Digital Commons Network^™

Surface Acoustic Wave Devices As Chemical Vapor Sensors, Daniel Gallagher

Theses and Dissertations

In order to effectively neutralize non-traditional threats to US forces and population such as improvised explosive devices (IED) and chemical, biological, radio- logical, nuclear, and explosive (CBNRE) weapons, a flexible vapor sensor platform is proposed. This work involves the design, fabrication, and testing of coated surface acoustic wave devices for vapor sensing ability. Devices were fabricated in-house using MEMS fabrication techniques, then coated with a thin layer of a Nafion polymer. The frequency response of coated devices displayed 2 MHz frequency shifts around the resonance frequency upon introduction of ethanol vapors into the nitrogen vapor stream. This indicates strong sensing …

Using Agent-Based Modeling To Evaluate Uas Behaviors In A Target-Rich Environment, Joseph A. Van Kuiken

Theses and Dissertations

The trade-off between accuracy and speed is a re-occurring dilemma in many facets of military performance evaluation. This is an especially important issue in the world of ISR. One of the most progressive areas of ISR capabilities has been the utilization of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Many people believe that the future of UAS lies in smaller vehicles flying in swarms. We use the agent-based System Effectiveness and Analysis Simulation (SEAS) to create a simulation environment where different configurations of UAS vehicles can process targets and provide output that allows us to gain insight into the benefits and drawbacks of …

Photosynthetic – Fermentative Fuel Cell Used In A Biofuel Processing Facility, Erin E. Powell, G.A. Hill, R.W. Evitts, J. C. Bolster

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

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Anaerobic Digestion Of Olive Mill Wastewater: Anaerobic Filter Vs. Hybrid, Isabel Paula Marques, Marta Gonçalves, Paulo Freitas

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Two types of anaerobic digesters - a filter (AF) and a hybrid (H) - are tested in the treatment of original olive mill wastewater (OMW), without any pre-treatment or chemical correction of this substrate. The anaerobic filter is equipped with a packed bed material that fills the entire column of digestion; the hybrid digester results from the combination of anaerobic filter with the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket and the packed bed only occupies the top section of the column.

OMW is the effluent generated from olive oil industries, which activity has a great economic and social importance in the olive …

Comparative Fast Pyrolysis Of Agricultural Residues For Use In Biorefineries, Dietrich Meier, Jens Markgraf

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

In the light of depleting fossil resources, biomass is gaining renewed interest as a source of renewable carbon, which can be used for energy and chemicals. The production of biofuels such as ethanol, palm oil and bio-diesel has come under criticism for its likely competition with food. These production systems need either huge areas of monocultures or use some parts of plant material such as the carbohydrate fraction only for fermentation to produce ethanol. Other technologies such as fast pyrolysis offer the advantage of using whole plant material for the production of so called 'bio-oils', which adheres to the condensates …

Bio-Energy Ii - Conference Program, José Duarte, Cedric Briens

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

List of speakers, talks and more.

In Silico Analysis For The Production Of Higher Carbon Alcohols Using Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Balaji Balagurunathan, Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, Dong-Yup Lee, Rajagopalan Srinivasan

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Technology for the production of alternative fuels is receiving increased attention owing to concerns on global energy and environmental problems. Using higher carbon alcohols as gasoline substitutes has several advantages compared to ethanol, the first generation biofuel. Higher carbon alcohols also have other applications as flavor/aroma compounds and as building blocks for several other products. Two different pathways for the production of higher carbon alcohols have been recently reported. This work looks at evaluating the different pathways for higher carbon alcohol production and identification of metabolic bottlenecks for their production using Saccharomyces cerevisiae .

Quantitative characterization of the metabolic pathways …

Investigating Catalyst Design Strategies For Selective Reaction Of Cyclic C4 Oxygenates From Biomass, Clay Horiuchi, Andrea S. Loh, Stephen T. Marshall J. Will Medlin, Benjamin M. Israel

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Numerous studies have shown that the properties of metal catalysts can in principle be fine-tuned by controlling the composition of the metal surface with high precision. The ability to design catalysts capable of high selectivity towards the conversion of a single functional group in a multifunctional molecule is a major objective for heterogeneous catalysis research. This need for high selectivity toward a single functional group is of growing importance in efforts to improve biorefining operations, where biomass-derived multifunctional carbohydrates are key "building block" intermediates that must be converted to a vast range of commodity chemical products such as fuels, pharmaceuticals, …

