Digital Commons Network^™

Two Dimensional Agonistic Control, Daqing Yang

Dissertations

The conventional method of precise multiple-axis motion control entails use of a multiple axis positioning system with each axis carrying not only the workpiece but also the positioning system of the remaining axes. The resultant structure is heavy, sluggish, and expensive. An alternative positioning technique is being investigated in which the motion of the workpiece is controlled by pulling it with tendons, each of which has its own actuator. Since the actuators can be mounted on the base of the structure instead of being carried by motion system of the other axes, they can be relatively large and powerful without …

Evaluation Of Environmental Characteristics Of Wtp Residuals For Disposal In Monofills, Ping Tian

Dissertations

Disposal of water treatment plant (WTP) have raised great concerns due to the stringent water quality standards and environmental regulations, and limited availability of land for ultimate disposal. The ultimate disposal of water treatment plant residuals by using monofill may be one of the most economical, and feasible options. Design and operation of such a monofill will be simple because of the uniformity of the characteristics of WTP residuals.

The objectives of this project were to determine the environmental characteristics of WTP residuals and to apply these characteristics for the design of monofills and development of the metal leaching model …

Safe Code Transfromations For Speculative Execution In Real-Time Systems, Mohamed Mohamed Younis

Dissertations

Although compiler optimization techniques are standard and successful in non-real-time systems, if naively applied, they can destroy safety guarantees and deadlines in hard real-time systems. For this reason, real-time systems developers have tended to avoid automatic compiler optimization of their code. However, real-time applications in several areas have been growing substantially in size and complexity in recent years. This size and complexity makes it impossible for real-time programmers to write optimal code, and consequently indicates a need for compiler optimization. Recently researchers have developed or modified analyses and transformations to improve performance without degrading worst-case execution times. Moreover, these optimization …

Counterpulsation Cardiac Assist Device Controller Defection Filter Simulation And Canine Experiments, Carl Edward Werner

Dissertations

Electronic control systems for counterpulsation Cardiac Assist Devices (CADs) are an essential part of cardiac assistance. Synchronization of the counterpulsation CAD controller with the cardiac cycle is critical to the efficacy of the CAD. The robustness of counterpulsation CAD controllers varies with the ability of the CAD controller to properly trigger on aortic pressure (Pa) and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals for sinusoid rhythms, non-sinusoid rhythms and non-ideal signals resulting from surgical intervention. An analog-to-digital converter and digital-to-analog converter based CAD controller development platform was devised on a 33Mhz PC-AT.

Counterpulsation Pa systolic rise and dicrotic notch detectors were demonstrated with a …

Comparative Power Of Three Author-Attribution Techniques For Differentiating Authors, John B. Archer, John L. Hilton, G. Bruce Schaalje

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Over the last twenty years, various objective author-attribution techniques have been applied to the English Book of Mormon in order to shed light on the question of multiple authorship of Book of Mormon texts. Two methods, one based on rates of use of noncontextual words and one based on word-pattern ratios, measure patterns consistent with multiple authorship in the Book of Mormon. Another method, based on vocabulary-richness measures, suggests that only one author is involved. These apparently contradictory results are reconciled by showing that for texts of known authorship, the method based on vocabulary-richness measures is not as powerful in …

Massively Parallel Reasoning In Transitive Relationship Hierarchies, Yugyung Lee

Dissertations

This research focuses on building a parallel knowledge representation and reasoning system for the purpose of making progress in realizing human-like intelligence. To achieve human-like intelligence, it is necessary to model human reasoning processes by programs. Knowledge in the real world is huge in size, complex in structure, and is also constantly changing even in limited domains. Unfortunately, reasoning algorithms are very often intractable, which means that they are too slow for any practical applications. One technique to deal with this problem is to design special-purpose reasoners. Many past Al systems have worked rather nicely for limited problem sizes, but …

Shaped Charges Having A Porous Tungsten Liner-An Experimental And Theoretical Study Of Metal Compression, Jet Formation And Penetration Mechanics, Brian Edward Fuchs

Dissertations

The use of porous tungsten as a liner for shaped charges to improve their penetration was proposed by Ki-Hwan Oh in his invention disclosure "Shock Extrusion of Ingots from Powders or Solids", at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro NM on June 7, 1988. The intention was to increase the ductility of the normally brittle metal by heating the liner to a high temperature by shock compaction during its acceleration just before jet formation.

The feasibility of increasing the ductility of tungsten in this way is the subject of the present study. The theory and prior experimental …

Potential Effects Of Pneumatic Fracturing On Existing Structures And Utilities, Michael C. Canino

Theses

This thesis develops a mathematical design model for predicting ground deformations resulting from pneumatic fracturing. Pneumatic fracturing is a patented process developed for the purpose of enhancing the in situ treatment and removal of hazardous contaminants from geologic formations. During pneumatic injections, measurable ground deformations are experienced both during and after the process. Safe application of pneumatic fracturing to contaminated plumes occurring beneath existing structures and utilities requires that the elastic deformation behavior of the geologic formation and overlying structures be quantified.

