Engineering Commons^™

Fabrication And Characterization Of Dna-Loaded Zein Nanospheres, Mary C. Regier, Jessica D. Taylor, Tyler Borcyk, Yiqi Yang, Angela K. Pannier

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Background: Particulates incorporating DNA are promising vehicles for gene delivery, with the ability to protect DNA and provide for controlled, localized, and sustained release and transfection. Zein, a hydrophobic protein from corn, is biocompatible and has properties that make it a promising candidate material for particulate delivery, including its ability to form nanospheres through coacervation and its insolubility under physiological conditions, making it capable of sustained release of encapsulated compounds. Due to the promise of this natural biomaterial for drug delivery, the objective of this study was to formulate zein nanospheres encapsulating DNA as the therapeutic compound, and to …

Whose Water Is It Anyway? Comparing The Water Rights Frameworks Of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Georgia, Alabama, And Florida, M. D. Smolen, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Bekki Harjo

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

In most states surface waters, (streams, lakes, and coastal waters) are owned by the public. On the other hand, ground water may be privately or publicly owned. Because all waters are linked through the hydrologic cycle, and the hydrologic cycle is not confined within any geographic or political boundary, the question of ownership is generally replaced by one of who has the right to manage, divert, use, or sell the water.

Sensitivity Of Grass- And Alfalfa-Reference Evapotranspiration To Weather Station Sensor Accuracy, Dana O. Porter, Prasanna H. Gowda, Thomas H. Marek, Terry A. Howell, Jerry Moorhead, Suat Irmak

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the relative effects of measurement errors in climate data input parameters on the accuracy of calculated reference crop evapotranspiration (ET) using the ASCE-EWRI Standardized Reference ET Equation. Data for the period of 1995 to 2008 from an automated weather station located at the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory at Bushland, Texas were used for the analysis. Results

indicated that grass (ET_os) and alfalfa (ET_rs) reference crop ET were most sensitive to measurement errors in wind speed and air temperature followed by incoming shortwave (solar) radiation, and that data …

Soil Water Extraction Patterns And Crop, Irrigation, And Evapotranspiration Water Use Efficiency Of Maize Under Full And Limited Irrigation And Rainfed Settings, Koffi Djaman, Suat Irmak

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

The effects of full and limited irrigation and rainfed maize production practices on soil water extraction and water use efficiencies were investigated in 2009 and 2010 under center-pivot irrigation near Clay Center, Nebraska. Four irrigation regimes (fully irrigated treatment (FIT), 75% FIT, 60% FIT, and 50% FIT) and a rainfed treatment were implemented. The crop water use efficiency (CWUE, or crop water productivity), irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), and evapotranspiration water use efficiency (ETWUE) were used to evaluate the water productivity performance of each

treatment. The seasonal rainfall amounts in 2009 and 2010, respectively, were 426 mm (18% below normal) …

Evaporative Losses From A Common Reed-Dominated Peachleaf Willow And Cottonwood Riparian Plant Community, Isa Kabenge, Suat Irmak

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Our study is one of the first to integrate and apply within-canopy radiation physics parameters and scaling-up leaf-level stomatal resistace (r_L) to canopy resistance (r_c) approach to quantify hourly transpiration (TRP) rates of individual riparian plant species—common reed (Phragmites australis), peachleaf willow (Salix amygdaloides), and cottonwood (Populus deltoides)— in a mixed riparian plant community in the Platte River Basin in central Nebraska. Two experimental years (2009 and 2010) were contrasted by warmer air temperature and presence of flood water in 2010. The seasonal average r_c values for common reed, …

A Multiagent Energy Management Control System For Commercial & Industrial Applications, Tyler Wayne Price

Theses and Dissertations

Commercial and industrial customers have increasingly adopted fully-automated demand response (auto-DR) as part of their energy management control strategy to mitigate the effects of rising electricity costs. Some of these customers have also contracted with their power provider to permit voluntary curtailment of power consumption to be negotiated by a human operator. Even still, at the customer-side there are needs to maximize cost savings and automate decision making, and at the provider-side there are needs to reduce peaking demand and demand volatility. This thesis describes a centralized multiagent approach that automatically negotiates demand curtailment with a power provider while making …

Runoff Nutrient Loads As Affected By Residue Cover, Manure Application Rate, And Flow Rate, Chance Thayer, John E. Gilley, Lisa M. Durso, David B. Marx

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Manure is applied to cropland areas with varying surface cover to meet single‐year or multiple‐year crop nutrient requirements. The objectives of this field study were to: (1) examine runoff water quality characteristics following land application of manure to sites with and without wheat residue, (2) compare the water quality impacts of land application of manure to meet 0‐, 1‐, 2‐, 4‐, and 8‐year P‐based requirements for corn, and (3) evaluate the effects of varying runoff rates on runoff nutrient loads. Three 30‐min simulated rainfall events, separated by 24 h intervals, were applied at an intensity of 70 mm h^{‐1 …}

