Digital Commons Network^™

Design And Evaluation Of A Query-Based Jamming Detection Algorithm For Wireless Sensor Networks, Murat Çakiroğlu, Ahmet Turan Özceri̇t

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Jamming attacks, which are the main cause of data corruption and network blockages in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), are one of the most serious threats for WSNs. This type of attack not only blocks the ongoing communication in the network, but also causes the wireless nodes to exhaust their energy much earlier than expected. A countermeasure must be deployed against jamming attacks, especially in military and medical applications in which security breaches cannot be tolerated. In this paper, we have designed a new query-based jamming detection algorithm (QUJDA) to detect jamming attacks occurring in WSNs. QUJDA is an attack detection …

Sequence Alignment From The Perspective Of Stochastic Optimization: A Survey, İhsan Ömür Bucak, Volkan Uslan

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

DNA and protein are the fundamental biological sequences. DNA is a fundamental molecule that plays a vital role in the processes of life. Proteins synthesized by DNA in a cell are the building blocks of every living organism. There is a variety of reasons behind the alignment of biological sequences. Biological sequence alignment helps to discover functional and structural similarity of sequences. Biologists work with these aligned sequences to construct phylogenetic trees, characterize protein families, and predict protein structure. Sequence alignment is an extremely promising field of research that is characterized by very high computational complexity. Stochastic optimization is needed …

On The Existence Of Common Lyapunov Functions For Consensus Algorithms Based On Averaging, Mehmet Akar, Robert Shorten

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper addresses distributed deterministic consensus algorithms based on averaging. We relate the conditions for achieving consensus to the existence of a common norm for a set of row-stochastic matrices associated with the original set of averaging matrices. For a system to achieve consensus, it is shown that this associated set of matrices should have a Common Lyapunov Function, even if the original set might not have one.

Ecg Denoising On Bivariate Shrinkage Function Exploiting Interscale Dependency Of Wavelet Coefficients, Sema Kayhan, Ergun Erçelebi̇

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper presents a new method for electrocardiogram (ECG) denoising based on bivariate shrinkage functions exploiting the interscale dependency of wavelet coefficients. Most nonlinear thresholding methods based on wavelet transform denoising assume that the wavelet coefficients are independent. However, wavelet coefficients of ECG signals have significant dependencies. In this paper, we proposed a new method by considering the dependencies between the coefficients and their parents in detail on a bivariate shrinkage function for denoising of an ECG signal corrupted by different types of noises, such as muscle artifact noise, electrode motion, and white noise. In real-time applications, reduction of computational …

Minimization Of Load Shedding By Sequential Use Of Linear Programming And Particle Swarm Optimization, Mehrdad Tarafdar Hagh, Sadjad Galvani

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Minimization of load shedding during contingency conditions is solved as an optimization problem. As a new topic, instead of local load shedding, total load shedding of a large power system is considered. Power generation rescheduling is considered to minimize the load shedding, as well. Different importance factors for buses are also considered. The linear programming method (LP) is used to solve this problem in a short period of time without considering some power system constraints. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is also used to solve the problem by considering all power system constraints, but with a longer solving time. Finally, a …

Performance Evaluation Of Nonparametric Ica Algorithm For Fetal Ecg Extraction, Yusuf Sevi̇m, Ayten Atasoy

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Fetal electrocardiograms (FECG) contain important indications about the health and condition of the fetus. In this respect, it is crucial to apply a robust algorithm to ECG data for extraction of the FECG signal. Most of the independent component analysis (ICA) algorithms used for this purpose rely on simple statistical models. Such algorithms can fail to separate desired signals when the assumed statistical model is inaccurate. Statistical models can be estimated accurately using kernel density estimation methods. Therefore, the kernel density estimation method was used in this paper for building an ICA algorithm (nonparametric ICA: NpICA) and the algorithm was …

Fully Parallel Ann-Based Arrhythmia Classifier On A Single-Chip Fpga: Fpaac, Ahmet Turan Özdemi̇r, Kenan Danişman

