Digital Commons Network^™

Thermal Degradation And Aging Of High Temperature Piezoelectric Ceramics, Sunil W. Gotmare

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Piezoelectric materials have numerous applications like high temperature accelerometers, pressure, flow and NDT transducers, acoustic emission, ultrasonic cleaning, welding, high voltage generators, medical therapy etc. The commonly used piezoelectric material, PZT continues to dominate the commercial market for piezoelectric actuators applications. The primary limitations of PZT are the lower Curie temperature T_C <390^oC and rapid thermal degradation avobe 200^oC.

Continuing efforts are focused on the development of piezoelectric materials suitable for high temperature applications >200^oC. These materials will be very useful for making sensors for space exploration, oil and geothermal well drilling tools, oil …

Gas Sensing Properties And Transport Properties Of Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Raghu Mangu

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) grown in highly ordered porous alumina templates were incorporated into a resistive gas sensor design and were evaluated for their sensitivities. The material characteristics and electrical properties of the nanotubes were analyzed. A study was undertaken to elucidate the effect of UV light on desorption characteristics and the dependence of sensitivity on (i) thickness of amorphous carbon layers and (ii) flow rates of analyte gases. These sensors were highly responsive to both oxidizing and reducing gases with steady state sensitivities of 5% and 10% for 100ppm of NH₃ and NO₂ respectively, at room …

Surfactant And Metal Sorption Studies By Functionalized Membranes And Quartz Crystal Microbalance, Abhay R. Ladhe

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Functionalized membranes provide an elegant platform for selective separations and sorptions. In this dissertation, application of functionalized membranes for surfactant and metal sorption studies are discussed. Sorption behavior of surfactants is also studied using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and other techniques.

Adsorption of the ethoxylated surfactants on polymeric materials (cotton and polyester) and model gold surface was quantified from a non-aqueous siloxane based solvent (D5) and water. The role of ethylene oxide group and the effect of nature of polymeric materials on adsorption behavior was quantified and established. In the case of gold-water interface, the adsorption data was fitted to …

Development Of A High-Resolution Target Movement Monitoring System For Convergence Monitoring In Mines, Tristan H. Jones

Doctoral Dissertations

"The research performed for this dissertation has been conducted with the goal of developing a ground convergence monitor that may better meet the needs of some mines, leading to increased use of ground monitoring programs and reduced fatality rates from falling and sliding rock. The developed monitor is a convergence monitor capable of achieving sensitivities similar to those of currently available convergence meters such as tape extensometers. The monitor is inexpensive and is capable of totally remote operation in some circumstances...A physical model of the meter was developed based on experimental results and compared to a derived theoretical model to …

A Surface Inspection Machine Vision System That Includes Fractal Texture Analysis, Jonathan Blackledge, Dmitry Dubovitskiy

Articles

The detection, recognition and classification of features in a digital image is an important component of quality control systems in production and process engineering and industrial systems monitoring, in general. In this paper, a new pattern recognition system is presented that has been designed for the specific task of monitoring the quality of sheet-steel production in a rolling mill. The system is based on using both the Euclidean and Fractal geometric properties of an imaged object to develop training data that is used in conjunction with a supervised learning procedure based on the application of a fuzzy inference engine. Thus, …

Object Detection And Classification With Applications To Skin Cancer Screening, Jonathan Blackledge, Dmitryi Dubovitskiy

Articles

This paper discusses a new approach to the processes of object detection, recognition and classification in a digital image. The classification method is based on the application of a set of features which include fractal parameters such as the Lacunarity and Fractal Dimension. Thus, the approach used, incorporates the characterisation of an object in terms of its texture.

The principal issues associated with object recognition are presented which includes two novel fast segmentation algorithms for which C++ code is provided. The self-learning procedure for designing a decision making engine using fuzzy logic and membership function theory is also presented and …

Analysis Of Financial Data Using Non-Negative Matrix Factorization, Ruairí De Fréin, Konstantinos Drakakis, Scott Rickard, Andrzej Cichocki

Articles

We apply Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) to the prob-lem of identifying underlying trends in stock market data. NMF is arecent and very successful tool for data analysis including image andaudio processing; we use it here to decompose a mixture a data, thedaily closing prices of the 30 stocks which make up the Dow Jones In-dustrial Average, into its constitute parts, the underlying trends which govern the financial marketplace. We demonstrate how to impose ap-propriate sparsity and smoothness constraints on the components of thedecomposition. Also, we describe how the method clusters stocks to-gether in performance-based groupings which can be used for …

Design And Evaluation Of A Virtual Reality Training System For New Underground Rockbolters, David Nutakor

