Engineering Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Barriers To And Drivers Of Green Public Procurement In Achieving A More Sustainable Construction Industry, Myles Keaveney, Paul Butler

Conference papers

The public sector in Ireland possesses enormous purchasing power which has the strength to affect production and consumption trends in all market sectors. Environmental purchasing tools such as Green Public Procurement (GPP) are seen by many as the solution to greener purchasing decisions in order to obtain and maintain not only a more sustainable construction sector but also a more sustainable economy. The purpose of this research is to determine and examine the key barriers to and drivers of implementing GPP in public procurement departments in order to reduce the effect construction works have on the environment. There was limited ...

Camera Placement Meeting Restrictions Of Computer Vision, Sara Aghajanzadeh, Roopasree Naidu, Shuo-Han Chen, Caleb Tung, Abhinav Goel, Yung-Hsiang Lu, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the blooming era of smart edge devices, surveillance cam- eras have been deployed in many locations. Surveillance cam- eras are most useful when they are spaced out to maximize coverage of an area. However, deciding where to place cam- eras is an NP-hard problem and researchers have proposed heuristic solutions. Existing work does not consider a signifi- cant restriction of computer vision: in order to track a moving object, the object must occupy enough pixels. The number of pixels depends on many factors (how far away is the object? What is the camera resolution? What is the focal length ...

Substitutional And Interstitial Doping In Laco5 System For The Development Of Hard Magnetic Properties: A First Principles Study, Huseyin Ucar, Renu Choudhary, Durga Paudyal

Ames Laboratory Accepted Manuscripts

We investigate here the changes in the electronic structure at the transition metal sites of the RE-TM5 structure (RE = Rare Earth, TM = Transition Metal) while doping the interstitial sites with nitrogen. LaCo5 compound is taken as the baseline compound owing to its critically needed intrinsic magnetic properties such as magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) of ≈5 meV/fu [1] due to the contributions from the cobalt network. In addition, because of the lack of 4f electrons in lanthanum, complications originating from the treatment of the 4f localized electrons are absent in this compound; making it an ideal reference material to all ...

A Real-Time Feature Indexing System On Live Video Streams, Aditya Chakraborty, Akshay Pawar, Hojoung Jang, Shunqiao Huang, Sripath Mishra, Shuo-Han Chen, Yuan-Hao Chang, George K. Thiruvathukal, Yung-Hsiang Lu

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Most of the existing video storage systems rely on offline processing to support the feature-based indexing on video streams. The feature-based indexing technique provides an effec- tive way for users to search video content through visual features, such as object categories (e.g., cars and persons). However, due to the reliance on offline processing, video streams along with their captured features cannot be searchable immediately after video streams are recorded. According to our investigation, buffering and storing live video steams are more time-consuming than the YOLO v3 object detector. Such observation motivates us to propose a real-time feature indexing (RTFI ...

Synthesis And Fabrication Of Self-Sustainable Triboelectric, Abu Masa Abdullah, Alejandro Flores, Aminur Rashid Chowdhury, Jianzhi Li, Yuanbing Mao, Jasim Uddin

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent times, Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENG) have attained the focus of the scientific community due to its potential as a medium to harvest mechanical energy from the ambient environment. Human motion has been attributed as a source of mechanical energy to drive electronic devices and sensors through TENG. Based on the principles of single electrode TENG, we have developed a Triboelectricity based Stepping and Tapping Energy Case (TESTEC) which magnifies the prospect to power touch electronic devices by utilizing finger tapping and stepping motion. This novel case was constructed with two single electrode TENG operating through the triboelectric mechanism between ...

Low-Temperature Pyrolysis Of Municipal Solid Waste Components And Refuse-Derived Fuel—Process Efficiency And Fuel Properties Of Carbonized Solid Fuel, Kacper Swiechowski, Ewa Syguła, Jacek A. Koziel, Paweł Stepien, Szymon Kugler, Piotr Manczarski, Andrzej Białowiec

Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications

New technologies to valorize refuse-derived fuels (RDFs) will be required in the near future due to emerging trends of (1) the cement industry’s demands for high-quality alternative fuels and (2) the decreasing calorific value of the fuels derived from municipal solid waste (MSW) and currently used in cement/incineration plants. Low-temperature pyrolysis can increase the calorific value of processed material, leading to the production of value-added carbonized solid fuel (CSF). This dataset summarizes the key properties of MSW-derived CSF. Pyrolysis experiments were completed using eight types of organic waste and their two RDF mixtures. Organic waste represented common morphological ...

