Digital Commons Network^™

A Geochemical Investigation Of Co₂ Sequestration And Site Characterization At Two Missouri Locations, Robert Allen Swain

Masters Theses

"The feasibility of sequestering CO₂ in saline aquifers of Lamotte Formation sandstone was investigated at wells located near Thomas Hill power plant, Moberly, MO and Sioux City Power Plant in Florissant, MO. Governing factors of using aquifers for CO₂ disposal include water salinity, potential for carbonic acid buffering, rate of precipitation of carbonate minerals following CO₂ introduction into the host aquifer, and the integrity of the Davis and Derby-DoeRun shale as a trap rock to prevent migration of the CO₂ phase and carbonic acid into the overlying potable Ozark Aquifer.

Both in situ and laboratory methods …

The Impact Of A Strong Local Supply Chain On Regional Economic Impacts Of Mining, Meiyu Xing

Masters Theses

"With growing social conflicts due to social and environmental concerns mines need to be able to create shared value for all stakeholder in their quest to promote sustainable development. Given the sensitivity of a mine's regional economy contribution to its supply chains, any improvement in supply chains strategy will be beneficial for mines and their stakeholders. The objectives of this work were to: (i) test the hypothesis that supply chain management strategy, by mines in a region, significantly affects regional economy; and (ii) develop a methodology to identify the critical backward commodities of a regional mining sector.

Valid methods have …

Uncertainty Quantification Of Turbulence Model Closure Coefficients For Transonic Wall-Bounded Flows, John Anthony Schaefer

Masters Theses

"The goal of this work was to quantify the uncertainty and sensitivity of commonly used turbulence models in Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes codes due to uncertainty in the values of closure coefficients for transonic, wall-bounded flows and to rank the contribution of each coefficient to uncertainty in various output flow quantities of interest. Specifically, uncertainty quantification of turbulence model closure coefficients was performed for transonic flow over an axisymmetric bump at zero degrees angle of attack and the RAE 2822 transonic airfoil at a lift coefficient of 0.744. Three turbulence models were considered: the Spalart-Allmaras Model, Wilcox (2006) k-ω Model, and the …

Adaptable Ring, Bayes Theorem And Dual Gradient Analysis: An Approach To Automatic Shape Detection, Skin Lesion Segmentation And Focus Detection Respectively For Medical Image Analysis, Kanakam T. Maddala

Masters Theses

“Vision-based applications are increasing with the increase in technology and are making a huge impact in this global civilization. A vision-based measurement approach for pill shape detection was developed for medical pill identification, a focus detection method was developed for digital dermoscopy, and a machine learning approach was used for automatic lesion segmentation, which assists in automatic melanoma diagnosis. Rapid and accurate pill identification is needed by medical and law enforcement personnel during emergencies. But, one of the main parameters in pill identification is the shape of the pill. An Adaptable-Ring approach describes a novel technique to accurately detect the …

Mode-Multiplexed Transmission Over Conventional Graded-Index Multimode Fibers, Roland Ryf, Nicolas K. Fontaine, H. Chen, B. Guan, B. Huang, Mina Esmaeelpour

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present experimental results for combined mode-multiplexed and wavelength multiplexed transmission over conventional graded-index multimode fibers. We use mode-selective photonic lanterns as mode couplers to precisely excite a subset of the modes of the multimode fiber and additionally to compensate for the differential group delay between the excited modes. Spatial mode filters are added to suppress undesired higher order modes. We transmit 30-Gbaud QPSK signals over 60 WDM channels, 3 spatial modes, and 2 polarizations, reaching a distance of 310 km based on a 44.3 km long span. We also report about transmission experiments over 6 spatial modes for a …

Teaching Engineering Ethics, Steve Eugene Watkins

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Instruction in engineering ethics is an important aspect of professional development. For universities, it is an element of program assessment and is considered for accreditation. For engineering students, it addresses relationships in professional life and is a topic for professional licensure. A common instructional objective is for students to have an ability to continue developing their ethical knowledge and judgment. Topical content typically includes an introduction to principles of applied ethics with supporting examples of related engineering situations. This paper discusses the organization of the ethics component in a senior seminar course. Key topics are ethics principles in the context …

Future Internet Resilience For Massive Failures, Yufei Cheng, Egemen K. Çetinkaya, James P. G. Sterbenz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Pipeline Leak Detection, Marcia Golmohamadi

Masters Theses

"In the present research two techniques are applied for leak detection in pipelines. The first method is a hardware-based technique which uses ultrasonic wave's emission for pipeline inspection. Ultrasonic waves are propagated in the pipe walls and reflected signal from leakage will be used for pipe analysis. Several Pipes with various dimensions and characteristics are modeled by finite element method using ANSYS. Second order longitudinal modes of ultrasonic waves are emitted in their walls. For this purpose, excited frequency is calculated such that it excites the second order longitude mode. In order to investigate the behavior of emitted wave in …

