Digital Commons Network^™

An Investigation Of Contaminant Metal Distribution And Mineral Speciation In The Soil Near The Buick Recycling Division Smelter, Iron County, Missouri, Krista Nicole Rybacki

Masters Theses

"Trace metal contamination studies were conducted near the Buick Resource Recycling Division. This study used sequential extraction, total digestion, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to study trace metals in two soil cores. Sequential extraction analysis of the soil cores revealed that lead was associated with either iron or manganese oxides. Zinc and copper were bound to soil components, extracted mainly from organics, sulfides, and clays. Total digestion results compared favorably to the sum of the sequential extraction results for lead, thus validating the sequential extraction methodology. The highest concentration observed for lead was 4,743 parts …

Characterization Of A Plant Gene Family Expanded In Glycine Max, Lisa Snoderly-Foster

Masters Theses

"Glycine max, commonly named the cultivated soybean, is one of the oldest and most important food crops in the world. The study of the G. max genome provides valuable insight into the molecular mechanisms that govern its reproduction and environmental responsiveness, key factors in maximizing crop yield. Since the complete sequencing of the genome in 2010, the analysis has become faster and easier, especially with the development of numerous web-based, publically accessible bioinformatics tools.

This research effort utilizes these tools to characterize a small, unannotated G. max gene family. Although no definitive evidence was uncovered for the production of a …

A Receiver Function Study Of Crust Thickness And Composition Beneath The Southwestern United States, Si Wu

Masters Theses

"Over the past decades, the seismic structure of the crust and upper mantle of the southwestern United States was examined using an array of different methods. The structure and composition of crust received special attentions, most due to the hydrocarbon reserves in this area. Here new constraints on crustal evolution and structure models are provide by systematically analyzing 37,402 receiver functions recorded at 234 seismic stations on the southwestern United States. The results reveal that the Transitional Crust is characterized by a thin (29.0±1.0 km) crust, a low Vp/Vs ratio of 1.76±0.016 and a high amplitude (R) of P-to-S converted …

An Analysis Of Burn Cut Pull Optimization Through Varying Relief Hole Depths, Michael Robert Allen

Masters Theses

"In underground blasting, the pull of the initial cut is the limiting factor for the success of the rest of the round. By improving the pull of the first cut, a critical step is made towards improving the entire round. This project attempted to optimize a burn cut's effective pull by varying the depths of the relief holes in the burn, and then analyzing the results. In testing, relief holes were drilled to depths both shorter and longer than that of the cut's charged holes. The overall objective was to consistently achieve greater pull than in a standard burn, using …

Cervical Cancer Histology Image Feature Extraction And Classification, Peng Guo

Masters Theses

"Cervical cancer, the second most common cancer affecting women worldwide and the most common in developing countries can be cured if detected early and treated. Expert pathologists routinely visually examine histology slides for cervix tissue abnormality assessment. In previous research, an automated, localized, fusion-based approach was investigated for classifying squamous epithelium into Normal, CIN1, CIN2, and CIN3 grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) based on image analysis of 62 digitized histology images obtained through the National Library of Medicine. In this research, CIN grade assessments from two pathologists are analyzed and are used to facilitate atypical cell concentration feature development …

Evolving Decision Trees For The Categorization Of Software, Jasenko Hosic

Masters Theses

"Current manual techniques of static reverse engineering are inefficient at providing semantic program understanding. An automated method to categorize applications was developed in order to quickly determine pertinent characteristics. Prior work in this area has had some success, but a major strength of the approach detailed in this thesis is that it produces heuristics that can be reused for quick analysis of new data. The method relies on a genetic programming algorithm to evolve decision trees which can be used to categorize software. The terminals, or leaf nodes, within the trees each contain values based on selected features from one …

Performance Analysis Of Zero Forcing And Minimum Mean Square Error Equalizers On Multiple Input Multiple Output System On A Spinning Vehicle, Aditya Kulkarni

Masters Theses

"Channel equalizers based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) and zero forcing (ZF) criteria have been formulated for a general scalable multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system and implemented for a 2x2 MIMO system with spatial multiplexing (SM) for Rayleigh channel associated with additive white Gaussian noise. A model to emulate transmitters and receivers on a spinning vehicle has been developed. A transceiver based on the BLAST architecture is developed in this work. A mathematical framework to explain the behavior of the ZF and MMSE equalizers is formulated. The performance of the equalizers has been validated for a case with …

Behavior In Air Leakage And Recirculation Under The Influence Of Booster Fans, Koziba Feledi

Masters Theses

"A booster fan is an underground mechanical ventilation equipment installed in series with a main surface fan that is used to boost the air pressure provided by the surface main fan passing through it. As mining continues to expand and go deeper, the need for improved and efficient ventilation increases. This has led to the use of booster fans and other auxiliary ventilation devices in underground mines. Research defining how system leakage and recirculation are affected by booster fans; describing how system leakage and recirculation are affected by the location, placement, and amount of air pressure from the booster fans; …

Quantifying Economic Benefits For Rail Infrastructure Projects, Akhilesh Ojha

Masters Theses

"Investment in rail infrastructure is necessary to maintain existing service and to cater for future growth in freight and passenger services. Many communities have realized the importance of investment in rail infrastructure projects and set up goals and visions to achieve economic development through investing in such projects. Due to limited funds available, communities have to select a single or very few projects from a variety of projects. It is very critical that right projects must be selected at the right time for a community to realize economic development. The limited methods for quantifying the economic benefits to the stakeholders …

Computer Vision Libraries For Trailer Truck Testbed Using Open Source Computer Vision Libraries, Krishnan Raghavan

Masters Theses

"Computer Vision is a field that aims at understanding and analyzing images from the real world to produce numerical and symbolical data. It is a first step at duplicating the capabilities of human vision by electronically understanding the image and perceiving its features. This work aims at providing some of the features of a human eye to a trailer truck. These features include getting a 3D wireframe from continuous images and prediction of the next position of the objects in view, while the truck is moving.

The thesis has been divided into 3 sections. First section is acquiring images in …

Measurements And Transient Multistep Outflow Simulation Of Soil-Water Characteristic Curve For Soils Modified With Biopolymers, Xiaoyi Zhao

Masters Theses

"In recent decades, biopolymers have shown promising applications in soil modification due to its environmental friendly nature. Most of the studies, however, focused on mechanical properties at saturated or unsaturated conditions. The study on unsaturated soil behaviors under controlled pore air and pore water pressures were limited. Soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), relating water content with matric suction is a key property to evaluate unsaturated soils. With SWCC, other soil properties, such as hydraulic conductivity and shear strength can be estimated. In this study, SWCC of sands modified with different biopolymers were measured with both Tempe cell and Fredlund SWCC device. …

Computation Of Cross-Talk Alignment By Mixed Integer Linear Programming, Qifeng Chen

Masters Theses

"Noise analysis has been an important and difficult part of design flow of very large-scale integrated (VLSI) systems in many years. In this thesis, the problem of signal alignment resulting in possible maximum peak interconnect coupling noise and propose a variation aware technique for computing combined noise pulse taking into account timing constraints on signal transitions has been discussed. This work shows that the worst noise alignment algorithm can be formulated as mixed integer programming (MLIP) problem both in deterministic window cases and variational window cases. For deterministic window cases, it is assumed that timing windows are given for each …

Feasibility Study Of A Two-Fluid Small Modular Molten Salt Reactor With In Core Heat Removal Capability, Brandon James Lahmann

Masters Theses

"A feasibility study of a two-fluid small modular molten salt reactor (MSR) with in core heat removal was performed. The initial fuel block dimension for the configuration was based on the Fuji MSR. The fuel was a mixed fluoride salt of density 3.25 g/cc, composed of 71 LiF - 16 BeF₂ - 12 ThF₄- 1 ²³³UF₄ molar percentages. The coolant salt was Li₄(FLiBe) of density 1.94 g/cc. The work set out to establish whether or not such a reactor is thermodynamically feasible when optimized for various neutronics parameters. A Java based API was …

