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Frequency Domain Processing Based Chaos Communication For Cognitive Radio, Daniel Y. Sundersingh

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Chaotic systems are deterministic non-linear dynamical systems which have intrinsic properties such as: irregularity, aperiodicity, and are impossible to predict over long periods of time. Cognitive radio on the other hand, has emerged recently as a powerful means to tackle the spectrum congestion problem. The goal of this thesis is to combine the benefits of the chaos communication system with the cognitive radio to create a robust, highly secure, flexible chaotic cognitive radio system. We first begin with a short survey of chaotic communication and cognitive radio technology. Then we compare chaotic waveforms to other conventional PN sequences and show …

A Study Of Evolvable Hardware Adaptive Oscillators For Augmentation Of Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle Altitude Control, Bharath Venugopal Chengappa

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The control of insect-sized flapping-wing micro air vehicles is fraught with difficulties. Even when adequate control laws are known, limits on computational precision and floating-point processing can render it difficult to field implementations that provide sufficiently accurate and precise vehicle body placement and pose. Augmentation of an existing altitude controller with an Evolvable Adaptive Hardware (EAH) oscillator has been proposed as a means for an on-board altitude controller to correct control precision and accuracy difficulties during normal flight. This thesis examines a range of setting of the internal learning algorithms for the EAH oscillator and provides empirical evidence about which …

Patterns Of Dipeptide Usage For Gene Prediction, Dayananda Sagar Gangadharaiah

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As the number of complete genomes that have been sequenced continues to grow rapidly, the identification of genes regions in DNA sequence data remains one of the most important open problems in bio-informatics. Improving the accuracy of such gene finding tools by a small percentage would affect accurate predictions of many genes of an organism (Zhu et al., 2010). This thesis presents a novel approach for identifying coding regions of a genome based on dipeptide usage.

The patterns in dipeptide usage are used to discriminate between coding and non-coding DNA regions. Two sample T-tests are used as tests of significance …

Computer-Based Skeletal Age Assessment Using Hand/Wrist Radiographs In Children 8-18 Years Old, Zhihong Ni

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Children's skeletons mature at different rates, and they can be affected by a variety of factors including disease, hormone imbalance or genetics. The assessment of skeletal maturity is a frequently performed procedure that allows the detection of hormonal, growth or genetic disorders. Several methods have been developed to estimate skeletal maturity. Most methods evaluate hand/wrist radiographs using indicators such as the ratios of various bone widths, the onset of the ossification of epiphysis and epiphyseal-diaphyseal fusion. Among those methods, the FELS method differs from others in the application of different grades to each indicator and the provision of a confidence …

Charaterization Of Chlorpyrifos Toxicity On The Pancreatic Beta Cell Line Rinm5f, Zhongyu Yan

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Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is a well-known organophosphate (OP) insecticide that inhibits acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Organophosphates have been shown to induce hyperglycemia in both humans and animals that cannot be explained by AChE inhibition alone. Pancreatic β-cells are responsible for secreting insulin and playing a fundamental role in glucose homeostasis. The aim of this research was to investigate CPF toxicity on the insulin secreting β-cell line RINm5f (RIN). In the first part of this dissertation, we determined that cytotoxic concentrations of CPF between 50 µM and 200 µM induced a dose-dependent increase in RIN cell apoptotic and necrotic death (p<0.05). Lower doses, i.e., 5-25 µM did not induce apoptosis or necrosis. In further mechanistic studies, inhibitors of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and P38 pathways, i.e., SP600125 and SB202190, successfully attenuated CPF-induced apoptosis (p<0.05), suggesting cell death is mediated by JNK and/or p38. In addition, N-Acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), an antioxidant, inhibited apoptosis suggesting that oxidative stress is also involved in RIN cell death. In the second part of this dissertation, low dose CPF's effects on insulin synthesis and secretion was studied. Our results showed that RIN cells treated with CPF for 4 hr exhibited a dose-dependent decrease in insulin secretion in response to stimulation by 50 mM potassium (p<0.05). Insulin secretion stimulated by 25 mM glucose also showed significant decreases upon incubation with various doses of CPF (p<0.05). Insulin synthesis involves proteolytic cleavage of proinsulin at two specific sites. The enzymes responsible for promoting proinsulin cleavage, i.e, prohormone convertase (PC) 1/3 and 2 (PC2), contain a serine hydrolase catalytic triad, His-Asp-Ser, similar to AChE. CPF modification of PC enzymes similar to AChE, could potentially interrupt the conversion of proinsulin to insulin and disrupt insulin secretion. PC2 enzyme activity was significantly inhibited by CPF at concentrations as low as 10 µM (p<0.01). RIN cells, for the first time, were found to secrete proinsulin was through a constitutive instead of a regulated pathway. In summary, our results show that CPF not only exerts a direct cytotoxic effect at concentrations above 50 µM, but also significantly impairs insulin secretion at lower doses. Low dose CPF could potentially affect endocrine function in vivo by inhibiting the proinsulin processing enzyme PC2.