Preface: Trends In Natural And Machine Intelligence, Jonathan H. Chan, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Trends in natural and machine intelligence are increasingly reflecting a convergence in these two well-established fields of study. The Third International Neural Network Society Winter Conference (INNS-WC 2012) was held in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 3-5, 2012. INNS-WC2012, with an aim to bring together scientists, practitioners, and students worldwide, to discuss the past, present, and future challenges and trends in the area of natural and machine intelligence. This event has been a bi-annual conference of the International Neural Network Society (INNS) to provide a forum for international researchers to exchange latest ideas and advances on neural networks and related discipline.

A Sentiment Analysis Of Singapore Presidential Election 2011 Using Twitter Data With Census Correction, Murphy Junyu Choy, Michelle Lee Fong Cheong, Nang Laik Ma, Ping Shung Koo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sentiment analysis is a new area in text analytics where it focuses on the analysis and understanding of the human emotions from the text patterns. This new form of analysis has been widely adopted in customer relationship management especially in the context of complaint management. However, sentiment analysis using Twitter data has remained extremely difficult to manage due to sampling biasness. In this paper, we will discuss about the application of reweighting techniques in conjunction with online sentiment divisions to predict the vote percentage that individual presidential candidate in Singapore will receive in the Presidential Election 2011. There will be …

Robust Distributed Scheduling Via Time Period Aggregation, Shih-Fen Cheng, John Tajan, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we evaluate whether the robustness of a market mechanism that allocates complementary resources could be improved through the aggregation of time periods in which resources are consumed. In particular, we study a multi-round combinatorial auction that is built on a general equilibrium framework. We adopt the general equilibrium framework and the particular combinatorial auction design from the literature, and we investigate the benefits and the limitation of time-period aggregation when demand-side uncertainties are introduced. By using simulation experiments on a real-life resource allocation problem from a container port, we show that, under stochastic conditions, the performance variation …

The Psychological Wellbeing Of Women Operating Mining Machinery In A Fly-In Fly-Out Capacity, Anne Bailey-Kruger

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The present study aimed to address the gap in the current mining research by investigating women’s experiences of working in the mining industry in a “bluecollar” work role and the impact of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) mining on their wellbeing. An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA) was used as a framework to explore the experiences of 19 female machine operators through in-depth interviewing at one mineral mine site in Queensland, Australia. IPA analysis revealed three themes as identified by the participants. The first theme described how workplace barriers to job progression were salient issues for the women, particularly in respect to discrimination …

Robust Execution Strategy For Scheduling Under Uncertainity, Na Fu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problems with minimum and maximum time lags (RCPSP/max) provides a general model for resource scheduling in many real-world problems (such as manufacturing and construction engineering). Due to its practical importance and generality, providing effective algorithms and scalable solutions for RCPSP/max is a topic of growing research. Traditional methods have addressed deterministic models with all parameters known with certainty. In this thesis, we are concerned with RCPSP/max problems in an uncertain environment where durations of activities are stochastic and resource availabilities are subject to unforeseen breakdowns. We propose methods for generating robust execution strategy to protect against …

Microstructure And Mechanical Properties Of Cold Drawn Steel Wires, Ning Liu

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Cold drawn eutectoid steel wires have been widely used for a variety of applications, such as suspension bridges, steel cords for automobile tires, and springs. Much research has been done to increase their mechanical strength. With advances in modern production technology, both the drawing speed and the quality of drawn steels have been enhanced. After a careful literature survey, it is obvious that some issues are still controversial. As Y.S. Yang, J.G. Bae and C.G. Park mentioned, the lamellar spacing, thickness and volume fraction of cementites have all reached the nanometer regime, and the conventional theory is not enough to …

High Performance Magneto-Optic Garnet Materials For Integrated Optics And Photonics, Mohammad Alam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This work explores the preparation, characteristics and properties of highly bismuth (Bi) substituted, metal doped, iron garnet compounds and investigates their potential for various emerging applications in the visible and near infrared spectral regions.

