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Mbse For Process Analytical Technology- Bwon Analysis Case Study, Arnaldo Garcia Cervantes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions from industrial sources, particularly Benzene, present significant environmental and public health challenges. Regulatory frameworks, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Benzene Waste Operations NESHAP (BWON), mandate strict monitoring of control devices, specifically carbon adsorption canisters, to prevent emission breakthrough. However, current industry practices rely heavily on manual Method 21 testing, a labor-intensive process that creates lagging indicators and increases the risk of non-compliance events. This thesis proposes the design and development of an on-line, automated fugitive emissions monitoring system tailored for carbon canisters using Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). Utilizing the Object-Oriented System Engineering Method …

Utilizing Diatoms In Wastewater Treatment For Pollutant Removal, Ceaira D. Howard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wastewater treatment systems are increasingly challenged by a complex mix of pollutants including excess nutrients, organic dyes, and persistent chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Conventional treatment technologies often struggle to effectively and affordably remove these contaminants. This study explores the use of two diatom species, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Navicula cryptocephala var. veneta, both single-celled microalgae with silica-based cell walls, as an environmentally sustainable approach to tertiary wastewater treatment. Diatoms offer dual functionality through surface adsorption properties and metabolic flexibilities, making them promising candidates for integrated treatment strategies.

To test the trophic flexibilities of diatoms, P. tricornutum was …

Occurrence Of Per And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances In Rural Wastewater Treatment Plants And Comparison To Large Treatments Plants, Madeleine Rauhauser

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of compounds defined by their carbon – fluorine bonds, which are incredibly strong. The strength of this bond makes these compounds very useful industrially, they are used as waterproof and grease proof coatings, and as fire retardants. The same thing that makes them useful industrially makes them incredibly recalcitrant in the environment, it is difficult to destroy these compounds. PFAS are also suspected to cause health impacts in people, such as kidney cancer and low birth weights. Wastewater has been commonly identified as a contributor to the amount of PFAS in the …

Accident Data Analytics And Ai-Based Auditory Enhancement For Highway Construction Safety, Thinh Nguyen

All Dissertations

This research develops data-driven and AI-enhanced approaches to improve worker safety in highway construction environments. The study integrates advanced analytics and auditory signal enhancement to identify high-risk worker behaviors and improve real-time safety warnings. The work consists of three core studies. The first study applies Sequential Pattern Mining and Social Network Analysis to more than 1,000 construction accident reports to identify high-risk worker actions and their hidden sequential relationships with accident types and consequences. These insights reveal sector-specific risk patterns, supporting the creation of targeted, data-informed safety interventions. The second study introduces an AI-based auditory enhancement model built on a …

Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting From Roadways: Challenges, Advances, And Future Directions, Heba Gaber, Mohamed Abdelraheem

Faculty Publications

As the global demand for renewable energy intensifies, piezoelectric energy harvesting from roadways has emerged as a promising avenue for sustainable power generation. This systematic literature review analyzes 61 peer-reviewed studies to assess the feasibility, performance, and potential of integrating piezoelectric systems into roadway infrastructure. While technology faces challenges, such as high installation costs, limited energy output, and a scarcity of thorough economic evaluations, findings suggest it holds considerable promise as a supplementary renewable energy source. The review analyzes the operational characteristics and efficiencies of various piezoelectric transducers, identifies key factors influencing system performance, and evaluates recent technological advances. It …

Development Of A Handy Tool For The Selection Of Urban Stormwater Best Management Practices, Aaron T. Kenny

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The City of Norfolk, Virginia faces substantial stormwater management challenges due to shallow groundwater, tidal influence, dense urban development, and limited right-of-way. These constraints limit the applicability of many Best Management Practices (BMPs) and require the early identification of feasible practices before detailed hydrologic modeling. This thesis introduces a decision-support tool that quickly and systematically identifies and prioritizes BMPs that are both feasible and well-suited to Norfolk’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) program, streamlining early-stage selection and saving time and resources.

The tool implements a two-stage methodology. First, feasibility gates are applied using catalog attributes derived from the Virginia …

Private Sand Mining In The Mississippi River: Sediment Budget And Morphology Implications Between Baton Rouge And Belle Chasse, Louisiana, Brett Mcmann

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This analysis examined how private sand mining within the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge, LA and Belle Chasse, LA affected its sand budget from 2004-2012.

