Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of The Effect Of Basic Network Characteristics On System-Of-System Failure Propagation, Charles O. Adler, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Real life examples of large system level failures in complex networked system are fairly common, with national and regional level power grids providing numerous cases where local failures have resulted in broad systemic failures. As large networked systems-of-systems are increasingly common, their susceptibility to large scale failures is of significant interest. This paper presents the results of a study using a simple model to investigate the impacts of basic architecture characteristics on the spread of failures through a system-of-system after an initial failure occurs. The study reported here uses a non-symmetric inter-grid only failure model to investigate the sensitivity of …

A Protocol For Rheological Characterization Of Hydrogels For Tissue Engineering Strategies, Jonathan M. Zuidema, Christopher J. Rivet, Ryan J. Gilbert, Faith A. Morrison

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Hydrogels are studied extensively for many tissue engineering applications, and their mechanical properties influence both cellular and tissue compatibility. However, it is difficult to compare the mechanical properties of hydrogels between studies due to a lack of continuity between rheological protocols. This study outlines a straightforward protocol to accurately determine hydrogel equilibrium modulus and gelation time using a series of rheological tests. These protocols are applied to several hydrogel systems used within tissue engineering applications: agarose, collagen, fibrin, Matrigel™, and methylcellulose. The protocol is outlined in four steps: (1) Time sweeps to determine the gelation time of the hydrogel. (2) …

Traffic Analysis And Simulation For Mntc Phase 2, Segment 9 C-5 Northern Link Expressway Project Along North Luzon Expresway And Macarthur Highway, Philippines, Daniel Lawrence F. Vivar

Undergraduate Theses

Due to the ubiquity of development of economic activities such as transfer of goods in Metro Manila traffic congestion has resulted particularly in Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela or CAMANAVA area, South bound and north bound motorists from this area use EDSA and Commonwealth Avenue, which are already congested, as the main entry and exit points, and thus there is a need for an alternative route. This issue is addressed by the construction of the MNTC Phase 2 Segment 9 Northern Link Expressway Project, or the expressway connecting MacArthur Highway which is in Valenzuela City to North Luzon Expressway or NLEX, …

Impact Of Organic Coatings On Frictional Strength Of Organically Modified Clay, B. Bate, Q. Zhao, S. E. Burns

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Organic matter is frequently encountered in both naturally occurring and engineered particulate media. Charged functional groups in the organic matter can lead to cation exchange within the clay interlayer, which results in the formation of an organic coating on the clay surfaces and alters the interfacial frictional regime in the soil mass. This study investigated the triaxial shear frictional behavior of montmorillonite particles coated with a controlled organic phase composed of quaternary ammonium cations. Through cation exchange, organic cations were loaded onto the clay's interlayer exchange sites, with control on the density of organic coverage and structure of the organic …

Effect Of Magnetic Nanoparticle Heating On Cortical Neuron Viability, Christopher J. Rivet, Yuan Yuan, Ryan J. Gilbert, Diana Andra Borca-Tasciuc

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Purpose: Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are currently approved for use as an adjunctive treatment to glioblastoma multiforme radiotherapy. Radio frequency stimulation of the nanoparticles generates localized hyperthermia, which sensitizes the tumor to the effects of radiotherapy. Clinical trials reported thus far are promising, with an increase in patient survival rate; however, what are left unaddressed are the implications of this technology on the surrounding healthy tissue. Methods and materials: Amino silane-coated iron oxide nanoparticles suspended in culture medium were applied to chick embryonic cortical neuron cultures. Cultures were heated to 37 °C or 45 °C by an induction coil system …

Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Connectivity Assessment And Relay Node Deployment, Maggie Xiaoyan Cheng, Yi Ling, Brian M. Sadler

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

We consider the network connectivity problem in a wireless ad hoc network. Network connectivity is measured by the conductance of the network, also called the Cheeger constant of the graph. A partition algorithm based on this measure is developed that divides the network at the bottleneck area. After the network is bisected, a relay node may be deployed between the two parts to increase the conductance of the network. The relay node deployment problem is formulated as an integer linear program to maximize the number of connections between the nodes on the two sides of the cut, and then a …

Mapreduce Based Parallel Suffix Tree Construction For Human Genome, Umesh Chandra Satish, Praveenkumar Kondikoppa, Seung Jong Park, Manish Patil, Rahul Shah