Dependability Analysis And Recovery Support For Smart Grids, Isam Abdulmunem Alobaidi

Masters Theses

"The increasing scale and complexity of power grids exacerbate concerns about failure propagation. A single contingency, such as outage of a transmission line due to overload or weather-related damage, can cause cascading failures that manifest as blackouts. One objective of smart grids is to reduce the likelihood of cascading failure through the use of power electronics devices that can prevent, isolate, and mitigate the effects of faults. Given that these devices are themselves prone to failure, we seek to quantify the effects of their use on dependability attributes of smart grid. This thesis articulates analytical methods for analyzing two dependability …

Composition- And Pressure-Induced Ferroelectric To Antiferroelectric Phase Transitions In Sm-Doped Bifeo₃ System, Fei Xue, Linyun Liang, Yijia Gu, Ichiro Takeuchi, Sergei V. Kalinin, Long-Qing Chen

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A three-dimensional phenomenological model is proposed to describe both ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity based on the Ginzburg-Landau-Devonshire theory. Its application to the multiferroic Sm-doped BiFeO₃ system describes the temperature-, pressure-, and composition-induced ferroelectric to antiferroelectric phase transitions. The constructed temperature-composition and temperature-pressure phase diagrams show that compressive hydrostatic pressure and Sm doping have similar effects on the ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phase transitions. It is also indicated from the temperature-pressure phase diagram that the experimentally observed phase of BiFeO₃ under the hydrostatic pressure from 3 GPa to 10 GPa is a PbZrO₃-like antiferroelectric phase.

A Survey Of Methods For Finding Outliers In Wireless Sensor Networks, Dylan Mcdonald, Stewart Sanchez, Sanjay Kumar Madria, Fikret Ercal

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Outlier detection is a well-studied problem in various fields. The unique characteristics and constraints of wireless sensor networks (WSN) make this problem especially challenging. Sensors can detect outliers for a plethora of reasons and these reasons need to be inferred in real time. Here, we survey the current state of research in this area, compare them and present some future directions for smarter handling of outliers in WSN.

Privacy Policy Inference Of User-Uploaded Images On Content Sharing Sites, Anna Cinzia Squicciarini, Dan Lin, Smitha Sundareswaran, Joshua Wede

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the increasing volume of images users share through social sites, maintaining privacy has become a major problem, as demonstrated by a recent wave of publicized incidents where users inadvertently shared personal information. In light of these incidents, the need of tools to help users control access to their shared content is apparent. Toward addressing this need, we propose an Adaptive Privacy Policy Prediction (A3P) system to help users compose privacy settings for their images. We examine the role of social context, image content, and metadata as possible indicators of users' privacy preferences. We propose a two-level framework which according …

Investigation Of Robust Optimization And Evidence Theory With Stochastic Expansions For Aerospace Applications Under Mixed Uncertainty, Harsheel R. Shah

Doctoral Dissertations

One of the primary objectives of this research is to develop a method to model and propagate mixed (aleatory and epistemic) uncertainty in aerospace simulations using DSTE. In order to avoid excessive computational cost associated with large scale applications and the evaluation of Dempster Shafer structures, stochastic expansions are implemented for efficient UQ. The mixed UQ with DSTE approach was demonstrated on an analytical example and high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of transonic flow over a RAE 2822 airfoil.

Another objective is to devise a DSTE based performance assessment framework through the use of quantification of margins and …

Origin Of The Term "Jazz", Gerald Leonard Cohen

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

The book (193 pages, soft-covered) is intended as a scholarly study and therefore contains more detail than would appear in a book intended for a broad readership.

Palladium-Catalyzed Reaction Of Haloarenes With Diarylethynes: Synthesis, Structural Analysis, And Properties Of Methylene-Bridged Arenes, Che-Wei Lee, En Chih Liu, Yao-Ting Wu

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Fluorenes and methylene-bridged polyarenes were easily and efficiently synthesized from haloarenes (or aryl triflates) and diarylethynes by a one-pot, two-step procedure. This protocol involves the palladium-catalyzed cycloisomerization and a subsequent base-mediated retro-aldol condensation. A major advantage is that the starting materials need not have ortho functional groups to complete the annulation. The backbone of the designed products was enlarged using dihaloarenes, highly π-conjugated haloarenes, or diarylalkynes. The mechanism of the formation of benzo[a]fluorene was investigated. The bowl-shaped structure of methylene-bridged indenocorannulene was verified by X-ray crystallography. The photophysical and electrochemical properties of the products thus prepared were investigated.