Simulation Of Cu Precipitation In Fe-Cu Dilute Alloys With Cluster Mobility, Senlin Cui, Mahmood Mamivand, Dane Morgan

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cu-rich precipitates formation is associated with the precipitation hardening of Fe-Cu based steels and the embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steels under neutron irradiation. The accurate modeling of the time evolution of Cu-rich precipitates is therefore of fundamental importance for the design of Fe-Cu based steels and the prediction of the irradiation induced shift of the ductile to brittle transition temperature of reactor pressure vessels. This work applies cluster dynamics with mobile Cu monomers and clusters to model Cu precipitation in dilute Fe-Cu alloys at several temperatures. Optimized model parameters can be used to simulate the mean radius, number density ...

Metabolic Engineering Of An Acid-Tolerant Yeast Strain Pichia Kudriavzevii For Itaconic Acid Production, Wan Sun, Ana Vila-Santa, Na Liu, Tanya Prozorov, Dongming Xie, Nuno Torres Faria, Frederico Castelo Ferreira, Nuno Pereira Mira, Zengyi Shao

Chemical and Biological Engineering Publications

Itaconic acid (IA), or 2-methylenesuccinic acid, has a broad spectrum of applications in the biopolymer industry owing to the presence of one vinyl bond and two acid groups in the structure. Its polymerization can follow a similar mechanism as acrylic acid but additional functionality can be incorporated into the extra beta acid group. Currently, the bio-based production of IA in industry relies on the fermentation of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus terreus. However, the difficulties associated with the fermentation undertaken by filamentous fungi together with the pathogenic potential of A. terreus pose a serious challenge for industrial-scale production. In recent years ...

Aps March Meeting 2020: Undergraduate-Friendly Research In Soft Matter And Beyond, Vianney Gimenez-Pinto

Title III Professional Development Reports

The in-person APS March Meeting 2020 taking place in Denver during March 02-06, 2020 was canceled in the last minute out of Covid-19 concerns for the well-being of the scientific community as well as the population of the city of Denver and the state of Colorado. Nevertheless, well-planned logistics by the physics community and the APS leadership, allowed attendants to share their findings, presenting their research works to their peers, and continuing the work towards the advancement of science. Given the historical and on-going under-representation of students of color in science and technology at all academic levels, there is a ...

Non-Equilibrium Growth Of Metal Clusters On A Layered Material: Cu On Mos2, Dapeng Jing, Ann Lii-Rosales, King C. Lai, Qiang Li, Jaeyoun Kim, Michael C. Tringides, James W. Evans, Patricia A. Thiel

Chemistry Publications

We use a variety of experimental techniques to characterize Cu clusters on bulk MoS2 formed via physical vapor deposition of Cu in ultrahigh vacuum, at temperatures ranging from 300 K to 900 K. We find that large facetted clusters grow at elevated temperatures, using high Cu exposures. The cluster size distribution is bimodal, and under some conditions, large clusters are surrounded by a denuded zone. We propose that defect-mediated nucleation, and coarsening during deposition, are both operative in this system. At 780 K, a surprising type of facetted cluster emerges, and at 900 K this type predominates: pyramidal clusters with ...

Chitosan-Adjuvanted Salmonella Subunit Nanoparticle Vaccine For Poultry Delivered Through Drinking Water And Feed, Sankar Renu, Yi Han, Santosh Dhakal, Yashavanth S. Lakshmanappa, Ninoshkaly Feliciano-Ruiz, Sujata Senapati, Balaji Narasimhan, Ramesh Selvaraj, Gourapura J. Renukaradhya

Chemical and Biological Engineering Publications

Poor induction of mucosal immunity in the intestines by current Salmonella vaccines is a challenge to the poultry industry. We prepared and tested an oral deliverable Salmonella subunit vaccine containing immunogenic outer membrane proteins (OMPs) and flagellin (F) protein loaded and F-protein surface coated chitosan nanoparticles (CS NPs) (OMPs-F-CS NPs). The OMPs-F-CS NPs had mean particle size distribution of 514 nm, high positive charge and spherical in shape. In vitro and in vivo studies revealed the F-protein surface coated CS NPs were specifically targeted to chicken immune cells. The OMPs-F-CS NPs treatment of chicken immune cells upregulated TLRs, and Th1 ...