Bi-substituted iron garnet and garnet-oxide nanocomposite films of generic composition type (Bi, Dy/Lu)3(Fe, Ga/Al)5O12 are prepared by using a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. The physical properties (crystallinity, film morphology, optical absorption spectra across the visible spectral range and the elemental composition of layers), and magneto-optic behaviour (Faraday rotation, hysteresis loops of Faraday rotation, and magnetic switching behaviour) of these sputtered garnet films are investigated …

An Improved Medium Access Control Protocol For Real-Time Applications In Wlans And Its Firmware Development, Sushil Dutt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), commonly known as Wi-Fi, has emerged as a popular internet access technology and researchers are continuously working on improvement of the quality of service (QoS) in WLAN by proposing new and efficient schemes. Voice and video over Internet Protocol (VVoIP) applications are becoming very popular in Wi-Fi enabled portable/handheld devices because of recent technological advancements and lower service costs. Different from normal voice and video streaming, these applications demand symmetric throughput for the upstream and downstream. Existing Wi-Fi standards are optimised for generic internet applications and fail to provide symmetric throughput due …

Measuring And Filtering Microwave Radiations Using Frequency Selective Surface Through Energy Saving Glass, Irfan Ullah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis presents the results of our investigation into the measurement and filtering of microwave radiation, and the subsequent development of a microwave reduction solution for modern building architecture utilising Energy Saving Glass (ESG), in conjunction with Frequency Selective (FSS) surfaces through which useful signals can be filtered. In the investigation, radiation power density levels arising from the three common microwave sources (radio base stations, mobile phones, and microwave ovens) were measured, and the results were compared with the standards provided by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. For the radio base stations, the relationship between radiation intensity …

Surface-Modified Plga Nanoparticles For Targeted Drug Delivery To Neurons, Jingyan Li

LSU Master's Theses

The blood-brain barrier (BBB), which protects the central nervous system (CNS) from unnecessary substances, is a challenging obstacle in the treatment of CNS disease such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Many therapeutic agents such as hydrophilic and macromolecular drugs cannot overcome the BBB. One promising solution is the employment of polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) such as poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) NPs as drug carrier. Over the past few years, significant breakthroughs have been made in developing suitable poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly (lactic acid) (PLA) nanoparticles for drug delivery across the BBB. Recent advances on PLGA/PLA NPs enhanced neural delivery of …

Multi-Wavelength, Multi-Beam, Photonic Based Sensor For Object Discrimination And Positioning, Kavitha Venkataraayan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Over the last decade, substantial research efforts have been dedicated towards the development of advanced laser scanning systems for discrimination in perimeter security, defence, agriculture, transportation, surveying and geosciences. Military forces, in particular, have already started employing laser scanning technologies for projectile guidance, surveillance, satellite and missile tracking; and target discrimination and recognition. However, laser scanning is relatively a new security technology. It has previously been utilized for a wide variety of civil and military applications. Terrestrial laser scanning has found new use as an active optical sensor for indoors and outdoors perimeter security. A laser scanning technique with moving …

Efficient Medium Access Control Protocol For Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks, Niravkumar Shah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have enjoyed a tremendous growth in the last decade and the advancement in communication technologies has played a big role behind the success of ITS. Inter-vehicle communication (IVC) is a critical requirement for ITS and due to the nature of communication, vehicular ad-hoc network technology (VANET) is the most suitable communication technology for inter-vehicle communications. In Practice, however, VANET poses some extreme challenges including dropping out of connections as the moving vehicle moves out of the coverage range, joining of new nodes moving at high speeds, dynamic change in topology and connectivity, time variability of signal …

Geostatistical Methods For Estimating Iron, Silica And Alumina Grades Within The Hardcap Of The Section Seven Iron Deposit, Tom Price, Philip John Savory

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Many iron ore deposits have a weathered zone (Hardcap) near the surface which is highly variable in grades. Estimating the amount of ore grade material (HG) in this zone is difficult as a result of this variability. The Section Seven Deposit at Tom Price is largely mined out and has production data available in the form of grade blocks that were marked out during mining as HG and non- HG. Hardcap domains and a block model representing them were created and estimates were made from original exploration data using Ordinary Kriging, Global Change of Support, Indicator Kriging and Median Indicator …

Strategies For The Intelligent Selection Of Components, Valerie Maxville

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

It is becoming common to build applications as component-intensive systems - a mixture of fresh code and existing components. For application developers the selection of components to incorporate is key to overall system quality - so they want the `best'. For each selection task, the application developer will de ne requirements for the ideal component and use them to select the most suitable one. While many software selection processes exist there is a lack of repeatable, usable, exible, automated processes with tool support. This investigation has focussed on nding and implementing strategies to enhance the selection of software components. The …

The Simulation Of Material Types In A Western Australian Iron Deposit, Jacqueline Ferreira

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Geostatistical methods are currently used by mining companies to determine a resource model of the tonnage and head grade that may be obtained from a potential orebody, making it one of the first and most vital operational stages in any mining project. Currently long term mine planning is based on the estimated head grades model, which provides vital information on the quality of the ore. The risks associated with mining a particular ore may be reduced if geometallurgical information, such as material types, is incorporated into the operational flow model. Material type proportions are obtained from evaluated reverse circulation (RC) …