Design And Validation Of A Sensor Integration And Feature Fusion Test-Bed For Image-Based Pattern Recognition Applications, Hrishikesh Karvir

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We integrated a sensor hardware test-bed using scientific grade, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and developed supporting software to enable rapid prototyping. The validity of this test-bed and associated software was demonstrated through the delivery of a ground-based multispectral visual surveillance prototype for improvised explosive devices (IED) detection using electro-optical (EO) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) cameras. Software developed to support the test-bed included modules for image acquisition, preconditioning, segmentation, feature extraction, data regularization and pattern recognition. To provide spatially co-aligned data, we optimized a mutual information-based image registration algorithm to improve its convergence rate and benchmarked it against the established simplex …

Evolution And Analysis Of Neuromorphic Flapping-Wing Flight Controllers, Sanjay Kumar Boddhu

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The control of insect-sized flapping-wing micro air vehicles is attracting increasing interest. Solution of the problem requires construction of a controller that is physically small, extremely power efficient, and capable. In addition, process variation in the creation of very small wings and armatures as well as the potential for accumulating damage and wear over the course of a vehicle's lifetime suggest that controllers be able to self-adapt to the specific and possibly changing nature of the vehicles in which they are embedded. Previous work with Evolvable Hardware Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Networks (CTRNNs) as applied to adaptive control of walking …

Radio Frequency Controlled Stimulation Of Intracellular Gold Or Silver Nanoparticle Conjugates For Use As Potential Sensors Or Modulators Of Biological Function, Richard Craig Murdock

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The objective of this investigation was to further explore the ability of a radio frequency (RF) signal to interact with metal nanoparticles (NPs) for the purposes of remote stimulation or control of cellular processes. Gold and silver NPs have shown the ability to be heated by electromagnetic frequencies, especially for the purpose of deactivating abnormal cells. However, the heating of the NPs in these previous studies was constant and uncontrolled. For this study, our hypothesis was by investigating the RF heating characteristics of NPs and its impact on surface functionalizations, a remotely stimulated control mechanism can be developed at the …

Design And Development Of A Wireless Data Acquisition System For Fall Detection, Anoop Hanchinamane Ramakrishna

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With the mortality rate of the elderly on the rise due to fall related incidents, fall detection has become an important entity in the geriatric health care sector. The study conducted in this thesis involved the design and development of a Wireless Data Acquisition System (WDAS) with Bluetooth capabilities interfaced to pulse width modulated gyroscopic sensors. Each sensor used has a reference output pulse width which changes when rotated about its sensitive axis.Part of the effort involves the design and development of two versions of printed circuit boards for the application. Each board includes a Parallax Propeller micro- controller in …

Algorithmic Techniques Employed In The Quantification And Characterization Of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Data, Paul Edward Anderson

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Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based metabolomics is a developing research field with broad applicability, including the identification of biomarkers associated with pathophysiologic changes, sample classification based on the mechanism of toxicity, and clinical diagnosis. Intrinsic to these applications is the need for statistical and computational techniques to facilitate the associated data analysis. Further, a typical 1H NMR spectrum of pure proteins, biofluids, or tissue may contain thousands of resonances (i.e., peaks), thus, a pure visual inspection is insufficient to fully utilize the spectral information.

Common practice within the NMR-based metabolomics community is to evaluate and validate novel algorithms on empirical …

Semantic Provenance: Modeling, Querying, And Application In Scientific Discovery, Satya Sanket Sahoo

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Provenance metadata, describing the history or lineage of an entity, is essential for ensuring data quality, correctness of process execution, and computing trust values. Traditionally, provenance management issues have been dealt with in the context of workflow or relational database systems. However, existing provenance systems are inadequate to address the requirements of an emerging set of applications in the new eScience or Cyberinfrastructure paradigm and the Semantic Web. Provenance in these applications incorporates complex domain semantics on a large scale with a variety of uses, including accurate interpretation by software agents, trustworthy data integration, reproducibility, attribution for commercial or legal …

