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Shoreline Change Modeling As A Tool In Coastal Environmental Management, Jorge Espinoza Amaguana

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The one-line numerical model GENESIS has been calibrated to evaluate its performance as a tool in providing insights into the physical components to manage the coastal environment. To calibrate the model, physical environmental data, literature research, and computer modeling methodologies were utilized in addressing the objectives of this thesis. The model was applied at three beaches of the Virginia Beach City with different man-made structures by using the actual field wave data for wave year J 997. Waves are the main environmental component affecting the coastal system; however, additional environmental data and the best engineering decision were used as model …

Foundation Construction On Random Fill, Nasser Massoudi

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Due to the high cost premiums associated with development on virgin lands, it is not uncommon to find new structures planned for construction over filled grounds. Such structures vary in function ranging from industrial facilities to public institutions. This paper presents three case histories related to construction or shallow foundations on random fill for a factory building, a public library, and a college building. The factory building was constructed partly over deep uncontrolled fill with little foundation improvement and partly over residual soils. The library was constructed partly over a randomly filled, abandoned quarry and partly over pinnacled limestone and …

Decision Making Based On Satellite Images: Optimal Fuzzy Clustering Approach, Vladik Kreinovich, Hung T. Nguyen, Scott A. Starks, Yeung Yam

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many real-life decision-making situations, in particular, in processing satellite images, we have an enormous amount of information to process. To speed up the information processing, it is reasonable to first classify the situations into a few meaningful classes (clusters), find the best decision for each class, and then, for each new situation, to apply the decision which is the best for the corresponding class. One of the most efficiently clustering methodologies is fuzzy clustering, which is based on the use of fuzzy logic. Usually, heuristic clusterings are used, i.e., methods which are selected based on their empirical efficiency …

Enhanced Terahertz Pulse Generation And Detection Using Electric Field Singularities In Photo-Conducting Antennas, Yi Cai

Dissertations

In recent years, generation of ultra-short electromagnetic pulses with frequency components in the terahertz (THz) range has been achieved by various techniques. Among those different methods, photo-conducting antennas have proven to be the most efficient source of THz radiation. THz spectrometers utilizing such photo-conducting antennas as transmitters and receivers are meanwhile routinely used for spectroscopic studies in the frequency regime between 0.1 to 5THz, which can be covered by neither conventional optical nor microwave spectrometers. However, THz emission power from the existing photo-conducting antenna is not sufficient for many applications (such as electro-optic sampling for real time THz detection and …

Application Of Kolmogorov Complexity To Image Compression: It Is Possible To Have A Better Compression, But It Is Not Possible To Have The Best One, Sanjeev Subbaramu, Ann Q. Gates, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

No abstract provided.

From Expert Words Directly To Numerical Simulations: Group-Theoretic Approach To Computing With Words In Information/Intelligent Systems, Vladik Kreinovich, Brian Penn, Scott A. Starks

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many real-life situations, e.g., when making an environmental decision, it is important to be able to predict long-term consequences of different decisions. Very often, these predictions must be done in the situation where the only available information consists of expert rules, which are formulated by words from natural language. One possible way to transform these expert words into numerical simulation (leading to prediction) is to use the fuzzy control methodology. However, there is a problem with using this methodology: it invokes replacing each word by a membership function, and this replacement drastically increases the required computer space (and thus, …

Computational Determination Of Laminar Flow Loss Coefficients In 90° Channel Bend, Leonard Paul Parkin

Theses

Loss coefficients for laminar two dimensional incompressible channel (or duct) flow in a 90° bend are investigated using FEM software, FIDAP. This problem consists of a two dimensional duct with a 90° bend of constant radius flowing with water, at 70°F and atmositeno conditions. The bend radius to duct width ratios examined were 1.5 and 1.0. Both bend radius to duct width ratios were analyzed for Reynolds Number ranging from 50 to 1800. The pressure and velocity distributions were found and used to determine the pressure due to the bend. The results show the pressure loss effect due to the …

Environmentally-Oriented Processing Of Multi-Spectral Satellite Images: New Challenges For Bayesian Methods, Scott A. Starks, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Remotely sensed images from new generation satellites present an opportunity for scientists to investigate problems in environmental and earth science which have been previously intractable. The magnitude of data that will arise from these hyperspectral instruments create the need for innovative techniques to accomplish data reduction. This paper presents an algorithm which shows promise as a tool for reducing the dimensionality of data resulting from remote sensing. The optimality criteria for the algorithm is the Bayes Risk in the reduced dimension space.

Multi-Resolution Data Processing: It Is Necessary, It Is Possible, It Is Fundamental, Scott A. Starks, Vladik Kreinovich, Alex Meystel

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Experience shows that many data processing problems are difficult to solve, and some of these problems have even been proven to be computationally intractable. Human experts successfully solve many such problems by using a hierarchical, multi-resolution approach. These multi-resolution methods are, in several cases, provably optimal. However, due to the computational intractability of the problem itself, the multi-resolution approach can only work if the systems that we are analyzing are themselves hierarchical. We show that, first, due to (inevitable) measurement inaccuracies, an arbitrary input data is consistent with the hierarchical model, and second, that in many cases, the actual physical …

River Management In The Twenty-First Century: The Vision Thing, A. Dan Tarlock

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

12 pages.

