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2004

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Experimental Validation Of The "Target Hood Static Pressure" Balancing Method For Exhaust Ventilation Systems, Michael Winifred Dodrill Dec 2004

Experimental Validation Of The "Target Hood Static Pressure" Balancing Method For Exhaust Ventilation Systems, Michael Winifred Dodrill

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An experimental trial of a new method to balance industrial exhaust ventilation systems was performed. Although balance by design is considered preferable, many ventilation systems incorporate dampers to balance the system to a different airflow distribution after installation. The "target hood static pressure" method aims to minimize the time, effort, frustration and confusion invested in the balancing effort. It requires only one and one-half adjustment rounds, can be prepared as a computerized spreadsheet, and substitutes hood static pressure readings for airflow traverse readings. The method also minimizes the system static pressure to the least possible, thereby keeping friction losses at …

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Stream Ecosystem Response To Mitigative Limestone Treatment In Acid-Impaired, Central Appalachian Streams, Sarah Elizabeth Mcclurg Dec 2004

Stream Ecosystem Response To Mitigative Limestone Treatment In Acid-Impaired, Central Appalachian Streams, Sarah Elizabeth Mcclurg

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

We quantified water chemistry, primary production, and benthic macroinvertebrate and fish community structure in 20 Central Appalachian streams: 4 acidic streams, 8 naturally circumneutral streams, and 8 historically acidic streams treated annually with limestone sand over varying lengths of time. The objective was to determine the extent of chemical and biological recovery and temporal trends in the recovery process of limestone treated streams compared to circumneutral reference conditions in Central Appalachia. Results indicate that the application of limestone sand to acidic streams is effective in fully and immediately recovering some of the chemical and biological characteristics of naturally functioning stream …

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Examination Of Experimentally Engineered Larval Fish Habitat In The Marmet Pool, Kanawha River, West Virginia, Jonathan M. Niles Dec 2004

Examination Of Experimentally Engineered Larval Fish Habitat In The Marmet Pool, Kanawha River, West Virginia, Jonathan M. Niles

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In rivers, velocity shelters are thought to serve as limiting factors in the retention and recruitment of young fish. Such shelters are formed in backwaters and tributaries, however these areas are limited in the Marmet Pool of the Kanawha River, West Virginia. In response to this concern, several structures that are thought to serve as low velocity zones were placed within the Marmet Pool. This study was conducted to evaluate the experimental rock structures (Finger and Zipper Dikes) as potential mitigation for navigational impact and to determine which sampling gears are best to sample these shallow, structurally diverse areas. The …

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Resonant Optical Waveguide Biosensor Characterization, Shantanu Pathak Dec 2004

Resonant Optical Waveguide Biosensor Characterization, Shantanu Pathak

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The importance of miniaturized sensors for quick and accurate assessments of a broad spectrum of hazardous biological agents has been highlighted by recent high profile events. Integrated optical devices based on evanescent wave interrogation techniques can register minute refractive index changes enabling detection of bioagents on the sensor surface and providing a potential for compact structure combined with a possibility of detecting several analytes simultaneously by fabricating multiple devices on the same chip. Most commonly integrated optical interrogation techniques suffer from issues of optical alignment and fabrication complexities. In addition the materials used to fabricate integrated optical devices experience drifts …

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Exposures To Silica And Inducers Of Xenobiotic Metabolism In The Rat Lung, Lori A. Battelli Dec 2004

Exposures To Silica And Inducers Of Xenobiotic Metabolism In The Rat Lung, Lori A. Battelli

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

CYP1A1 metabolizes polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as those in cigarettes, to reactive intermediates which interact with DNA and lead to cancer. Silica is a lung carcinogen. Epidemiology studies of silica and lung cancer are not all positive. A possible explanation for these inconsistencies may be that silica is a modifier of PAH metabolism and, thus, cigarette smoke carcinogenesis. We hypothesize that crystalline silica exposure alters CYP1A1 expression, thereby modifying lung cancer risk. Rats exposed to both crystalline silica and the model PAH, beta-naphthoflavone (NF), a CYP1A1 inducer have significantly decreased CYP1A1 enzymatic activity and CYP1A1 protein expression. In the …

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Multispectral Segmentation Of Whole-Brain Mri, Nitya Krishnan Dec 2004

