Digital Commons Network^™

Numerical Investigation Of The Effect Of Trailing Edge Deformations On Noise From Jets Exhausting Over Flat Plates, Colby N. Horner

Theses and Dissertations

The design of aircraft propulsion configurations must digress from the typical configurations that are utilized on the majority of aircraft in order to consider the effects of environmental issues as well as the noise that is generated from the engines. One unconventional approach under consideration involves rectangular jets near flat surfaces that are parallel to the jet axis. This type of configuration makes an attempt to muffle the noise that propagates to the ground, but previous experimental work showed that the noise generated by this configuration was actually increased due to the effect that the plate trailing edge exerts on …

Annealing Enabled Immune System Algorithm For Multi-Waypoint Navigation Of Autonomous Robots, Elakiya Jayaraman

Theses and Dissertations

In real world applications such as rescue robots, service robots, mobile mining robots, and mine searching robots, an autonomous mobile robot needs to reach multiple goals with the shortest path while avoiding obstacles. In this thesis, we propose Artificial Immune System (AIS) based algorithms and two hybrids based on AIS associated with the Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm and Voronoi Diagram (VD) for real-time map building and path planning for multi-goal applications. A global route is initially planned by the Immune System Algorithm (ISA). Then the created path is used to guide the robot to multiple waypoints following the foraging trail. …

Sclerostin As A Potential Therapy For Medial Vascular Calcification Through The Inhibition Of The Wnt/Beta-Catenin Pathway, Jada S. Boone

Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is among the leading causes of death in the US. It stems from the pathological buildup of plaque within the vasculature known as vascular calcification. Medial calcification, or arteriosclerosis is the buildup of plaque within the medial layer of the arteries resulting in artery wall stiffening and reduction of blood flow. Evidence suggests that the vascular smooth muscles cells (VSMCs) that line the medial layer of the arteries, undergo a phenotypic switch to osteoblast-like cells to deposit calcium while in this pathological state. The Wnt/BETA-catenin pathway could potentially play a role in the phenotypic modulation. Inhibition of the …

The Effects Of Engineering Discipline Depth And Specificity On Occupational Alignment, Graduate School Decisions, And Engineering Identity, Jenna Lynn Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Retention of engineering students to graduation and career is important business for both United States (U.S.) industries and engineering education institutions alike. Industries need competent engineers dedicated to working in the field of engineering beyond graduation in order to achieve business success and national economic growth, while engineering education institutions need retention to graduation to achieve their own business goals. This dissertation took a three-pronged approach to identifying relationships between depth and specificity of engineering and response factors related to graduation and career retention of engineers. Occupational alignment, graduate school decisions, and engineering identity were evaluated for relationships with specificity …

Development Of A Detect-And-Avoid Sensor Solution For The Integration Of A Group 3 Large Unmanned Aircraft System Into The National Airspace System, Kyle Bradley Ryker

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) face one common challenge when integrating with the existing manned aircraft population in the National Airspace System (NAS). To unlock the full efficiency of UAS, the UAS integrator must comply with an onboard pilot’s requirement to see-and-avoid other aircraft while operating. Commercially available Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) sensor technologies have been developed to attempt to comply with this requirement. UAS integrators must use these sensors to meet or exceed the performance of a human pilot. This thesis covers research done to integrate an array of commercially made DAA sensors with a large Group 3 UAS both in hardware …

August 6, 2021 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Reduction Of Order, Resummation, And Radiation Reaction, Robin Ekman, Tom Heinzl, Anton Ilderton

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

The Landau-Lifshitz equation is the first in an infinite series of approximations to the Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac equation obtained from “reduction of order.” We show that this series is divergent, predicting wildly different dynamics at successive perturbative orders. Iterating reduction of order ad infinitum in a constant crossed field, we obtain an equation of motion which is free of the erratic behavior of perturbation theory. We show that Borel-Padé resummation of the divergent series accurately reproduces the dynamics of this equation, using as little as two perturbative coefficients. Comparing with the Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac equation, our results show that for large times the optimal …

Final 2021 Residential Metals Abatement Program (Rmap) School Soil Sampling Field Sampling Plan (Fsp) Submittal #6 [Covering Small World Daycare], Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Liquefied Natural Gas (Lng) Systems With Innovative Waste Heat Recovery, Shisir Acharya

