Digital Commons Network^™

Advanced Controller Design Using Neural Networks For Nonlinear Dynamic Systems With Application To Micro/Nano Robotics, Qinmin Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation focuses on neural network (NN) control designs for nonlinear systems with application to micro/nano robotic. Critical problems in nano scale including thermal drift are also addressed"--Abstract, page iv.

Development Of A Geographic Information System-Based Virtual Geotechnical Database And Assessment Of Liquefaction Potential For The St. Louis Metropolitan Area, Jae-Won Chung

Doctoral Dissertations

"The St. Louis Metropolitan area is the focus the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazard Program's plan for assessing and reducing the likely risks of an earthquake likely emanating from New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), which is the most active seismic zone in the Midwestern United States. The St. Louis Metropolitan area consists of three counties in Missouri and four in Illinois, which are divided by the state boundary along the Mississippi River. Both of the state's respective geological surveys have produced their own geologic maps and datasets, employing dissimilar geodata information and systems, with differing map units, map scales, and …

The Development And Application Of A Systematic Approach To Evaluating An Academic Department's Brand Meaning, Cassandra C. Elrod

Doctoral Dissertations

"Research of existing literature indicates that below the university level, there has been little effort made in branding academia, namely academic departments. The lack of branding may significantly affect the perceptions that potential students and future employers of these students have about one of these academic units. The impact may be most significant for units where the fields of study that are represented by the department may be unclear, such as in the case of engineering management. However, even in the cases of better-understood fields of study, for example, electrical engineering, the competition for students with other fields of study …

Nonlinear Optimization Approach For Upfc Power Flow Control And Voltage Security: Sufficient System Constraints For Optimality, Radha P. Kalyani

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation provides a nonlinear optimization algorithm for the long term control of Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) to remove overloads and voltage violations by optimized control of power flows and voltages in the power network. It provides a control strategy for finding the long term control settings of one or more UPFCs by considering all the possible settings and all the (N-1) topologies of a power network. Also, a simple evolutionary algorithm (EA) has been proposed for the placement of more than one UPFC in large power systems"--Abstract, page iv.

An Investigation Of Lead And Other Metal Contaminants In The Sediments Of Clearwater Lake, Missouri, Gary W. Krizanich

Doctoral Dissertations

"The purpose of this investigation is to characterize the spatial and temporal distribution and concentration of trace metals in sediments of Clearwater Lake. Understanding how trace metals are released to and transported in aquatic environments is important to the overall understanding of the impacts of mining on the natural environment. The main focus of this research will be on historic sedimentation within Clearwater Lake, which may act as a sink where mining related trace metals are stored. Because of their high preservation rates in basins, sediments can provide detailed chronostratigraphic histories of trace metal inputs in lakes. Sediment records can …

Innovative Solutions In Bridge Construction, Rehabilitation, And Structural Health Monitoring, Fabio Matta

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation includes three technical papers that investigate the development of innovative technologies for bridge construction, rehabilitation, and structural health monitoring, respectively, at different stages of the technology transfer process...The research impact is twofold: first is the introduction of promising innovative technologies in development and implementation projects with the direct involvement of forward-thinking industry partners; second is the demonstration of the validity of these technologies on the basis of a rigorous scientific approach"--Abstract, page iv.

Pilot Program To Assess Seismic Hazards Of The Granite City, Monks Mound, And Columbia Bottom Quadrangles, St. Louis Metropolitan Area, Missouri And Illinois, Deniz Karadeniz

Doctoral Dissertations

"Three 1:24000 scale quadrangles were selected for a pilot program intended to evaluate seismic site response across the spectrum of geologic conditions underlying the St. Louis Metropolitan area, using the Granite City, Monks Mound and Columbia Bottom quadrangles. These evaluations included assessments of: i) site amplification distributions; ii) probabilistic hazard analysis of PGA, 0.2 second and 1.0 second spectral accelerations for 2%, 5% and 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years; iii) two scenario earthquakes and their associated PGA, 0.2 sec, and 1 sec spectral accelerations; and v) sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. These hazard maps were prepared using a fully-probabilistic …