Doctoral Dissertations

"The need for development of better training techniques for underground rock bolters is signified by the fact that a large number of experienced miners (Baby Boomers) will be retiring soon. This means that there will be very little interface time between the new miners and the experienced miners, which could have been used for training the new inexperienced miners. A new generation of workers (Nexters), who have grown up with computers and video games will replace the Baby Boomers, and the most efficient way to introduce them to the safety and health issues of the mining industry is to use …

Energy Efficient Wireless Sensor Network Protocols For Monitoring And Prognostics Of Large Scale Systems, James W. Fonda

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this work, energy-efficient protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSN) with applications to prognostics are investigated. Both analytical methods and verification are shown for the proposed methods via either hardware experiments or simulation. This work is presented in five papers. Energy-efficiency methods for WSN include distributed algorithms for i) optimal routing, ii) adaptive scheduling, iii) adaptive transmission power and data-rate control"--Abstract, page iv.

Electromagnetic Modeling Of Distributed Coaxial Cable Crack Sensors In Reinforced Concrete Members, Mei Wang

Masters Theses

"Distributed crack sensors were recently developed with coaxial cables that are composed of inner and outer conductors as well as dielectric layer in between. These sensors were designed based on the change in topology of the cable outer conductor structure under strain effects. Various tests of reinforced concrete (RC) beams and columns indicated that the newly designed sensors are 10~50 times more sensitive than commercial cables to the longitudinal elongation applied on their cable structures. The spatial resolution of the sensors is approximately 50 mm. Limited numerical simulations with the transmission line theory and the finite difference time domain model …

Asynchronous Nanowire Crossbar Architecture For Manufacturability, Modularity And Robustness, Ravi Bonam

Masters Theses

"This thesis spotlights the dawn of a promising new nanowire crossbar architecture, the Asynchronous crossbar architecture, in the form of three different articles. It combines the reduced size of the nanowire crossbar architecture with the clock-free nature of Null Conventional Logic, which are the primary advantages. The first paper explains the proposed architecture with illustrations, including the design of an optimized full adder. This architecture has an elementary structure termed as a Programmable Gate Macro Block (PGMB) which is analogous to a threshold gate in NCL. The other two papers concentrate on mapping and placement techniques which are important due …

Fault Propagation Timing Analysis To Aid In The Selection Of Sensors Fro Health Management Systems, Jeremy Johnson

Masters Theses

"Sensor data is processed to assess performance and health of complex systems. Proper sensor selection, placement, and implementation are critical to build an effective health management system. For complex systems in which the timely assessment of the health is desired to avoid expensive consequences of failure, sensor placement is vital. The ability to identify a critical failure early is completely dependent on sensor location within the fault propagation path. A strategy for assessing a sensor suite with respect to timely critical failure detection is presented in this thesis. To illustrate the strategy, Fault Propagation Timing Analysis (FPTA) will be performed …

Carbon Credits And Energy Subsidies In Economic Decision Making For Confined Animal Feedlot Operation Waste Treatment, Taresh Grover

Masters Theses

"Released waste into the environment has always had a societal cost. Current issues with swine waste suggest that improved treatment is needed as agricultural production has become more industry-like and also as we now globally value the mitigation of global warming. The current need for and the economic support of advanced waste treatment has converged for animal agriculture, and now improved waste treatment is possible with concurrent economic benefit through alternative energy and carbon emissions. Recent changes have resulted in renewal of interest in anaerobic digestion (AD) technology with methane capture and energy production. An economic model was constructed to …

Human Systems Integration: Training And Education Needs Analysis, Hao Zhang

Masters Theses

"Over the past decade, the military (both US and foreign) has developed a wide range of tools, techniques, and technologies for integrating human factors into systems engineering. Human Systems Integration (HSI) came forth as a new multidisciplinary field of study composed of several basic areas including Human Factors Engineering, System Safety, Health Hazards, Personnel Survivability, Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Habitability. An online survey was designed to examine education and training in HSI. 19 HSI experts responded to the survey. The feedback showed that there is a lack of high qualified practitioners in HSI. Many HSI practitioners are lacking of required …

Approaches To Learning In A Classroom Environment: Observational & Experiential, Raj Kanwar Singh

Masters Theses

"Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has established a set of criteria that requires engineering graduates to be able to effectively communicate, work in teams with ethics and professionalism understanding the contemporary issues. There are different approaches for teaching and learning these skills, two of which are discussed in this thesis. The intention of this research is to understand the impact of observational and experiential learning on team and individual performance"--Abstract, page iv.

