Engineering Commons^™

National Livestock Policy Of Nepal: Needs And Opportunities, Upendra B. Pradhanang, Soni M. Pradhanang, Arhan Sthapit, Nir Y. Krakauer, Ajay K. Jha, Tarendra Lakhankar

Publications and Research

This paper describes Nepal’s national livestock policies and considers how they can be improved to help meet the pressing national challenges of economic development, equity, poverty alleviation, gender mainstreaming, inclusion of marginalized and underprivileged communities, and climate vulnerability. Nepal is in the process of transforming its government from a unitary system to a federal democratic structure through the new constitution expected by 2015, offering the opportunity to bring a new set of priorities and stakeholders to policymaking. Nepal’s livestock subsector comes most directly within the purview of the National Agricultural Policy 2004, Agro-Business Policy, 2006 and Agricultural Sectoral Operating Policies …

Remote Sensing Of Hidden Objects, Mark G. Hoelscher, Michael A. Marciniak

AFIT Patents

An apparatus and method are provided for creating an indirect image of an object. The apparatus includes a light source and an imaging system. Light emitted from the light source is reflected by a first non-specular surface toward the object. Light reflected by the object is further reflected by a second non-specular surface toward the imaging system. The imaging system is configured to create the indirect image from the reflected light.

Moor Movement: Automated Docking On Drought-Stricken Reservoirs, Daniel Beck

Landscape Architecture

Moor Movement establishes a mechanized docking system for unpredictable shoreline fluctuations on inland lakes and reservoirs. Due to climate change and warmer global temperatures, the threat of ocean level rise has initiated massive proposals to address the interface between ocean and man-made infrastructure. While this is a monumental problem, ocean level rise is not the only immediate threat. The recently declared emergency drought conditions in California are finally bringing attention to inland lakes and reservoirs. While ocean levels might rise 2-7 feet in 100 years, a lake could drop 100 feet in 5 years. What happens to access roads, marinas, …

Ua66 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter, Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Fort Williams - Glasgow, Kentucky (Mss 531), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 531. Correspondence, research, historical and archaeological reports, contracts, budgets and other documents relating to the 1970s excavation and restoration of Fort Williams, a Civil War fortification at Glasgow, Kentucky.

Waste And Duplication In Nasa Programs: The Need To Enhance U.S. Space Program Efficiency, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The U.S. Government faces acute budgetary deficits and national debt problems in the Obama Administration. These problems have been brought about by decades of unsustainable government spending affecting all agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (NASA). An outgrowth of this fiscal profligacy is the presence of wasteful and duplicative programs within NASA that prevent this agency from achieving its space science and human spaceflight objectives. These problems occur due to mismanagement of these programs from NASA and the creation of these programs by the U.S. Congress and congressional committees. This occurs because congressional appropriators tend to be more …

Economic Interrelationships And Impacts Of The Aviation/Aerospace Industry In The State Of Florida Using Input-Output Analysis, Kelly A. Whealan-George

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The study provided a detailed description of the interrelatedness of the aviation and aerospace industry with principal industries in Florida and Volusia County (VC) using Input-Output (IO) analysis. Additionally, this research provided an economic impact analysis of the creation of a university research park in Daytona Beach (DB). The economic impact measures included not only direct economic output and industry employment descriptions but also described the multiplier effects in the form of indirect and induced impacts using data for 2012.

This research concluded the average labor income of the aviation and aerospace industry was higher than average labor income in …

Webinar: Exploring Pedestrian Responsive Traffic Signal Timing Strategies In Urban Areas, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri

TREC Webinar Series

The role of walking in the development of healthy, livable communities is being increasingly recognized. In urban areas, intersections are often viewed as a deterrent to walking, as their operation primarily favors automobiles, leading to large and unnecessary delays for pedestrians. There is currently very limited research on accommodating and/or prioritizing pedestrians at signalized intersections in the North American context. Pedestrians are often considered as a deterrent to efficient vehicular traffic flow and therefore active efforts to include them in operational decisions at intersections have been lagging. This research aims to fill that gap by understanding factors that influence pedestrian …

Agenda, Hr Adaptation Forum

January 23, 2015: Storm Surge Modeling Tools for Planning and Response

No abstract provided.

