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Ua66 2007 Student Awards Ceremony, Wku Ogden College Of Science & Engineering

WKU Administration Documents

Program recognizing Ogden College students with brief list of activities for each student.

Preserved Enzymatic Activity Of Glucose Oxidase Immobilized On Unmodified Electrodes For Glucose Detection, Gang Wang, Ngee Mei Thai, Siu-Tung Yau

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Glucose sensing electrodes have been realized by immobilizing glucose oxidase (GOx) on unmodified edge plane of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (epHOPG) and the native oxide of heavily doped silicon (SiO₂/Si). Both kinds of electrode show direct interfacial electron transfer due to the redox process of the immobilized GOx. The measured formal potential of the redox process agrees with that of the native enzyme, suggesting that the immobilized GOx has retained its enzymatic activity. The electron transfer rates of the GOx immobilized electrode are 2s⁻¹ for GOx/epHOPG electrode and 7.9s⁻¹ for GOx/SiO₂/Si electrode, which …

Calibration Of Atomic Force Microscope Cantilevers Using Piezolevers, Saltuk B. Aksu, Joseph A. Turner

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Faculty Publications

The atomic force microscope (AFM) can provide qualitative information by numerous imaging modes, but it can also provide quantitative information when calibrated cantilevers are used. In this article a new technique is demonstrated to calibrate AFM cantilevers using a reference piezolever. Experiments are performed on 13 different commercially available cantilevers. The stiff cantilevers, whose stiffness is more than 0.4 N/m, are compared to the stiffness values measured using nanoindentation. The experimental data collected by the piezolever method is in good agreement with the nanoindentation data. Calibration with a piezolever is fast, easy, and nondestructive and a commercially available AFM is …

Robot For Surgical Applications: United States Patent No. Us 7,199,545 B2, Dmitry Oleynikov, Shane Farritor, Adnan Hadzialic, Stephen R. Platt

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The present invention provides a robot for use inside an open abdominal cavity during minimally-invasive surgery. The robot may include various sensors, imaging devices or manipulators.

Image-Guided Diffuse Optical Fluorescence Tomography Implemented With Laplacian-Type Regularization, Scott C. Davis, Hamid Dehghani, Jia Wang, Shudong Jiang, Brian W. Pogue, Keith D. Paulsen

Dartmouth Scholarship

A promising method to incorporate tissue structural information into the reconstruction of diffusion-based fluorescence imaging is introduced. The method regularizes the inversion problem with a Laplacian-type matrix, which inherently smoothes pre-defined tissue, but allows discontinuities between adjacent regions. The technique is most appropriately used when fluorescence tomography is combined with structural imaging systems. Phantom and simulation studies were used to illustrate significant improvements in quantitative imaging and linearity of response with the new algorithm. Images of an inclusion containing the fluorophore Lutetium Texaphyrin (Lutex) embedded in a cylindrical phantom are more accurate than in situations where no structural information is …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 48 Number 4, Spring 2007, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

8 - ARCHAEOLOGISTS OF THE CARIBBEAN By Monte Lorenzet. Eye patch and peg leg-we all know what makes a pirate. Or do we? Only recently have scientists taken a serious look at the archeology of piracy, with SCU's Russ Skowronek one of the hearties unearthing facts buried beneath centuries of myth.

12 - ARE PEOPLE GETTING CRAZIER? By Thomas G. Plante. From what the media offers every day, you can't help but think the world is going to hell in a handbasket. What's really going on? And what can we do about it?

21 - A TEACHABLE MOMENT Q&A with …

Lower Extremity Mechanics During Cutting Tasks In Different Shoe-Turf Combinations, Rafael Garcilazo

McNair Scholars Research Journal

The demands placed on the lower extremity when performing jumping and cutting maneuvers are depending, in part, on the interaction between the playing surface and the athlete's footwear. Higher demands are likely to result in increased incidence of injury, so for safety reasons it is important to quantify how the shoe-turf interface affects joint loads. The purpose of this study is to compare the forces on the lower extremity while landing and side cutting (rapid direction change at approximately 45 degrees) on artificial football turf with different styles of football cleats.

Decomposable Aggregability In Population Genetics And Evolutionary Computations: Algorithms And Computational Complexity, Vladik Kreinovich, Max Shpak

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Many dynamical systems are decomposably aggregable in the sense that one can divide their (micro)variables x1,...,xn into several (k) non-overlapping blocks and find combinations y1,...,yk of variables from these blocks (macrovariables) whose dynamics depend only on the initial values of the macrovariables. For example, the state of a biological population can be described by listing the frequencies xi of different genotypes i; in this example, the corresponding functions fi(x1,...,xn) describe the effects of mutation, recombination, and natural selection in each generation.

