Digital Commons Network^™

National Livestock And Poultry Environmental Learning Center, Richard K. Koelsch, Mark Risse, Joe Harrison, Jill Heemstra, Frank Humenik

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

This paper describes a new national initiative to improve the delivery of science-based information to non-research customers. The vision of the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center is to provide individuals involved in public policy issues, animal production, and delivery of technical services for confined animal systems with on-demand access to the nation’s best science-based resources that is responsive to priority and emerging environmental issues associated with animal agriculture. This paper describes the implementation plans for this project.

Changing Maine, 1960-2010: Teaching Guide, Richard Barringer, New England Environmental Finance Center

Maine History & Policy Development

Unlike forty years ago, none of us is now certain what the future holds for Maine – except that it will be different. Maine has been transformed by the events of the recent decades. We have come into a new world, a new time – a new historical era, if you will. This new era, like previous eras in Maine history, will require of us new ways of thinking, new ways of understanding, new ways of organizing ourselves as a community of people, if the values and culture we share and cherish are to endure and flourish.

Design And Development Of Triangular, Spiral, And Fractal Antennas For Radio Frequency Identification Tags, Jeevan K. Vemagiri

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the design and development of three compact, non-meandered microstrip patch antennas for ultra high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) applications. The monopole antennas considered in this work are an inset-fed triangular antenna, one arm Archimedes spiral antenna and a Half-Sierpinski fractal antenna. These antennas with small length to width ratios (< 2/1), can be the preferred choice, in the tagging of small size consumer end products, over the ubiquitous meandered dipole antenna (length/width > 5/1), which is often the antenna of choice, due to its high gain for UHF RFID applications. The lengths and widths of all three antennas are less than 5.5 cm. Earlier reports of planar antennas for RFID applications in the UHF range have lengths …

Molecular Modeling Of Proteins And Peptides Related To Cell Attachment In Vivo And In Vitro, Wanhua Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

Polypeptides constitute half of the dry mass of the cell, they form the bulk of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and they are a common element of extra- and intracellular signaling pathways. There is increasing interest in the development of computational methods in polypeptide and protein engineering on all length scales. This research concerns the development of computational methods for study of polypeptide interactions related to cell attachment in vivo and in vitro.

Polypeptides are inherently biocompatible, and an astronomical range of unique sequences can be designed and realized in massive quantities by modern methods of synthesis and purification. These …

Delay Line Based Passive Radio Frequency Identification Tags, Aravind Chamarti

Doctoral Dissertations

This work describes the concept, design, fabrication, and characterization of delay-based radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and RFID-based sensor tags, representing a novel RFID technology. The presented delay-based RFID concept is based on the LC-delay-line and transmission-delay-line based approaches. The proposed concept allows the realization of RFIDs and RFID-based sensor tags at any allowed radio frequency, with the limitation of realizing delay elements capable of producing required delays. The RFID configurations presented in this work are for operation at 915 MHz. Simulations are used to design and optimize components and devices that constitute the tags, and to integrate them to …

Cs 205-07: Computer Literacy And Office Automation, John P. Herzog

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Basic computer terminology, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and graphics.

Accelerated Non-Coding Rna Searches With Covariance Model Approximations, Jennifer A. Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Covariance models (CMs) are a very sensitive tool for finding non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes in DNA sequence data. However, CMs are extremely slow. One reason why CMs are so slow is that they allow all possible combinations of insertions and deletions relative to the consensus model even though the vast majority of these are never seen in practice. In this paper we examine reduction in the number of states in covariance models. A simplified CM with reduced states which can be scored much faster is introduced. A comparison of the results of a full CM versus a reduced-state model found …

Ink Jet Inks And Substrates - Novel Approaches For Their Physical And Optical Properties Characterization, Veronika Lovell

Dissertations

Undoubtedly, within the last couple of decades, the progress in non impact printing technologies has grown to an enormous level. In order to keep the development of this non impact printing method to grow even more, technicians, researchers and educators must continue in conducting investigation and provoking new ideas and questions that will lead to new outcomes and expansion of ink jet printing.

