Engineering Commons^™

Lead-Free Interconnection For Electronic Devices, Ravi F. Saraf

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Patents

An electronic device that is equipped with a plurality of bonding pads positioned on the device for making electrical interconnections and electrically conductive composite bumps adhered to the bonding pads wherein the bumps are formed of a composite material consisting of a thermoplastic polymer and at least about 30 volume percent of conductive metal particles based on the total volume of the metal particles and the thermoplastic polymer. The present invention is also directed to a method of making electrical interconnections to an electronic device by pressing a plurality of composite bumps of a polymeric based material against a substrate …

Optimization Of Temperature-Glycerol -Ph Conditions For Fed-Batch Fermentation Process For Recombinant Hookworm (Ancylostoma Caninurn) Anticoagulant Peptide (Acap-5) Production By Pichia Pastoris, Mehmet Inan, Vijay Chiruvolu, Kent M. Eskridge, George P. Vlasuk, Kenneth Dickerson, Scott Brown, Michael M. Meagher

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

This study was undertaken to determine the optimum pH, temperature and glycerol feed rate for the production of recombinant hookworm (Ancylostoma caninum) anticoagulant peptide (rAcAP-5) by Pichia pastoris using response surface methodology (RSM). A central composite design was used as an experimental design for allocation of treatment combinations in three blocks. The variables selected for study were pH, temperature and glycerol feed rate. pH was the most important variable affecting yield, specific yield and specific activity of rAcAP-5. Glycerol feed rate had a significant effect on the specific activity of rAcAP-5 (% of total secreted protein) while temperature did not …

22. Yu Tongyin, Otto Vogl, Shukuan Fu

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

International Symposium On Ionic Polymerization Ip'97, Otto Vogl, Przemyslaw Kubisa

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

23rd Conference On Senior Engineering Design Projects, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Senior Engineering Design Conference

The 23rd Conference on Senior Engineering Design Projects was held on December 1, 1998 at the College of Engineering and applied Sciences on the Parkview Campus of Western Michigan University. The college sponsors the conference to showcase the work of its graduating seniors, who are required to complete a capstone project that puts into practice what they have learned. Many of the projects are sponsored by business and industry.

Acuta Enews December 1998, Vol.27, No. 12

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Increase in PICC Charges Delayed

Looking for Answers in '99

Overheard on the Listserve

411 Newsletter Salary Survey

Beefing Up User Support on Campus

Board Report

DC at a Glance

Positions Available

Welcome New Members

Interval Computations, Soft Computing, And Aerospace Applications, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

No abstract provided.

Justification Of Heuristic Methods In Data Processing Using Fuzzy Theory, With Applications To Detection Of Business Cycles From Fuzzy Data, Vladik Kreinovich, Hung T. Nguyen, Berlin Wu

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

No abstract provided.

Interval Image Classification Is Np-Hard, Alejandro E. Brito, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Feature extraction from images to perform object classification is a very hard problem for general solution. We prove that under interval uncertainty, linear classification is NP-hard.

Towards Optimal Pain Relief: Acupuncture And Spinal Cord Stimulation, Richard Alo, Kenneth Alo, Obinna Ilochonwu, Vladik Kreinovich, Hoang Phuong Nguyen

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the important potential areas of application of intelligent virtual environment is to training medical doctors. One of the main problems in designing the corresponding intelligent system is the computational complexity of the corresponding computational problems. This computational complexity is especially high when the corresponding optimization is a discrete optimization problem, e.g., for pain relief methodologies such as acupuncture and spinal cord stimulation. In this paper, we show how to efficiently solve the corresponding discrete optimization problems. As a result, we get, e.g., a theoretical justification for the heuristic method of "guarded cathode".

Towards Intelligent Virtual Environment For Teaching Telemanipulation Operators: Virtual Tool Approach And Its Interval-Based Justification, L. Olac Fuentes, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

No abstract provided.

Determination Of The Tensile And Shear Strengths Of Screws And The Effect Of Screw Patterns On Cold-Formed Steel Connections, Marc Allen Sokol, Roger A. Laboube, Wei-Wen Yu

CCFSS Library (1939 - present)

PREFACE This report summarizes two studies related to the design of cold-formed steel connections. The study topics included the creation of a test standard for determining the strength of a screw, and the determination of the strength of a screw connection. A standard test protocol does not exist for determining the strength of a screw. Today, manufacturers use test protocols developed for their products. Thus, there is no consistency in defining the structural performance of a screw. A test standard has been developed. The standard used as its model the American Society of Testing and Material's F 606, Standard Test …

A Continuous Process For The Conversion Of Vegetable Oils Into Methyl Esters Of Fatty Acids, Hossein Noureddini, D Harkey, V Medikonduru

