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Determinants Of Cross Organizational Software Project Success, And Ozbay

Dissertations and Theses

The importance of software development (SWD) has been rapidly increasing over the past few decades. As this industry has grown, there has been an increasing deployment of cross organizational (C/O) SWD (also called distributed development or global software development) projects. These C/O SWD projects have adversely impacted the already low success rates of SWD projects. Methods to address problems of C/O SWD projects are not available to SWD managers primarily because challenges that underlie C/O SWD are incompletely understood.

This dissertation explored the problems associated with C/O SWD in real-life contexts. Inductive case study research methods and grounded theory were …

Egyptian Fractions Revisited, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

It is well known that the ancient Egyptians represented each fraction as a sum of unit fractions -- i.e., fractions with unit numerators; this is how they, e.g., divided loaves of bread. What is not clear is why they used this representation. In this paper, we propose a new explanation: crudely speaking, that the main idea behind the Egyptian fractions provides an optimal way of dividing the loaves. We also analyze the related properties of fractions.

A New Justification Of Wang Transform Operator In Financial Risk Analysis, Vladik Kreinovich, Hung T. Nguyen, Songsak Sriboonchitta

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the most widely used (and most successful) methods for pricing financial and insurance instruments under risk is the Wang transform method. In this paper, we provide a new explanation for the empirical success of Wang's method -- by providing a new simpler justification for the Wang transform.

Economic Impact Of South Dakota’S Regional Water Systems, Matthew J. Pajl, Delvin E. Deboer, Gary Taylor, Dwight Adamson

Water and Environmental Engineering Research Reports

Regional water systems are a primary conduit of water supply for much of South Dakota’s rural and small community populations. As of 2006, greater than one-third of South Dakota’s population was served by water supplied from regional water systems, and when Lewis and Clark Rural Water delivers water to Sioux Falls, over one-half of South Dakota’s population will be served by regional water systems. Greater than 75% of incorporated communities with public water supplies are served by regional water systems, either as bulk communities or as individual customers. Many farms and agricultural industries use rural water for domestic use, livestock …

Preliminary Performance Evaluation Of A Near Zero Energy Home In Callaway, Florida, Florida Solar Energy Center, Eric Martin

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The U.S. Department of Energy's Building America (BA) program is working to increase the energy efficiency of new and existing homes while increasing comfort, and durability and reducing resource use. As part of this program we pursue opportunities to research highly efficient homes with the goal of understanding what works, what doesn't work, and the most economic ways to reach very high efficiency targets. The program aims to create cost neutral zero energy homes by 2020. In pursuit of this goal, this home and other research homes around the country designed to approach or achieve the zero energy goal are …

Correlating Threshold Power With Free-Space Bandwidth For Low-Directivity Antennas, Abu T.M. Sayem, Mark G. Douglas, Gernot Schmidt, Ben Petric, Mohammod Ali

Faculty Publications

This paper develops a threshold power rationale that can be used to demonstrate inherent compliance for portable wireless devices with specific absorption rate (SAR) limits over the 300-6000-MHz frequency range. This is achieved first by understanding the relationship between basic antenna parameters (bandwidth, operating frequency, and distance to the body) and SAR. From this, an upper limit is determined for the power transmitted by a portable wireless device such that the SAR will not exceed the compliance limit. Based on the presented computational and measured data, an empirical formula is developed for the threshold power as a function of the …

Photopatternable Polymeric Membranes For Optical Oxygen Sensors, Raghu Ambekar, Jongwon Park, David Henthorn, Chang-Soo Kim

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new class of optical oxygen sensor that can be photopatternable by traditional UV lithography is presented. They are fabricated using photopatternable spin-on silicone (polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS) with oxygen sensitive luminescent dyes. It has a good adhesion property and can be applied on glass or on photopolymer (SU-8) without any additional surface treatments. The optimum mixture composition for patternable oxygen sensitive membranes is investigated and its optical properties are characterized. Proof-of-concepts for two applications, intensity-based oxygen sensing with SU-8 based structure and self-calibration fluidic oxygen sensor, are described. These photopatternable optical membranes will find many applications wherever small patterns of oxygen …

Phosphate And Thermal Stabilization Of Heavy Metals In Dredged Sediments, Peter Kuria Ndiba