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Genome indexing is the basis for many bioinformatics applications. Read mapping (sequence alignment) is one such application where the goal is to align millions of short reads against reference genome. Several tools are available for read mapping which rely on different indexing techniques to expedite the alignment process. However, many of these contemporary alignment programs are sequential, memory intensive and cannot be easily scaled for larger genomes. Suffix tree is one of the most widely used data structures for indexing strings (genomes). Building a scalable suffix-tree based tool is particularly challenging due to the difficulties involved in parallel construction of …

Impact Of Loss Synchronization On Reliable High Speed Networks: A Model Based Simulation, Suman Kumar, Lin Xue, Seung Jong Park

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Contemporary nature of network evolution demands for simulation models which are flexible, scalable, and easily implementable. In this paper, we propose a fluid-based model for performance analysis of reliable high-speed networks. In particular, this paper aims to study the dynamic relationship between congestion control algorithms and queue management schemes, in order to develop a better understanding of the causal linkages between the two. We propose a loss synchronization module which is user configurable. We validate our model through simulations under controlled settings. Also, we present a performance analysis to provide insights into two important issues concerning 10 Gbps high speed …

Coupling Graphs, Efficient Algorithms And B-Cell Epitope Prediction, Liang Zhao, Steven C. H. Hoi, Zhenhua Li, Limsoon Wong, Hung Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Coupling graphs are newly introduced in this paper to meet many application needs particularly in the field of bioinformatics. A coupling graph is a two-layer graph complex, in which each node from one layer of the graph complex has at least one connection with the nodes in the other layer, and vice versa. The coupling graph model is sufficiently powerful to capture strong and inherent associations between subgraph pairs in complicated applications. The focus of this paper is on mining algorithms of frequent coupling subgraphs and bioinformatics application. Although existing frequent subgraph mining algorithms are competent to identify frequent subgraphs …

Aerogels As Diverse Nanomaterials, Abhishek N. Bang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Aerogels are 3-D light-weight nanoporous materials pursued for their low thermal conductivity, low dielectric constant and high acoustic attenuation. Those exceptional macroscopic properties of aerogels are dependent on the chemical nature of nanoparticles, complex hierarchical solid skeletal framework and porosity. Also, the free space can become host for functional guests such as pharmaceuticals. In chapter I, we investigated randomly mesoporous bio-compatible polymer-crosslinked dysprosia aerogels as drug delivery vehicles and demonstrated storage and release of drugs under physiological conditions. Comparative study with ordered and randomly mesoporous silica showed high drug uptake and slower release rate for random nanostructures (silica or dysprosia) …

Rmse-Elm: Recursive Model Based Selective Ensemble Of Extreme Learning Machines For Robustness Improvement, Bo Han, Bo He, Mengmeng Ma, Tingting Sun, Tianhong Yan, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

For Blended Data, the Robustness of Extreme Learning Machine (Elm) is So Weak Because the Coefficients (Weights and Biases) of Hidden Nodes Are Set Randomly and the Noisy Data Exert a Negative Effect. to Solve This Problem, a New Framework Called "RMSE-ELM" is Proposed in This Paper. It is a Two-Layer Recursive Model. in the First Layer, the Framework Trains Lots of Elms in Different Ensemble Groups Concurrently and Then Employs Selective Ensemble Approach to Pick Out an Optimal Set of Elms in Each Group, Which Can Be Merged into a Large Group of Elms Called Candidate Pool. in the …

Fast Feature Selection In A Gpu Cluster Using The Delta Test, Alberto Guillén, M. Isabel García Arenas, Mark Van Heeswijk, Dusan Sovilj, Amaury Lendasse, Luis Javier Herrera, Héctor Pomares, Ignacio Rojas

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Feature or Variable Selection Still Remains an Unsolved Problem, Due to the Infeasible Evaluation of All the Solution Space. Several Algorithms based on Heuristics Have Been Proposed So Far with Successful Results. However, These Algorithms Were Not Designed for Considering Very Large Datasets, Making their Execution Impossible, Due to the Memory and Time Limitations. This Paper Presents an Implementation of a Genetic Algorithm that Has Been Parallelized using the Classical Island Approach, But Also Considering Graphic Processing Units to Speed Up the Computation of the Fitness Function. Special Attention Has Been Paid to the Population Evaluation, as Well as to …

