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Crustal Thickness And Vp/Vs Ratio Of Yellowstone, Eastern Snake River Plain, Wyoming Province, And The Northern Basin And Range Province Through Receiver Function Analysis, Avikant Dayma

Masters Theses

"For decades, numerous studies have been conducted and contradictory results were achieved about the origin and evolution of the Yellowstone supervolcano and the Eastern Snake River Plain. Whether the 640 km long time-progressive chain of rhyolitic calderas was formed due to mantle-plume or a result of lithospheric extension allowing the emergence of melt on the surface is still a debate. Using receiver function analyses, this study determines the crustal thickness and the Vp/Vs ratio below the Yellowstone Plateau, Wyoming Province (WP), Idaho Batholith (IB), Eastern Snake River Plain (ESRP), and the northern Basin and Range Province (BRP). The thickness is …

Cathodic Protection Measurement Through Inline Inspection Technology Uses And Observations, Briana Ley Ferguson

Masters Theses

"This research supports the evaluation of an impressed current cathodic protection (CP) system of a buried coated steel pipeline through alternative technology and methods, via an inline inspection device (ILI, CP ILI tool, or tool), in order to prevent and mitigate external corrosion. This thesis investigates the ability to measure the current density of a pipeline's CP system from inside of a pipeline rather than manually from outside, and then convert that CP ILI tool reading into a pipe-to-soil potential as required by regulations and standards. This was demonstrated through a mathematical model that utilizes applications of Ohm's Law, circuit …

Effect Of Fracture Heterogeneity On Proppant Transport And Settling Mechanism, Dhurgham Abdulameer Kadhim

Masters Theses

"Proppant transport modeling through fractures with slickwater fluid systems assumes uniform and homogeneous fracture widths by implying constant fluid behavior at wall boundaries. Hydraulic fracturing mineback operations have demonstrated that induced fractures are heterogeneous and varying in width. This work investigates the impact of fracture width heterogeneity, roughness, and leak-off on ceramic proppant transport and settling, using proppant distribution concepts of Equilibrium Dune Level (EDL) and equilibrium Dune Length (EDX). Experimental work was conducted to investigate the impact of fracture width heterogeneity by varying fracture width along two plexiglass sheets. To mimic actual hydraulic fractures, the injection side was designed …

Developing Restoration Schemes For A Road Transportation Network In The Event Of A Disaster, Ebin Antony

Masters Theses

"Transportation systems such as rail, road, and waterways are key component of critical infrastructure systems, providing connectivity between other components to enable the production and distribution of goods and services. During large scale disasters such as earth quakes and floods, this connectivity is disrupted, restricting or completely halting the flow of goods and services. To ensure that the connectivity between the different modes of transportation are restored in an aftermath of these disruptions, the interdependence between them and the importance of individual elements to the overall connectivity have to be studied and formulated to develop a system-level restoration plan. This …

Geomechanical Analysis Of The Wellbore Instability Problems In Nahr Umr Formation Southern Iraq, Haider Qasim Mohammed

Masters Theses

"Wellbore instability problems play a major rule of increasing nonproductive time (NPT) during drilling processes. In most cases, the cost of drilling a well can be reduced by designing a suitable operational window using geomechanical models. Several wellbore instability problems have been encountered during drilling Nahr Umr Formation in an oil field in southern Iraq. These problems include but are not limited to, mechanical stuck, caving, and tight holes. Data from twenty vertical wells are investigated to reveal the major factors that control the instability problems and to design an optimum mud window. A geomechanical model is developed to determine …

Depth Determination Method For A Trailer-Truck Test-Bed, Aditya Thakur

Masters Theses

"A camera is considered as a good sensing device to obtain visual information from its surrounding environment. In a three dimensional space, a camera has a two dimensional plane. Projection of an object on this plane creates a two dimensional projection and loses information of the third dimension. A single projection is not enough to retrieve the lost third dimensional information about the object. Thus it makes it difficult to use a single camera as a sensing instrument. In this project, we have developed a method that determines the three dimensional information using a single camera. The method utilizes an …

