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2016

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Automated System For The Characterization Of The Biomechanical Properties Of Human Soft Tissue, Michael R. Abraham Dec 2016

Automated System For The Characterization Of The Biomechanical Properties Of Human Soft Tissue, Michael R. Abraham

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Vaginal prolapse is a common condition that affects a large number (approximately 3.3 million in the US) of women, mainly above the age of 50 years. The condition is characterized by the weakening and breakdown of the pelvic support structures such as muscles and connective tissues, leading to the dislodging and prolapse of pelvic organs. Current examinations of the pelvic tissue are manually performed by the physician who assesses its rigidity. These exams are subjective and offer qualitative rather than quantitative results of the state of the pelvic tissue. In this research, a complete system was conceptualized and designed to …


Automated Lattice Optimization Of Hinge Fitting With Displacement Constraint, Vignesh Dakshnamoorthy Dec 2016

Automated Lattice Optimization Of Hinge Fitting With Displacement Constraint, Vignesh Dakshnamoorthy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Additive manufacturing enables fabrication of complex lattice cell structures that are not manufacturable using conventional methods. In order to exploit this lattice capability in structural designs, the effect on structural performance must be considered. This paper uses a goose neck door hinge component to illustrate the effects of lattice structure optimization when stiffness criteria drive part design. The effect of intermediate lattice cell density parameters on resulting lattice configurations from automated lattice structure optimization are studied and it is found that the compliance of the model depends upon the range of intermediate density elements present. The paper then compares the …


Hole Size, Location Optimization In A Plate And Cylindrical Shell For Minimum Stress Points Interfacing Ansys And Matlab, Soundararaj Thangavel Dec 2016

Hole Size, Location Optimization In A Plate And Cylindrical Shell For Minimum Stress Points Interfacing Ansys And Matlab, Soundararaj Thangavel

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Discontinuities in Structures are inevitable. One such discontinuity in a plate and cylindrical shell is presence of a hole / holes. In Plates they are used for mounting bolts where as in Cylinder / Pressure Vessel, they provide provision for mounting Nozzles / Instruments. Location of these holes plays a primary role in minimizing the stress acting with out any external reinforcement. In this Thesis work, Location Parameters are optimized for the presence of one or more holes in a plate and cylindrical shell interfacing ANSYS and MATLAB with boundary constraints based on the geometry. Contour plots are generated for …


A Methodology To Develop A Control System App For Data Center Cooling, Varun Rahul Dec 2016

A Methodology To Develop A Control System App For Data Center Cooling, Varun Rahul

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management), are tools that are available in the industry to serve the purpose of controlling different parameters in the data center. But their cost is significantly high. The idea of developing a tool that is easily accessible at highly competitive costs will be the USP for its development. While developing such a software tool, there will be a few points that will be thoroughly emphasized upon: The software tool will have the flexibility of being used on any Operating System. It will be portable i.e. it can be set up on any device that supports a …


Interactive Analysis Of General Beam Configurations Using Finite Element Methods And Javascript, Christopher G. Hernandez Dec 2016

Interactive Analysis Of General Beam Configurations Using Finite Element Methods And Javascript, Christopher G. Hernandez

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Advancements in computer technology have contributed to the widespread practice of modelling and solving engineering problems through the use of specialized software. The wide use of engineering software comes with the disadvantage to the user of costs from the required purchase of software licenses. The creation of accurate, trusted, and freely available applications capable of conducting meaningful analysis of engineering problems is a way to mitigate to the costs associated with every-day engineering computations. Writing applications in the JavaScript programming language allows the applications to run within any computer browser, without the need to install specialized software, since all internet …


Slicing Algorithm For Complex Contour Generation From Coarse Meshed Iso-Surface Data, Divya Hareshkumar Shukla Dec 2016

Slicing Algorithm For Complex Contour Generation From Coarse Meshed Iso-Surface Data, Divya Hareshkumar Shukla

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Finite element based topology optimization is used to develop complex geometric configurations for additive manufacturing. Complex coarse-meshed Iso-surface data is extracted from topology optimization results and smooth mathematical geometry must be fit to that data in order to accomplish further design development. To accomplish this geometry fitting, cross-section data must be extracted at specific locations. The stereo lithography (STL) file format is a triangular mesh format which can be developed using 3D CAD Software and is widely used for additive layer manufacturing processes. The main aim of this research work is to generate cross-section contours using a nearest tail-to-head distance …


Experimental And Numerical Study Of Heat Transfer Phenomenon In A Micro Droplet Reactor, Chintan Jitendra Gandhi Dec 2016