Records assembled indicated that private mining removed an annual average of 2.8 million cubic yards of sand. A HEC-RAS one-dimensional sediment transport model was utilized to assess this practice. Three scenarios were simulated: a baseline without mining, conditions reflecting documented mining rates, and a hypothetical case with excessive extraction.

Results suggest that private mining constituted approximately 26 percent of the total sand deficit between Baton Rouge and Belle Chasse. Mining appeared to cause localized changes …

Application Of Plastic Waste As A Sustainable Bitumen Mixture—A Review, Nuha S. Mashaan, Thakur Chamlagai

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Plastic waste is growing rapidly, while asphalt binders remain heavily reliant on petroleum bitumen. Incorporating recycled plastics into bitumen can divert waste and enhance pavement performance. This review compiles 251 experimental records from 56 studies to evaluate how plastic type, dosage, and processing conditions affect softening point, penetration, and viscosity. Across studies, plastics (PET, LDPE/HDPE/LLDPE, PP, and hybrids) consistently stiffen binders, reducing penetration and increasing softening point and viscosity, thereby improving rutting resistance while potentially raising mixing/compaction demands. Using grouped cross-validated machine-learning models (median baseline, ridge, random forest, XGBoost), we quantify the predictability of binder properties and show that nonlinear …

Locations Of Outfalls In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly M. Kibler, Melinda J. Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_Outfalls_IRL_LWL.shp was created under grants from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and Lake Worth Lagoon (LWL).

The dataset presented here includes the location of outfalls identified throughout the study region and general characteristics of the shoreline where they were identified.

Seagrass Persistence In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly Kibler, Melinda Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_seagrasspersistence_IRL_LWL.shp was created with support from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and Lake Worth Lagoon (LWL). The dataset presented herein represents persistence of seagrass throughout waters of the IRL and LWL.

Framework And Methodology For Risk-Based Bridge And Tunnel Asset Management: Risk-Based Asset Ranking And Corridor Prioritization, David Y. Yang, Arash Khosravifar, Diane Moug, Avinash Unnikrishnan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report presents the results of Phase II of the project, "Framework and Methodology for Risk-based Bridge and Tunnel Asset Management". The research was carried out at Portland State University in collaboration with engineers and officials at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Using the framework and methodology developed in Phase I of the project, the primary goal of Phase II is to showcase the practical application in risk-based asset management. In particular, the report includes the following two case studies: Case Study I — Weighted hazard scenarios for seismic risk assessment of Oregon Highway …

From The Editors, Rully Karim Dr.

Journal of Project Management & Construction

The Journal of Project Management and Construction (JPMC) is a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to advancing the field of project management and construction, grounded in the principles outlined in the PMBOK 6th Edition. Our focus encompasses the ten knowledge areas essential to successful project management: Integration, Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Resource, Communications, Risk, Procurement, and Stakeholder Management.

JPMC publishes original research papers written in English that provide deeper insights into these knowledge areas and contribute to the development of best practices in project management and construction. Submissions may include theoretical analyses, computational models, experimental observations, or a combination of both theoretical …

Site Specific Reliability-Targeted Snow Loads And Winter Wind Parameters Across The World, Brennan Bean, Nicholas Brimhall, Bikram Bhusal, Marc Maguire, Maha Moussa

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

This report presents a framework for estimating Reliability Targeted Snow Loads (RTSLs) and Winter Wind Parameters (WWPs) at locations outside the Conterminous United States (OCONUS). The methodology integrates ground-based in-situmeasurements with gridded global climate products to generate spatially continuous RTSL estimates for nearly any location in OCONUS. RTSLs are computed at qualifying in-situ stations, and predictive models relating gridded climate products to in-situRTSLs enable estimation at locations lacking direct measurements. This report describes the development of the in-situ annual maximum snow load database, the construction of global gridded climate summaries, the estimation of site-specific RTSLs and Service Targeted …

Elucidating The Effects Of Water Activity On The Hydration Kinetics And Thermodynamics Of Ye’Elimite–Calcium Sulfate Hydrate Systems, Godwin I. Ogbuehi, Rupack R. Halder, Aditya Kumar, Gaurav Sant, Monday U. Okoronkwo