Conversion Of Woody Biomass To Energy, Chemicals And Materials, Shijie Liu, Thomas E. Amidon

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Conversion of renewable biomass to chemicals and energy is imperative to sustain our way of life as known to today. Fossil fuels have become the predominant energy source today. However, fossil deposits are limited and not renewable. Biomass is a reliable source of chemicals and energy that can be replenished at the rate of our needs. The biorefinery is a concept for the collection of processes used to convert biomass to chemicals and energy. The Biorefinery is a “catch and release” way of using carbon that is beneficial to the environment and the economy. Discussions are made for the elements …

Biofuel Production From Biomass-Derived Volatile Fatty Acid Platform, Ho Nam Chang, Nakjong Kim, Changmoon Joeng Jongwon Kang, Hyungshik Choi

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

The typical biorefinery platforms are sugar, thermochemical (syngas), carbon-rich chains, and biogas platform. The sugar platform uses hexose and pentose sugars extracted or converted from plant body. The thermochemical (syngas) platform is chemical or biological conversion process using pyrolysis or gasification of plant to produce biofuels. The carbon-rich chains platform is used to produce biodiesel from long-chain fatty acids or glycerides. Those platforms have unique advantages and disadvantages. Our group has concentrated on the biogas platform producing methane gas from municipal solid wastes through anaerobic digestion (AD) processs, which is composed of rapid acidogenesis and slow methanogenesis. This acidogenic and …

Increasing Corn Throughput In Dry Grind Process For Ethanol Process, Vijay Singh, Jameel Shihadeh, Kent D. Rausch, M. E. Tumbleson

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

In a conventional dry grind process, corn is ground and mixed with water to produce slurry. The slurry is cooked; starch in the slurry is liquefied, simultaneously saccharified and fermented to produce ethanol. Typical solids during slurry preparation range from 30 to 34%. Higher solids result in higher ethanol concentration. High final ethanol concentration improves plant profitability by increasing plant capacity and improving plant efficiency. Corn solids higher than 34% are not used in dry grind corn process due to high mash viscosity (after cooking), increase in sugar concentration during fermentation (substrate yeast inhibition) and high final ethanol concentration (product …

Binding Studies Of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Targeted Compounds Using Surface Plasmon Resonance, Spandana Kankanala

Theses and Dissertations

The study of binding kinetics of proteins plays an important role in understanding molecular mechanisms that drive biological processes. The binding rate constants reflect the dynamics of the system and associated biological activity measurements of the association and dissociation rate constants make it possible to compare different interactions in a standardized manner and help elucidate a mechanistic understanding of binding events. In our study, we used Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) technology (Biacore) to study the binding kinetics of the antibodies EGF, Cetuximab and a candidate drug P-13 with the receptor EGFR. The candidate drug P-13 was synthesized and tested on …

Combat Identification Modeling Using Neural Network Techniques, Changwook Lim

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this research were: (1) validating Kim’s (2007) simulation method by applying analytic methods and (2) comparing the two different Robust Parameter Design methods with three measures of performance (label accuracy for enemy, friendly, and clutter). Considering the features of CID, input variables were defined as two controllable (threshold combination of detector and classifier) and three uncontrollable (map size, number of enemies and friendly). The first set of experiments considers Kim’s method using analytical methods. In order to create response variables, Kim’s method uses Monte Carlo simulation. The output results showed no difference between simulation and the analytic …

Tools For The Conceptual Design And Engineering Analysis Of Micro Air Vehicles, Mustafa Turan

Theses and Dissertations

Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) are a subset of Unmanned Aircraft (UAS) that are up to two orders of magnitude smaller than manned systems. Near-Earth environments, such as forests, caves, tunnels and urban structures make reconnaissance, surveillance and search-and-rescue missions difficult and dangerous to accomplish. Therefore, MAVs are considered ideal for these types of missions. However, the data using full size aircraft is inadequate to characterize miniature aircraft parameters due to the lower Reynolds numbers and low aspect ratio (LAR) wings and impact of wing-propeller interactions. The main objectives of this research were to: collect and synthesize the available data/tools; create …

Uncertainty Propagation In Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Robb E.S. Moss

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This paper describes recent advances in evaluating, quantifying, and propagating various forms of uncertainty in geotechnical earthquake engineering problems. Important developments in the fields of liquefaction engineering, dynamic slope stability, engineering seismology, and lifeline engineering are discussed. The benefits gained through proper treatment of uncertainty include; a well defined measure of the most likely engineering results, a well defined estimate of extreme results, a probability of likelihood ascribed to different realizations, and a mathematical format that lends to performance-based engineering assessment. This paper is by no means comprehensive but highlights some recent studies that contribute to improved probabilistic methodology in …

Cubesats, Any Applications?, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "CubeSats, Any Applications?" from March 3, 2009.

