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Software Development For Mechatronics Systems: Simulation Of Multiple Uav Navigation And Device Driver Interface For The Q4 Data Acquisition Card, Ninad Pradhan

All Theses

Mechatronics systems are often a close interleaving of different aspects of hardware, software, control and mechanical design. Two such aspects are delved into in greater detail for this thesis, both related to software development.
Simulations are used to know the practical conditions under which a control design is effective. The system simulated in this case was a multiple vehicle system, where the vehicles navigated from source to a destination configuration avoiding two different kinds of obstacles.
Post simulation, a system is implemented using hardware and tested using an experimental setup. Data Acquisition Boards such as the Quanser Q4 are used …

Sexual Conflict Over Egg Allocation: A Dynamic Programming Approach To Modeling The Evolution Of Male Harm And Female Resistance, David Kelley

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Sexual conflict, which is expected to be ubiquitous among polygamous species, is known to occasionally result in male adaptations that are harmful to females. One theoretical model indicates that males may benefit from physically harming their mates by triggering a “terminal investment” reproductive response by them. Using dynamic programming, we explore how females optimize their lifetime egg allocation, how selection acts on males to exploit such allocation, and how females respond to resist this exploitation. The model reveals alternative female response pathways; one of the most effective of which is simply to forgo plasticity in egg allocation. By switching to …

Characterization Of The Ibc Technologies Superlig¨ 620 Solid Phase Extraction Resin With Applications For Automated Process Monitoring, John Clements

All Theses

Characterization of the IBC Advanced Technologies SuperLig¨ 620 solid phase extraction resin was performed in order to develop an automated strontium-90 process monitor. The main focus was on strontium separation from barium, with the goal of developing an automated separation process for strontium-90 in Hanford high-level tank wastes. High-level waste tanks contain significant cesium-137 activities, of which barium daughters are of great concern as interferences to strontium quantification. A number of complexants were studied in a series of batch distribution coefficient experiments, as SuperLig¨ 620 was not previously known to elute strontium in typical mineral acids. The optimal separation was …

Evaluation Of Different Contra-Flow Strategies For Hurricane Evacuation In Charleston, South Carolina, Liz Stephen

All Theses

The number of category four and five hurricanes has nearly doubled over the past decade. Charleston, the second most populous city in South Carolina, is located on a very low peninsula, making it susceptible to floods during hurricanes and storm surges. In the event of a hurricane, the population at-risk must be evacuated to safety as quickly as possible. The Interstate system is the primary mode to evacuate at-risk population out of Charleston. Effective traffic management strategies are needed to manage the significant increase in demand on highways during the evacuation and contra-flowing traffic has been applied as a strategy …

Loss Of Visual Function In Light-Stressed Mice, Ana Stachowiak

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Because of the highly devastating effects of retinal degenerative diseases, the study of mechanisms of vision loss is imperative. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading causes of blindness in the elderly. In this study I examined how extreme light exposure, which causes light stress in rodents, affects the visual and retinal function of 3 strains of mice. I hypothesized that, three strains of mice, C57BL/6J, ALR/Lj and BALB/c, would all show significant changes in visual and retinal function. I used behavior testing to assess visual acuity and contrast sensitivity as well as electroretinogram (ERG) recordings to assess retinal function. …

Effects Of Ionizing Radiaton On Diaphyseal Cortical Bone, Neil Travis

All Theses

Radiation exposure is experienced in both radiotherapy and exploratory space missions. As cancer treatments improve and astronauts aim to explore beyond low earth, radiation's effects on bone must be clearly understood. Nine-week old female C57BL/6 mice were evaluated for cortical bone changes by mechanical testing, micro-computed tomography, quantitative histomorphometry, percent mineralization and micro-hardness indentation. Study one, Multi-Type study, mice received a 2 Gray (Gy) gamma, proton, iron and carbon whole body radiation dose and sacrificed 110 days post-exposure. Study two, High-Dose study, mice received a 7 Gy gamma radiation whole body dose and sacrificed 14 days post-exposure. Neither study revealed …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