Another example of a system where detecting aggregability is important is a one that describes the dynamics of an …

A Finite Difference Method For Studying Thermal Deformation In Two-Dimensional Micro Scale Metal Thin Films Exposed To Ultrashort Pulsed Lasers, Haojie Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Ultrashort-pulsed lasers have been attracting worldwide interest in science and engineering because the lasers with pulse durations on the order of sub-picoseconds to femtoseconds possess capabilities in limiting the undesirable spread of the thermal process zone in a heated sample during material processing at the microscale. Prevention of thermal damage is an important factor for success of ultrashort-pulsed lasers in real applications. The thermal damage induced by ultrashort pulses is intrinsically different from that induced by long-pulse or continuous lasers. It occurs after the heating pulse is over and involves the shattering of thin metal layers (without a clear signature …

Biomedical Applications Of Polypeptide Multilayer Nanofilms And Microcapsules, Jai Simha S. Rudra

Doctoral Dissertations

The past few years have witnessed considerable growth in synthetic polymer chemistry and physics, biomaterials science, and nano-scale engineering. Research on polypeptide multilayer films, coatings, and microcapsules is located at the intersection of these areas and are promising materials for applications in medicine, biotechnology, environmental science. Most envisioned applications of polypeptide multilayers have a biomedical bent. This dissertation on polypeptide multilayer film applications covers key points of polypeptides as materials, means of polymer production, film preparation, film characterization methods, and key points of current research in basic science. Both commercial and designed peptides have been used to fabricate films for …

Interfaces, Volume 9, Issue 1 - Spring 2007

INTERFACES: Newsletter of the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience

CONTENTS
From the Director
Facility Focus: Crystallography
Recent Achievements of Center Researchers
Catalysts For Carbon Monoxide Conversion
NCMN Welcomes Li Tan
Research Spotlight: Christian Binek
LNK Chemsolutions Receives Funding

Rna Gene Finding With Biased Mutation Operators, Jennifer A. Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of genetic algorithms for non-coding RNA gene finding has previously been investigated and found to be a potentially viable method for accelerating covariance-model-based database search relative to full dynamic-programming methods. The mutation operators in previous work chose new alignment insertion and deletion locations uniformly over the length of the model consensus sequence. Since the covariance models are estimated from multiple known members of a non-coding RNA family, information is available as to the likelihood of insertions or deletions at the individual model positions. This information is implicit in the state-transition parameters of the estimated covariance models. In the …

Fabrication And Compressive Behavior Of Corrugated Aramid-Epoxy Cellular Solids, Jeffrey Arthur Schneider

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Cellular solids are materials whose base material does not always occupy the entire solid fraction available. A number of cellular solids can provide blast protection and absorb impact energy, but few perform well resisting blunt object (ballistic) penetration. In this thesis, a method is proposed for fabricating cellular solids from aramid-epoxy composites that can absorb impact energy and resist blunt object penetration. The aramid-epoxy samples were fabricated using wet-layup techniques, with two different styles of Kevlar 49 woven fabric in a variety of orientations. Test sample density ranged from 0.08 0.23 g/cm3. Different lamination orientations, assembly techniques, and bonding adhesives …

Impulse, Kyle Johnson, Cindy Rickeman, Denise Watt

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

Features:
[Page] 2 'Historic Day' at Jerome Lohr Structures Lab: October 25, 2006, is a day Nadim Wehbe will long remember.
[Page] 4 Jason Zemlicka: A former city road crew worker helps with bridge girder testing.
[Page] 5 Mountain Plains Consortium: SDSU accepted into a regional university transportation center.
[Page] 6 Turning grass into gas: Mechanical engineers help in researching new energy source.
[Page] 8 Weapons research: SDSU, four partners developing fatigue odometer sensor for military.
[Page] 9 A Ph.D. in ME?: The State Legislature is being asked to approved a doctorate in mechanical engineering.
[Page] 10Homestake Mine: SDSU has …

Engineering@Nebraska - Spring 2007

Engineering@Nebraska (Alumni Magazine)

Table of Contents:

From the Dean
Letters
Faculty Profile—Longtime Professor is a Student Again: Electrical engineering professor Khalid Sayood is taking science courses to learn how to use his expertise in data patterns for biomedical purposes.
Front and Center
A Little Luck, A Lot of Work: Three alumni share what it’s like to run their own companies.
COVER STORY: Rebuilding New Orleans: Construction faculty and students from Omaha are helping the Esplanade Ridge neighborhood recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Magic in the Making: Lance Pérez’s wireless sensor network could make it possible for more people to live independently after an accident …

Code-Level Modeling Of The Hodgkin -Huxley Neuron Model Using An Open Source Version Of Spice, Anthony Stuart Carver