Ternary Polar Intermetallics Within The Pt/Sn/R Systems (R = La− Sm): Stannides Or Platinides?, Melissa L. Rhodehouse, Volodymyr Smetana, Chris Celania, Anja-Verena Mudring, Gerd H. Meyer

Ames Laboratory Accepted Manuscripts

Starting generally with a 4:6:3 molar ratio of Pt, Sn, and R (where R = La–Sm), with or without the application of a NaCl flux, seven ternary compounds were obtained as single crystals. The platinides Pt4Sn6R3 (R = La–Nd) crystallize with the Pt4Ge6Pr3 type of structure (oP52, Pnma, a = 27.6–27.8 Å, b = 4.59–4.64 Å, c = 9.33–9.40 Å). With R = Pr, Pt4Sn6Pr3–x (oP52, Pnma, a = 7.2863(3) Å, b = 4.4909(2) Å, c = 35.114(1) Å) is also obtained, which might be considered a ...

Prada: Portable Reusable Accurate Diagnostics With Nanostar Antennas For Multiplexed Biomarker Screening, Xiaona Wen, Yu-Chuan Ou, Holly F. Zarick, Xin Zhang, Anthony B. Hmelo, Quinton J. Victor, Eden P. Paul, Joseph M. Slocik, Rajesh R. Naik, Leon M. Bellan, Eugene C. Lin, Rizia Bardhan

Chemical and Biological Engineering Publications

Precise monitoring of specific biomarkers in biological fluids with accurate biodiagnostic sensors is critical for early diagnosis of diseases and subsequent treatment planning. In this work, we demonstrated an innovative biodiagnostic sensor, portable reusable accurate diagnostics with nanostar antennas (PRADA), for multiplexed biomarker detection in small volumes (~50 μl) enabled in a microfluidic platform. Here, PRADA simultaneously detected two biomarkers of myocardial infarction, cardiac troponin I (cTnI), which is well accepted for cardiac disorders, and neuropeptide Y (NPY), which controls cardiac sympathetic drive. In PRADA immunoassay, magnetic beads captured the biomarkers in human serum samples, and gold nanostars (GNSs) “antennas ...

Polystyrene-Block-Polydimethylsiloxane As A Potential Silica Substitute For Polysiloxane Reinforcement, Liyang Shen, Tung-Ping Wang, Fang-Yi Lin, Sabrina Torres, Thomas Robison, Sri Harsha Kalluru, Nacú B. Hernández, Eric W. Cochran

Chemical and Biological Engineering Publications

Here we report microphase-separated poly(styrene-block-dimethylsiloxane) (PS-b-PDMS) as a reinforcing filler in PDMS thermosets that overcomes the long-standing problem of aging in the processing of silica-reinforced silicone. Surprisingly, PS-b-PDMS reinforced composites display comparable mechanical performance to silica-modified analogs, even though the modulus of PS is much smaller than that of silica and there is no evidence of percolation with respect to the rigid PS domains. We have found that a few unique characteristics contribute to the reinforcing performance of PS-b-PDMS. The strong self-assembly behavior promotes batch-to-batch repeatability by having well-dispersed fillers. The ...

Rapid Restoration Techniques For Software-Defined Networks, Ali Malik, Ruairí De Fréin, Benjamin Aziz

Articles

There is increasing demand in modern day business applications for communication networks to be robust and reliable due to the complexity and critical nature of such applications. As such, data delivery is expected to be reliable and secure even in the harshest of environments. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is gaining traction as a promising approach for designing network architectures which are robust and flexible. One reason for this is that separating the data plane from the control plane, increases the controller’s ability to configure the network rapidly. When network failure events occur, the network manager may trade-off the optimality of ...

Congressional Committee Resources On Space Policy During The 115th Congress (2017-2018): Providing Context And Insight Into Us Government Space Policy, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Article 1 of the US Constitution assigns the US Congress numerous responsibilities. These include creating new laws, revising existing laws, funding government programs, and conducting oversight of these programs' performance. Oversight of US Government agency space policy programs is executed by various congressional space policy committees including the House and Senate Science Committees, Armed Services, and Appropriations Committees. These committees conduct many public hearings on space policy, which invite expert witnesses to testify on US space policy programs and feature debate on the strengths and weaknesses of these programs. Documentation produced by these committees is widely available to the public ...