An Emotional Mimicking Humanoid Biped Robot And Its Quantum Control Based On The Constraint Satisfaction Model, Quay Williams, Scott Bogner, Michael Kelley, Carolina Castillo, Martin Lukac, Dong Hwa Kim, Jeff S. Allen, Mathias I. Sunardi, Sazzad Hossain, Marek Perkowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The paper presents a humanoid robot that responds to human gestures seen by a camera. The behavior of the robot can be completely deterministic as specified by a Finite State Machine that maps the sensor signals to the effector signals. This model is further extended to the constraints-satisfaction based model that links robots vision, motion, emotional behavior and planning. One way of implementing this model is to use adiabatic quantum computer which quadratically speeds-up every constraint problem and will be thus necessary to solve large problems of this type. We propose to use the remotely-connected Orion system by DWAVE Corporation.

A Nationwide Comparison Of Aviation Programs, D. Jason Mcconnell

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Students considering a college education have many different priorities in mind. When considering a career in aviation after graduation, it brings a whole new set of priorities into the picture. When I was searching for a university degree in aviation I had two major concerns: location and quality of the flight school. Cost was also on my list of concerns but more as a restriction than an option. In other words, I was willing to pay more for the schooling provided it did not get so excessive that I could no longer afford to go. Utah State was among three …

A Formal Approach To Specifying And Verifying Spacecraft Behavior, Allan I.S. Mcinnes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Process algebra can provide spacecraft designers with a mathematical formalism for specifying, understanding, analyzing, and verifying spacecraft system behavior. Although it is standard practice to mathematically model and analyze the subsystems of a spacecraft to ensure that they will function correctly when built, the system-level behavior of the spacecraft is generally understood in much less rigorous terms. This leaves the spacecraft system vulnerable to design errors which may not become apparent until the integration and test phase, when design changes are most expensive. In this dissertation, we develop a formal approach to engineering spacecraft behavior, based on mathematical models of …

Using Cross-Sectioned Multilayer Polymer Film And Surface Modification To Form Chemically Patterned Substrates , Chun Zhang

All Dissertations

Highly layered structures are important to micro- and nanofabrication technologies for understanding and controlling surface structures through manipulation of chemical and physical interactions. The objective of this work was to develop a new approach to create micro- and nanopatterned surfaces using multilayer polymer films of commercially available and inexpensive polymers instead of inorganic substrates. As an example, linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and ethylene-co-acrylic acid copolymer (EAA) were used as alternating inert and reactive polymers, respectively. Thin cross-sections of the multilayer molded sheets were prepared by ultra-microtoming.
As a precursor to the multilayer work, surface modification of EAA was conducted …

Final Report: Shf Channel Modeling Over Sea-Based Test Ranges, Qiang Lei, Michael D. Rice

Faculty Publications

This work was supported by the Science & Technology Test & Evaluation Spectrum Efficient Technologies Program sponsored by the US Air Force under contract F04611-02-C-0020. Channel sounding data collected from an airborne transmitter over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Pt. Mugu, Naval Air Station, was analyzed and used to model multipath propagation over the ocean. The experiments showed that at 8.000 GHz, over the water multipath propagation is well modeled by a three-ray propagation model. The first ray (or propagation path) is the line-of-sight propagation path. The second ray is a strong specular reflection determined by the geometry …

Functional Dissociation In Frontal And Striatal Areas For Processing Of Positive And Negative Reward Information, Xun Liu, David K. Powell, Hongbin Wang, Brian T. Gold, Christine R. Corbly, Jane E. Joseph

