Digital Commons Network^™

Creating A Pedestrian Level-Of-Service Index For Transit Stops: Evidence From Denver’S Light Rail System, Patrick Gallagher

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Eurotech Students In Germany: Preparation, Experience And Outcome, Daisy A. Michaels

Master's Theses

Higher education study abroad programs for U.S. students are on the rise. A variety of undergraduate disciplines are being coupled with international components to bring U.S. students to a higher level of global awareness to meet the demands of today’s economy. The University of Connecticut’s Eurotech Program is an example of this trend. Its students earn degrees in both German and engineering in a five year program. They are given practical training through study and internships in Germany under the auspices of the Baden-Württemberg Exchange Program. One of the Eurotech Program’s major goals is to enhance job opportunities for its …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2012, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Senior Design Experience

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the Senior Design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. Working in teams, the senior design project encourages students to use everything learned in the engineering and computer design programs to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

Beyond the classroom...

Because of the requirement to work in teams, students also build good communication skills, presentation skills and even business writing skills. They also have to source …

Re-Configurable Putting Green, Matthew Ralphs

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This report discusses the design of a prototype transformable putting green that can be programmed to recreate the topography of any putting green. The goal of the design was to give a realistic putting experience with real topography in an indoor environment. This report discusses the design of a pair of 4’x4’ module prototypes; a commercial implementation of this design would utilize a number of modules to create putting greens on a more realistic scale (example 12’x32’). The design of a full size transformable putting green necessitates a topographical range of up to 30”. After initial concepts and preliminary designs …

Slope Stability Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Techniques, Omar Alberto Conte Robles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the past six years the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has spent over nine million dollars repairing slope failures that have occurred in the state of Arkansas. Specifically, higher than average precipitation in 2004 and 2008 led to large quantities of slides, all of which were repaired. Two highways, within the state of Arkansas, with known historical movements along or across the highways are being monitored using traditional surveying techniques and advanced remote sensing techniques. These slides, both of which are located in fill slopes. One a 500-foot long slide located north of Chester, Arkansas, within the …

Energy Sources And The Production Of Electricity In The United States, David Manukjan

Honors College Theses

The current sources of energy that the United States uses to produce electricity are costly, extremely damaging to the environment, and cause us to rely on other countries for our energy needs. The Obama Administration has begun working on replacing coal and oil with cleaner sources of energy. Over the last decade, alternative energy sources have been slowly gaining popularity as the American public learns more about climate change. However, the U.S. government will not use renewable energy as a complete substitute for fossil fuels in the immediate future because of their higher market price. The world is struggling to …

Assessing The Engineering Performance Of Affordable Net-Zero Energy Housing, Jordan P. Wallpe

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The purpose of this research was to evaluate affordable technologies that are capable of providing attractive, cost-effective energy savings to the housing industry. The research did so by investigating the 2011 Solar Decathlon competition, with additional insight from the Purdue INhome. Insight from the Purdue INhome verified the importance of using a three step design process to design a net-zero energy building. In addition, energy consumption values of the INhome were used to compare and contrast different systems used in other houses.

Evaluation of unbiased competition contests gave a better understanding of how a house can realistically reach net-zero. Upon …

2012 - The Seventeenth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Seventeenth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 10, 2012. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Service-Learning And Civic Engagement: A Return To Our Roots, Deena Sue Fuller

The Journal of Tennessee State University

No abstract provided.

A Royal Band, The Chosen Few: The Birth Of Tennessee State University, Crystal A. Degregory

The Journal of Tennessee State University

No abstract provided.

Tennessee State University: A Synopsis Of “A Touch Of Greatness,” 1912-2012, Bobby L. Lovett

The Journal of Tennessee State University

No abstract provided.

Science And Society: The Role Of Long-Term Studies In Environmental Stewardship, Charles T. Driscoll, Kathleen F. Lambert, F. Stuart Chapin, David J. Nowake, Thomas A. Spies, Frederick J. Swanson, David B. Kittredge, Clarisse M. Hart

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

Long-term research should play a crucial role in addressing grand challenges in environmental stewardship. We examine the efforts of five Long Term Ecological Research Network sites to enhance policy, management, and conservation decisions for forest ecosystems. In these case studies, we explore the approaches used to inform policy on atmospheric deposition, public land management, land conservation, and urban forestry, including decisionmaker engagement and integration of local knowledge, application of models to analyze the potential consequences of policy and management decisions, and adaptive management to generate new knowledge and incorporate it into decisionmaking. Efforts to enhance the role of long-term research …

Impulse, Dana Hess, Kyle Johnson, Eric Landwehr

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

College:
[Page] 2 The ceremony must go on: For the College of Engineering, at least, there still is a winter commencement.
[Page] 4 Delvin DeBoer: Thousands of students are thankful for a call Dwayne Rollag made to DeBoer in 1981.
[Page] 6 Lighting the way: In October 2011, Pavel Dutta completed the requirements to become the first graduate of the photovoltaics doctoral program. Two others soon followed him.
[Page] 9 Academic updates: News from software engineering, computer science, geospatial science and engineering, and computational science and statistics.
[Page] 10 Endowed professorship: Professor David Galipeau becomes the first to hold the …

