Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Improved Pcr Design For Mouse Dna By Training Finite State Machines, Salik R. Yadav, Steven M. Corns

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This project presents an updated method for classification of polymerase chain reaction primers in mice using finite state classifiers. This is done to compensate for many lab, organism and chemical specific factors that are costly. using Finite State Classifiers can help decrease the number of primers that fail to amplify correctly. for training these classifiers, five different evolutionary algorithms that use an incremental fitness reward are used. Variations to the number of generations and the values in the fitness reward are examined, and the resulting designs are presented. by controlling the fitness reward correctly, there is a potential to develop …

International Space Station Systems Engineering Case Study, Air Force Center For Systems Engineering, Bill Stockman, Joe Boyle, John Bacon

AFIT Documents

This case study on the International Space Station considers what many believe to have been the ultimate international engineering project in history. The initial plans involved the direct participation of 16 nations, 88 launches and over 160 spacewalks-more space activities than NASA had accomplished prior to the 1993 International Space Station decision. Probably more important was the significant leap in System Engineering (SE) execution that would be required to build and operate a multi-national space station. In a short period of time, NASA and its partners had to work out how to integrate culturally different SE approaches, designs, languages and …

Acuta Enews August 2010, Vol 39, No. 8

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

From the President........ Matt Arthur, Washington Univ. in St. Louis, ACUTA President

Web Seminar: The Future of United Communications

PAETEC Provides Calling Service

Tech Talk: Thinking Holistically about Mobility........ Kevin Tanzillo, Dux PR

Add Names from Your Campus to Your ACUTA Roster

Learn More about UC, WiFi, FMC, Green IT and More from Your Desktop

FYI: Useful Information from the Campus........... Student Monitor

Designing a DAS.............. Ron Walczak, Walczak Technology Consultants

Visit the ACUTA Community Often!

Board Report............... George Denbow, Univ. of Texas, ACUTA Secretary/ Treasurer

Info Links................... Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern Iowa

Washington Update Newsletter …

The Bi-Objective Master Physician Scheduling Problem, Aldy Gunawan, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Physician scheduling is the assignment of physicians to perform different duties in the hospital timetable. In this paper, the goals are to satisfy as many physicians’ preferences and duty requirements as possible while ensuring optimum usage of available resources. We present a mathematical programming model to represent the problem as a bi-objective optimization problem. Three different methods based on ε–Constraint Method, Weighted-Sum Method and HillClimbing algorithm are proposed. These methods were tested on a real case from the Surgery Department of a large local government hospital, as well as on randomly generated problem instances. The strengths and weaknesses of the …

Investigation Into Current Efficiency For Pulse Electrochemical Machining Of Nickel Alloy, Yu Zhang

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

INVESTIGATION INTO CURRENT EFFICIENCY FOR PULSE ELECTROCHEMICAL MACHINING OF NICKEL ALLOY

Yu Zhang, M.S.

University of Nebraska, 2010

Adviser: Kamlakar P. Rajurkar

Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a nontraditional manufacturing process that can machine difficult-to-cut materials. In ECM, material is removed by controlled electrochemical dissolution of an anodic workpiece in an electrochemical cell. ECM has extensive applications in automotive, petroleum, aerospace, textile, medical, and electronics industries.

Improving current efficiency is a challenging task for any electro-physical or electrochemical machining processes. The current efficiency is defined as the ratio of the observed amount of metal dissolved to the theoretical amount predicted from …

Development Of A Task Assignment Tool To Customize Job Descriptions And Close Person-Job Fit Gaps, Bryan W. Booker

Dissertations

Does the knowledge worker fit the job or should the job fit the knowledge worker? This research developed a methodology and a tool to customize a knowledge worker’s job design to better fit their knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics. The research outcomes support the customization of the job design to improve person-job fit, the documentation of the customized job design as a position description, and the use of a structured person-task assignment process. The recommended task assignment process includes a job aid that uses multivariate equations to predict expected task performance. Data were collected from two knowledge worker sub-groups: lean …

Determination Of Cap Model Parameters Using Numerical Optimization Method For Powder Compaction, Cong Lu

Dissertations (1934 -)