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Due to the increase in energy needs all over the world, many nations do not have sufficient indigenous energy resources and have turned towards importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). LNG production is an energy intensive process that produces a lot of wasted heat. The objective of this study is to review the current LNG processes and identify areas of improvement. To begin with, this study analyzes wasted energy recovery methods currently used in various power plants, followed by validation of the capability of the software, Thermoflex, against the published performance data of various power plants and corresponding gas cleanup processes. …

"We Can (All) Be Heroes" The American Monomyth And The Problem With A Queer Captain America, Carlos Rodriguez Rosa

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The quintessential superhero is an American Monomyth; a figure who is selfless, cunning, and headstrong, seeking nothing for themself in favor of the collective. What this figure is not, however, is queer. This project examines how queer audiences utilize slash fanfiction to queer the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America in order to “write back” to the canon that excludes them. This thesis does not simply look at what fans do within slash fanfiction; rather, it explicitly examines how the practice challenges the original text the piece is responding to. The project applies a queer rhetorical analysis, utilizing José Esteban Muñoz’s …

Fairview Junior High School, Fair Views, Memphis, 3:3, 1933

Shelby County, Tennessee

Volume 3, No. 3 of "Fair Views" published by the students of Fairview Junior High School, Memphis, Tennessee, on December 19, 1933. Fairview opened as a junior high school in 1930 on the corner of Central Avenue and East Parkway and later became a middle school.

Former 'Snl' Writer Brings 'The Heartbreak Henry' To Oxford, Lareeca Rucker

University of Mississippi News

No abstract provided.

The Determinants Of Environmental Performance: A Study On Indonesia Listed Firms, Amalia Tresna Fadhilah, Harry Suharman, Sofik Handoyo

Journal of Accounting Auditing and Business

This study aims to analyse and examine the determinants of environmental performance in companies. The results of this study are expected to increase the company's concern for environmental sustainability. The population in this study were all companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the 2017-2020 period. The samples in this study were 11 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2017-2020 period. This research was conducted with a quantitative approach. The results show that financial performance, corporate governance, and market capitalisation positively and significantly affect environmental performance.

Additive Manufacturing Supply Chain Design And Modeling Using Customer Product Choices: An Application With Biomedical Implants, Julekha Hussain Ranta

Theses and Dissertations

This study proposed a utility-driven two-stage stochastic mixed-integer linear programming model to understand how the patient preferences impact the additive manufacturing (AM) supply chain design decisions. The goal of the mathematical model is to maximize the utilities derived from the customer preferences by appropriately allocating the AM facilities in the targeted region under customer decision and demand uncertainty. The mathematical model is visualized and validated by developing a real-life case study that utilizes the biomedical implants data for the state of Mississippi. A number of sensitivity analyses are conducted to understand how the patients' behavioral decisions (e.g., price-centric versus time- …

Secularism: A Measure Of Explicit Agreement With Assumptions Of Secularism (Meaas), Conner Douglas Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Values are inherent within cultures, relationships, and many other systems, however, little study has been done on the extent to which individuals may explicitly agree with the metaphysical assumptions that much of psychological science relies upon. Psychological science, which uses scientific methodology, is a trusted source of knowledge for many students. Scientific methodology is conceptually linked to assumptions of naturalism, which makes claims about the truth of reality. These naturalistic assumptions pertain to ideas of disenchantment, which describe the world as free from any transcendent quality. These same ideas have become popular among people of the Western world and are …

An Investigation Of The Impact Gender-Specific Course Grouping Has On Female Middle-School Students' Concept Of And Interests Toward Technology And Engineering, Thomas Broderick Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

Attempts to improve retention, interest, and enrollment of females in Technology & Engineering Education courses have included a variety of approaches including female-only classes. However, the implications of such courses have not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, an investigation of female-only classes was undertaken; the findings revealed that the overall enrollment of females went up in the course and in subsequent classes, these students maintained their interests and attitudes towards Technology and Engineering, their perceptions of an engineer's gender changed from that of mostly male to mostly female, and their concepts of what an engineer does changed from mostly building or …

Analysis Of Closed-Loop Digital Twin, Andrew Stuart Eyring

Theses and Dissertations

Given recent advancements in technology and recognizing the evolution of smart manufacturing, the implementation of digital twins for factories and processes is becoming more common and more useful. Additionally, expansion in connectivity, growth in data storage, and the implementation of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) allow for greater opportunities not only with digital twins but closed loop analytics. Discrete Event Simulation (DES) has been used to create digital twins and in some instances fitted with live connections to closely monitor factory operations. However, the benefits of a connected digital twin are not easily quantified. Therefore, a test bed demonstration …