Dissertations

Treatment and reuse of dredged harbor sediments in construction as an alternative to disposal reduces costs and conserves resources. This research focused on leachability of metal contaminants subsequent to phosphate addition and thermal treatment at 700 °C. X- ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in combination with principal component analysis, target transformation, and linear combination revealed that in the untreated sediments Zn precipitated as the relatively soluble smithsonite (ZnCO₃) (67%) and adsorbed to hydrous iron oxides (15%) and hydrous manganese oxides (18%). Phosphate addition and calcination resulted in sparingly soluble phases, hopeite (Zn₃₍PO₄)₂.4H_{2 …}

Characterization Of Natural Organic Matter And Precursors To Trihalomethanes Using Spectral Flourescence Signatures, Krit Punburananon

Dissertations

Disinfection is an essential process to kill pathogens (i.e., disease causing organisms) in source water during the production of drinking water. Chlorine is most widely used disinfectant because it is effective, affordable, and also provides chlorine residual to ensure that the water is safe through the distribution system. Nonetheless, chlorine reacts with Natural Organic Matter (NOM) and forms potentially carcinogenic Disinfection By-products (DBPs). The major chlorination DBPs are dominantly Trihalomethanes (THMs). However, not all organic compounds are equally reactive to THMs formation.

NOM in water samples collected from the Delaware & Raritan Canal and its tributaries (Central New Jersey) was …

Optimizing Fare Structure And Service Frequency For An Intercity Transit System, Feng-Ming Tsai

Dissertations

This study presents an approach to jointly optimize service headway and differentiated fare for an intercity transit system with an objective of total profit maximization and with consideration given to the economic and social sustainability of the system. Service capacity and fleet size constraints are considered. The optimization problem is structured into four scenarios which are comprised of the combinations of whether the Ranges of Travel Distance (RTD) is fixed or variable and if the time period is for a single period or for multiple periods. A successive substitution method (specifically, a modified Gauss Southwell method) is applied to solve …

Preparation Of Nanovehicles For Targeted Drug Delivery, Anagha Avinash Bhakay

Theses

Application of nanotechnology in pharmaceutical research has opened new frontiers for drug development and its efficient delivery. In recent years, the focus of the research has been on the engineering of nano/micro-particulate structures for efficient and targeted delivery of drugs for selective and enhanced absorption. This work throws light on the preparation of biodegradable and non-toxic nanoparticulate systems for targeted drug delivery. The drug vehicles were made by two different processes namely electrostatic interactions and desolvation process. The drug carriers made by these processes were found to be in the size range of 150-200nm which is necessary for cellular uptake …

Deciphering The Biology Of Axon Stretch-Growth, Joseph R. Loverde

Theses

Traditional nerve regeneration strategies focus on growth cone-mediated growth, a form of nerve growth that occurs primarily during embryogenesis. Early axons continue to grow from the end distal to the soma, seeking targets on which to synapse. It is believed that once the axons synapse, stretch-growth takes over and is responsible for the great lengths achieved by nerves of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Recent work has demonstrated stretch-growth in vitro resulting in dramatically increased growth rates compared to the growth cone. Here, the aim was to decipher the underlying biology associated with axon stretch-growth using two approaches. First, …

Finger Walking Control Of A Two-Dimensional Walking Model Through Inverse Kinematics, Jordan Ratcliff

Theses

Those people who have spinal cord injuries (SCI) must remain in wheelchairs due to disruption of the neural signaling to their muscles. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) has proved itself to be an option for restoring some motion and some walking for the patient. Electrodes can either be placed on the skin or muscle to provide an electrical impulse that stimulates the muscles into contraction. Current systems provide buttons that use set functions for left and right steps with constant direction and size. It is desired however that the user be allowed a more natural and variable control method of controlling …

Evaluation Of Medical Alarm Sounds, Elizbha Philip

Theses

Auditory alarms in medical equipments perform considerably below their optimal level. Concern has been expressed about the quality of medical alarms by a large number of researchers in recent years. A detailed literature survey on the medical alarm related problems has been carried out. Hospital visits were made to obtain real life information and data of alarm sounds in various type of monitors used in OR and ICU. A laboratory experiment has been conducted on selected melodic alarm sounds. These melodic alarm sounds are being implemented in medical equipments and the idea of design is proposed in ISO / IEC …

Electrical And Computer Engineering Research Report 2009, Department Of Electrical And Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Annual Reports

• Department
• Research
• Publications
• Enterprise

Engineering Research 2009, College Of Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Michigan Tech Engineering Magazine

Table of Contents

• Health Science
• Energy
• Air & Water
• Sensing & Imaging
• Engineered Materials
• People
• Research Centers & Institutes

Investigation And Mitigation Of Driver Confusion At Modern Roundabouts, Aemal Khattak, Ram Bishu, Karen Schurr, Gregory Mcknight

