Digital Commons Network^™

A Study In Systems Integration Architecture, Sashidhar M. Prasad

Theses

This Thesis studies the two architectures OSCA and ANSA which support the ODPSE principle in the first two parts. In the third part the framework for integrating these two architectures is described. The idea of integration architectures in relation to open architectures is studied using the enabling technologies.

Biodegradation Of Tnt (2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene), Jin Lou

Theses

This study summaries the results of various methods treating 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). Review of available literatures revealed that the most commonly used techniques in full-scale plant for TNT removal are chemical oxidation and carbon adsorption.

From economic point of view, the biological treatment system will be much more cost-effective. Various methods for improving the efficiency of biological system treating TNT wastewater were developed in the laboratory. Current laboratory results show that by isolating appropriate microorganisms under adequate conditions, TNT wastes can be degraded successfully.

At the some time, some pretreatment technologies are recommended in this study for improving the performance of …

The Legal And Political Challenges To Academic Eligibility Requirements, Barbara Ferguson

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Minimum-Time Control For Submarine Interception, Zaiping Chen

Theses

This thesis attempts to offer a possible improvement for conventional anti-submarine system which is mounted on warship. It consists of two parts: the control law and its realization concerning the particular problem. The control based on optimal theory is devised for three-dimentional minimum-time interception. A microprocessor system is also designed to achieve all necessary steps to track and attack the target. The thesis focuses on the question of how to launch a group of subcharges to destroy a submarine cruising under water: find the optimal trajectory by developing a numerical method to solve the nonlinear dynamic system and design a …

Response Characteristics Of Inelastic Single Degree Of Freedom Systems Subjected To Intraplate Earthquakes, Linda C. Jones

Theses

Within recorded, although not recent, history, there have been several large magnitude earthquakes in the Eastern and Central United States and the need to provide measures to protect from potential damage is recognized by the engineering community. Since there are inherent differences between earthquakes that occur along tectonic plate boundaries, interplate, and those that occur within the plate boundaries, intraplate, it is important to understand how these differences impact structural design. A parametric study of single degree of freedom systems subjected to various recorded and artificial ground motions was performed to identify the variations in response characteristics.

It was found …

Stability And Durability Of Large Aggregate Asphalt Concrete, Rais A. Khan

Theses

There are many factors which affect the properties of asphalt concrete and one of these is a maximum aggregate size used in the mix. In this study of the effect of maximum aggregate size on Marshall stability, flow and durability of asphalt aggregate mixtures is investigated.

Two different mixes having gradations with maximum aggregate sizes of 3/4 and 1-1/2 inches were considered. The optimum asphalt content for mix having 3/4 inch maximum aggregate size, was determined by the standard Marshall procedure. The optimum asphalt content for the mix having 1-1/2 inch maximum aggregate size, was estimated based on thickness of …

Vision-Guided Servoing Robot Arm System, Shing Lee

Theses

This thesis investigate the problem of tracking 2-D circle parts with an eye-in-hand robot arm system. A vision module capable of measuring the motion of a circle is developed. Two algorithms based on the conic equation representation of circle and the symmetric property are developed. The first algorithm approximates the image of the circle as an ellipse. The second algorithm use the arc radius estimator to extract two image points of the circle located at the center of the largest arc. These image points are then used to solve for the inverse perspective transformation. An inverse kinematics solution based on …

Development Of Cellular Manufacturing Systems For Overall Production Efficiency, Srinivas Lokula

Theses

For years the industrial job shop is facing an increase in complexity and decline in productivity due to increase in parts mix, volume of parts, plant size, machine production rates and part complexity. The development of Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing seeks to eliminate or minimize complexity and to maximize productivity.

Cellular manufacturing is the physical division of job shop's manufacturing machinery into production cells. Each cell is designed to produce parts requiring similar machinery and machine operations. Cellular manufacturing is one of the best manufacturing techniques to support Just In Time manufacturing and Total Quality Management.

This thesis work …

Design For Manufacturability (Computer Aided Optimum Gear Design), Narayan R. Mareddy

Theses

Design for manufacturing has design as the first manufacturing step. It is important to recognize the importance of design clubing with manufacturing to reduce the production, set up time. In this thesis concepts of design, manufacturing and four different ways of bringing design and manufacturing together are discussed in detail.