In this work, a broader area that comprises deep look into the ink jet ink and substrate performance, their physical properties and optical properties when printed is discussed in great details. Innovative techniques, novel materials and novel …

The Land Is In Your Hands : A Practical Guide For Owners Of Small Rural Landholdings In Western Australia, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Wa

Bulletins 4000 -

This Bulletin discusses various aspects of managing a small farm or property in Western Australia, including soil and land care, vegetation and plant control on farm holdings, water resource management, biosecurity, plant, animal and insect pest control and livestock management.

Generalized Perceptual Linear Prediction (Gplp) Features For Animal Vocalization Analysis, Patrick J. Clemins, Michael T. Johnson

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

A new feature extraction model, generalized perceptual linear prediction (gPLP), is developed to calculate a set of perceptually relevant features for digital signal analysis of animalvocalizations. The gPLP model is a generalized adaptation of the perceptual linear prediction model, popular in human speech processing, which incorporates perceptual information such as frequency warping and equal loudness normalization into the feature extraction process. Since such perceptual information is available for a number of animal species, this new approach integrates that information into a generalized model to extract perceptually relevant features for a particular species. To illustrate, qualitative and quantitative comparisons are made …

Advancements In Frameworks For Educational Games Through Sound Software Engineering Principles., Christy M. Bogard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational games have steadily entered classrooms as a means of challenging advanced students and tutoring those lacking comprehension. However, without adequate educational benefits, instructors are struggling to continually justify the marginal value added of using these programs. It is the intent of this thesis to demonstrate that sound software engineering principles can improve the framework of educational games. First, the core framework requirements of computer-based educational games are outlined. Current educational games are then evaluated based on their ability to meet these requirements. From this analysis, necessary architectural changes are recommended to best facilitate future game advancements. Finally, to demonstrate …

Evaluation Of Wildlife Reflectors In Reducing Vehicle-Deer Collisions On Indiana Interstate 80/90, Sedat Gulen, George P. Mccabe, Ira Rosenthal, Samuel E. Wolfe, Virgil L. Anderson

JTRP Technical Reports

The Indiana Department of Transportation is committed to reducing vehicle-deer collision incidents on the Indiana Interstate I-80/90 as well as on the other roads. Very few of the studies to reduce vehicle-deer collisions incorporated any sound and complete statistical design. Some states (California, Colorado, Maine, Ontario-Canada, Washington State and Wyoming) have found that the use of wildlife reflectors did not reduce vehicle-deer collisions. However, some other states (British Columbia-Canada, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington State and Wisconsin) found that the use of wildlife reflectors did reduce vehicle-deer collisions.

The main objective of this experimental study is to evaluate the effectiveness of …

Development Of An Electro-Mechanical System To Identify & Map Adverse Soil Compaction Using Gis&Gps, Santosh Pitla, L. G. Wells

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

A stand-alone electro-mechanical system with a 32-inch disc coulter was developed and tested to identify soil compaction in a 1-acre field located at the University of Kentucky Animal Research Center (UKARC). The system was evaluated by making four passes in the square grid cell. With the aid of hydraulic actuation, the coulter oscillated between depths of 100mm (4-in) and 330mm (13-in) as it moved forward and recorded the vertical impedance force given by the soil continuously. Forty standard soil cone penetrometer measurements along the diagonals to a depth of 400mm (16-in) were taken and the average cone indices (MPa) at …

Mechanical Properties Of Skin Wounds After Atropa Belladonna Application In Rats, T Toporcer, T Grendel, B Vidinský, P Gál, J Sabo, R Hudák

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Atropa belladonna is a topical agent used in the treatment of skin wounds in Slovak folk medicine. The aim of this study was to asses the effect of A. belladonna extract on wound tensile strength in Sprague-Dawley rats. Twenty four rats were randomly divided into 3 groups of 8 animals. Two symmetrical skin incisions were performed on the back of each animal and immediately sutured. In the 1st group A. belladonna extract was not applied and the group served as a control. The animals in the 2nd group were treated by daily application of A. Belladonna extract during the first …