Wireless Mote-Based In-Process Diagnostics Using Hand-Held Tools In Network Enabled Manufacturing Environments, Reghu Anguswamy

Masters Theses

"When complex manufacturing systems are considered, post process inspection can be a very time consuming and costly. In addition, no inspection data is typically collected unless a major problem is encountered. Real-time monitoring of the manufacturing processes and verification of its product quality are two important factors to reduce the manufacturing lead time and to ensure safety and quality.

In this thesis, a diagnostics and root-cause analysis scheme with a single channel wireless routing protocol for real-time monitoring of process quality of pull-type fastening operations is first presented. The overall architecture has been implemented on a Huck45 pull-type tool, which …

Modeling Kinetics Of Hydrolysis Of Three Pesticides In Laboratory Waters, Michelle Kim Marincel

Masters Theses

"Pesticides and pesticide degradates found in drinking water sources are of particular concern to human health. When treated and disinfected at a drinking water plant, pesticides etridiazole, metribuzin, and diazinon undergo many treatment processes including lime softening, where the water pH is raised to 10 for calcium removal or 11 for magnesium removal. This thesis focuses on modeling the kinetics of hydrolysis of three pesticides that have the potential to undergo hydrolysis in drinking water plants. Linearly and non-linearly regressed first order and non-linearly regressed second order models were applied to the experimental data and compared to limited literature values. …

Business Risk In Early Design: An Approach, Rahul Basavaraj Patil

Masters Theses

"The Business Risk in Early Design (B-RED) method is a tool used to determine the potential risks in business, in the early business development stages. In order to launch a successful business in today's competitive market environment, the business should equip itself to face the risks involved in business. If the potential risks are identified even before the launch of the business, then there is an opportunity to avert risks with little or no impact to the budget and schedule. The B-RED method presented in this thesis helps entrepreneurs and people with little or no experience in business to identify …

Experimental Validation Of An Integrated Frp And Visco-Elastic Hardening, Damping, And Wave-Modulating System For Blast Resistance Enhancement Of Rc Columns, Brian Henry Wood

Masters Theses

"In today's society, terrorist attacks and accidental explosions pose a major threat to critical infrastructure. Vulnerable to blast loading, structures must be rehabilitated to ensure structural stability and protect human life. The goal of this study is to develop and validate a sandwich composite technology for column retrofitting. The new technology consists of an inner fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) sheet, an outer FRP sheet, and a visco-elastic (VE) layer sandwiched between the two FRP sheets. The inner FRP sheet is wrapped around an existing column for confinement, while the outer FRP sheet is for anchoring of the VE layer into …

Removal Of Heavy Metals From Electroplating Wastewater Using Rice Husk And Coconut Coir, Frency Mathew

Masters Theses

"Heavy metal toxicity due to industrial wastewater has been a threat to the environment for the past many decades, especially in the developing countries such as India, China and Thailand where cost effectiveness of the removal process is a major factor. In this research, the effectiveness of two natural adsorbents, rice husk (RH) and coconut coir (CC), which are cheaply available in these countries for the removal of heavy metals from electroplating wastewaters were studied"--Abstract, page iii.

Methodology And Process To Accompany A Virtual Geotechnical Database For The St. Louis Metropolitan Area, Katherine Leigh Onstad

Masters Theses

"The St. Louis metropolitan (STL) area, which spans Missouri and Illinois, currently has no overarching organization of geospatial data (geodata). The two states have their own geodata, using their own individual standards. The development of a virtual geotechnical database (VGDB) encompassing the entire STL area on both sides of the Mississippi River is a solution to the data sharing and standardization problem of this area. The VGDB integrates geodata from disparate sources into a geographic information systems (GIS) database accessible via the internet. The creation of the STL area VGDB consisted of three parts: 1) compiling the geodata; 2) formatting …

A Mobile Ecg Monitoring System With Context Collection, Jin Peng Li

Masters

An objective of a health process is one where patients can stay healthy with the support of expert medical advice when they need it, at any location and any time. An associated aim would be the development of a system which places increased emphasis on preventative measures as a first point of contact with the patient. This research is a step along the road towards this type of preventative healthcare for cardiac patients. It seeks to develop a smart mobile ECG monitoring system that requests and records context information about what is happening around the subject when an arrhythmia event …

Electric-Powered Wheelchairs As An Assistive Technology, Aidan O'Dwyer, Malabika Basu, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper briefly outlines recent work done, particularly in control systems, for electric powered wheelchairs. These mobility aids, first developed in the 1950’s [1], were improved with the incorporation of microprocessors. The requirement for mobility aids in general is rising; for example, it is reckoned that 1.5% of the U.K. population require such aids. As an assistive technology, electric powered wheelchairs have many benefits. Nevertheless, a reliable and robust such wheelchair has still to evolve.