Nuclei Segmentation Using Level Set Method And Data Fusion For The Cin Classification, Ravali Edulapuram

Masters Theses

"This paper deals with the automation of the detection of the cervical cancer through histology images. This process is divided into two parts, corresponding to segmentation and data fusion. The segmentation and classification of the cervical epithelium images is done using hybrid image processing techniques. The digitized histology images provided have a pre-cervical cancer condition called cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) by expert pathologists. Previously, image analysis studies focused on nuclei-level features to classify the epithelium into the CIN grades. The current study focuses on nuclei segmentation based on the level set segmentation and fuzzy c-means clustering methods. Morphological post-processing operations …

Nuclei Segmentation Of Histology Images Based On Deep Learning And Color Quantization And Analysis Of Real World Pill Images, Sudhir Sornapudi

Masters Theses

"Medical image analysis has paved a way for research in the field of medical and biological image analysis through the applications of image processing. This study has special emphasis on nuclei segmentation from digitized histology images and pill segmentation. Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignant cancers affecting women. This can be cured if detected early. Histology image feature analysis is required to classify the squamous epithelium into Normal, CIN1, CIN2 and CIN3 grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). The nuclei in the epithelium region provide the majority of information regarding the severity of the cancer. Segmentation of …

Detection Of Mine Roof Failure Using Inexpensive Lidar Technology, Ali Abdullah M. Alzahrani

Masters Theses

"Slope, Roof, and mine wall stability problems are some of the main reasons for deaths at U.S. surface or underground mining. The safety instruments were not enough to prevent that failure or even predict it before it occurs. However, the cost of such a tool that can be helpful in detecting roof failures is very high and not reachable in most instances.

The present study investigates the feasibility of using the M16 Leddar Evaluation Kit to detect the roof failure in mines. The M16 Leddar Evaluation kit cost is between 300$-800$, so it is the reachable price if it provides …

Bioaccessibility Of Lead From Lead-Contaminated Soil Upon Phosphate Amendment Using A Physiologically-Based Extraction Test, Samantha Jo Dicenso

Masters Theses

"Lead is known to cause health problems in humans, especially children, and an effective in‐situ remediation option has been sought for years. Adding phosphoric acid (PA) to contaminated soil causes a reaction that binds the lead to phosphate to produce pyromorphite (Pb₅(PO₄)₃Cl), a form of lead believed to be non‐bioavailable; however, field trials have given varied results (Bosso et al 2008; Munksgaard and Lottermoser 2011; Tang et al. 2009). One explanation for these results might be the impact of the agent used to raise pH after phosphoric acid addition. In order to examine this explanation soil was collected from the …

Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud: An Efficient Method Of Building Digital Twin For 3d Printer By Adapting Mtconnect Protocol, Liwen Hu

Masters Theses

"The common modeling of a virtual machine is using an information model to describe the physics of machines. The integration of digital twins into productive cyber-physical cloud manufacturing (CPCM) systems imposes strict requirements such as reducing overhead and saving resources for the systems. In this paper, we investigate a new method for building cloud-based digital twins (CBDT), which can be adapted to the CPCM platform. Our method helps reduce computing resources in the processing center and guarantees the fastest speed of the interactions between the human users and physical machines. We introduce a knowledge resource center (KRC) built on a …

Combination Of Bmp-2 And Relaxin To Induce Osteogenesis In Vivo, Sahitya Injamuri

Masters Theses

"Bone grafts are a common procedure for treating craniofacial injuries such as trauma, surgery, and reconstruction. Autografts and allografts have limitations which encourages the use of synthetic bone grafts. While synthetic bone grafts, such as hydroxyapatite (HA) microspheres, are advantageous for their cost and reproducibility, they lack the cells and growth factors needed for proper osteoinduction. Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) has been shown to increase the osteoinduction of grafts but the effective dose is above physiological levels and causes undesired effects on the body. Relaxin has been shown to enhance BMP-2's ability to induce bone formation in vitro and thus …

Quantifying Ceramic Proppant Transport In Complex Fracture Networks, Vivekvardhan Reddy Kesireddy