Visualization Of Complex Unsteady 3d Flow: Flowing Seed Points And Dynamically Evolving Seed Curves With Applications To Vortex Visualization In Cfd Simulations Of Ultra Low Reynolds Number Insect Flight, Christopher M. Koehler

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Three dimensional integration-based geometric visualization is a very powerful tool for analyzing flow phenomena in time dependent vector fields. Streamlines in particular have many perceptual benefits due to their ability to provide a snapshot of the vectors near key features of complex 3D flows at any instant in time. However, streamlines do not lend themselves well to animation. Subtle changes in the vector field at each time step lead to increasingly large changes between streamlines with the same seed point the longer they are integrated. Path lines, which show particle trajectories over time suffer from similar problems when attempting to …

Unconventional Uses Of Cantilevers For Chemical Sensing In Gas And Liquid Environments, Isabelle Dufour, Fabien Josse, Stephen M. Heinrich, C. Lucat, C. Ayela, F. Ménil, Oliver Brand

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Microcantilevers used as (bio)chemical sensors are usually coated with a chemically sensitive layer. The coated devices operate either in a static bending regime or in a dynamic flexural mode. While the coated devices operate generally well in both the static and dynamic mode, they do suffer from certain shortcomings depending on the medium of operation and the application, including lack of selectivity and of reversibility of the sensitive coating and a reduced quality factor due to the surrounding medium. In particular, the performance of microcantilevers excited in their standard out-of-plane dynamic mode drastically decreases in viscous liquid media. Moreover, the …

Verilog Design And Fpga Prototype Of A Nanocontroller System, Akshay Vummannagari

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Many new fabrication technologies, from nanotechnology and MEMS to printed organic semiconductors, center on constructing arrays of large numbers of sensors, actuators, or other devices on a single substrate. The utility of such an array could be greatly enhanced if each device could be managed by a programmable controller and all of these controllers could coordinate their actions as a massively-parallel computer. Kentucky Architecture nanocontroller array with very low per controller circuit complexity can provide efficient control of nanotechnology devices.

This thesis provides a detailed description of the control hierarchy of a digital system needed to build "nanocontrollers" suitable for …

Gold Nanospheres And Gold Nanorods As Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors, Akil Mannan Matcheswala

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

A novel localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensor that differentiates between background refractive index changes and surface-binding of a target analyte (e.g. a target molecule, protein, or bacterium) is presented. Standard, single channel LSPR sensors cannot differentiate these two effects as their design allows only one mode to be coupled. This novel technique uses two surface plasmon modes to simultaneously measure surface binding and solution refractive index changes. This increases the sensitivity of the sensor.

Different channels or modes can be created in sensors with the introduction of gold nanospheres or gold nanorods that act as receptor mechanisms. Once immobilization …

Genetic Algorithm Controlled Common Subexpression Elimination For Spill-Free Register Allocation, Shashi Deepa Arcot

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

As code complexity increases, maxlive increases. This is especially true in the case of the Kentucky If-Then-Else architecture proposed for Nanocontrollers. To achieve low circuit complexity, computations are decomposed to bit-level operations, thus generating large blocks of code with complex dependence structures. Additionally, the Nanocontroller architecture allows for only a small number of single bit registers and no extra memory.

The assumption of an infinite number of registers made during code generation becomes a huge problem during register allocation because the small number of registers and no additional memory. The large basic blocks mean that maxlive almost always exceeds the …

Hydrogen In Inn: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon In Molecular Beam Epitaxy Grown Material, V. Darakchieva, K. Lorenz, N. P. Barradas, E. Alves, B. Monemar, Mathias Schubert, N. Franco, C. L. Hsiao, L. C. Chen, W. J. Schaff, L. W. Tu, T. Yamaguchi, Y. Nanishi

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We study the unintentional H impurities in relation to the free electron properties of state-of-the-art InN films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Enhanced concentrations of H are revealed in the near surface regions of the films, indicating postgrowth surface contamination by H. The near surface hydrogen could not be removed upon thermal annealing and may have significant implications for the surface and bulk free electron properties of InN. The bulk free electron concentrations were found to scale with the bulk H concentrations while no distinct correlation with dislocation density could be inferred, indicating a major role of hydrogen for …

A Grammar-Based Distance Metric Enables Fast And Accurate Clustering Of Large Sets Of 16s Sequences, David J. Russell, Samuel F. Way, Andrew K. Benson, Khalid Sayood

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: We propose a sequence clustering algorithm and compare the partition quality and execution time of the proposed algorithm with those of a popular existing algorithm. The proposed clustering algorithm uses a grammar-based distance metric to determine partitioning for a set of biological sequences. The algorithm performs clustering in which new sequences are compared with cluster-representative sequences to determine membership. If comparison fails to identify a suitable cluster, a new cluster is created.