Software-Based Instrumentation For Analysis Of Electrostatic Discharge Effects, Antonio James Sabatini

Masters Theses

”Failures caused by electrostatic discharge (ESD) compromise the reliability of embedded systems. Peripherals such as the universal serial bus (USB) are particularly vulnerable, as isolating them to avoid electromagnetic interference would defy their purpose - facilitating communication with and/or by the embedded system. Better understanding the propagation of failures that result from ESD can facilitate defensive development of hardware and software for embedded systems, but is hampered by the lack of non-invasive and lightweight instrumentation techniques.

The original contribution of this thesis is the design and development of software-based instrumentation for monitoring the reaction of the USB peripheral of an …

Critical Path Monitor Enabled Dynamic Voltage Scaling For Graceful Degradation In Sub-Threshold Designs, Yu Guang Chen, Tao Wang, Kuan Yu Lai, Wan Yu Wen, Yiyu Shi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sub-threshold designs play an important role in energy constrained applications. In those designs, path delays depend exponentially on threshold voltage/temperature. As such, dynamic configurations at runtime are desired for best trade-off between operating power and performance. Unfortunately, most existing works only consider either process or temperature variations but not both, resulting in sub-optimal configurations or even functional failures. Moreover, little study has been performed on the graceful degradation of sub-threshold designs, which is important in the presence of drastic delay variations. Towards this, we present a novel critical path monitor based dynamic voltage scaling scheme. Considering both process and temperature …

Development Of A Nitrogen Incorporated Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Film Based Field Emitter Array For A Flat Panel X-Ray Source, Chrystian Mauricio Posada

Doctoral Dissertations

"As an alternative to conventional X-ray sources, a flat panel transmission X-ray source is being developed. A field emitter array (FEA) prototype to be incorporated as cold cathode in this flat panel X-ray source was fabricated for this work. Using the Particle-in-Cell code OOPIC Pro, an initial FEA was designed through simulations. Based on the simulation results, a FEA prototype was fabricated using conventional microfabrication techniques. Planar nitrogen-incorporated ultrananocrystalline diamond (N-UNCD) films were used as field emitters. This N-UNCD based FEA prototype was composed of 9 pixels distributed in a 3x3 array, with a pixel size of 225x225 µm, and …

Educating Apostles Of The Homeland: Tourism And "Honismeret" In Interwar Hungary, Andrew Behrendt

History and Political Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Promoters of domestic tourism in Hungary between the world wars laid blame for poor business at the feet of many causes. But their loudest and most persistent accusation was that Hungarians did not travel their homeland because they did not properly “know it.” At the same time, geographers, educators, and politicians made the nearly identical claim that Hungarians were lacking in honismeret, or “knowledge of one’s homeland,” and needed to banish their ignorance if they were to truly and adequately love their country. This article explores one confluence of these two streams. Between 1934 and 1942, metropolitan authorities sponsored an …

Detector Response Function Of An Energy-Resolved Cdte Single Photon Counting Detector, Xin Liu, Hyoung Koo Lee

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

BACKGROUND: While spectral CT using single photon counting detector has shown a number of advantages in diagnostic imaging, knowledge of the detector response function of an energy-resolved detector is needed to correct the signal bias and reconstruct the image more accurately.

Position-Dependent Diffusion Of Light In Disordered Waveguides, Alexey Yamilov, Raktim Sarma, Brandon Redding, Ben Payne, Heeso Noh, Hui Cao

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present direct experimental evidence for position-dependent diffusion in open random media. The interference of light in time-reversed paths results in renormalization of the diffusion coefficient, which varies spatially. To probe the wave transport inside the system, we fabricate two-dimensional disordered waveguides and monitor the light intensity from the third dimension. Change the geometry of the system or dissipation limits the size of the loop trajectories, allowing us to control the renormalization of the diffusion coefficient. This work shows the possibility of manipulating wave diffusion via the interplay of localization and dissipation.