Data from five pneumatic fracturing sites were regressed to establish the characteristic polynomial describing the curvature of ground …

Crusader, January 31, 1997, College Of The Holy Cross

Student Newspapers

The student newspaper for the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Articles include coverage of campus events and issues, sports, editorials and special features.

About The Contributors, Journal Of Book Of Mormon Studies

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

No abstract provided.

Design Of A Mode Of Delivery For Macrobead Transplantation, Jagdip Desai

Theses

The macrobead is a form of a biohybrid artificial pancreas (BAP), which is being developed to treat type 1 diabetes. A hypothetical human transplant would require 125 rat equivalent macrobeads. For intraperitoneal transplantation a mode of delivery that allows the placement of several hundred macrobeads into a basket or pouch type device is required.

In this study, four commercially available materials were studied as possible candidates for creating a pouch. These materials are polyvinyl chloride acrylic copolymer (PVC), polyethersulfone (PES), polyvinylidenedifluoride (PVDF), and polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE). Tubular pouches of each material were designed. They then underwent in vivo biocompatibility and in-vitro …

A Cost Model For Multi-Lifecycle Engineering Design, Bin Zhang

Theses

Design for Environment aims to yield a product whose aggregate environmental impact is as small as possible. This thesis characterizes a product recovery system and defines the concepts of product lifetime and part lifetime. A multi-lifecycle product recovery model is developed based on the concepts of product tree and disassembly path representation, four product recovery choices, time varying costs, cost comparison. The four product recovery choices of a part in the product tree are: Reconditioning, Part Remanufacturing, Material Recycling, and Landfill. This thesis focuses on how to improve the product design while minimizing environmental impact of the product and introduces …

Oxidative Response Of Immobilized Bovine Blood To The Model Pollutant Phenol, Michael George Nickey

Theses

The primary purpose of this work is to determine if bovine blood can be studied in an immobilized cell bioreactor to determine if a phenol induced oxygen releasing optimum exists. This method of study has the potential to be used to determine what effects xenobiotics have on the oxidative activities of blood.

Three blood fractions containing approximately 21, 44, and 70% red blood cells (RBCs) were immobilized and placed in a recirculating bioreactor. These fractions were exposed injections of 0 ml, 3 ml, or 10 ml amounts of 2000 ppm phenol. The most active fraction was the 21% red cell …

Tcp/Ip Traffic Over Atm Network With Abr Flow And Congestion Control, Liping An

Theses

Most traffics over the existing ATM network are generated by applications running over TCP/IP protocol stack. In the near future, the success of ATM technology will depend largely on how well it supports the huge legacy of existing TCP/IP applications.

In this thesis, we study and compare the performance of TCP/IP traffic running on different rate based ABR flow control algorithms such as EFCI, ERICA and FMMRA by extensive simulations. Infinite source-end traffic behavior is chosen to represent, FTP application running on TCP/IP. Background VBR traffic with different ON-OFF frequency is introduced to produce transient network states as well as …

Abstraction Of An Object-Oriented Vocabulary By Providing A Standardized Interface, Hemant Kothavade

Theses

Controlled vocabularies are ubiquitous in varied application fields. 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 efficiently retrieve and update knowledge stored in a controlled vocabulary modeled as an Object-Oriented Database (OODB) system. We aim to provide a standardized interface to the vocabulary, such that the implementation details of the vocabulary are transparent to all users. The user of this standardized interface will typically be an application programmer who is trying to provide the vocabulary's knowledge-base to end …

Oxidized Sterols In Patients With Diabetic Heart Disease And Microwave-Mediated Stereoselective Synthesis Of 3-Keto Cholesterol And Cholesterol Epoxide, Cholesteryl Ester Epoxides, Meenakashi N. Kothavale

Theses

Oxidized low density lipoproteins (ox-LDL) may play important role in mediating hypercholesterolemic endothelial dysfunction. The uptake of modified LDL by macrophages to form foam cells has been implicated in the enhancement of atherosclerosis. Recent reports have suggested that when LDL undergoes oxidation in vitro , it is accompanied by a substantial loss of free and esterified cholesterol leading to the formation of oxidation products of cholesterol ( oxysterols). These compounds are present in human atherosclerotic plaques and in human foam cells.

In this regard we have recently studied the plasma sterol composition in diabetic heart patients We have found cholesterol …

Experimental Investigation Of Collisional Properties Of Spheres, Laurent Labous

Theses

We present experimental results on the collisional properties of spheres obtained through high-speed video analysis. An apparatus is built that produces collisions of spheres of various sizes with a wide range of impact, velocities and incidence angles.

Edge detection techniques are implemented to track the position of the spheres from frame to frame whereby the translational velocities may be computed. In order to determine the rotational velocities, small markers are imprinted on the surfaces of the spheres and also tracked and matched from one frame to the next.. From the pre and post collision kinematic data, three collisional properties are …

Three-Dimensional Stress Analysis Of The Femur With Prosthetic Hip Stem Utilizing Computed Tomography Scans Of The Femur For Geometry And Material Properties, Thomas J. Lavin

Theses

Three-dimensional finite element stress analyses of the femur with prosthesis hip stem were performed for two cases, one male and one female, using ideally bonded cemented titanium prostheses. Computed tomography data files were used to derive the three-dimensional femur geometry and material properties for each cortical bone element. The maximum shear stress (4.7 MPa) in the cement was greater then the maximum tensile stress and occurred at the cement-bone interface. The tensile stresses in the cement were less then the fatigue strength of the cement. The stress patterns were quite similar for the two cases.