Advanced Data Analytics Methodologies For Anomaly Detection In Multivariate Time Series Vehicle Operating Data, Morteza Alizadeh

Theses and Dissertations

Early detection of faults in the vehicle operating systems is a research domain of high significance to sustain full control of the systems since anomalous behaviors usually result in performance loss for a long time before detecting them as critical failures. In other words, operating systems exhibit degradation when failure begins to occur. Indeed, multiple presences of the failures in the system performance are not only anomalous behavior signals but also show that taking maintenance actions to keep the system performance is vital. Maintaining the systems in the nominal performance for the lifetime with the lowest maintenance cost is extremely …

The Role Of A Sickled Microenvironment In Cardiac Dysfunction, Allison Nicole Healey

Theses and Dissertations

This study helps to fill a remaining knowledge gap surrounding the mechanisms and pathways that contribute to cardiomyopathies in SCD. A better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms could lead to more accurate therapeutic targets to improve quality of life as well as life expectancy. In this study I recapitulate cardiac dysfunction in vitro by exposing engineered mouse cardiac tissues to ANG II or the sickled microenvironment. Experimental results include gene expression profiles and oxidative stress generation. Gene expression profiles in the ANG II treated tissues indicated a pathological state with upregulation in biomarkers for inflammation, cell adhesion, wall stress and …

Optimizing A Biomass Supply System: Consideration Of Pellet Quality And Transportation Under Extreme Events, Badr S. Aladwan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies a framework in support biomass wood pellet supply chain. The worldwide wood pellet market is growing at a phenomenal rate. However, the economic sustainment of this business depends on how well the producers manage the uncertainty associated with biomass yield and quality. In the first part of the dissertation, we propose a two-stage stochastic programming model that optimizes different critical decisions (e.g., harvesting, storage, transportation, quality inspection, and production decisions) of a biomass-to-pellet supply system under biomass yield and quality uncertainty to economically produce pellets while accounting for the different pellet standards set forward by the U.S. …

Angular-Dependent Three-Dimensional Imaging Techniques In Multi-Pass Synthetic Aperture Radar, Jan Rainer Jamora

Theses and Dissertations

Humans perceive the world in three dimensions, but many sensing capabilities only display two-dimensional information to users by way of images. In this work we develop two novel reconstruction techniques utilizing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data in three dimensions given sparse amounts of available data. We additionally leverage a hybrid joint-sparsity and sparsity approach to remove a-priori influences on the environment and instead explore general imaging properties in our reconstructions. We evaluate the required sampling rates for our techniques and a thorough analysis of the accuracy of our methods. The results presented in this thesis suggest a solution to sparse …

Novel Considerations For Lightning Strike Damage Mitigation Of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Matrix (Cfrp) Composite Laminates, Kamran Yousefpour

Theses and Dissertations

Lightning current with high amplitude disseminates through the body of aircraft and causes physical damages including the delamination and puncture of materials. Also , such high-amplitude and high-frequency current could interfere with electronic devices through electromagnetic coupling with the conductive interfaces of an airplane. Hence, robust protection against lighting strike is essential in the aerospace industry. Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Matrix Composites have become significant alternatives to conventional metal-base materials. Despite the superior physical and structural properties of CFRP composites, these materials are vulnerable to lightning strikes due to the low electrical conductivity compared to the metal counterpart. Many …

Assessment And Optimization Of Marsh Terracing For Wetland Restoration In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Using Remote Sensing And A Wave Model Approach, Raúl Jefferson Osorio Morillo

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal Louisiana U.S. is facing wetland loss caused mainly by geologic subsidence and sea-level rise. These losses are accelerated by human activities such as the creation of canals and waterways for gas and oil extraction. Wetland loss in coastal Louisiana has encouraged to the implementation of various wetland restoration techniques. Marsh terraces are a one restoration technique consisting of segmented berms of soil that are built in inland coastal ponds. They are designed to increase marsh area, dissipate wind driven waves, encourage marsh expansion, and possibly reduce shoreline erosion. Marsh terraces have been implemented for almost 30 years; however, little …

Capturing Structure-Property Relationships Of Complex Gels With Physical And Chemical Crosslinking, Rosa Maria Badani Prado