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

Reward-seeking behavior depends critically on processing of positive and negative information at various stages such as reward anticipation, outcome monitoring, and choice evaluation. Behavioral and neuropsychological evidence suggests that processing of positive (e.g., gain) and negative (e.g., loss) reward information may be dissociable and individually disrupted. However, it remains uncertain whether different stages of reward processing share certain neural circuitry in frontal and striatal areas, and whether distinct but interactive systems in these areas are recruited for positive and negative reward processing. To explore these issues, we used a monetary decision-making task to investigate the roles of frontal and striatal …

40th Conference On Senior Engineering Design Projects, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Senior Engineering Design Conference

The 40th Conference on Senior Engineering Design Projects was held on April 17, 2007 at the College of Engineering and applied Sciences on the Parkview Campus of Western Michigan University. The college sponsors the conference to showcase the work of its graduating seniors, who are required to complete a capstone project that puts into practice what they have learned. Many of the projects are sponsored by business and industry.

Trials Bike Frame Concept, David Boboltz, Rob Harmer, Caleb Vanderveen

Honors Theses

Development of a Concept Trials Frame was a mechanical engineering design project that developed a new bicycle frame that has the strength and durability to be used for trials bike riding. The scope of the project was placed solely on the bicycle's frame. Current frames were analyzed based on their strength, durability, stiffness, weight, and appearance. These factors were ranked for importance and became the performance targets for the new frame. Several designs that utilize elastic strain energy to increase performance were brainstormed. Following SolidWorks modeling, equivalent impact loads were calculated using several analytical methods. These loads were then applied …

Ua66 2007 Student Awards Ceremony, Wku Ogden College Of Science & Engineering

WKU Administration Documents

Program recognizing Ogden College students with brief list of activities for each student.

Image-Guided Diffuse Optical Fluorescence Tomography Implemented With Laplacian-Type Regularization, Scott C. Davis, Hamid Dehghani, Jia Wang, Shudong Jiang, Brian W. Pogue, Keith D. Paulsen

Dartmouth Scholarship

A promising method to incorporate tissue structural information into the reconstruction of diffusion-based fluorescence imaging is introduced. The method regularizes the inversion problem with a Laplacian-type matrix, which inherently smoothes pre-defined tissue, but allows discontinuities between adjacent regions. The technique is most appropriately used when fluorescence tomography is combined with structural imaging systems. Phantom and simulation studies were used to illustrate significant improvements in quantitative imaging and linearity of response with the new algorithm. Images of an inclusion containing the fluorophore Lutetium Texaphyrin (Lutex) embedded in a cylindrical phantom are more accurate than in situations where no structural information is …

Stress And Emotion Classification Using Jitter And Shimmer Features, Xi Li, Jidong Tao, Michael T. Johnson, Joseph Soltis, Anne Savage, Kirsten Leong, John D. Newman

Dr. Dolittle Project: A Framework for Classification and Understanding of Animal Vocalizations

In this paper, we evaluate the use of appended jitter and shimmer speech features for the classification of human speaking styles and of animal vocalization arousal levels. Jitter and shimmer features are extracted from the fundamental frequency contour and added to baseline spectral features, specifically Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) for human speech and Greenwood function cepstral coefficients (GFCCs) for animal vocalizations. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) with Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) state distributions are used for classification. The appended jitter and shimmer features result in an increase in classification accuracy for several illustrative datasets, including the SUSAS dataset for human speaking …

Biomedical Applications Of Polypeptide Multilayer Nanofilms And Microcapsules, Jai Simha S. Rudra

Doctoral Dissertations

The past few years have witnessed considerable growth in synthetic polymer chemistry and physics, biomaterials science, and nano-scale engineering. Research on polypeptide multilayer films, coatings, and microcapsules is located at the intersection of these areas and are promising materials for applications in medicine, biotechnology, environmental science. Most envisioned applications of polypeptide multilayers have a biomedical bent. This dissertation on polypeptide multilayer film applications covers key points of polypeptides as materials, means of polymer production, film preparation, film characterization methods, and key points of current research in basic science. Both commercial and designed peptides have been used to fabricate films for …