Masters Theses

"Water fracs have become an essential part of unconventional reservoirs to create deeper fracture networks. Proppant transport in water fracs is challenging in terms of fluids ability to carry the proppant deeper into these fracture networks. This experimental study investigates the impact of the flow rates, fracture widths and complexity controlling the ability of proppant to flow into complex fracture networks. This research attempts to nullify the knowledge gap in understanding width heterogeneity in primary and secondary fractures. This study speaks for settling pattern and proppant transport through a slot flow model with a unique approach to understand stage wise …

Multiple Security Domain Nondeducibility Air Traffic Surveillance Systems, Anusha Thudimilla

Masters Theses

"Traditional security models partition the security universe into two distinct and completely separate worlds: high and low level. However, this partition is absolute and complete. The partition of security domains into high and low is too simplistic for more complex cyber-physical systems (CPS). Absolute divisions are conceptually clean, but they do not reflect the real world. Security partitions often overlap, frequently provide for the high level to have complete access to the low level, and are more complex than an impervious wall. The traditional models that handle situations where the security domains are complex or the threat space is ill …

Characterizing Groundwater Flow At Fort Leonard Wood Using Universal Cokriging With Trend Removal, Rachel Mae Uetrecht

Masters Theses

"Groundwater elevation interpolation is necessary for the prediction of groundwater flow direction and contaminant transport. Kriging is a geostatistical tool commonly used to interpolate groundwater elevation. Kriging requires a relatively large number of monitoring wells at the site of interest. The variogram model is a crucial element to the kriging equations. The variogram modelling process is an iterative procedure that is often very time consuming. This study presents a literature based approach that provides a point of departure for the variogram modelling process as well as other kriging parameters. A literature database is developed in order to provide insight and …

Evaluation Of Preformed Particle Gel As A Diverting Agent For Acidizing, Bo Wei

Masters Theses

"Preformed particle gels (PPGs) have been developed and successfully used to improve conformance in heterogeneous reservoirs. However, no research has been reported to show their potential diverting applications in acidizing because of their unknown performance in this process. This work targets on evaluating the potential of PPGs to be used as diverting agents and factors influencing the diverting performance.

The swelling properties of three types of PPGs (PPG #1, #2, and #3) were first studied in brine and acid, including the swelling kinetics and equilibrium, PPG strength, and deswelling performance. Effects of different brine concentration, acid concentration, and temperature were …

Sparse Emission Source Microscopy For Rapid Emission Source Imaging, Ling Zhang

Masters Theses

"In Paper I, Sparse Emission Source Microscopy (ESM) methodology will be introduced and discussed for the localization of major EMI radiation sources in complex and large systems. Traditional ESM method takes abundant and uniformly-distributed scanning points on the scanning plane using a robotic system, which can provide high-quality source images but consumes too much time. This section presents a sparse and nonuniform sampling technique for ESM, which is more time-efficient in identifying major radiation sources, even though the image quality is sacrificed. The feasibility of sparse sampling is mathematically proved, and it is shown that increasing number of points increases …

Processing And Properties Of Wc-Based Cu-Ni-Mn-Zn Metal Matrix Composites Produced Via Pressureless Infiltration, Paul M. Brune

Masters Theses

"This research focuses on the processing and properties of tungsten carbide-based (WC-based) Cu-Ni-Mn-Zn metal matrix composites (MMCs) fabricated by pressureless infiltration. The first goal of this project was to test the wettability of Cu-Ni-Mn and Cu-Ni-Mn-Zn on various carbides. The sessile drop technique was employed to determine if they were suitable candidates for pressureless infiltration. The carbides investigated were TaC, WC, B₄C, and SiC. It was determined that both alloys had contact angles of less than 70⁰ on TaC, WC, and B4C, which is one requirement for pressureless infiltration. However, both alloys reacted with B₄C to …

3d Bioprinting A Pcl/13-93b3 Glass Composite And Its Potential Use As A Bio-Ink, Caroline Blair Murphy

Masters Theses

"A major limitation of using synthetic scaffolds in tissue engineering is little growth of incorporated cells in the interior of the scaffold, resulting in insufficient angiogenesis in the scaffold interior. Recently, cells have been 3D bioprinted concurrently with biomaterials to produce a cellularized, bioactive, angiogenic 3D environment. This thesis describes a novel solvent-extrusion method for printing polycaprolactone (PCL)/bioactive borate glass composite as a biomaterial for a cell-laden scaffold.

