Digital Commons Network^™

Weaving A Computing Fabric, Michael N. Huhns, Larry M. Stevens, John W. Keele, Jim E. Wray, Warren M. Snelling, Greg P. Harhay, Randy R. Bradley

Faculty Publications

As sources of information relevant to a particular domain proliferate, we need a methodology for locating, aggregating, relating, fusing, reconciling, and presenting information to users. Interoperability thus must occur not only among the information, but also among the different software applications that process it. Given the large number of potential sources and applications, interoperability becomes an extremely large problem for which manual solutions are impractical. A combination of software agents and ontologies can supply the necessary methodology for interoperability.

Agents As Web Services, Michael N. Huhns

Faculty Publications

Web services are extremely flexible. Most advantageously, a developer of Web services need not know who or what will use the services being provided. The paper discusses current standards for Web services, directory services and the Semantic Web. It considers how agents extend Web services in several important ways.

Agent Societies: Magnitude And Duration, Michael N. Huhns

Faculty Publications

If you only need agents to search the Web for cheap CDs, scalability is not an issue. The Web can support numerous agents if each acts independently. In short order, however, billions of embedded agents that sense their environment and interact with us and other agents will fill our world, making the human environment friendlier and more efficient. These agents will need not only scalable infrastructures and communication services, but also scalable social services encompassing ethics and laws. Research projects are under way around the world to develop and deploy such services. The author takes a look at the critical …

Thermal Rheological Analysis Of Cure Process Of Epoxy Prepreg, Liangfeng Sun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The cure process of epoxy prepreg used as composite pipe joints was studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Bohlin Rheometer and other techniques. Isothermal DSC measurements were conducted between 110 and 220 oC, at 10 oC intervals. The results show that the complete cure reaction could be achieved at oC. The isothermal cure process was simulated with the four-parameter autocatalytic model. Except in the late stage of cure reaction, the model agrees well with the experimental data, especially at high temperatures. To account for the effect of diffusion on the cure rate, a diffusion factor was introduced into …

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction Of Lipids From Raw And Bioconverted Rice Bran, Rohit Badal

LSU Master's Theses

Rice bran is often discarded despite its nutritional value because the oil in rice bran easily becomes rancid. This has necessitated the search for a method for utilizing the rice bran. The present study involves the application of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and bioprocessing (microbial growth on rice bran media) for increasing the value of the rice bran to produce products of high value (nutraceuticals) with superior health benefit. This study was focused on determining the effect of particle size (>48 mesh and 16-48 mesh) and biotreatment on the yield and quality of rice bran oil. SFE technique (40°C, …

The Effects Of Local Hydrodynamics On Mass Transfer In Disordered Porous Media, Gang Guo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Interfacial mass transfer in disordered media was studied experimentally and numerically. The dissolution of solid benzoic acid spheres in packed columns showed the existence of spatial variations in mass transfer coefficients in monodisperse and polydisperse packings at the same overall Peclet number. The concept of a local Peclet number (single-particle average) was introduced to quantify the effect of local hydrodynamics on local mass transfer. Correlations between Sherwood number and Peclet number having the form Sh_i=A·(x_iPe)^m were used to quantify data from various sites in each packing. These experiments also showed that the exponent m varies …

Wastewater Plume Dynamics And Bacteria Transport Within The Marshland Upwelling System, Stephen David Richardson

LSU Master's Theses

The marshland upwelling system (MUS) serves as an alternative onsite method for the treatment of domestic wastewater derived from coastal communities. Previous studies on the MUS have focused on the efficacy of the system for the removal of fecal pathogens from settled and secondarily-treated wastewater sources. The objectives of this research were to: 1) characterize the extent of wastewater migration within the MUS, 2) evaluate the effectiveness of the MUS in removing fecal bacteria, 3) identify the mechanisms responsible for fecal coliform retention within the subsurface, and 4) describe the transport of fecal coliforms in a sand media based on …

Fecal Coliform Decay And Regrowth Kinetics In An Anaerobic Dairy Wastewater Environment, Shufang Liu

LSU Master's Theses

The kinetics of fecal coliforms (FC) decay and regrowth were analyzed under laboratory conditions using filtered dairy wastewater under anaerobic conditions. The mean specific growth rates during the regrowth phase, µr , in the batch study were 1.79, 1.46, and 1.27d-1 for initial organic carbon concentrations of 478, 235 and 127 mg/L COD, respectively. The substrate concentrations had a significant impact on the FC regrowth. A maximum specific growth rate (mmax) of 1.92 d-1, and half-saturated coefficient (ks) of 60.92mg/L were determined from these data. The mean dark FC decay rate coefficients, kd , at 35oC in the batch study …

