Detection Of Explosive Threats By Using Embedded Wireless Sensor Based Networks,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Detection Of Explosive Threats By Using Embedded Wireless Sensor Based Networks, Jake Daniel Hertenstein
Masters Theses
"This thesis focuses on the development of novel schemes for the detection of unintended electromagnetic emissions (UEE) from passive radio frequency (RF) receivers and chemical and biological (CB) agents for the purpose of locating explosive threats (ET) to improve survivability for equipment and personnel in the surrounding environment. The methods and architectures used in this work were developed for use with wireless sensor networks (WSNs). While previous work has shown that highly sensitive equipment is capable of long-range detection of UEE the intention of this work is to develop a network of small, low cost smart sensor nodes (SSNs) capable …
Synergy Between Biology And Systems Resilience,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Synergy Between Biology And Systems Resilience, Ashik Chandra
Masters Theses
"Resilient systems have the ability to endure and successfully recover from disturbances by identifying problems and mobilizing the available resources to cope with the disturbance. Resiliency lets a system recover from disruptions, variations, and a degradation of expected working conditions. Biological systems are resilient. Immune systems are highly adaptive and scalable, with the ability to cope with multiple data sources, fuse information together, makes decisions, have multiple interacting agents, operate in a distributed manner over a multiple scales, and have a memory structure to facilitate learning. Ecosystems are resilient since they have the capacity to absorb disturbance and are able …
Application Of Quality Function Deployment In New Product And Service Development,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Application Of Quality Function Deployment In New Product And Service Development, Anusha Uppalanchi
Masters Theses
"Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a systematic process to integrate customer requirements into every aspect of the design and delivery of products and services. Understanding the customers wants or needs from a product or service is crucial to the successful design and development of new products and services. QFD is a system that utilizes customer demands to meet client missions by outlining what the customer wants in a service or product. QFD was used in this research to determine customer needs and thus to ensure that customer demands are met. This methodology is demonstrated using two case studies: Hydrogen Fuel …
Improving Resiliency Using Graph Based Evolutionary Algorithms,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Improving Resiliency Using Graph Based Evolutionary Algorithms, Jayakanth Jayachandran
Masters Theses
"Resiliency is an important characteristic of any system. It signifies the ability of a system to survive and recover from unprecedented disruptions. Various characteristics exist that indicate the level of resiliency in a system. One of these attributes is the adaptability of the system. This adaptability can be enhanced by redundancy present within the system. In the context of system design, redundancy can be achieved by having a diverse set of good designs for that particular system. Evolutionary algorithms are widely used in creating designs for engineering systems, as they perform well on discontinuous and/or high dimensional problems. One method …
A Value Model For Product Development Process Using Lean Principles,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
A Value Model For Product Development Process Using Lean Principles, Salik Yadav
Masters Theses
"This research presents a value quantification model for multi-stage product development Process (PDP) using lean value principles. The PDP stages considered in this research include conceptual development, systems design, detailed design and prototyping stages. The value at any of the PDP stages is formulated as a function of six factors: (a) importance of customer requirements, (b) cost of customer's ownership, (c) parts/service availability, (d) weighted average cost of capital, (e) information evolution, and (f) risk reduction. Factors (a)-(d) are adequately addressed in the literature. This study focuses on information evolution and risk reduction factors. These two factors are defined by …
An Analysis Of The Integration Of Lean And Safety,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
An Analysis Of The Integration Of Lean And Safety, Pankaj Mahesh Pai
Masters Theses
"The lean philosophy has proven potential to help businesses improve productivity and reduce its losses. Lean can give businesses a cutting edge in this age of global competition. The fundamental principle of lean is to identify wastes in the system and reduce or eliminate them. There is a concern that during lean implementations, the focus on productivity may result in health and safety issues being ignored or worse, changes driven by lean may introduce new hazards. The relationship between lean and safety is not clearly understood. Lean and safety should be compatible. Both strive to improve processes. Both are against …
Strategic Process Integration Of Energy And Environmental Systems In Wastewater Treatment Plants,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Strategic Process Integration Of Energy And Environmental Systems In Wastewater Treatment Plants, Bharath Kumar Gangichetty
Masters Theses
"Green environmental practices are increasingly important in combating serious global energy and environmental issues. Most wastewater treatment facilities were built when energy costs were not a concern; however, an increasing demand for energy, changing climatic conditions, and constrained energy supplies have resulted in the need to apply more energy-conscious choices in the maintenance or upgrade of existing wastewater treatment facilities. A detailed analysis of the majority of water and wastewater treatment services shows that most facilities operate far below the efficiency levels needed for effective energy use. Failure to comply with regulated environmental standards is also a problem. Although standards …
