Digital Commons Network^™

Design, Testing, And Safety Performance Of Movable Guardrail Systems: A Prisma-Based Systematic Review, Navid Hashemi Taba, Ahdieh Sadat Khatavakhotan, Majid Tolouei-Rad

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Movable guardrail systems are increasingly used in work zones, reversible lanes, and temporary traffic operations; however, evidence on their crashworthiness, material performance, and operational reliability remains dispersed across multiple design typologies and regulatory frameworks. This PRISMA-compliant systematic review synthesizes 78 studies involving full-scale crash tests, validated finite-element simulations, field performance evaluations, and compliance evaluations under MASH, EN 1317, NCHRP 350, and AS/NZS 3845.1. The findings indicate that modular rigid barriers reliably achieve TL-3/TL-4 performance when joint alignment and foundation conditions are properly controlled; semi-rigid steel systems provide a practical balance between containment capacity and redeployability, but remain sensitive to post …

An Electrochemiluminescence-Based Arsenic (Iii) Sensor Using Luminol On Screen-Printed Gold Electrodes, Harmesa Harmesa, Isnaini Rahmawati, Andrea Fiorani, Yasuaki Einaga, Eny Kusrini, A’An Johan Wahyudi, Asep Saefumillah, Tribidasari A Ivandini

Journal of Electrochemistry

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of luminol has been studied on a screen-printed gold electrode for a simple and sensitive detection of arsenic ions (As(III)). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was applied as the proposed technique to study luminol’s electrochemical behavior and to evaluate the arsenic’s effect in the ECL system, while hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) served as a co-reactant to enhance luminol’s light emission under alkaline conditions. To achieve optimal electrode performance, key parameters including pH, scan rate, and the concentrations of H₂O₂ and luminol were carefully optimized. The presence of As(III) induced a quenching effect on the …

Design And Control Of A Multi-Modal Electromagnetic Floor Array For Foot-Based Human Locomotion And Stabilization In Microgravity, Aryan Anand

Electrical Engineering Theses

Long-duration living and working in microgravity creates everyday mobility problems such as drifting, loss of stable footing, higher effort to move, and difficulty doing routine tasks safely. Many solutions have been proposed in literature, including handrails, restraint systems, and concepts for artificial gravity using rotation. Artificial gravity could improve comfort, but it is complex to build and operate for large spacecraft, especially when future missions may include not only trained astronauts but also common people. With companies like SpaceX pushing toward large-scale travel and long-term settlement goals, there is a need for simpler mobility support technologies that can work inside …

Machine Learning–Driven Prediction Of Dementia From Mri And Clinical Features: A Comparative Analysis Of Ensemble And Baseline Models, Sarah Raad Hameed, Zainab Muhannad Nahid, Rawan Ahmed Abdulmahdi

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

Early detection of dementia remains a pressing challenge in clinical neuroscience, as delayed diagnosis limits therapeutic impact and healthcare planning. Leveraging the Open Access Series of Imaging Studies (OASIS) cross-sectional dataset of 436 participants, this study developed a robust machine learning pipeline integrating sociodemographic, clinical, and neuroimaging-derived features. Preprocessing included removal of highly sparse variables (Delay), median imputation of partially missing but clinically essential measures (SES, MMSE, CDR, Educ), Winsorization of extreme values, and skewness correction. The target Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) was binarized (0 = no dementia, ≥ 0.5 = dementia) to align with clinically actionable screening. Categorical features …

Sound Insulation Performance Of Sustainable Lc3 Mortars With Barite And Waste Rubber Aggregates, Begüm Söyek Abay, Leyla Tanaçan

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

This study investigates the potential of limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) as a sustainable binder for developing a single-layer composite material incorporating barite and rubber aggregates, hypothesized to achieve enhanced sound insulation performance compared to conventional multi-layered wall systems. Mortars were prepared using LC3 with 55% clinker, 30% metakaolin, 15% limestone, substituting 45% of cement clinker. Hybrid mixtures of barite and rubber aggregates (barite-to-rubber volume ratios of 2:1 and 1:2) were tested at aggregate-to-binder ratios of 2.0, 2.75, and 3.5 to evaluate their combined mass and damping effects on acoustic performance. Experiments were conducted to determine physical, mechanical, and acoustic …

Investigating The Behavior Of Self-Compacting Concrete Containing Scms And Recycled Fine Aggregates, Sachin Tiwari, Mahakavi P

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

This study addresses the unresolved gap in quantifying how recycled fine aggregates (RFA) and metakaolin (MK) interact synergistically in self-compacting concrete (SCC), a relationship that previous works have studied only in isolation or without mechanistic justification. Twenty-five SCC mixtures containing MK (0–25%) and RFA (0–100%) were evaluated to generate a unified understanding of fresh behaviour, strength development, pore refinement, interfacial transition zone (ITZ) characteristics, and sustainability indicators. Results show that RFA alone increases water demand and reduces strength, while MK compensates for these losses by densifying the matrix and improving ITZ bonding, as confirmed through SEM analysis. An optimum synergy …

Remote Sensing Of Dynamic Ground Motion Via A Moiré-Based Apparatus, Adrian Ali Moazzam, Nontawat Srisapan, Gregory Waite, Durdu Guney, Roohollah Askari

Michigan Tech Publications

Highlights: What are the main findings? A Moiré-based optical apparatus enables long-range, non-contact ground displacement measurement in hazardous environments. Controlled indoor and outdoor experiments demonstrate reliable detection of dynamic and seismic-like ground motions with sub-millimeter resolution. What are the implications of the main findings? System performance is evaluated under atmospheric turbulence and wind, revealing key limits and mitigation strategies for field deployment. The proposed approach provides a low-cost, scalable complement to traditional seismic and geodetic monitoring techniques. Ground-based remote sensing of seismic and geophysical displacements remains a major challenge due to environmental hazards, signal attenuation, and practical deployment limitations of …

Machine Learning For Elderly Behavior And Risk Incident Modeling, Muhammad Tanveer Jan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The rapid expansion of the aging population presents critical challenges to healthcare systems, particularly in maintaining independent living, ensuring mobility safety, and optimizing emergency interventions. Traditional monitoring solutions are often fragmented, reactive, and hindered by the scarcity of data regarding rare high-risk events. This dissertation proposes a comprehensive, multi-modal machine learning framework designed to model elderly behavior and predict risk incidents across three critical environments: the home, the vehicle, and the clinical setting.

To address the fundamental challenge of class imbalance in medical and behavioral datasets—where risk events are statistically rare—this research first introduces a dual-phase data augmentation strategy. By …

Fpga Implementation Of A Sequence Detector Using A Finite State Machine, Shensheng Tang, Nick Zander

Day of Scholarship

This project presents the design and hardware implementation of a Finite State Machine (FSM) capable of detecting the binary sequences “1001” and “1111” with full support for overlapping occurrences. The FSM was designed to operate efficiently in real time and was implemented on an Artix‑7 FPGA development board using the AMD/Xilinx Vivado Design Suite. The system processes a serial input stream and asserts a detection signal whenever either target sequence appears, even when sequences share bits across consecutive detections. The FSM architecture, state transition logic, and verification strategy were developed and validated through simulation before being deployed to hardware. Experimental …

Post-Fire Inspection, Material Testing, Repair, And Field Load Testing Of A Full-Scale Concrete Box Girder Bridge: Delta Bridge Case Study, Ahmed S. Eisa, Hilal Hassan, Mohamed A. Badran, Ayman El-Zohairy

Faculty Publications

Bridges are critical components of transportation networks, and fire accidents can significantly impair their structural integrity, leading to safety risks and major economic losses. This study presents a comprehensive inspection, materials testing, repair, and field load testing program for a full-scale concrete box girder bridge (Delta Bridge, Alexandria, Egypt) following a fire exposure on two spans. A total of 28 concrete core samples were extracted and tested, revealing average compressive strengths of 48.50 MPa (slab), 53.90 MPa (web), and 45.88 MPa (columns), representing moderate reductions of approximately 8.5%, 7.9%, and 10.8%, respectively, relative to the original in situ concrete strength …

Tle-Unet-Based Image Segmentation And Feature Extraction Of Water-Cooling-Induced Complex Cracks In High-Temperature Rock Masses, Fu Tianyu, Hu Mangu, Zhang Xiaojun, Yang Xiaobin, Lyu Fu, Lyu Xiangfeng, Peng Lei

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective and Method Water cooling-induced macroscopic surface cracks in high-temperature rock masses are characterized by fine scales, pronounced length variations, and severe class imbalance in images, posing significant challenges for image segmentation. To address these challenges, this study proposed TLE-UNet, a semantic segmentation network for rock crack images. First, through thermal treatment and uniaxial compression tests of granite specimens, crack images under varying temperatures were acquired. Then, using a self-developed Lite Edge Fusion module, high-resolution shallow features were finely aligned with deep semantic features at varying scales. Furthermore, edge detection and channel-attention mechanisms were combined to enhance crack boundary perception. …