Contact Process On Generalized Fibonacci Chains: Infinite-Modulation Criticality And Double-Log Periodic Oscillations, Hatem Barghathi, David Nozadze, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We study the nonequilibrium phase transition of the contact process with aperiodic transition rates using a real-space renormalization group as well as Monte Carlo simulations. The transition rates are modulated according to the generalized Fibonacci sequences defined by the inflation rules A → AB^k and B → A. For k=1 and 2, the aperiodic fluctuations are irrelevant, and the nonequilibrium transition is in the clean directed percolation universality class. For k ≥ 3, the aperiodic fluctuations are relevant. We develop a complete theory of the resulting unconventional "infinite-modulation" critical point, which is characterized by activated dynamical scaling. Moreover, observables …

Dynamical (E,2e) Studies Of Tetrahydropyran And 1,4-Dioxane, J. D. Builth-Williams, G. Da Silva, L. Chiari, D. B. Jones, Hari Chaluvadi, Don H. Madison, M. J. Brunger

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present experimental and theoretical results for the electron-impact ionization of the highest occupied molecular orbitals of tetrahydropyran and 1,4-dioxane. Using an (e,2e) technique in asymmetric coplanar kinematics, angular distributions of the slow ejected electron, with an energy of 20 eV, are measured when incident electrons at 250 eV ionize the target and scatter through an angle of either -10° or -15°. The data are compared with calculations performed at the molecular 3-body distorted wave level. Fair agreement between the theoretical model and the experimental measurements was observed. The similar structures for these targets provide key insights for assessing the …

Strong-Randomness Infinite-Coupling Phase In A Random Quantum Spin Chain, Fawaz Hrahsheh, José A. Hoyos, Rajesh Narayanan, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We study the ground-state phase diagram of the Ashkin-Teller random quantum spin chain by means of a generalization of the strong-disorder renormalization group. In addition to the conventional paramagnetic and ferromagnetic (Baxter) phases, we find a partially ordered phase characterized by strong randomness and infinite coupling between the colors. This unusual phase acts, at the same time, as a Griffiths phase for two distinct quantum phase transitions, both of which are of infinite-randomness type. We also investigate the quantum multicritical point that separates the two-phase and three-phase regions, and we discuss generalizations of our results to higher dimensions and other …

Interaction Of Positrons And Electrons With Atoms, Robert D. Dubois

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Progress in differential studies of ionization resulting from positron and electron impact being performed at the Missouri University of Science and Technology is described. Examples of doubly and triply (fully) differential single ionization data for the ejected electron and the scattered projectile channels are presented. Energy loss data for double ionization, plus estimates for the first-order interaction, shake off, SO, and TS1, are also presented.

Determining And Mitigating The Effects Of Firing A Linear Shaped Charge Under Water, Brian Burch

Masters Theses

"When fired under water, a Linear Shaped Charge (LSC) does not penetrate a steel target as well as in air. This lack of performance has been a problem for shaped charge manufacturers and their clients. It was obvious that this degradation of performance is due to water having a higher density than air and water being incompressible compared to air. This study aimed to better determine how the water was affecting the LSC and to provide a method of mitigation.