Multispectral Segmentation Of Whole-Brain Mri, Nitya Krishnan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a widely used medical technology for diagnosis and detection of various tissue abnormalities, tumor detection, and in evaluation of either residual or recurrent tumors. This thesis work exploits MRI information acquired on brain tumor structure and physiological properties and uses a novel image segmentation technique to better delineate tissue differences.;MR image segmentation will be important in distinguishing between boundaries of different tissues in the brain. A segmentation software tool was developed that combines the different types of clinical MR images and presents them as a single colored image. This technique is based on the fuzzy …

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Empirical Assessment Of Architecture-Based Reliability Of Open-Source Software, Ranganath Perugupalli Dec 2004

Empirical Assessment Of Architecture-Based Reliability Of Open-Source Software, Ranganath Perugupalli

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A number of analytical models have been proposed earlier for quantifying software reliability. Some of these models estimate the failure behavior of the software using black-box testing, which treats the software as a monolithic whole. With the evolution of component based software development, the necessity to use white-box testing increased. A few architecture-based reliability models, which use white-box approach, were proposed earlier and they have been validated using several small case studies and proved to be correct. However, there is a dearth of large-scale empirical data used for reliability analysis. This thesis enriches the empirical knowledge in software reliability engineering. …

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Trace Detection Of Mercury Using Boron-Doped Diamond Electrodes, Latha Ramakrishnan Dec 2004

Trace Detection Of Mercury Using Boron-Doped Diamond Electrodes, Latha Ramakrishnan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This Project was undertaken to develop electrochemical techniques using Boron-doped Diamond (BDD) electrodes for the purpose of detecting mercury in solutions in the ppb-ppt range. Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV) was used successfully to develop calibration curves for mercury detection in standard solutions in the ppb-ppt range, followed by using these curves for mercury measurements in unknown samples. DPV experiments were performed in nitrate, thiocyanate and chloride media. Investigation in the chloride medium is important since practical samples always contain chloride impurities. The formation of calomel in chloride medium is avoided on the BDD surface by the co-deposition of 3ppm of …

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Development Of A Test Method To Measure "In-Use" Emissions From Stationary And Portable Diesel Sources, Gurudutt A. Nayak Dec 2004

Development Of A Test Method To Measure "In-Use" Emissions From Stationary And Portable Diesel Sources, Gurudutt A. Nayak

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A cost-effective, accurate and easy-to-use in-field test method was developed that would allow regulatory bodies, such as the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to determine in-use compliance with emission standards for newly manufactured portable and stationary engines. As emissions measured during an engine-dynamometer test do not faithfully reflect real-world emissions, a test method that functions like an Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) type test method was developed. Only concentration measurements of pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen (NO x) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are required to determine compliance using this "compliance factor, F" approach. Hence, errors introduced due to engine work …

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Forensic Analysis Of Digital Evidence From Palm Personal Digital Assistants, Christopher M. Mcnemar Dec 2004

Forensic Analysis Of Digital Evidence From Palm Personal Digital Assistants, Christopher M. Mcnemar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Personal Digital Assistants are becoming more affordable and commonplace. They provide mobile data storage, computational, and network abilities. When handheld devices are involved in a crime, forensic examiners need tools to properly retrieve and analyze data present on the device. Unfortunately, forensic analysis of handheld devices is not adequately documented and supported.;This report gives an overview of Palm handheld development and current forensic software related to Personal Digital Assistants. Procedures for device seizure, storage, imaging, and analysis are documented. In addition, a tool was developed as part of this work to aid forensic examiners in recovering evidence from memory image …

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Geotechnical Investigation Of Montrose Wetland Site, Christopher R. Ryan Dec 2004

Geotechnical Investigation Of Montrose Wetland Site, Christopher R. Ryan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this investigation is to obtain the geotechnical characteristics of the site and to aid in the creation of a proposed engineered wetland at Montrose, West Virginia. The tests performed in the laboratory to obtain the soil properties were: water content, Atterberg limits (liquid and plastic limits), grain size (sieve analysis and hydrometer), specific gravity, field density, and hydraulic conductivity. Tests were performed on soil samples taken from the site during installation of monitoring wells. Results from tests were used in the classification of soil. Additional samples were reconstructed to determine the permeability of the soil. These tests …

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Real-Time Video Compression Using Dvq And Suffix Trees, Pavan Kumar Vedantam Dec 2004

Real-Time Video Compression Using Dvq And Suffix Trees, Pavan Kumar Vedantam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Video processing is a wide and varied subject area. Video compression is an important but difficult problem in video processing. Several methods and standards exist which address this problem with varying degrees of success depending on the performance measures adopted. The present research work focuses on the real-time aspect of video processing.;In particular we propose a real-time video compression algorithm based on the concept of differential vector quantization and the suffix tree. Differential vector quantization is a relatively new area that focuses on efficient compression of data. The present work integrates the compression provided by Differential vector Quantization and the …