Results: The performance of the proposed algorithm is validated via comparison to the popular DNA/RNA sequence clustering approach, CD-HIT-EST, and to the recently developed algorithm, …

Protein Adsorption On And Swelling Of Polyelectrolyte Brushes: A Simultaneous Ellipsometry-Quartz Crystal Microbalance Study, Eva Bittrich, Keith B. Rodenhausen Jr., Klaus-Jochen Eichhorn, Tino Hofmann, Mathias Schubert, Manfred Stamm, Petra Uhlmann

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

With a coupled spectroscopic ellipsometry-quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) experimental setup, quantitative information can be obtained about the amount of buffer components (water molecules and ions) coupled to a poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) brush surface in swelling and protein adsorption processes. PAA Guiselin brushes with more than one anchoring point per single polymer chain were prepared. For the swollen brushes a high amount of buffer was found to be coupled to the brush-solution interface in addition to the content of buffer inside the brush layer. Upon adsorption of bovine serum albumin the further incorporation of buffer molecules into the protein-brush …

Tob1 Is A Constitutively Expressed Repressor Of Liver Regeneration, Karen J. Ho, Nhue L. Do, Hasan H. Otu, Martin J. Dib, Xianghui Ren, Keiichi Enjyoji, Simon C. Robson, Ernest F. Terwilliger, Seth J. Karp

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

How proliferative and inhibitory signals integrate to control liver regeneration remains poorly understood. A screen for antiproliferative factors repressed after liver injury identified transducer of ErbB2.1 (Tob1), a member of the PC3/BTG1 family of mito-inhibitory molecules as a target for further evaluation. Tob1 protein decreases after 2/3 hepatectomy in mice secondary to posttranscriptional mechanisms. Deletion of Tob1 increases hepatocyte proliferation and accelerates restoration of liver mass after hepatectomy. Down-regulation of Tob1 is required for normal liver regeneration, and Tob1 controls hepatocyte proliferation in a dose-dependent fashion. Tob1 associates directly with both Caf1 and cyclindependent kinase (Cdk) 1 and …

Missouri River Recovery Program Emergent Sandbar Habitat Complexes In The Missouri River, Nebraska And South Dakota, Draft Project Implementation Report (Pir) With Integrated Environmental Assessment

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The Missouri River Recovery Program (MRRP) was developed to address actions included in the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) 2000 and 2003 Amended Biological Opinions (BiOp) on the Operation of the Missouri River System and the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Project (Mitigation Project) authorized by the Water Resources Development Acts of 1986 and 1999 (WRDA86 and WRDA99). The BiOp and Mitigation Project provide authority and direction to complete projects for fish and wildlife habitat along Missouri River. These actions are being undertaken to address endangered species needs and mitigate for the loss of …

Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement For The Mechanical Creation And Maintenance Of Emergent Sandbar Habitat In The Riverine Segments Of The Upper Missouri River, Vol. 1 And 2

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

This Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) analyzes the potential environmental consequences of implementing the Emergent Sandbar Habitat (ESH) program on the Upper Missouri River. The purpose of the ESH program is to support least tern and piping plover populations on the Missouri River by supplementing natural habitat through the mechanical creation and replacement of ESH. The PEIS allows the public, cooperating agencies (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Park Service (NPS)), and Corps decision makers to compare impacts among a range of alternatives. The PEIS is meant to inform the selection of a preferred alternative …

Missouri River Recovery Program: Integrated Science Program General Science Questions & Key Findings

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

I.

What is the population of pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River and its tributaries? .....5
1. What are the population trends over time? ...........................5

II.

Is propagation a viable short-term solution to augment pallid sturgeon populations?
2. Can pallid sturgeon be propagated?......................................6
3. Will stocked fish survive in the river? .....................................6
4. Will stocked fish spawn in the river?........................................7
5. What is the appropriate level of stocking?................................7

III.

