Digital Commons Network^™

Dynamic Ant Colony Optimization For Globally Optimizing Consumer Preferences, Pavitra Dhruvanarayana

Masters Theses

"Consumer preference for any product or product feature can be expressed in the form of a utility function. Many such utility functions form a part of a preference map, where each of these are expressed in terms of the attributes defining the product or the product feature. In order to optimize the design, it is required to optimize the overall utility function obtained by a mathematical combination of individual utility functions defined in the preference map. The objective of this research is to devise and implement an algorithm to optimize all the individual utility functions comprised in a preference map …

Intelligent Computational Argumentation For Evaluating Performance Scores In Multi-Criteria Decision Making, Rubal Wanchoo

Masters Theses

"Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is a discipline aimed at assisting multiple stakeholders in contemplating a decision paradigm in an uncertain environment. The decision analysis to be performed involves numerous alternative positions assessed under varied criterion. A performance score is assigned for each alternative in terms of every criterion and it represents satisfaction of the criteria by that alternative. In a collaborative decision making environment, performance scores are either obtained when a consensus can be reached among stakeholders on a particular score or in some cases or controversial when stakeholders do not agree with each other about them. In the …

Automation Of Cad Model Based Assembly Simulations Using Motion Capture, Anup Madhav Vader

Masters Theses

"The manufacturing industry often uses text and video as a supplement for worker training procedures. Unfortunately, text is often difficult to follow and video lends itself to occlusion issues. CAD based animations of assembly operations can overcome these shortcomings while offering greater potential for operations analysis and simulation flexibility. However, creating such CAD based training simulations manually is a time intensive task and many a times fail to reveal the practical assembly issues faced in the real world. Thus, it is highly beneficial to be able to automate these simulations using motion capture from a physical environment. This thesis research …

Development Of Novel Backscatter Communication Systems Using A Multi-Hop Framework And Distributed Beamforming, Vikram Reddy Surendra

Masters Theses

"The goal of this thesis it to develop a wireless networking framework for battery-free devices based on passive, backscatter communication. In contrast to traditional, active communication systems, where the radio signal has to be generated using large amount of energy from batteries, the passive systems reflect the RF signal. The information is encoded by modulating the reflected signal, which consumes significantly less energy than active transmission. The existing passive, backscatter systems have limited communication capabilities. For example, the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems support short-distance, direct communication between active reader and passive tags. The communication range is limited due to …

Effect Of Substrate Temperature On The Optical Properties Of Thermally Evaporated Zns Thin Films, M. Ruhul Amin Bhuiyan, M. Monjarul Alam, M. Abdul Momin

Turkish Journal of Physics

Zinc Sulfide (ZnS) thin films were formed onto cleaned glass substrates using the thermal evaporation method in vacuum. The substrate temperature was varied between as- deposited and 150 °C, keeping the film thickness and the rate of evaporation fixed at 200~nm and 0.3~nm \cdot s^{-1}, respectively. The film thickness was measured in situ by a quartz crystal thickness monitor. The structure of the films was ascertained by x-ray diffraction (XRD) method. The XRD spectra show that the films are polycrystalline in nature, which possess hexagonal structure. The optical properties of the films were ascertained by UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer (photon wavelength ranging …

Minimize End-To-End Delay Through Cross-Layer Optimization In Multi-Hop Wireless Sensor Networks, Yibo Xu

Masters Theses

"End-to-end delay plays a very important role in wireless sensor networks. It refers to the total time taken for a single packet to be transmitted across a network from source to destination. There are many factors could affect the end-to-end delay, among them the routing path and the interference level along the path are the two basic elements that could have significant influence on the result of the end-to-end delay. This thesis presents a transmission scheduling scheme that minimizes the end-to-end delay when the node topology is given. The transmission scheduling scheme is designed based on integer linear programming and …

A Real-Time Visualization Of An/Pss-14 Audio Alert Signals For Land Mine Detection Validation, Nitin Kolekar

Masters Theses

"The central idea of the current research is visualization of audio alerts from AN/PSS-14. A visualization device connected to the arm of PSS-14 will show real-time display of MD and GPR Audio Alert signals from PSS-14. This visualization device displays both amplitude-time and spectral frequency-time formats of the signals. The latter format achieves visual separation of combined, simultaneous, MD and GPR alerts. The joint occurrence of MD and GPR signals in a specific time window confirms the presence of landmine. This window is defined by the time of occurrence of MD peak and time of occurrence GPR diffraction from onset …

