Digital Commons Network^™

Bioactive Materials, D. E. Day, Erik M. Erbe, Marina Richard, Joshua A. Wojcik

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Bioactive substantially silica-free glass material with a hydroxyapatite layer thereon is described, as well as methods for producing hydroxyapatite on a borate glass.

Discovering The Merit Of The Wavelet Transform For Object Classification, Matthew D. Eyster

Theses and Dissertations

Vision is the primary sense by which most biological systems collect information about their environment. Computer vision is a branch of artificial intelligence concerned with endowing machines with the ability to understand images. Object recognition is a key part of machine vision with far reaching benefits ranging from target recognition, surveillance systems, to automation systems. Extraction of salient features from an image is one of the key steps in object recognition. Typically, geometric primitives are extracted from an image using local analysis. However, the wavelet transform provides a global approach with good locality. Additionally, the directional and multiresolution properties may …

Characterization Of Ultra Wideband Multiple Access Performance Using Time Hopped-Biorthogonal Pulse Position Modulation, Donald J. Clabaugh

Theses and Dissertations

The FCC's release of its UWB First Report and Order in April 2002 spawned renewed interest in impulse signaling research. This work combines Time Hopped (TH) multiple access coding with 4-ary UWB Biorthogonal Pulse Position Modulation (TH-BPPM). Multiple access performance is evaluated in a multipath environment for both synchronous and asynchronous networks. Fast time hopping is implemented by replicating and hopping each TH-BPPM symbol NH times. Bit error expressions are derived for biorthogonal TH-BPPM signaling and results compared with previous orthogonal TH-PPM work. Without fast time hopping (NH = 1), the biorthogonal TH-BPPM technique provided gains equivalent to Gray-coded QPSK; …

Swarming Reconnaissance Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles In A Parallel Discrete Event Simulation, Joshua J. Corner

Theses and Dissertations

Current military affairs indicate that future military warfare requires safer, more accurate, and more fault-tolerant weapons systems. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are one answer to this military requirement. Technology in the UAV arena is moving toward smaller and more capable systems and is becoming available at a fraction of the cost. Exploiting the advances in these miniaturized flying vehicles is the aim of this research. How are the UAVs employed for the future military? The concept of operations for a micro-UAV system is adopted from nature from the appearance of flocking birds, movement of a school of fish, and swarming …

Policy Analysis Of Chapter 101a, Readiness And Range Preservation, Of The National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2004, William E. Sitzabee

Theses and Dissertations

This research analyzed the United States Air Force's ability to meet the two conditions required for exemptions of critical habitat designations that are authorized under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. The research was limited to natural resources management on United States Air Force training ranges. Department of Defense exemptions can only be achieved if two conditions exist: the management activities must meet the intent of the Endangered Species Act and conserve the threatened and endangered species identified on the lands managed under an Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP), and the plan must ensure that there …

Modeling A Field Application Of In Situ Bioremediation Of Perchlorate-Contaminated Groundwater Using Horizontal Flow Treatment Wells (Hftws), Peter G. Chosa

Theses and Dissertations

Perchlorate contaminated groundwater is rapidly becoming a significant environmental remediation issue for the Department of Defense. In this study, an existing numerical model that simulates the operation of a Horizontal Flow Treatment Well (HFTW) system to effect the in situ biodegradation of perchlorate through the addition of an electron donor is modified to include a submodel that describes bioclogging. Bioclogging restricts flow out of the HFTW due to the accumulation of biomass directly adjacent to the well. The modified model is then applied to an existing perchlorate contaminated site that will be used for an evaluation of the HFTW technology. …

Application Of Horizontal Flow Treatment Wells For In Situ Treatment Of Mtbe-Contaminated Groundwater, Preston F. Rufe

Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized a three-dimensional numerical model to evaluate the potential application of HFTWs to manage MTBE-contaminated groundwater. HFTWs consist of two dual-screened treatment wells. One well operates in an upflow mode, with MTBE-contaminated water extracted from an aquifer through a screen in the deep portion of an aquifer and injected into the aquifer through a shallow well screen, while the adjacent well operates in a downflow mode, extracting water from the shallow zone of the aquifer and injecting it into the deep zone. As the MTBE-contaminated water flows through the wells, an electron acceptor and/or another electron donor is …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Equivalence Ratio And G-Loading On In-Situ Measurements Of Chemiluminescence In An Ultra Compact Combustor, Jason M. Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations

Using a spectrometer and high temperature fiber optics the relative intensities of the near-infrared, visible, and ultraviolet radiation emitted from the C2*, CH*, and OH* radicals were measured at eight discrete locations within the Ultra Compact Combustor test rig. Blackbody radiation in the near infrared also was observed. The tests were conducted at various g-loadings and overall equivalence ratios and with various air hole configurations. These measurements were compared to determine the effect of these changes on the radiation emitted. Local C2* intensities were used to estimate the flame location within the combustor and the local CH*/OH* ratio was used …

Quantification Of Bronchial Circulation Perfusion In Rats, Christian Wieholt, Robert C. Molthen, Steven Thomas Haworth, David L. Roerig, Christopher A. Dawson, Anne V. Clough

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The bronchial circulation is thought to be the primary blood supply for pulmonary carcinomas. Thus, we have developed a method for imaging and quantifying changes in perfusion in the rat lung due to development of the bronchial circulation. A dual-modality micro-CT/SPECT system was used to detect change in perfusion in two groups of rats: controls and those with a surgically occluded left pulmonary artery. Both groups were imaged following injections on separate days i) 2mCi of Tc99m labeled macroaggregated albumin (MAA) into the left carotid artery (IA) and ii) a similar injection into the femoral vein (IV). The IA injection …

Changes In Pulmonary Arterial Wall Mechanical Properties And Lumenal Architecture With Induced Vascular Remodeling, Robert C. Molthen, Amy Heinrich, Steven Thomas Haworth, Christopher A. Dawson

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

To explore and quantify pulmonary arterial remodeling we used various methods including micro-CT, high-resolution 3-dimensional x-ray imaging, to examine the structure and function of intact pulmonary vessels in isolated rat lungs. The rat is commonly used as an animal model for studies of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and the accompanying vascular remodeling, where vascular remodeling has been defined primarily by changes in the vessel wall composition in response to hypertension inducing stimuli such as chronic hypoxic exposure (CHE) or monocrotaline (MCT) injection. Little information has been provided as to how such changes affect the vessel wall mechanical properties or the lumenal …

Post-Acquisition Small-Animal Respiratory Gated Imaging Using Micro Cone-Beam Ct, Jicun Hu, Steven Thomas Haworth, Robert C. Molthen, Christopher A. Dawson

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

On many occasions, it is desirable to image lungs in vivo to perform a pulmonary physiology study. Since the lungs are moving, gating with respect to the ventilatory phase has to be performed in order to minimize motion artifacts. Gating can be done in real time, similar to cardiac imaging in clinical applications, however, there are technical problems that have lead us to investigate different approaches. The problems include breath-to-breath inconsistencies in tidal volume, which makes the precise detection of ventilatory phase difficult, and the relatively high ventilation rates seen in small animals (rats and mice have ventilation rates in …

Geometric Approach To Detecting And Locating Cracks In Thin Plates By Lamb Wave Reflection: Case Of Moving Transducer, Jose R. Mares, Roberto A. Osegueda, Nagaswaroopa Kaukuri, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

This paper portrays work for the development of a Lamb wave scanning method for the detection of defects in thin plates. The approach requires the generation of an ultrasonic A0 and S0-mode Lamb wave using an incident transmitter excited with a tone burst centered at a near non-dispersive frequency. With a fixed relative separation both transmitter and receiving transducer remotely scan a specific line section of the plate. The arrival time information coming from incident and reflected waves contain information associated with the location of reflection surfaces or potential flaws. The Hilbert-Huang transform is applied to the intrinsic mode functions …

Using Covers To Minimize Odor And Gas Emissions From Manure Storages, José R. Bicudo, David R. Schmidt, Larry D. Jacobson

Agricultural Engineering Extension Publications

Odor emissions from animal production sites are typically the leading cause of nuisance complaints. Locating facilities far from neighbors is often a solution to the odor problem, but this is not always an option for producers. Most often, reducing odor emissions from the farm is the only option available.

Migration Of An Intruder Particle In A Boundary Driven Shear Flow, Jian Liu

Dissertations

This study reports on three-dimensional, discrete element simulations of a single large spherical intruder in a Couette shear flow composed of uniform sized particles. The simulation results are useful in providing a numerical reproduction of the experiments for size segregation and mixing. This in turn has a major importance in many industries which are concerned with handling of particles and powders, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, agriculture, chemical and mineral processing.

