Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Two Novel Aluminum-Free, Zinc-Based Glass Polyalkenoate Cements As Alternatives To Pmma Bone Cement For Use In Vertebroplasty And Balloon Kyphoplasty, Gladius Lewis, Mark R. Towler, Daniel Boyd, Matthew J. German, Anthony W. Wren, Owen M. Clarkin, Andrew Yates

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Vertebroplasty (VP) and balloon kyphoplasty (BKP) are now widely used for treating patients in whom the pain due to vertebral compression fractures is severe and has proved to be refractory to conservative treatment. These procedures involve percutaneous delivery of a bolus of an injectable bone cement either directly to the fractured vertebral body, VB (VP) or to a void created in it by an inflatable bone tamp (BKP). Thus, the cement is a vital component of both procedures. In the vast majority of VPs and BKPs, a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement is used. This material has many shortcomings, notably …

Structure Prediction For The Helical Skeletons Detected From The Low Resolution Protein Density Map, Kamal Al Nasr, Weitao Sun, Jing He

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background: The current advances in electron cryo-microscopy technique have made it possible to obtain protein density maps at about 6-10 Å resolution. Although it is hard to derive the protein chain directly from such a low resolution map, the location of the secondary structures such as helices and strands can be computationally detected. It has been demonstrated that such low-resolution map can be used during the protein structure prediction process to enhance the structure prediction.

Results: We have developed an approach to predict the 3-dimensional structure for the helical skeletons that can be detected from the low resolution protein density …

Methodology And Applications Of Electrostatic Discharge Current Reconstruction By Near-Field Scanning Technique, Wei Huang

Masters Theses

"Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can cause interference in or damage to circuits or systems in many ways e.g., by E- field or H- field coupling or via conduction paths. Although one can roughly estimate the voltage and current at the injection location during an ESD event, the real offending parameter is mostly the ESD current spreading throughout the system. Those currents can be simulated if great simplifications of the system are acceptable. However, even in moderately complex systems, the ability to simulate is limited by a lack of models and computational resources. Independent of the complexity, but obviously not free of …

Development Of Novel Backscatter Communication Systems Using A Multi-Hop Framework And Distributed Beamforming, Vikram Reddy Surendra

Masters Theses

"The goal of this thesis it to develop a wireless networking framework for battery-free devices based on passive, backscatter communication. In contrast to traditional, active communication systems, where the radio signal has to be generated using large amount of energy from batteries, the passive systems reflect the RF signal. The information is encoded by modulating the reflected signal, which consumes significantly less energy than active transmission. The existing passive, backscatter systems have limited communication capabilities. For example, the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems support short-distance, direct communication between active reader and passive tags. The communication range is limited due to …

Fpga Implementation Of Pso Algorithm And Neural Networks, Parviz Palangpour

Masters Theses

"This thesis describes the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementations of two powerful techniques of Computational Intelligence (CI), the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO) and the Neural Network (NN). Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a popular population-based optimization algorithm. While PSO has been shown to perform well in a large variety of problems, PSO is typically implemented in software. Population-based optimization algorithms such as PSO are well suited for execution in parallel stages. This allows PSO to be implemented directly in hardware and achieve much faster execution times than possible in software. In this thesis, a pipelined architecture for hardware …

Signal Analysis For Multiple Target Materials Through Wavelet Transforms, Rajat Pashine

Masters Theses

"Signal identification based on different sensing systems like microwaves, infra-red, x-rays and terahertz waves is one of the classic problems in signal processing. Earlier methods had relied mainly on the amplitude spectrum obtained by these sensing techniques mainly due to non-availability of the phase information for the signals. Most of them are based on techniques like absorbance spectrum that requires a reference material's signal for the test material's identification. They are also sensitive to noise and highly dependent on the peak detection algorithms. Modern equipments with both amplitude and phase information provide an opportunity for time-domain signal based methods that …

