Digital Commons Network^™

A Simple Neural Agent Communicating Through Sets, James P. Stanski

Theses

Networked agents of the simplest kind offer the power of cooperative problem solving through parallel operation along with tight packaging potential. Such agents are self-contained analog machines capable of only a few primitive intelligent operations. In this thesis, a design will be developed for a simple agent capable of sending, receiving, and processing information in a environment where agents are coupled together. This environment imposes unorchestrated simultaneous input while expecting a useful timely response. Successful collaboration in these conditions is accomplished through sets encoded within pulse ensembles. The simplicity of the set definition is an inviting candidate for message communication …

Design And Implementation Of Generalized Adaptive Neural Filters, Chun Yip Tam

Theses

Generalized Adaptive Neural Filters (GANF) are a class of adaptive non-linear filters. This thesis presents a hardware implementation of GANF. Two designs are considered: the single neuron implementation and the multi-neuron implementation. The GANF design includes the window generator, threshold decomposer, training and filtering unit. The designs are verified through a logic design/simulation tool, Logic Works.

Indifférance, John F. Pohorylo

Theses

The main intention of this thesis is to wrestle Derrida's notion of différance from an endless free-play of signification into some sense of boundedness, and to release meaning, knowledge and understanding from its relentless grasp. In achieving this goal, an entirely new field of "value" and "Quality" based discourse would open up within applied schismatic architectural theory.

Robert Pirsig offers a strong alternative to différance with his discourse on the Metaphysics of Quality, wherein he defines "Quality" as a pre-intellectual reality. This pre-intellectual reality, which I call "indifférance", is made up of the lenses of inorganic, organic and social …

Requirement Elicitation For Environmental Life Cycle Processes, Mariam Y. Burmawalla

Theses

To develop a user-satisfying product the most essential ingredient is to understand user's needs and expectations from the system. Lack of communication between the user and the developer results in an unsatifying output from the user's point of view. Thus proper understanding between the stakeholder and the developer is the most important requirement during the development of any system.

Requirement elicitation process is one such means of expressing wants and requirements from the system by both the parties. Based on Software Engineering Institute's model, requirement elicitation is a web-based application that allows all the people involved in the system to …

Value Engineering For The Practice Of Architecture, Husam Akoud

Theses

The practice of value engineering has become a significant factor in the construction industry during the past five decades. To value engineer a product or an item is to examine carefully its components in relation to their respective performance. Alternatives are generated to enhance functionality and reduce cost.

Techniques and methods have been developed to assist in performing a value engineering study that has a substantial impact on the final product, whether an item in a system or a building component. The different phases of value engineering are the INFORMATION, SPECULATIVE, ANALYTICAL and PROPOSAL PHASES. Each phase has its unique …

Signal Processing Topics In Multicarrier Modulation : Frequency Offset Correction For Ofdm And Multiuser Interference Cancellation For Mc-Cdma, Pingping Zong

Theses

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is discussed as a special form of multi-carrier modulation (MCM). One major problem of the OFDM system is the sensitivity to an unknown frequency offset at the receiver. To improve the performance of the OFDM system, correction of the frequency offset is required before decision making. An adaptive method of frequency offset correction is presented. The adaptation algorithm used here is based on the LMS and the estimation is proven unbiased. A multiuser communications system having similar signal structure to the OFDM system, termed as multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA), is discussed. The MC-CDMA …

Energy Requirements For Certified Organic Farms In New Jersey : A Survey And Analysis Of Tomato Production, Cecilia Kelnhofer-Feeley

Theses

The focus of this thesis is to document the fossil fuel and electrical energy consumption required to grow certified organic tomatoes in the State of New Jersey. First, in order to evaluate the energy requirement for agriculture, a literature review of energy changes during the twentieth century is discussed. Secondly, an in-depth look at energy requirements for all farming types is evaluated. Third, previous studies of the energy requirements in agriculture are examined; this includes both analyzing organic and conventional farming practices. A survey was generated from the information gathered. The survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews. When all the …

An Integrated Environment For Problem Solving And Program Development, Fadi Pierre Deek