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Recognition of cardiac arrhythmias by electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important issue for diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities. Many studies on recognition of cardiac arrhythmias by ECG, using various techniques, have been performed in the past 20 years. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are the most widely used tool in medical diagnosis systems (MDS) because of their powerful prediction characteristics. An ANN model is inspired by real biological neural networks, with a parallel structure that is potentially fast for computation. However, the suggested ANN architectures in the literature can only be run sequentially, on powerful processors, due to their complexity. Our approach enables …

Using Learning Automata For Multi-Objective Generation Dispatch Considering Cost, Voltage Stability And Power Losses, Ari̇f Karakaş, Celal Kocatepe, Fangxing Li

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The economical and secure operation of power systems has significant importance. Due to technical limitations, the best economical operation point is not always the desired operating point for system stability or power losses. In this study, first, the most economical operating point is obtained by solving the non-linear, network-constrained economic dispatch problem using a genetic algorithm. Then, the system voltage stability is analyzed to compare the different possible operating points using V-Q sensitivity analysis. The power losses, obtained for various operating points, are considered the third objective function. Finally, these 3 aspects of cost, voltage stability, and power losses are …

Peer Review Report 2011

United States Department of Transportation: Publications

The purpose of this document is to report findings from the research peer reviews held April 14, April 20, April 26 & April 27, 2011 for PHMSA’s Pipeline Safety Research and Development Program. The findings and recommendations in this report are derived from the scoring and comments collected from the peer review panelists.

Department of Transportation (DOT) Operating Agencies (OA) are required to develop and execute a systematic process for peer reviews and for all influential and highly influential information that the OA plans to disseminate in the foreseeable future.

Through the Information Quality Act, Congress directed the Office of …

Evidence For Multiple Modes Of Uranium Immobilization By An Anaerobic Bacterium, Allison E. Ray, John R. Bargar, Vaideeswaran Sivaswamy, Alice C. Dohnalkova, Yoshiko Fujita, Brent M. Peyton, Timothy S. Magnuson

United States Department of Energy: Publications

Microbial reduction of hexavalent uranium has been studied widely for its potential role in bioremediation and immobilization of soluble U(VI) in contaminated groundwater. More recently, some microorganisms have been examined for their role in immobilization of U(VI) via precipitation of uranyl phosphate minerals mediated by microbial phosphate release, alleviating the requirement for long-term redox control. Here, we investigated the mechanism of U(VI) removal mediated by an environmental isolate, strain UFO1, that is indigenous to the Field Research Center (FRC) in Oak Ridge, TN and has been detected in U(VI)- contaminated sediments. Changes in U(VI) speciation were examined in the presence …

Investigations Of Transcript Expression In Fathead Minnow (Pimephales Promelas) Brain Tissue Reveal Toxicological Impacts Of Rdx Exposure, Kurt A. Gust, Mitchell S. Wilbanks, Xin Guan, Mehdi Pirooznia, Tanwir Habib, Leslie Yoo, Henri Wintz, Chris D. Vulpe, Edward J. Perkins

United States Army: Publications

Production, usage and disposal of the munitions constituent (MC) cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) has led to environmental releases on  military facilities. The chemical attributes of RDX are conducive for leaching to surface water which may put aquatic organisms at risk of exposure. Because RDX has been observed to cause aberrant neuromuscular effects across a wide range of animal phyla, we assessed the effects of RDX on central nervous system (CNS) functions in the representative aquatic ecotoxicological model species, fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). We developed a fathead minnow brain-tissue cDNA library enriched for transcripts differentially expressed in response to RDX and …

Thermoreversible And Remendable Glass–Polymer Interface For Fiber-Reinforced Composites, Amy M. Peterson, Robert E. Jensen, Giuseppe R. Palmese

United States Army: Publications

Adhesion of the reinforcement to the polymer matrix is essential for load transfer from the polymer matrix to the reinforcement material in fiber-reinforced composites. The reversible Diels–Alder reaction between a furan-functionalized epoxy-amine thermosetting matrix with a maleimide-functionalized glass fiber was used to impart remendability at the polymer–glass interface for potential application in glass fiber-reinforced composites. At room temperature the Diels–Alder adduct is formed spontaneously and above 90 °C the adduct breaks apart to reform the original furan and maleimide moieties. Healing of the interface was investigated with single fiber microdroplet pull-out testing. Following complete failure of this interface, significant healing …