Fabrication And Compressive Behavior Of Corrugated Aramid-Epoxy Cellular Solids, Jeffrey Arthur Schneider

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Cellular solids are materials whose base material does not always occupy the entire solid fraction available. A number of cellular solids can provide blast protection and absorb impact energy, but few perform well resisting blunt object (ballistic) penetration. In this thesis, a method is proposed for fabricating cellular solids from aramid-epoxy composites that can absorb impact energy and resist blunt object penetration. The aramid-epoxy samples were fabricated using wet-layup techniques, with two different styles of Kevlar 49 woven fabric in a variety of orientations. Test sample density ranged from 0.08 0.23 g/cm3. Different lamination orientations, assembly techniques, and bonding adhesives …

Code-Level Modeling Of The Hodgkin -Huxley Neuron Model Using An Open Source Version Of Spice, Anthony Stuart Carver

Doctoral Dissertations

There have been numerous studies presented in the literature demonstrating proof of principle neural-electronic circuitry. Some of these studies involve simulations of neural detection using synthetic electronic circuitry, while others involve simulations of neural excitation using external electronics. A common feature of these studies is the simplicity of the overall circuit topology. Some of these studies implement the circuit equations in conventional numerical ordinary differential equation solvers. This process involves the algebraic manipulation of the circuit equations which is a tedious process for all but the simplest circuit topologies. As the overall complexity of the network topology increases, the numerical …

Statistical Analysis Of Joint Short-Term And Long-Term Survival In Resuscitation Research, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Objective: To develop statistical tools that utilize combined initial survival data and post-resuscitation survival data to test the null hypothesis that true, population-wide outcomes following experimental CPR interventions are not different from control. Method: A new test statistic, d2, for evaluating Type 1 error is derived from a bivariate, two-dimensional analysis of categorical initial resuscitation and post-resuscitation survival data, which are statistically independent because they are obtained during non-overlapping periods of time. The d2 test statistic, which is distributed as a chi-squared distribution, is derived from first principles and validated using Monte Carlo methods of computer simulation for thousands of …

Potential Of Agricultural Residues And Hay For Bioethanol Production, Ye Chen, Ratna R. Sharma-Shivappa, Deepak R. Keshwani, Chengci Chen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Production of bioethanol from agricultural residues and hays (wheat, barley, and triticale straws, and barley, triticale, pearl millet, and sweet sorghum hays) through a series of chemical pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation processes was investigated in this study. Composition analysis suggested that the agricultural straws and hays studied contained approximately 28.62–38.58% glucan, 11.19–20.78% xylan, and 22.01–27.57% lignin, making them good candidates for bioethanol production. Chemical pretreatment with sulfuric acid or sodium hydroxide at concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0% indicated that concentration and treatment agent play a significant role during pretreatment. After 2.0% sulfuric acid pretreatment at 121°C/15 psi for …

Utilization Of Bagasse Cellulose For Ethanol Production Through Simultaneous Saccharification And Fermentation By Xylanase, M. Samsuri, Misri Gozan, R. Mardias, M. Baiquni, Heri Hermansyah, Anondho Wijanarko, Bambang Prasetya, M. Nasikin

Makara Journal of Technology

Utilization of Bagasse Cellulose for Ethanol Production through Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation by Xylanase. Bagasse is a solid residue from sugar cane process, which is not many use it for some product which have more added value. Bagasse, which is a lignosellulosic material, be able to be use for alternative energy resources like bioethanol or biogas. With renewable energy resources a crisis of energy in Republic of Indonesia could be solved, especially in oil and gas. This research has done the conversion of bagasse to bioethanol with xylanase enzyme. The result show that bagasse contains of 52,7% cellulose, 20% hemicelluloses, …