Portfolio Diversification Using Subspace Factorizations, Ruairí De Fréin, Konstantinos Drakakis, Scott Rickard

Conference papers

Successful investment management relies on allocating assets so as to beat the stock market. Asset classes are affected by different market dynamics or latent trends. These interactions are crucial to the successful allocation of monies. The seminal work on portfolio management by Markowitz prompts the adroit investment manager to consider the correlation between the assets in his portfolio and to vary his selection so as to optimize his riskreturn profile. The factor model, a popular model for the return generating process has been used for portfolio construction and assumes that there is a low rank representation of the stocks. In …

The Research And Implementation Of Maintenance Excellence On Clean Utility Systems In The Pharmaceutical Indusry, Padraig Liggan

Dissertations

Maintenance Excellence is the implementation of best maintenance practices within industry; it is the balance of performance, risk, and cost to achieve an optimal solution. This thesis has been structured around the 5 main areas of maintenance excellence; it has documented all the important functions of the maintenance department that contributes towards maintenance excellence. Demonstrating maintenance excellence is a big achievement however demonstrating it on pharmaceutical clean utility systems with strict regulatory controls is a major challenge. Pharmaceutical production is one of the most heavily regulated industries. With such an emphasis on product quality in the pharmaceutical industry, and with …

Augmented Control Of Hands Free Voice Prostheses, Brian Madden, James Condron, Ted Burke, Eugene Coyle

Conference Papers

Laryngectomy patients often use an electrolarynx to facilitate speech following a tracheotomy. Devices of this type provide the most intelligible means of communication for tracheotomy patients. However, the electro-larynx has inherent drawbacks such as the buzzing monotonic sound emitted, the need for a free hand to operate the device, and the difficulty experienced by many tracheotomy patients in adapting to use it. The most effective means of addressing the shortcomings of existing electro-larynges is to provide the user with a hands-free facility. This allows the user to perform other manual tasks whilst speaking, or simply to communicate more effectively through …

Communication Of Medical Information Using Agents, John Mcgrory, Jane Grimson, Frank Clarke, Peter Gaffney

Conference Papers

Agents are self-contained software entities which act faithfully and autonomously on behalf of a body of knowledge. They can operate in a standalone capacity, or as part of a social group collaborating and

coordinating activities with other software agents. To access their knowledge, agents are interfaced with

using message passing communication. The principle behind medical communications is to provide a means

for exchanging information and knowledge from one computerised location to another, whilst preserving its

true meaning and understanding between the listener and sender. Agent communication is similar to medical

communications, but must provide an additional framework element to allow …

Technology And Signal Processing For Brain-Machine Interfaces, Justin C. Sanchez, Jose C. Principe, Toshikazu Nishida, Rizwan Bashirullah, John G. Harris, José A.B. Fortes

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) aid disabled humans. BMI systems face challenges such as interfacing with neural tissue, selecting the most appropriate control signals, acquiring data and decoding patient intent in implantable or wearable computers. They must be able to adapt to different variety of behavioral states. Today's hybrid BMI systems consume less power and are made to chronically extract control commands from the nervous system. In terms of signal processing approaches, one challenge for BMI data analysis is learning how to handle large multi-input multi-output systems with signal representations that span continuous and discrete time. BMI systems also need sufficient information …

Proposal For A Construction Industry Digital Competency Centre For Ireland, Alan V. Hore

Conference papers

The Irish construction industry is facing a series of fundamental challenges that is affecting every player in the AEC lifecycle from architects to owners to tenants. Despite technology advances in recent years, the Irish construction industry lags behind other industries in respect to Information Communications Technology (ICT) investments. Despite a pressing need for innovation, procurement and tendering procedures in Ireland largely discourages new ideas and puts further pressure on wafer-thin margins that characterise the construction sector. This paper will reflect on the deliverables of the Construction Information Technology Alliance (CITA) in Ireland, which was formed in partnership between the Technological …

Rational Best-Value Model Based On Expected Performance, Magdy Abdelrahman, Tarek Zayed, Jay Hietpas, Ahmed Elwakil

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The best-value procurement strategy is gaining the interest of federal and state agencies. The strategy increases the value added to a project for each dollar added. A new concept of best value, that is, a rational and flexible model based on expected performance, is presented. The model's flexibility is obvious in the selection of parameters to be included in the contractor selection process and in the determination of their weights. The model's rationality will be achieved through relating all awarded scores to the agency's expected performance. The establishment of the best-value model relies on the past record of the contractor's …