Multi-Party Multi-Period Supply Chain Coordination, Thin Yin Leong, Michelle Lee Fong Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We apply combinatorial auction as a coordination mechanism to smooth demands placed on suppliers' limited production capacities, allowing several manufacturers to share common suppliers effectively. Products are bidders bidding for parts from suppliers, consuming their capacities in different time periods. The fourth party logistic (4PL) provider acts as the auctioneer to coordinate bids and perform price iterations. We leverage on the strong links between the Lagrangian relaxation method and combinatorial auction, where the Lagrange multipliers serve as the supply capacity reserve prices, to balance the demand and supply of capacities. To prevent cyclic behaviour and to increase convergence speed, we …

Robust Local Search For Solving Rcpsp/Max With Durational Uncertainty, Na Fu, Hoong Chuin Lau, Pradeep Varakantham, Fei Xiao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Scheduling problems in manufacturing, logistics and project management have frequently been modeled using the framework of Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problems with minimum and maximum time lags (RCPSP/max). Due to the importance of these problems, providing scalable solution schedules for RCPSP/max problems is a topic of extensive research. However, all existing methods for solving RCPSP/max assume that durations of activities are known with certainty, an assumption that does not hold in real world scheduling problems where unexpected external events such as manpower availability, weather changes, etc. lead to delays or advances in completion of activities. Thus, in this paper, our …

Simultaneous Camera Pose And Correspondence Estimation With Motion Coherence, Wen-Yan Lin, Loong-Fah Cheong, Ping Tan, Guo Dong, Siying Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traditionally, the camera pose recovery problem has been formulated as one of estimating the optimal camera pose given a set of point correspondences. This critically depends on the accuracy of the point correspondences and would have problems in dealing with ambiguous features such as edge contours and high visual clutter. Joint estimation of camera pose and correspondence attempts to improve performance by explicitly acknowledging the chicken and egg nature of the pose and correspondence problem. However, such joint approaches for the two-view problem are still few and even then, they face problems when scenes contain largely edge cues with few …

Modeling Collective Dynamics Of Social Systems: Incorporating Various Social Mechanisms Into Agent-Based Models, Dene L. Farrell

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

I present three original papers demonstrating complex behavior arising from collective dynamics in agent-based models (ABM) focusing on evolutionary and cognitive mechanisms. The first report demonstrates the coupled emergence of cooperation and selfish punishment behavior in groups of individuals playing an iterated public goods game. The second report demonstrates the effects of mental modeling within groups of decision makers. The third report demonstrates a synthesis of evolutionary and cognitive mechanisms.

Copper-Cobalt Catalysts For Conversion Of Syngas To Ethanol And Higher Alcohols, Miranda Louise Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Higher alcohols produced by catalytic conversion of synthesis gas are potential octane enhancers for transportation fuels. Copper-cobalt catalysts have emerged as alternatives to the ethanol-selective, but expensive, rhodium-based ones. The reducibility of the catalyst and the CO adsorption mode are important factors in directing the selectivity of CO hydrogenation toward methanol, hydrocarbons, or higher alcohols. In this study, Cu/SiO2, Co/SiO2, and bimetallic CuCo/SiO2 catalysts, as well as their tin-promoted analogues, were synthesized and characterized by TPR, in situ XRD, in situ XANES, and in situ DRIFTS. Cobalt addition to Cu/SiO2 created an amorphous fraction of CuO that was more easily …

A Method To Improve Interest Point Detection And Its Gpu Implementation, Prabakar Karuppannan Gunashekhar

LSU Master's Theses

Interest point detection is an important low-level image processing technique with a wide range of applications. The point detectors have to be robust under affine, scale and photometric changes. There are many scale and affine invariant point detectors but they are not robust to high illumination changes. Many affine invariant interest point detectors and region descriptors, work on the points detected using scale invariant operators. Since the performance of those detectors depends on the performance of the scale invariant detectors, it is important that the scale invariant initial stage detectors should have good robustness. It is therefore important to design …

Kinetic Modeling Of Methanol Synthesis From Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, And Hydrogen Over A Cu/Zno/Cr2o3 Catalyst, Daaniya Rahman

Master's Theses

The main purpose of this study was to investigate kinetic models proposed in the

literature for methanol synthesis and select the best fit model using regression techniques

in POLYMATH. Another aim was to use the results from the best fit model to explain

some aspects and resolve some questions related to methanol synthesis kinetics. Two

statistically sound kinetic models were chosen from literature based on their goodness of

fit to the respective kinetic data. POLYMATH, the non-linear regression software, was

used to fit published experimental data to different kinetic models and evaluate kinetic

parameters. The statistical results from POLYMATH were …

Nebraska Summary: S838 Massey Ferguson 7619, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …