Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Joint Rotation On Curling Responses In Airfield Rigid Pavements, Jaime Hernandez, Imad L. Al-Qadi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper quantifies the relevance of restriction to joint rotation of an airfield concrete pavement when calculating critical curling stresses and deflections using a validated finite element model. The validation uses strains measured at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. To calculate critical curling stresses and deflections, the pavement was subjected to 5263 h of temperature variation determined by utilising the enhanced integrated climate model and thermocouple readings. The profiles include a wide range of average temperatures, temperature gradients, and temperature nonlinearity. Three conditions were included: (1) joints free to displace and rotate; (2) joints free to rotate, but partially …

Targeting Current And Future Threats: Recent Methodological Trends In Environmental Antimicrobial Resistance Research And Their Relationships To Risk Assessment, Tucker R. Burch, Ryan J. Newton, Lee K. Kimbell, Emily Lou Lamartina, Kassidy N. O'Malley, San Marie Victoria Thomson, Christopher Marshall, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health threat. Improved surveillance of AMR's genetic indicators in environmental reservoirs should lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the problem at a global scale, as with SARS-CoV-2 monitoring in sewage. However, the “best” monitoring approach is unclear. Some scientific works have emphasized monitoring for the abundance of already-known antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs); others have emphasized monitoring for the potential of new ARGs to arise. The goal of this study was to examine which methods were employed by highly-cited papers studying AMR in environmental engineering and agricultural systems, thus providing insight into current …

Collective Action On Behalf Of Women: Testing The Conceptual Distinction Between Traditional Collective Action And Small Acts In College Women, Anca M. Miron, Thomas C. Ball, Nyla R. Branscombe, Monica Fieck, Cristinel Ababei, Serena Raymer, Baylee Tkaczuk, Megan M. Meives

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The current study examines the nature of actions that U.S. college women (N = 267) engage in to promote, protect, or enhance the welfare of other women. The study had two goals: 1) to distinguish between traditional forms of action (traditional collective action) and more informal, interpersonal, forms of action (small acts) among college women; and 2) to test whether the classic antecedents of collective action (gender identity, feminist identity, women’s activist identity, efficacy, appraisals of gender inequality, and injustice standards) are differentially predictive of these two types of participation. A confirmatory factor analysis provided strong support for these two …

A Comparison Of Two Generalizations To The Linear Sampling Method For Inverse Scattering, Yeasmin Sultana, James E. Richie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The linear sampling method (LSM) is a very popular method for determining the boundary of an object from the scattered field. However, there are instances where LSM provides the convex hull of the boundary rather than the true boundary. There are two common generalizations to LSM: the Generalized Linear Sampling Method (GLSM) and the Multipoles-based Linear Sampling Method (MLSM). In this paper, the ability of GLSM and MLSM to overcome some of the deficiencies of LSM are investigated. It is found that GLSM may be ideal for imaging thin features of scatterers and that MLSM can provide an improvement over …

Acute Magnetic Resonance Imaging Predictors Of Chronic Motor Function And Tissue Sparing In Rat Cervical Spinal Cord Injury, Seung-Yi Lee, Brian D. Schmit, Shekar N. Kurpad, Matthew D. Budde

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Predicting functional outcomes from spinal cord injury (SCI) at the acute setting is important for patient management. This work investigated the relationship of early magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) biomarkers in a rat model of cervical contusion SCI with long-term functional outcome and tissue sparing. Forty rats with contusion injury at C5 at either the spinal cord midline (bilateral) or over the lateral cord (unilateral) were examined using in vivo multi-modal quantitative MRI at 1 day post-injury. The extent of T₂-weighted hyperintensity reflecting edema was greater in the bilateral model compared with the unilateral injury. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) …

Visual Oscillation Effects On Dynamic Balance Control In People With Multiple Sclerosis, Lara I. Riem, Scott A. Beardsley, Ahmed Z. Obeidat, Brian D. Schmit

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background: People with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) have balance deficits while ambulating through environments that contain moving objects or visual manipulations to perceived self-motion. However, their ability to parse object from self-movement has not been explored. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of medial-lateral oscillations of the visual field and of objects within the scene on gait in PwMS and healthy age-matched controls using virtual reality (VR).