Contains references.

Glen Canyon Dam: Flood Flows And Adaptive Management In The Lower Colorado River Basin: Response, Joe Hunter

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

9 pages.

Contains references.

Glen Canyon Dam: Flood Flows And Adaptive Management In The Lower Colorado River Basin, Edmund D. Andrews

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

11 pages.

Contains 2 pages of references.

Agenda: Dams: Water And Power In The New West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Conference organizers and/or speakers included University of Colorado School of Law professors David H. Getches, Douglas S. Kenney, Kathryn M. Mutz, Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) Rieke, Charles F. Wilkinson and Lawrence J. MacDonnell.

The keynote address by Charles F. Wilkinson is titled Coming to Grips with Growth in the West: Traditional Communities, Free Rivers and the New Megalopoli, and it will be held on Monday, June 2, at 12:30 p.m. in the Lindsley Memorial Courtroom of the law school. Wilkinson is a noted law professor, writer and authority on Western issues.

The conference will begin by providing historical context for the …

The Pacific Northwest Governors’ Comprehensive Energy Review: How Comprehensive?, Angus Duncan

Dams: Water and Power in the New West (Summer Conference, June 2-4)

43 pages (includes illustrations).

Contains footnotes and 1 page of references.

Quantitation Reference Compounds And Voc Recoveries From Soils By Purge-And-Trap Gc/Ms, Brian Schumacher, Steven Ward

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Unquantified volatile organic compound (VOC) losses occur in every phase of VOC determination including sample collection, transport, storage, preparation, and analysis. Current quality assurance/quality control measures, such as surrogate spikes and internal standards, do not account for losses that occur during sample handling nor do they account for soil matrix effects. An alternate approach, the quantitation reference compound (QRC) approach, is presented that involves direction injection of the QRCs onto the soil matrix to account for any matrix effects and losses during subsequent processing steps prior to sample analysis. Final VOC quantitation is based on the QRC instead of the …

Perceptions Of Businesses On Environmental Regulatory Information, Kimberly K. Gunderson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to determine the source and amount of information that a sample of businesses receive on environmental regulatory topics and from what sources they would prefer to receive this information. More specifically, the study demonstrated the discrepancy between the sources from which businesses currently receive their information and the sources from which they would prefer to receive it. The study also addressed how relevant this information was to the businesses and with which regulations the businesses were the most and least knowledgeable. The study was done by conducting a mail-back survey of 500 Iowa small …

Building Embankments Of Fly/Bottom Ash Mixtures, Ahmed M.K. Karim, C. W. Lovell, Rodrigo Salgado

JTRP Technical Reports

This research investigates the engineering properties of mixtures of bottom ash and Class F fly ash relevant to their utilization in highway embankment construction. The research included ash samples from two major power plants in Indiana that disposed of their ash differently. The first power plant disposes of the bottom ash and fly ash separately and hence explicit mixtures were synthetically formed and tested. The second power plant disposes of the bottom ash and fly ash together in a common location and hence they become homogeneous samples for the research. Characterization of the ash included grain size analysis, specific gravity, …

The Oligonucleotide Probe Database, Elizabeth Wheeler Alm, Daniel B. Oerther, N. Larsen, David A. Stahl, Lutgarde M. Raskin

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Applications Of Artificial Neural Networks In Interactive Simulation, Payman Jula

Masters Theses

Although there have been many improvements in simulation technology over the past few years, it still suffers from many limitations. Simulation methods are usually time consuming and hence not suitable for the interactive decision making processes.

In this project, applications of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to simulate manufacturing systems have been studied. The backpropagation Multiple Layer Perceptrons (MLPs) have been applied to simulate manufacturing systems. Some guidelines for developing appropriate ANNs have been presented. The results of ANN approach have been compared to those of conventional simulation methods.

A Comparative Analysis Of Viable Solar Thermal Technologies For Solar Field Development And Commercialization, Sean M. Crawford

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Diminishing fossil fuels and concerns about the quality of the environment has lead the recent drive to establish a commercialized solar field in Southern Nevada. The competing solar thermal technologies for the Solar Enterprise Zone (SEZ) are Parabolic Dish-Stirling, Central Receiver Power Towers, and Parabolic Trough Systems. It is important to compare the technologies based on the guidelines set by the Corporation for Solar Technology and Renewable Resources. The variables weighted are solar conversion performances, initial capital investment, operation and maintenance costs, water and land use, and electricity production costs. All technologies have been proven to viable power sources and …

37th Rocky Mountain Conference On Analytical Chemistry

Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance

Final program, abstracts, and information about the 37th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Conference on Analytical Chemistry, co-sponsored by the Colorado Section of the American Chemical Society and the Rocky Mountain Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. Held in Denver, Colorado, July 23-27, 1995.