Doctoral Dissertations

There have been numerous studies presented in the literature demonstrating proof of principle neural-electronic circuitry. Some of these studies involve simulations of neural detection using synthetic electronic circuitry, while others involve simulations of neural excitation using external electronics. A common feature of these studies is the simplicity of the overall circuit topology. Some of these studies implement the circuit equations in conventional numerical ordinary differential equation solvers. This process involves the algebraic manipulation of the circuit equations which is a tedious process for all but the simplest circuit topologies. As the overall complexity of the network topology increases, the numerical …

Growth And Behavior Of Chondrocytes On Nano Engineered Surfaces And Construction Of Micropatterned Co-Culture Platforms Using Layer-By-Layer Platforms Using Layer -By -Layer Assembly Lift-Off Method, Jameel Shaik

Doctoral Dissertations

Several approaches such as self-assembled monolayers and layer-by-layer assembled multilayer films are being used as tools to study the interactions of cells with biomaterials in vitro. In this study, the layer-by-layer assembly approach was used to create monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, five, ten and twenty-bilayer beds of eleven different biomaterials. The various biomaterials used were poly(styrene-sulfonate), fibronectin, poly-L-lysine, poly-D-lysine, laminin, bovine serum albumin, chondroitin sulfate, poly(ethyleneimine), polyethylene glycol amine, collagen and poly(dimethyldiallyl-ammonium chloride) with unmodified tissue-culture polystyrene as standard control. Three different cell lines—primary bovine articular chondrocytes, and two secondary cell lines, human chondrosarcoma cells and canine chondrocytes were used in …

Impact-Induced Damage Characterization Of Composite Plates Using Neural Networks, Steve Eugene Watkins, Farhad Akhavan, Rohit Dua, K. Chandrashekhara, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Impact-induced damage in fiber-reinforced laminated composite plates is characterized. An instrumented impact tower was used to carry out low-velocity impacts on thirteen clamped glass/epoxy composite plates. A range of impact energies was experimentally investigated by progressively varying impactor masses (holding the impact height constant) and varying impact heights (holding the impactor mass constant). The in-plane strain profiles as measured by polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric sensors are shown to indicate damage initiation and to correlate to impact energy. Plate damage included matrix cracking, fiber breakage, and delamination. Electronic shearography validated the existence of the impact damage and demonstrated an actual damage …

Microwave And Millimeter Wave Nondestructive Testing And Evaluation -- Overview And Recent Advances, Sergey Kharkovsky, R. Zoughi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article focuses on three recent applications of microwave and millimeter wave NDT&E techniques that involve novel instrumentation development and measurements, including: 1) disbond detection in strengthened concrete bridge members retrofitted with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite laminates; 2) corrosion and precursor pitting detection in painted aluminum and steel substrates; and 3) detection of flaws in spray-on foam insulation and the acreage heat tiles of the Space Shuttle through focused and synthetic imaging techniques. These applications have been performed at the Applied Microwave Nondestructive Testing Laboratory (amntl) at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Adaptive Power System Stabilizers Using Artificial Immune System, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Mani Hunjan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Power system stabilizers (PSSs) are used to damp intra-area and inter-area oscillations in a power network. They provide effective supplementary control by supplying auxiliary control signals to the excitation system of the generators. The proper tuning of PSSs has a significant influence on its effectiveness in providing the required damping under different operating conditions and disturbances. Various algorithms have been successfully implemented to simultaneously design multiple optimal PSSs in power systems. As the power network's operating conditions change, the performance of PSSs degrade. Optimal PSS parameters obtained using bacteria foraging algorithm (BFA) have shown to successfully damp out system oscillations …

Cs/Bio 271: Introduction To Bioinformatics, Dan E. Krane, Michael L. Raymer

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Ceg 760-01: Advanced Software Computer Engineering, Thomas C. Hartrum

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course covers advanced topics in software engineering. Aspects of problem specification, design, verification, and evaluation are discussed. We will focus on design methods, including software patterns and software architecture, plus some advanced topics involving formal methods of software specification or evaluation using software metrics. Students will participate in team projects to apply the methods discussed.

Numerical Study Of Flow In Three-Dimensional Fiber Networks And Sedimentation Of Curved Fiber By Lattice Boltzmann Method, Xiaoying Rong

Dissertations

Fiber network is modeled as a three-dimensional random cylindrical fiber network. Nonlinear behavior of fluid flowing through the fiber network is numerically simulated by using the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. Nonlinear relationship between the friction factor and the modified Reynolds number is simulated and analyzed by using the Fochheimer equation, which includes the quadratic term of velocity. There is a transition from linear to nonlinear region when the Reynolds numbers are sufficiently high, reflecting the inertial effect of the flows. The simulated permeability of such fiber network is compared to the experimental results and the finite element simulations.