Dissertations

A framework for an integrated problem solving and program development environment that addresses the needs of students learning programming is proposed. Several objectives have been accomplished: defining the tasks required for program development and a literature review to determine the actual difficulties involved in learning those tasks. A comprehensive Study of environments and tools developed to support the learning of problem solving and programming was then performed, covering programming environments, debugging aids, intelligent tutoring systems, and intelligent programming environments. This was followed by a careful analysis and critique of these systems, which uncovered the limitations that have prevented them from …

Fractionally Sampled Decorrelating Detectors For Time-Varying Rayleigh Fading Cdma Channels, Huaping Liu

Dissertations

In this dissertation, we propose novel decorrelating multiuser detectors in DSCDMA time-varying frequency-nonselective and frequency-selective fading channels and analyze their performance. We address the common shortcomings of existing multiuser detectors in a mobile environment, such as detector complexity and the error floor. An analytical approach is employed almost exclusively and Monte Carlo simulation is used to confirm the theoretical results. Practical channel models, such as Jakes' and Markovian, are adopted in the numerical examples.

The proposed detectors are of the decorrelating type and utilize fractional sampling to simultaneously achieve two goals: (1) the novel realization of a decorrelator with lower …

Analysis Of Safe Separation Distances From Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines, James Stephen Haklar

Dissertations

Accidental rupture of natural gas transmission pipelines with subsequent ignition of the escaping gas can result in the loss of life and property. In the United States, current means of protecting both the pipeline and the public include the establishment of class locations, in which specific pipeline design, construction and operation requirements must be attained. In addition, distances at which the pipelines can be safely set back from the community, called safe separation distances, have been developed in some European countries (e.g., Great Britain, the Netherlands) through use of risk assessment principles. However, to date there has been no simple, …

Automobile Air Bag Inflation System Based On Fast Combustion Reaction, Yacoob Tabani

Dissertations

Current automobile air bag inflator technology is complex, expensive and environmentally unsafe. A new and novel air bag inflator based on fast combustion reactions of methane-oxygen mixtures has been developed and studied. The thermodynamics and mass flow parameters of this new inflator have been modeled and found to be in agreement with experimental results.

The performance of the fast combustion inflator was evaluated in terms of pressure-time relationships inside the inflator and in a receiving tank simulating an air bag as well as the temperature-time relationship in the tank.

In order to develop this fast combustion inflator, several critical issues …

Modeling Study On The Neopentyl+ O2 Reaction System And Experimental And Modeling Study On Mtbe Pyrolysis And Oxidation, Ru Wei

Dissertations

A modeling study on neopentyl radical + O₂ reaction system is conducted in this study. Thermodynamic parameters on all species and important transition states are calculated. A thermochemical kinetic analysis is performed.

Thermodynamic parameters are estimated using group additivity with HBI groups. Transition state energies are evaluated from experimental and theoretical data in the literature, combined with elementary reaction modeling to account for temperature effects. Transition state structures, vibration frequencies and entropies are determined from semi-empirical calculations, MOPAC PM3. Kinetics are analyzed with quantum RRK theory for k(E) coupled with modified strong collision analysis of Gilbert et al for …

Diffusive And Wavelike Phenomena In Thermal Processing Of Materials, John A. Pelesko

Dissertations

Contemporary materials science abounds with novel processing methods. Devices such as lasers, microwave sources, and electron beam guns, provide unprecedented control over the deposition of energy within a material. The modern materials scientist has the ability to deposit energy volumetrically, to precisely control the location of energy deposition within a material, and to deposit energy in extremely short intervals of time. While making possible numerous thermal processing methods, these devices also push the limits of our understanding of the response of materials to energy deposition. In order to optimize and control these processing methods, it becomes necessary to further our …

Electrocatalytic Control Of Exhaust Soot, Victor L. Callahan

Dissertations

The feasibility of combining electrostatic precipitation and use of a catalytic wall in a straight tube reactor as a means of destroying soot particles was investigated. Enhanced particle diffusion to the wall by an applied electric field provided the means of particle capture for subsequent catalytic oxidation at the active surface in a small length tube.

Soot particles flowing in a gas stream are influenced by the following transport mechanisms: convective flux as a result of bulk flow, diffusion flux as a result of particle concentration or number density gradient, and an electrostatic flux from the coulombic attraction as charged …

A Decision Support System For The Equipment Selection Of Robotic Manufacturing Cells, Lars Johan Resare

Theses

Considering the principles of concurrent engineering, a Decision Support System (DSS) is developed to aid in the equipment selection of robotic manufacturing cells. The objective is to synchronously and simultaneously select proper equipment for the cell to provide efficient performance, subject to operational and budgetary constraints.