Cloud Security Requirements Analysis And Security Policy Development Using A High-Order Object-Oriented Modeling Technique, Kenneth Kofi Fletcher

Masters Theses

"Security continues to be a major challenge for cloud computing, and it is one that must be addressed if cloud computing is to be fully accepted. Most technological means of securing non-cloud computing systems can be either applied directly or modified to secure a cloud; however, no integrated model-based methodology is yet available to analyze cloud security requirements and develop policy to deal with both internal and external security challenges. This work proposes just such a methodology and demonstrates its application with specific cases. Cloud assets are represented by high order object models, and misuse cases together with malactivity swimlane …

Dynamic Networking For Programmable Logic Controller Communication, Richard Andrew Hardison

Masters Theses

"This thesis confronts the issue of set path communication in Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). In order to increase reliability in a networked automated process, it is necessary to develop a dynamic method of communication between PLCs. Three methods for dynamic messaging in PLCs are explored in this work. These methods are based on the real-time reconfiguration of message paths when communication fails on the originally configured path. The simplest method involves replacing the original message block with an Add-On Instruction (AOI) which can accept multiple communication paths and has the ability to switch between these paths to maintain communication. A …

Introduction To Television Production, Steelman Library, Roxane Griner

Syllabus Repository

No abstract provided.

A Value Model For Product Development Process Using Lean Principles, Salik Yadav

Masters Theses

"This research presents a value quantification model for multi-stage product development Process (PDP) using lean value principles. The PDP stages considered in this research include conceptual development, systems design, detailed design and prototyping stages. The value at any of the PDP stages is formulated as a function of six factors: (a) importance of customer requirements, (b) cost of customer's ownership, (c) parts/service availability, (d) weighted average cost of capital, (e) information evolution, and (f) risk reduction. Factors (a)-(d) are adequately addressed in the literature. This study focuses on information evolution and risk reduction factors. These two factors are defined by …

The Effects Of Personal Protective Equipment Level A Suits On Human Task Performance, Yvette L. Simon

Masters Theses

"First response teams dealing with hazardous substances often require the highest level of protection provided by Level A suits. These suits are fully encapsulating, bulky, and heat retentive. The effect of these suits on the wearer's ability to perform various tasks is of interest when it comes to human performance analysis. This research effort examined the effect of the Level A suit on fine motor and gross motor dexterity. Seven members of the National Guard's Civil Support Team (CST) performed a battery of six tasks designed to test these abilities. Tasks comprised the Minnesota Dexterity test and the Mirror Tracer …

Data Aggregation In Wireless Sensor Networks, Priya Kasirajan

Masters Theses

"Energy efficiency is an important metric in resource constrained wireless sensor networks (WSN). Multiple approaches such as duty cycling, energy optimal scheduling, energy aware routing and data aggregation can be availed to reduce energy consumption throughout the network. This thesis addresses the data aggregation during routing since the energy expended in transmitting a single data bit is several orders of magnitude higher than it is required for a single 32 bit computation. Therefore, in the first paper, a novel nonlinear adaptive pulse coded modulation-based compression (NADPCMC) scheme is proposed for data aggregation. A rigorous analytical development of the proposed scheme …

Resistance Switching In Electrodeposited Magnetite Thin Films, Samantha Glen Matthews

Masters Theses

"The resistance switching phenomenon has been extensively studied in metal oxide thin films for its applications in the non-volatile memory industry. The research presented here focuses on magnetite thin films which have been electrodeposited onto gold-sputtered glass substrates via the electrochemical reduction of a Fe(III)-triethanolamine complex in aqueous alkaline solution. Magnetite was chosen for its usefulness in read/write memory applications, its high Curie temperature, its metal-to-insulator (Verwey) transition, and its half-metallic character and attendant spintronic properties. Resistance switching behavior caused by a reversible redox reaction at the anode was observed in the films, demonstrating that electrodeposited films show the same …

Hermeneutics, Glenn Pearl

Syllabus Repository

No abstract provided.

Corinthians, Camilla Belfon

Syllabus Repository

No abstract provided.