An Indirect Loss Estimation Methodology To Account For Regional Earthquake Damage To Highway Bridges, Chakkaphan Tirasirichai

Doctoral Dissertations

"This study proposes an integrated framework to estimate the indirect economic loss due to damaged bridges within the highway system from an earthquake event. The framework is designed to be general and convenient to apply to other study regions. In this dissertation, a simulated earthquake scenario centered in St. Louis Missouri with a magnitude 7.0 was used as a case study. The research results have clearly shown that the indirect losses are significant when compared to the direct loss. Policymakers can apply this study framework and the results as a guide and decision tool for developing an appropriate preventive action …

Mobile Array Designs With Anserlin Antennas And Efficient, Wide-Band Peec Models For Interconnect And Power Distribution Network Analysis, Michael A. Cracraft

Doctoral Dissertations

"A mobile, wide-band antenna system has been developed around the ANSERLIN antenna element and a 3-dB splitter design. The size of the antenna elements was reduced over previous versions by introducing dielectric substrates. Additionally, new variations of the antenna were designed to influence radiation characteristics. To further reduce the number of components in the array, a very low profile splitter was designed and mounted below one of the antenna elements, doubling as the return plane for the antenna. The partial-element equivalent circuit (PEEC) method has been used for 3D interconnect analysis and numerous other applications. Being based on the same …

Modeling Network Traffic On A Global Network-Centric System With Artificial Neural Networks, Douglas K. Swift

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation proposes a new methodology for modeling and predicting network traffic. It features an adaptive architecture based on artificial neural networks and is especially suited for large-scale, global, network-centric systems. Accurate characterization and prediction of network traffic is essential for network resource sizing and real-time network traffic management. As networks continue to increase in size and complexity, the task has become increasingly difficult and current methodology is not sufficiently adaptable or scaleable. Current methods model network traffic with express mathematical equations which are not easily maintained or adjusted. The accuracy of these models is based on detailed characterization of …

Enzymatic Synthesis And Characterization Of Oligopeptides, Co-Oligopeptides And Hydroxy Acid Capped Polypeptides In Mixed Aqueous Organic Media, Santhana Srinivasan

Doctoral Dissertations

"Proteolytic enzymes have been used for the synthesis of homo-oligomers and hydroxy acid capped peptides with amino acids and hydroxy acid esters as substrates in aqueous and aqueous organic biphasic and triphasic systems. However, successful incorporation of hydroxy acids in oligopeptide substrates has not been demonstrated. Use of monophasic media comprising of acetonitrile/water in which oligopeptide substrates were soluble was examined for the synthesis of oligomers of neutral and polar amino acids like Met, Tyr, Lys, Gly, Asp and Glu and tailored co-oligomers of Lys-Met and Arg-Met. Effect of reaction parameters such as starting substrate concentration, system composition, reaction time, …

Experimental And Analytical Evaluation Of Frp-Confined Large Size Reinforced Concrete Columns, Silvia Rocca

Doctoral Dissertations

"Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) jacketing of Reinforced Concrete (RC) columns, as a rapidly growing strengthening technique, requires appropriate design methods. However, the current available design guides are based on models, in their majority semi-empirical, and calibrated with small-scale plain concrete specimens. These models might not be reliable in predicting the strength and ductility enhancement sought through FRP-confinement in RC columns with geometric and material properties as found in practice. This dissertation presents the research conducted in three technical papers. In the first paper, the performance of 22 FRP-wrapped RC columns of medium- and large-scale is studied. The results of the …

Detection Algorithms For Spatial Data, Spandan Tiwari

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation addresses the problem of anomaly detection in spatial data. The problem of landmine detection in airborne spatial data is chosen as the specific detection scenario. The first part of the dissertation deals with the development of a fast algorithm for kernel-based non-linear anomaly detection in the airborne spatial data. The original Kernel RX algorithm, proposed by Kwon et al. [2005a], suffers from the problem of high computational complexity, and has seen limited application. With the aim to reduce the computational complexity, a reformulated version of the Kernel RX, termed the Spatially Weighted Kernel RX (SW-KRX), is presented. It …

Harding University Catalog 2007-2008, Harding University

Harding Academic Catalogs

Academic catalog for the undergraduate programs at Harding University.