The DSS consists of several modules, including a data base that houses the specifications of equipment available in the market place, a first cut selection module, and an optimization engine. In its development, the optimization scheme utilizes analytical models and algorithms that capture different sources of variability in production, such as tolerances, clearances and …

Interactive And Batch Creation Of Oodb Medical Vocabularies, Muhammad Arif

Theses

Controlled vocabularies are becoming popular for knowledge representation and querying. They are particularly helpful in the medical field since they can unify disparate terminologies and provide information in a compact, comprehensible manner. In this thesis, we present a mechanism to create OODB controlled medical vocabularies from flat-file format. We also describe a tool by which a user can interactively create, edit and browse the vocabulary. For better understanding of the structure of the vocabulary we designed our interface as a graphical editor and browser. The user of this interface will typically be a medical expert who either wants to add …

Structured Document Comparison And Scientific Data Mining On The World Wide Web, Philip B. Johnson

Theses

The usefulness and accessibility of programs and systems have become important issues for users and researchers alike. A program's usefulness can lw measured by the frequency with which it is used. From the author's or maintainer's point of view, the frequency of usage can be determined by how often a request for the software is received. In the past, a user became aware of a particular tool through various means, and contacted the author or maintainer to obtain a copy of it. This presented difficulties, ranging from language barriers to machine incompatibilities to control of the use of the program. …

Removal And Recovery Of Vocs And Oils From Surfactant-Flushed Recovered Water By Membrane Permeation, Ashish Nagnath Saraf

Theses

Surfactant-enhanced subsurface remediation appears to be capable of removing efficiently contaminants from the source area as well as the concentrated plume. Initial research was conducted on separate removal of trichloroethylene (TCE) and an oil. It was found that oil permeation and modified pervaporation are effective techniques of removing oil and TCE respectively from the simulated feed. It was found that the oil permeation technique can effectively remove 98-99% of oil from an oil-in-water emulsion. The subsurface-entrapped organic pollutants often have high boiling components along with the VOCs. A combined permeation technique is applied here to simultaneously remove TCE and n-dodecane …

Testing Statistical Significance In Sequence Classification Algorithms, Tom Tien-Hua Shih

Theses

Multiple sequence alignment has proven to be a successful method of representing and organizing of protein sequence data. It is crucial to medical researches on the structure and function of proteins.

There have been numerous tools published on how to abstract meaningful relationship from an unknown sequence and a set of known sequences. One study used a method for discovering active motifs in a set of related protein sequences. These are meaningful knowledge abstracted from the known protein database since most protein families are characterized by multiple local motifs. Another study abstracts knowledge regarding the input sequence using a preconstructed …

Mechanical Design Of An Experimental Parallel Robot, Philip Song

Theses

OSCAR, or Operational Space Controlled Adjustable Robot, is a parallel-actuated manipulator, also known as Stewart Platform or platform manipulator. The apparatus consists of two platforms (base and top) and six prismatic actuators in between. The main advantage of a platform manipulator is the fact that it can out-perform serial manipulators in both load capacity and precision. However, there are disadvantages and weaknesses such as limited mobility. A platform manipulator has reduced workspace compared to serial manipulators. The problem of limited workspace is solved by enabling OSCAR to change its prismatic leg positioning about the base platform.

During the course of …

Analysis Of The Protocol For The Handover In A Micro-Cell Packet Switched Mobile Network, Anna M. Thomas

Theses

The overlay of microcells over macrocells offers new opportunities and is cost effective, which makes the handover in such a micro-cellular environment an important issue. The objective of this study is to analyze and prove the truthfulness of a new protocol proposed, which guarantees no packet loss during the handoff. The study here emphasizes on the data integrity issue, since it is the key factor affecting the throughput performance of the transport layer. It is shown that usage of the Internet Protocol leads to packet loss in the presence of handover. Simulation results reveal that the proposed new protocol preserves …