Statistics And Artificial Intelligence-Based Pavement Performance And Remaining Service Life Prediction Models For Flexible And Composite Pavement Systems, Orhan Kaya, Halil Ceylan, Sunghwan Kim, Danny Waid, Brian P. Moore

Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Publications

In their pavement management decision-making processes, U.S. state highway agencies are required to develop performance-based approaches by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) federal transportation legislation. One of the performance-based approaches to facilitate pavement management decision-making processes is the use of remaining service life (RSL) models. In this study, a detailed step-by-step methodology for the development of pavement performance and RSL prediction models for flexible and composite (asphalt concrete [AC] over jointed plain concrete pavement [JPCP]) pavement systems in Iowa is described. To develop such RSL models, pavement performance models based on statistics and artificial ...

Zenneck Waves In Decision Agriculture: An Empirical Verification And Application In Em-Based Underground Wireless Power Transfer, Usman Raza, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

In this article, the results of experiments for the observation of Zenneck surface waves in sub GHz frequency range using dipole antennas are presented. Experiments are conducted over three different soils for communications distances of up to 1 m. This empirical analysis confirms the existence of Zenneck waves over the soil surface. Through the power delay profile (PDP) analysis, it has been shown that other subsurface components exhibit rapid decay as compared to the Zenneck waves. A potential application of the Zenneck waves for energy transmission in the area of decision agriculture is explored. Accordingly, a novel wireless through-the-soil power ...

Dataset For Analysis Of Very High Surface Area 3d Printed Media In A Moving Bed Biofilm Sequencing Batch Reactor For Wastewater Treatment, Gabriel Proano-Pena, Andres L. Carrano, David M. Blersch

Research Data

This dataset includes 15 subfolders named Table6 trough Table20. Each folder is associated with a supplemental table. Each subfolder includes three files: .csv, .pdf/A, and .txt. The Table6 folder contains the raw data derived from experimentation. The remaining folders relate to data processing represented by figures or remarked as significant in the related manuscript: "Analysis of very high surface area 3D printed media in a Moving Bed Biofilm Sequencing Batch Reactor for Wastewater Treatment".

Elicitation And Aggregation Of Data In Knowledge Intensive Crowdsourcing, Dohoon Kim

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

With the significant advance of internet and connectivity, crowdsourcing gained more popularity and various crowdsourcing platforms emerged. This project focuses on knowledge-intensive crowdsourcing, in which agents are presented with the tasks that require certain knowledge in domain. Knowledge-intensive crowdsourcing requires agents to have experiences on the specific domain. With the constraint of resources and its trait as sourcing from crowd, platform is likely to draw agents with different levels of expertise and knowledge and asking same task can result in bad performance. Some agents can give better information when they are asked with more general question or more knowledge-specific task ...

Miniaturized-Element Frequency-Selective Rasorber Design Using Characteristic Modes Analysis, Qingxin Guo, Jianxun Su, Zengrui Li, Jiming Song, Yalin Guan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

A dual-polarization frequency-selective rasorber with two absorptive bands at both sides of a passband is presented. Based on the characteristic mode analysis, a circuit analog absorber is designed using a lossy FSS that consists of miniaturized meander lines and lumped resistors. The positions and values of resistors are determined according to the analysis of modal significances and modal current. After that, the presented rasorber is designed by cascading of the lossy FSS and a lossless bandpass FSS. Equivalent circuits of the frequency-selective rasorber are modelled, and surface current distributions of both FSSs are illustrated to explain the operation mechanism. Measurement ...

Automating 35mm Photographic Film Digitization: X-Y Table Capture System Design And Assessment, Michael J. Bennett

Published Works

35mm still image formats are some of the most abundant photographic film types in cultural heritage collections. However, their special handling needs coupled with high resolution digital capture requirements have traditionally posed logistical constraints with regard to the formats’ digitization at scale. Through the use of a programmable X-Y table camera capture system, both slide and strip 35mm photographic film can be digitized in an automated fashion following Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines (FADGI).

Airline Quality Rating 2020, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Airline Quality Rating Report

To contribute to AQR 2020, we encourage you to take the Airline Passenger Survey. Please CLICK HERE.

The results of the 30th annual national Airline Quality Rating (AQR). The most comprehensive study of the performance quality of the 10 largest airlines in the United States, the AQR is conducted by researchers at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Ariz., campus. Airline performance, as presented by AQR researchers, encompasses a multifactor look at the overall quality of the airlines. It includes on-time performance, denied boardings, mishandled baggage and customer complaints ...