Harding University Graduate School Of Religion 2007-2008 Catalog, Harding University

Harding Academic Catalogs

Academic catalog for the graduate program in Bible and religion.

Harding University Graduate Catalog 2007-2008, Harding University

Harding Academic Catalogs

Academic catalog for the graduate programs at Harding University.

Energy-Aware And Secure Routing With Trust Levels For Wireless Ad Hoc And Sensor Networks, Eyad Taqieddin

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation focuses on the development of routing algorithms for secure and trusted routing in wireless ad hoc and sensor network. The first paper presents the Trust Level Routing (TLR) protocol, an extension of the optimized energy-delay routing (OEDR) protocol, focusing on the integrity, reliability and survivability of the wireless network...The second paper analyzes both OLSR and TLR in terms of survivability and reliability to emphasize the improved performance of the network in terms of lifetime and proper delivery of data...The third paper proposes a statistical reputation model that uses the watchdog mechanism to observe the cooperation of the neighboring …

Field And Laboratory Investigation Of Ozone-Indoor Surface Reactions: Secondary Emissions Inventory And Implications For Indoor Air Quality, Hong Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Interfacial chemistry greatly influences human exposure to reactants and products in indoor environments. Emissions of volatile organic compounds, as a result of ozone-surface interactions, can lower an occupant's exposure to ozone, but increase indoor concentrations of odorous and carcinogenic compounds. Therefore, investigation of ozone-surface interactions are necessary for better understanding and controlling exposure to ozone and the products of indoor surface chemistry. In this dissertation, field experiments were conducted in five homes in three seasons to quantify ozone-initiated secondary emission rates (SERs), yields surface reaction probabilities and study their temporal trends"--Abstract, page iv.

Electron Beam Characterization Of Carbon Nanostructures, Eric Samuel Mandell

Doctoral Dissertations

"Atom-thick carbon nanostructures represent a class of novel materials that are of interest to those studying carbon's role in fossil fuel, hydrogen storage, scaled-down electronics, and other nanotechnology. Electron microscope images of "edge-on" graphene sheets show linear image features due to the projected potential of the sheets. Here, intensity profiles along these linear features can measure the curvature of the sheet, as well as the shape of the sheet (i.e. hexagonal, triangular). Also, electron diffraction powder profiles calculated for triangular graphene sheet shapes show a broadening of the low frequency edge of diffraction rings, in comparison to those calculated for …

Hyphenated Hplc-Ms Technique For Analysis Of Compositional Monosaccharides Of Transgenic Corn Glycoprotein And Characterization Of Degradation Products Of Diazinon, Fonofos And Aldicarb In Various Oxidation Systems, Tongwen Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

"The studies of this dissertation are composed of two sections. The first one deals with the analysis of compositional monosaccharides of transgenic corn glycoproteins. The method used in this study involved derivatization of monosaccharides with two fluorophores followed by HPLC/fluorescence detection for quantitative studies, and by HPLC/SSI/MS for identification confirmation of individual monosaccharide...The second section investigates the degradation processes of several pesticides including diazinon, fonofos and aldicarb in various oxidation systems"--Abstract, page iv.

New Techniques To Improve Power Quality And Evaluate Stability In Modern All-Electric Naval Ship Power Systems, Peng Xiao

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation focuses on two crucial issues in the design and analysis of the power electronic systems on modern all-electric naval ships, i.e., power quality control and stability evaluation. It includes three papers that deal with active power filter topology, active rectifier control, and impedance measurement techniques, respectively. To mitigate harmonic currents generated by high-power high-voltage shipboard loads such as propulsion motor drives, the first paper proposes a novel seven-level shunt active power filter topology, which utilizes tapped reactors for parallel operations of switching devices. The multi-level system has been implemented in both regular digital simulation and real-time digital simulator …

Synthetic Methods For Biologically Relevant Organofluorine Compounds, Meher Perambuduru

Doctoral Dissertations

"This thesis describes novel synthetic methodologies for the synthesis of biologically relevant organofluorine compounds"--Abstract, page iii.