Pressure And Flow Validation Of A Second Generation Gas Extraction Probe For A Hybrid Rocket Gas Extraction System, Constance Meadors, Andrew B. Wright

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

A gas extraction system (GES) has been designed for use with the hybrid rocket facility at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) for spectroscopic analysis of rocket plumes. While monitoring gas flow-rate and pressure, the GES extracts gases from the hybrid rocket plume and transports them to a mass spectrometer. This paper describes design and construction of a gas extraction probe (GEP) prototype capable of extracting gases directly from the plume. Gas dynamics equations were used to design two venturi-type GEP, converging and converging-diverging. The probe was tested with air to verify design assumptions. Flow rate through the …

A Cmos Imager With Pfm/Pwm Based Analog-To-Digital Converter, Amine Bermak

Research outputs pre 2011

An on-pixel analog-to-digital converter based on both PFM and PWM schemes is reported. The proposed architecture uses a limited number of transistors that can be implemented in a small silicon area resulting in a 23% fill-factor. The digital sensor can be externally configured in order to operate under either the PFM or PWM scheme. At high light intensities, the PFM scheme is replaced by the PWM scheme which proves to be much more efficient in terms of power consumption and clock frequency requirements. An in-built light adaptation mechanism has also been implemented which allows the sensor to better adapt to …

Applications Of Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulators In Optical Communications, Selam Ahderom, Mherdad Raisi, Kungmang Lo, Kamal E. Alameh, Rafie Mavaddat

Research outputs pre 2011

Advances in liquid crystal (LC) materials and VLSI technology have enabled the development of multi-phase spatial light modulators (SLM) that can perform high-resolution, dynamic optical beam positioning as well as temporal and spatial beam shaping in the 1550 nm optical communication window. These attractive features can effectively be used to achieve optical switching, optical spectral equalization, tunable optical filtering and many other functions that are important for future reconfigurable optical telecommunication networks. We review potential optical telecommunication applications based on LC-SLMs.

Image Capture Using Integrated 3d Softchip Technology, Stefan Lachowicz, Alexander Rassau, Geoffrey Alagoda, Kamran Eshraghian, Myung-Ok Lee, Seung-Min Lee

Research outputs pre 2011

Mobile multimedia communication has rapidly become a significant area of research and development. The processing requirements for the capture, conversion, compression, decompression, enhancement, display, etc. of high quality multimedia content places heavy demands even on current ULSI (ultra large scale integration) systems, particularly for mobile applications where area and power are primary considerations. The system presented is designed as a vertically integrated (3D) system comprising two distinct layers bonded together using indium bump technology. The top layer is a CMOS imaging array containing analog-to-digital converters, and a buffer memory. The bottom layer takes the form of a configurable array processor …

An Evaluation Of Innovative Transportation Financing Techniques For Indiana, Kristine Drike, A. Vincent Genetti, Kumares C. Sinha

JTRP Technical Reports

Innovative financing techniques can complement current methods of financing highway projects in Indiana. Annual federal apportionments and Indiana state revenues are not sufficient to maintain and improve state highways, so innovative approaches in transportation project financing should be sought. There are several available innovative financing techniques associated with the use of federal funds. Although, they do not provide new sources of revenue and cannot create enough funds for all identified projects, they provide flexibility in the use of available funds that can expedite the implementation of individual projects. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the major innovative …

Effectiveness Of The Borman Expressway Its Program On Local Air Quality, Timothy M. Labreche, Robert Bertram Jacko, Barry K. Partridge, William H. Schneider, Ahmed S. Soliman

JTRP Technical Reports

Particulate Matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), and meteorological parameters were monitored at 10 second averaging intervals adjacent the Borman Expressway in Northwestern Indiana before and during the implementation of an Intelligent Transportation System. Traffic data was collected from sensors on the expressway. The high-resolution data permitted the expressway contribution to local air quality to be separated from background components of local air quality and significant correlations were made between pollutant flux and traffic flow and pollutant flux and highway occupancy. Traffic incidents (accidents / congestion) were shown to have a rapid impact on local …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Noise Control And Speech Intelligibility Improvement Of A Toll Plaza, Luc Mongeau, Robert J. Bernhard, Jeffery P. Feist