Experimental And Numerical Study Of Heat Transfer Phenomenon In A Micro Droplet Reactor, Chintan Jitendra Gandhi

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Temperature is an important control parameter during chemical reaction process. Micro reactors have attracted much attention due to its capability of excellent heat and mass transfer, fast reaction, and inherent safety of small scale. Among various types of micro reactors, micro droplet as a batch reactor has its own advantages such as high multiplexing capability. However, strong heat dissipation characteristics of microscale systems (due to large surface to volume ratio) hampers the measurement and monitor of enthalpy changes during the reaction. This study mainly focuses on temperature monitoring at micro droplet reactor by using thin film resistance temperature detector (RTD). …


An Open Source App-Hardware Setup To Control The System For Data Center Cooling, Anay Satish Darekar Dec 2016

An Open Source App-Hardware Setup To Control The System For Data Center Cooling, Anay Satish Darekar

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Control systems for data center cooling exists in the proprietary form and are often sold as part of the overall unit. They provide vital information related to the cooling systems and supply information on the temperature and humidity conditions inside the data center. Since most of these control systems software are proprietary they are expensive and hence not accessible to all. This project aims to develop a control system that operates on similar lines, but is economical and easily available. Developing a desktop or mobile based application not only gives the end user control over the cooling method (ex. DEC …


Computational Study And Optimization Of Wet Cooling Media In Direct Evaporative Heat Exchanger, Tejas Vijay Bhongale Dec 2016

Computational Study And Optimization Of Wet Cooling Media In Direct Evaporative Heat Exchanger, Tejas Vijay Bhongale

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Evaporative cooling media pads are the primary component of importance in direct evaporative cooling units. To increase the overall efficiency of direct evaporative cooling systems, a wet cooling media pad is considered for further optimization in design and operation. An installation technique called ‘staging’ of cooling media pads is examined and evaluated for its incremental cooling, water usage, and operational cooling efficiency. For Staging, a cooling media is divided into multiple vertical sections, and separate water distribution headers control each part. Staging of cooling media can reduce water consumption in data centers and potentially lessen the amount of cooling media …


Fabrication, Calibration And Characterization Of Micro-Scale Resistance Temperature Detectors, Kunjan Anilkumar Chaudhari Dec 2016

Fabrication, Calibration And Characterization Of Micro-Scale Resistance Temperature Detectors, Kunjan Anilkumar Chaudhari

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Through this research, fabrication, calibration and characterization of micro-scale Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) were studied. The RTD is meant to sense the temperature at the micro scale level on the hot spot of integrated circuit devices. Material that we focused in this study was indium tin oxide (ITO). Indium tin oxide thin films are widely used as an electrode owing to its optically transparent and electrical conducting properties. However, ITO thin film behavior as an RTD has not been well studied yet, which we aimed in this study. The commercially available ITO thin film deposited on a glass substrate was …


Fem Analysis Of Composite Stringers For An Airplane Fuselage, Akashsingh Birendrasingh Thakur Dec 2016

Fem Analysis Of Composite Stringers For An Airplane Fuselage, Akashsingh Birendrasingh Thakur

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

With the advent of technology, materials have advanced many folds; One such technical revelation has been Fiber-reinforced Composite Materials. Composite materials have two major advantages, among many others: Improved strength and stiffness, especially compared to other materials on a unit weight basis. For example, Composite materials have stiffness comparable to the stiffness of steel but with a strength decimal order higher and more than three times lighter. These advantages have led to new aircraft and spacecraft designs that are radical departures from past efforts based on conventional materials. The stringers serve to take up(along with the skin) the compression and …


Solder Ball Reliability Assessment Of Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (Wlcsp) Through Power Cycling, Bhavna Conjeevaram Dec 2016

Solder Ball Reliability Assessment Of Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (Wlcsp) Through Power Cycling, Bhavna Conjeevaram

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Failure analysis and its effects are major reliability concerns in electronic packaging. More accurate fatigue life prediction can be obtained after the consideration of all affecting loads on the electronic devices. When an electronic device is turned OFF and then turned ON multiple times, it creates a loading condition called Power Cycling. The die is the main heat source causing non-uniform temperature distribution. The solder ball reliability assessment of wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) is done through computational methods such as Finite element analysis. WLCSPs use wafer level package technology which is an extension of the Wafer Fab process, …


Computational Study Of Impact Of Thermal Shadowing In Non-Directed Flow For Air And Oil Cooled Servers. Form Factor Study And Customization Of Heat Sink For Data Center Application, Chinmay Hemantkumar Bhatt Dec 2016

Computational Study Of Impact Of Thermal Shadowing In Non-Directed Flow For Air And Oil Cooled Servers. Form Factor Study And Customization Of Heat Sink For Data Center Application, Chinmay Hemantkumar Bhatt