Methods: Fourteen PwMS (mean age 49 ± 11 years) and eleven healthy controls (mean age: 53 ± 12 years) participated in this study. Dynamic balance control was assessed while participants …

Building And Infrastructure Defect Detection And Visualization Using Drone And Deep Learning Technologies, Yuhan Jiang, Sisi Han, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper presents an accurate and stable method for object and defect detection and visualization on building and infrastructural facilities. This method uses drones and cameras to collect three- dimensional (3D) point clouds via photogrammetry, and uses orthographic or arbitrary views of the target objects to generate the feature images of points’ spectral, elevation, and normal features. U-Net is implemented in the pixelwise segmentation for object and defect detection using multiple feature images. This method was validated on four applications, including on-site path detection, pavement cracking detection, highway slope detection, and building facade window detection. The comparative experimental results confirmed …

Slicing-Based Artificial Intelligence Service Provisioning On The Network Edge: Balancing Ai Service Performance And Resource Consumption Of Data Management, Mushu Li, Jie Gao, Conghao Zhou, Xuemin Shen, Weihua Zhuang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Edge intelligence leverages computing resources on the network edge to provide artificial intelligence (AI) services close to network users. As it enables fast inference and distributed learning, edge intelligence is envisioned to be an important component of 6G networks. In this article, we investigate AI service provisioning for supporting edge intelligence. First, we present the features and requirements of AI services. Then we introduce AI service data management and customize network slicing for AI services. Specifically, we propose a novel resource-pooling method to regularize service data exchange within the network edge while allocating network resources for AI services. Using this …

Progress And Prospect Of Anodic Oxidation For The Remediation Of Perfluoroalkyl And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances In Water And Wastewater Using Diamond Electrodes, Sean T. Mcbeath, Adrián Serrano Mora, Fatemeh Asadi Zeidabadi, Brooke K. Mayer, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Madjid Mohseni, Michael R. Hoffman, Nigel J. D. Graham

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Although diamond electrodes are widely used in the field of electroanalysis and sensing, their application in the field of environmental engineering has yet to be fully realized. Many research studies have considered their potential application in water and wastewater treatment, where the in-situ electrochemical process can avoid the need for chemical additives by facilitating the oxidation of pollutants on the electrode surface or mediated by electrochemically synthesized oxidants in solution. Diamond-based electro-oxidation can effectively treat a number of organic micropollutants and is now being evaluated for the abatement of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which pose health concerns and are ubiquitous …

Collaborative Multi-Resource Allocation In Terrestrial-Satellite Network Towards 6g, Shu Fu, Jie Gao, Lian Zhao

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Terrestrial-satellite networks (TSNs) are envisioned to play a significant role in the sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. In such networks, hot air balloons are useful as they can relay the signals between satellites and ground stations. Most existing works assume that the hot air balloons are deployed at the same height with the same minimum elevation angle to the satellites, which may not be practical due to possible route conflict with airplanes and other flight equipment. In this paper, we consider a TSN containing hot air balloons at different heights and with different minimum elevation angles, which creates the challenge of …

Enhanced Energy And Resource Recovery Via Synergistic Catalytic Pyrolysis Of Byproducts From Thermal Processing Of Wastewater Solids, Zhongzhe Liu, Matthew Hughes, Yiran Tong, Jizhi Zhoud, William Kreutter, Danny Valtierra, Simcha L. Singer, Daniel Zitomer, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Wastewater sludge drying and incineration are conventional solids handling processes that are sometimes employed in water resource reclamation facilities. However, these two processes generate byproducts, sludge drying chaff and sludge incinerator ash, which are landfilled without taking advantage of their value. To gain value from these byproducts, a new synergistic catalytic pyrolysis process using chaff and ash was investigated in this study to improve energy production (i.e. generating a high yield pyrolysis gas) and generate useful products. Ash was used as a catalyst to decrease bio-oil that is corrosive and challenging for combustion in standard equipment, while increasing pyrolysis gas …

Deep Convolutional Correlation Particle Filter For Visual Tracking, Reza Jalil Mozhdehi

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, we explore the advantages and limitations of the application of sequential Monte Carlo methods to visual tracking, which is a challenging computer vision problem. We propose six visual tracking models, each of which integrates a particle filter, a deep convolutional neural network, and a correlation filter. In our first model, we generate an image patch corresponding to each particle and use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract features from the corresponding image region. A correlation filter then computes the correlation response maps corresponding to these features, which are used to determine the particle weights and estimate …