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Relative humidity and water activity (aH) reductions have been known to suppress the hydration of anhydrous cement clinker phases. However, the relationship between ye'elimite (C4A3$) hydration kinetics and water activity remain unclear. This study employs experimental and thermodynamic modeling approaches to investigate the influence of water activity on ye'elimite hydration in the "C4A3$ + water", and "C4A3$ + gypsum + water" systems. Experimental findings indicate that as water activity decreases, C4A3$ hydration diminishes until the reaction is brought to a halt at a threshold aH. The critical aHand corresponding solubility constant of C4A3$ (KC4A3S¯) estimated from thermodynamic analysis are 0.46 …

Localized Nuclear Utility For Erau Environmental Improvement, Timothy Schroeder, Jacob Blanton, Christopher Anderson

Sustainability Conference

The reliance of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) on energy supplied by Florida Power & Light (FPL), which currently draws large amounts of power from fossil fuel sources, is continuously suboptimal both environmentally and financially. This study proposes assessing the feasibility of deploying a campus scale nuclear reactor tailored to ERAU’s power consumption profile. This serves as a path toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting dependence on external fossil fuel generation. The methods used are primarily literature review(s), and numerical analysis on comparable use cases. The literature reviews focused on design theory and yield of nuclear reactors on a …

Living Shoreline Prioritization And Hydrodynamic Habitat Suitability Models For Restoration In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly M. Kibler, Melinda J. Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_shorelinemodel_IRL_LWL.shp, was created with support from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon and Lake Worth Lagoon.

The dataset presented herein includes:

1. shoreline data from >15,000 transects collected in the field,
2. shoreline wave climate data created through hydrodynamic modeling and frequency analysis of historic data,
3. categorization of potential risk for shoreline boat wake impact,
4. persistence of seagrass within 210 m of the shoreline, …

Advancing Transportation Decarbonization Through Electrification: Insights From Transit And Rideshare Scenarios, Ajay Ghimire

Theses (2016-Present)

The transportation sector remains a major source of criteria pollutants globally, with passenger vehicles contributing significantly to energy demand. While electric vehicles (EVs) offer a promising path toward energy efficiency, few studies have evaluated their impact at the metropolitan scale using integrated, high-fidelity modeling frameworks. This study investigates the energy implications of rideshare electrification in the Houston metropolitan area using a multi-stage simulation workflow. Travel demand is modeled using POLARIS, an agent-based, activity-based framework; vehicle trajectories are translated into second-by-second speed profiles using SVTrip; and energy consumption and criteria pollutant emissions are estimated using the Autonomie vehicle simulation platform. The …

Groundwater Quality And Health Risk Assessment In The Fujairah Region Using Hydrogeochemical, Statistical, And Spatial Approaches, Mohammed Khaled Alawlaqi

Theses

Groundwater is a valuable resource in the arid climate of the United Arab Emirates, where growing population, agricultural, and industrial activities are putting increasing pressure on the limited groundwater reserves. This work investigates the hydrogeochemical characteristics of groundwater in the Fujairah region to assess water quality and potential health risks. A total of 64 groundwater samples were collected from the Eastern Shallow Aquifer (ESA) and the Ophiolite aquifer in the study area and were analyzed for physicochemical parameters, major ions, and trace metals. Hydrogeochemical methods such as Piper, Gibbs, Chadha, and Schoeller diagrams were used to identify water types and …

Effects Of Hydrological Connectivity On Created Marsh Sustainability, Katie Swann

LSU Master's Theses

While efforts are being made to curb the high rate of coastal land loss in Louisiana, and even to restore ecosystem services and functions, it is generally accepted that restoration of these areas and functions is not a one-to-one value. It may take decadal time scales to reach efficient functional processing of nutrients and carbon storage rates, which may never reach true capacity comparable to similar naturally-organized systems. Although it is imperative to preserve these areas, restoration of ecosystem services and biogeochemical processes of coastal wetlands are preferable to future without action scenarios. Effectively directing the use of the limited …

Sustainable Robotic Construction: A Computational Particle Packing Approach For The Development Of Sustainable, Low-Cement 3d Printable Materials, Aranya Aumit Paul