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 …

Data Aggregation In Wireless Sensor Networks, Priya Kasirajan

Masters Theses

"Energy efficiency is an important metric in resource constrained wireless sensor networks (WSN). Multiple approaches such as duty cycling, energy optimal scheduling, energy aware routing and data aggregation can be availed to reduce energy consumption throughout the network. This thesis addresses the data aggregation during routing since the energy expended in transmitting a single data bit is several orders of magnitude higher than it is required for a single 32 bit computation. Therefore, in the first paper, a novel nonlinear adaptive pulse coded modulation-based compression (NADPCMC) scheme is proposed for data aggregation. A rigorous analytical development of the proposed scheme …

Analysis Of The Theta-D Filter As Applied To Hit-To-Kill Interceptors And Satellite Orbit Determination, Michael W. Dancer

Masters Theses

"When designing feedback control systems, there is often a need for estimation methods that provide system information that is not readily available via sensors placed within the system. In many cases a sensor that measures a particular system state either does not exist or is prohibitively expensive. In addition, all realistic systems contain some degree of nonlinearity. This thesis focuses on two such cases: missile guidance with bearings-only measurements and GPS satellite orbit determination. In each case, a new nonlinear filter, the [theta]-D method, is used and evaluated for its performance in providing the necessary estimation. To aid the filter …

The Properties And Structure Of Tin Phosphate Glasses Modified With Other Oxides, Jong Wook (Austin) Lim

Masters Theses

"The main objective of this research was to evaluate the properties and structures of glasses from the stannous (SnO) phosphate system for possible use in low temperature optical applications. Glasses in the binary xSnO-(100-x)P₂O₅ system (50 ≤ x ≤ 70) were prepared and their thermal and optical properties were evaluated. Differences in glass transition temperatures (T_g) measured here and reported in the literature were explained by differences in the residual water content in the glasses, as determined by infrared spectroscopy. In general, increasing the SnO content of the binary glasses increased the refractive index and the glass transition …

Modeling And Analysis Of High-Speed Sources And Serial Links For Signal Integrity, Siming Pan

Masters Theses

"As the computer and electronics industry moves towards higher data rates, signal integrity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems always present challenges for designers for high-speed data communication systems. To characterize the entire link path between transmitters and receivers, accurate models for sources, passive link path (such as traces, vias, connectors, etc), and terminations should be built before simulations either in frequency or time domain. Due to the imperfection of model, data corrections are preferred before time-domain simulations to ensure stability. Moreover, data obtained from models should be compared with measurement results to judge the level of agreement for validations. This …

Characterizing Near-Field Circuit Board Radiation Using Crossed Electric And Magnetic Dipole Sources, Weiping He

Masters Theses

"A method to analyze radiated emissions of electronic components/circuits is presented in this thesis. More specifically the purpose of this approach is to determine an equivalent source model to accurately represent the radiated emissions produced by the circuits and components. The proposed equivalent source model, which is able to predict both electric and magnetic fields at various distances from the device under test, consists of an array of both electric and magnetic dipoles. Each source point includes two electric dipoles orientated in x and y directions and two magnetic dipoles in x and y directions"--Abstract, page iii.

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 …

Determination Of Autoregressive Model Orders For Seizure Detection, Serap Aydin

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In the present study, a step-wise least square estimation algorithm (SLSA), implemented in a Matlab package called as ARfit, has been newly applied to clinical data for estimation of the accurate Auto-Regressive (AR) model orders of both normal and ictal EEG series where the power spectral density (PSD) estimations are provided by the Burg Method. The ARfit module is found to be usefull in comparison to a large variety of traditional methods such as Forward Prediction Error (FPE), Akaike's Information Criteria (AIC), Minimum Description Lenght (MDL), and Criterion of Autoregressive Transfer function (CAT) for EEG discrimination. According to tests, the …

State Variable Distributed-Parameter Representation Of Transmission Line For Transient Simulations, Mehmet Sali̇h Mami̇ş, Asim Kaygusuz, Muhammet Köksal