Mid-America Transportation Center: Final Reports and Technical Briefs

This research deals with two related issues: investigation and mitigation of roundabout elements that lead to driver confusion, and development of a flexible criteria matrix by which the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) can evaluate arterial intersections to identify good candidates for conversion to roundabouts. The use of modern roundabouts along arterial roadways is relatively new in Nebraska. The first urban arterial roundabout was opened to traffic in June of 2002 at the intersection of 33rd and Sheridan Blvd in the City of Lincoln. Citizens and some professionals were somewhat skeptical of the capability of this roundabout to improve traffic …

Can We Engineer Our Way To Good Health?, Russell T. Carr

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Biodegradation Of The High Explosive Hexanitrohexaazaiso-Wurtzitane (Cl-20), Pelin Karakaya, Christos Christodoulatos, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Wendy Balas, Steve Nicolich Nicolich, Mohammed Sidhoum

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The aerobic biodegradability of the high explosive CL-20 by activated sludge and the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium has been investigated. Although activated sludge is not effective in degrading CL-20 directly, it can mineralize the alkaline hydrolysis products. Phanerochaete chrysosporium degrades CL-20 in the presence of supplementary carbon and nitrogen sources. Biodegradation studies were conducted using various nutrient media under diverse conditions. Variables included the CL-20 concentration; levels of carbon (as glycerol) and ammonium sulfate and yeast extract as sources of nitrogen. Cultures that received CL-20 at the time of inoculation transformed CL-20 completely under all nutrient conditions studied. When …

Energy Security: An Australian Nuclear Power Industry, Geoff I. Swan

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

Climate change and energy security are driving a worldwide renaissance in nuclear power. An Australian nuclear power industry has also been seriously investigated by the Australian government and its agencies. This paper provides a broad overview of the nuclear fuel cycle and the nuclear power industry. It identifies aspects that are sensitive to nuclear terrorism and nuclear weapons proliferation to help security professionals identify threats and prepare for a possible Australian nuclear power industry.

Subject Specific Computational Models Of The Knee To Predict Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury, Bhushan S. Borotikar

ETD Archive

Knee joint is a complex joint involving multiple interactions between cartilage, bone, muscles, ligaments, tendons and neural control. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) is one ligament in the knee joint that frequently gets injured during various sports or recreational activities. ACL injuries are common in college level and professional athletes especially in females and the injury rate is growing in epidemic proportions despite significant increase in the research focusing on neuromuscular and proprioceptive training programs. Most ACL injuries lead to surgical reconstruction followed by a lengthy rehabilitation program impacting the health and performance of the athlete. Furthermore, the athlete is still …

A Hierarchical Method Based On Active Shape Models And Directed Hough Transform For Segmentation Of Noisy Biomedical Images; Application In Segmentation Of Pelvic X-Ray Images, Rebecca Smith, Kayvan Najarian, Kevin R. Ward

Computer Science Publications

Background

Traumatic pelvic injuries are often associated with severe, life-threatening hemorrhage, and immediate medical treatment is therefore vital. However, patient prognosis depends heavily on the type, location and severity of the bone fracture, and the complexity of the pelvic structure presents diagnostic challenges. Automated fracture detection from initial patient X-ray images can assist physicians in rapid diagnosis and treatment, and a first and crucial step of such a method is to segment key bone structures within the pelvis; these structures can then be analyzed for specific fracture characteristics. Active Shape Model has been applied for this task in other bone …

Unified Wavelet And Gaussian Filtering For Segmentation Of Ct Images; Application In Segmentation Of Bone In Pelvic Ct Images, Simina Vasilache, Kevin R. Ward, Charles Cockrell, Jonathan Ha, Kayvan Najarian

Computer Science Publications

Background

The analysis of pelvic CT scans is a crucial step for detecting and assessing the severity of Traumatic Pelvic Injuries. Automating the processing of pelvic CT scans could impact decision accuracy, decrease the time for decision making, and reduce health care cost. This paper discusses a method to automate the segmentation of bone from pelvic CT images. Accurate segmentation of bone is very important for developing an automated assisted-decision support system for Traumatic Pelvic Injury diagnosis and treatment.