LSU Master's Theses

Construction 3D Printing (C3DP) holds great potential for automated construction but faces key challenges, including the high Portland cement content of its printing materials. The high cement content raises material costs, causes shrinkage and thermal cracking, and increases its carbon footprint. This study introduces a novel hybrid computational pipeline that combines image based automated gradation analysis with 2D stochastic particle packing simulation, to design low-cement printable materials with minimal experimental testing. The image-based gradation system achieved a mean absolute error under 3.64% across six fine and coarse aggregate types. The particle packing simulation demonstrated an average error of less than …

Characterization Of Sediment Loads And Size Distribution In Nebraska Roadway Runoff, Pavel Shrestha

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) must manage sediment and pollutant loads from roadway runoff to meet stormwater regulations for discharges into impaired waters. The SAFL Baffle, a hydrodynamic separator used by NDOT, depends on accurate estimates of total suspended solids (TSS) and particle size distribution (PSD). However, existing studies show large variability in these characteristics, limiting their relevance to Nebraska roadways.

This study monitored stormwater runoff for 1.5 years at four NDOT-maintained sites—two in Lincoln and two in Beatrice—that received runoff from areas outside the roadway right-of-way. The SAFL Baffle was evaluated using the SHSAM (Sizing Hydrodynamic Separators and …

Coupling The Parflow Integrated Hydrology Model Within The Nasa Land Information System: A Case Study Over The Upper Colorado River Basin, P.Eyman Abbaszadeh, Fadji Zaouna Maina, Chen Yang, Dan Rosen, Sujay Kumar, Matthew Rodell, Reed Maxwell

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding, observing, and simulating Earth's water cycle is imperative for effective water resource management in the face of a changing climate. While NASA's Land Information System (LIS)/Noah-MP is widely used for land surface modeling, its ability to represent groundwater processes is limited. In contrast, the ParFlow hydrologic model explicitly simulates subsurface water movement. This study explores the effectiveness and usefulness of the newly coupled modeling framework, ParFlow-LIS/Noah-MP (PF-LIS/Noah-MP) over the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). The framework integrates the strengths of both models to provide a physically based representation of surface and subsurface processes and their interactions. Unlike standalone LIS/Noah-MP, …

Reliability Targeted Snow Loads And Winter Wind Parameters For Locations Outside Of The Conterminous United States, Brennan L. Bean, Nicholas Brimhall, Bikram Bhusal, Marc Maguire, Maha Moussa

Browse all Datasets

The national building standard ASCE 7 moved to reliability-targeted snow loads (RTSLs) in the 2022 version. This necessitates the development of RTSLs for international locations. This repository contains the data and code needed to produce RTSLs and Winter Wind Parameters for locations outside of the Conterminous United States (OCONUS). It relies on annual maximum snow loads provided in a separate data release (see Brimhall et al. 2025).

Improved Streamflow Forecasting Through Swe-Augmented Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks, Akhila Akkala, Soukaina Filali Boubrahimi, Shah Muhammad Hamdi, Pouya Hosseinzadeh, Ayman Nassar

Computer Science Student Research

Streamflow forecasting in snowmelt-dominated basins is essential for water resource planning, flood mitigation, and ecological sustainability. This study presents a comparative evaluation of statistical, machine learning (Random Forest), and deep learning models (Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network (STGNN)) using 30 years of data from 20 monitoring stations across the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). We assess the impact of integrating meteorological variables—particularly, the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE)—and spatial dependencies on predictive performance. Among all models, the Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network (STGNN) achieved the highest accuracy, with a Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.84 …

Day-Night Shifts In Water-Soluble Ions Of Size-Resolved Aerosols Before And After The Covid-19 Lockdown In A Coastal Megacity: Metro Manila, Philippines, Grace Betito, Paola Angela Bañaga, Rachel A. Braun, Maria Obiminda Cambaliza, Melliza Templonuevo Cruz, Alexander B. Macdonald, James Bernard Simpas, Connor Stahl, Armin Sooroshian