Papers in Biomaterials

A continuous process for the transesterification of triglycerides to methyl esters was investigated in a pilot plant. The process was equipped with a motionless and a high-shear mixer. The experimental studies explored variations in the mixing intensity, stoichiometry, and catalyst concentration on the overall conversion. The combined as well as individual effect of mixers was examined. The developed process resulted in high conversions of vegetable oils into methyl esters. Conversion of triglycerides to methyl esters in excess of 98% was achieved. Larger excess amounts of alcohol favored higher conversions. The motionless and high-shear mixers each provided adequate mixing for the …

Registration Violations And The Use Of Optical Character Recognition Technology At Kentucky Weigh Stations, Jennifer R. Walton, Joseph D. Crabtree

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

As a Model Deployment State for CVISN (Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks), Kentucky is valuating and improving its procedures related to commercial vehicle administration and enforcement. As part of this effort, the Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) was asked to investigate the frequency of registration-related violations at Kentucky weigh stations and the potential effectiveness of a license plate recognition (LPR) system in detecting and deterring such violations. Typical violations considered in the investigation included using an expired license plate, hauling weight in excess of the truck’s registered weight, or traveling in Kentucky without proper authority.

KTC researchers first examined Kentucky’s …

Probabilistic Life Cycle Cost Analysis Fhwa Demonstration Project Dp 115, R. Clark Graves, David L. Allen

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky has been involved in several projects relating to the development of a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis procedures of pavement structures. Research projects have been conducted by the Kentucky Transportation Center dealing with development of a more robust LCC procedures for pavement analysis. A research project has also been conducted developing network level LCC procedures. These procedures are currently in the evaluation phase and have not been implemented into current Kentucky Transportation Cabinet procedures. Life Cycle Costs analysis is utilized on various projects throughout Kentucky to evaluate various pavement construction and rehabilitation alternatives.

This report will outline the current …

Evaluation Of Reference Markers, Jerry G. Pigman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objective of this research evaluation was to evaluate the reference markers which were installed on sections of interstates and freeways in the Cincinnati-northern Kentucky area, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County area, the Louisville-southern Indiana area, and the Indianapolis area. The evaluation was conducted to determine if the use of reference markers at spacings of 0.1 or 0.2-mile intervals could improve the effectiveness of the emergency response and incident management processes. Also evaluated were color of the markers and the placement location within the right-of-way. Both "'white on blue" and ''white on green" markers were installed on various projects, with some …

Seismic Evaluation Of The Ohio River Bridge On Us51 At Wickliffe, Kentucky, Issam E. Harik, Chelliah Madasamy, Denglin Chen, Leonong Zhou, Kevin Sutterer, Ron Street, David L. Allen

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This report presents the of seismic evaluation of the Ohio river bridge on US51 at Wickliffe, Kentucky. The main bridge is a five-span single-deck cantilever through-truss type. The approach bridge has 21 spans on the Kentucky side and 6 spans on the Illinois side. Although this bridge has not yet been subjected to a moderate or major earthquake, it is situated within the influence of the New Madrid seismic zone.

The seismic evaluation program consists of field testing and seismic response analysis. The modal properties of the main bridge are determined through field testing, and are used to calibrate the …

Evaluation Of 93-Inch Corrugated Metal Culvert On Ky 693 And Us 23, Green-Up County, L. John Fleckenstein, Richard Reitenour, David L. Allen

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

No abstract provided.

An Image Model Based On Occluding Object Images And Maximum Entropy, John A. Stuller, Rahul Shah

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This Paper Introduces a Statistical Image Model based on Occlusion and Maximum Entropy. the Statistical Model Combines a Fundamental Property of Image Formation, Occlusion, with Both Object-Image Shape and Nonuniform Object-Image Intensity. the Model is a Composition of Individual Object-Images that Have Random Positions, Shapes, and Intensities, and that Occlude Both Background and One Another. We Derive the Autocorrelation and Second-Order Probability Density Functions of This Model and Give Several Examples. © 1998 IEEE.

What Can Humor And Advertising Teach Us About Legal Drafting?, Dallin D. Oaks, Jeremy Lewis

Faculty Publications

In his book Legal Drafting in a Nutshell, Haggard includes a useful chapter of nearly 50 pages in which he lists various lexical and structural elements and explains how these can lead to ambiguous writing. The kind of inventory approach that he presents is helpful and reveals that ambiguity doesn't just happen but often results from the careless use of identifiable structures or particular words.