Biases In Thorpe-Scale Estimates Of Turbulence Dissipation. Part I: Assessments From Large-Scale Overturns In Oceanographic Data, Benjamin D. Mater, Subhas K. Venayagamoorthy, Louis St Laurent, James N. Moum

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Oceanic density overturns are commonly used to parameterize the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy. This method assumes a linear scaling between the Thorpe length scale LT and the Ozmidov length scale LO. Historic evidence supporting LTLO has been shown for relatively weak shear-driven turbulence of the thermocline; however, little support for the method exists in regions of turbulence driven by the convective collapse of topographically influenced overturns that are large by open-ocean standards. This study presents a direct comparison of LT and LO, using vertical profiles of temperature and microstructure shear collected in the Luzon Strait-a site characterized by …

A Decision Support Simulation Model For Bed Management In Healthcare, Raja A. Baru

Masters Theses

"In order to provide access to care in a timely manner, it is necessary to effectively manage the allocation of limited resources such as beds. Bed management is key to the effective delivery of high-quality and low-cost healthcare. An efficient utilization of beds requires a detailed understanding of the hospital's operational behavior. It is necessary to understand the behavior of a hospital in order to make necessary adjustments to its resources, and policies, which can improve patient's access to care. The aim of this research was to develop a discrete event simulation to assist in planning and staff scheduling decisions. …

Methods For Checking And Enforcing Physical Quality Of Linear Electrical Network Models, Mikhail Zvonkin

Masters Theses

"Most CAD tools allow system-level simulation for signal integrity by computing and connecting models together for the various sub-parts. The success of this model derivation depends on the quality of the network parameters. Different errors may seriously affect the quality of the frequency characterization: frequency-dependent measurement errors, errors due to the numerical simulation and/or discretization, etc. When these errors are large, model assembly and simulation becomes difficult and may even fail. This thesis gives an overview of the most significant properties of physically valid network parameters, describes existing methods for checking and enforcing these properties, and presents several new methodologies …

Some Combinatorial Applications Of Sage, An Open Source Program, Jessica Ruth Chowning

Masters Theses

"In this thesis, we consider the usefulness of Sage, an online and open-source program, in analyzing permutation puzzles such as the Rubik's cube and a specific combinatorial structure called the projective plane. Many programs exist to expedite calculations in research and provide previously-unavailable solutions; some require purchase, while others, such as Sage, are available for free online. Sage is asked to handle a small permutation puzzle called Swap, and then we explore how it calculates solutions for a Rubik's cube. We then discuss projective planes, Sage's library of functions for dealing with projective planes, and how they relate to the …

Thermographic Investigation Of Laser Metal Deposition, Sreekar Karnati

Masters Theses

"Laser metal deposition as an additive manufacturing technique has been proven to possess the capability for fabricating complex, intricate geometries and excellent material properties through material deposition. Accurate manufacture of such geometric features would require precise control over the material deposition process. The need of the hour are process monitoring and analyses mechanisms that are crucial in ascertaining the occurrence of the intended actions during deposition while also serving as effective learning tools. The current work involved developing and incorporating an Infra-Red (IR) camera as a process monitoring tool for laser metal deposition. Using the IR camera the thermal dynamics …

Laser Surface And Sub-Surface Repair During Metal Additive Manufacturing, Prudvi Teja Ravi

Masters Theses

"This study examines the use of laser surface treatment to repair surface and subsurface defects. Numerical analysis was performed on laser surface melting using Gaussian heat distribution equations to analyze the depth of the melt pool created by the phenomena. Concurrently, a process map was developed with a planned set of experiments by varying the ranges of laser power and travel speed to determine the dimensions of the melt pool across the gamut. The data generated from both the process studies and the numerical analysis was then used to determine the ideal operating ranges of the process parameters to repair …

Energy Disaggregation In Nialm Using Hidden Markov Models, Anusha Sankara

Masters Theses

"This work presents an appliance disaggregation technique to handle the fundamental goal of the Non-Intrusive Appliance Load Monitoring (NIALM) problem i.e., a simple breakdown of an appliance level energy consumption of a house. It also presents the modeling of individual appliances as load models using hidden Markov models and combined appliances as a single load model using factorial hidden Markov models. Granularity of the power readings of the disaggregated appliances matches with that of the readings collected at the service entrance. Accuracy of the proposed algorithm is evaluated using publicly released Tracebase data sets and UK-DALE data sets at various …

Computer Aided Diagnosis Of Oral Cancer: Using Time-Step Ct Images, Jonathan T. Scott