JTRP Technical Reports

Vehicular toll roads are one component of many municipal transportation systems. Open communication windows, often used in tollbooths, facilitate essential communication and monetary transactions. However, the vehicle noise generated outside the booth is easily transmitted into the booth via the open window. Personnel working at toll collection plazas are exposed to extended, continuous traffic noise. Sustained noise levels of this nature may cause hearing loss, induce fatigue or stress, and reduce worker productivity. The annoyance and discomfort related to continuous noise exposure may create an unpleasant working condition and may affect the hospitality of the tollbooth operators and their attitude …

Growth Dependant Properties Of Undoped And In-Situ Doped Chemically Deposited Cds Thin Films, Aaron John Reynolds

Theses : Honours

This research project examines the growth dependant properties and composition of Cadmium Sulfide thin films produced by the Chemical Bath Deposition Method. The specific areas investigated are the effect of deposition temperature, the effect of an Indium dopant on the films structure and properties, and the effects of post deposition processing such as annealing in air on the film composition. The chemical bath deposition apparatus used has been refined and tested to ensure that the films were grown in a more efficient manner than previously, with more control of the influencing deposition parameters such as temperature. Films grown by the …

Designing Human-Centered Distributed Information Systems, Jiagie Zhang, Vimla L. Patel, Kathy A. Johnson, Jane Malin, Jack W. Smith

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Many computer systems are designed according to engineering and technology principles and are typically difficult to learn and use. The fields of human-computer interaction, interface design, and human factors have made significant contributions to ease of use and are primarily concerned with the interfaces between systems and users, not with the structures that are often more fundamental for designing truly human-centered systems. The emerging paradigm of human-centered computing (HCC)-which has taken many forms-offers a new look at system design. HCC requires more than merely designing an artificial agent to supplement a human agent. The dynamic interactions in a distributed system …

Circulatory Adjuncts: Newer Methods Of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Current standard CPR only provides about one fifth of normal forward blood flow and only about one quarter of the blood flow that is theoretically possible with advanced external techniques. Two such techniques are now approved as optional alternatives in resuscitation guidelines. This chapter reviews modern understanding of the physiology of blood flow during CPR and practical aspects of utilizing more advanced resuscitation methods. When properly performed these methods produce statistically significant increases in survival.

Updating Procedures To Estimate And Forecast Vehicle-Miles Traveled, Jon D. Fricker, Raymond K. Kumapley

JTRP Technical Reports

Procedures developed for the estimation of Vehicle-Miles of Travel (VMT) have been fraught with problems of inaccuracy. Emphasis on environmental issues (air quality), as mandated by current regulations (CAAA, ISTEA-91, and TEA 21), requires State DOTs to accurately estimate travel on their highway infrastructure. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has developed, and subsequently modified, the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) to assist in data collection and reporting. INDOT currently estimates VMT by a method that closely follows the HPMS method. Roads that are not on the state highway system (minor collectors, urban collectors and local) are not represented in the …

Adaptive Radio Resource Management For 2.5g Cellular Networks, Ken Murray

Theses

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in demand for mobile communication services and with the introduction of 2.5G services such as general packet radio service, this trend is expected to increase further. These new services will introduce highly dynamic tele-traffic variations due to the inherent variability in resource usage of the new data services. The net effect will be considerable increase in load on the available radio resources. The currently employed fixed channel allocation scheme lacks the flexibility to support such traffic variations. A plethora of dynamic channel allocation schemes have been proposed in the past in an effort …

Worker Exposure To Airborne Contaminates When Using Waste Foundry Sand In The Construction Of Road Embankments, Waseem Afzal, Robert Bertram Jacko

JTRP Technical Reports

A section of road was constructed in Northeastern Indiana in the summer of 1996 using waste foundry sand as the embankment construction material. Initial testing on the waste sand had determined no detrimental health effects. However, it was observed during construction that once the sand had dried, tire-road interaction raised copious clouds of black dust. This led to worker concern regarding airborne silica and silicosis. This study aimed at determining whether the threat of overexposure to airborne crystalline silica existed in regard to Occupation Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL). Experiments carried out at the Auburn Foundry …

Assessment Of Slip Severity Among Different Age Groups, Thurmon E. Lockhart, Jeffrey C. Woldstad, James L. Smith

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A laboratory study utilizing new techniques for assessing slip severity was conducted to investigate the process of inadvertent slips and falls among different age groups. Forty-two subjects from three age groups (young adults, middle-aged, and the elderly) walked on a rectangular track at a self-determined pace. Without the subjects’ awareness, a slippery floor surface was placed on the track over a force-measuring platform. The results indicated that elderly adults’ friction demand (RCOF) was not significantly different from the young and middle-aged adults. The older adults, however, fell more often than the other age groups. Fall recovery threshold (FRT) measures indicated …

Shovelnose Sturgeon Lridovirus Sampling In The Missouri River, Below Gavins Point Dam, South Dakota And Nebraska

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

Numerous sturgeon species have been integral components of significant fisheries within North America. Species of sturgeon have played an important historical role in recreational and commercial fisheries of various riverine and Great Lakes communities throughout the United States. Present commercial fisheries for sturgeon species are virtually non-existent, in part due to overexploitation, coupled with an inherently long period of time for sturgeon species to become sexually mature.