Theses and Dissertations

Gels are used in many applications ranging from bioengineering and pharmaceuticals to food technology and soft-robotics because of their tunable physical and mechanical properties. In many of these applications, the materials need to sustain large deformation. The microstructure of gels changes significantly at large strain values, causing a deviation in the stress responses from that at low strain. The desired mechanical responses of gels can be obtained by tuning their microstructure, therefore, the structure-property relationship for gels is required to be understood for their practical applications. This dissertation discusses two types of gels, one consists of chemical crosslinking and hydrophobic …

A Probabilistic Approach To Levee Overtopping Risk Assessment, Stefan G. Flynn

Theses and Dissertations

The most common mode of levee failure, breach due to overtopping, is generally considered as a function of a complex set of contributing factors. The goal of this research is to enhance the state of the art and practice for performing levee overtopping risk assessment. For this purpose, a dataset of levee overtopping event records within the portfolio of levee systems maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is presented. The dataset is utilized with logistic regression analysis to develop a probabilistic model to calculate system response probabilities and assess risk related to levee overtopping. The presented dataset …

Wavetronix Llc, Petitioner V. Auditing Dmsion Of The Utah State Tax Commission, Respondent : Brief Of Appellee, Utah Supreme Court

Utah Supreme Court Briefs (2021– )

On petition for review from the Utah State Tax Commission, Agency No. 13-2579

Troy L. Booher J. Frederic Voros, Jr. Dick J. Baldwin ZIMMERMAN BOOHER Attorneys for Petitioner

Erin T. Middleton Assistant Solicitor General Mark E. Wainwright John C. McCarrey Assistant Attorneys General Sean D. Reyes UTAH ATTORNEY GENERAL Attorneys for Respondent

Elements: A Unified Framework For Supporting Low And High Order Numerical Methods For Multi-Physics Material Dynamics Simulations, Jacob Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Many complexities arise when writing software for computational physics. The choice of underlying data structures, physics model representation, and numerical methods used for the solver all add to the overall complexity of a code and significantly affect the simulation speed and accuracy of the solution. This work has integrated multiple recently developed software tools into a unified framework called ELEMENTS. ELEMENTS contains tools to address the complexities of data representation and numerical methods implementation for computational physics applications. ELEMENTS consists of multiple software packages: Elements, MATAR, Swage, Geometry, and SLAM. MATAR is a performance portability and productivity implementation of data-oriented …

Cable Manipulation With A Tactile-Reactive Gripper, Yu She, Shaoxiong Wang, Siyuan Dong, Neha Sunil, Alberto Rodriguez, Edward Adelson

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Cables are complex, high-dimensional, and dynamic objects. Standard approaches to manipulate them often rely on conservative strategies that involve long series of very slow and incremental deformations, or various mechanical fixtures such as clamps, pins, or rings. We are interested in manipulating freely moving cables, in real time, with a pair of robotic grippers, and with no added mechanical constraints. The main contribution of this paper is a perception and control framework that moves in that direction, and uses real-time tactile feedback to accomplish the task of following a dangling cable. The approach relies on a vision-based tactile sensor, GelSight, …

Plant Dna Repair And Agrobacterium T−Dna Integration, Stanton B. Gelvin

Department of Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Agrobacterium species transfer DNA (T−DNA) to plant cells where it may integrate into plant chromosomes. The process of integration is thought to involve invasion and ligation of T-DNA, or its copying, into nicks or breaks in the host genome. Integrated T−DNA often contains, at its junctions with plant DNA, deletions of T−DNA or plant DNA, filler DNA, and/or microhomology between T-DNA and plant DNA pre-integration sites. T−DNA integration is also often associated with major plant genome rearrangements, including inversions and translocations. These characteristics are similar to those often found after repair of DNA breaks, and thus DNA repair mechanisms have …

Decision Based Learning Course Design & Implementation For Introductory Statistics, Austin Heath

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Researchers in multiple industries (biomedicine, engineering, etc.) cite the selection of an appropriate statistical test as a common problem. Experts draw on a framework of conceptual and procedural knowledge to navigate when to use statistical methods. Students also struggle determining the correct statistical method to use for a given research question. This is because they lack the opportunity to practice recognizing a host of features in each research question that provide clues for experts as to which method is most appropriate. “Decision Based Learning” (DBL) is a teaching method designed to help teachers and students address this struggle. In this …