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Effect Of Driving Cycles On The Particulate Mass And Number Emissions From In-Use Heavy Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles, Sairam Thiagarajan Dec 2004

Effect Of Driving Cycles On The Particulate Mass And Number Emissions From In-Use Heavy Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles, Sairam Thiagarajan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study focused primarily on the particle mass and number emission from various in-use heavy heavy-duty diesel vehicles operating on different driving cycles. Chemical speciation results are also presented to discuss the formation and composition of particles emitted during various cycles. Tests were performed with West Virginia University's Transportable Heavy Duty Vehicle Emissions Testing Laboratory located at Riverside, California. Five vehicles were selected to cover a wide range of model year from 1989 to 2004. All five vehicles were subjected to chemical speciation and analysis conducted by Desert Research Institute. WVU employed the use of the Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer …

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Models Of High-Temperature Desulfurization Using Zinc-Based Sorbents, Yong Zhang Dec 2004

Models Of High-Temperature Desulfurization Using Zinc-Based Sorbents, Yong Zhang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study focuses on determining models that are currently available to describe gas-solid reactions to predict the observed (experimental) results from a series of TGA experiments. Variations of the GPM (Grainy Pellet Model) were used and shown to give good agreement with experimental conversion histories of zinc oxide particle undergoing sulfidation using H2S at temperature in the range of 482 to 593 degree centigrade.;By using SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and Visilog(TM) imaging analysis software, the grain size distribution and grain sphericity can be obtained.;The basic forms of the SCM (Shrinking Core Model) and GPM models could not predict correctly the …

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Students' And Instructors' Attitudes Toward Using Biometric Technology As An *Identification Method In Online Courses, Wafi Albalawi Dec 2004

Students' And Instructors' Attitudes Toward Using Biometric Technology As An *Identification Method In Online Courses, Wafi Albalawi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study investigated the social and cultural issues related to the implementation of biometric technology at the College of Human Resources and Education at West Virginia University. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The researcher verbally interviewed five instructors and five graduate students. The quantitative research methods employed two surveys. The research population involved 30 instructors and 189 graduate students. The researcher utilized independent-sample t-tests to compare different groups. The results obtained from this research support the following: (1) there is a real privacy concern among instructors and students regarding the implementation of biometric technology, (2) religious …

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Use Of Commercial Cfd Software For Assessing The Performance Of Personal Aerosol Samplers, Aaron J. Bird Dec 2004

Use Of Commercial Cfd Software For Assessing The Performance Of Personal Aerosol Samplers, Aaron J. Bird

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Accurate performance of personal aerosol samplers is critical for industrial hygienists' successful efforts to protect workers. Performance assessments of personal samplers are necessarily conducted in controlled environments so unknown sources of variability will not influence the results. This is done in order that samplers may be used with confidence for monitoring workplace air quality. These performance evaluations are usually conducted in wind tunnels. However, recent advances in high-performance cluster computing---together with advanced flow modeling software---have made it possible to evaluate sampler performance with computer simulations. This was done in the current research. Simulations were conducted for air and particle behavior …

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Design And Flight Testing Actuator Failure Accommodation Controllers On Wvu Yf-22 Research Uavs, Yu Gu Dec 2004

Design And Flight Testing Actuator Failure Accommodation Controllers On Wvu Yf-22 Research Uavs, Yu Gu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation describes the design, development, and flight testing of a Neural Network (NN) based Fault Tolerant Flight Control System (FTFCS) with the ability to accommodate for actuator failures. The goal of this research was to demonstrate the ability of a specific set of control laws to maintain aircraft handling qualities in the presence of failures in the actuator channels. In this study, two-failure scenarios have been investigated: aileron failure (locking of the right aileron at a trim position) and elevator failure (locking of the right elevator at a trim position). A fleet of WVU YF-22 research aircraft test-beds were …

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Strategies For Sustainable Professional Development Programs To Promote Effective Pedagogical Use Of Instructional Technology In Teaching, Karla R. Assis Cezarino Dec 2004

Strategies For Sustainable Professional Development Programs To Promote Effective Pedagogical Use Of Instructional Technology In Teaching, Karla R. Assis Cezarino