Advance (Fall 2010), Georgia Southern Division Of Continuing And Professional Education

Division of Continuing & Professional Education

No abstract provided.

Computational Intelligence Methods In Wireless Sensor Networks, Raghavendra V. Kulkarni

Doctoral Dissertations

"Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are networks of autonomous nodes that sense, compute and communicate in order to monitor an environment collectively. Ad hoc deployment, dynamic environment and resource constraints in nodes need to be considered while addressing WSN challenges such as deployment, localization, routing and scheduling. Adaptive mechanisms that exhibit intelligent behavior in complex and dynamic environments are desirable to address these challenges. The potential of computational intelligence ( CI) based approaches for addressing WSN challenges is investigated in this study. Contributions of this dissertation are in the following three areas: critical literature analysis, new architectures and approaches, and new …

Low-Thrust Control Of Orbital Elements, Nathan Harl

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation presents a method for controlling the orbital elements of a spacecraft using continuous low-thrust systems. The method involves the use of a general performance index, which is designed to minimize the difference between the instantaneous orbital elements of a spacecraft and some desired set of orbital elements. Due to the generality of the controller design, the resultant controller can be applied to a wide variety of scenarios about various bodies in space. To minimize the designed performance index, a shooting method and a Sequential Quadratic Programming algorithm are utilized and compared.

The primary application of the general controller …

Deadlock Detection And Dihomotopic Reduction Via Progress Shell Decomposition, David Andrew Cape

Doctoral Dissertations

"Deadlock detection for concurrent programs has traditionally been accomplished by symbolic methods or by search of a state transition system. This work examines an approach that uses geometric semantics involving the topological notion of dihomotopy to partition the state space into components, followed by an exhaustive search of the reduced state space. Prior work partitioned the state-space inductively; however, this work shows that a technique motivated by recursion further reduces the size of the state transition system. The reduced state space results in asymptotic improvements in overall runtime for verification. Thus, with efficient partitioning, more efficient deadlock detection and eventually …

Intelligent Power System Operation In An Uncertain Environment, Yusuf Yare

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation presents some challenging problems in power system operations. The efficacy of a heuristic method, namely, modified discrete particle swarm optimization (MDPSO) algorithm is illustrated and compared with other methods by solving the reliability based generator maintenance scheduling (GMS) optimization problem of a practical hydrothermal power system. The concept of multiple swarms is incorporated into the MDPSO algorithm to form a robust multiple swarms-modified particle swarm optimization (MS-MDPSO) algorithm and applied to solving the GMS problem on two power systems. Heuristic methods are proposed to circumvent the problems of imposed non-smooth assumptions common with the classical approaches in solving …

Ultracapacitor Character Analysis And Its Application In Unified Power Quality Conditioner As Energy Storage System, Xiaomeng Li

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation focuses on the Ultracapacitor (UCAP) character analysis and its application in Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) as an Energy Storage System (ESS) for improved UPQC performance. It includes three parts as described below. The first part is Paper I. The UCAP is a popular choice for the ESS because of its distinct characters. In the application UCAP's transient behavior need to be studied for design purpose. Usually these transient characters are not shown in the product data sheet. In this paper UCAP frequency analysis is performed, and based on the test data the equivalent model of the UCAP …

Haart Drugs Induce Oxidative Stress And Mitochondrial Dysfunction In Blood-Brain Barrier, Kalyan Reddy Manda

Doctoral Dissertations

"The era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has controlled AIDS and its related disorders considerably; however, the prevalence of HIV-1-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) has been on the rise in the post-HAART era. In view of these developments, we investigated whether a HAART drug combination of 3'-Azido-2', 3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) and Indinavir (IDV) can alter the functionality of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) endothelial cells, thereby exacerbating the condition. Viability of hCMEC/D3 cells (in vitro model of BBB) that were exposed to the drugs was significantly reduced after a 72 hr treatment, in a dose-dependent manner. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) were highly …

Chemical Bath Deposition And Electrodeposition Of Epitaxial Semiconductor Materials For Application In Photovoltaic Devices, Guojun Mu