Bioactive borate glass was added to a mixture of PCL and organic solvent to make an extrudable paste, creating scaffolds measuring 10×10×1 mm³ in overall dimensions with pore sizes ranging from …

Design And Modeling Of An Aluminum Smelting Process To Analyze Aluminum Smelter And Identify The Alternative Uses Of Nuclear Power Small Modular Reactor, Rajesh Ramkrushna Patharabe

Masters Theses

"This thesis focuses on design and analysis of an Aluminum Smelting process using computer simulation which performs a dynamic state computation. The objective is to develop a Dynamic Simulation Model of an Aluminum Smelter using Mimic Simulator to analyze the dynamic behavior of an Aluminum Smelter to evaluate strategies for alternative design or uses of Nuclear Power Small Modular Reactor to improve the efficiency of the process and to reduce the heat losses.

Increasing energy needs, decrease of the availability of cheap electricity and the need to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions are the biggest hurdles for running Aluminum smelters …

Recovery Of Phosphate Minerals From Plant Tailings Using Direct Froth Flotation Process, Ashraf Alsafasfeh

Masters Theses

"The wastes produced from phosphate industry presents many challenges due to the economic and environmental impacts of their disposal. In the meantime, scarcity of high-grade phosphate ores persuades researchers to find novel methods of upgrading these wastes (secondary sources) and recycling them in the production plant circuit. The goal of this study is to investigate the potential to upgrade the phosphorus content in the tailing produced from a phosphorous production plant using direct froth flotation process. Characterization studies such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and mineral liberation analysis (MLA) were first conducted to identify the mineralogical and …

Attitudes Towards Face-To-Face Meetings In Virtual Engineering Teams: Perceptions From A Survey Of Defense Projects, Lawrence R. Blenke, Abhijit Gosavi, William Daughton

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Modes of communication used in virtual defense projects have changed dramatically over the years with tools such as email and video-conferencing dominating face-to-face (FTF) meetings. We conducted a survey at a defense firm with an aim to test current attitudes towards FTF meetings – with respect to significant problems faced, project success, transfer of technical requirements, preference for FTF vis-à-vis virtual meetings, differences between virtual and co-located environments, criticality of various forms of communication, and whether FTF meetings were scheduled as often as desired. Our survey participants, about one hundred in number, were experienced engineers, technicians, and program managers – …

Differential Requirements For Myeloid Leukemia Ifn-Γ Conditioning Determine Graft-Versus-Leukemio Resistance And Sensitivity, Catherine Matte-Martone, Jinling Liu, Meng Zhou, Maria Chikina, Douglas R. Green, John T. Harty, Warren D. Shlomchik

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) is potent against chronic phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (CP-CML), but blast crisis CML (BC-CML) and acute myeloid leukemias (AML) are GVL resistant. To understand GVL resistance, we studied GVL against mouse models of CP-CML, BC-CML, and AML generated by the transduction of mouse BM with fusion cDNAs derived from human leukemias. Prior work has shown that CD4+ T cell-mediated GVL against CP-CML and BC-CML required intact leukemia MHCII; however, stem cells from both leukemias were MHCII negative. Here, we show that CP-CML, BC-CML, and AML stem cells upregulate MHCII …

The Use Of Geophysical Methods For Dam Seepage Investigations And Dredged Oyster Deposit Characterization, Stanley Chinedu Nwokebuihe

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation is made up of three papers, which discuss the utility of geophysical tools in earthfill dam investigations and dredged oyster bed characterization.