Conductive Polymer Spark Gap Igniters, Miranda P. Mcconnell, Allison K. Murray, Bryan W. Boudouris, I. Emre Gunduz, Steven F. Son, George T.-C. Chiu, Jeffrey F. Rhoads

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Electrodes fabricated from electronically active polymers offer some benefits over those fabricated with common metals, including an appreciable resistance to corrosion and lower density. These benefits, and potentially others, manifest the advantages of using conductive polymers in lieu of metals for the mass production of ignition systems. In this work, spark gap igniters were fabricated using a potentially low-cost, roll-to-roll compatible process utilizing the doped conductive polymer polyaniline as the electrode material. Subsequently, nanothermite was printed on the spark gap igniters between the organic leads and ignited using a high voltage source to demonstrate the effectiveness of the device. All …

Mid-Movement Error Corrections After Visual And Haptic Perturbations Reflect Latency And Performance Differences, Pablo Gonzalez Polanco

Master's Theses (2009 -)

We examined a key attribute of sensory motor skill: the capability to adjust ongoing actions to correct performance errors that arise during the execution of a task. Fifteen subjects grasped the handle of a horizontal 2D planar robot that enacted a small viscous resistance to the arm movement. The subjects initiated interception movements using a prompted Go cue to quickly catch a pseudo-randomly moving target. On some trials, the robot viscosity field or the target’s motion (speed) was altered without any warning at the time of the Go cue. The viscosity could be increased which made it more difficult to …

Stochastic Modeling For Mobile Manipulators, Xie Jiayu

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Mobile manipulators are valuable and highly desired in many fields, especially in industrial environments. However, determining the end effector position has been challenging for scenarios where the base moves at the same time that the arm follows commands to perform specific tasks. Earlier works have attempted to dynamically evaluate the problem of positioning error for mobile manipulators, but there is still room for further improvement. In this thesis, we devise a dynamical model that leverages stochastic search strategies for mobile manipulators. More specifically, we develop a dynamic model that estimates the position of the robot using an Unscented Kalman filter. …

Assessment Of Mitochondrial Dysfunction In Lungs From Rats Exposed To Hyperoxia And The Efficacy Of Duroquinone, Swetha Ganesh

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Dissipation of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) is a hallmark of mitochondrial dysfunction. The objective of this thesis was to use a previously developed experimental-computational approach to estimate tissue ΔΨm in intact lungs of rats exposed to hyperoxia, and to evaluate the ability of duroquinone (DQ) to reverse any hyperoxia-induced depolarization of lung Ψm. Rats were exposed to hyperoxia (>95% O2) or normoxia (room air) for 48 hrs, after which lungs were excised and connected to a ventilation-perfusion system. The experimental protocol consisted of measuring the concentration of the fluorescent dye rhodamine 6G (R6G) during three single-pass phases: loading, washing, …

Detecting Invasive Insects Using Uncewed Aerial Vehicles And Variational Autoencoders, Scott Daniel Stewart

Master's Theses (2009 -)

In this thesis, we use machine learning techniques to address limitations in our ability to monitor pest insect migrations. Invasive insect populations, such as the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), cause significant economic and environmental damages. In order to mitigate these damages, tracking BMSB migration is vital, but it also poses a challenge. The current state-of-the-art solution to track insect migrations is called mark-release-recapture. In mark-release-recapture, a researcher marks insects with a fluorescent powder, releases them back into the wild, and searches for the insects using ultra-violet flashlights at suspected migration destination locations. However, this involves a significant amount of …

Study Of Extensions To The Linear Sampling Method For Electromagnetic Inverse Scattering, Yeasmin Sultana

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The linear sampling method (LSM) is a simple and effective qualitative method to reconstruct the support of unknown object by solving inverse scattering problem. The solution is done based on the field radiated by the elementary source located in a set of test points. In this thesis, the LSM formulation, limitations of standard LSM and extensions of LSM are discussed. Standard LSM can reconstruct simply connected objects, but it fails in case of concave or not simply connected objects. However, it can reconstruct the convex hull for such objects. Some extensions to LSM have been proposed to avoid these limitations. …