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

In today’s networking world, the usage of Servers and Data centers has been increasing significantly with a corresponding increase in power. The data center energy efficiency largely depends on thermal management of servers. Currently, air cooling is the most widely used thermal management technology in data centers. However, air cooling is starting to reach its limits due to high powered microprocessors and packaging. To overcome these limitations of air cooling in data centers, liquid cooling methods are starting to gain more traction. Thermal shadowing is the effect in which temperature of a cooling medium increases by carrying heat from one …


Static And Dynamic Fea Analysis Of A Composite Leaf Spring, Himanshu Arun Raut Dec 2016

Static And Dynamic Fea Analysis Of A Composite Leaf Spring, Himanshu Arun Raut

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Composite materials are widely used in aeronautical, marine and automotive industries, because of their excellent mechanical properties, low density and ease of manufacture. Due to this increasing trend to utilize composite materials, it has become necessary to investigate the pros and cons of composites. This research investigated the static and dynamic behaviors for a composite leaf spring that are used in Chevrolet Corvette Grand and light tractor-trailers. The objective of this study was to find the cause of de-lamination/ failure of the unidirectional composite layers in varying cross sections of the leaf spring. Finite element method is used to calculate …


Policy Recommendation For Integrating Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems With Aviation Facilities In North Central Texas, Mike Branum Dec 2016

Policy Recommendation For Integrating Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems With Aviation Facilities In North Central Texas, Mike Branum

Planning Theses - Archive

Prevalent availability and use of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) have placed this technology at the forefront of federal, state, and local policy discussions. With the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) August 2016 release of regulatory conditions for civilian and commercial uses of unmanned aircraft, states and local governments are seeking to enact their own regulations to protect citizens, vital infrastructure, and economic assets including airports. This study analyzed results of aviation stakeholder and public safety professional responses to a survey, administered by the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), to identify municipal concerns about the integration of sUAS with …


An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Supervision And Job Satisfaction Factors Among Residence Directors And Resident Assistants, Stephen A. Berg Dec 2016

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Supervision And Job Satisfaction Factors Among Residence Directors And Resident Assistants, Stephen A. Berg

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Supervising Resident Assistants (RAs) on college campuses is one of the most critical roles of housing staff members. The RA position is difficult based on the number of responsibilities the job requires; it is filled with multiple stressors, such as role ambiguity and role conflict. Supervision is a critical skill for student affairs professionals to possess yet there remains little research on the supervision of RAs. In this study, the relationship between perceived levels of synergistic supervision, training, and job satisfaction factors was examined among residence directors (RDs) and RAs. The researcher sought to fill this gap the in the …


Examining The Social Effects Of Community-Based Mentoring On At-Risk Adolescent Girls, Nina L. Price Dec 2016

Examining The Social Effects Of Community-Based Mentoring On At-Risk Adolescent Girls, Nina L. Price

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to examine which strategies of mentoring, if any, have a positive impact on adolescent girls who engage in potentially at-risk social behaviors, which may negatively affect their self-esteem academic performance. The female students who participated in this study attend a large high school in Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, are between the ages of 15 and 18, and are mentored by volunteers of The TurnAround Agenda Outreach Center. The study is informed by two theroretical frameworks which seeks to guide a study of human interactions: social learning theory (Bandura,1997) and attachment theory (Bowlby, 1980). …


Gender Behavior Types, Teacher-Student Interactions, And Mathematics Performance: An Empirical Analysis Of Texas High School Students, Sheila Gayle Fleming Dec 2016

Gender Behavior Types, Teacher-Student Interactions, And Mathematics Performance: An Empirical Analysis Of Texas High School Students, Sheila Gayle Fleming

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this study was to explore the gender behavior types for both female and male high school students. Using the gender behavior types as a lens, the study examined the existence of any differences in teacher-student interactions and mathematics performance by gender behavior type, and investigated factors that predict students’ mathematics performance A survey was used to collect data concerning student self-concepts, student perceptions of teacher-student interactions, background characteristics, and course enrollment. The sample was drawn from high school students at a North Texas High School enrolled in Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 during Spring 2015. The …


Fourth Amendment Knowledge In Student Housing: A Study Of Texas Public University Officials, Gregory L. Hladik Dec 2016

Fourth Amendment Knowledge In Student Housing: A Study Of Texas Public University Officials, Gregory L. Hladik