Long-Term Time Series Prediction Using Op-Elm, Alexander Grigorievskiy, Yoan Miche, Anne Mari Ventelä, Eric Séverin, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In This Paper, an Optimally Pruned Extreme Learning Machine (Op-Elm) is Applied to the Problem of Long-Term Time Series Prediction. Three Known Strategies for the Long-Term Time Series Prediction I.e. Recursive, Direct and Dirrec Are Considered in Combination with Op-Elm and Compared with a Baseline Linear Least Squares Model and Least-Squares Support Vector Machines (Ls-Svm). among These Three Strategies Dirrec is the Most Time Consuming and its Usage with Nonlinear Models Like Ls-Svm, Where Several Hyperparameters Need to Be Adjusted, Leads to Relatively Heavy Computations. It is Shown that Op-Elm, Being Also a Nonlinear Model, Allows Reasonable Computational Time for …

Sparse Nonlinear Optimization For Signal Processing And Communications, Zengli Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation proposes three classes of new sparse nonlinear optimization algorithms for network echo cancellation (NEC), 3-D synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image reconstruction, and adaptive turbo equalization in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) underwater acoustic (UWA) communications, respectively.

For NEC, the proposed two proportionate affine projection sign algorithms (APSAs) utilize the sparse nature of the network impulse response (NIR). Benefiting from the characteristics of l₁-norm optimization, affine projection, and proportionate matrix, the new algorithms are more robust to impulsive interferences and colored input than the conventional adaptive algorithms.

For 3-D SAR image reconstruction, the proposed two compressed sensing (CS) approaches exploit the …

Synthesis Of Radioactive And Nonradioactive Nanostructures Through Radiolytic And Wet Chemistry, Jessika Viviana Rojas Marin

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this work the synthesis of non radioactive and radioactive nanoparticles (NPs) through radiolytic and wet chemistry was studied. Non radioactive NPs of rhenium, iridium, and rhodium were synthesized from aqueous solutions containing the metal salt precursors by gamma irradiation. The solutions were irradiated to generate reducing species that led to the nucleation and growth of the nanoparticles. Amorphous rhenium oxide nanoparticles with average sizes ranging from 10 nm to 55 nm were obtained. Metallic iridium and rhodium nanoparticles were produced in polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP) having narrow particle size distributions and average particle sizes from 2 nm to 6 nm. The …

Functionally Graded Ti6sl4v And Inconel 625 By Laser Metal Deposition, Syamala Rani Pulugurtha

Doctoral Dissertations

"The objective of the current work was to fabricate a crack-free functionally graded Ti6Al4V and Inconel 625 thin wall structure by Laser Metal Deposition (LMD). One potential application for the current material system is the ability to fabricate a functionally graded alloy that can be used in a space heat exchanger. The two alloys, Inconel 625 and Ti6Al4V are currently used for aerospace applications. They were chosen as candidates for grading because functionally grading those combines the properties of high strength/weight ratio of Ti6Al4V and high temperature oxidation resistance of Inconel 625 into one multifunctional material for the end application. …

A Contingency Base Camp Framework Using Model Based Systems Engineering And Adaptive Agents, Dustin Scott Nottage

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research investigates the use of adaptive agents and hybridization of those agents to improve resource allocation in dynamic systems and environments. These agents are applied to contingency bases in an object oriented approach utilizing Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) processes and tools to accomplish these goals. Contingency bases provide the tools and resources for the military to perform missions effectively. There has been increasing interest in improving the sustainability and resilience of the camps, as inefficiencies in resource usage increases. The increase in resource usage leads to additional operational costs and added danger to military personnel guarding supply caravans.