As there are large number of variables in the gear rating equations, it is very difficult to achieve optimum design by manual methods unless an extensive trial and error process is carried out. An algorithm has been developed which allows rapid convergence to the optimum gear design. The algorithm has …

A Graphical Tool For The Simulation Of Timed Petri Nets, Javaid Aslam Siddiqi

Theses

A highly interactive graphical tool is developed for the drawing and simulation of discrete event systems involving time constraints. The Timed Petri Net Simulator tool (TPNS) is capable of simulating systems with deterministic and stochastic delays. Performance and utilization parameters are collected during simulation for behavior and analysis purposes. Simulation results are stored in different files (log, verify, utilize, and mark). Conflict resolution on the basis of priority or random selection of multiple transitions in conflict is implemented to handle complex modeling situations. A user friendly interface is developed for effective interaction between the tool and the user. This interface …

The Strength Of Cement Bentonite In Containment Structures, Liong Tin So

Theses

In recent years the use of cutoff or slurry walls has increased in the containment of hazardous waste. Several materials have been utilized for backfill in slurry walls. Two important properties of the material are shear strength and permeability. Previously, sodium bentonite had been used. However, it was discovered that variable pH would cause an increase in permeability. Studies have shown calcium bentonite have a constant permeability with varied pH (Oweis and Khera, 1990). This study was undertaken to determine strength of calcium bentonite as affected by cement and slag.

Triaxial shear tests and unconfined compression tests were done on …

A Synthesis Technique Of General Petri Nets For Flexible Manufacturing And Multi-Rate Digital Signal Processing, Murthy S. Valluri

Theses

General Petri nets are useful for modeling flexible manufacturing system with multiple robots and workstations [KOH 90] and for multi-rate digital signal processing systems [CHA 91].. A problem of using Petri nets for modeling various systems is the large number of states generated. Various synthesis approaches have been proposed. Most of them do not deal with general Petri nets. Koh et. al. [KOH 90] invented a synthesis technique for generalized Petri nets. The purpose of this thesis is to extend their work by modifying the knitting technique by adding the Arc-Ratio rule.

Automated Eeg Analysis And Spike Detection, Walter Vanderschraaf

Theses

EEG analysis of epileptic patients is extremely time consuming. Patients are monitored up to 36 hours at a time. The neurologist must visually review stacks of EEG records to determine whether they contain epileptic or artifactual activity. This process is very subjective and can vary from one neurologist to another based on his or her training and experience. The neurologist is only human and may tire or lose his or her concentration. Automated EEG analysis can efficiently reduce the amount of data and time involved in analysis. It is also more consistent and objective than human analysis.

The main objective …

Representation Of Graphical Deep Knowledge In An Object-Oriented Database System, Prasanna S. Venkatesh

Theses

Object-oriented approaches to the design of complex graphical interfaces have received an enormous impetus in the database and knowledge representation disciplines. As traditional CAD systems store information about all the objects for display purposes but do not store any knowledge for reasoning purposes, they are considered as "knowledge poor" and they cannot support efficient environments for design. In Artificial Intelligence the notion of "Graphical Deep Knowledge" has been proved successful to represent knowledge about objects for display purposes as well as reasoning purposes. To design "knowledge rich" systems which can support better graphical interfaces, the theory of "Graphical Deep Knowledge" …

Measurement Of The Removal Of Selected Vocs From A Municipal Treatment Plant, Hong Yu

Theses

Industrial wastewater contains a variety of volatile chemical constituents. The large majority of the volatiles are organics. Many of these volatile or¬ganic compounds (VOCs) end up in the effluent to wastewater treatment plants. It is necessary to estimate the emission of the VOCs from sewerage plants in order to study the fate of these volatile organic compounds.

This study focuses on the estimation and comparison of the emission of 28 volatile organic compounds from the water and air in four operation units of Linden Roselle Sewerage Authority (LRSA) wastewater treatment plant. The removal rates of these target compounds have been …

Ua66/6/3/1 Biennial Report, Kentucky Gamma, Alpha Epsilon Delta

Student Organizations

Biennial report created by and about the Kentucky Gamma Chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta premedical honor society sponsored by WKU Biology.