Poster Session, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Kentucky Agriculture Water Quality Act Web Tool, Amanda Gumbert, UK Cooperative Extension Service
• Cane Run Watershed Council – An Adventure in Watershed Involvement, Amanda Gumbert, UK Cooperative Extension Service
• Preliminary Comparison of Nutrient and Total Suspended Sediment Data on Water Samples Collected using Teledyne Portable Autosampler and EPA Field Methods for Wadeable Streams, Susan Brown, April Haight and others, Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy, Morehead State University
• Groundwater Protection Plans, Patricia Keefe, Kentucky Division of Water
• Use of Geophysical Techniques to Locate a Karst Conduit in the Cane Run – Royal Spring Basin, Kentucky …

Session 2c, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Western Kentucky Deep Saline Reservoir CO₂ Storage Test, David Williams and J. Richard Bowersox, Kentucky Geological Survey, UK
• Western Kentucky Deep Saline Reservoir CO₂ Storage Test: Preliminary Environmental Assessments and Monitoring, E. Glynn Beck, Thomas Parris, and David Williams, Kentucky Geological Survey, UK
• Arsenite Oxidation by a Chemostat Culture of Thiomonas Arsenivorans Strain B6, Aniruddha Dastidar and Yi-Tin Wang, Dept Civil Engineering, UK
• Biological Control of Manganese in Water Supplies – A New Mn(II)-Oxidizing Bacteria Isolate, Michael Snyder and Y.T. Wang, Dept Civil Engineering, UK

Session 2b, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Watershed Based Planning in the Upper East Fork of Clarks River, Maggie Morgan, Four Rivers Basin Team, Paul Maron, Strand Associates, Inc
• Kentucky Institute for Watershed Management Support, Alanna Storey, Jana Fattic, and Andrew Ernest, Center for Water Resource Studies, WKU
• Overview of TMDL Development for Panther Creek and Long Falls Watersheds in Daviess and McLean Counties, Kentucky, Josh Brewer, Center for Water Resource Studies, WKU
• Nitrogen Isotopes to Study the Variability of Sediment Transported from a Lowland Watershed in the Bluegrass, Jimmy Fox and others, Dept Civil Engineering, UK

Session 1c, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Suspended Sediment in the Dry Creek Watershed, Rowan County, Kentucky, Samuel Williams, Steven Reid, and Christine McMichael, Morehead State University
• Influence of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) on the Aquatic Biodiversity in Eastern Kentucky, Aric Payne and Sherry Harrel, Dept Biological Sciences, EKU
• Identification of Human and Animal Fecal Sources in Central Kentucky Watersheds by PCR of 16sDNA Markers from Host-Specific Fecal Anaerobes, Tricia Coakley and others, Environmental Research Training Laboratories (ERTL), UK
• Investigation of Land-Use Change and Hydrologic Forcing upon Streambank Erosion and In-Stream Sediment Processes Using a Watershed Model and Sediment Tracers, Joseph Russo and …

Session 1a, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Integrated Surface and Groundwater Quality Assessments in Karst Regions of Kentucky, Robert Blair and Peter Goodmann, Kentucky Division of Water
• The Karst Potential Index for Kentucky, Progress Report, James Currens, Randall Paylor, and Matthew Crawford, Kentucky Geological Survey, UK
• DNA Analysis of Fecal Bacteria to Trace Transport of Agricultural Pathogens at Crump’s Cave, KY, Rick Fowler, WATERS Laboratory, WKU
• Process Water Management (PWM) for Achieving Water Conservation Management (WCM), Cam Metcalf and Tom Wright, Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center, U of L Shelby Campus

Proceedings Of 2009 Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

This conference was planned and conducted as part of the state water resources research annual program with the support and collaboration of the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, under Grant Agreement Number 06HQGR0087.

The views and conclusions contained in this document and presented at the symposium are those of the abstract authors and presenters and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government or other symposium organizers and sponsors.