Many advantages are inherent to the successful powder metallurgy (P/M) process especially in high volume manufacturing. The strength/density distribution of the compacted product is crucial to overall success. The finite element analysis (FEA) method has become an effective way to numerically simulate strength/density distribution in a P/M compact. The modified Drucker-Prager cap (DPC) model has been shown to be a suitable constitutive relationship for metal powder compaction simulation. The calibration of the modified DPC model involves a procedure known as a triaxial compression test. Equipment for completing a triaxial compression test on metal powders is neither readily available nor standardized …

Simulation And Mathematical Modeling To Support Community-Wide Evacuation Decisions For Multiple Population Groups, Jun Duanmu

All Dissertations

Evacuating a large population from an at-risk area has been the subject of extensive research over the past few decades. In order to measure trip completion and total evacuation times accurately, most researchers have implemented some combination of simulation and optimization methods to provide vehicular flow and congestion data. While the general at-risk population comprises the majority of travelers on the road network, there are often specific groups to consider when assessing the ability to evacuate an entire population. In particular, healthcare facilities (e.g., hospitals) may require evacuation, and the trip times may become an important health issue for patients …

Principal Component Analysis Based Image Fusion Routine With Application To Stamping Split Detection, Yi Zhou

All Dissertations

This dissertation presents a novel thermal and visible image fusion system with application in online automotive stamping split detection. The thermal vision system scans temperature maps of high reflective steel panels to locate abnormal temperature readings indicative of high local wrinkling pressure that causes metal splitting. The visible vision system offsets the blurring effect of thermal vision system caused by heat diffusion across the surface through conduction and heat losses to the surroundings through convection. The fusion of thermal and visible images combines two separate physical channels and provides more informative result image than the original ones.
Principal Component Analysis …

Prioritizing Patients For Emergency Evacuation From A Healthcare Facility, Ashley Childers

All Dissertations

The success of a healthcare facility evacuation depends on communication and decision-making at all levels of the organization, from the coordinators at incident command to the clinical staff who actually carry out the evacuation. One key decision is the order in which each patient is chosen for evacuation. While the typical planning assumption is that all patients are to be evacuated, there may not always be adequate time or resources available to move all patients. In these cases, prioritizing or ordering patients for evacuation becomes an extremely difficult decision to make. These decisions should be based on the current state …

Estimation And Control Of Robotic Radiation-Based Processes, Fan Zeng

All Dissertations

This dissertation presents a closed-loop control and state estimation framework for a class of distributed-parameter processes employing a moving radiant actuator. These radiation-based processes have the potential to significantly reduce the energy consumption and environmental impact of traditional industrial processes. Successful implementation of these approaches in large-scale applications requires precise control systems. This dissertation provides a comprehensive framework for: 1) integration of trajectory generation and feedback control, 2) online distributed state and parameter estimation, and 3) optimal coordination of multiple manipulated variables, so as to achieve elaborate control of these radiation-based processes for improved process quality and energy efficiency.
The …

Distributed Route Planning And Scheduling Via Hybrid Conflict Resolution, Ramesh Thangarajoo, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we discuss the problem of route planning and scheduling by a group of agents. Each agent is responsible for designing a route plan and schedule over a geographical network, and the goal is to obtain a conflict-free plan/schedule that optimizes a global objective. We present a hybrid conflict resolution method that involves coalition formation and distributed constraint satisfaction depending on the level of coupling between agents. We show how this approach can be effectively applied to solve a distributed convoy movement planning problem.

Sensor Based Nitrogen Management For Cotton Production In Coastal Plain Soils, Wesley Porter

All Theses

The main objective of this four year study was to develop, refine, and employ sensor-based algorithims to determine the mid season nitrogen requirements for production of irrigated and dryland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) in Coastal Plains soils. The secondary objective of the project was to develop and test equipment for variable rate application of nitrogen to commerical cotton fields utilizing the developed algorithim. Two different production fields at Clemson's Edisto Research and Education Center near Blackville, SC were used. One field, equiped with an overhead irrigation system, was used during the 2007 and 2010 production seasons to develop the algorithm …

Remote Usability Testing - A New Approach Facilitated By Virtual Worlds, Kapil Chalil Madathil