Discrete element simulations are carried out using the "soft sphere" model of Walton, et. al., which provides a method for obtaining the information at a macroscopic level from multi-body collisions …

The Use Of A Water Quality Model To Evaluate The Impacts Of Combined Sewer Overflows On The Lower Hudson River, Wen-Pin Shu

Dissertations

CSO discharges have long been recognized as a significant source of water pollution. While many sources of water pollution have been controlled over the past 20 years, CSOs continue to be a main environmental concern in several areas, especially in old cities. In the past, most CSO research focused on the CSO control processes, including floatables and suspended solids removal. Few studies have been conducted in the area of the impacts of CSO discharge on the receiving water quality. To achieve this purpose, a powerful water-modeling tool, WASP 6.1, is utilized in this study. The Lower Hudson River is selected …

Development Of Fmri Compatible Lower Body Negative Pressure System, Pratap Singh Kunwar

Theses

The lower body negative pressure (LBNP) system provides a controlled, measured orthostatic stress to the cardiovascular system, which can be used with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine to study cardiovascular and cerebrovascular responses to graded LBNP. In the past, even though functional MRI (fMRI) was considered as one of the best modalities with which to measure small metabolic changes in the brain, it has not been used with an LBNP system to measure cerebrovascular changes. This was due to the lack of an fMRI compatible LBNP system.

In this project, an tMRI compatible LBNP system was first constructed without …

Magneto-Rheological Fluid Orthosis For Suppressing Tremor, Hyoung-Joo Yeo

Theses

Tremor is a common movement disorder that occurs with specific neurological conditions. This condition may seriously impact daily living activities. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the possibility of the development of a wearable technology that is capable of exerting torques at a user's joints for suppressing tremor.

This thesis is based on the concept of "smart structures" which are made of Magneto-Rheological (MR) fluid that can dynamically alter its viscosity under magnetic field. The wearable tremor suppressing orthosis needs several conditions. It should be safe, light weight, simple and small in structure, and easily attachable. An …

Transmission Of Light And Audible Sound In A Synthetic Fog Medium, Bhavin Babaria

Theses

The primary goal of the thesis was to study the propagation of visible light and auditory sound through a synthetic fog medium compared to an ambient air environment. It is known that the fog substantially decreases the visibility however; this has not been studied quantitatively. Further information regarding other energies such as sound is also needed to understand how the energy reacts in the fog medium. The extent of visual and auditory degradation in humans needs to be investigated. Researchers have studied light transmitted through water, air; however, no one has studied how light or sound is transmitted through a …

Investigation Of Heart Rate Variability During Sleep Apnea, Sekar Subramanian

Theses

Sleep apnea is a disorder, where there are repetitive pauses in respiratory flow of at least 10 seconds or longer duration, and which occur more than five times per hour. Apnea has strong modulating effects on the autonomic nervous system, with prominent heart rate variation. It can be assumed that during sleep, internal influences (sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activities) dominate the autonomic nervous system; in addition repetitive apneas are accompanied by a pronounced increase in average heart rate. The aim of this study was to investigate the heart rate variability using spectral analysis and time-frequency analysis during sleep apnea. …

Florida's Energy Future: Opportunities For Our Economy, Environment And Security, Florida Solar Energy Center, Philip W. Fairey

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The future of Florida's economy, environment and security is inextricably intertwined with our energy use decisions. Our state has one of the nation's fastest growing populations, promoting rapid expansion of an energy industry that imports its fuel supplies. Florida exports approximately $32 billion per year for these energy fuels. Moreover, the Florida economy depends critically on tourism and agriculture, and the fuels and energy products that maintain them. Our pristine environment is the primary natural resource supporting this unique economic engine and the adverse effects of our rapidly growing energy use now stress it. Our State's economic well-being and security …

Airplane Design And The Biomechanics Of Flight – A More Completely Multi- Disciplinary Perspective, John H. Mcmasters, Russell M. Cummings

Aerospace Engineering

Aeronautics is usually presumed to have started as a formal engineering discipline somewhere in historical time between the mythological experiments of Daedalus and his ill-fated son, Icarus; and the dreams and schemes of Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. As reviewed in this paper, “aeronautics” has a far longer history, extending over a period of about 300 million years beginning with the evolution of the ability of insects to fly. With the advent of the success of the Wright brothers, technologists quickly turned their attention from the inspirations and lessons provided by natural models of flying machines to …

Total Reduced Sulfur Concentrations In The Vicinity Of Beef Cattle Feedlots, Richard K. Koelsch, Bryan L. Woodbury, David E. Stenberg, Daniel N. Miller, Dennis D. Schulte

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A field survey of total reduced sulfur (TRS) concentrations in the vicinity of beef cattle feedlots was conducted to compare field observations against current regulatory thresholds. In addition, environmental factors that may contribute to increased TRS emissions were evaluated. It was observed that TRS levels in the vicinity of beef cattle feedlots are not likely to exceed current regulatory thresholds used by midwestern states. It was further noted that concentration of TRS varies with air temperature and time of day. However, wet feedlot surface conditions and wind speed had almost no impact upon observed concentrations.