An Operational Model For Mobile Sensor Cloud Management, Indrajeet Kalyankar

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Mobile sensors provide a safe, cost effective method for gathering information in hazardous environments. When the hazardous environment is either unexplored, such as the surface of Mars, or unanticipated, such as the result of chemical contamination, it is desirable for a system to gather information with a minimal amount of outside control (localization, decision control, etc.) and prepositioned sensors. If one takes a look at the number of the sensors deployed on a scale, at the lower end is the sole, multipurpose sensor unit. The upper end deals with hordes of inexpensive, expendable sensors. In the middle, a cluster of …

Learning As A Nonlinear Line Of Attraction For Pattern Association, Classification And Recognition, Ming-Jung Seow

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Development of a mathematical model for learning a nonlinear line of attraction is presented in this dissertation, in contrast to the conventional recurrent neural network model in which the memory is stored in an attractive fixed point at discrete location in state space. A nonlinear line of attraction is the encapsulation of attractive fixed points scattered in state space as an attractive nonlinear line, describing patterns with similar characteristics as a family of patterns.

It is usually of prime imperative to guarantee the convergence of the dynamics of the recurrent network for associative learning and recall. We propose to alter …

Incorporating Solid Mechanics Into Biomedical And Life Sciences, Kai-Tak Wan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Integrating and interfacing solid mechanics and life sciences is challenging, but, with effort, the two disciplines can complement one another. This paper describes work ongoing at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of the University of Missouri at Rolla on cellular biomechanics and mechanical characterization of single cells. Also discussed is the study of tissue biomechanics in understanding the mechanical aspects of lens accommodation in human vision.

Critical Computational Aspects Of Near Infrared Circular Tomographic Imaging: Analysis Of Measurement Number, Mesh Resolution And Reconstruction Basis, Phaneendra K. Yalavarthy, Hamid Dehghani, Brian W. Pogue, Keit D. Paulsen

Dartmouth Scholarship

The image resolution and contrast in Near-Infrared (NIR) tomographic image reconstruction are affected by parameters such as the number of boundary measurements, the mesh resolution in the forward calculation and the reconstruction basis. Increasing the number of measurements tends to make the sensitivity of the domain more uniform reducing the hypersensitivity at the boundary. Using singular-value decomposition (SVD) and reconstructed images, it is shown that the numbers of 16 or 24 fibers are sufficient for imaging the 2D circular domain for the case of 1% noise in the data. The number of useful singular values increases as the logarithm of …

Tsunami Relief Work - Biopesticide Spray Operations - A Case Study, Kadarkarai Murugan

Geohazards

Tsunami occurred on 26th December, 2004 and in India more than 8000 people were killed due to the massive attack. The worst affected districts in Tamil Nadu were Viz., Velankanni, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India. Official sources said that due to massive death of animals and human beings, the public health has been affected/spoiled and it will cause further outbreak of infectious diseases like diarrhea, cholera and mosquito transmitting diseases. After a week there were incidents of outbreak of mosquito transmitting diseases such as malaria, and dengue. Tsunami had caused a mixing of animal debris in the breeding ground …

An Introduced Methodology For Estimating Landslide Hazard For Seismic Andrainfall Induced Landslides In A Geographical Information System Environment , M. D. Ferentinou, M. Sakellariou, V. Matziaris, S. Charalambous

Geohazards

The demand for estimating landslide hazard has evolved during the last decade. Landslides are characterised among the most severe natural hazards, which can cause casualties, fatalities, harm or detriment in natural and man-made environment.