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to determine a set of common strategies employed by sustainable instructional technology professional development programs that are found to successfully promote educators' high-level use of technology in their teaching practice. Two questions guided this study: (a) Research Question 1: What do successful instructional technology professional development programs recognize as indicators of high-level use of technology? and (b) Research Question 2: Which instructional technology professional development strategies successfully promote high-level use of instructional technology in participants' teaching practice?;An online questionnaire consisting of close-ended questions and open-ended questions was used as the means of data collection. …

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Fast Search For Best Representations In Multitree Dictionaries, Yan Huang, Ilya Pollak, Minh N. Do, Charles A. Bouman Dec 2004

Fast Search For Best Representations In Multitree Dictionaries, Yan Huang, Ilya Pollak, Minh N. Do, Charles A. Bouman

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

We develop a new framework of multitree dictionaries which includes some previously proposed dictionaries as special cases. We show how to efficiently find the best object in a multitree dictionary using a recursive tree pruning algorithm. We illustrate our framework through several examples, including a novel block image coder which significantly outperforms both the standard JPEG and quadtree-based methods, and is comparable to embedded coders such as JPEG2000 and SPIHT.

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Geographic Routing In The Presence Of Location Errors, Sungoh Kwon, Ness B. Shroff Dec 2004

Geographic Routing In The Presence Of Location Errors, Sungoh Kwon, Ness B. Shroff

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

In this paper, we propose a new geographic routing algorithm that alleviates the effect of location errors on routing in wireless ad hoc networks. In most previous work, geographic routing has been studied assuming perfect location information. However, in practice there could be significant errors in obtaining location estimates, even when nodes use GPS, hence existing geographic routing schemes will need to be appropriately modified. We investigate how such location errors affect the performance of geographic routing strategies. We incorporate location errors into our objective function by considering both transmission failures and backward progress. Each node then forwards packets to …

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A Comparative Analysis Of The Eu-Morocco Fta Vs. Multilateral Liberalization, Aziz Elbehri, Thomas Hertel Dec 2004

A Comparative Analysis Of The Eu-Morocco Fta Vs. Multilateral Liberalization, Aziz Elbehri, Thomas Hertel

GTAP Working Papers Archive

An applied general equilibrium model with oligopoly and scale economies, based on detailed plant-level data, is used to contrast the impacts of the Morocco-EU free trade area (FTA) to multilateral trade liberalization on Morocco’s economy. Simulation results show that the FTA agreement is likely to have adverse effects on Morocco due to: (a) deteriorating terms of trade, (b) reductions in output per firm in industries dominated by scale economies, (c) diversion of imports away from non-EU suppliers, and (d) potentially adverse effects on the aggregate demand for labor. We contrast this FTA with a multilateral liberalization scenario along the lines …

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Best Basis Search In Lapped Dictionaries, Yan Huang, Ilya Pollak, Charles A. Bouman, Minh N. Do Dec 2004

Best Basis Search In Lapped Dictionaries, Yan Huang, Ilya Pollak, Charles A. Bouman, Minh N. Do

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

We propose, analyze, and illustrate several best basis search algorithms for dictionaries consisting of lapped orthogonal bases. We improve upon the best local cosine basis selection based on a dyadic tree [10], [11], by considering larger dictionaries of bases. We show that this can result in sparser representations and approximate shift-invariance. We also provide an algorithm which is strictly shift-invariant. Our experiments suggest that the new dictionaries can be advantageous for time-frequency analysis, compression, and noise removal. We provide accelerated versions of the basic algorithm which explore various trade-offs between computational efficiency and adaptability. We show that our algorithms are …

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New Computational Intelligence Algorithms And Their Applications, Hoi-Ming Chi, Okan K. Ersoy Dec 2004

New Computational Intelligence Algorithms And Their Applications, Hoi-Ming Chi, Okan K. Ersoy

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

Several new computational intelligence algorithms and their applications are investigated in this thesis. First, a linear support vector machine decision tree (LSVMDT) is developed by building a binary tree with a linear support vector machine in each tree node. It has built-in rare event detection mechanism, and allows efficient rule extraction. Secondly, an efficient recursive update algorithm when new data becomes available is derived for least squares support vector machines. This is very essential in online learning. Thirdly, a three-layered learning system is proposed. It consists of a random mapping stage and a learning stage with ordinary least squares, error-correcting …

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Algoritmo Genético Para Calibração Automática De Um Simulador De Tráfego Em Rodovias De Pista Simples, C. Y. Egami, J. R. Setti, Laurence Rilett Dec 2004

Algoritmo Genético Para Calibração Automática De Um Simulador De Tráfego Em Rodovias De Pista Simples, C. Y. Egami, J. R. Setti, Laurence Rilett

