Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model Of The Chemical Separations Process, Yitung Chen, Darrell Pepper, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The chemical processing of used nuclear fuel is an integral component of any strategy for the transmutation of nuclear waste. Due to the large volume of material that must be handled in this first step of the transmutation process, the efficiency of the separations process is a key factor in the potential economic viability of the transmutation strategies. The ability to optimize the chemical separation systems is vital to ensure the feasibility of the transmutation program.

Systems analysis, or total systems modeling, is one of the strongest tools available to researchers for understanding and optimizing complex systems such as chemical …

The Frequency Distribution Of Quantization Error In Digitizers For Coherent Sampling, Sol Neeman Ph.D.

Engineering Studies Faculty Publications and Creative Works

In this paper the frequency distribution of quantization error in coherent sampling of digitizers will be investigated. As the distribution of the quantization error affects the values of THD and SNR, it is relevant for a correct interpretation of THD and SNR of sine waves in coherent sampling. The distribution of the quantization error will be analyzed as a function of N, total number of samples and M, number of cycles in the sample set and it will be proved that for certain cases, the quantization error falls on odd harmonics only of the frequency of the sampled sine wave.

Selected Collaborative Problem-Solving Methods For Industry, Dr. Anthony Mark Doggett

Architectural and Manufacturing Sciences Faculty Publications

Despite the availability of a wide range of problem solving methods, individuals continue to struggle with problems. Scientists attempt to address recurring economic, social, political, and organizational problems through the expansion of knowledge and theory. ... Cause-effect relationships advance logical explanations, predict future events,and forecast consequences. Theories and thinking based on cause-effect findings become recognized science (Goldratt, 1990) and move the field of inquiry from "art" to that of disciplined examination. In problem solving, the root cause of the problem produces an undesirable effect. Any pursuit that does not seek the root cause leads only to the symptom of the …

Wear Mechanisms In Ceramic Hip Implants, M. Slonaker, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

The wear in hip implants is one of the main causes for premature hip replacements. The wear affects the potential life of the prosthesis and subsequent removals of in-vivo implants. Therefore, the objective of this article is to review various joints that show lower wear rates and consequently higher life. Ceramics are used in hip implants and have been found to produce lower wear rates. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of ceramics compared to other implant materials. Different types of ceramics that are being used are reviewed in terms of the wear characteristics, debris released, and their size …

General Creep-Fatigue Life Prediction Models, J. Toland, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a data bank that was compiled from published and unpublished sources. Using these data, low cycle fatigue curves were generated under a range of test conditions showing the effect of test parameters on the Coffin-Manson behavior of steel alloys. Generic equations have been developed in this paper to predict the creep-fatigue life of high temperature materials. Several new multivariate equations were developed to predict the creep-fatigue life of following alloy groups; I) Cr-Mo steels, 2) stainless steels and 3) generic materials involving the materials from the following alloy groups, solder, copper, steels, titanium, tantalum, and nickel based …

Overview Of Metal-On-Polyethylene, Metal-On-Metal, And Ceramic Hip Wear Mechanisms, A. Buford, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Premature failure of orthopaedic hip implants caused by multiple wear mechanisms is the primary failure mode of prosthetic hips. Wearing of the implants may lead to aseptic loosening, biological incompatibilities, and mechanical failure of the implant. In order to prevent or restrict the effects of the wear mechanisms, multiple laboratory studies are being conducted in order to determine each mechanism and its contribution to increased wear rates. This paper combines previous laboratory studies related to the wear of metal-onpolyethylene, metal-on-metal, and ceramic materials. The bulk quantity materials discussed include cobalt chromium alloys, stainless steels, zirconium oxide ceramics, and polyethylene materials …

Including Organizational Cultural Parameters In Work Processes, Holly A. H. Handley, Nancy J. Heacox

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Recent work in modeling decision-making work processes has focused on including the national culture of individual decision-makers in order to emphasize the differences in decision criteria between decision-makers of different nationalities. In addition to nationality, a decision-maker is also a member of an organization and brings this organizational culture to his role in the work process, where it may also affect his task performance. In order to represent the organizational impact on the work process, five organizational cultural parameters were identified and included in an algorithm for modeling and simulation of cultural difference in human decision-making. While the five modifiers …

How Many Slides? Documented Cytotechnologist Workload, Sophie K, Thompson, Eileen Mason

Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) This paper relays workload information obtained as part of an ergonomics survey.1 Data were obtained on the number of slides evaluated daily, workplace setting, hours worked, and demographic information.