Masters Theses

"In medical imaging it is a very common practice to use a technique known as Time-Step imaging in patients who might develop cancer. Time-Step imaging it a very powerful technique, however it can lead to unmanageable amounts of image data. Previously the only way to search all of this data was to manually look through all of the files. This had to be done by trained professionals who knew what to look for within the images and make a judgment about the patient based on the images. This paper discusses the development of an algorithm to have a computer search …

Development Of A Stochastic Model For Performance Characterization Of A Pv/Vrb Microgrid, Kayla M. Speidel

Masters Theses

"Photovoltaic (PV) Microgrids have been proven to be a useful technology in providing an environmentally friendly source of energy when compared to the use of fossil fuels. Accurately characterizing the performance of a microgrid system would ensure that the system is appropriately sized to meet electrical loads without a heavy reliance on diesel generators. A microgrid that is sized properly will reduce the cost of diesel fuel, while also reducing the risk of wasting money on an oversized system. A deterministic model which was created to characterize the performance of PV microgrids based on percent of time generator running was …

Generation And Validation Of Optimal Topologies For Solid Freeform Fabrication, Purnajyoti Bhaumik

Masters Theses

"The study of fabricating topologically optimized parts is presented hereafter. The mapping of topology optimization results for Standard Tessellation Language (STL) writing would enable the solid freeform fabrication of lightweight mechanisms. Aerospace leaders such as NASA, Boeing, Airbus, European Aeronautic Defense And Space Company (EADS), and GE Aero invest in topology optimization research for the production of lightweight materials. Certain concepts such as microstructural homogenization, discretization, and mapping are reviewed and presented in the context of topology optimization. Future biomedical applications of solid freeform fabrication such as organ printing stand to save millions of lives through the robust development of …

The Dynamic Behavior Of A Solid State Transformer (Sst) During Recloser Operation In Distribution Systems, Fahd Amin Hariri

Masters Theses

"Electrical power systems are continuously facing increasing electrical power demand in the last years to meet the requirements of modern life style. In order to satisfy such needs electricity authorities are taking appropriate measures to enhance the performance of power networks. One of the solutions to meet the customer's demands for energy was the trend to use the renewable energy. The increasing use of renewable energy and other distributed generation sources made the electrical grid more complex. Many researches have been carried out to find out solutions to overcome this complexity. One of these researches -- which was on a …

Common Path Pessimism Removal In Static Timing Analysis, Chunyu Wang

Masters Theses

"Static timing analysis is a key process to guarantee timing closure for modern IC designs. However, additional pessimism can significantly increase the difficulty to achieve timing closure. Common path pessimism removal (CPPR) is a prevalent step to achieve accurate timing signoff. To speed up the existing exhaustive exploration on all paths in a design, this thesis introduces a fast multi-threading timing analysis for removing common path pessimism based on block-based static timing analysis. Experimental results show that the proposed method has faster runtime in removing excess pessimism from clock paths."--Abstract, page iii.

Detecting Diesel Particulate Matter Using Real Time Monitoring Under The Influence Of An Exhaust Fan System, Yasir Helal Alghamdi

Masters Theses

"Diesel Particulate Matter (DPM) is a complex mixture of diesel exhaust gas that consists of carbon, ash, metallic abrasion particles, sulfates and silicates. The diesel soot particle includes a solid core made of elemental carbon, and organic carbon compound attached to the surface of the soot particle. The main source of DPM is diesel exhaust gas. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have determined that DPM is the source of most of the emissions of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxide of nitrogen, and hydrocarbons in underground coal, metal and non metal …

Utilizing Learning Style Preferences And Quality Function Deployment For Curriculum Development, Julie M. Ezzell

Masters Theses

"Workplace requirements continually evolve to keep pace with the developing global market. To meet ever increasing standards, educational institutions have been investigating methods to prepare students for their future employment. Course modifications should be carefully considered to meet the requirements of all stakeholders, including those of the students. The objective of this research was to provide students with an overall better learning experience that tailors the teaching methods to his/her individual learning preferences. To meet this objective, a comprehensive survey was provided to an undergraduate course in quality. The survey documented the student's individuality when learning and made note of …

Space-Based Relative Multitarget Tracking, Keith Allen Legrand

Masters Theses

"Access to space has expanded dramatically over the past decade. The growing popularity of small satellites, specifically cubesats, and the following launch initiatives have resulted in exponentially growing launch numbers into low Earth orbit. This growing congestion in space has punctuated the need for local space monitoring and autonomous satellite inspection. This work describes the development of a framework for monitoring local space and tracking multiple objects concurrently in a satellite's neighborhood. The development of this multitarget tracking systems has produced collateral developments in numerical methods, relative orbital mechanics, and initial relative orbit determination.

This work belongs to a class …