Antimicrobial Decapeptide Ksl-W Attenuates Candida Albicans Virulence By Modulating Its Effects On Toll-Like Receptor, Human Β-Defensin, And Cytokine Expression By Engineered Human Oral Mucosa, A. Semlali, K. P. Leung, S. Curt, M. Rouabhia

United States Army: Publications

We investigated the toxicity of synthetic antimicrobial decapeptide KSL-W on normal human gingival epithelial cell cultures, its effect on Candida albicans adhesion and growth, and the activation of epithelial cell innate immunity. Our results indicate that KSL-W had no toxic effect on cell adhesion or growth, suggesting its safe use with human cells. Pre-treating C. albicans with KSL-W attenuated the yeast’s virulence as demonstrated by its reduced adhesion and growth on engineered human oral mucosa epithelium and the subsequent decreased expression of some innate defense molecules by targeted epithelial cells. Indeed, the expression of Toll-like receptors and human β-defensins was …

Protective Efficacy Of Catalytic Bioscavenger, Paraoxonase 1 Against Sarin And Soman Exposure In Guinea Pigs, Manojkumar Valiyaveettil, Yonas Alamneh, Peter Rezk, Lionel Biggemann, Michael W. Perkins, Alfred M. Sciuto, Bhupendra P. Doctor, Madhusoodana P. Nambiar

United States Army: Publications

Human paraoxonase 1 (PON1) has been portrayed as a catalytic bioscavenger which can hydrolyze large amounts of chemical warfare nerve agents (CWNAs) and organophosphate (OP) pesticides compared to the stoichiometric bioscavengers such as butyrylcholinesterase. We evaluated the protective efficacy of purified human and rabbit serum PON1 against nerve agents sarin and soman in guinea pigs. Catalytically active PON1 purified from human and rabbit serum was intravenously injected to guinea pigs, which were 30 min later exposed to 1.2 × LCt₅₀ sarin or soman using a microinstillation inhalation exposure technology. Pre-treatment with 5 units of purified human and rabbit serum …

Interpreting Tree Responses To Thinning And Fertilization Using Tree-Ring Stable Isotopes, J. Renée Brooks, Alan K. Mitchell

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Carbon sequestration has focused renewed interest in understanding how forest management affects forest carbon gain over timescales of decades, and yet details of the physiological mechanisms over decades are often lacking for understanding long-term growth responses to management.

Here, we examined tree-ring growth patterns and stable isotopes of cellulose (δ¹³C_cell and δ¹⁸O_cell) in a thinning and fertilization controlled experiment where growth increased substantially in response to treatments to elucidate physiological data and to test the dual isotope approach for uses in other locations.

δ¹³C_cell and δ¹⁸O_cell results …

Remediation Of Napl Source Zones: Lessons Learned From Field Studies At Hill And Dover Afb, John E. Mccray, Geoffrey R. Tick, James W. Jawitz, John S. Gierke, Mark L. Brusseau, Ronald W. Falta, Robert C. Knox, David A. Sabatini, Michael D. Annable, Jeffrey H. Harwell, A. Lynn Wood

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Innovative remediation studies were conducted between 1994 and 2004 at sites contaminated by nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) at Hill and Dover AFB, and included technologies that mobilize, solubilize, and volatilize NAPL: air sparging (AS), surfactant flushing, cosolvent flooding, and flushing with a complexingsugar solution. The experiments proved that aggressive remedial efforts tailored to the contaminant can remove more than 90% of the NAPL-phase contaminant mass. Site-characterization methods were tested as part of these field efforts, including partitioning tracer tests, biotracer tests, and mass-flux measurements. A significant reduction in the groundwater contaminant mass flux was achieved despite incomplete removal of the …