A data analysis program was …

Application Of Geometric Hashing Techniques To Retrieval Of High Dimensional Objects In Scientific Databases, Joyce Ye Lu

Theses

An approach to designing very fast algorithms for tackling the problem of approximate object matching in very large databases of high-dimensional objects is proposed. Given are a target object C and a database D containing information about a set of high-dimensional objects each of which is represented as a set of points. Our algorithms have an off-line object preprocessing (shape representation) phase and a recognition phase. The described algorithms determine those objects from D which are the closest to object C, according to delete or insert some points, move and rotation. All of these can be achieved very efficiently with …

Optimization Of Ion-Exchange Chromotography With Multiple Gradient Inputs For Protein Separations, Tariq Mahmood

Theses

Gradient elution chromatography is an efficient technique for adjusting the retention of sample components during liquid chromatographic separations. However, the optimization of gradient elution is usually done by trial and error. Thus, for large scale processes this results in expensive and time consuming design and operations. Peak resolution that describes the degree of separation is a commonly used parameter for chromatographic processes. However, in processes where operating time and product dilution are of great importance, resolution alone is not adequate for describing the separation efficiency.

A new parameter "resolution optimization factor" is used for the optimization of gradient elution processes. …

Modeling Of Objects Using Planar Facets In Noisy Range Images, Girish Phansalkar

Theses

Products designed and manufactured before the advent of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) technology have not been documented electronically. To avoid the laborious procedure of redesigning the parts, a reverse engineering approach can be adopted. This approach involves, taking a picture of the object and constructing a solid model from the image data.

Range image is a three dimensional image of an object or a scene. This image can be obtained from special cameras, called range image cameras, or can be constructed from the Coordinate Measuring Machine's (CMM) output data. Adaptive Fuzzy c-Elliptotype (AFC) clustering algorithm …

Size-Frequency Distribution Of Palaemonetes Pugio In Two New Jersey Estuaries And Predator-Prey Interactions With Fundulus Heterocolitus, Celine Santiago

Theses

Predation by Fundulus heteroclitus is known to be an important factor regulating the abundance and size distribution of Palaemonetes pugio in the salt marsh habitat.

A preliminary study showed that P. pugio from a polluted estuary, Piles Creek, were relatively larger than those found in a more pristine estuary, Little Sheepshead Creek. Possible causes could be differences in competition, inherent environmental components, reproductive effort, or predation. To investigate the differences in size frequency, data on relative abundances of both species and size frequency distribution of P. pugio were collected for comparison from the two estuaries.

It was determined that P. …

Catalytic Control Of Nitric Oxide With Gaseous Or Solid Reducing Materials, Xiaoyong Tang

Theses

Air pollution from mobile sources is an increasingly serious problem throughout most of the industrialized would. Diesel powered vehicles, because of their higher thermal efficiency, tend to emit less carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons than gasoline vehicles, but emit significant quantities of NO_x. Therefore, it is essential to develop improved emission control equipment in diesel engines. A fixed bed catalytic reactor was used to study the decomposition of NO and the reduction of NO to N₂ by different reductants that can be found in diesel exhaust, such as hydrocarbons, CO and elemental carbon over different catalysts. The …

Experimental Study Of The Rise Of A Large Sphere In A Vibrated Bed Of Monodisperse Spheres, Loic Vanel

Theses

As a simplified way to study size segregation mechanisms, the rise of a single large sphere in a vibrated bed of smaller monodisperse spheres is investigated. The time it takes for the ball to rise from the bottom of the bed to the surface is measured in a very wide range of vibration amplitude, frequency and acceleration. Rise regimes are identified and are classified according to the macroscopic behaviors displayed by the granular bed: heaping, convection without heaping and crystallization. The influence of the large sphere's size on the rise velocity is described. The scaling features of the vibration amplitude …

Western News, Jan. 30, 1997, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Haenicke lays the groundwork for future construction, Haworth and Waddles elected to lead board, Jorgens named dean of College of Arts and Sciences, Grants for first half of fiscal year exceed $14 million, Demonstration project gives libraries patrons access to more than 2,500 full-text publications, WMU to recognize contributions of women to sports, Educators should cultivate reflective thinking rather than indoctrinate particular values, Wiener honored for contributions to profession.

01/30/1997 - Area Students On Eiu Dean's List, University Marketing And Communications

1997

No abstract provided.

January 30, 1997, James Madison University

The Breeze, 1990-1999

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Illinois State University Report, January 30, 1997, Illinois State University

Illinois State University Report (1966-2012)

Illinois State University bi-weekly employee newsletter.

Volume Cxiv, Number 7, January 30, 1997, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

Washington University Record, January 30, 1997

Washington University Record

No abstract provided.