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 37 Number 3, Summer 1995, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

6 - GARBAGE IN: GOODS OUT Lee Hornberger ' 69, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has only one word to say to you: plastics. By Maureen Mclnaney '85

10 - SCU 101 More than a hundred (count 'em) things every student shou ld do before graduating from Santa Clara.

16 - CHIAPAS: ROOTS OF A REBELLION Members of the SCU community bear witness to an indigenous struggle. By Trina Kleist '80 Photographs by Charles Barry

22 - PRESENTING PARADISE A modern translation with commentary helps readers scale the heights of Dante's heaven. By James Torrens, S.J.

24 - HAVE BALL, …

Sustainability: Myth And Reality, Kai Lee

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

23 pages (includes illustrations).

Contains references.

Decisionmaking And The Eis On Operations Of Glen Canyon Dam, Rick L. Gold

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

16 pages.

Agenda: Sustainable Use Of The West's Water, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

Conference organizers and/or faculty included University of Colorado School of Law professors David H. Getches, Lawrence J. MacDonnell, Teresa A. Rice, Elizabeth A. Rieke and Charles F. Wilkinson.

Sustainable development is on the policy agenda for the '90s. What does sustainability mean? Is it a realistic concept? Are water rights compatible with sustainable use? The Center's 16th annual summer conference will explore the meaning of sustainability in the context of the West's demands, development, and natural values. Presentations by leading experts will address the broad concept of sustainable development, with a particular look at Arizona's experience. The focus will be …

Modified Goodness-Of-Fit Tests For The Inverse Gaussian Distribution With Two Unknown Parameter, Huseyin Gunes

Theses and Dissertations

Modified Kolmogorov- Smirnov (KS), Anderson-Darling (AD), Cramer-von Mises (CV), Kupier (V), and Watson (W) goodness-of-fit tests are generated for the inverse Gaussian distribution with unknown parameters. The inverse Gaussian parameters are estimated by maximum likelihood estimation. A Monte Carlo simulation of 50,000 repetitions is used to generate critical values for sample sizes of 5 through 50 with an increment of five, sample sizes of 60 through 100 with an increment of 10, and 24 different values of the inverse Gaussian shape parameter. A 50,000-repetition Monte Carlo power study is carried out using data with sample sizes of 5 through 100 …

Biological Assessment For Maintenance Of Bank Stabilization Structures Missouri National Recreation River Gavins Point Dam To Ponca State Park, Nebraska

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The location of the proposed maintenance construction project discussed in this document is located between Gavins Point Dam, South Dakota and Ponca, Nebraska, at specific locations as listed in the accompanying plans and specifications.

The proposed construction consists only of maintaining those structures that can reasonably be repaired to alleviate erosion problems for the purpose of maintaining the structural integrity of the existing structures. Any structure that is beyond repair would not be reconstructed, since it would no longer qualify as maintenance. There are nine existing projects within the Missouri National Recreation River (MNRR) segment of the Missouri River. Each …

Survey Of The Impacts Of Environmental Regulations On State Highway Operations, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Christopher M. Oberst

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In recent years, the transportation industry in Kentucky as represented by Kentuckians for Better Transportation (KBT) and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KyTC), have expressed concern over the growing impact of environmental regulations upon transportation activities in the state. The imposition of environmental regulations has resulted in higher costs for new construction and maintenance on roads, project delays, scheduling and financing difficulties, and the creation of additional transportation agency bureaucracy to address environmental regulation mandates. In Kentucky, the impacts of those regulations have not been thoroughly assessed nor have the attendant costs been measured. Coinciding with that lack of information is …

Use Of Geotechnical Design Summary Report As A Management Tool For Resolving Disputes On Underground Construction Projects, B. M. Ghadiali, T. P. Smirnoff, K. N. Murthy

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

The Los Angeles Metro Rail Subway project is initially planned for 30 km (18 mi) of twin, 6-m (20-ft) diameter bored tunnels under city streets and a total of 16 stations. This paper describes briefly the history of the project, the geologic setting, and the challenges encountered during design or anticipated during construction. It also introduces, as part of contract documentation, an interpretive geotechnical baseline report which establishes the basis for identification and recognition of site condition "baselines". In so doing, this report (known as a "GDSR") has proven to be an effective tool for ameliorating contractual problems and facilitating …

Design And Performance Evaluation Of A Gas Chromatograph Micromachined In A Single Crystal Silicon Substrate, Rocky R. Reston

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation designed and developed a miniature gas chromatograph (GC) using silicon micromachining techniques. The GC is composed of a miniature sample injector (10 µl sample loop); a 0.9 m long, rectangular-shaped (300 µm width and 10 micrometers height) capillary column coated with a 0.2 µm thick copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) stationary phase; and a dual-detector scheme incorporating a CuPc-coated chemiresistor and a 125 µm diameter thermal conductivity detector bead. Micromachining was employed to fabricate the sample injector interface, the GC column, and the dual-detector cavity. A novel processing technique was developed to sublime the CuPc stationary phase coating on the …