Improving Sample Collection Of Trace Particles Of Mock Explosive On Nano Coated Sensor, Daniel Woldemichael Yebo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In protection against explosive-based terrorism, development and mass deployment of miniature sensors can play a tremendous role. In trace explosive detection, one of the challenges is bringing explosive vapor samples from the environment to the sensor element. Such collection of a selective and sufficient amount of air sample will enable the device detect the explosive at lower concentration. This can be done by adsorption of the explosive vapor on a substrate. This research implements the idea by developing a nano coated sensor on a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) substrate. The effects of varying the amount of polyethyleneimine in the nano …

Quantification Of An Ultrasound Test Apparatus And Its Potential Use To Control Nuisance Species In Commercial Aquaculture Settings, Bradley T. Goodwiller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As one step in the investigation of using acoustics to improve aquaculture production, work was pursued on the possible use of ultrasound to control the Bolbophorus trematode in commercial catfish ponds. The trematode population can be controlled by eliminating the host ram's horn snail via exposure to high amplitude ultrasound. Initial laboratory tests indicated that a commercially available sonicator (operating at 20 kHz) is capable of killing individual snails in fish tanks. More thorough testing indicated efficiency rates of approximately 35% on batches of 10 snails. In addition to the snails killed immediately, there was evidence that the sonication technique …

Generating Muscle Driven Arm Movements Using Reinforcement Learning, Alex S. Broad

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

This project focuses on using Reinforcement Learning to optimize arm dynamics through muscle control for desired trajectories. The goal of this project was to create a tool that can be used to gain a better understanding of the arm’s muscles and collect information that is useful in many other disciplines such as biomechanics, anthropology, medicine and robotics. I developed biologically realistic models of primate arm's using Stanford’s SimTK software, an open-source tool for modeling musculoskeletal structures. I then made use of Differential Dynamic Programming in order to generate novel movements from first principles and optimize motion over a specified trajectory. …

Quantitative Oxygen Imaging With A Display Screen And A Color Camera, Sanghan Park

Masters Theses

"Optical oxygen sensing uses luminophores such as metal complex dyes that respond to oxygen when illuminated by their specific excitation wavelengths. Traditional optical instruments are mostly spectrometric instruments based on the measurements of emission, absorption or reflection. There is, however, a great need to develop simple, economical, photometric detection components toward quantitative and two-dimensional imaging instruments.

In this work, familiar optoelectronic devices were utilized to demonstrate a simple determination method of gaseous oxygen both quantitatively and qualitatively. A liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and a color charge-coupled device (CCD) camera were employed as a light source for fluorescence excitation and …

Continuous Monitoring Of Bioactive Glass Conversion Using Optical Biosensors, Prajakta Bhagwat

Masters Theses

"The engineered regeneration of bone is a significant challenge being undertaken to treat conditions such as traumatic casualties, bone cancer, osteoporosis, etc. Advances in hard tissue regrowth may potentially lead to significantly improved lives for millions of people. Bioactive glasses as potential materials in the fabrication of scaffolds for hard tissue regeneration have been studied recently. Bone regrowth requires maintenance of optimal levels of oxygen, glucose, phosphate, calcium, and pH. Current work at Missouri S & T's Center for Bone and Tissue Repair and Restoration focuses on developing optical biosensors to monitor: conversion of bioactive glass to hydroxyapatite, ease of …

Thermomechanics Of Curves In Space, Pavan Krishna Kanchi

Masters Theses

"Several biological molecules are known to form helices and coiled structures, such as DNA, collagen, bacterial flagella, and proteins. The backbones of such molecules may be modeled as a curve in three dimensions. A variational problem for the functional of the total free energy required to perturb moving curves in space is considered. The total energy of a curve in three dimensions is minimized y with a general intensive energy, which is a function of position, and the invariants, curvature and torsion. Three types of moduli are identified: stretching, bending and torsional moduli. As a result, three independent force balances …

Waterjet Injection Of Powdered Activated Carbon For Sediment Remediation, Chris J. Redell

Masters Theses

"In situ sediment remediation through waterjet-activated carbon amendment delivery is an innovative means to mitigate the dangers posed by hydrophobic organic compounds. Ease of use and applicability to inundated environments makes this technique valuable. This work made feasible low-pressure injections of a 15% (by dry weight) carbon/water slurry through a pulsating piston pump waterjet. The project fabricated nozzle tips and a unique injection apparatus comprising a quantitative system for the evaluation of bench scale models. Based on a series of iterative processes, injections of carbon were analyzed for depth and concentration. Injections varied in duration and they were made into …