Forecasting Series-Based Stock Price Data Using Direct Reinforcement Learning, H. Li, Cihan H. Dagli, David Lee Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A significant amount of work has been done in the area of price series forecasting using soft computing techniques, most of which are based upon supervised learning. Unfortunately, there has been evidence that such models suffer from fundamental drawbacks. Given that the short-term performance of the financial forecasting architecture can be immediately measured, it is possible to integrate reinforcement learning into such applications. In this paper, we present the novel hybrid view for a financial series and critic adaptation stock price forecasting architecture using direct reinforcement. A new utility function called policies-matching ratio is also proposed. The need for the …

Cost Allocation For Transmission Investment Using Agent-Based Game Theory, Jakapun Mepokee, David Lee Enke, Badrul H. Chowdhury

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Due to electrical power restructuring, a dramatic change has been made to the generation and transmission sectors of the power industry. Rules and legislation are continuously changing. To promote more competition, transmission has to be expanded or upgraded to remove congestion and market power. The cost allocation of new investment in transmission has to be recalculated. The socialization methods of the past have been shown to be unfair to some market and network participants. The decentralization of cost allocation must be considered. The proposed paper provides a comparison between traditional cost allocation methods and a new cost allocation method based …

Neural Network Controller For Manipulation Of Micro-Scale Objects, Vijayakumar Janardhan, Pingan He, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel reinforcement learning-based neural network (RLNN) controller is presented for the manipulation and handling of micro-scale objects in a microelectromechanical system (MEMS). In MEMS, adhesive, surface tension, friction and van der Waals forces are dominant. Moreover, these forces are typically unknown. The RLNN controller consists of an action NN for compensating the unkoown system dynamics, and a critic NN to tune the weights of the action NN. Using the Lyapunov approach, the uniformly ultimate houndedness (UUB) of the closed-loop tracking error and weight estimates are shown by using a novel weight updates. Simulation results are presented to substantiate the …

Design, Development, And Delivery Of Certificate Programs For Funding Opportunities And Industry Collaboration, Carol Considine, Paul Kauffmann

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Many engineering technology departments have four general areas that are used for evaluation of tenure and promotion. These areas include teaching, research and scholarly activities, service, and other professional activities. Although teaching is the primary mission in most engineering technology programs, external funding as part of the research area is playing a larger role in tenure decisions at many universities. Many faculty members in engineering technology programs come from an industrial background and do not have a specific research area of interest and contacts within the research community. These faculty members must look at other avenues to develop the external …

Enhancing Instruction In Lean Manufacturing Through Development Of Simulation Activities In Shipbuilding Operations, Alok K. Verma, James Hughes, Scott Christman

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Lean Manufacturing is a powerful philosophy that advocates minimization of waste within an organization. The adoption of Lean Manufacturing philosophy by major manufacturers has created a demand for qualified personnel in this area. A training program in Lean Enterprise was developed by Old Dominion University for the Apprentice School at Northrop Grumman Newport News. Physical simulation activities are an integral part of this training program. Simulation activities related to shipbuilding operations have been incorporated in the Lean training course. These activities have been used in the Business Operations course for three semesters. Results show increased student participation and better understanding …

A Docking Score Function For Estimating Ligand-Protein Interactions: Application To Acetylcholinesterase Inhibition, Jianxin Guo, Margaret M. Hurley, Jeffery B. Wright, Gerald H. Lushington

