliable experimental analysis result. A technical challenge is the procurement of informative data that exhibits the desired system information. In many cases, the number of sensors is limited by cost and difficulty of data archive. Furthermore, some informative data has technical difficulty when measuring input force and, even if obtaining the desired data were …


Optically Induced Forces In Scanning Probe Microscopy, Dana Kohlgraf-Owens Jan 2013

Optically Induced Forces In Scanning Probe Microscopy, Dana Kohlgraf-Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation is the study of measuring light not by energy transfer as is done with a standard photodetector such as a photographic film or charged coupled device, but rather by the forces which the light exerts on matter. In this manner we are able to replace or complement standard photodetector-based light detection techniques. One key attribute of force detection is that it permits the measurement of light over a very large range of frequencies including those which are difficult to access with standard photodetectors, such as the far IR and THz. The dissertation addresses the specific …


Nano-Particles In Multi-Scale Composites And Ballistic Applications, Jason Gibson Jan 2013

Nano-Particles In Multi-Scale Composites And Ballistic Applications, Jason Gibson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbon nanotubes, graphene and nano sized core shell rubber particles have all been extensively researched for their capability to improve mechanical properties of thermoset resins. However, there has been a lack of research on their evaluation for energy absorption in high velocity impact scenarios, and the fundamental mechanics of their failure mechanisms during highly dynamic stress transfer through the matrix. This fundamental research is essential for laying the foundation for improvement in ballistic performance in composite armor. In hard armor applications, energy absorption is largely accomplished through delamination between plies of the composite laminate. This energy absorption is accomplished through …


Polymer Optical Fibers For Luminescent Solar Concentration, Esmaeil Banaei Jan 2013

Polymer Optical Fibers For Luminescent Solar Concentration, Esmaeil Banaei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSC’s) are promising candidates for reducing the cost of solar power generation. Conventional LSC’s are slab waveguides coated or doped with luminescence materials for absorption and guiding of light to the slab edges in order to convert optical energy into electricity via attached photovoltaic (PV) cells. Exploiting the advantages of optical fiber production, a fiber LSC (FLSC) is presented in this thesis, in which the waveguide is a polymeric optical fiber. A hybrid fiber structure is proposed for an efficient two-stage concentration of incident light, first into a small doped core using a cylindrical micro-lens that extends …


Heat And Fluid Flow Characterization Of A Single-Hole-Per-Row Impingement Channel At Multiple Impingement Heights, Roberto Claretti Jan 2013

Heat And Fluid Flow Characterization Of A Single-Hole-Per-Row Impingement Channel At Multiple Impingement Heights, Roberto Claretti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present work studies the relationship between target and sidewall surfaces of a multirow, narrow impingement channel at various jet heights with one impingement hole per row. Temperature sensitive paint and constant flux heaters are used to gather heat transfer data on the target and side walls. Jet-to-target distance is set to 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 jet diameters. The channel width is 4 jet diameters and the jet stream wise spacing is 5 jet diameters. All cases were run at Reynolds numbers ranging from 5,000 to 30,000. Pressure data is also gathered and used to calculate the …


Bio-Inspired Cooperative Optimal Trajectory Planning For Autonomous Vehicles, Charles Remeikas Jan 2013

Bio-Inspired Cooperative Optimal Trajectory Planning For Autonomous Vehicles, Charles Remeikas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the recent trend for systems to be more and more autonomous, there is a growing need for cooperative trajectory planning. Applications that can be considered as cooperative systems such as surveying, formation flight, and traffic control need a method that can rapidly produce trajectories while considering all of the constraints on the system. Currently most of the existing methods to handle cooperative control are based around either simple dynamics and/or on the assumption that all vehicles have homogeneous properties. In reality, typical autonomous systems will have heterogeneous, nonlinear dynamics while also being subject to extreme constraints on certain state …


Integrated Data Fusion And Mining (Idfm) Technique For Monitoring Water Quality In Large And Small Lakes, Benjamin Vannah Jan 2013

Integrated Data Fusion And Mining (Idfm) Technique For Monitoring Water Quality In Large And Small Lakes, Benjamin Vannah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Monitoring water quality on a near-real-time basis to address water resources management and public health concerns in coupled natural systems and the built environment is by no means an easy task. Furthermore, this emerging societal challenge will continue to grow, due to the ever-increasing anthropogenic impacts upon surface waters. For example, urban growth and agricultural operations have led to an influx of nutrients into surface waters stimulating harmful algal bloom formation, and stormwater runoff from urban areas contributes to the accumulation of total organic carbon (TOC) in surface waters. TOC in surface waters is a known precursor of disinfection byproducts …


Analysis And Design Optimization Of Multiphase Converter, Kejiu Zhang Jan 2013

Analysis And Design Optimization Of Multiphase Converter, Kejiu Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Future microprocessors pose many challenges to the power conversion techniques. Multiphase synchronous buck converters have been widely used in high current low voltage microprocessor application. Design optimization needs to be carefully carried out with pushing the envelope specification and ever increasing concentration towards power saving features. In this work, attention has been focused on dynamic aspects of multiphase synchronous buck design. The power related issues and optimizations have been comprehensively investigated in this paper. In the first chapter, multiphase DC-DC conversion is presented with background application. Adaptive voltage positioning and various nonlinear control schemes are evaluated. Design optimization are presented …


Self-Assembled Two-Component Organic Tubes: Structures And Applications, Wenlang Liang Jan 2013

Self-Assembled Two-Component Organic Tubes: Structures And Applications, Wenlang Liang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bile acids are physiologically important metabolites, which are synthesized in liver as the end products of cholesterol metabolism and then secreted into the intestines. They play a critical role in the digestion and absorption of fats and fat-soluble vitamins through emulsifications. The amphipathic and chiral nature of bile acids makes their unique building blocks for assembling supramolecular structures including vesicles, fibers, ribbons and hollow tubes. Lithocholic acid (LCA) is a secondary bile acid. Our studies show LCA can selfassemble into helical tubes in aqueous solution by the linear aggregation and fusion of vesicles. The objective of this dissertation is to …


Vision-Based Sensing And Optimal Control For Low-Cost And Small Satellite Platforms, Bradley Sease Jan 2013

Vision-Based Sensing And Optimal Control For Low-Cost And Small Satellite Platforms, Bradley Sease

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current trends in spacecraft are leading to smaller, more inexpensive options whenever possible. This shift has been primarily pursued for the opportunity to open a new frontier for technologies with a small financial obligation. Limited power, processing, pointing, and communication capabilities are all common issues which must be considered when miniaturizing systems and implementing low-cost components. This thesis addresses some of these concerns by applying two methods, in attitude estimation and control. Additionally, these methods are not restricted to only small, inexpensive satellites, but offer a benefit to large-scale spacecraft as well. First, star cameras are examined for the tendency …


Success In Technology Organizations, Joseph Bass Jan 2013

Success In Technology Organizations, Joseph Bass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today’s economic environment, it is advantageous for technology organizations to be cognizant of prevalent influences on success and failure and to incorporate this knowledge into their business and innovation strategies. Technology organizations were defined within this research as those in the business of created competence which is expressed in terms of entities consisting of devices, procedures, and acquired human skills (Clarke, 2005). Although, no organization contains the ideal mix of culture and ideological emphases, some have amassed impressive track records of great success. A literature review was used to identify factors relevant within similar contexts such as influences on …


Total Ownership Cost Modeling Of Technology Adoption Using System Dynamics: Implications For Erp Systems, Behzad Esmaeilian Jan 2013

Total Ownership Cost Modeling Of Technology Adoption Using System Dynamics: Implications For Erp Systems, Behzad Esmaeilian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Investment in new technologies is considered by firms as a solution to improve their productivity, product and service quality and their competitive advantages in the global market. Unfortunately, not all technology adoption projects have met their intended objectives. The complexity of technology adoption along with little consideration of the long term cost of the technology, are among the factors that challenge companies while adopting a new technology. Companies often make new technology adoption decision without enough attention to the total cost of the technology over its lifecycle. Sometimes poor decision making while adopting a new technology can result in substantial …


Ultrafast Laser Material Processing For Photonic Applications, Mark Ramme Jan 2013

Ultrafast Laser Material Processing For Photonic Applications, Mark Ramme

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Femtosecond Laser Direct Writing (FLDW) is a viable technique for producing photonic devices in bulk materials. This novel manufacturing technique is versatile due to its full 3D fabrication capability. Typically, the only requirement for this process is that the base material must be transparent to the laser wavelength. The modification process itself is based on non-linear energy absorption of laser light within the focal volume of the incident beam. This thesis addresses the feasibility of this technique for introducing photonic structures into novel dielectric materials. Additionally, this work provides a deeper understanding of the lightmatter interaction mechanism occurring at high …


Ytterbium-Doped Fiber-Seeded Thin-Disk Master Oscillator Power Amplifier Laser System, Christina Willis-Ott Jan 2013

Ytterbium-Doped Fiber-Seeded Thin-Disk Master Oscillator Power Amplifier Laser System, Christina Willis-Ott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lasers which operate at both high average power and energy are in demand for a wide range of applications such as materials processing, directed energy and EUV generation. Presented in this dissertation is a high-power 1 μm ytterbium-based hybrid laser system with temporally tailored pulse shaping capability and up to 62 mJ pulses, with the expectation the system can scale to higher pulse energies. This hybrid system consists of a low power fiber seed and pre-amplifier, and a solid state thin-disk regenerative amplifier. This system has been designed to generate high power temporally tailored pulses on the nanosecond time scale. …


High Energy, High Average Power, Picosecond Laser Systems To Drive Few-Cycle Opcpa, Andreas Vaupel Jan 2013

High Energy, High Average Power, Picosecond Laser Systems To Drive Few-Cycle Opcpa, Andreas Vaupel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The invention of chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) in 1985 led to a tremendous increase in obtainable laser pulse peak intensities. Since then, several table-top, Ti:sapphire-based CPA systems exceeding the 100 TW-level with more than 10 W average power have been developed and several systems are now commercially available. Over the last decade, the complementary technology of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) has improved in its performance to a competitive level. OPCPA allows direct amplification of an almost-octave spanning bandwidth supporting few-cycle pulse durations at center wavelengths ranging from the visible to the mid-IR. The current record in peak power from a …


Pulsed Tm-Fiber Laser For Mid-Ir Generation, Pankaj Kadwani Jan 2013

Pulsed Tm-Fiber Laser For Mid-Ir Generation, Pankaj Kadwani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thulium fiber laser has gained interest due to its long emission wavelength, large bandwidth (~1.8 – 2.1 µm), high efficiencies (~60 %), and high output power levels both in cw as well as pulsed regimes. Applications like remote sensing, machining, medical tissue ablation, and mid-infrared generation benefit from high peak power thulium laser sources. Pulsed thulium fiber laser systems are advancing rapidly towards higher peak power levels and are becoming the preferred sources for these applications. This dissertation work describes the development of novel nanosecond pulsed thulium fiber laser systems with record high peak power levels targeting mid-infrared generation. …


Load Estimation For Electric Power Distribution Networks, Chiebuka Eyisi Jan 2013

Load Estimation For Electric Power Distribution Networks, Chiebuka Eyisi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In electric power distribution systems, the major determinant in electricity supply strategy is the quantity of demand. Customers need to be accurately represented using updated nodal load information as a requirement for efficient control and operation of the distribution network. In Distribution Load Estimation (DLE), two major categories of data are utilized: historical data and direct real-time measured data. In this thesis, a comprehensive survey on the state-of-the-art methods for estimating loads in distribution networks is presented. Then, a novel method for representing historical data in the form of Representative Load Curves (RLCs) for use in realtime DLE is also …


Fast-Response Liquid Crystals For Photonic And Display Applications, Jie Sun Jan 2013

Fast-Response Liquid Crystals For Photonic And Display Applications, Jie Sun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Liquid crystal devices are attractive for many applications such as information displays, spatial light modulators and adaptive optics, because their optical properties are electrically tunable. However, response time of liquid crystal devices is a serious concern for many applications especially for those who require large phase modulation (≥2π). This is because a thick LC layer is usually needed to achieve a large phase shift while the response time of a nematic LC is highly determined by the cell gap.


Investigating The Universality And Comprehensive Ability Of Measures To Assess The State Of Workload, Julian Abich Jan 2013

Investigating The Universality And Comprehensive Ability Of Measures To Assess The State Of Workload, Julian Abich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Measures of workload have been developed on the basis of the various definitions, some are designed to capture the multi-dimensional aspects of a unitary resource pool (Kahneman, 1973) while others are developed on the basis of multiple resource theory (Wickens, 2002). Although many theory based workload measures exist, others have often been constructed to serve the purpose of specific experimental tasks. As a result, it is likely that not every workload measure is reliable and valid for all tasks, much less each domain. To date, no single measure, systematically tested across experimental tasks, domains, and other measures is considered a …


An Exploration Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Direct Manipulation Through 3d Spatial Interaction, Kevin Pfeil Jan 2013

An Exploration Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Direct Manipulation Through 3d Spatial Interaction, Kevin Pfeil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We present an exploration that surveys the strengths and weaknesses of various 3D spatial interaction techniques, in the context of directly manipulating an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Particularly, a study of touch- and device- free interfaces in this domain is provided. 3D spatial interaction can be achieved using hand-held motion control devices such as the Nintendo Wiimote, but computer vision systems offer a different and perhaps more natural method. In general, 3D user interfaces (3DUI) enable a user to interact with a system on a more robust and potentially more meaningful scale. We discuss the design and development of various …


Investigation On Electrical Properties Of Rf Sputtered Deposited Bcn Thin Films, Adithya Prakash Jan 2013

Investigation On Electrical Properties Of Rf Sputtered Deposited Bcn Thin Films, Adithya Prakash

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ever increasing advancements in semiconductor technology and continuous scaling of CMOS devices mandate the need for new dielectric materials with low-k values. The interconnect delay can be reduced not only by the resistance of the conductor but also by decreasing the capacitance of dielectric layer. Also cross-talk is a major issue faced by semiconductor industry due to high value of k of the inter-dielectric layer (IDL) in a multilevel wiring scheme in Si ultra large scale integrated circuit (ULSI) devices. In order to reduce the time delay, it is necessary to introduce a wiring metal with low resistivity and …


Life Long Learning In Sparse Learning Environments, John Reeder Jan 2013

Life Long Learning In Sparse Learning Environments, John Reeder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Life long learning is a machine learning technique that deals with learning sequential tasks over time. It seeks to transfer knowledge from previous learning tasks to new learning tasks in order to increase generalization performance and learning speed. Real-time learning environments in which many agents are participating may provide learning opportunities but they are spread out in time and space outside of the geographical scope of a single learning agent. This research seeks to provide an algorithm and framework for life long learning among a network of agents in a sparse real-time learning environment. This work will utilize the robust …


Simulation-Based Cognitive Workload Modeling And Evaluation Of Adaptive Automation Invoking And Revoking Strategies, Christina Rusnock Jan 2013

Simulation-Based Cognitive Workload Modeling And Evaluation Of Adaptive Automation Invoking And Revoking Strategies, Christina Rusnock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In human-computer systems, such as supervisory control systems, large volumes of incoming and complex information can degrade overall system performance. Strategically integrating automation to offload tasks from the operator has been shown to increase not only human performance but also operator efficiency and safety. However, increased automation allows for increased task complexity, which can lead to high cognitive workload and degradation of situational awareness. Adaptive automation is one potential solution to resolve these issues, while maintaining the benefits of traditional automation. Adaptive automation occurs dynamically, with the quantity of automated tasks changing in real-time to meet performance or workload goals. …