Digital Commons Network^™

Precipitation And Inter-Event Dry Periods For Selected Areas Of Florida, Teresa Rae Lineback

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The increase in the pollution of existing water bodies due to poor management of storwater runoff has demanded continuous re-evaluation of present design methods for stormwater management facilities. Current criteria used in determining water quality (treatment) volumes in pond design neglect antecedent conditions resulting from preceding rainfall. The inter-event dry period refers to that time period (hours) which occurs between rainfall events. The

minimum inter-event dry period used for pollution control design should be consistent with the time required for infiltration, chemical precipitation, sediment removal, and biological assimilation; as well as the period of time required to minimize the cumulative …

Design Curves For The Reuse Of Stormwater, Gregory Miller Harper

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The reuse of stormwater runoff is becoming an increasingly popular addition to stormwater management systems. The advantages include a reduction in pollution and volume discharges to surface waters, the return of runoff to the ground, and savings in the cost of using potable water. This research, by developing a relationship between the reuse volume (temporary storage volume), the rate at which stormwater is reused, and the percentage of annual surface runoff that is reused, provides a procedure in which to design stormwater reuse systems. The traditional design of pond temporary storage volume has been based on the consideration of water …

An Analysis Of The Parameters Affecting The Stabilization Rate Of Yard Waste Compost, Patricia G. Fleming

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

In recent times, municipalities have turned to yard waste composting in an effort to comply with mandated recycling and reduction laws aimed at extending existing landfill capacity. Composting is a biological process whereby decomposition of organic matter occurs under aerobic conditions, producing a stabilized humified material. The objective of the research was to analyze data gathered during pilot yard waste composting operations utilizing the windrow method. The following tasks were accomplished: temperature and oxygen profiles from daily monitoring data were examined and the effect these parameters had on stabilization was determined; stabilization time of varying yard waste matrices was compared …

Assessing Pesticide Contamination To Groundwater: A Rapid Approach, Majid Ehteshami, Richard C. Peralta, Hubert Eisele, Howard M. Deer, Terry Tindall

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A methodology has been developed for identifying hazardous pesticides/site combinations threatening ground-water contamination. Screening methodologies are required to determine which locations and pesticides now in use should receive the greatest attention to safeguard the public health. The presented method uses a hazard to ground-water hydrogeological screening model (DRASTIC) and employs a one-dimensional pesticide transport model ( CMLS). The method is an efficient and practical technique to identify where particular combinations of pesticides, water management practices, soils, and geology result in the greatest potential hazard to ground-water contamination. Use of the presented approach can reduce sampling needs and expense.

A Computer Simulation Model Of Waterhyacinth And Weevil Interactions, Kunter S. Akbay, F. G. Howell, J. W. Wooten

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A personal computer simulation model termed "INSECT" has been developed to evaluate biological control of waterhyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms.) by two species of weevil (Neochetina eichhorniae Warner, and N. bruchi Hustache). The model results were compared with the data from three different locations. For each data set, the simulated plant biomass, adult and larva populations were plotted against the 95% confidence intervals of the actual field observations. In many cases, the simulation results were within the 95% confidence intervals, and especially during the growing season, they indicated trends similar to those seen in the field data. However, there were …

Using Optimization And Simulation Techniques To Estimate Initial Weevil Populations, Kunter S. Akbay

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, a mathematical programming and simulation method is used to estimate the number of weevils (Neochetina bruchi Hustache, and N. eichhorniae Warner) necessary to initialize the INSECT model which simulates the biological control of waterhyacinth by the weevils. The objective is to estimate the initial input values for the adult population so that the sum of the absolute differences between the observed and the simulated numbers of weevils is minimized. In general, the simulated values using the initial values obtained from the mathematical programming problem were within the 95% confidence intervals of the actual field observations. Also, in …

Adaptive Stack Filtering By Lms And Perceptron Learning, Yu-Chou Huang

Theses

Stack filters are a class of sliding?window nonlinear digital filters that possess the weak superposition property(threshold decomposition) and the ordering property known as the stacking property. They have been demonstrated to be robust in suppressing noise. Two methods are introduced in this thesis to adaptively configure a stack filter. One is by employing the Least Mean Square(LMS) algorithm and the other is based on Perceptron learning.

Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods to noise suppression.

Molecular Modeling Studies Of Anatoxin Agonist Analogues, Qizhan Yao

Theses

Thirty two anatoxin agonist analogues were investigated by means of computerassisted molecular modeling studies to delinate factors that may contribute to potency. The structures were generated from the fragment libraries from the SYBYL program, and minimized by the MM2 program. Then a systematic conformational search was done based on the global minimized structures to get bioactive conformations.

Ten agonists were further studied after the conformation optimization. The most potent agonists among these analogues, (+)-anatoxin-a (11), about 300 times as potent as carbamylcholine, severed as a template for the rest to examine the superimposability of the hydrogen bonding acceptor site and …

An Integrated Circuit X-Ray Sensing Array Based On A Cmos Flip-Flop Cell, Huan-Chung Lee

Theses

A novel X-ray sensor IC has beeli designed which counts individual photons at rates up to 5,000,000 counts per second. A two-dimensional X-ray flip-flop sensor array, consisting of an 30 x 30 matrix of CMOS flip-flop sensors integrated in one chip together with an internal clock generator and access selection circuitry is described. A flip-flop sensing cell contains cross-coupled CMOS devices, one of which is connected to a large-area reverse-biased diode. A large area diode exposed to X-ray flux triggers the flip-flop. By reading out the final stable state of the flip-flop, the absence or presence of an X-ray photon …

Temperature Scale-Up On Rotating Biological Contactor Nitrification System, Kuanchun Lee

Theses

The relationship between RBC scale-up factor (SUF) and wastewater temperature is successfully developed by using Dr. Wu's mathematical model as a basis and 114 sets of data from the operation of 8 full-scale and 5 pilot-scale RBC plants served for NH3-N removal. The SUF obtained from this study is put into practice to present the scale-up of hydraulic loading for basic full-scale RBC plant design when the pilot study results are known and the design efficiency is fixed. An additional study is made to investigate two different RBC products manufactured by Autotrol Inc. and Lyco Inc. in terms of the …

The Dewaterability Of Anaerobically-Digested Sludges, Hui-Ching Lee

Theses

Vacuum filtration is the most common method used for sludge dewatering. Filtering or dewatering was operated to reduce the moisture content of the sludge after anaerobic digestion treatment.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the operating conditions of anaerobic digestion system on specific resistance in sludge filtration. The anaerobic sludges used for the present study were produced from the conventional single stage system and the multiple-stage system. From the experimental results, presently obtained that it is possible to compare the advantage and disadvantage of the two different digestion systems.

In addition, the effectiveness of …

Experimental Study On Filterability Of Leukocytes, Qi Wang

Theses

The filterability of leukocytes treated with A23187, Cytochalasin B, PAF and FMLP and pumped through 5 µm polycarbonate filters at a constant flow rate was examined. The concentration of the four agents was systematically varied. The filtration pressure was continuously recorded for data analysis. The pressure-time curves generally showed multiphasic components, following a small jump step at the beginning of the filtration process. The pressure rise was initially fast (initial faster increased phase, IP) and then rose more slowly (later slower increased phase, LP). The leukocytes treated with A23187 showed increased IP and higher LP values; those which were treated …

Biodegradation Of Hexachlorocyclohexane In Sand And Wastewater Using Immobilized Phanerochaete Chrysosporum, Ajaykumar C. Gami

Theses

The present study was carried out in order to assess the ability of Phanerochaete chysosporium to degrade lindane (hexachlorocyclohexane) in sand as well as in water. It was found that the fungus is immobilized on saw dust, it is able to degrade lindane in a packed-bed reactor configuration, with a first-order rate constant of 0.00066min^-1. The fungus is also able to degrade lindane in sand. As with the packed-bed reactor, a supplemental carbon source (glucose) is required. In this study it was found that a glucose concentration of 20 gm/kg of sand, and 40% w/w moisture content, give …

Estimating 3-D Motion And Structure Parameters Of A Rigid Planar Object By Establishing Landmark Correspondences, Herman Agustiawan

Theses

The application of a landmark based approach in recognizing 3-D rigid planar objects[3] along with two different motion and structure estimation algorithm [21][23] have been studied to perform motion and structure estimation tasks of moving objects. The recognition algorithm is based on a sphericity value derived from affine transformation that maps feature points in the object under observation from first to second view in the 2-D image space. The motion and structure estimation algorithm is based on a unique mapping given four or more feature point correspondences.

More than ten experiments have been done including small and large rigid motions. …

Speech Coding And Compression Using Wavelets And Lateral Inhibitory Networks, Richard Ricart

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce the concept of lateral inhibition as a generalized technique for compressing time/frequency representations of electromagnetic and acoustical signals, particularly speech. This requires at least a rudimentary treatment of the theory of frames-which generalizes most commonly known time/frequency distributions--the biology of hearing, and digital signal processing. As such, this material, along with the interrelationships of the disparate subjects, is presented in a tutorial style. This may leave the mathematician longing for more rigor, the neurophysiological psychologist longing for more substantive support of the hypotheses presented, and the engineer longing for a reprieve from …

Characterization Of Radar Signals Using Neural Networks, Daniel R. Zahirniak

Theses and Dissertations

Recent work concerning artificial neural networks has focused on decreasing network training times. Kernel Classifier networks, using radial basis functions (RBFs) as the kernel function, can be trained quickly with little performance degradation. Short training times are critical for systems which must adapt to changing environments. The function of Kernel Classifier networks is based on the principle that multivariate functions can be approximated via linear combinations of RBFs. RBFs can also perform probability density estimations, making classifications approximating a Baye's optimal descriminant. Methods used to set the RBF centers included matching the training data, Kohonen Training, K-Means Clustering and placement …

A Multi-Scale Approach For Recognizing Complex Annotations In Engineering Documents., Andrew Francis Laine, William Ball, Arun Kumar

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

This paper describes a novel method of character recognition targeted for extracting complex annotations found in engineering documents. The results of this work will make it possible to capture the information contained in documents used to support facilities management and manufacturing. The recognition problem is made difficult in part because characters and text may be expressed in arbitrary fonts and orientations. Our approach includes a novel incremental strategy based on the multi-scale representation of wavelet decompositions. Our approach is motivated by biological mechanisms of the human visual systems. Using wavelets as a set of basis functions, we may decompose an …

Brightness Invariant Port Recognition For Robotic Aircraft Refueling, Richard A. Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis effort was to develop and test a brightness invariant recognition algorithm that would locate and identify the half-scale mock up of a Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI) aerial refueling port in different lightening conditions. This was accomplished by developing a brightness invariant port recognition of identifiable attributes of the refueling port to locate and identify the UARRSI port. Based on this approach, a brightness invariant port recognition system (BIPRS) was demonstrated which identified the refueling receptacle in different lightening conditions. The BIPRS was also invariant to orientation and size of the UARRSI port. …

Investigation Of The High Angle Of Attack Dynamics Of The F-15b Using Bifurcation Analysis, Robert J. Mcdonnell

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies predicted the F-15B high angle of attack and flat spin behavior using bifurcation analysis. These studies varied control surface deflections to find equilibrium and periodic solutions. The purpose of this research was to use bifurcation analysis to predict the F-15B high angle attack and flat spin behavior as a result of variable thrust, asymmetric thrust, and thrust vectoring. Using a previously developed model of the F-15, bifurcation analysis and continuation methods were used to map out the equilibrium and periodic solutions of the model as a function of the thrust parameters. A baseline bifurcation diagram, as a function …

Lake Mead Nutrient Enhancement Project, Peter D. Vaux, Larry J. Paulson, Nevada Department Of Wildlife, National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration

Publications (WR)

The Lake Mead Fertilization Project is a research program designed to investigate the potential for using large-scale artificial fertilization to enhance the game fisheries of this reservoir through an increase in the population of threadfin shad, the system's primary forage species. A substantial decline in the population of largemouth bass, together with poor condition of adult striped bass, are the two major issues affecting the Lake Mead game fisheries. Both issues have been hypothesized to be a result of an inadequate amount of forage in the reservoir. Previous studies have in turn suggested that a major factor limiting the shad …

Fractal Geometry Segmentation Of High Resolution Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar Data, Joseph L. Brickey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated the potential of fractal dimension estimation for segmenting high resolution polarimetric synthetic aperture radar. The data used during this research were collected with the Advanced Detection Technology Sensor (ADTS) developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funding. ADTS is a fully polarimetric calibrated 35 GHz SAR with one foot impulse response. A method of applying the correlation dimension algorithm developed by Grassberger and Procaccia for estimating the dimension of time series data was implemented to estimate the correlation dimension of polarimetric SAR data. A threshold sensitivity study was performed to …

Gabor Filters And Neural Networks For Segmentation Of Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery, Albert P. L'Homme

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates Gabor filters and artificial networks for autonomous segmentation of 1 foot by 1 foot) high resolution polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Processing involved frequency correlation between the SAR imagery and biologically motivated Gabor functions. Methods for selecting the Gabor tuning parameters from the endless choices of frequency, rotation, standard deviation and bandwidth are discussed. Using these parameters, resulting Gabor correlation images were reduced in speckle, and more detailed. This research used cosine Gabor functions and operated on single polarization HH magnitude data. Following selection of the appropriate Gabor features, multiple Gabor representations were generated and converted for …

Digital Control Of The Utah/Mit Dexterous Hand: Initial Evaluation And Analysis, Lloyd W. Rainey Iii

Theses and Dissertations

An experimental digital platform is developed as an environment on which to evaluate digital control strategies for dexterous manipulation with a pneumatically actuated tendon-driven manipulator. This environment is used to begin the study of advanced control methods that are suitable for providing the tracking accuracy required for grasping and dexterous manipulation with a pneumatically actuated tendon-driven end-effector. The digital platform consists of a PC/AT-386 and a single board MC68020 microcomputer in a VME chassis with shared RAM between the two processors to control the Utah/MIT Dexterous Hand (UMDH). The MC68020 controls the A/D and D/A access for the UMDH, while …

A Procedure For Performance Assessment Of Drugs Hypothesized To Be Effective In Controlling Motion Sickness, Zainab N. Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is conducting research into the effectiveness of certain drugs for controlling motion sickness. If the drugs are found to be useful, they must still be proven to have no harmful effects on the operator's performance abilities. There are many methods for assessing performance effects of drugs but very little standardization exists. The Unified Tri-Services Cognitive Performance Assessment Battery (UTC-PAB) is a performance assessment method designed to be used by all military branches. This will encourage standardization of drug testing, exchange of data, and comparability of methods. Five tests were chosen from the UTC-PAB …

Application Of Influence Diagrams In Identifying Soviet Satellite Missions, Cary C. Chun

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the feasibility of applying influence diagrams to capture expert knowledge and incorporate decision theory to construct a Soviet satellite mission prediction model. Before a Soviet launch occurs, formulations of the model's prior probability distribution allows the input of expert knowledge and any available information. As the predictive variables of the model become known, the information is used to successively refine the estimate of the probable mission, thereby, reducing the uncertainty in the model. Discretizing is used to approximate continuous variables as discrete variables which successfully allows the combination of both variable types in a single influence diagram …

Characterization Of Multilayer Perceptrons And Their Application To Multisensor Automatic Target Detection, Dennis W. Ruck

Theses and Dissertations

The multilayer perceptron was extensively analyzed. A technique for analyzing the multilayer perceptron, the saliency measure, was developed which provides a measure of the importance of inputs. The method was compared to the conventional statistical technique of best features and shown to provide similar rankings of the input. Using the saliency measure, it is shown that the multilayer perceptron effectively ignores useless inputs and that whether it is trained using backpropagation or extended Kalman filtering, the weighting of the inputs is the same. The backpropagation training algorithm is shown to be a degenerate version of the extended Kalman filter. The …

Hydraulic Characteristics Of Rills, John E. Gilley, E. R. Kottwitz, J. R. Simanton

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Rill density and rill flow rates were determined during rainfall simulation tests conducted at 11 sites located throughout the eastern United States. A mean rill density of 1.0 rills/m was found for the study locations. From measurements of the relative distribution of flow rates, a procedure is identified for partitioning flow between individual rills.

Regression equations were developed for relating rill width and hydraulic roughness coefficients to flow rate. Equations were also derived for predicting mean flow velocity from visually determined measurements of advance velocity. Information reported in this study can be used to estimate hydraulic characteristics of rills.

Ridge Plant Systems: Fertility, Richard B. Ferguson, Charles A. Shapiro, Elbert C. Dickey, Gary W. Hergert

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The Soil Sample

The starting point for any fertilizer program, regardless of the tillage system, is obtaining a representative soil sample. Without knowing which nutrients are needed, the questions of what fertilizer and how much to apply become irrelevant. Two types of soil samples should be obtained: the traditional, zero to 8-inch sample for general fertility (pH, phosphorus, potassium, organic matter, etc.) and deep, subsoil samples for nitrate. Subsoil samples for nitrate should be taken to a depth of at least 3 feet.

The problem of how to obtain a representative soil sample is particularly relevant in ridge-tilled fields. On …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, October 1990, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

An eight page newsletter created by the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science that addresses the current affairs of the college.

Monolithic Induction-Sourced Ac-To-Dc Power Supply Design, Jianhua Chen

Theses

This thesis describes techniques with design nomographs for supplying power to CMOS and microelectromechanical implanted devices. These applications require voltages in the range of 5 to 50 volts. Different kinds of voltage multiplier circuits were used to achieve high voltage output. The AC-to-DC and DC-to-DC capacitive bootstrap voltage multipliers are designed and analyzed. The AC-to-DC and DC-to-DC inductive bootstrap voltage multiplier circuits are presented and the SPICE simulations are done with those circuits. Four different options of inductive link high voltage power supply are presented, analyzed and compared. The link parameters of two VLSI-compatible square-shaped coils are calculated in both …