Centrality Of Blockchain, Zixuan Li

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Decentralization is widely recognized as the property and one of most important advantage of blockchain over legacy systems. However, decentralization is often discussed on the consensus layer and recent research shows the trend of centralization on several subsystem of blockchain. In this project, we measured centralization of Bitcoin and Ethereum on source code, development eco-system, and network node levels. We found that the programming language of project is highly centralized, code clone is very common inside Bitcoin and Ethereum community, and developer contribution distribution is highly centralized. We further discuss how could these centralizations lead to security issues in blockchain ...

Understanding Eye Gaze Patterns In Code Comprehension, Jonathan Saddler

Computer Science and Engineering: Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research

Program comprehension is a sub-field of software engineering that seeks to understand how developers understand programs. Comprehension acts as a starting point for many software engineering tasks such as bug fixing, refactoring, and feature creation. The dissertation presents a series of empirical studies to understand how developers comprehend software in realistic settings. The unique aspect of this work is the use of eye tracking equipment to gather fine-grained detailed information of what developers look at in software artifacts while they perform realistic tasks in an environment familiar to them, namely a context including both the Integrated Development Environment (Eclipse or ...

Evaluation Of The Dynamic Behavior Of Steel Staircases With Concrete Filled Pan Treads, Tyler Sondag

Architectural Engineering -- Dissertations and Student Research

Vibration serviceability of staircases has been a growing challenge for structural engineers due to changing materials and structural forms. In order to prevent or correct serviceability problems due to structural vibrations, structural engineers should be able to predict the dynamic performance of a staircase structure. However, there are few technical guides available for designing steel staircases, and the ones that do exist are often limited in their applications. Currently, there is a lack of research on staircases that are less prone to vibrations, such as staircases with concrete filled pans that are composed of face and wall stringers. Therefore, the ...

Nitrate And Herbicides Removal From Groundwater Using Immobilized Algae, Sara Mollamohammada

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research

To improve crop yield and control broadleaf weeds, many farmers apply nitrate-based fertilizers and chemical herbicides to their fields. Excessive use of these chemicals can cause contamination in waterbodies and impact on the public health. The physical and chemical methods have been suggested to remove these herbicides are usually costly. In this study, the capability of immobilized algal beads in removing nitrate and several herbicides of environmental concern from synthetic and actual groundwater and surface water was evaluated.

The experiments were performed in batch, sequencing batch and continuous flow modes and the effect of different operational conditions (light intensity, cultivation ...

Download Bmp Trains 2020 Newest Version, Martin Wanielista

BMP Trains

This is version 4.0.0 BMP Trains 2020. It is a computer program used to assess the average annual removal effectiveness of nutrients. It is based on research from the State of Florida and uses design criteria in the State. It is accepted by regulatory agencies in the State. It was posted May 1, 2020. Minor wording changes were made to the release dated April 15, 2020.

This version allows for greater flexibility in media selection. It also increases the reporting decimal places for TP removed in the Summary and Complete Reports A well as changes from fraction to ...

User Manual - Bmp Trains 2020 Newest Version, Martin Wanielista

BMP Trains

This update is for version 4.0.0 completed on May 1, 2020 for May 2020 release. This is a user manual to accompany the computer program called BMP Trains 2020. The user manual provides example problems useful to understanding the program. The user manual is updated when there is a need to respond to user comments or to incorporate new research. The BMP Trains 2020 program is used to assess the average annual effectiveness of nutrient removal from combinations of stormwater BMPs. Fifteen (15) example problems are used to illustrate design options for BMPs in the State of Florida.

Deep Learning And Polar Transformation To Achieve A Novel Adaptive Automatic Modulation Classification Framework, Pejman Ghasemzadeh

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research from Electrical & Computer Engineering

Automatic modulation classification (AMC) is an approach that can be leveraged to identify an observed signal's most likely employed modulation scheme without any a priori knowledge of the intercepted signal. Of the three primary approaches proposed in literature, which are likelihood-based, distribution test-based, and feature-based (FB), the latter is considered to be the most promising approach for real-world implementations due to its favorable computational complexity and classification accuracy. FB AMC is comprised of two stages: feature extraction and labeling. In this thesis, we enhance the FB approach in both stages. In the feature extraction stage, we propose a new ...