Accounting For Indirect Land-Use Change In The Life Cycle Assessment Of Biofuel Supply Chains, Susan Tarka Sanchez, Jeremy Woods, Mark Akhurst, Matthew Brander, Michael O'Hare, Terence P. Dawson, Robert Edwards, Adam J. Liska, Rick Malpas

Adam Liska Papers

The expansion of land used for crop production causes variable direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions; and other economic, social and environmental effects. We analyze the use of life cycle analysis (LCA) for estimating the carbon intensity of biofuel production from indirect land-use change (ILUC). Two approaches are critiqued; direct, attributional life cycle analysis (ALCA) and consequential life cycle analysis (CLCA). A proposed hybrid “combined model” of the two approaches for ILUC analysis relies on first defining the system boundary of the resulting full LCA. Choices are then made as to the modeling methodology (economic equilibrium or cause-effect), data inputs, …

Spatial Analysis Of Travel Behavior And Response To Traveler Information, Xin Wang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Transportation planners have long recognized that it is urgent to integrate emerging spatial analysis with travel behavior studies. A clearer understanding of the spatial interactions among travelers and the complex environment they face has the potential to reap benefits of the ongoing technologies of travel behavior, spatial analysis and Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS).

Considering that spatial patterns have been overlooked in the literature of travel behavior and ATIS, the main objective of this research is to use robust methods of spatial analysis to enhance the understanding of how the associations between traveler decisions, built environment and socio-demographic characteristics are …

A Spatial Risk Analysis Of Oil Refineries Within The United States, Zachary L. Schiff

Theses and Dissertations

A risk analysis methodology is necessary to manage the potential effects of oil refinery outages to the increasingly connected, interdependent critical infrastructure of the United States. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the lack of a critical infrastructure risk mitigation strategy was identified as an area for improvement. In both the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, cascading failures occurred due to the interdependencies among infrastructures and their spatial relationships. Furthermore, the U.S. military is dependent on oil refining capability and a major shortage could potentially have devastating effects on mission accomplishment. As a result, a need has emerged to better …

Poster Session, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Western Kentucky Deep Saline Reservoir CO₂ Storage Test: Shallow Groundwater Monitoring Results, E. Glynn Beck and others, Kentucky Geological Survey
• Baseline Soil Properties of a Central Kentucky Riparian Buffer, Amanda Gumbert and others, Dept of Plant and Soil Science, UK
• The Kentucky Water Well Driller’s Certification Program, Scotty E. Robertson and David A. Jackson, Kentucky Division of Water, Frankfort, KY
• Influences of Cladophora Bloom on the Diets of Amblema plicata and Elliptio dilatata in the Upper Green River, Kentucky, Jennifer M. Yates and others, Dept of Biology, Western Kentucky University
• Using Electrical Resistivity to Locate …

Proceedings Of 2012 Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

This symposium was planned and conducted as a part of the state water resources research institute annual program that is supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number G11AP20081 from the United States Geological Survey. The contents of this proceedings document and the views and conclusions presented at the symposium are solely the responsibility of the individual authors and presenters and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USGS or of the symposium organizers and sponsors. This publication is produced with the understanding that the United States Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for government purposes.

Global Monthly Water Scarcity: Blue Water Footprints Versus Blue Water Availability, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Mesfin Mekonnen, Ashok K. Chapagain, Ruth E. Mathews, Brian D. Richter

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Freshwater scarcity is a growing concern, placing considerable importance on the accuracy of indicators used to characterize and map water scarcity worldwide. We improve upon past efforts by using estimates of blue water footprints (consumptive use of ground- and surface water flows) rather than water withdrawals, accounting for the flows needed to sustain critical ecological functions and by considering monthly rather than annual values. We analyzed 405 river basins for the period 1996–2005. In 201 basins with 2.67 billion inhabitants there was severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year. The ecological and economic consequences of increasing …

Matter Under Unusual Conditions, Bernard Zygelman

NSTec UNLV Symposium

What is curiosity – driven research and why do we support it?