A Gaussian Process Regression-Based Denoising Method For Transient Electromagnetic Signals, Wang Peng, Shi Jiaxing, Lu Kai, Hu Jinru, Wen Guangyuan, Zhai Haojie

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective The transient electromagnetic (TEM) method serves as a primary geophysical technique for groundwater detection in coalfields at present, with the detection results directly influencing the implementation of water hazard prevention and control in coal mines. Since it is difficult to avoid electromagnetic interference sources such as power lines during data acquisition, TEM signals are prone to be contaminated by electromagnetic noise. Given that primary denoising techniques such as wavelet transform and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) are yet to be further improved, this study developed a novel Gaussian process regression (GPR)-based denoising method for TEM signals. Methods First, time alignment …

Ainet: Integrating Mamba And Cbam For Enhanced Camouflage Object Detection, Henry O. Velesaca, P. Andrea Mero, Abel A. Reyes-Angulo, Angel D. Sappa

Michigan Tech Publications

This paper introduces AINet, a novel deep learning architecture designed for detecting camouflaged objects in complex and diverse environments. The objective of this work is to design an end-to-end camouflaged object detection architecture that simultaneously captures long-range dependencies and refines subtle camouflage cues, improving segmentation accuracy and boundary delineation across both standard COD benchmarks and real-world agricultural scenarios. AINet leverages the strengths of Mamba, an efficient sequential state model for capturing long-range dependencies, and the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) for feature refinement through attention mechanisms. Detecting camouflaged objects is a significant challenge across a wide range of real-world applications, …

A Capability Maturity Model For Artificial Intelligence Integration In Supply Chain Management, Lordt Becklines

Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming Supply Chain Management (SCM), yet many organizations struggle to assess their readiness for AI adoption and to understand how AI capabilities develop across maturity stages. This dissertation addresses this gap by developing a Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for AI integration in SCM, grounded in Organizational Information Processing Theory (OIPT), the Resource-Based View, and related capability frameworks. The model provides a structured approach for evaluating an organization's information-processing requirements, resource configurations, and alignment needed for effective AI-enabled supply chain operations.

Using a design science research approach, the AI-SCM CMM and its associated assessment instrument were derived …

Optimized Thermal Management Of Cylindrical Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Circular Fins And Forced Air-Cooling, Mohamed M. Donia, Ahmed A. Hegazi, Mohamed A. Aziz, Osama Abdelrehim

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) is vital for maintaining the optimal performance, safety, and longevity of electric vehicle batteries by keeping their temperature within a desired range. This study proposes an optimized cooling solution for BTMS based on both experimental and numerical investigations. Experimental tests were performed on a single battery cell under discharging rates of 1C, 2C, 3C, and 4C using an electronic load, with thermal performance evaluated under natural convection. Numerical models simulating both forced and natural convection were developed using ANSYS 19.3, and a combined Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) approach was …

Verification Of Offline Signature Based On A Hybrid Dense-Attention-Residual-Cnn Structure Optimized By Grey Wolf Algorithm, Zeyad T. Salim, Mahmoud M. Saafan, Eman M. El-Gendy

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Signature verification is a necessary vision task with prevalent use in securing realworld applications. Offline signature is a popular type that needs to efficacious approach to be checked due to the depending on the paper time and the written tool. The progress in intelligent algorithms participates in supporting simple way authentication-based signatures. In this research work, an offline signature verification (OSV) based on an optimized and costumed convolutional neural network(CNN) infrastructure is suggested. The CNN is costumed by integrating residual, dense, and attention mechanisms, then optimized by applying a grey wolf optimization(GWO) algorithm. The system is trained and tested with …

Volcanic Plume Height During The 2021 Tajogaite Eruption (La Palma) From Two Complementary Monitoring Methods-Implications For Satellite-Based Products, África Barreto, Francisco Quirós, Omaira E. García, Jorge Pereda-De-Pablo, Daniel González-Fernández, Andrés Bedoya-Velásquez, Simon Carn, Et. Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Volcanic emissions from the Tajogaite volcano, located on the Cumbre Vieja edifice on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain), caused significant public health and aviation disruptions throughout the eruption (19 September–13 December 2021, officially declared over on 25 December). Nonetheless, it is considered the most significant volcanic event in Europe over the past 75 years due to the substantial amount of SO2 released into the atmosphere. The Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), the authority responsible for volcano surveillance in Spain, implemented extensive operational monitoring to track volcanic activity and to provide a robust estimation of the volcanic plume height …

A Holistic Modelling Framework For Functionally Safe Software Architectures In Embedded Control Systems, Thomas Barth