All Theses

Synchronous remote usability testing, involves a facilitator conducting a usability test in real time, interacting with a participant who is remote. This study proposes a new methodology for conducting these studies using a three-dimensional virtual world, Wonderland, and compares it with two other commonly used synchronous usability test methods: the traditional lab approach and WebEx, a web-based conferencing and screen sharing approach.
The study involved 48 participants in total, 36 test subjects and 12 test facilitators. These 36 were equally divided among the three environments with the 12 test facilitators being paired with one participant in each of the environments. …

A Decision Theoretic Approach To Data Leakage Prevention, Janusz Marecki, Mudhakar Srivastava, Pradeep Reddy Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In both the commercial and defense sectors a compelling need is emerging for rapid, yet secure, dissemination of information. In this paper we address the threat of information leakage that often accompanies such information flows. We focus on domains with one information source (sender) and many information sinks (recipients) where: (i) sharing is mutually beneficial for the sender and the recipients, (ii) leaking a shared information is beneficial to the recipients but undesirable to the sender, and (iii) information sharing decisions of the sender are determined using imperfect monitoring of the (un)intended information leakage by the recipients.We make two key …

Effect Of Human Biases On Human-Agent Teams, Praveen Paruchuri, Pradeep Reddy Varakantham, Katia Sycara, Paul Scerri

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As human-agent teams get increasingly deployed in the real-world, agent designers need to take into account that humans and agents have different abilities to specify preferences. In this paper, we focus on how human biases in specifying preferences for resources impacts the performance of large, heterogeneous teams. In particular, we model the inclination of humans to simplify their preference functions and to exaggerate their utility for desired resources, and show the effect of these biases on the team performance. We demonstrate this on two different problems, which are representative of many resource allocation problems addressed in literature. In both these …

Decentralized Resource Allocation And Scheduling Via Walrasian Auctions With Negotiable Agents, Huaxing Chen, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper is concerned with solving decentralized resource allocation and scheduling problems via auctions with negotiable agents by allowing agents to switch their bid generation strategies within the auction process, such that a better system wide performance is achieved on average as compared to the conventional walrasian auction running with agents of fixed bid generation strategy. We propose a negotiation mechanism embedded in auctioneer to solicit bidders’ change of strategies in the process of auction. Finally we benchmark our approach against conventional auctions subject to the real-time large-scale dynamic resource coordination problem to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Preparation Of Coated Microtools For Electrochemical Machining Applications, Ajaya K. Swain

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

PREPARATION OF COATED MICROTOOLS FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL MACHINING APPLICATIONS

Ajaya K. Swain, M.S. University of Nebraska, 2010

Advisor: K.P. Rajurkar

Coated tools have improved the performance of both traditional and nontraditional machining processes and have resulted in higher material removal, better surface finish, and increased wear resistance. However, a study on the performance of coated tools in micromachining has not yet been adequately conducted. One possible reason is the difficulties associated with the preparation of coated microtools. Besides the technical requirement, economic and environmental aspects of the material and the coating technique used also play a significant role in coating microtools. …

A Methodology To Evaluate Obsolete Inventory In Health Care, Rama Thummalapalli

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many organizations are currently facing inventory management problems such as distributing inventory on-time and maintain the correct inventory levels to satisfy the customer or end users. Organizations understand the need for maintaining the accurate inventory levels but sometimes fall short leading a wide performance gap in maintaining inventory accurately. The inventory inaccuracy can consume much of the investment on purchasing inventory and many times leads to excessive inventory. The research objective of thesis is to provide a decision making criteria to the management for closing or maintaining the warehouse based on basic purchasing and holding cost information. The specific objectives …

Acuta Enews July 2010, Vol 39, No. 7

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

From ACUTA Headquarters: FCC: Traveling with Wireless Phones .....Jeri A. Semer, CAE, Executive Dir.

Why Should You Visit the ACUTA Community Often?

Tech Talk: The lnternet Just Keeps on Growing ....Kevin Tanzillo, Dux PR

Hurricane Preparedness Checklist

Cloud Security, Some Guidance...........Gary Audin, Delphi, lnc.

lnfo Links ............. Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern lowa

Write for the ACUTA Journal in 2011

Second-Notice Membership Dues Mailed July 1

Washington Update Newsletter

Board Report......... George Denbow, Univ. of Texas, Austin

New Members

Check lt Out: Press Releases...Job Postings...RFls/RFPs...Special Deals