Strategic Criteria For Evaluating Inland Freight Hub Locations,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Strategic Criteria For Evaluating Inland Freight Hub Locations, Robert Tyler Lipscomb
Masters Theses
"The aim of this thesis is to develop criteria that can be used to evaluate the current capabilities and sustainability of inland freight hubs. A review of the literature highlights the need for a more efficient freight distribution system to combat supply chain deficiencies and the important role that inland freight hubs play in creating this system. Also in the literature is a call for a more comprehensive approach to hub development decisions and the use of multi-criteria decision analysis. The decision to devote resources to logistics developments in a specific region must consider many factors that are both quantitative …
The Effects Of Personal Protective Equipment Level A Suits On Human Task Performance,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
The Effects Of Personal Protective Equipment Level A Suits On Human Task Performance, Yvette L. Simon
Masters Theses
"First response teams dealing with hazardous substances often require the highest level of protection provided by Level A suits. These suits are fully encapsulating, bulky, and heat retentive. The effect of these suits on the wearer's ability to perform various tasks is of interest when it comes to human performance analysis. This research effort examined the effect of the Level A suit on fine motor and gross motor dexterity. Seven members of the National Guard's Civil Support Team (CST) performed a battery of six tasks designed to test these abilities. Tasks comprised the Minnesota Dexterity test and the Mirror Tracer …
Incorporating New Technology Into Healthcare: An Analysis Of Performance, Acceptance, And Safety,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Incorporating New Technology Into Healthcare: An Analysis Of Performance, Acceptance, And Safety, Anthony Joseph Strawhun
Masters Theses
"Each year, advances in the healthcare industry allows for better patient care and increased ability to save lives. Looking at standardized and common healthcare devices for both inside and outside the hospital environment, this research studied the tradeoffs and human factors that affect operator performance and patient survival. This research studied the impact of human factors and technology in the development and implementation of the automated external defibrillator for out-of-hospital use and the incremental advantages of SMArT infusion pump technology over traditional intravenous infusion pumps for in-hospital care. The study highlights the complex human factors of both products and establishes …
The Marketing Value Of Graduate Certificate Programs In Higher Education: A Strategic Assessment,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
The Marketing Value Of Graduate Certificate Programs In Higher Education: A Strategic Assessment, Susmitha Akula
Masters Theses
"The last five years have seen a significant increase in the popularity of non degree graduate certificates. This increase has raised questions about the value of graduate certificate programs from the perspective of students, alumni and industry employers. Do certificate programs provide real world skills and knowledge valuable to industry? Do they serve as effective recruiting tools for the university? Do they provide opportunities for students to meet their professional goals in terms of salary increase, promotions, and the like? The present research is specifically aimed at answering these questions. Surveys that assess perceptions of value of graduate certificates to …
Establishing Workload Limitations For Application In Human Systems Integration,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Establishing Workload Limitations For Application In Human Systems Integration, Muhammet Servet Gulum
Masters Theses
"As the amount of technology involved in the typical workplace increases and standard operational procedures become increasingly sophisticated the danger of overloading an operator's mental resources is increasing. As much as these technological developments help operators with daily tasks, for example by providing information via monitors and wireless headsets; it also increased the mental workload due to the bombardment of information. Mental workload is commonly associated with information processing tasks, limits. With all the extra information inputs it is difficult to set limits where excessive information becomes dangerous. The workload optimization is critical as it directly affects system performance and …
Using Value Stream Mapping For Cost Modeling,
2010
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Using Value Stream Mapping For Cost Modeling, Emily Marie Tucker
Masters Theses
"This thesis presents an effective cost model for the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process used in additive manufacturing practices. The various factors that influence the total cost of a build on both small and large frame machines are discussed. These attributes, which include labor and overhead rates, material costs, and process times, combine to generate the driving force behind a manufacturer's decision to use the small or large SLS machine for mass production. By developing and evaluating a current state value stream map for the small SLS machine, a financial analysis of the SLS process can be performed. By assigning …
Fusion Of Imprecise Qualitative Information,
2010
University of New Mexico
Fusion Of Imprecise Qualitative Information, Florentin Smarandache, Xinde Li, Xianzhong Dai, Jean Dezert
Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications
In this paper, we present a new 2-tuple linguistic representation model, i.e. Distribution Function Model (DFM), for combining imprecise qualitative information using fusion rules drawn from Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) framework. Such new approach allows to preserve the precision and efficiency of the combination of linguistic information in the case of either equidistant or unbalanced label model. Some basic operators on imprecise 2-tuple labels are presented together with their extensions for imprecise 2-tuple labels. We also give simple examples to show how precise and imprecise qualitative information can be combined for reasoning under uncertainty. It is concluded that DSmT can deal …
Investigating Fabrication Methods For Micro Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells,
2010
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Investigating Fabrication Methods For Micro Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Man Yang
Dissertations
A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a green energy technology that offers a cleaner and efficient alternative to fossil fuels. The efficiency and utility of SOFCs can be enhanced by fabricating miniaturized component structures within the fuel cell footprint. This research focuses on the microfabrication of parallel-connected inter-digitized design of micro single chamber SOFC (µ-SC-SOFCs). In this dissertation, candidate micro/nano fabrication techniques to precisely fabricate micro patterns on planar substrates have been studied. These include EBL, soft lithography, photolithography, and direct-writing. After analyzing preliminary results, two combinational approaches were further investigated. The first method involves the combination of the …
Project And Risk Management: A Systematic Approach,
2010
Old Dominion University
Project And Risk Management: A Systematic Approach, Baqer Alali, C. Ariel Pinto, Andreas Tolk, Rafael Landaeta
Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications
The main purpose of this paper is to discuss three related topics of project management, systems management, and risk management. The issue that would be addressed in this paper is how risks are addressed in project and systems management, and how risks are propagated between projects and systems. A framework is proposed to overcome the problem of risk propagation from project to the systems. It was shown that the proposed framework can be deployed to existing risk management process with reasonable interventions (e.g. process prescribed by PMI). Finally a proof-of-concept application shows potential of the framework for various types of …
Theoretical Exploratory Investigation On Reliability Of Advanced Ceramics By Discrete Element Simulation,
2010
University of Texas at El Paso
Theoretical Exploratory Investigation On Reliability Of Advanced Ceramics By Discrete Element Simulation, Ana Laura Quezada Lara
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
The increasing application of silicon nitride in biomedical and other engineering fields has elevated the necessity to understand its reliability. Due to the complexity of producing pure material researchers have been analyzing the behavior of the material with flaws. In this thesis several scenarios are simulated with the support of PFC2D to analyze microcrack propagation depending on the position, quantity and size of the voids to understand the effect each of the cases have on the material. A four point bending test was applied to each case twice recording the loading force. Having two runs allows doing a statistical analysis …
Component Replacement Analysis For Electricity Distribution Systems Using Evolutionary Algorithms,
2010
University of Texas at El Paso
Component Replacement Analysis For Electricity Distribution Systems Using Evolutionary Algorithms, Vasukumar Chenna
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
The main objective of the electric power grid is to supply economical and reliable electricity to industrial, commercial, household, transportation, and other end-users, including agricultural, educational institutions and hospitals. The power system is a very large and complex network consisting of generation, transmission, and distribution systems. The main focus of the present research is in the area of power distribution systems. Almost all the areas of the power grid uses simpler radial distribution systems to distribute electricity to the end consumer, it is the final and therefore vital link between the consumer and the rest of the power grid. Therefore …
E-Quality: Using Dimensional Index Values Towards Improving Classification Accuracy,
2010
University of Texas at El Paso
E-Quality: Using Dimensional Index Values Towards Improving Classification Accuracy, Prashanth Devaram
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
E-quality is a process through which inspection of the process and quality of the part produced is done online resulting in the improvement of the process and reduction in the amount of time consumed for the overall process. Automated quality control involves using a methodology to classify the parts based on the dimensions of the features on a part. However, achieving 100% classification accuracy is not an easy task, especially in area of quality control where small differences in dimensions result in part fall into a different category. In this study, a novel approach for modifying the data before being …
Optimization Models For The Economic And Non-Economic Level Of Repair Analysis,
2010
University of Texas at El Paso
Optimization Models For The Economic And Non-Economic Level Of Repair Analysis, Carlos Marco Ituarte-Villarreal
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Every component, equipment or system will eventually fail. All failures produce a maintenance cost and, repair costs are especially hard to estimate ahead of time. Research shows that maintenance costs are the most substantial costs of development and use of equipment, reason why the cost of the product or equipment through its life is a major concern. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to provide a new optimization model to determine the minimum cost maintenance policy for complex systems.