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, a distributed-parameter state variable approach is used to calculate transients on transmission lines based on the concept of travelling waves. The method of characteristics for lossless line is used and the state equations are derived for the system. These equations are converted to a set of difference equations using the trapezoidal rule of integration and solved in time domain using LU decomposition. Single- and multi-phase transmission lines with various linear and non-linear terminations are considered in the illustrative examples. State-space modeling of transposed lines using modal decomposition is introduced and the effects caused by lumped parameter approximation …

Comparison Of Daubechies Wavelets For Hurst Parameter Estimation, Cebrai̇l Çi̇ftli̇kli̇, Ali̇ Gezer

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Time scale dependence on the working nature of wavelet analysis makes it a valuable tool for Hurst parameter estimation. Similar to other wavelet-based signal processing applications, the selection of a particular wavelet type and vanishing moment in wavelet based Hurst estimation is a challenging problem. In this paper, we investigate the best Daubechies wavelet in wavelet based Hurst estimation for an exact self similar process, fractional Gaussian noise and how Daubechies vanishing moment affects the Hurst estimation accuracy. Daubechies wavelets are preferred in analysis because increasing vanishing moment does not cause excessive increase of time support of Daubechies wavelets. Thus, …

Differential Power Analysis Resistant Hardware Implementation Of The Rsa Cryptosystem, Kekli̇k Alpteki̇n Bayam, Berna Örs

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, RSA cryptosystem was implemented on hardware, then modified to be resistant against Differential Power Analysis attacks by using the Randomized Table Window method. This is the first FPGA realization of an algorithmic countermeasure which makes RSA resistant to power analysis attacks. Modular exponentiation is realized with Montgomery Modular Multiplication. The Montgomery modular multiplier has been realized with Carry-Save Adders. Carry-Save representation has been used throughout the RSA encryption algorithm. The primarily implemented RSA architecture prevents the extraction of the secret key using Simple Power Analysis attacks. When comparing the protected implementation with the unprotected, it can be …

Robust Multimedia Watermarking: Hidden Markov Model Approach For Video Sequences, Ersi̇n Elbaşi

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Because of the large amount of frames, similarity between frames and temporal attacks (frame dropping, frame averaging, frame swapping etc.), the process for video watermarking is more difficult than that for image watermarking. Current image watermarking methods are limited to solve all these difficulties. We propose a novel video watermarking system based on the Hidden Markov Model (HMM). This novel watermarking scheme splits the video sequences into a Group of Pictures (GOP) with HMM. Portions of the binary watermark are embedded into each GOP with a wavelet domain watermarking algorithm. The embedding process is the standard additive algorithm [1] in …

An Rfid Based Indoor Tracking Method For Navigating Visually Impaired People, Ruşen Öktem, Eli̇f Aydin

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper tackles the RFID based tracking problem in an obscured indoor environment. The proposed solution is an integral part of a navigation aid for guiding visually impaired people in a store. It uses RF signal strengths and is based on the Bayes Decision Theory. An observation vector is formed by received radio signal strength indication values, transmitted from three transmitters at distinct frequencies in the UHF band. The indoor area is divided into square grids, where each grid is considered as a class. The problem of tracking is expressed as classifying the observed radio signal strengths to the most …

Stochastic Stability Of The Discrete-Time Constrained Extended Kalman Filter, Levent Özbek, Esi̇n Köksal Babacan, Murat Efe

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, stability of the projection-based constrained discrete-time extended Kalman filter (EKF) as applied to nonlinear systems in a stochastic framework has been studied. It has been shown that like the unconstrained EKF, the estimation error of the EKF with known constraints on the states remains bounded when the initial error and noise terms are small, and the solution of the Riccati difference equation remains positive definite and bounded. Stability results are verified and performance of the constrained EKF is demonstrated through simulations on a nonlinear engineering example.