In the first paper, an earthfill dam in Warren County, Missouri was effectively investigated for seepage through the dam and its outlet works using an integration of the electrical resistivity tomography, induced polarization and spontaneous potential geophysical tools. Recommendations were subsequently made based on the results of the study on grout locations to prevent further seepage. In the second paper, a similar study of earthfill dam seepage was conducted on a different dam in Southern Missouri. …

Long-Range Interatomic Interactions: Oscillatory Tails And Hyperfine Perturbations, Chandra Mani Adhikari

Doctoral Dissertations

"We study the long-range interaction between two hydrogen atoms, in both the van der Waals and Casimir-Polder regimes. The retardation regime is reached when the finiteness of the speed of light becomes relevant. Provided that both atoms are in the ground states, the retardation regime is achieved when the interatomic distance, R, is larger than 137 a₀, where a₀ is the Bohr radius.

To study the interaction between two hydrogen atoms in 1S and 2S states, we differentiate three different ranges for the interatomic distance: van der Waals range (a₀ « R « a₀/α, where α is the fine structure …

Geophysical Assessment Of Soil And Rock In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Faraj Mohamed Eljabri

Doctoral Dissertations

"The research presented here consists of two case studies: the first from a study site in Illinois and the second from a site in Arkansas. In both instances, geophysical investigations were conducted to characterize the subsurface. At the Illinois site, borehole control, downhole seismic (DHS), seismic refraction tomography (SRT) and multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) data were acquired for the purpose of seismic site characterization. Shear wave and compressional wave velocities were used to estimate depth to bedrock and to generate 1-D plots depicting variations in Poisson's Ratio, elastic moduli and density. The average shear wave velocity in the …

Programming Problems On Time Scales: Theory And Computation, Rasheed Basheer Al-Salih

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this dissertation, novel formulations for several classes of programming problems are derived and proved using the time scales technique. The new formulations unify the discrete and continuous programming models and extend them to other cases "in between." Moreover, the new formulations yield the exact optimal solution for the programming problems on arbitrary isolated time scales, which solve an important open problem. Throughout this dissertation, six distinct classes of programming problems are presented as follows. First, the primal as well as the dual time scales linear programming models on arbitrary time scales are formulated. Second, separated linear programming primal and …

Data Analytics Methods For Attack Detection And Localization In Wireless Networks, Yi Ling

Doctoral Dissertations

"Wireless ad hoc network operates without any fixed infrastructure and centralized administration. It is a group of wirelessly connected nodes having the capability to work as host and router. Due to its features of open communication medium, dynamic changing topology, and cooperative algorithm, security is the primary concern when designing wireless networks. Compared to the traditional wired network, a clean division of layers may be sacrificed for performance in wireless ad hoc networks. As a result, they are vulnerable to various types of attacks at different layers of the protocol stack. In this paper, I present real-time series data analysis …

Quantitative Dependability And Interdependency Models For Large-Scale Cyber-Physical Systems, Koosha Marashi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Cyber-physical systems link cyber infrastructure with physical processes through an integrated network of physical components, sensors, actuators, and computers that are interconnected by communication links. Modern critical infrastructures such as smart grids, intelligent water distribution networks, and intelligent transportation systems are prominent examples of cyber-physical systems. Developed countries are entirely reliant on these critical infrastructures, hence the need for rigorous assessment of the trustworthiness of these systems. The objective of this research is quantitative modeling of dependability attributes -- including reliability and survivability -- of cyber-physical systems, with domain-specific case studies on smart grids and intelligent water distribution networks. To …

Control Of Single- And Dual-Probe Atomic Force Microscopy, Muthukumaran Loganathan

Doctoral Dissertations

“Atomic force microscope (AFM) is one of the important and versatile tools available in the field of nanotechnology. It is a type of probe-based microscopy wherein an atomically sharp tip, mounted on the free end of a microcantilever, probes the surface of interest to generate 3D topographical images with nanoscale resolution. An integral part of the AFM is the feedback controller that regulates the probe deflection in the presence of surface height changes, enabling the control action to be used for generating topographical image of the sample. Besides sensing, the probe can also be used as a mechanical actuator to …