In the first part of this paper the results of the research conducted on slope deformation due to seismic loading are presented. According to field observations deformation and displacement of natural and man-made slopes in strong earthquakes are common phenomena, even though they are associated to moderate magnitude seismic events. These permanent displacements are due to seismic loading, and are produced because the material, through which …

Curricula To Educate The 2020 Mse Engineering Professional: Simple But Powerful Changes In The Way That Mse Is Taught, Linda Vanasupa, Blair London, Katherine C. Chen, Richard Savage

Materials Engineering

National leaders in science and technology sectors speak in unison as they call for engineers who are not only technically competent in their fields, but who possess the abilities to communicate well, to work on teams, to apply systems thinking, to operate in the global business environment, to design within a greater set of constraints (environmental, health and safety, sustainability, economic, societal, political, manufacturability, and ethical). In short, our challenge is to educate an engineering professional who is far more sophisticated than the engineer of the 20^th century. Additionally, challenges brought on by the overuse of natural resources put …

Laying The Foundation For Nanoscience And Nanotechnology With An Introductory Module For High School Students, Maynard Valerie, Hsu Mathew, Katherine C. Chen, R. H. Chang

Materials Engineering

In response to the need to create a skilled workforce in nanotechnology and to excite young students with the wonders and potentials of science, the National Center for Learning and Teaching in Nanoscale Science and Engineering, is developing educational materials for grades 7 – 16. Learning theory and cutting-edge research are used in the development of modules on nanoscience and nanotechnology. This paper describes the rationale for such materials and describes an introductory module in which students are lead through a series of inquiry-based and hands-on activities, which lead to a design project. Its goal is to teach an underlying …

Alterations In Regional Vascular Geometry Produced By Theoretical Stent Implantation Influence Distributions Of Wall Shear Stress: Analysis Of A Curved Coronary Artery Using 3d Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling, John F. Ladisa, Lars E. Olson, Douglas Anthony Hettrick, David C. Warltier, Judy R. Kersten, Paul S. Pagel

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

The success of stent implantation in the restoration of blood flow through areas of vascular narrowing is limited by restenosis. Several recent studies have suggested that the local geometric environment created by a deployed stent may influence regional blood flow characteristics and alter distributions of wall shear stress (WSS) after implantation, thereby rendering specific areas of the vessel wall more susceptible to neointimal hyperplasia and restenosis. Stents are most frequently implanted in curved vessels such as the coronary arteries, but most computational studies examining blood flow patterns through stented vessels conducted to date use linear, cylindrical geometric models. It …

Dynamic Characteristics Of Wide Exponential Film-Shape Slider Bearings Lubricated With A Nonnewtonian Couple Stress Fluid, Jaw-Ren Lin, Rong-Fang Lu, Chi-Ren Hung

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

On the basis of the Stokes micro-continuum theory, the nonNewtonian effects of couple stress fluids upon the dynamic characteristics of wide exponential-shaped slider bearings are presented in this paper. To take into account the couple stress effects arising from a Newtonian lubricant blended with various additives, the nonNewtonian couple-stress dynamic Reynolds-type equation is applied to calculate the bearing dynamics. According to the results obtained, the effects of couple stresses signify a decrease in the friction parameter and the volume flow rate, as well as an increase in the loadcarrying capacity, the dynamic stiffness coefficient and the dynamic damping coefficient for …

Solution Chemistry Control To Make Well Defined Submicron Continuous Fibres By Electrospinning: The (Ch3ch2ch2o)4ti/Acoh/Poly(N-Vinylpyrrolidone) System, Gustavo F. Larsen, Maciej Skotak

Papers in Materials Science

The (CH3CH2CH2O)4Ti/AcOH/poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) system has been shown to yield suitable formulations for electrohydrodynamic (EHD) processing into continuous fibres and particles. The EHD processability of this, and generally most sol–gel-based formulations, into well defined fibres and particles with narrow submicron-range diameter distributions depends not only on the EHD process variables (electric field and flow rates), but also on the stability of key physical properties (e.g., conductivity, viscosity, surface tension, density and dielectric constant) of the sol over time. Sols that were almost certainly still undergoing hydrolysis and condensation reactions have been processed via EHD by many research groups to make materials with …