Microstrip Zero-Sum Antenna; Cad And Experimental Study, Tuan H. Lam

Theses

A microstrip antenna array consisting of two elements combined with a stripline hybrid (rat-race) ring coupler is used to implement a zero-sum antenna. Numerical optimization of individual antenna elements in terms of feed location and patch size was achieved using IE3D (Zeland Software Inc., Fremont, CA), a fullwave 3-D planar electromagnetic simulation software. Further, design of a hybrid (rat-race) ring coupler in a stripline environment was carried out, yielding the sum and difference functions as 0.5 dB and 40 dB, respectively. A combination of a two-element antenna array and a hybrid (rat-race) ring coupler as a zero sum antenna has …

Pervaporation-Assisted Esterification Of Salicylic Acid, Chaiya Chandavasu

Theses

The coupling of a pervaporation membrane unit with a reactor has been investigated as a means of improving the overall process efficiency. As model system, the esterification of salicylic acid with methanol in the presence of a homogeneous catalyst was studied in a unit consisting of a batch reactor externally coupled with a pervaporation module containing a composite poly(vinyl alcohol) membrane. The reaction was carried out at temperatures between 336 and 345 K. The catalyst was sulfuric acid at concentrations varying from 0.5 to 2.0 molar. Various initial molar ratios (Θ_B) of methanol and salicylic acid, ranging from …

Modeling Of Deformed Swept Volumes With Sde And Its Applications To Nc Simulation And Verification, Feng Lu

Theses

Representation of swept volumes has important applications in NC simulation and verification as well as robot-motion planning. Most research on .the representation of swept volumes has been limited to rigid objects. In this study, a sweep deferential equation (SDE) approach is presented for the representation of deformed swept volumes generated by flexible objects.

The deformed swept volume analysis is integrated with machining physics to account for tool deformation/deflection for the NC simulation. End milling is modeled and analyzed and the tool deformations are calculated and integrated with the SDE program. A program is developed in C++ for the generation of …

Soot Capture In An Electrocatalytic Reactor, Thana Slanvetpan

Theses

A major problem with many soot emission control devices is the fact that they quickly become loaded with soot which must be removed by a regeneration process. A soot capture reactor using a large flow channel was studied in order to eliminate channel plugging and avoid regeneration. Electrostatic precipitation was used in order to enhance particle diffusion to the catalyst wall of the reactor tube. The system effectiveness for soot capture was measured with filter paper sampling of the incoming versus the outgoing flow through the reactor. Soot filter loadings were analyzed by laser optical transmission. From the soot filter …

Algorithms And Tools For Splicing Junction Donor Recognition In Genomic Dna Sequences, Maisheng Yin

Theses

The consensus sequences at splicing junctions in genomic DNA are required for pre-mRNA breaking and rejoining which must be carried out precisely. Programs currently available for identification or prediction of transcribed sequences from within genomic DNA are far from being powerful enough to elucidate genomic structure completely[4]. In this research, we develop a degenerate pattern match algorithm for 5' splicing site (Donor Site) recognition.. Using the Motif models we developed, we can mine out the degenerate pattern information from the consensus splicing junction sequences. Our experimental results show that, this algorithm can correctly recognize 93% of the total donor sites …

Njit Highlanders Men's Basketball 1997-98 Media Guide, New Jersey Institute Of Technology Athletic Department

Basketball - Men's

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Catalog, 1997-2000, New Jersey Institute Of Technology, New Jersey Institute Of Technology

Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

The Design And Fabrication Of A Thermal Microprobe Integrated On An Atomic Force Microscope Probe Tip, Yongxia Zhang

Dissertations

A thermal microprobe has been designed and built for high resolution temperature sensing. The thermal microprobe consists of a very-thin-film thermocouple junction confined to the very end of a low mass Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) probe tip. Essential to high resolution temperature sensing is the confinement of the thermocouple junction to a short distance at the AFM tip. This confinement is achieved by controlled photoresist coating.

Experimental prototypes have been made with the junction confined to within 0.3 µm of the tip. The couple is made of Au/Pd, and the two metals are electrically separated elsewhere by a thin insulating …

Efficient Parallel Processing With Optical Interconnections, Lili Hai

Dissertations

With the advances in VLSI technology, it is now possible to build chips which can each contain thousands of processors. The efficiency of such chips in executing parallel algorithms heavily depends on the interconnection topology of the processors. It is not possible to build a fully interconnected network of processors with constant fan-in/fan-out using electrical interconnections. Free space optics is a remedy to this limitation. Qualities exclusive to the optical medium are its ability to be directed for propagation in free space and the property that optical channels can cross in space without any interference. In this thesis, we present …