Vannevar Bush Science The Endless Frontier (1945)

“Science is the pacemaker of technological progress … New productsand new processes do not appear full-grown. They are founded on newprinciples and new conceptions, which in turn are painstakingly developedby research in the purest realms of science“

•Magnetic Resonance Imaging
•Positron Emission Tomography
•Laser applications
•GPS
•Nano Technology

Integration Of Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games Client-Server Architectures With Collaborative Multi-User Engineering Cax Tools, Joshua D. Winn

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a new method for integrating client server architectures that are used for the development of Massive Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) into multi-user engineering software tools. The new method creates a new architecture named CAx Connect by changing the client-pull-server communication pipeline to a server-push-client communication pipeline, effectively reducing the amount of bandwidth consumed and allowing these tools to utilize multiple server processors for complex calculations. This method was used on the new NX Connect multi-user CAx prototype developed at BYU. The new method provides a road map to further implement this architecture and its services into …

Slides: Natural Gas: Game Changer Or Runner Left On Base? Working To Get It Right In Co!, Gary Graham

Drawing the Blueprint for a Sustainable Natural Gas Future (January 18)

Presenter: Dr. Gary Graham, Director, Lands Program, Western Resource Advocates

21 slides

The Nucleus 2011-2012, Rosalie A. Richards

Science Education Center

No abstract provided.

Multi-Scale Gis Data-Driven Method For Early Assessment Of Wetlands Impacted By Transportation Corridors, Rodrigo Nobrega, Colin Brooks, Charles O'Hara, Bethany Stich

Michigan Tech Research Institute Publications

No abstract provided.

Geochemical Evaluation Of High Sulfate Levels In Ponca Creek, Northeastern Nebraska, Jon C. Atkinson

United States Air Force: Publications

Most surface water and shallow groundwater occurring in northeastern Nebraska are of the calcium bicarbonate type, with minor concentrations (e.g., 10–200 mg/L) of sulfate (SO₄). Examination of historical water quality data (major cations and anions) for Ponca Creek, a predominantly ephemeral streamin northeastern Nebraska, revealed that SO₄ concentrations ranged from about 110 to almost 1000mg/L and contribute to a calcium sulfate hydrochemical facies. Consequently, most SO₄ concentrations were above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency secondary maximum contaminant level in drinking water of 250 mg/L. Sulfate concentrations for the same period for a nearby stream, Verdigre Creek, …

Hear3d: A Study Of Spatial Sounds Effect On Language Learning, Brendan Cregan

Dissertations

Spatial sound is the manipulation of audio to add the illusion of position to the source of the sound, i.e. making sounds seem to originate from behind you or from different points around a room. Headphones must be used to achieve the optimum level of 3D sound. At any time over half a billion people are learning languages with the aide of audio which is why and the study of the effect or potential effects that the spatial sounds have on language learning is particularly interesting. If the application of spatial sounds to educational audio clips could be shown to …

Improving The Performance Of Gis/Spatial Analysts Though Novel Applications Of The Emotiv Epoc Eeg Headset , Justin Carter

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Geospatial information systems are used to analyze spatial data to provide decision makers with relevant, up-to-date, information. The processing time required for this information is a critical component to response time. Despite advances in algorithms and processing power, we still have many “human-in-the-loop” factors. Given the limited number of geospatial professionals, analysts using their time effectively is very important. The automation and faster humancomputer interactions of common tasks that will not disrupt their workflow or attention is something that is very desirable. The following research describes a novel approach to increase productivity with a wireless, wearable, electroencephalograph (EEG) headset within …

Estimating Characteristic Bridge Loads On A Non-Primary Road Network, Eugene J. Obrien, Bernard Enright, Brendan Williams, Cathal Leahy

Conference papers

When collecting truck loading data on a primary road network a common approach is to install a large network of permanent pavement-based Weigh-In-Motion systems. An alternative to this approach would be to use one or more portable Bridge Weigh-In-Motion systems which could be moved between bridges at regular intervals to determine the traffic loading throughout the network. A data collection strategy is needed to put such a system to best use. This paper details the data collection strategies which were examined for the National Roads Authority in Ireland. The use of urban economic concepts including Central Place Theory are discussed …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 54 Number 2, Fall 2012, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

18 - WE, ROBOTS By John Deever. Adventures with the Robotics Systems Laboratory by land, sea, and sky. And in orbit.

20 - SARAH KATE WILSON VS. GODZILLA By Jeff Gire. Tackling big problems- like attracting more women to engineering and transferring mountains of data through the air.

22 - DELUGE AND DROUGHT By Erica Klarreich. Lessons in how to wedge more data into less space-and build a smarter energy grid.

24 - BUILDING BIOMEDICAL TESTS By Melissae Fellet. Where engineering meets biology, the work ranges from diagnosing voice disorders to tracking toxicity in the brain.

26 - THE LONG …

Shift Towards P Limitation With N Deposition?, K. F. Crowley, B. E. Mcneil, G. M. Lovett, C. D. Canham, C. T. Driscoll

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is altering biogeochemical cycling in forests and interconnected lakes of the northeastern US, and may shift nutrient limitation from N toward other essential elements, such as phosphorus (P). Whether this shift is occurring relative to N deposition gradients across the northeastern US has not been investigated. We used datasets for the northeastern US and the Adirondack sub-region to evaluate whether P limitation is increasing where N deposition is high at two geographic scales, based on N:P mass ratios. Using a model- selection approach, we determined that foliar N for dominant tree species and lake dissolved inorganic …