Doctoral

Embedded control systems are integral to most modern electrified products and an essential backbone of ongoing digitalisation [1]. In this context, these systems increasingly perform safety-critical functions where failures can lead to severe personal injury, environmental damage, or significant economic loss [2]. Consequently, they fall more often within the scope of regulation such as IEC 61508 and its derivatives [3]. At the same time, driven by hardware evolution and market demands, embedded control systems continue to grow in both integration density and functional complexity [4]. These demands necessitate structured development methods that balance compliance with cost-efficiency and development agility. A …

Trusted Forms—The Case Of Barack Obama’S Birth Certificate, Karl-Heinrich Schmidt, Frederik Schlupkothen

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Documents can be understood as containers for information that enable remote communication between people across space and time. They are therefore fundamentally subject to issues of trust. The theoretical treatment of documents as a means of remote communication has a long history and has arrived in the age of electronic document exchange, as shown by the work of R. T. Pédauque, which is taken as a starting point here.

To take theory further, form-based documents are discussed here as an example. Form-based documents control the information provided by fillers by specifying form fields. The core of this paper is to …

Toward Transparent Bureaucracy: Nlp-Based Document Classification And Power Dynamics In The Srikandi System, Zulfatun Sofiyani, Suprayitno Suprayitno, Faisal Fahmi, Mega Putri Mahadewi

Proceedings from the Document Academy

As the Indonesian government advances digital document management through the SRIKANDI system, challenges persist regarding fragmented and subjective classification practices. This study proposes the integration of Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based classification within SRIKANDI to enhance consistency, transparency, and accountability in document management. Framed by an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation, the study synthesizes Michael Buckland’s document theory, viewing documents as dynamic social evidence, with Michel Foucault’s theory of power, highlighting classification as an exercise of institutional authority, and NLP methodologies that enable automated, content-driven categorization. The study positions documents as both technological artifacts and political constructs, whose classification practices simultaneously structure meaning …

Protecting ‘Punks’: The Shortcomings Of The Prison Rape Elimination Act, Rachel Goldsmith

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse is widespread in US male prisons, with inmates “turning each other out” by sexually assaulting each other. While the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) received unanimous support in Congress in 2003, motivated by the Human Rights Watch Report “No Escape: Male Rape in Prisons,” scholars argue that the PREA fails to protect prisoners from prison rape: for example, its standards may be ineffective or criminalize consensual sex between prisoners. This essay will examine the shortcomings of the PREA, drawing on current legal scholarship, and propose solutions to enhance the law's effectiveness in protecting prisoners. The US government …

Understanding Software Engineering Practices And Tools In Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Students, Prisha Bhatia, Ramzey Burdette, Titilayo Oshinowo, Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, Stephanos Matsumoto

Michigan Tech Publications

Though software development has increasingly become a part of modern engineering practice, even outside of computing, we lack a sufficiently deep understanding of how engineers in many disciplines learn and use software engineering practices and tools (SEPTs). SEPTs include, but extend beyond, programming itself, consisting of practices (e.g., unit testing) and tools (e.g., version control software) that support the design, implementation, or maintenance of software. While many disciplines outside of computing teach programming in their undergraduate curricula, little is known about how these disciplines use, teach, or adopt SEPTs. We thus conducted an exploratory qualitative study on SEPTs among undergraduate …

Flow Over A Cylinder With A Small Triangular Bump, Jack Elliott, Alex Nielson, Barton L. Smith

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

The surface pressure distribution over a circular cylinder with a small, full-span, triangular bump is examined. The geometry of the bump is an isosceles triangle, the height of which is varied from 1.33 % to 5.33 % of the diameter of the cylinder and positioned between 60° and 120°. The Reynolds number (Re=V∞ D/ν, where V∞ is the velocity of the freestream, D is the diameter of the cylinder and ν is the kinematic viscosity) is varied between 1.1×105 and 1.8×105. The lift and drag are estimated through the surface integral of pressure over the cylinder. The results show that …

Prediction Of Thyroid Disease Based On Machine Learning Algorithms, Tuqa Ahmed Elbillihy, Eman Abdelhalim, Mohamed Ashour, Hala B. Nafea

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Accurately diagnosing thyroid disease remains a challenge in medicine, necessitating the use of reliable computational techniques for early detection and categorization. Using a dataset of 3164 patient records, this study applies machine learning algorithms to create a computer-aided thyroid disease diagnosis system. The data set includes demographic information, clinical indicators, and thyroid function test results. To improve model performance, the study focuses on preprocessing approaches such as data cleaning, normalization, and feature selection. The use of feature engineering techniques to determine the most predictive characteristics associated with thyroid problems is highlighted. Five machine learning classifiers—Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector …

Advanced Design Topics For The Engineering Of Agricultural And Mechanical Equipment, Robert M. Stwalley Iii, Roger Tormoehlen

Purdue University Press Books

Off-road equipment designs contend with some unusual challenges and environmental conditions that are not seen by standard on-road vehicles. Advanced Design Topics for the Engineering of Agricultural and Mechanical Equipment offers design topic reviews related to areas that need special consideration within off-road applications. CAN-BUS systems, soil compaction, composite bearings, field welding practices, and weld strength in bending applications are examined, among other subjects. Providing comprehensive coverage of these matters with the current state-of-the-art technologies and best practices as they relate to equipment design for the agricultural, construction, forestry, and mining industries, this book is well-aligned with collegiate advanced agricultural …

Flexible Fault-Tolerant Multi-Die Fpga-Based Architectures For Varying Space Environments, Yosof Ali Seif El Din Ali Maklad

Theses and Dissertations

It is well-known fact that spacecraft’s electronic components operate in an extreme harsh and varying space environments, beside changing orbit or passing through Van Allan Belts during orbital course results of radiation levels change. This thesis focuses on SRAM-based FPGA systems on-board of such spacecrafts, that are commonly utilized in space applications’ critical applications due to their capabilities and flexibility to reconfigure, since these systems are vulnerable to frequent negative impacts of ionizing radiation, thus inducing soft and hard errors leading to disastrous failures that could jeopardize the entire spacecraft. The soft errors’ effects are frequent yet can be mitigated, …

Scalable And Fault-Tolerant Network Architectures For Real-Time Video Transmission In Industrial Networked Control Systems, Moustafa Awad

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the challenge of transporting supervisory video alongside time-critical control traffic in industrial Networked Control Systems (NCS) without violating stringent real-time constraints. A simple yet scalable network architecture is developed and evaluated for a plant-level deployment comprising three interconnected workcells with sensors, controllers, actuators, and cameras. The design explicitly accommodates bandwidth-intensive video streams while preserving the responsiveness of watchdog/control traffic. Analytical delay modeling decomposes end-to-end latency into transmission, propagation, processing, and queuing components, and Riverbed-based simulations are used to validate the model under realistic mixed-traffic conditions. A traffic-engineering strategy - phase-shifting supervisory camera transmissions - effectively desynchronizes frame …

Inspect: Intelligent Node-Based System For Ifc Processing And Evaluation, With Conversational Tool Support —Llmassisted Natural Language Ifc Querying, Basel Abdelshaheid

Theses and Dissertations

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) enables the open exchange of Building Information Models, yet effective validation of real-world IFC deliveries remains challenging. Project models frequently contain incomplete, inconsistent, or incorrectly exported metadata, and explicit IFC relationships are often missing or degraded during conversion from proprietary formats. Many validation questions are inherently spatial, including connectivity, containment, proximity, and clashes, and therefore cannot be answered reliably from properties alone. As a result, federated model validation is often slow, fragmented across tools, and dependent on specialized IFC expertise.

This challenge is increasingly important for coordination, quality assurance, and information management across disciplines and lifecycle …

Clear And Concise: Technical Writing For Biological Engineers, Abigail S. Engelberth

Purdue University Press Books

Clear and Concise: Technical Writing for Biological Engineers is a practical guide designed to help students and early career engineers communicate their work with clarity and confidence. Drawing on years of teaching experience, Abigail S. Engelberth breaks down the essentials of technical writing into approachable steps, showing readers how to organize ideas, present data effectively, and write reports that meet professional standards.

Rather than overwhelming readers with theory, the book focuses on real-world application. It includes examples, checklists, and strategies for common engineering documents including formal and memo-style lab reports. Special attention is given to visuals, formatting, and the role …

Dynamic Multi-Layered Hardware Obfuscation With Behavioral Drift Locking For Sat-Resistant Designs, Ahmed Yehia Salah Mohamed Emish

Theses and Dissertations

The globalization of the semiconductor supply chain has introduced critical vulnerabilities, including intellectual property (IP) piracy, reverse engineering, and hardware tampering. While traditional logic locking offers a baseline of defense, the emergence of powerful Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solvers has rendered many static obfuscation techniques ineffective. This work proposes a Dynamic Multi- Layered Hardware Obfuscation Framework that utilizes Behavioral Drift Locking (BDL) to provide a robust defense-in-depth against advanced adversarial models. The methodology integrates four synergistic layers: • Dynamic Key Management using a time-dependent rotation mechanism that updates keys every clock cycle to prevent static analysis. • Control Obfuscation through opcode …