The …

Optimization In Microgrid Design And Energy Management, Tu Anh Nguyen

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dissertation is composed of three papers, which cover microgrid systems performance characterization, optimal sizing for energy storage system and stochastic optimization of microgrid operation. In the first paper, a complete Photovoltaic-Vanadium Redox Battery (VRB) microgrid is characterized holistically. The analysis is based on a prototype system installation deployed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, USA. In the second paper, the optimal sizing of power and energy ratings for a VRB system in isolated and grid-connected microgrids is proposed. An analytical method is developed to solve the problem based on a per-day cost model in which the operating cost is obtained …

Impact Of Slickwater Fracturing Fluid Compositions On The Petrophysical Properties Of Shale And Tightsand, Yongpeng Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

"A tight reservoir always requires hydraulic fracturing before production to increase production rate. The additives in hydraulic fluids are highly considerable for a successful stimulation. A friction reducer is often used to reduce the flowing friction in the wellbore during hydraulic fracturing. Extensive researches have been conducted to examine the extent it can reduce the fluid friction in tubings; however, no research has been reported on its behavior in a reservoir, which is related to the fracture extension. A breaker is also pumped into the formation to degrade the friction reducer. However, it is not clear that what is the …

Part I: In-Situ Fluorometric Quantification Of Microalgal Neutral Lipids Part Ii: Thermal Degradation Behavior Of Investment Casting Polymer Patterns, Hongfang Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

"Research described in this dissertation covers two topics. Part-I is focused on in-situ determination of neutral lipid content of microalgae using a lipophilic fluorescent dye. The traditional Nile red stain-based method for detecting microalgal intracellular lipids is limited due to varying composition and thickness of rigid cell walls. In this study, the addition of dilute acid and heating of solution, were found to greatly enhance staining efficiency of Nile red for microalgal species evaluated. Oil-in-water (O/W) microemulsion stabilized by a non-ionic surfactant was employed as a pseudo-standard that mimics lipid-bearing microalgal cells suspended in water. The average neutral lipid contents …

Proactive Search: Using Outcome-Based Dynamic Nearest-Neighbor Recommendation Algorithms To Improve Search Engine Efficacy, Christopher Shaun Wagner

Doctoral Dissertations

"The explosion of readily available electronic information has changed the focus of data processing from data generation to data discovery. The prevalent use of search engines has generated extensive research into improving the speed and accuracy of searches. The goal of this research is to accurately predict user behavior as a means to proactively improve speed, accuracy, and predictability of search engines. The proactive approach eliminates query entry time and hence reduces the overall processing time, improving speed. Assuming success, the user locates an electronic resource of interest, improving accuracy.

Algorithms that have been shown to predict many vastly different …

Two New Families Of High-Gain Dc-Dc Power Electronic Converters For Dc-Microgrids, Venkata Anand Kishore Prabhala

Doctoral Dissertations

"Distributing the electric power in dc form is an appealing solution in many applications such as telecommunications, data centers, commercial buildings, and microgrids. A high gain dc-dc power electronic converter can be used to individually link low-voltage elements such as solar panels, fuel cells, and batteries to the dc voltage bus which is usually 400 volts. This way, it is not required to put such elements in a series string to build up their voltages. Consequently, each element can function at it optimal operating point regardless of the other elements in the system. In this dissertation, first a comparative study …

Linear Mimo Precoding In Jointly-Correlated Fading Multiple Access Channels With Finite Alphabet Signaling, Yongpeng Wu, Chao Kai Wen, Chengshan Xiao, Xiqi Gao, Robert Schober

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we investigate the design of linear precoders for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channels (MAC). We assume that statistical channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitters and consider the problem under the practical finite alphabet input assumption. First, we derive an asymptotic (in the large-system limit) weighted sum rate (WSR) expression for the MIMO MAC with finite alphabet inputs and general jointly correlated fading. Subsequently, we obtain necessary conditions for linear precoders maximizing the asymptotic WSR and propose an iterative algorithm for determining the precoders of all users. In the proposed algorithm, the search space …

A Hybrid Time-Domain Discontinuous Galerkin-Boundary Integral Method For Electromagnetic Scattering Analysis, Ping Li, Yifei Shi, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Hakan Baǧci

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A scheme hybridizing discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) and time-domain boundary integral (TDBI) methods for accurately analyzing transient electromagnetic scattering is proposed. Radiation condition is enforced using the numerical flux on the truncation boundary. The fields required by the flux are computed using the TDBI from equivalent currents introduced on a Huygens' surface enclosing the scatterer. The hybrid DGTDBI ensures that the radiation condition is mathematically exact and the resulting computation domain is as small as possible since the truncation boundary conforms to scatterer's shape and is located very close to its surface. Locally truncated domains can also be defined around …