Application Of Aspen Mads-Box Genes To Alter Reproduction And Development In Trees, Gopi Krishna Podila, Leland James Cseke, Banalata Sen, David F. Karnosky

Michigan Tech Patents

The present invention provides compositions and methods for producing a transgenic plant that exhibits altered characteristics resulting from over expression or under expression of a novel polypeptide PtM3 or its homolog PtM4. The altered characteristics resulting from over-expression include at least one of the ability to convert axillary mer- istem to floral meristem; to accelerate flowering i.e., early flowering; to increase fruit production; to increase nut production; to increase seed output; to increase branching; to increase flower production; to increase fruit yield; to increase flower yield and a combination thereof. The altered characteristics resulting from suppressed expression include at least …

Imaging Breast Adipose And Fibroglandular Tissue Molecular Signatures By Using Hybrid Mri-Guided Near-Infrared Spectral Tomography, Ben Brooksby, Brian W. Pogue, Shudong Jiang, Hamid Dehghani, Subhadra Srinivasan, Christine Kogel, Tor D. Tosteson, John Weaver, Steven P. Poplack, Keith D. Paulsen

Dartmouth Scholarship

Magnetic resonance (MR)-guided near-infrared spectral tomography was developed and used to image adipose and fibroglandular breast tissue of 11 normal female subjects, recruited under an institutional review board-approved protocol. Images of hemoglobin, oxygen saturation, water fraction, and subcellular scattering were reconstructed and show that fibroglandular fractions of both blood and water are higher than in adipose tissue. Variation in adipose and fibroglandular tissue composition between individuals was not significantly different across the scattered and dense breast categories. Combined MR and near-infrared tomography provides fundamental molecular information about these tissue types with resolution governed by MR T1 images.

Competitive Metagenomic Dna Hybridization Identifies Host-Specific Microbial Genetic Markers In Cow Fecal Samples, Orin C. Shanks, Jorge W. Santo Domingo, Regina Lamendella, Catherine A. Kelty, James E. Graham

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Several PCR methods have recently been developed to identify fecal contamination in surface waters. In all cases, researchers have relied on one gene or one microorganism for selection of host-specific markers. Here we describe the application of a genome fragment enrichment (GFE) method to identify host-specific genetic markers from fecal microbial community DNA. As a proof of concept, bovine fecal DNA was challenged against a porcine fecal DNA background to select for bovine-specific DNA sequences. Bioinformatic analyses of 380 bovine enriched metagenomic sequences indicated a preponderance of Bacteroidales-like regions predicted to encode membrane-associated and secreted proteins. Oligonucleotide primers capable …

Helicopter Flight Operational Quality Assurance (Hfoqa): Development Of Hfoqa Analysis Software, Sergio Teixeira

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA), or Flight Data Monitoring (FDM), has benefited flight safety in both fixed-wing and helicopter operations. The relative youth of FOQA programs has resulted in their minimal application among the helicopter fleets of the world; thus, Helicopter FOQA (HFOQA) has merited consolidation and expansion. This mixed methods design developed HFOQA analysis software via a blend of the qualitative data from helicopter and FOQA experts with quantitative data represented by a sample of de-identified digital flight data from 1,014 helicopter flights. Development of the software emphasized three domains of interest: (a) helicopter flight phases; (b) helicopter operational …

Explant Analysis Of Total Disc Replacement, Paul A. Anderson, Steven M. Kurtz, Jeffrey M. Toth

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Explant analysis of human disc prostheses allow early evaluation of the host response to the prosthesis and the response of the prosthesis from the host. Furthermore, early predictions of failure and wear can be obtained. Thus far, about 2-3% of disc prostheses have been removed. Observed wear patterns are similar to that of appendicular prostheses including abrasions/scratching, burnishing, surface deformation, fatigue, and embedded debris. Chemically the polymeric components have shown little degradation in short-term implantation. In metal on metal prostheses the histologic responses consist of large numbers of metallic particles with occasional macrophages and giant cells. Only rare cases of …