US Army Research

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition is an important research topic because of its wide range of associated health implications. A receptor-specific scoring function was developed herein for predicting binding affinities for human AChE (huAChE) inhibitors. This method entails a statistically trained weighted sum of electrostatic and van der Waals (VDW) interactions between ligands and the receptor residues. Within the 53 ligand training set, a strong correlation was found (R² = 0.89) between computed and experimental inhibition constants. Leave-oneout cross-validation indicated high predictive power (Q² = 0.72), and analysis of a separate 16-compound test set also produced very good correlation with …

Matrix Isolation Infrared Spectroscopic And Theoretical Study Of The Interaction Of Water With Dimethyl Methylphosphonate, Bruce S. Ault, Alex Balboa, David Tevault, Margaret Hurley

US Army Research

Matrix isolation infrared spectroscopy has been combined with theoretical calculations for the characterization of the 1:1 hydrogen-bonded complex between H₂O and dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP). The symmetric O-H stretching mode was observed to shift 203 cm^-1 to lower energy upon hydrogen bond formation, while a 32 cm^-1 blue shift was noted for the H-O-H bending mode of the H₂O subunit in the complex. These values compare extremely well with the (unscaled) shifts of -203 and +32 cm^-1, respectively, that were calculated theoretically at the MP2/6-31+G** level. Additional perturbed modes of the DMMP subunit …

Structure/Function Analyses Of Human Serum Paraoxonase (Hupon1) Mutants Designed From A Dfpase-Like Homology Model, David T. Yeung, Denis Josse, James D. Nicholson, Akhil Khanal, Christopher W. Mcandrew, Brian B. Bahnson, David E. Lenz, Douglas M. Cerasoli

US Army Research

Human serum paraoxonase (HuPON1) is a calcium-dependent enzyme that hydrolyzes esters, including organophosphates and lactones, and exhibits anti-atherogenic properties. A few amino acids have been shown to be essential for the enzyme’s arylesterase and organophosphatase activities. Until very recently, a three-dimensional model was not available for HuPON1, so functional roles have not been assigned to those residues. Based on sequence-structure alignment studies, we have folded the amino acid sequence of HuPON1 onto the sixfold β-propeller structure of squid diisopropylfluorophosphatase (DFPase). We tested the validity of this homology model by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and site-directed mutagenesis. Consistent with predictions from …

Writing Reflective Case Studies For The Engineering Management Journal (Emj), Timothy Kotnour, Rafael Landaeta

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper's intent is to help authors write reflective case studies for the Engineering Management Journal (EMJ). We offer a process to convert an applied research project with an organization to an EMJ manuscript. Writing a reflective case study is a process of abstracting experiences into approaches, processes, tools, challenges, and "lessons" for a broad audience of engineering managers. This paper serves as a guide for authors to write reflective case studies.

Adaptive Force-Balancing Control Of Mems Gyroscope With Actuator Limits, Mohammed Hameed, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work presents an adaptive force-balancing control (AFBC) scheme with actuator limits for a MEMS Z-axis gyroscope. The purpose of the adaptive force-balancing control is to identify major fabrication imperfections so that they are properly compensated unlike the case of conventional force-balancing controlled gyroscope. The proposed AFBC scheme controls the vibratory modes of the proof mass while ensuring that the control input satisfies the magnitude constraints and the performance of the gyroscope is enhanced in the presence of fabrication uncertainties. Consequently, commonly reported problems of MEMS gyroscope such as quadrature compensation, drive and sense axes frequency tuning are not needed …

A Distributed Power Control Mac Protocol For Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks., Maciej Jan Zawodniok, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel distributed power control (DPC)⋅ scheme and a MAC protocol for wireless ad hoc networks in the presence of radio channel uncertainties such as path loss, Shadowing and Rayleigh fading is presented. The DPC quickly estimates the time-varying nature of the channel and uses the information to select a suitable transmitter power value in order to maintain a target Signal-to-Interference ratio (SIR) at the receiver. The standard assumption of a constant interference during a link's power update used in other works is relaxed. The performance of the proposed DPC is demonstrated analytically. The power used for all RTS-CTS-DATA-ACK frames …