Low Fidelity Flight Simulation In Collegiate Aviation, Vladimir N. Risukhin

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

Aviation college pilot training programs, lessons and exercises contain portions that do not require training in sophisticated and highly expensive full flight simulators and flight training devices (FTD) with high fidelity of simulation, or in real aircraft flights. Relatively inexpensive personal-computer-based flight simulation facilities named low fidelity simulators (LFS) can boost development of aircraft pilots’ cognitive and behavioral skills. The paper attempts to reveal how the LFS can support aviation college flight training and research activities. In the Western Michigan University College of Aviation, peer mentoring technique proven to be helpful in higher education institutions has been applied to flight …

Aerospace Renaissance – Ripe For Research To Impact The Industry, Constantine M. Koursaris, Brig. Gen. Robert E. Mansfield Jr. (Ret.)

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

The Center for Aviation and Aerospace Leadership (CAAL) was founded in 2008 to capture, create, and share relevant information on leadership in the aviation and aerospace industry.

The AIR is developed and published in collaboration with the Aerospace Industries Association and includes:

• Information on the status of aerospace manufacturing in the United States and state of the economy

• An in-depth review of sales across the various sectors of the industry, employment trends, key international trade statistics, financial information on the industry & major aerospace firms, trends to watch, and a forecast for the future based on a review …

Human Factors Considerations In Autonomous Lethal Unmanned Aerial Systems, Kristine Kiernan

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

The United States military is committed to the development of complete autonomy in unmanned vehicles, including armed unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The design and deployment of autonomous lethal UAS raises ethical issues that have implications for human factors. System design, procedures, and training will be impacted by the advent of autonomous lethal UAS. This paper will define relevant vocabulary, review the literature on robot ethics as it applies to the military setting, discuss various perspectives in the research community, address levels of UAS autonomy, and discuss implications for operator training, responsibility, and human-machine interaction. Familiarity with these ethical issues and …

Unmanned Insecurity: The Safety And Privacy Issues Of Unmanned Aircraft Information Assurance, Donna A. Dulo Ph.D.

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

Information assurance and computer security are foundational paradigms in ground based information systems. However, in the aerial realm of unmanned systems, information security often takes the proverbial back seat to high visibility issues such as safety and privacy. Yet, a secure unmanned aircraft is a basic tenant of safety and privacy in the operational arena. Information assurance and security that are enveloped into an unmanned aircraft protect the systems data, communications, as well as internal operations and permeates not only the aircraft’s systems, but also the system’s interactions with satellites, ground stations, and other aerial entities that share data and …

Risk Perception In Aviation Students: Weather Matters, Ric Ferraro Phd, Darci Vandyke, Mary Zander, Krista Anderson, Bethany Kuehlen

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Sixty-three aviation major students and 71 non-aviation major students participated in an experiment concerning aviation experience and risk perception (Risk Perception Scale, RPS; Hunter, 2002). Non-aviation students rated three of the RPS risk scenarios (P2Fly, P2Life, P2 Base) as having higher perceived risk than aviation students with the exception of the weather risk scenarios (P2WX). Aviation students perceived the P2WX scenarios to be significantly more risky. These results have implications for how future pilots perceive risk.

Sci Pop Talks! Presenter Guidelines, Kiyomi D. Deards, Raychelle Burks

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Presenter guidelines for the nUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Sci Pop! Talks series.