The Effect Of Loading On Disturbance Sounds Of The Atlantic Croaker Micropogonius Undulatus: Air Versus Water, Michael L. Fine, Justin Schrinel, Timothy M. Cameron

Biology Publications

Physiological work on fish sound production may require exposure of the swimbladder to air, which will change its loading (radiation mass and resistance) and could affect parameters of emitted sounds. This issue was examined in Atlantic croaker Micropogonius chromis by recording sounds from the same individuals in air and water. Although sonograms appear relatively similar in both cases, pulse duration is longer because of decreased damping, and sharpness of tuning (Q factor) is higher in water. However, pulse repetition rate and dominant frequency are unaffected. With appropriate caution it is suggested that sounds recorded in air can provide a useful …

Endocrine-Disrupting Effects Of Cattle Feedlot Effluent On An Aquatic Sentinel Species, The Fathead Minnow, Edward Orlando, Alan Kolok, Gerry Binzcick, Jennifer Gates, Megan Horton, Christy Lambright, L. Earl Gray, Jr., Ana M. Soto, Louis J. Guilette, Jr.

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Over the last decade, research has examined the endocrine-disrupting action of various environmental pollutants, including hormones, pharmaceuticals, and surfactants, in sewage treatment plant effluent. Responding to the growth of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and the pollutants present in their wastewater (e.g., nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and hormones), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed a new rule that tightens the regulation of CAFOs. In this study, we collected wild fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) exposed to feedlot effluent (FLE) and observed significant alterations in their reproductive biology. Male fish were demasculinized (having lower testicular testosterone synthesis, altered head morphometrics, and smaller …

Evaluating The Human Relevance Of Chemically Induced Animal Tumors, Samuel M. Cohen, James Klaunig, M. Elizabeth Meek, Richard N. Hill, Timothy Pastoor, Lois Lehman-Mckeeman, John Bucher, David G. Longfellow, Jennifer Seed, Vicki Dellarco, Penelope Fenner-Crisp, Dorothy Patton

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Defining the mode(s) of action by which chemicals induce tumors in laboratory animals has become a key to judgments about the relevance of such tumor data for human risk assessment. Frameworks for analyzing mode of action information appear in recent U.S. EPA and IPCS publications relating to cancer risk assessment. This FORUM paper emphasizes that mode of action analytical frameworks depend on both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of relevant data and information: (1) presenting key events in the animal mode of action, (2) developing a “concordance” table for side-by-side comparison of key events as defined in animal studies with comparable …

Me-Em 2004 Annual Report, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Annual Reports

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Mission, Vision, and Strategic Plan
• Enrollment and Expenditure Data
• Faculty & Staff
• Industrial Advisory Committee
• Students
• Academic Programs
• Alumni
• Donations
• Contracts & Grants
• Graduates
• Publications

Using Web Services To Integrate Heterogeneous Simulations In A Grid Environment, J. Mark Pullen, Ryan Brunton, Don Brutzman, David Drake, Michael Hieb, Katherine L. Morse, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

The distributed information technologies collectively known as Web services recently have demonstrated powerful capabilities for scalable interoperation of heterogeneous software across a wide variety of networked platforms. This approach supports a rapid integration cycle and shows promise for ultimately supporting automatic composability of services using discovery via registries. This paper presents a rationale for extending Web services to distributed simulation environments, including the High Level Architecture (HLA), together with a description and examples of the integration methodology used to develop significant prototype implementations. A logical next step is combining the power of Grid computing with Web services to facilitate rapid …

Selected Collaborative Problem-Solving Methods For Industry, Dr. Anthony Mark Doggett

Architectural and Manufacturing Sciences Faculty Publications

Despite the availability of a wide range of problem solving methods, individuals continue to struggle with problems. Scientists attempt to address recurring economic, social, political, and organizational problems through the expansion of knowledge and theory. ... Cause-effect relationships advance logical explanations, predict future events,and forecast consequences. Theories and thinking based on cause-effect findings become recognized science (Goldratt, 1990) and move the field of inquiry from "art" to that of disciplined examination. In problem solving, the root cause of the problem produces an undesirable effect. Any pursuit that does not seek the root cause leads only to the symptom of the …

3d Engineering With Prototyping, Jerome Casey, David Copperwhite, Barry Duignan

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.