Strength And Fragility Of Concrete, Kang-Qun Shao

Theses

It is known that both strength and fragility are two of the most important properties in concrete. In this research, theories of Chemistry, Physical Chemistry of Surfaces, Thermodynamics and Fracture Mechanics are used to study the relationships between the macromechanical behavior of concrete and the microstructure in concrete. The objectives of this research are therefore to find some effective ways to explain theoretically why the concrete is so brittle (fragile) and how to increase its strength or to decrease its fragility. Based on the present studies, an equation is formulated to calculate the coefficient of the fragility (or brittleness) of …

People In Education, December 31, 1991, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Frictional Resistance Of Geotextiles, Md. Khairul Alam

Theses

The pullout resistance of geotextiles was examined using pullout tests. A suitable wooden box with large (2 ft x 2 ft x 4 ft) dimensions was used to avoid the effect of boundary and to simulate field conditions. Two types of failure patterns were observed. For shallow embedment (<3 ft), geotextile produced a movement of the surrounding mass of sand in the shape of an inverted cone due to interlocking friction between geotextile and sand particles. The cone angle decreases with increase in depth of embedment. For embedment equal to or greater than 3 ft., no sand cone developed and the failure occurred along the interface of geotextile and sand. For 1 ft. surcharge, the increase in the pullout resistance due to combined horizontal and vertical embedment was about 30 %.

Fast Arithmetic Operations On The Hypercube Using Conditional Sum Addition And Modified Booth's Algorithm, Umar Bin Iftikhar

Theses

Algorithms for fast arithmetic operations (i.e., addition and multiplication) on the hypercube computer are presented. The hypercube network of dimension d interconnects N = 2^d processors in such a way that each processor is directly connected to d neighboring processors; m order to communicate between processors, the maximum length of the path is d. The addition algorithm is based on the conditional sum technique. The computational time using this algorithm is O(log₂ N+q) where q is the number of the bits per processor in the hypercube of N processors. Operands of size N*q are distributed among the hypercube …

Studying The Mechanical Response Of Outer Hair Cells To Electric Pulses Using Image Sensors, Wayel F. Mutlag

Theses

The purpose of this research was to develop a way to improve the method used by Dr. Santos-Sacchi at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to detect the motion of the outer hair cell (OHC). As part of the work, the construction and functioning of the OHC are presented and two designs to detect the motion of the boundary of the OHC were investigated.

The first design utilizes the position sensitive detector (PSD) S3932 made by Hamamatsu Inc. This detector, however, required excessive intensity of the optical signal that was not compatible with the operation of the …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Silicon Nitride Film Deposited By Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition From Ditertiary-Butyl Silane, Kei-Turng Shih

Theses

Ditertiary-butyl silane (DTBS) and ammonia have been used to deposit silicon nitride films by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with ammonia. The films were deposited in the temperature range of 150 to 300 °C with 0.15 watts/cm² plasma power density at 100 KHz. The NH₃/DTBS ratio was varied from 1 to 18, the total flow rate was varied between 195 and 570 sccm with total pressure ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 torr.

The deposition rate of these films was found to increase as total pressure or total flow rate increases, but was found to decrease as …

Computer Control For 2-Axis Magnetic Suspension System, Jian Chen

Theses

A two-axis magnetic suspension system. using linear-potentiometer position sensing and DC solenoids, controlled digitally by a 80386 microcomputer has been built and operated in our laboratory. Control algorithms obtained by combining the full-state feedback control law with two methods of estimating velocities are studied. One method uses a nonlinear reduced-order observer; the other uses a finite difference algorithm. The nonlinear reduced-order observer performs better in simulation but the difference algorithm takes less calculation time and is used in the implementation. The system has been operated successfully to suspend weights up to 1.2 lb. and to get a slant angle more …

Design Of An Advanced Control Algorithm For A Nuclear Power Plant Feedwater Control System, Randall C. Ezzo

Theses

Electric power companies with nuclear power plants have been aggressively looking for ways to increase plant safety and availability by increasing the reliability and performance of the plant's control systems. The performance of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Station's feedwater control system can be significantly improved by replacing the proportional-integral compensator with a compensator based on modern control concepts. In response to a -10 inch reactor water level setpoint change, settling time is improved from 107 seconds with 3% overshoot to 34 seconds with no overshoot.