Using Photogrammetry To Document, Analyze, And Reverse-Engineer Grave Markers, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

There are a wide range of applications for three-dimensional (3D) data in archaeology, and a diverse array of methods for collecting and analyzing those data. In this article, free 3D photogrammetry software (Autodesk 123D Catch) is used to document a series of grave markers. The data are subsequently exported to Geomagic Design X to demonstrate and briefly discuss the various potential analyses that might be used to illustrate the effects of preservation treatments and marker degradation through time. Further, one marker is reverse-engineered, illustrating the capacity of 3D modeling to expedite the process of design, should elements warrant replacement. Additional …

2015 Oklahoma Research Day Full Program, Northeastern State University

Oklahoma Research Day Abstracts

This document contains all abstracts from the 2015 Oklahoma Research Day held at Northeastern State University.

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 56 Number 3, Spring/Summer 2015, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

16 - SILICON VALLEY STORY by Michael S. Malone '75, MBA '77. The hidden history behind the heart of ingenuity.

22 - BARCELONA SIESTA by Maya Kroth '01. On a Fulbright to Spain, in pursuit of the meaning of sleep. In the 21st century, it's not what it used to be. By Maya Kroth '01.

26 - BUILD IT BEAUTIFUL. See how the campus has been transformed in the past two decades-thanks in no small part to Joe Sugg. Illustration by Rod Hunt.

28 - A GOOD BASEBALL MAN by Jeff Gire. Charlie Graham and a tale of the Red …

Management Of Rural Water Services In Nicaragua: A Systematic Network Approach To Evaluating Stakeholder Alignment, Jeffrey P. Walters, Amy N. Javemick-Will

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Water sector literature attributes a substantial cause of rural water system failure in developing countries to poor alignment between water service stakeholders. This study aimed to investigate a means for assessing stakeholder alignment by comparing the systemic interaction of stakeholder values, where the term ‘stakeholder values’ refers to aspects stakeholders believe are necessary to ensure rural water services are sustainable. The research held focus groups with key stakeholder groups involved in the management of rural water infrastructure in Terrabona, Nicaragua, to identify stakeholder values, and then used cross-impact analysis to evaluate how these values interacted to form stakeholder value networks …

Research Week 2015, Linda Gardiner, David Owerbach

Office of Research Institutional Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Merging Two Worlds: Agent-Based Simulation Methods For Autonomous Systems, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

This chapter recommends the increased use of agent-based simulation methods to support the design, development, testing, and operational use of autonomous systems. This recommendation is motivated by deriving taxonomies for intelligent software agents and autonomous robotic systems from the public literature, which shows their similarity: intelligent software agents can be interpreted as the virtual counterparts of autonomous robotic systems. This leads to examples of how simulation can be used to significantly improve autonomous system research and development in selected use cases. The chapter closes with observations on the operational effects of possible emergent behaviour and the need to align the …

Potential Of Cognitive Computing And Cognitive Systems, Ahmed K. Noor

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Cognitive computing and cognitive technologies are game changers for future engineering systems, as well as for engineering practice and training. They are major drivers for knowledge automation work, and the creation of cognitive products with higher levels of intelligence than current smart products. This paper gives a brief review of cognitive computing and some of the cognitive engineering systems activities. The potential of cognitive technologies is outlined, along with a brief description of future cognitive environments, incorporating cognitive assistants - specialized proactive intelligent software agents designed to follow and interact with humans and other cognitive assistants across the environments. The …

Planning Rural Water Services In Nicaragua: A Systems-Based Analysis Of Impact Factors Using Graphical Modeling, Jeffrey P. Walters, Paul S. Chinowsky

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

The success or failure of rural water services in the developing world is a result of numerous factors that interact in a complex set of connections that are difficult to separate and identify. This research effort presented a novel means to empirically reveal the systemic interactions of factors that influence rural water service sustainability in the municipalities of Darío and Terrabona, Nicaragua. To accomplish this, the study employed graphical modeling to build and analyze factor networks. Influential factors were first identified by qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing transcribed interviews from community water committee members. Factor influences were then inferred by graphical …