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze Texas public college and university housing professionals’ knowledge of constitutional Fourth Amendment law using a 20-question True/False/Unsure survey. This survey was designed to investigate the legal literacy of housing officials in order to determine what they know and what predictors are associated with greater or less knowledge. The participants in the study were full and part-time employees and student resident assistants of Texas public college and university housing programs. In total, 245 participants completed the survey in its entirety. The survey results were analyzed using Qualtrics where multiple regression was used …


The Effective Practices Of Tasa Honor School Boards In Texas: A View Through The Lens Of Scott's Three Pillars Of Institutional Theory, Kendra Leigh Nelson Dec 2016

The Effective Practices Of Tasa Honor School Boards In Texas: A View Through The Lens Of Scott's Three Pillars Of Institutional Theory, Kendra Leigh Nelson

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations - Archive

Quality public schools are linked to the effectiveness of their school boards, and voting for local trustees, elected lay men and women, impacts the overall condition of local communities (Foster, 2014). Experts believe school board adeptness and efficiency can be increased by improving procedures (Sell, 2005). Looking through the lens of institutional theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of Richard Scott’s three pillars of institutionalization (regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive forces) through exploring specific procedures of TASA Honor Boards as compared to demographically similar boards. This study relied on content analysis of school board meeting minutes …


Multi-Modality Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Typical And Atypical Developmental Human Brain, Minhui Ouyang Dec 2016

Multi-Modality Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Typical And Atypical Developmental Human Brain, Minhui Ouyang

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Human brain development is structurally and functionally a nonlinear process and even with the tremendous advancements in the field of neuroimaging based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) several significant questions remain un-answered. Although brain change and adaption are part of a lifelong process, the earliest phases of maturation, especially from birth to early childhood, are perhaps the most dramatic and important. During this early developmental period, the structural and functional organization of the brain are continuously shaped by a combination of synaptogenesis, dendritic arborization, myelination and synaptic pruning. The current research aims to use more recently developed MRI techniques of …


Shear Investigation Of Polypropylene Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Beams, Ehsan Navadeh Dec 2016

Shear Investigation Of Polypropylene Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Beams, Ehsan Navadeh

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This study investigates the effect of macro-synthetic polypropylene fibers on the shear strength and failure behavior of longitudinally reinforced concrete beams with and/ or without transverse reinforcement. Eight large-scale were constructed, cured and tested at Civil Engineering Laboratory Building (CELB). This includes flexural reinforced concrete beams without transverse reinforcement (RC), reinforced concrete beam with minimum transverse reinforcement (RCS), 0.5% volume macro-synthetic polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete beams without stirrups (SNFRC 0.5%), and 0.75% macro-synthetic polypropylene-fiber reinforced concrete beams without stirrups (SNFRC 0.75%). During production of large-scale beams, 19 Cylinders and 9 small-scale beams were produced from the same mix-design and cured for …


Effect Of Tio2/Uv-Led Operational Parameters On The Degradation Of Pharmaceuticals In Water, Burhanuddin Khuzema Zaveri Dec 2016

Effect Of Tio2/Uv-Led Operational Parameters On The Degradation Of Pharmaceuticals In Water, Burhanuddin Khuzema Zaveri

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

The presence of pharmaceutical residues in water resources has alarmed water and health authorities. Among many treatment technologies for pharmaceuticals, ultraviolet (UV)-based oxidation has gained significant attention because it is capable of decomposing a variety of recalcitrant and toxic chemicals. As an alternative UV source to problematic conventional mercury lamps, light-emitting diode (LED) has shown many advantages for water treatment applications, so-called UV-LED. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the high potential of the UV-LED technology to treat water contaminated with pharmaceuticals including sulfamethoxazole, ibuprofen, and triclosan. In particular, important operational parameters were investigated, including UV wavelength, …


Residual Effects Of Nitrogen Fertilization On Soil Nitrogen Pools And Corn Growth, Meghan E. Moser Dec 2016

Residual Effects Of Nitrogen Fertilization On Soil Nitrogen Pools And Corn Growth, Meghan E. Moser

Open Access Theses

Given the dynamic nature of soil nitrogen (N), inorganic N fertilization to corn (Zea mays L.) has potential to alter N pool balance by creating an accumulation or depletion of soil N. Current corn N recommendations in the common corn-soybean rotation of Indiana strive to find the best N rate that maximizes producer profit. Increasing our understanding of soil N will inform producers if they should adjust fertilizer rates for corn to influence maintenance of organic N and Carbon. Our objective was to determine residual N effects from fertilized corn in a corn-soybean rotation by measuring (1) soil N …


Integration Of Bim And Utility Sensor Data For Facilities Management, Kamal Suprabhas Dec 2016

Integration Of Bim And Utility Sensor Data For Facilities Management, Kamal Suprabhas