Liquid-Liquid Dispersion In Agitated Vessels Provided With Multiple Impellers, Yu-Tsang Huang

Theses

Baffled vessels with multiple impellers are widely used in industry to generate liquid-liquid dispersions. In this work, a new method to determine the minimum agitation speed for complete dispersion in two immiscible liquids was developed. This method was conceived to replace the traditional visual observation method that has been extensively used in the past for this purpose. The minimum agitation speeds for liquid-liquid dispersion with single and multiple impellers in baffled vessel were also measured. The effect of a number of variables such as size and type of impellers, size of tank, impeller location, spacing between impellers, and dispersed phase …

Development Of An Expert System For The Safety Of Workers From Electrical Hazards At Work Place, Faizul Islam

Theses

This thesis presents the development of an expert system for the safety of workers from electrical hazards at work place.

The objective of this work is to show how an expert system within the workplace can be used in helping to create an effective safety program.

An effective expert system for electrical safety have been developed for the workers to prevent accidents from electrical hazards using the safety regulations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The regulations developed by OSHA have been incorporated in rule based expert system which can be accessed by any non computer professional and the system …

Three Dimensional Visualisation Of Tmj Anatomy Using Mri Techniques, Mythreyi T. Krishnaswamy

Theses

The best assessment of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can only be done by the scanning the jaw and getting an image without invivo analysis which causes patient discomfort. There have been innumerable efforts to get the best view using CT techniques for three dimensional visualisation. But very few have done work using MRI techniques.

The TMJ is an integral part of the jaw and helps in mastication and biting. Since the joint is a hinge sliding articulation any dislocation causes immense pain and discomfort.

To get a better assessment of the TMJ, MRI techniques have been used for data acquisition. The …

Study Of A Non-Contact Gaging System Of Inspection, Gordhanbhai Ketan Patel

Theses

The quality control function has traditionally been performed using manual inspection methods and statistical sampling procedures. Manual inspection is generally a time - consuming procedure which involves precise, yet monotonous work. It often requires that parts be removed from the vicinity of the production machines to a separate inspection area. This causes delays and often constitutes a bottleneck in the manufacturing schedule.

As a solution to the above problem a Non - Contact Gaging System developed by Optical Gaging Products, Inc., has been used here to study the feasibility of using an automated inspection system and a procedure of developing …

Redesign Of Parts And Simulation Of Flexible Assembly Cell For Safety Water Shower Assembly, Balraj Y. Gardilla

Theses

A Design for Assembly (DSA) method is used to analyze the safety water shower assembly and to redesign the components with emphasis on meeting the criteria of allowing for flexible Assembly Cell (FAS). An Expert System is developed to select the right Assembly using VP-Expert. This thesis contrasts the old and new safety water shower assembly designs and describes the design of a final Flexible Assembly Cell. A PUMA 550 robot was investigated for use in the cell design. The flexible Assembly cell is simulated on silicon graphics using the IGRIP software. The economics of each part presentation method is …

Biomass Conversion Of Solid-Waste (Newsprint) Into A Clean Fuel (Ethanol) By Enzymic Hydrolysis And Fermentation, Nimesh V. Gandhi

Theses

A feasibility study has been performed with two bioprocesses for conversion of newsprint waste to an environmentally safe fuel (ethyl alcohol) and carbon dioxide.

The following areas were investigated to accomplish this task: one hour pretreatment of newsprint by attrition, saccharification of paper slurry to glucose by cellulase and cellobiase, effects of pH, temperature and concentration of enzymes on conversion of paper to sugar, fermentation of glucose to ethanol and carbon dioxide by immobilized yeast, and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of paper to ethanol and carbon dioxide using enzymes and immobilized yeast.

Results indicate that the enzymic hydrolysis of newsprint …