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Este trabalho relata o desenvolvimento de um sistema automático para calibração do modelo de simulação de tráfego em rodovias de pista simples TRARR, baseado em um algoritmo genético. O processo de calibração consiste em procurar valores para alguns parâmetros selecionados do simulador, de tal modo que a diferença entre as correntes de tráfego simuladas e as observadas em campo sejam minimizadas. Os parâmetros escolhidos para a calibração estão relacionados principalmente ao comportamento dos motoristas e, por isso, de difícil calibração. As diferenças entre a simulação e o fluxo real foram determinadas em termos de duas medidas de desempenho: a velocidade …

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Engineering Division, Mary Steiner Dec 2004

Engineering Division, Mary Steiner

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

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Efficient Algorithm For Computing Einstein Integrals, Junke Guo, Pierre Y. Julien Dec 2004

Efficient Algorithm For Computing Einstein Integrals, Junke Guo, Pierre Y. Julien

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Analytical approximations to Einstein integrals are proposed. The approximations represented by two fast-converging series are valid for all values of their arguments. Accordingly, the algorithm can be easily incorporated into professional software like HEC-RAS or HEC-6 with minimum computational effort.

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Alligators As West Nile Virus Amplifiers, Kaci Klenk, Jamie Snow, Katrina Morgan, Richard Bowen, Michael Stephens, Falacia Foster, Paul Gordy, Susan Beckett, Nicholas Komar, Duane Gubler, Michael Bunning Dec 2004

Alligators As West Nile Virus Amplifiers, Kaci Klenk, Jamie Snow, Katrina Morgan, Richard Bowen, Michael Stephens, Falacia Foster, Paul Gordy, Susan Beckett, Nicholas Komar, Duane Gubler, Michael Bunning

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Recent evidence suggests that American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) may be capable of transmitting West Nile virus (WNV) to other alligators. We experimentally exposed 24 juvenile alligators to WNV parenterally or orally. All became infected, and all but three sustained viremia titers >5.0 log10 PFU/mL (a threshold considered infectious for Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes) for 1 to 8 days. Noninoculated tankmates also became infected. The viremia profiles and multiple routes of infection suggest alligators may play an important role in WNV transmission in areas with high population densities of juvenile alligators.

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General Brochure, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center Dec 2004

General Brochure, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Brochure about the Energy & Environmental Research Center, including its philosophy, program areas, and Centers of Excellence. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

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Topology Control Of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks For Energy Efficiency, Maggie Xiaoyan Cheng, Mihaela Cardei, Jinhua Sun, Xiaochun Cheng, Lusheng Wang, Yinfeng Xu, Ding-Zhu Du Dec 2004

Topology Control Of Ad Hoc Wireless Networks For Energy Efficiency, Maggie Xiaoyan Cheng, Mihaela Cardei, Jinhua Sun, Xiaochun Cheng, Lusheng Wang, Yinfeng Xu, Ding-Zhu Du

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

In ad hoc wireless networks, to compute the transmission power of each wireless node such that the resulting network is connected and the total energy consumption is minimized is defined as a Minimum Energy Network Connectivity (MENC) problem, which is an NP-complete problem. In this paper, we consider the approximated solutions for the MENC problem in ad hoc wireless networks. We present a theorem that reveals the relation between the energy consumption of an optimal solution and that of a spanning tree and propose an optimization algorithm that can improve the result of any spanning tree-based topology. Two polynomial time …

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Field Evaluation Of Unreinforced Masonry Walls Strengthened With Frp Composites Subjected To Out-Of-Plane Loading, Gustavo Tumialan, Davide Tinazzi, John J. Myers, Antonio Nanni Dec 2004

Field Evaluation Of Unreinforced Masonry Walls Strengthened With Frp Composites Subjected To Out-Of-Plane Loading, Gustavo Tumialan, Davide Tinazzi, John J. Myers, Antonio Nanni

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Unreinforced masonry (URM) walls at a decommissioned building in St. Louis, Missouri were tested to failure. the walls belonging to the present experimental program were subjected to out-of-plane loading. Previous work on URM and reinforced masonry walls strengthened with FRP laminates has shown remarkable increases in capacity and ductility. However, most of this research has been conducted under laboratory conditions, where, many times, it is a difficult task to represent real field conditions. in this context, this experimental program offered a singular opportunity for performing field experimentation on URM walls strengthened with Glass, Aramid and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (GFRP, …

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