Adaptive Critic Neural Network-Based Object Grasping Control Using A Three-Finger Gripper, Gustavo Galan, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Grasping of objects has been a challenging task for robots. The complex grasping task can be defined as object contact control and manipulation subtasks. In this paper, object contact control subtask is defined as the ability to follow a trajectory accurately by the fingers of a gripper. The object manipulation subtask is defined in terms of maintaining a predefined applied force by the fingers on the object. A sophisticated controller is necessary since the process of grasping an object without a priori knowledge of the object's size, texture, softness, gripper, and contact dynamics is rather difficult. Moreover, the object has …

Lean Product Development Flow, Bohdan W. Oppenheim

Systems Engineering Faculty Works

A general holistic framework, also called a process—named “Lean Product Development Flow (LPDF)”—for organizing the engineering work of Product Development (PD), has been proposed as a contribution to the emerging field of Lean Systems Engineering. The framework is based on Lean Principles, with emphasis on PD value-pulling workflow pulsed by takt periods. The value is defined as (1) mission assurance/product quality, (the traditional goals of Systems Engineering) and (2) reduced program cost and schedule achieved by a radical reduction of waste. LPDF is recommended for smaller design programs based on a high degree of legacy knowledge, with technologies mature enough …

Logistics Outsourcing And 3pl Challenges, Michelle L. F. Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Logistics has been an important part of every economy and every business entity. The worldwide trend in globalization has led to many companies outsourcing their logistics function to Third-Party Logistics (3PL) companies, so as to focus on their core competencies. This paper attempts to broadly identify and categorize the challenges faced by 3PL companies and discover potential gaps for future research. Some of the challenges will be related with the experience and information collected from interviews with two 3PL companies.

Qos Routing Optimization Strategy Using Genetic Algorithm In Optical Fiber Communication Networks, Zhaoxia Wang, Zengqiang Chen, Zhuzhi Yuan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper describes the routing problems in optical fiber networks, defines five constraints, induces and simplifies the evaluation function and fitness function, and proposes a routing approach based on the genetic algorithm, which includes an operator [OMO] to solve the QoS routing problem in optical fiber communication networks. The simulation results show that the proposed routing method by using this optimal maintain operator genetic algorithm (OMOGA) is superior to the common genetic algorithms (CGA). It not only is robust and efficient but also converges quickly and can be carried out simply, that makes it better than other complicated GA.

Discrete-Time Neural Network Output Feedback Control Of Nonlinear Systems In Non-Strict Feedback Form, Pingan He, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An adaptive neural network (NN)-based output feedback controller is proposed to deliver a desired tracking performance for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems, which is represented in non-strict feedback form. The NN backstepping approach is utilized to design the adaptive output feedback controller consisting of: 1) a NN observer to estimate the system states with the input-output data, and 2) two NNs to generate the virtual and actual control inputs, respectively. The non-causal problem in the discrete-time backstepping design is avoided by using the universal NN approximator. The persistence excitation (PE) condition is relaxed both in the NN observer and …

Decentralized Neural Network Control Of A Class Of Large-Scale Systems With Unknown Interconnection, Wenxin Liu, Jagannathan Sarangapani, Donald C. Wunsch, Mariesa Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel decentralized neural network (DNN) controller is proposed for a class of large-scale nonlinear systems with unknown interconnections. The objective is to design a DNN for a class of large-scale systems which do not satisfy the matching condition requirement. The NNs are used to approximate the unknown subsystem dynamics and the interconnections. The DNN is designed using the back stepping methodology with only local signals for feedback. All of the signals in the closed loop (system states and weights estimation errors) are guaranteed to be uniformly ultimately bounded and eventually converge to a compact set.