Methods

The automated method for pelvic CT bone segmentation is a hierarchical approach that combines filtering and histogram equalization, for image …

Brain Mapping And Detection Of Functional Patterns In Fmri Using Wavelet Transform; Application In Detection Of Dyslexia, Soo-Yeon Ji, Kevin R. Ward, Kayvan Najarian

Computer Science Publications

Background

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has been proven to be useful for studying brain functions. However, due to the existence of noise and distortion, mapping between the fMRI signal and the actual neural activity is difficult. Because of the difficulty, differential pattern analysis of fMRI brain images for healthy and diseased cases is regarded as an important research topic. From fMRI scans, increased blood ows can be identified as activated brain regions. Also, based on the multi-sliced images of the volume data, fMRI provides the functional information for detecting and analyzing different parts of the brain.

Methods

In this …

Automated Ventricular Systems Segmentation In Brain Ct Images By Combining Low-Level Segmentation And High-Level Template Matching, Wenan Chen, Rebecca Smith, Soo-Yeon Ji, Kevin R. Ward, Kayvan Najarian

Computer Science Publications

Background

Accurate analysis of CT brain scans is vital for diagnosis and treatment of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). Automatic processing of these CT brain scans could speed up the decision making process, lower the cost of healthcare, and reduce the chance of human error. In this paper, we focus on automatic processing of CT brain images to segment and identify the ventricular systems. The segmentation of ventricles provides quantitative measures on the changes of ventricles in the brain that form vital diagnosis information.

Methods

First all CT slices are aligned by detecting the ideal midlines in all images. The initial …

Creating Lakes From Open Pit Mines: Processes And Considerations, Emphasis On Northern Environments, Christopher H. Gammons, Les N. Harris, James M. Castro, Peter A. Cott, Bruce W. Hanna

Geological Engineering

Creating Lakes from Open Pit Mines: Processes and Considerations, Emphasis on Northern Environments. This document summarizes the literature of mining pit lakes (through 2007), with a particular focus on issues that are likely to be of special relevance to the creation and management of pit lakes in northern climates. Pit lakes are simply waterbodies formed by filling the open pit left upon the completion of mining operations with water. Like natural lakes, mining pit lakes display a huge diversity in each of these subject areas. However, pit lakes are young and therefore are typically in a non-equilibrium state with respect …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 51 Number 3, Winter 2009, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

18 - EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED By Christine Cole. For the first time since the invention of the printing press, artists have put quill pen to paper to hand-write-in calligraphy-the Bible in its entirety. The result is a wonder to behold. And available to readers and gazers at Santa Clara.

24 - HOLD THE LINE By David McKay Wilson. At Harlem's Frederick Douglass Academy, basketball coach Pat Mangan '84 has built a legendary program by making sure his players have their priorities straight. Family first. School second. Then hoops.

28 - LESSONS IN DIPLOMACY. By Sam Scott '96. How Bob LaMonte …

Visualization Methods And User Interface Design Guidelines For Rapid Decision Making In Complex Multi-Task Time-Critical Environments, Sriram Mahadevan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Real-world scenarios are complex dynamic systems that are often overloaded with information. Effective performance of these dynamic systems depends on the objects in such systems and the relationship among them. The control of many of these systems is semi-automated. Human operators constantly monitor and control these systems, assess the situation and often make decisions under time pressure. However, this supervisory control paradigm in a dual-task environment can be a very challenging task. Existing interface design methodologies and techniques have not delved deeply enough into defining information displays for complex, dynamic, time-critical, dual-task environments with capabilities for rapid task change awareness …

Analysis And Performance Evaluation Of An All-Fiber Wide Range Interrogation System For A Bragg Grating Sensor Array, Ginu Rajan, Yuliya Semenova, Gerald Farrell

Articles

Analysis and performance evaluation of a macro-bend ¯ber based interrogation system for a Bragg grating sensor array is presented. Due to the characteristic properties of the macro-bend ¯ber ¯lter such as polarization and temperature dependence and the total noise associated with the ratiometric system, a best ¯t ratio slope is required to interrogate multiple FBGs whose peak wavelengths are spread over a wide wavelength range, rather than the optimal slope for individual FBG. In this paper for investigation we have used an FBG array with 5 FBGs with peak re°ected wavelengths lying between 1525 nm and 1575 nm. The analysis …

United States Air Force Posture Statement 2009, U.S. Air Force

United States Air Force: Publications

Today, the United States faces a spectrum of challenges to our national security and global interests. As an integral member of the Joint team, America’s Air Force provides the critical capabilities of Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global Power. The United States Air Force is 'All In" today’s Joint fight. At the same time, our investments in new capabilities will ensure we are ready for tomorrow’s challenges. The mission of the United States Air Force is to "fly, fight, and win…in air, space and cyberspace"—as an integral member of the Joint …