Real-Time Wind Estimation And Video Compression Onboard Miniature Aerial Vehicles, Andres Felipe Rodriguez Perez

Theses and Dissertations

Autonomous miniature air vehicles (MAVs) are becoming increasingly popular platforms for the collection of data about an area of interest for military and commercial applications. Two challenges that often present themselves in the process of collecting this data. First, winds can be a significant percentage of the MAV's airspeed and can affect the analysis of collected data if ignored. Second, the majority of MAV's video is transmitted using RF analog transmitters instead of the more desirable digital video due to the computational intensive compression requirements of digital video. This two-part thesis addresses these two challenges. First, this thesis presents an …

A Neutral Network Based Vehicle Classification System For Pervasive Smart Road Security, Naixue Xiong, Jing (Selena) He, Jong Hyuk Park, Donald Cooley

Faculty Articles

Pervasive smart computing environments make people get accustomed to convenient and secure services. The overall goal of this research is to classify vehicles along the I215 freeway in Salt Lake City, USA. This information will be used to predict future roadway needs and the expected life of a roadway. The classification of vehicles will be performed by a synthesis of multiple sets of features. All feature sets have not yet been determined; however, one such set will be the reduced wavelet transform of the image of a vehicle. In order to use such a feature, it is necessary that the …

Sharing And Fusing Landmark Information In A Team Of Autonomous Robots, Damian M. Lyons

Faculty Publications

A team of robots working to explore and map a space may need to share information about landmarks so as register local maps and to plan effective exploration strategies. In this paper we investigate the use of spatial histograms (spatiograms) as a common representation for exchanging landmark information between robots. Each robot can use sonar, stereo, laser and image information to identify potential landmarks. The sonar, laser and stereo information provide the spatial dimension of the spatiogram in a landmark-centered coordinate frame while video provides the image information. We call the result a terrain spatiogram. This representation can be shared …

The Importance Of Being Neural-Symbolic - A Wilde Position, Pascal Hitzler, Kai-Uwe Kuhnberger

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

We argue that Neural-Symbolic Integration is a topic of central importance for the advancement of Artificial General Intelligence.

Projected Climate-Induced Faunal Change In The Western Hemisphere, Joshua J. Lawler, Sarah L. Shafer, Denis White, Peter Kareiva, Edwin P. Maurer, Andrew R. Blaustein, Patrick J. Bartlein

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

Climate change is predicted to be one of the greatest drivers of ecological change in the coming century. Increases in temperature over the last century have clearly been linked to shifts in species distributions. Given the magnitude of projected future climatic changes, we can expect even larger range shifts in the coming century. These changes will, in turn, alter ecological communities and the functioning of ecosystems. Despite the seriousness of predicted climate change, the uncertainty in climate-change projections makes it difficult for conservation managers and planners to proactively respond to climate stresses. To address one aspect of this uncertainty, we …

Propitious Checkpoint Intervals To Improve System Performance, Sarala Arunagiri, John T. Daly, Patricia J. Teller

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The large scale of current and next-generation massively parallel processing (MPP) systems presents significant challenges related to fault tolerance. For applications that perform periodic checkpointing, the choice of the checkpoint interval, the period between checkpoints, can have a significant impact on the execution time of the application and the number of checkpoint I/O operations performed by the application. These two metrics determine the frequency of checkpoint I/O operations performed by the application, and thereby, the contribution of the checkpoint operations to the I/O bandwidth demand made by the application. In a computing environment where there are concurrent applications competing for …

Vivisimo Customer Case Study, Vivisimo

Library Press and Events

Capitalizing on the power of the Internet, the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center (HAM-TMC) Library is using search to reinvent itself in this digital age. By using the Vivisimo Velocity Search Platform to search its multiple repositories, the library has helped users find information they never knew existed as well as positioned the library as a thought leader in its community.

Theoretical Basis Of Parametric-Resonance-Based Atomic Force Microscopy, G Prakash, S Hu, Arvind Raman, R. Reifenberger

Birck and NCN Publications

Parametric resonance underpins the physics of swings, resonant surface waves, and particle traps. There is increasing interest in its potential applications in atomic force microscopy (AFM). In this paper, the dynamics of parametrically resonant microcantilevers for high sensitivity imaging and force spectroscopy applications is investigated theoretically. Detailed numerical parametric-resonance simulations are performed to understand how the microcantilever amplitude varies with tip-sample separation, the tip-sample interaction, and the scanning dynamics of a microcantilever probe. We find three key advantages of a parametrically resonant microcantilever for AFM applications: (a) the reduction in ringing effects near feature edges that occur for high-Q microcantilevers; …