Two species within the Missouri River basin (pallid sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus albus) and shovelnose sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) have been recently found to harbor a suspect virus (currently being referred to as the …

Manure As Carbon Source For Soil Improvement And Crop Production: Site-Specific Application, Bahman Eghball, Daniel Ginting, Charles A. Shapiro, James S. Schepers, Christopher J. Bauer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Manure, a renewable resource, is an excellent source of nutrients that can be substituted for synthetic types of fertilizers. The C in manure can enhance the physical and chemical properties of soils, especially infertile soils, as these soils typically contain low levels of organic matter and nutrients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of C and nutrients in manure on soil C dynamics and crop production. The treatments included applications of site-specific manure (SSM), uniform manure (UM), uniform commercial fertilizer, and a no treatment check. Field strips 40 ft (16 corn rows) wide and 2200 ft …

Ft-Nir Spectroscopic Analysis Of Nitrogen In Cotton Leaves, Mark R. Riley, Loreto C. Canaves

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Near-infrared spectroscopy was evaluated as a means to quantify the nitrogen content- in fresh cotton leaves (Gossypium hirsutum L. var. Delta Pine 90) subjected to a factorial design experiment of varying nitrogen and water applications. Absorbance spectra were collected in the 10000-4000 cm^-1 (1000-2500 nm) region from fresh cotton leaves over a two month portion of the growing season. Total nitrogen content was quantified by a wet chemistry Kjeldahl method for validation purposes. Partial least-squares regression analysis, using an automated grid search method, selected the spectral region 6041 to 5651 cm^-1 (1650-1770 nm) for analysis based on having …

University Of Nevada, Las Vegas Transmutation Research Program Annual Report 2001, Anthony Hechanova, Elizabeth Johnson, Gary Cerefice

Transmutation Research Program Reports (TRP)

The UNLV Transmutation Research Program was established in March 2001 as part of the national Advanced Accelerator Applications program to develop the technologies necessary for the ecological and economical treatment of spent nuclear fuel.

The primary role of the UNLV program in the national effort is the training of graduate and undergraduate students in nuclear engineering and other related fields to support the augmentation of the U.S. human infrastructure for transmutation technologies.

To accomplish this role, UNLV has developed the TRP with the primary focus of supporting student research into transmutation and supporting technologies. This focus is realized through the …

Neutron Multiplicity Measurements Of Target/Blanket Materials, Carter D. Hull, William H. Johnson

Transmutation Sciences Physics (TRP)

To begin developing the database necessary for the validation and benchmarking of the LAHET component of the MCNPX code suite, the UNLV research program has set forth the following objectives. First, the current MCNPX suite will be used to develop models of multi-element neutron detector systems. These models of the detector systems will be incorporated into the design of detailed models for the entire detector-target system. These models will first be used to help design the irradiation experiments, and then will be used to model the behavior of the system. Irradiation experiments corresponding to the detector-target system models will be …

Kalman Filtering With State Equality Constraints, Daniel J. Simon, Tien Li Chia

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Kalman filters are commonly used to estimate the states of a dynamic system. However, in the application of Kalman filters there is often known model or signal information that is either ignored or dealt with heuristically. For instance, constraints on state values (which may be based on physical considerations) are often neglected because they do not fit easily into the structure of the Kalman filter. A rigorous analytic method of incorporating state equality constraints in the Kalman filter is developed. The constraints may be time varying. At each time step the unconstrained Kalman filter solution is projected onto the state …

Bench-Scale Compost Reactors System And The Self-Heating Capabilities, Michael Alden Vining

LSU Master's Theses

Less expensive bench-scale composting reactor systems which can mimic actual composting process via self-heating are needed. One can achieve such systems without using the expensive temperature feed-back control by properly insulating the bench composting reactors. However, the knowledge of heat generation and transfer in bench composting reactors is essential in properly designing such inexpensive insulation systems. All compost trial temperature profiles illustrated initial elevated temperature levels followed by a slow gradual temperature decreasing phase. Of all of the variables, the airflow rate, the volume and the overall heat transfer coefficient, seem to have the greatest impact on producing thermophilic temperatures. …