Spontaneous Facial Behavior Computing In Human Machine Interaction With Applications In Autism Treatment, Seyedmohammad Mavadati

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Digital devices and computing machines such as computers, hand-held devices and robots are becoming an important part of our daily life. To have affect-aware intelligent Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) systems, scientists and engineers have aimed to design interfaces which can emulate face-to-face communication. Such HMI systems are capable of detecting and responding upon users' emotions and affective states. One of the main challenges for producing such intelligent system is to design a machine, which can automatically compute spontaneous behaviors of humans in real-life settings. Since humans' facial behaviors contain important non-verbal cues, this dissertation studies facial actions and behaviors in HMI …

Ua66 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter, Cheryl Stevens, Dean

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 56 Number 2, Winter 2015, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

10 - May the Rhodes rise to meet you - On the road with Aven Satre-Meloy ’13.

16 - Season tough, photos by Denis Concordel.

18 - Space Aces by Sam Scott '96. 20 - The fragility of faith by Michael C. McCarthy, S.J. '87. A professor of religious studies and executive director of SCU’s Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education confesses that it’s not merely an academic question when he asks: “How can a thinking person still believe in God?”

26 - Rebound by Mitch Finley '73. Lessons from the court and the chapel in dealing with addiction, mental illness, …

Automated Technique For Real-Time Production Of Lifelike Animations Of American Sign Language, John Mcdonald, Rosalee Wolfe, Jerry C. Schnepp, Julie Hochgesang, Diana Gorman Jamrozik, Marie Stumbo, Larwan Berke, Melissa Bialek, Farah Thomas

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

Generating sentences from a library of signs implemented through a sparse set of key frames derived from the segmental structure of a phonetic model of ASL has the advantage of flexibility and efficiency, but lacks the lifelike detail of motion capture. These difficulties are compounded when faced with real-time generation and display. This paper describes a technique for automatically adding realism without the expense of manually animating the requisite detail. The new technique layers transparently over and modifies the primary motions dictated by the segmental model, and does so with very little computational cost, enabling real-time production and display. The …

Analysis Of Queue Characteristics At Signalized Intersections Near Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing, Amna Chaudhry

Wayne State University Dissertations

Analysis of traffic queues at signalized intersections which are in close proximity to highway- railroad grade crossings is of primary importance for determining if the normal signal operation needs to be preempted for railroad operations by providing a special signal mode for safe clearance of the queued vehicles from the tracks before the train arrival, and prohibiting any conflicting traffic movements towards the crossing. Such queuing analysis becomes even more critical where direct observations of traffic queues are not possible or where the assessment is needed for a future location. Inadequate estimation of queues from signalized intersections to the nearby …

Long-Term Functionality Of Rural Water Services In Developing Countries: A System Dynamics Approach To Understanding The Dynamic Interaction Of Causal Factors, Jeffrey P. Walters, Amy N. Javernick-Will

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Research has shown that sustainability of rural water infrastructure in developing countries is largely affected by the dynamic and systemic interactions of technical, social, financial, institutional, and environmental factors that can lead to premature water system failure. This research employs systems dynamic modeling, which uses feedback mechanisms to understand how these factors interact dynamically to influence long-term rural water system functionality. To do this, the research first identified and aggregated key factors from literature, then asked water sector experts to indicate the polarity and strength between factors through Delphi and cross impact survey questionnaires, and finally used system dynamics modeling …

A Prediction Modeling Framework For Noisy Welding Quality Data, Junheung Park

Wayne State University Dissertations

Numerous and various research projects have been conducted to utilize historical manufacturing process data in product design. These manufacturing process data often contain data inconsistencies, and it causes challenges in extracting useful information from the data. In resistance spot welding (RSW), data inconsistency is a well-known issue. In general, such inconsistent data are treated as noise data and removed from the original dataset before conducting analyses or constructing prediction models. This may not be desirable for every design and manufacturing applications since every data can contain important information to further explain the process. In this research, we propose a prediction …