Optimization Of Gene Prediction Via More Accurate Phylogenetic Substitution Models, Ezekiel Maier, Randall H. Brown, Michael R. Brent

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Determining the beginning and end positions of each exon in each protein coding gene within a genome can be difficult because the DNA patterns that signal a gene’s presence have multiple weakly related alternate forms and the DNA fragments that comprise a gene are generally small in comparison to the size of the genome. In response to this challenge, automated gene predictors were created to generate putative gene structures. N SCAN identifies gene structures in a target DNA sequence and can use conservation patterns learned from alignments between a target and one or more informant DNA sequences. N SCAN uses …

Locating And Extracting Acoustic And Neural Signals, Na Zhu

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation presents innovate methodologies for locating, extracting, and separating multiple incoherent sound sources in three-dimensional (3D) space; and applications of the time reversal (TR) algorithm to pinpoint the hyper active neural activities inside the brain auditory structure that are correlated to the tinnitus pathology. Specifically, an acoustic modeling based method is developed for locating arbitrary and incoherent sound sources in 3D space in real time by using a minimal number of microphones, and the Point Source Separation (PSS) method is developed for extracting target signals from directly measured mixed signals. Combining these two approaches leads to a novel technology …

Towards An Information Theoretic Framework For Evolutionary Learning, Stuart William Card

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Dissertations

The vital essence of evolutionary learning consists of information flows between the environment and the entities differentially surviving and reproducing therein. Gain or loss of information in individuals and populations due to evolutionary steps should be considered in evolutionary algorithm theory and practice. Information theory has rarely been applied to evolutionary computation - a lacuna that this dissertation addresses, with an emphasis on objectively and explicitly evaluating the ensemble models implicit in evolutionary learning. Information theoretic functionals can provide objective, justifiable, general, computable, commensurate measures of fitness and diversity.

We identify information transmission channels implicit in evolutionary learning. We define …

Exploring The Potential Of Inkjet Printing For The Fabrication Of Tissue Test Systems, Vidya Seshadri

All Theses

Animal models and two-dimensional assays involved in drug testing, vaccine development and basic scientific discovery are not an accurate representation of the human body; hence there is a need to develop new bench top methodologies which are better suited to yield information about in vivo behavior. There is a paucity of reliable in vitro-derived information regarding the reasons for the cause and progression of diseases. These concerns have lead to the development of three-dimensional systems which can facilitate improved understanding of disease etiology and also can bridge the path to the clinic.
The long term goal, beyond the scope of …

Neurorehabilitation Of The Hand Using The Cybergrasp[Tm] And Mirror Image, Amy Frances Boos

Theses

In recent years, researchers have explored the use of a mirror image as a means of rehabilitation for individuals suffering from hemiparesis. Through neuroimaging and functional testing, neurological improvement has been demonstrated in those that engage in mirror therapy. Bilateral training, or simultaneous movement of both sides of the body, has also been studied as a treatment method to improve function after cerebral vascular accident. The development of robotic systems to assist movement of the human body has played a major role in the fabrication of bilateral training devices.

In this experiment, the CyberGrasp™ robotic exoskeleton was used to assist …

Evaluation Of A Stream‐Aquifer Analysis Test For Deriving Reach‐Scale Streambed Conductance, Garey A. Fox, Derek M. Heeren, Michael A. Kizer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Extracting groundwater from pumping wells located adjacent to streams can reduce streamflow, a result that is known as alluvial well depletion. Numerous analytical solutions have been developed for alluvial well depletion that vary in their mathematical complexity. Predicted drawdown by the analytical solutions can be matched to observed drawdown from a stream–aquifer analysis (SAA) test (i.e., a pumping test adjacent to a stream) to simultaneously estimate aquifer and streambed hydrologic parameters. However, only a few SAA tests have been documented in the literature and compared to field–measured streambed parameters. Therefore, the objective of this research was to perform an SAA …

Nebraska Summary: S814 New Holland T7.200, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …