Digital Commons Network^™

Approximate Analysis Of An Unreliable M/M/2 Retrial Queue, Brian P. Crawford

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers the performance evaluation of an M/M/2 retrial queue for which both servers are subject to active and idle breakdowns. Customers may abandon service requests if they are blocked from service upon arrival, or if their service is interrupted by a server failure. Customers choosing to remain in the system enter a retrial orbit for a random amount of time before attempting to re-access an available server. We assume that each server has its own dedicated repair person, and repairs begin immediately following a failure. Interfailure times, repair times and times between retrials are exponentially distributed, and all …

Patterns Of War Termination: A Statistical Approach, Paul D. Robinson Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This research uses an advanced statistical technique to expand upon the current understanding of war termination. Specifically, this thesis addressed questions concerning the most relevant factors toward predicting both the outcomes of interstate wars and the winners of intrastate and extra-systemic wars, within the limitations of the available data. Open-source war data from the Correlates of War Project was analyzed using both binary and multinomial logistic regression techniques. While the Correlates of War Project did not necessarily focus its data collection efforts on those variables historically associated with war termination, it did provide a sufficient number of variables with which …

Mathematical Programming Model For Fighter Training Squadron Pilot Scheduling, Thomas M. Newlon

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force fighter training squadrons build weekly schedules using a long and tedious process. Very little of this process is automated and optimality of any kind is nearly impossible. Schedules are built to a feasible condition only to be changed with consideration of Wing level requirements. Weekly flying schedules are restricted by requirements for crew rest, days since a pilot's last sortie, sorties in the last 30 days, and sorties in the last 90 days. By providing a scheduling model to the pilot charged with creating the schedule, valuable pilot hours could be spent in the cockpit, …

A Future-Based Risk Assessment For The Survivability Of Long Range Strike Systems, William D. Heuck Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force today faces the challenge of allocating development resources to prepare for future force projection requirements. In particular, the Air Force's core competency of Global Attack implies a future capability that can quickly and successfully deliver combat effects anywhere in the world with impunity. Understanding that the future threat environment is dynamic and that continued advancements by adversaries will likely degrade the technical superiority of today's weapon systems, the need arises for a planning model to direct development funding to areas with the greatest probability of successfully defending the strike vehicle of 2035. Examining this problem …

Passive Geolocation Of Low Power Emitters In Urban Environments Using Tdoa, Myrna B. Montminy

Theses and Dissertations

Low-power devices are commonly used by the enemy to control Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and as communications nodes for command and control. Quickly locating the source of these signals is difficult, especially in an urban environment where buildings and towers can cause interference. This research presents a geolocation system that combines several geolocation and error mitigation methods to locate an emitter in an urban environment. The proposed geolocation system uses a Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) technique to estimate the location of the emitter of interest. Using sensors at known locations, TDOA estimates are obtained by cross-correlating the signal received …

Filling The Ontology Space For Coalition Battle Management Language, Charles Turnitsa, Curtis Blais, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

The Coalition Battle Management Language is a language for representing and exchanging plans, orders, and reports across live, constructive and robotic forces in multi-service, multi-national and multi-organizational operations. Standardization efforts in the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization seek to define this language through three parallel activities: (1) specify a sufficient data model to unambiguously define a set of orders using the Joint Command, Control, and Consultation Information Exchange Data Model (JC3IEDM) as a starting point; (2) develop a formal grammar (lexicon and production rules) to formalize the definition of orders, requests, and reports; (3) develop a formal battle management ontology to …

2006/07 Research And Development, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Electrical and Computer Engineering Newsletter

• Swarm Behavior
• Expanding Your Horizons @ WMU Engineering
• Design of a Reconfigurable Digital Architecture for Fuzzy Automata
• Rehabilitation Engineering
• Integrated Smart Wireless SAW Sensors and Systems
• Early Detection of Prostate Cancer
• Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) conference provides research opportunities to WMU students

Concepts For The Nanosat- 5 Satellite Design Competition, Sunil C. Aggarwal

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

This paper presents feasible small space satellite missions which are of interest to the U.S. Air Force and can be used to get selected and win the NANOSAT-5 satellite design competition. Some thought on which of these missions can be used by the University of Missouri-Rolla to successfully take part in the competition have also been presented.

Army Research Needs For Automated Neuropsychological Tests: Monitoring Soldier Health And Performance Status, Karl E. Friedl, Stephen J. Grate, Susan P. Proctor, James W. Ness, Brian J. Lukey, Robert L. Kane

United States Army: Publications

Information on the mental status of soldiers operating at the limits of human tolerance will be vital to their management in future deployments; it may also allow earlier intervention for conditions such as undiagnosed Gulf War illnesses and Parkinson’s Disease. The Army needs a parsimonious set of neuropsychological tests that reliably identify subtle changes for: (1) early detection of individual health and military performance impairments and (2) management of occupational and deployment health risks. Testing must characterize cognitive lapses in healthy individuals faced with relevant operational stressors (i.e., anxiety, information overload, thermal strain, hypoxia, fatigue, head impact, chemical or radiation …

An In Vitro Comparative Study On The Reactivation Of Nerve Agent-Inhibited Guinea Pig And Human Acetylcholinesterases By Oximes, Chunyuan Luo, Min Tong, Nageswararao Chilukuri, Karen Brecht, Donald M. Maxwell, Ashima Saxena

United States Army: Publications

The reactivation of nerve agent-inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by oxime is the most important step in the treatment of nerve agent poisoning. Since the evaluation of nerve agent antidotes cannot be conducted in humans, results from animal experiments are extrapolated to humans. Guinea pig is one of the animal models that is frequently used for conducting nerve agent antidote evaluations. Several investigations have demonstrated that the efficacy of an oxime primarily depends on its ability to reactivate nerve agent-inhibited AChE. If the in Vitro oxime reactivation of nerve agent-inhibited animal AChE is similar to that of human AChE, it is likely …

United States Air Force Posture Statement 2007, U.S. Air Force

United States Air Force: Publications

Our 2007 Posture Statement articulates the major elements required to fulfill our mission. It reaffirms our commitment to focus our energies on the Global War on Terror; to develop and care for our Airmen and their families; and to recapitalize and modernize our aging aircraft, spacecraft and equipment.

Cell Bank Characterization And Fermentation Optimization For Production Of Recombinant Heavy Chain C-Terminal Fragment Of Botulinum Neurotoxin Serotype E (Rbonte(HC): Antigen E) By Pichia Pastoris, Jayanta Sinha, Mehmet Inan, Sarah Fanders, Shinichi Taoka, Mark Gouthro, Todd Swanson, Rick Barent, Ardis Barthuli, Bonnie M. Loveless, Leonard A. Smith, Theresa Smith, Ian Henderson, John Ross, Michael M. Meagher

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

A process was developed for production of a candidate vaccine antigen, recombinant C-terminal heavy chain fragment of the botulinum neurotoxin serotype E, rBoNTE(H_c)in Pichia pastoris. P. pastoris strain GS115 was transformed with the rBoNTE(H_c) gene inserted into pHILD4 Escherichia coli—P. pastoris shuttle plasmid. The clone was characterized for genetic stability, copy number, and BoNTE(H_c) sequence. Expression of rBoNTE(H_c) from the Mut⁺ HIS4 clone was confirmed in the shake-flask, prior to developing a fed-batch fermentation process at 5 and 19 L scale. The fermentation process consists of a glycerol growth phase in …

Analysis Of Vertical Takeoff And Landing (Vtol) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Ua V) With Emphasis On Tilt Duct And Tilt Rotor Systems, Devin Boyle

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

No abstract provided.

Securitycom: A Multi-Player Game For Researching And Teaching Information Security Teams, Douglas P. Twitchell

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

A major portion of government and business organizations’ attempts to counteract information security threats is teams of security personnel. These teams often consist of personnel of diverse backgrounds in specific specialties such as network administration, application development, and business administration, resulting in possible conflicts between security, functionality, and availability. This paper discusses the use of games to teach and research information security teams and outlines research to design and build a simple, team-oriented, configurable, information security game. It will be used to study how information security teams work together to defend against attacks using a multi-player game, and to study …

A Simple Laboratory Experiment For The Measurement Of Single Phase Permeability, Ali R. Zand, Yuri Sikorski, Matthew S. Sanders, Homayun K. Navaz

Mechanical Engineering Publications

A simple experiment for measuring single-phase permeability of fully saturated porous medium is introduced. The experiment utilizes radial flow of a non-volatile wetting fluid through a porous medium such as ceramic tile, concrete or sand. The radial position of flow front is measured as a function of time and the collected data are analyzed using Darcy's Law to determine the permeability. In addition, the phenomenon of the multiphase flow through the medium with a broad pore size distribution is demonstrated.

Recognizing Teamwork Activity In Observations Of Embodied Agents, Linus Jan Luotsinen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents contributions to the theory and practice of team activity recognition. A particular focus of our work was to improve our ability to collect and label representative samples, thus making the team activity recognition more efficient. A second focus of our work is improving the robustness of the recognition process in the presence of noisy and distorted data. The main contributions of this thesis are as follows: We developed a software tool, the Teamwork Scenario Editor (TSE), for the acquisition, segmentation and labeling of teamwork data. Using the TSE we acquired a corpus of labeled team actions both …

Assessment Of The Contribution Of Game-Based Simulation In The Advancement Of Individual Soldier Intelligence Gathering Skills, Carlos Wiley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-directed Learning Internet Modules based on gaming technology are making tremendous strides as tools to current training system for our military services. Currently, the US Army is testing the Every Soldier is a Sensor Simulation software (ES3) as part of the Every Soldiers a Sensor program that focuses on intelligence gathering and maintaining situational awareness. The primary training goal of this simulation is the training of individual soldiers on conducting "Active Surveillance" and "Threat Indicator Identification" where the soldier is an active participant in the process. Traditional training in intelligence gathering is based largely on cold war models. As a …

Optimizing The Design Of Multimodal User Interfaces, Leah Reeves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to a current lack of principle-driven multimodal user interface design guidelines, designers may encounter difficulties when choosing the most appropriate display modality for given users or specific tasks (e.g., verbal versus spatial tasks). The development of multimodal display guidelines from both a user and task domain perspective is thus critical to the achievement of successful human-system interaction. Specifically, there is a need to determine how to design task information presentation (e.g., via which modalities) to capitalize on an individual operator's information processing capabilities and the inherent efficiencies associated with redundant sensory information, thereby alleviating information overload. The present effort …

Heating Methods And Detection Limits For Infrared Thermography Inspection Of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites, Jeff R. Brown, H. R. Hamilton

Publications

The use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites to strengthen existing civil infrastructure is expanding rapidly. Many FRP systems used to strengthen reinforced concrete are applied using a wet lay-up method in which dry fibers are saturated on site and then applied to the surface. This research investigated using infrared thermography (IRT) as a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) tool for detecting air voids and epoxy-filled holes in FRP systems bonded to a concrete substrate. Four small-scale specimens with FRP thicknesses ranging from 1 to 4 mm (0.04 to 0.16 in.) containing fabricated defects were constructed and inspected in a laboratory setting. Three …

Information Governance: A Model For Security In Medical Practice, Patricia A. Williams

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Information governance is becoming an important aspect of organisational accountability. In consideration that information is an integral asset of most organisations, the protection of this asset will increasingly rely on organisational capabilities in security. In the medical arena this information is primarily sensitive patient-based information. Previous research has shown that application of security measures is a low priority for primary care medical practice and that awareness of the risks are seriously underestimated. Consequently, information security governance will be a key issue for medical practice in the future. Information security governance is a relatively new term and there is little existing …

Book Review: Conquest In Cyberspace: National Security And Information Warfare, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This is the Book Review column for the JDFSL. It is an experiment to broaden the services that the journal provides to readers, so we are anxious to get your reaction. Is the column useful and interesting? Should we include more than one review per issue? Should we also review products? Do you have suggested books/products for review and/or do you want to write a review? All of this type of feedback -- and more -- is appreciated. Please feel free to send comments to Gary Kessler ([email protected]) or Glenn Dardick ([email protected]).

The Evolution Of Internet Legal Regulation In Addressing Crime And Terrorism, Murdoch Watney

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Internet regulation has evolved from self-regulation to the criminalization of conduct to state control of information available, accessed and submitted. Criticism has been leveled at the different forms of state control and the methods employed to enforce state control. After the terrorist attack on the USA on 11 September 2001, governments justify Internet state control as a law enforcement and national security tool against the abuse and misuse of the Internet for the commission of serious crimes, such as phishing, child pornography; terrorism and copyright infringement. Some Internet users and civil rights groups perceive state control as an abomination which …

Computational Study Of Flow Over Elliptic Airfoils For Rotor/Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Applications, Timothy William Assel

Masters Theses

"The purpose of this study will be to conduct a parametric investigation on the performance of elliptic airfoils for Rotor/Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The objective of this study is to conduct a two-dimensional, aerodynamic analysis on a various elliptic airfoil parameters, compare the reults of the analysis with theoretical predictions and experimental results, and evaluate handling and performance characteristics of Rotor/Wing UAVs during hover, transition, and forward flight"--Abstract, page iii.

Modular Architecting For Effects Based Operations, Emel Meteoglu

Masters Theses

"Effects Based Operations (EBO) is a way of thinking for planning, executing and assessing any operations for the effects they produce, rather than dealing with actions, targets or even objectives. The literature on EBO has been growing day by day; however, there is still a need for modeling techniques and tools that provide more efficient and effective effects based assessment, planning and analysis in order to further develop the capabilities of the operations. In this context, this thesis presents an introduction to EBO by focusing on its methodology, its challenges and also its applicability in different systems. Moreover, this thesis …

Development, Modeling, And Simulation Of A Nano Aerial Vehicle Using Empirical Data, Wyatt Emery Davenport

Masters Theses

"The ultimate goals of this study were to use experimental data to estimate the flight capabilities of a flapping wing nano aerial vehicle (NAV), estimate the power required to provide such flight, and develop a controller approach for future use in the design of this aircraft. The experimental data is a collection of measurements of the normal force on a flapping wing taken in stationary water, and was used to develop empirical coefficient derivatives for use in the dynamic modeling of the NAV"--Abstract, page iii.

Hybrid Photonic Signal Processing, Farzan Naseer Ghauri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes research of novel hybrid photonic signal processing systems in the areas of optical communications, test and measurement, RF signal processing and extreme environment optical sensors. It will be shown that use of innovative hybrid techniques allows design of photonic signal processing systems with superior performance parameters and enhanced capabilities. These applications can be divided into domains of analog-digital hybrid signal processing applications and free-space--fiber-coupled hybrid optical sensors. The analog-digital hybrid signal processing applications include a high-performance analog-digital hybrid MEMS variable optical attenuator that can simultaneously provide high dynamic range as well as high resolution attenuation controls; an …

Reactive Oxygen Emission From Microwave Discharge Plasmas, S. Popovic, M. Rašković, S. P. Kuo, L. Vuskovic

Physics Faculty Publications

Metastable oxygen atoms and molecules have received increased interest because of their function in surface modification, bio-decontamination and many other industrial applications, in addition to the role in the upper atmospheric layer chemistry. We review work on production and detection of metastable oxygen and we describe our experiments, including the development of techniques for measurement of metastable molecular oxygen. We show that either metastable oxygen molecules or metastable oxygen atoms can be produced in large quantities in electrical discharges, carefully tailored to promote the required kinetics. Although the two species may coexist, colder discharge regimes favor production of molecules, while …

Acoustic Wave Sensors, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Modern office buildings are generally considered safe and healthful working environments. However, energy conservation measures have minimized the infiltration of outside air and contributed to the buildup of indoor air contaminants. Three products manufactured by Microsensor Systems Inc. are introduced: HAZMATCAD, CW Sentry Plus, MiniCAD MKII.

Air Ventilation Protection System For Building Security, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

The new technology to solve the limitation of conventional Collective protection equipment (CPE) system has been developed as "Combined ESP/ESF/PCO and microfibrous media CPE application". This concept of this new technology is the combination of the both systems; 1) Microfibrous Material Technology, and 2) Photocataytic Oxidation Technology.

Recycled Plastic Composite Railroad Crossties, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) led a team that developed, demonstrated, and patented innovative recycled plastic composite material for use as railroad crossties to replace chemically-treated wood ties. Replacement of turnout ties is a major cost item because of the size and complexity of these components. Since the mid-1990s CERL has conducted research on composite RR ties made of recycled post-consumer waste plastics. Because these plastic composite ties are inherently resistant to moisture damage, rot, and insect attack, they require no chemical treatments as do wood ties.