The Leaching Behavior Of Arsenic, Selenium And Other Trace Elements In Coal Fly Ash, Tian Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

"The goals of this study are four fold, they are: (1) to investigate the leaching behavior of arsenic and selenium from fly ash as well as their affecting factors; (2) to analyze the speciation of arsenic and selenium in fly ash leachate; (3) to develop a modeling approach to quantify the availability and stability of trace cationic elements in fly ash; (4) to apply this model to describe the leaching/adsorption behavior of arsenic and selenium on fly ash, as well as the calcium effect on arsenic (V) adsorption process"--Abstract, page iv.

Manufacturing Of Glass Ribbon Reinforced Transparent Composites Using The Autoclave Process, Josef Patrick Seale

Masters Theses

"Clear transparent panels have many applications ranging from windows on an aircraft to protective safety guards on industrial equipment. Glass ribbon reinforced transparent composites are light weight, load bearing and have a high impact resistance.

A transparent composite is based on the concept of matching the refractive index of the glass ribbon with that of a resin system. It is not necessary that the resin refractive index match the glass refractive index before the cure cycle, only that the refractive indexes match after curing.

Transparent composites have a high impact resistance that would be mechanically ideal for aircraft windows and …

Sensor Network Coverage And Data Aggregation Problem: Solutions Toward The Maximum Lifetime, Li Yin

Masters Theses

"In the coverage problem, an optimal solution is proposed for the maximum lifetime sensor scheduling problem, which could find the upper bound of a sensor network's lifetime. This research reveals the relationship between the degree of redundancy in sensor deployment and achievable extension on network lifetime, which can be a useful guide for practical sensor network design"--Introduction, page 4.

Fast Sphere Decoder For Mimo Systems, Praveen G. Krishnan

Masters Theses

"This work focuses on variants of the conventional sphere decoding technique for Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) systems. Space Time Block Codes (STBC) have emerged as a popular way of transmitting data over multiple antennas achieving the right balance between diversity and spatial multiplexing. The Maximum Likelihood (ML) technique is a conventional way of decoding the transmitted information from the received data, but at the cost of increased complexity. The sphere decoder algorithm is a sub-optimal decoding technique that is computationally efficient achieving a ;symbol error rate that is dependent on the initial radius of the sphere. In this thesis, …

Modeling And Control Of Freeze-Form Extrusion Fabrication, Xiyue Zhao

Masters Theses

"Freeze-form Extrusion Fabrication (FEF) is an additive manufacturing technique that extrudes ceramic loaded aqueous pastes layer by layer below the paste freezing temperature for component fabrication. As the FEF is aimed at being conducted at low environmental temperatures, down to -20°C, it is necessary to investigate the effect of environmental temperature on the process. The advantages of fabrication at low temperature have been proved by experiments. Comparisons in terms of operation parameters, self-sustaining ability, and system dynamic response were performed at different environmental temperatures ranging from 20°C to -20°C.

It is commonly known in paste extrusion processes that due to …

Empirical Dynamic Modeling And Nonlinear Force Control Of Friction Stir Welding, Xin Zhao

Masters Theses

"Current Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process models are mainly concerned with the detailed analysis of material flow, heat generation, etc. and therefore, are computationally intensive. Dynamic models describing the total forces acting on the tool throughout the entire welding process are required for the design of feedback control strategies and improved process planning and analysis. In this thesis, empirical models relating the process parameters (i.e., plunge depth, travel speed, and rotation speed) to the process variables (i.e., axial, path, and normal forces) are developed to describe their dynamic relationships"--Abstract, page iv.

Learning Transformations Through Cross-Cultural E-Mentoring: Perspectives From An Online Faculty Development Forum, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Jennifer Linder-Vanberschot, Deborah Lapointe, Kerrin Barret, Julia Mummert, Marlie Saligumba Cardiff, Jason Skinner

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Employing qualitative research methods, this study discusses the learning transformations of e-mentors from the United States and protégés from Sri Lanka who engaged in online problem solving tasks that were part of a faculty development forum.

An Inside Look Behind Pandora.Com, Jackie Shane

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.