Dynamic motions …

Fpga Acceleration Of Gene Rearrangement Analysis, Jason D. Bakos

Faculty Publications

In this paper we present our work toward FPGA acceleration of phylogenetic reconstruction, a type of analysis that is commonly performed in the fields of systematic biology and comparative genomics. In our initial study, we have targeted a specific application that reconstructs maximum-parsimony (MP) phylogenies for gene-rearrangement data. Like other prevalent applications in computational biology, this application relies on a control-dependent, memory-intensive, and non-arithmetic combinatorial optimization algorithm. To achieve hardware acceleration, we developed an FPGA core design that implements the application's primary bottleneck computation. Because our core is lightweight, we are able to synthesize multiple cores on a single FPGA. …

Biodesulphurization Within Natural Gas In Oil And Gas Field, Sri Astuti Rahayu, M. Fierdaus, Syafrizal Syafrizal, M. Udiharto

Makara Journal of Technology

The presence of sulphur compounds in natural gas can interfere to the quality of natural gas. The decline of combustion gas capacity, metal instrument corrosion in gas piping, and the environmental pollution from gas emission can affect by their presence. Bio-filter is one of the methods that selected to reduce sulphur content in natural gas. A lab scale study of hydrogen sulphide reduction in natural gas had conducted in oil and gas field using bio-filter method. The bio-filter system (±1 L volume) contains an active carbon and thiosulphide medium as a substrate, Thiobacillus thioparus as a single culture of sulphur …

Statistical Analysis Of Joint Short-Term And Long-Term Survival In Resuscitation Research, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Objective: To develop statistical tools that utilize combined initial survival data and post-resuscitation survival data to test the null hypothesis that true, population-wide outcomes following experimental CPR interventions are not different from control. Method: A new test statistic, d2, for evaluating Type 1 error is derived from a bivariate, two-dimensional analysis of categorical initial resuscitation and post-resuscitation survival data, which are statistically independent because they are obtained during non-overlapping periods of time. The d2 test statistic, which is distributed as a chi-squared distribution, is derived from first principles and validated using Monte Carlo methods of computer simulation for thousands of …

2007 Survey Of Summer Sessions Students At The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

During Summer 2007, UNL Summer Sessions (FlexEd) surveyed summer students to learn about their experience in taking a summer course(s). The survey results will offer confirmation of what we are doing well and will provide guidance on areas of improvement and better strategies for marketing UNL summer opportunities. A total of 227 students completed the survey. Fifteen summer classes were selected to complete a paper-based or electronic version of the survey. The classes were from three different summer sessions and used different delivery mechanisms (on-campus, studio, distance education).

Survey Of The Golden-Cheeked Warbler On Fort Hood In Support Of Nepa Requirements, Bruce Macallister, Tim Hayden, Michael Baranski, Rebecca Peak

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

This research on the golden-cheeked warbler (GCW) was con-ducted on Fort Hood, Texas, during April and June 2006. Subject matter experts on Fort Hood were consulted and helped determine which areas of the installation contained suitable GCW habitat but were not already included in The Nature Conservancy’s intensive study program. Researchers then surveyed one of these areas, documenting the presence of GCW. This research was conducted to determine if data collected in the intensive study area has been successfully extrapolated to other areas of habitat on the installation.

The collected data showed that the territory density was lower than those …

Potential Of Agricultural Residues And Hay For Bioethanol Production, Ye Chen, Ratna R. Sharma-Shivappa, Deepak R. Keshwani, Chengci Chen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Production of bioethanol from agricultural residues and hays (wheat, barley, and triticale straws, and barley, triticale, pearl millet, and sweet sorghum hays) through a series of chemical pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation processes was investigated in this study. Composition analysis suggested that the agricultural straws and hays studied contained approximately 28.62–38.58% glucan, 11.19–20.78% xylan, and 22.01–27.57% lignin, making them good candidates for bioethanol production. Chemical pretreatment with sulfuric acid or sodium hydroxide at concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0% indicated that concentration and treatment agent play a significant role during pretreatment. After 2.0% sulfuric acid pretreatment at 121°C/15 psi for …

Production Of Medium Chain Length Polyhydroxyalkanoates From Oleic Acid Using Pseudomonas Putida Pga1 By Fed Batch Culture, Sidik Marsudi, Irene K.P. Tan, Seng Neon Gan, K. B. Ramachandran

Makara Journal of Technology

Bacterial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a class of polymers currently receiving much attention because of their potential as renewable and biodegradable plastics. A wide variety of bacteria has been reported to produce PHAs including Pseudomonas strains. These strains are known as versatile medium chain length PHAs (PHAs-mcl) producers using fatty acids as carbon source. Oleic acid was used to produce PHAs-mcl using Pseudomonas putida PGA 1 by continuous feeding of both nitrogen and carbon source, in a fed batch culture. During cell growth, PHAs also accumulated, indicating that PHA production in this organism is growth associated. Residual cell increased until the …