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation investigates the chemical bath deposition of zinc oxide and electrodeposition of cuprous iodide on polycrystalline and single crystal substrates. Paper I describes the chemical bath deposition and characterization of titled epitaxial zinc oxide nanospears on Si(001) single crystal substrate. In Paper II, the chemical bath deposition of zinc oxide nanospears from highly alkaline solutions is discussed in detail, including a thermodynamic calculation of saturation and speciation of Zn(II) in aqueous solution, and a kinetic study of the deposition process. In this paper the epitaxial zinc oxide is reported grown on Au(100), (110), and (111) single crystals. Paper III …

Sensor Data-Based Decision Making, Ahmet Soylemezoglu

Doctoral Dissertations

"Increasing globalization and growing industrial system complexity has amplified the interest in the use of information provided by sensors as a means of improving overall manufacturing system performance and maintainability. However, utilization of sensors can only be effective if the real-time data can be integrated into the necessary business processes, such as production planning, scheduling and execution systems. This integration requires the development of intelligent decision making models that can effectively process the sensor data into information and suggest appropriate actions. To be able to improve the performance of a system, the health of the system also needs to be …

Phase Equilibria In Iron Phosphate System, Liying Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

"The main objectives of this research were to synthesize iron phosphate compounds, study phase equilibria in the iron phosphate system, focusing on the glass forming area, and investigate glass formability and properties based on the liquidus regions. Twelve iron phosphate compounds were successfully prepared and studied in terms of liquidus temperature or decomposition behavior. The liquidus surface of the Fe₃PO₇- Fe(PO₃)₃ system was re-determined and found to be significantly different from that originally presented by Wentrup in 1935. Eutectic points exist at 58.0 mole% Fe₂O₃ (1070⁰C), 42.7 mole% Fe₂O₃ (925°C), and 37.0 mole% Fe₂O₃ (907°C). The latter two eutectic points …

Robust Frequency-Domain Turbo Equalization For Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (Mimo) Wireless Communications, Jian Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation investigates single carrier frequency-domain equalization (SC-FDE) with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels for radio frequency (RF) and underwater acoustic (UWA) wireless communications. It consists of five papers, selected from a total of 13 publications. Each paper focuses on a specific technical challenge of the SC-FDE MIMO system. The first paper proposes an improved frequency-domain channel estimation method based on interpolation to track fast time-varying fading channels using a small amount of training symbols in a large data block. The second paper addresses the carrier frequency offset (CFO) problem using a new group-wise phase estimation and compensation algorithm to combat …

Adaptive Resource Allocation For Cognitive Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Behdis Eslamnour

Doctoral Dissertations

"Widespread use of resource constrained wireless ad hoc networks requires careful management of the network resources in order to maximize the utilization. In cognitive wireless networks, resources such as spectrum, energy, communication links/paths, time, space, modulation scheme, have to be managed to maintain quality of service (QoS). Therefore in the first paper, a distributed dynamic channel allocation scheme is proposed for multi-channel wireless ad hoc networks with single-radio nodes. The proposed learning scheme adapts the probabilities of selecting each channel as a function of the error in the performance index at each step.

Due to frequent changes in topology and …

Capillary Electrophoresis Of Pteridines In Urine And Plants And Quantification Of Pharmaceutical And Personal Care Products In Missouri Waste Water, Stephen E. Gibbons

Doctoral Dissertations

"Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a powerful technique that separates molecules based on their respective charge and hydrodynamic size. The major advantages of CE are high separation efficiency, small sample volume requirements, simple to no sample preparation and often organic solvents are not required for the separation.

The work presented in this dissertation utilized capillary electrophoresis for the analysis two different classes of compounds in different matrices. The first project investigated pteridines in urine and plants. The second project investigated pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCP's) in Missouri waste water.

As cancer continues to be one of the top three causes …

Dynamic Reconfiguration And Control Of Smart Power Systems, Pinaki Mitra

Doctoral Dissertations

"To address the increasing demand and complexity, modern power systems need intelligence at almost all levels which can transform them into 'smart' power systems. The term 'smart power systems' not only refers to the terrestrial power systems with a significant penetration of distributed energy resources and energy storage such as plug-in electric vehicle parking lots (SmartParks), but also includes other isolated power systems, such as the power systems of naval electric ships. The research presented in this dissertation contributes to the dynamic reconfiguration and control of both terrestrial and ship power system with the application of computational intelligence methods.

In …