Potentiality Of Biogas And The Role Of Substrates In Biogas Formation Potential, Scott Shealy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Biogas infrastructure development, particularly in countries such as Vietnam, has the potential to provide great benefits to people living agrarian lifestyles in rural areas. Decentralized wastewater treatment facilities that utilize anaerobic technologies to digest organic waste for the purpose of collecting methane provide a number of benefits to centralized use as well. In both cases, users benefit from the production of methane gas, wastewater treatment, nutrient recycling, and organic fertilizers. In the case of decentralized use, as is most prevalent in Vietnam, integrated farming methods, such as the VACB model, allow farmers to reap the benefits of a wide array …

What Should Be In A Human Behavior Representation Federation Object Model For High Level Architecture, Gurkan Haznedaroglu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Modeling and Simulation (M&S) can assist in evaluating scenarios and enhancing the performance of operational systems. Fully integrated use of MBS can enable the evaluation of the effectiveness of proposed equipment or software in realistic simulated environments and can provide an assessment of the impacts of specific equipment or capabilities on battle outcomes. Every level, from strategic planners, technology experts, operations research analysts, weapons systems designers and users, testers, maintainers, and cost analysts, has to be interactively involved to maximize the benefits of this approach. Human behavior is a very important part of the M&S process. Especially in constructive simulations, …

Simulation And Modeling Of Nerve Impulse Propagation And Its Blockage By External Electrical Stimulation, Nidhi Nahar

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The electric nature of biological tissues permits the transmission of signals for information and for control and is, therefore, of vital importance for life. The latest scientific achievements and nanoscale probing techniques now allow scientists to research at the subcellular level by measuring the electric current flows through a single ion channel of the cell membrane with the patch-clamp method. With the latter approach, the effects of electrical stimulation can be quantified, understood, and applied to molecular biology and the development of medical diagnostic and therapeutic methods.

In this thesis, the Hodgkin-Huxley approach for unmyelinated fibers, coupled with a transmission …

Long-Range Target Classification In A Cluttered Environment Using Multi-Sensor Image Sequences, Cenk Yaman

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Accurate identification of unknown contacts is crucial in military intelligence. Automated systems which quickly and accurately determine the identity of a contact could be a benefit in backing up electronic signal identification methods such as Identification Friend and Foe (IFF) systems. Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) images are often undesirable in military applications since they reveal the location of the imaging system. So we explore the use of visible and infrared images of which are generally more consistent than RADAR images and for which it is easy to compensate for environmental effects. Recent advances in visible and IR imaging technology …

Molecular Dynamics Simulations To Probe Effects Of Ultra-Short, Very-High Voltage Pulses On Cells, Viswanadham Sridhara

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The use of very high electric fields (∼ 100kV/cm or higher) with pulse durations in the nanosecond range (Ultra-short) has been a very recent development in bioelectrics. Traditionally, the electric field effects have mostly been confined to: (a) low field, long-duration pulses, and (b) focused mainly on electroporation studies. Thus, aspects such as possible field-induced DNA damage, calcium release, alterations in neuro-transmitters, or voltage-gating have generally been overlooked.

Ultra-short, high-field pulses open the way to targeted and deliberate apoptotic cell killing (e.g., of tumor cells). Though experimental data is very useful, it usually yields information on macroscopic variables that is …

Assessment Of Blood Vessel Mimics With Optical Coherence Tomography, Garret T. Bonnema, Kristen O'Halloran Cardinal, James B. Mcnally, Stuart K. Williams, Jennifer K. Barton

Biomedical Engineering

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging mo-dality that enables assessment of tissue structural characteristics. Studies have indicated that OCT is a useful method to assess both blood vessel morphology and the response of a vessel to a deployed stent. We evaluated the ability of OCT to visualize the cellular lining of a tissue-engineered blood vessel mimic (BVM) and the response of this lining to a bare metal stent. We develop a side-firing endoscope that obtains intraluminal, longitudinal scans within the sterile bioreactor environment, enabling time-serial assessment. Seventeen BVMs are imaged with the endoscopic OCT system. The BVMs are then …