SOSE Affiliate: Manila Observatory

The COVID-19 pandemic-driven lockdowns offer a unique opportunity to examine how reductions in anthropogenic emissions impacted atmospheric aerosol composition in urban environments. This study investigates the day-night variability of size-resolved water-soluble ions in ambient particulate matter (PM) collected in Metro Manila before (November 2019–February 2020) and after (November 2020–February 2021) lockdown implementation. Using tandem Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactors (MOUDIs), aerosol samples were collected during daytime (06:00–18:00) and nighttime (18:00–06:00) periods and analyzed for key ionic species (sulfate, ammonium, nitrate, oxalate, sodium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium) via ion chromatography. Submicrometer water-soluble mass declined post-lockdown, particularly during daytime, reflecting suppressed secondary formation …

Theoretical And Experimental Studies Of Non-Rectilinear Weirs -From Labyrinth To Pk-Weir, Ahmed Ouamane, François Lempérière

4th International Workshop on Labyrinth and Piano Key Weirs

Free-flow rectilinear spillways, while simpler and safer than gated or shaft spillways, have a low specific discharge, requiring a significant water head and resulting in a storage loss of more than 20% for some small reservoirs. To overcome this drawback, labyrinth weirs provide an effective alternative, allowing high discharge under a reduced head while maintaining lower construction and maintenance costs. For several decades, global research has focused on optimizing their design. In this context, a research project was initiated in 1995 at the University of Biskra to enhance the understanding of the hydraulic behavior of these structures. This project was …

The Performance Of Satellite-Based Precipitation Data To Reproduce Observed Precipitation In Tanzania's Little Ruaha Catchment, Florence H. Mahay

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Satellite-based precipitation datasets have emerged as promising tools for addressing rainfall data scarcity in regions with limited ground observations, such as Sub-Saharan Africa. This study evaluates the performance of five satellite-based precipitation products CHIRPS, CPC, GPCC, MERRA-2, and ERA5 in capturing rainfall characteristics over the Little Ruaha Catchment in Tanzania. The assessment was carried out at daily, monthly, and seasonal timescales and focused on key rainfall indices including onset and cessation dates, length of the rainy season, total rainfall, and frequency of rainy days. Validation was conducted using statistical indicators such as the correlation coefficient (r), Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), Root …

Enhancing 6g Network Security With Quantum Key Distribution: A Comprehensive Review, Bassma M. Kamil

Al-Esraa University College Journal for Engineering Sciences

With the considerable progress of sixth-generation (6G) networks further on the horizon, security has attracted much attention in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats, especially from quantum computing. Classical cryptographic schemes based on computational hardness are becoming more and more brittle, as they can easily be attacked with a quantum computer. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) arises as a promising tool for information-theoretic security through quantum mechanics to obtain an unbreakable key by exchanging unknown bit sequences. In this paper, we provide an extensive survey on the integration of QKD both in the envisioned 6G architecture, including current implementations, technical feasibility, …

Design Of A Hybrid System For Powering Wireless Communication Units, Samer Rabih, Ahed Alboody

Al-Esraa University College Journal for Engineering Sciences

Wireless and optical communication units are becoming more widespread nowadays, especially in rural areas. Therefore, feeding electricity has become essential for the continuity of services. As a result of economic and social development, there has been an urgent need to supply electrical power for the basic requirements of wired and wireless telecommunications equipment. This is linked to public safety, long life, and connection to uninterruptible power systems to ensure continuous power supply, whether from renewable energy sources or traditional diesel systems. This research studies and designs a renewable energy (solar) power system to power telecommunications equipment. The proposed power system …

Dynamic Ris-Enabled Massive Mimo Noma Systems Power Allocation Optimization For 6g Using Machin Learning Approach, Mohamed Hassan, Khalid Hamid, Salah Hagahmoodi, Elmuntaser Hassan

Al-Esraa University College Journal for Engineering Sciences

This study examines spectral efficiency (SE) and throughput throughout a spectrum of user densities (from 50 to 1000 users), user mobility speeds (0 to 350 km/h), latency, packet loss, and fairness index, within a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The analysis includes a number of different situations, such as (i) cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO), (ii) mMIMO cooperative NOMA integrated with cognitive radio (CR), and (iii) CR-assisted mMIMO cooperative NOMA enhanced with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). All of these are part of 6G millimeter-wave (mmWave) networks. The study investigates the enhancement of latency, packet …