Open Access Theses

Building information modelling represents a building as a database of coordinated, consistent and computable information in construction (Sabol, 2008). There has been a recent trend to study the usage of BIM for post-construction facility management. Recently, attempts are also being made to link a BIM model with smart sensing technology or building automation systems (BAC). This thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of using sensor data from mote based light sensors tied to a BIM model, to be used for maintenance based facility management. More specifically, a prototype will be developed that integrates lighting sensor data collected using a mote …


Trajectory Optimization Using Indirect Methods And Parametric Scramjet Cycle Analysis, Joseph Williams Dec 2016

Trajectory Optimization Using Indirect Methods And Parametric Scramjet Cycle Analysis, Joseph Williams

Open Access Theses

This study investigates the solution of time sensitive regional strike trajectories for hypersonic missiles. This minimum time trajectory is suspected to be best performed by scramjet powered hypersonic missiles which creates strong coupled interaction between the flight dynamics and the performance of the engine. Comprehensive engine models are necessary to gain better insight into scramjet propulsion. Separately, robust and comprehensive trajectory analysis provides references for vehicles to fly along. However, additional observation and understanding is obtained by integrating the propulsion model inside the trajectory framework. Going beyond curve fitted thrusting models, an integrated scramjet cycle analysis offers rapid trade studies …


Expectation Maximization-Based Likelihood Inference For Com-Poisson Cure Rate Model With Interval Censored Data, Piyachart Wiangnak Dec 2016

Expectation Maximization-Based Likelihood Inference For Com-Poisson Cure Rate Model With Interval Censored Data, Piyachart Wiangnak

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

A cure rate or long-term survival model is a model for survival data with the presence of a cure fraction. In this study, we consider the analysis of a cure rate model with interval-censored data, which is one of the most practical censoring scheme in survival study. A competing cause scenario has been considered and the number of competing causes is assumed to follow a flexible Conway-Maxwell Poisson (COM-Poisson) distribution which can handle both over- and under-dispersion that is usually encountered in discrete data and also includes some of the well-known discrete distributions as special cases. In addition, a logistic …


Origins And Maintenance Of Diversity In A Vertebrate Parthenogen, Alex Scott Hall Dec 2016

Origins And Maintenance Of Diversity In A Vertebrate Parthenogen, Alex Scott Hall

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Clonal lineages are expected to experience a decline in fitness over time due to their inability to decouple deleterious and beneficial alleles. Individually, however, asexual populations pass twice as much of their DNA per generation as sexual lineages. This balancing act between Muller's Ratchet and the lack of the two-fold cost of sex in asexuals brings significant scientific intrigue to instances of asexual populations. Among vertebrates, squamates (and mainly lizards) are uniquely capable of true parthenogenesis whereby females reproduce without males. These lineages are always hybrid, as is the case with parthenogenetic Aspidoscelis lizards (Teiidae). In particular, the checkered whiptail …


Three Dimensional Image Reconstruction (3direct) Of Sparse Signals With Mri Application, Melinda M. Au Dec 2016

Three Dimensional Image Reconstruction (3direct) Of Sparse Signals With Mri Application, Melinda M. Au

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

Sparse signal reconstruction has been steadily gaining tremendous attention, specifically in applications of compressed sensing as well as feature selection in signal processing methods [IEEE Signal Processing, Vol. 25 (2008) pp.21-30]. Standard techniques to solve these problems such as the nonlinear Conjugate Gradient method have been used successfully on small and medium sized problems. However, as the desire to collect more data becomes the trend, and the need to process information more quickly and reliably becomes more prevalent than before, these standard meth- ods become inadequate. In this thesis, we present a new approach for sparse signal reconstruction called the …


Insights Into The Genomic And Metabolic Adaptations Of Termite Associated Verrucomicrobia Strains Using Functional And Comparative Genomics, Malini Sharadkumar Kotak Dec 2016

Insights Into The Genomic And Metabolic Adaptations Of Termite Associated Verrucomicrobia Strains Using Functional And Comparative Genomics, Malini Sharadkumar Kotak

Biology Dissertations - Archive

The symbiotic gut organisms of termites play an important role in lignocellulose digestion and other related metabolic processes. Previous studies on Diplosphaera colitermitum TAV2, a Verrucomicrobium isolated from the hindgut of Reticulitermes flavipes, revealed its microaerophilic nature and involvement in important ecophysiological processes in the termite gut. In the present study, a detailed account of genomic sequences of 3 additional strains is provided, and the genomes of all 5 TAV strains isolated so far are compared, to gain a comprehensive understanding of these organisms. Our comparative genomic study shows that these strains represent two distinct species, and despite significant number …