Generalized Modal Expansion And Reduced Modal Representation Of 3-D Electromagnetic Fields, Qi I. Dai, Yat Hei Lo, Weng Cho Chew, Yang G. Liu, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A generalized modal expansion theory for investigating arbitrary 3-D bounded and unbounded electromagnetic fields is presented. When an inhomogeneity is enclosed with impenetrable boundaries, the field excited by arbitrary sources is expanded with a complete set of eigenmodes, which are classified into trapped modes and radiation modes. As the boundaries tend to infinity, trapped modes remain unchanged, while radiation modes form a continuum. To illustrate the theory, several real-life structures are investigated with a conformal finite-difference technique in the frequency domain. Perfectly matched layers (PMLs) are imposed at finite extent to emulate the unbounded problems. Numerical examples show that, only …

Implementation Of A Nurse-Initiated Topical Anesthesia Protocol, Jennifer Anderson

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Practice Innovation Projects

Although topical anesthetics are a safe, effective, and non-invasive alternative to infiltrated anesthesia for laceration repair, their availability to providers continues to limit their use. This practice innovation project developed a protocol for the nurse-initiated anesthesia for patients over one year of age presenting to a critical access hospital emergency department with lacerations. Pre and post implementation chart reviews were utilized to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of this protocol. This project has potential to impact patient pain levels, anxiety, restraint use, total treatment time, and patient satisfaction scores.

Efficient Implementation Of Iterative Multi-Input-Multi-Output Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing Receiver Using Minimum-Mean-Square Error Interference Cancellation, Bing Han, Zengli Yang, Yahong Rosa Zheng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An efficient hardware implementation scheme is proposed for iterative multi-input-multi-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing receiver which includes an MMSE-IC (minimum-mean-square error interference cancellation) detector, a channel estimator, a low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoder and other supporting modules. The proposed implementation uses the QR decomposition (QRD) of the complex-valued matrices with four coordinate rotation digital computer (CORDIC) cores and a back substitution to solve the MMSE-IC equations while the existing systolic array architectures require 15-38 CORDIC cores to achieve a similar throughput. The proposed 4-CORDIC QRD architecture can be configured as a 16-matrix or a 64-matrix pipelining by using a different number …

Adaptive Neural Network-Based Optimal Control Of Nonlinear Continuous-Time Systems In Strict-Feedback Form, H. Zargarzadeh, T. Dierks, S. Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper focuses on neural network (NN) based optimal control of nonlinear continuous-time systems in strict-feedback form when the system dynamics are known by using an adaptive backstepping approach. A single NN-based adaptive approach is designed to learn the solution of the infinite horizon continuous-time Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation while the corresponding optimal control input that minimizes the HJB equation is calculated in a forward-in-time manner without using value and policy iterations. First, the optimal control problem is solved for a generic multi-input and multi-output nonlinear system with a state feedback approach. Then the approach is extended to a single-input and …

Soft-Decision Feedback Turbo Equalization For Ldpc-Coded Mimo Underwater Acoustic Communications, Amirhossein Rafati, Huang Lou, Chengshan Xiao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a low-complexity turbo-detection scheme is proposed for single-carrier multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) underwater acoustic (UWA) communication systems that employ low-density parity-check (LDPC) channel coding. The proposed iterative soft-decision feedback equalization (SDFE) algorithm offers a novel approach to combat error propagation by utilizing the past soft decisions to mitigate InterSymbol interference. In addition, we utilize an iterative data detection and channel estimation scheme to reduce the pilot overhead used in the data communication system. Performance of the proposed detection scheme is demonstrated through extensive communication data from two undersea experiments. The results show that the proposed SDFE algorithm provides robust …

The Dual-Porosity Vertical-Well Model For Transient Pressure Analysis Of Naturally Fractured Shale Gas Reservoirs, Yi Jiang, Rui Xu, Meng Chen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

During the process of development for shale gas reservoirs, the permeability of fractures will decrease due to stress-sensitive effect. Adsorption is also an important mechanism which determines the production of shale gas reservoirs. Therefore, the effect of stress sensitivity and adsorption must be considered in the numerical model for pressure transient analysis. In this paper, a dual-porosity model was established considering both mechanisms, and finite-difference method was used for discretizing fluid equations. Then Newton method was applied for solving the resulting algebraic equations, and the typical curves in terms of dimensionless pseudo pressure and time were drawn with different sets …