Aeroacoustic Design Of An Abrasive Blasting Nozzle Using Cfd, Adam Dehli

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Current industrial abrasive blasting nozzles are often loud enough to negatively impact worker health and require employers to implement hearing conservation programs under OSHA noise exposure regulations. Significant opportunity exists for the use of modern computational fluid dynamics software (CFD) in the design of an abrasive blasting nozzle with a focus on reducing the acoustic intensity. Past work using CFD for abrasive blasting nozzle design has focused on improving productivity, ignoring aeroacoustic considerations. ANSYS Fluent software was used to investigate the effect of geometry changes to a commercially available No. 6 venturi nozzle, specifically the addition of a constant cross-section …

Deep Learning Approach For Dynamic Sampling For High-Throughput Nano-Desi Msi, David Helminiak

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MSI) extracts molecular mass data to form visualizations of molecular spatial distributions. The involved scanning procedure is conducted by moving a probe across and around a rectilinear grid, as in the case of nanoscale Desorption Electro-Spray Ionization (nano-DESI) MSI, where singular measurements can take up to ~5 seconds to acquire high-resolution (better than 10 μm) results. This temporal expense creates a high inefficiency in sample processing and throughput. For example, in a high-resolution nano-DESI study, a single mouse uterine tissue section (2.5 mm by 1.7 mm) had an acquisition time of ~4 hours to acquire 104,400 pixels. …

Micromechanics Of Additively Manufactured Materials Under Dynamic Loading, Christopher Rueben Johnson

Dissertations (1934 -)

Ongoing works aim to develop a predictive computational framework whichcan be utilized to shorten the design and certification cycle of additively manufactured (AM) 304L stainless steel (SS304L). High fidelity experiments are utilized to validate and parameterize the computational framework. Results have detailed differing mechanical responses across a breadth of strain rates for wrought and AM SS304L. Differences are attributed to the microstructural properties resulting from the fabrication and treatment of the materials. This work aims to supplement preexisting high strain rate compressive strength experimental data sets to further quantify process-structure-property (PSP) relationships in development of the computational framework. Materials investigated …

Dynamic Material Properties Copper Mountain Sandstone Under Uniaxial And Oblique Impact, Nathaniel Steven Helminiak

Dissertations (1934 -)

A generalized P-Lambda equation of state and strength model (dependent on hydrostatic and deviatoric stress terms) for porous alpha phase crystalline quartz under compression load was generated utilizing Copper Mountain sandstone (from Mosinee WI) and augmented with existing petrographic data. Tests with Copper Mountain sandstone samples began with an examination of elastic properties before conventional low strain rate testing was conducted. Sample thickness varying from ~0.5 mm to ~3.0 mm, were tested in high strain rate plane strain and pressure-shear configurations at impact velocities from 3 m/s to 720 m/s. Each plane strain test contained multiple sandstone samples so that …

Direct And Non-Invasive Monitoring Of Battery Internal State Via Novel Gmi-Idt Magnetic Sensor, Akila Khatun

Dissertations (1934 -)

Efficient battery management systems (BMSs) in rechargeable battery-based systems require precise measurements of various battery parameters including state of charge (SOC), state of health (SOH) and charge capacity. Presently, SOC, charge capacity and SOH can only be indirectly inferred from long-term measurement of current, open circuit voltage (OCV), and temperature using multiple sensors. These techniques can only give an approximation of SOC and often require knowledge of the recent battery history to prevent excessive inaccuracy.To improve the performance of the BMS, an alternative method of monitoring the internal state of Li-ion batteries is presented here. Theoretical analysis of Li-ion batteries …

Thermal Deformation In High Pressure Die Casting Shot Sleeves, Ross Crowley

Dissertations (1934 -)

Replacement of shot sleeves represents a significant cost in cold chamber high pressure die casting (HPDC) processes. It is well known that the service life of a shot sleeve is closely related to its thermomechanical deformation behavior, so an improved understanding of this behavior is needed to guide the design of shot sleeves for increased service life. Prior research efforts have analyzed shot sleeve deformation but were based on 2D representations and did not consider transient effects from the molten metal’s flow behavior. This objective of this study was to analyze thermo-mechanical deformation during the injection sequence by using a …

The Effect Of Visual Field Manipulations On Standing Balance Control In People With Multiple Sclerosis, Lara I. Riem, Scott A. Beardsley, Brian D. Schmit

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with an increased risk of falls, degeneration of sensory organization, and possible increased reliance on vision for balance control.