LSCs of different sizes were submerged under water and fired through the water with and without a target. It was …

A Simple Turbulence Model For Stably Stratified Wall-Bounded Flows, F. Karimpour, S. K. Venayagamoorthy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, we present a simple zero-equation (algebraic) turbulence closure scheme as well as the standard k-Ïμ model for stably stratified wall-bounded flows. We do this by proposing a parameterization for the turbulent Prandtl number (Prt) for stably stratified flows under the influence of a smooth solid wall. The turbulent Prandtl number is the linking bridge between the turbulent momentum and scalar fluxes in the context of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations. Therefore, it is important to use appropriate parameterizations for Prt in order to define the right level of momentum and scalar mixing in stably stratified flows. To date, …

Spatial And Temporal Modeling Of Radar Rainfall Uncertainties, Gabriele Villarini, Bong Chul Seo, Francesco Serinaldi, Witold F. Krajewski

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

It is widely acknowledged that radar-based estimates of rainfall are affected by uncertainties (e.g., mis-calibration, beam blockage, anomalous propagation, and ground clutter) which are both systematic and random in nature. Improving the characterization of these errors would yield better understanding and interpretations of results from studies in which these estimates are used as inputs (e.g., hydrologic modeling) or initial conditions (e.g., rainfall forecasting). Building on earlier efforts, the authors apply a data-driven multiplicative model in which the relationship between true rainfall and radar rainfall can be described in terms of the product of a systematic and random component. The systematic …

Full-Scale Field Testing Of Micropiles In Stiff Clay Subjected To Combined Axial And Lateral Loads, Kyle A. Kershaw, Ronaldo Luna

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A series of full-scale micro piles was installed at a site in mid-Missouri for a load-test program to study the effect of combined loading. The micro piles were installed with a 178-mm (7-in.) outer diameter steel casing to a depth of 4.6 m (15 ft) and a bond zone length of 3.0 m (10 ft). The surficial soils at the site consisted of stiff-to-hard clay underlain by weathered silty/sandy shale where the bond zone of the micro piles was located. The load-test program included axial, lateral, and combined-load tests. The ultimate axial and lateral capacity of the piles was initially …

Form Pressure Generated By Fresh Concrete: A Review About Practice In Formwork Design, Tilo Proske, Kamal Khayat, Ahmed Omran, Olaf Leitzbach

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, several current industrial practices in formwork design are presented focusing on the normative calculation of the form pressure. Most of the current Standards are devoting for the design of the formwork for the normal vibrated concrete. Currently, the Standards are being updated to include provisions for the newly adapted concrete, such as the flowable concrete and self-consolidating concrete. However, the experience with these methods is still limited. The available methods for calculating the formwork pressure for the flowable concrete and SCC are based on measuring the shear strength of concrete using different concepts, such as the setting …

Cyber-Physical Codesign Of Distributed Structural Health Monitoring With Wireless Sensor Networks, Gregory Hackmann, Weijun Guo, Guirong Yan, Zhuoxiong Sun, Chenyang Lu, Shirley Dyke

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Our Deteriorating Civil Infrastructure Faces the Critical Challenge of Long-Term Structural Health Monitoring for Damage Detection and Localization. in Contrast to Existing Research that Often Separates the Designs of Wireless Sensor Networks and Structural Engineering Algorithms, This Paper Proposes a Cyber-Physical Codesign Approach to Structural Health Monitoring based on Wireless Sensor Networks. Our Approach Closely Integrates 1) Flexibility-Based Damage Localization Methods that Allow a Tradeoff between the Number of Sensors and the Resolution of Damage Localization, and 2) an Energy-Efficient, Multilevel Computing Architecture Specifically Designed to Leverage the Multiresolution Feature of the Flexibility-Based Approach. the Proposed Approach Has Been Implemented …

Model Order Reduction For Quantum Transport Simulation Of Band-To-Band Tunneling Devices, Jun Z. Huang, Lining Zhang, Weng Cho Chew, Chi Yung Yam, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Guan Hua Chen, Mansun Chan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Simulations of nanoelectronic devices with nonequilibrium Greens function are computationally very intensive, in particular, when combined with multiband approaches, such as the k p methods. To reduce the cost and make the simulation of realistic devices tractable, we have developed a model order reduction method for the simulation of hole transport in silicon nanowires using three- and six-band k p models. It is shown in this paper that, with a spurious band elimination process, the method can be readily extended to the eight-band case that enables us to simulate band-to-band tunneling devices. The method is demonstrated via constructing reduced models …