A Recursive Green's Function Method For Boundary Integral Analysis Of Inhomogeneous Domains, Jim D. Freeze, Michael A. Jensen

Faculty Publications

The recursive Green's function method (RGFM) for computation of fields scattered by two-dimensional (2-D) inhomogeneous dielectric bodies is presented. The algorithm efficiently constructs the Green's function for the inhomogeneous region by recursively combining known Green's functions from smaller subdomains. The fields on the scatterer surface are then computed using a boundary integral formulation. Proper implementation of the RGFM results in computational and storage complexities which scale as N1.5 and N, respectively, where N is the total number of discrete cells in a domain. Comparisons of results obtained using the RGFM with those computed from moment method and exact solutions show …

The Evolution Of Probability Functions In An Inelasticly Deforming Two-Phase Medium, Brent L. Adams, H. Garmestani, S. Lin

Faculty Publications

A formulation is introduced here for the evolution of correlation functions in an inelastically deforming two phase medium. Probability functions play a major role in describing the statistical distribution of different phases in a heterogeneous medium in the development of statistical continuum theory. Proper formulation of statistical continuum model for inelastic deformation requires better understanding of the evolution of the corresponding probability functions. A two point probability function representation is used to approximate the statistical correlation functions. The evolution of these functions requires the information from higher order probability functions, in this case, a three point probability function. A decomposition …

Integration Of Fault Tolerance And Hardware Redundancy Techniques Into The Design Of Mobile Platforms, Miguel Angel Espina

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work addresses the development of a fault-tolerant mobile platform. Fault-tolerant mechanical system design is an emerging technology that attempts to build highly reliable systems by incorporating hardware and software architectures. For this purpose, previous work in fault-tolerant were reviewed. Alternate architectures were evaluated to maximize the fault tolerance capabilities of the driving and steering systems of a mobile platform.

The literature review showed that most of the research work on fault tolerance has been done in the area of kinematics and control systems of robotic arms. Therefore, hardware redundancy and fault tolerance in mobile robots is an area to …

Asymptotic Decay Of Radius Of A Weakly Conductive Viscous Jet, A.F. Spivak, Yuris A. Dzenis

Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience: Faculty Publications

Motion of a weakly conductive viscous jet accelerated by an external electric field is considered. Nonlinear rheological constitutive equation applicable for polymer fluids (Oswald–deWaele law) is applied. A differential equation for the variation of jet radius with axial coordinate is derived. Asymptotic variation of the jet radius at large distances from the jet origin is analyzed. It is found that the well-known power-law asymptote for Newtonian fluids with the exponent 1/4 holds for more general class of fluids, i.e., pseudoplastic (shear thinning) and dilatant (shear thickening) fluids with the flow index between 0 and 2. Dilatant fluids with the flow …

Fertigation Basics, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Fertigation is widely practiced with drip irrigation, yet remains very unsophisticated. Major areas which need improvement are (i) making certain the irrigation system applies water with a high DU (uniformity), (ii) using proper injection pumps and protection hardware, (iii) recognizing that chemicals can interact with each other and with water to form precipitates which will clog emitters, (iv) understanding of nutrient ratios in plants and soil, (v) recognizing that nitrogen fertilization requires attention to the type of nitrogen, and (vi) developing programs for spoon-feeding chemicals. This paper covers the first 4 topics, plus discusses some specific fertilizers.

Specific Heat And Transport “Anomalies” In Mixed Alkali Glasses, Peter F. Green, Richard K. Brow, James J. Hudgens

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We show that changes in the relative mole fractions of Li₂O and Na₂O in alkali metaphosphate glasses lead to “anomalies” in the specific heat and structural relaxations. The heat capacity change between the liquid and glassy states, Δc_p(T_g), at the calorimetric glass transition temperature, T_g, exhibits a minimum when the mole fractions of Li₂O and Na₂O are comparable. Moreover, systematic changes in the temperature dependence of the viscosity, η, i.e., changes in the “fragility” of the system, accompany these changes in mole fraction. This observed dependence …

12th Bratislava Conference On Polymers: Modified Polyolefins For Advanced Polymeric Materials, Otto Vogl, Pavol Hrdlovic

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

23. Feng Xinde, Otto Vogl, Zhou Qifen

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

Model For Trace Metal Exposure In Filter-Feeding Flamingos At Alkaline Rift Valley Lake, Kenya, Yarrow M. Nelson, Ramesh J. Thampy, Gideon K. Motelin, Jackson A. Raini, Cynthia J. Disante, Leonard W. Lion

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract—Toxic trace metals have been implicated as a potential cause of recent flamingo kills at Lake Nakuru, Kenya. Chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) have accumulated in the lake sediments as a result of unregulated discharges and because this alkaline lake has no natural outlet. Lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) at Lake Nakuru feed predominantly on the cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis, and because of their filter-feeding mechanism, they are susceptible to exposure to particle-bound metals. Trace metal adsorption isotherms to lake sediments and S. platensis were obtained under simulated lake conditions, and a mathematical model was …

Chemicals For Fertigation, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

No abstract provided.