Research question

The aim of this study was to assess differences in standing postural control between people with MS and age and sex matched controls during medial-lateral (ML) oscillations of the visual field, with and without blinders to the lower periphery.

Methods

Ten persons with MS (mean age 54.0 ± 5.3 years) and ten age and sex matched controls (mean age: 56.3 ± 6.0 years) participated in this study. Balance control was assessed while participants …

On-Site/In Situ Continuous Detecting Ppb-Level Metal Ions In Drinking Water Using Block Loop-Gap Resonators And Machine Learning, Sangmin Oh, Imtiaz Hossen, Juan R. Luglio, Gusphyl Justin, James Richie, Henry Medeiros, Chung-Hoon Lee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Microwave measurements and machine learning algorithms are presented to estimate metal ion concentrations in drinking water. A novel block loop gap resonator (BLGR) as a microwave probe is designed and fabricated to estimate Pb ion concentrations in city water as low as 1 ppb with an rms error of 0.18 ppb. No physical contact between the BLGR probe and the water sample allows on-site/in situ continuous detection of ppb-level metal ion concentrations. The S₁₁ raw data (amplitude and phase) from the BLGR are used to classify and estimate metal ion concentrations using a support vector regression algorithm. The performance …

Development Of A Pavement Evaluation Tool Using Aerial Imagery And Deep Learning, Yuhan Jiang, Sisi Han, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper presents the research results of using Google Earth imagery for visual condition surveying of highway pavement in the United States. A screenshot tool is developed to automatically track the highway for collecting end-to-end images and Global Position System (GPS). A highway segmentation tool based on a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is developed to segment the collected highway images into the predefined object categories, where the cracks are identified and labeled in each small patch of the overlapping assembled label-image prediction. Then, the longitudinal cracks and transverse cracks are detected using the x-gradient and y-gradient from the Sobel …

Conversion Of Soluble Recalcitrant Phosphorus To Recoverable Orthophosphate Form Using Uv/H2O2, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran, Eileen Kennedy, Caitlin Graeber, Synthia P. Mallick, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Soluble non-reactive phosphorus (sNRP), such as inorganic polyphosphates and organic P, is not effectively removed by conventional physicochemical processes. This can impede water resource reclamation facilities’ ability to meet stringent total P regulations. This study investigated a UV/H₂O₂ advanced oxidation process (AOP) for converting sNRP to the more readily removable/recoverable soluble reactive P (sRP), or orthophosphate, form. Synthetic water spiked with four sNRP compounds (beta-glycerol phosphate, phytic acid, triphosphate, and hexa-meta phosphate) at varying H₂O₂ concentration, UV fluence, pH, and temperature was initially tested. These compounds represent simple, complex, organic, and inorganic forms of …

Low–High Orthoimage Pairs-Based 3d Reconstruction For Elevation Determination Using Drone, Yuhan Jiang, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper presents a 3D reconstruction method for fast elevation determination on construction sites. The proposed method is intended to automatically and accurately determine construction site elevations using drone-based, low–high orthoimage pairs. This method requires fewer images than other methods for covering a large target area of a construction site. An up–forward–down path was designed to capture approximately -scale images at different altitudes over target stations. A pixel grid matching and elevation determination algorithm was developed to automatically match images in dense pixel grid-style via self-adaptive patch feature descriptors, and simultaneously determine elevations based on a virtual elevation model. The …

Electrochemical Technologies For Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances Mitigation In Drinking Water And Water Treatment Residuals, Donald R. Ryan, Brooke K. Mayer, Claire K. Baldus, Sean T. Mcbeath, Yin Wang, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Water treatment technologies are needed that can convert per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into inorganic products (e.g., CO₂, F⁻) that are less toxic than parent PFAS compounds. Research on electrochemical treatment processes such as electrocoagulation and electrooxidation has demonstrated proof-of-concept PFAS removal and destruction. However, research has primarily been conducted in laboratory matrices that are electrochemically favorable (e.g., high initial PFAS concentration [μg/L–mg/L], high conductivity, and absence of oxidant scavengers). Electrochemical treatment is also a promising technology for treating PFAS in water treatment residuals from nondestructive technologies (e.g., ion exchange, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis). Future electrochemical …