Do pallid sturgeon spawn in the Missouri River? ..........................7
6. Where are the locations of spawning sites? .............................7
7. What is the timing of the spawn?...........................................8
8. What are the cues …

Missouri River Recovery Program Sandy Point Bend Shallow Water Habitat Construction Project Draft Project Implementation Report May 2010

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The Missouri River Recovery Program (MRRP) was developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District (Corps) to address actions included in the 2000 and 2003 Amended Biological Opinions (BiOp) on the Operation of the Missouri River System and the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Project (Mitigation Project) authorized by the Water Resources Development Acts of 1986 and 1999 (WRDA86 and WRDA99). The BiOp and Mitigation Project provide direction and authority to complete projects that provide fish and wildlife habitat along Missouri River. These actions are being undertaken to address endangered species needs and …

Effect Of Magnetron Frequency On Heating Pattern In Domestic Oven, Sohan Birla, Krishnamoorthy Pitchai, Jeyamkondan Subbiah, David D. Jones

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

In this study a computer model was developed to simulate microwave heating of a model food with a range of magnetron frequencies. The range was decided upon performing the frequency spectrum analysis of microwave leakage from the microwave oven. Simulation results showed that the magnetron input as sinusoidal frequency from 2.44 GHz to 2.48 GHz generates different heating profiles. The simulated heating profiles were compared with experimental heating profiles obtained by using an IR camera. None of simulations with individual frequency exactly matches with experimental temperature profile. The closet match between simulated and observed temperature profiles was found with 2.46 …

Heating Performance Assessment Of Domestic Microwave Ovens, Krishnamoorthy Pitchai, Sohan Birla, Jeyamkondan Subbiah, David D. Jones

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

Due to inherent nature of standing wave patterns of microwaves inside a cavity and dielectric properties of different components in a food, microwave heating leaves non-uniform distribution of energy inside the food volumetrically. Achieving heating uniformity plays critical role in improving the safety of microwave heated products. In this paper, we present a method for assessing heating uniformity within domestic microwave ovens. A custom designed container
was used to assess heating uniformity of a range of microwave ovens using IR camera. The study suggested that the best place to place food in a microwave oven is not at center but …

Generating ‘As-Applied’ Pesticide Distribution Maps From A Self-Propelled Agricultural Sprayer Based On Nozzle Pressure Data, Joe D. Luck, Ajay Sharda, Santosh Pitla, John P. Fulton, Scott A. Shearer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

The application of pre-emergence, post-emergence, and burn-down herbicides (i.e., glyphosate) continues to increase as producers attempt to reduce both negative environmental impacts from tillage and input costs from labor, machinery and materials. The use of precision agriculture technologies such as automatic boom section control allows producers to reduce offtarget application when applying herbicides. While automatic boom section control provides benefits, pressure differences across the spray boom resulting from boom section actuation can lead to offrate application errors. Off-rate errors may also result from spray rate controller compensation for ground speed changes and velocity variation across the spray boom during turning …

Testing Fuel Efficiency Of A Tractor With A Continuously Variable Transmission, Bart A. Coffman, Michael F. Kocher, Viacheslav I. Adamchuk, Roger M. Hoy, Erin E. Blankenship

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A John Deere 8530 IVT tractor (Waterloo, Iowa) with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that could be operated in automatic (CVT) or manual (fixed gear ratio) mode was tested for fuel consumption at a setpoint travel speed of 9 km·h^‐1 with 17 different drawbar loads. Linear regression analysis results showed that with the throttle set to maximum in both transmission modes, operating the tractor with the transmission in the automatic mode was more fuel efficient than operating with the transmission in the manual mode when the drawbar power was approximately 78%, or less, of maximum power. When load transition …

Testing Of Rtk-Level Satellite-Based Tractor Auto-Guidance Using A Visual Sensor System, Dwight Easterly, Viacheslav I. Adamchuk, Roger M. Hoy, Michael F. Kocher

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The use of satellite-based positioning has advanced considerably in the world of agriculture, providing a range of technical solutions that include the automated steering of tractors and self-propelled machinery. With the development of auto-guidance systems comes the need to evaluate their performance. Given that current precision and accuracy claims are relatively small in magnitude, it is imperative there be a testing system capable of detecting errors with ten times greater accuracy-- possibly as little as a few millimeters. A visual sensor was adopted to achieve this level of measurement resolution. The sensor was used to determine the cross-track error estimates …

Using A Vision Sensor System For Performance Testing Of Satellite-Based Tractor Auto-Guidance, Dwight Easterly, Viacheslav I. Adamchuk, Michael F. Kocher, Roger M. Hoy

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A vision sensing system for the measurement of auto-guidance pass-to-pass and long-term errors was implemented to test the steering performance of tractors equipped with auto-guidance systems. The developed test system consisted of an optical machine vision sensor rigidly mounted on the rear of the tested tractor. The center of the drawbar hitch pin point was used as the reference from which to measure the deviation of the tractor’s actual travel path from its desired path. The system was built and calibrated to a measurement accuracy of better than 2 mm. To evaluate the sensor, two auto-guidance systems equipped with RTK-level …