Engineering Commons^™

3-D Reconstruction Of Microvasculature From High Voltage Electron Microscopy (Hvem) Data, Pradip Kumar Paul

Theses

This is a new method for histoarchitectural and volumetric analyses of cell compartments of microvasculature with the use of a unique combination of computerized 3-D reconstruction and HVEM thick serial cross sections. The technology is potentially a reliable, simple, accurate and fast method. Pioneering work in this area was started by Todd et al. (Circ Res Vol :53 p 319 ;1983) basically using light microscopy, but supported by conventional ultrathin transmission electron microscopy. These techniques are important in that they promise to resolve controversies in terms of evaluating the occurance of hyperplasia and hypertrophy in small resistance vessels in various …

The Design, Manufacture And Mechanical Analysis Of An L4-5 Spinal Disc Prosthesis, Bohdan A. Siryi

Theses

The purpose of this research was to develop an intervertebral disc prosthesis which can provide the biomechanical properties of the natural disc. The prosthesis will be used to replace the symptomatic degenerated disc and thereby limit backpain and subsequent spinal disease.

Four cadaveric L4-5 motion segments were mechanically tested under axial compression and combined compression/torsion, generating compressive moduli and torsional stiffness values. Following, prosthetic discs were fabricated and mechanically tested, with the fabrication technique directed towards the optimization of mechanical properties in compression, torsion and bending.

Thirty silicon rubber and forty five polyurethane disc prostheses were fabricated. Silicon rubber, dacron …

On-Line Blood Glucose Control System, Huan Zheng

Theses

A method has been developed that can monitor and control the meal initiation of rats. The goal of studying meal initiation is to find a mechanism of control of the diet, based upon the assumption that the body weight is closely related to feeding behavior. If the feeding behavior can be controlled, then the body weight can be controlled. The experimental system has two major functions: (1) Continuous measurement and recording of the blood glucose concentration and meal pattern of rats. (2) Automatic or manual infusing of glucose or other substances to the rats intravenously.

For blood glucose concentration and …

On Conventional And Harmonic Load Flow Analysis, Ranjit B. Pradhan

Theses

In conventional power flow analysis, simultaneous linear equations numbering in thousands must be solved repeatedly and in many instances on-line. Luckily the matrix of coefficients of these equations is sparse with a few elements in each row. Therefore for a faster solution and to save computer memory, sparsity must be exploited and an optimal ordering of the equations must be sought. When considering harmonics, the number of the simultaneous equations to be solved is multiplied and therefore, considering sparsity and optimal ordering is doubly important.

In this thesis a software package for optimizing computation time and memory requirements through exploitation …

An Analysis Of The Dense Packing Of Disks : A Computer Simulated Approach, Jir-Yih Tsaur

Theses

This thesis is concerned with the analysis of dense packing of hard disks. The Voronoi diagram and the geometric neighbours were first computed. The average number of geometric neighbours of a disk is six. It is thus more efficient to choose structural neighbours from among the geometric neighbours than from among all other disks.

Through the Monte Carlo simulation by Rosato et. al., disk configurations after pouring and subsequent shaking were provided for analysis. The mean number of geometric neighbours and the average coordination number were computed. The angular distribution of the structural neighbours was discussed. The packing fraction increases …

Biosynthesis Of Amine Oxides Using Calcium-Alginate Immobilized Hog Liver Microsomes : An Evaluation Of Process And Reactor Design, Ioannis I. Valvis

Theses

An evaluation of the biocatalytic ability and the potential utilization of Calcium-alginate immobilized hepatic microsomes (beads) for the biosynthesis of amine oxides has been performed, To accomplish this task, the following three areas Were investigated: immobilization, catalytic biooxidation ability, and reactor configurations.

Immobilization was found to result in higher yields over free microsomes at the expense of higher cofactor requirements. Refrigerated drying of immobilized micro-somes appears to be a better storage technique than wet storage in buffer. Smaller beads resulted in higher rates than larger beads, but size did not affect the overall yield.

Chlorpromazine (CPZ), diphenylamine (DPA) and 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine …

A Silicon Photodiode Array For Soft X-Ray Sensing, Chih-Te Hu

Theses

An array of 30 x 30 sensing cells including logic within each cell and a self-scan address circuit are described. A unique scintillation technique is used to increase the threshold sensitivity 60dB for X-ray photon sensing beyond that obtainable with conventional photodiode sensors. Simulations for the sensing cell and some additional logic elements are based on SPICE version 2G5 and HILO 3. Worst case analysis includes variations in threshold voltage V_TP and V_TN for the CMOS circuit components. The final CMOS chip dimension using MOSIS 1.2 micron rules is 10mm x 10mm base on the 80 …

Sorptive And Geotechnical Characteristics Of Kaolinite, Chi-Yuan Shih

Theses

The sorption/desorption behavior of phenol and chlorobenzene as well as their influence on geotechnical characteristics of kaolinite were studied. The results reveal that the sorption process follows closely with the Freundlich adsorption isotherm whereas the sorption/desorption ratio depends upon the characteristics of organic compounds.

A series of geotechnical properties tests was also undertaken after achieving equilibrium at different concentrations of organic compounds. It was found that the parameters such as liquid limit, plastic limit, optimum moisture content, and dry density increase with an increasing-concentration of organic compounds.

The relationship between the geotechnical, properties and sorption behavior of soils provides the …

Investigation Of Different Cmos Dram Sense Amplifier Configurations In Vlsi, Bihju Chiu

Theses

Sense amplifiers are particularly difficult circuits to design. In this work, only CMOS sense amplifiers are considered. There are typically two configurations of CMOS sense amplifiers: the cross-connected flip flop configuration and the current-mirror configuration. They are widely used nowadays with various modifications. These improved configurations are simulated and optimized with SPICE package, and their relative performances are also compared in this thesis.

Determination Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons From Incineration Emission Samples, Robert Cebula

Theses

Stack emissions from five sources (one pulverized coal combustion operation, three sewage sludge incineration operations and one gray tin refractory operation) were sampled by use of U.S. EPA Modified Method 5 isokinetic sampling unit for vapor and particulate effluent. The sampling unit provided XAD-2 resin samples, polytetrafluoroethylene and glass fiber filters and impinger washings of dichloromethane. The resins were soxhlet extracted using dichloromethane (DCM) and the filters were soxhlet extracted using DCM followed by acetone. Fractionation of extracts was accomplished by thin layer chromatography. The resulting fractions were analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), nitro-PAH and quinone-PAH by high-performance liquid …

An Investigation Of Electrical And Optical Properties Of Reactively Sputtered Silicon Nitride And Amorphous Hydrogenated Silicon Thin Films, Tae Hoon Kim

Theses

Thin films of silicon nitride and amorphous hydrogenated silicon were prepared by radio frequency reactive sputter deposition and their properties optimized for their use as low temperature passivation coatings for optoelectronic devices. The effect of various sputter deposition parameters on the conduction and optical properties were studied. Infrared spectrophotometry and ellipsometry were used to determined the optical properties of the films whereas the electrical properties were determined from current-voltage measurements of MIS capacitors.

Typical parameters of a sputter deposition run for the best Si₃N₄ films were: base pressure, 1-2x10^-6 torr; sputtering pressure, 5 mtorr; nitrogen partial …

A Model For The Determination Of Market Based Pricing Of Telecommunication Products, Katherine J. Sullivan

Theses

The deregulation of AT&T, has impacted telecommunication product pricing in the U.S. market. Previously, pricing had been based on cost plus mark-up, as stipulated by regulatory commissions. Now, pricing decisions require consideration of the competitive impact, consumer demand for the product, corporate pricing objectives and marketing strategies. This paper proposes a pricing process that is relevant for this new environment which enables the product manager to price properly.

The method proposed utilizes microeconomic theory and takes into account the product test price, unit cost, opportunity cost, nonprice factor cost and consumer demand. Incorporating a number of different pricing strategies, it …

Bead Design For Biodegradation Of 2-Chlorophenol Using Microorganisms Entrapped In Alginate Gel, Fayaz Lakhwala

Theses

The performance of immobilized cell reactors varies with a number of parameters, one of which is proper bead design. A mixed microbial population from a waste water treatment plant was immobilized in calcium alginate gel. The viability of these organisms was studied in a microassay reactor by varying parameters such as concentration of calcium chloride, concentration of sodium alginate, temperature of operation, biomass concentration within the beads and concentration of a model compound (2-chlorophenol). The effect of storage on viability over a period of three months was also investigated. It was found possible to have access to active biomass by …

Design Of A Fiber Optic Oxygen Sensor Based On Immobilized Hemoglobin, Mendu Govind Raj

Theses

The fiber optic Oxygen sensor consists of a thin layer of immobilized deoxyhemoglobin at the common end of a bifurcated fiber. Immobilization is done using the alginate gel procedure. The immobilized reagent is separated from the standard oxygen sample by the gel with or without semi-permeable membrane, and the entire configuration is enclosed in an oxygen free sample cell. Light from a tungsten-halogen lamp, filtered through a 405nm filter is passed through one arm of a bifurcated fiber to the sample cell. The reflected intensity (a highly polished aluminum foil or a plate is placed at the bottom of the …

Investigation Of Forces In The Course Of The Water Jet--Work Piece Interaction, Hung-Yuan Li

Theses

This study is concerned with the dynamic of the interaction between the water jet and the work-piece. The piezoelectric transducer was used to construct an experimental setup. The simultaneous use of the constructed setup and strain gage enables us to validate the experimental procedure. The forces in the impingment zone were measured at different operational conditions. Totally about 400 different combinations of these conditions were tested. It was found that the force is mainly determined by the diameter of the sapphire. The effects of the abrasive size , abrasive flow rate, the diameter of the carbide tube, and the stand-off …

Synergistic Fillers In Polymer Concrete : New Composites, Syed Hassan Javed

Theses

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of synergistic fillers on underwater construction, burning and mechanical properties of polymer portland cement concrete(PPCC).

Fine grains of hydrous calcium sulfate, Trihydrated alumina, Calcium carbonate and fibrous unhydrous calcium sulfate were examined in PPCC. It has been observed that these synergistic filler improves the mechanical property (stress) and reduce the average time of burning of PPCC. With fixed quantity of polymer, the deterioration of PPCC in water increases by replacing the sand with above stated fillers.

Comparison Of Various Techniques For The Detection Of Lines In 2-Dimensional Images, Somayajulu Bhamidipati

Theses

The detection of straight lines in 2-dimensional images leading to polygonal approximation to the boundaries of the objects is one of the important stages in scene analysis as it leads to the description of the images. The comparison of three diverse approaches for this problem in terms of the efficiency and accuracy is made, and their performance for different types of data and different sets of parameters is studied in this thesis.

The data points are generated using either an edge detection algorithm using chain encoding on real images or a synthetic data generator, which can create a variety of …

Data Flow Dependency Generator, Chin-Piao Chan

Theses

Data flow is a new approach to parallel computing. The concept is to enable the execution of an instruction whenever its operands become available. The only constraints in a data flow machine are the data flow dependencies between instructions.

In this thesis, a simulation package called the Data Flow Dependency Generator is developed. This package is designed to express the idea of data flow computations, the data flow dependencies and the use of multiprocessors.

Given a number of processors, a number of time units for each operation and a program, the Data Flow Dependency Generator finds the data dependencies between …

Utilization Of The Theory Of Constraints Approach For Improving A Manufacturing Enterprise Profitability : A Case Study, Yaron Chaut

Theses

The past two decades have been a difficult period for the U.S. as it lost its dominant position in one manufacturing industry after another to Japan. The American worker was initially blamed for this phenomenon - he was too expensive, was less productive, and produced lower quality products then the Japanese worker. The opening of factories in the U.S. managed by Japanese with American workers proved this claim to be wrong, as their products were competitive and often even better then the original Japanese products. It also indicated that the Japanese production planning and control methods are the primary reason …

Expert Systems Approach For Means Of Egress Analysis, Dimitrios N. Dontas

Theses

The use of Expert Systems has grown dramatically during the 1980's. Developed as a branch of Artificial intelligence, knowledge based Expert Systems were at first of academic interest only. With successful application of knowledge based Expert Systems to medical and other diagnostic problems, industrial and commercial use of this technique is also increasing significantly. As of 1986, fifty percent of the Fortune 500 companies are embarked in their own Expert Systems research.

A variety of knowledge based Expert Systems has been developed for the Civil Engineering design and construction industries. The applications cover a wide range of subjects, including among …

A Methodology For Evaluating Prospective Investments In Flexible Automation, Werner A. Eikenbusch

Theses

The flexible automation of production systems (FA) provides the technology necessary for competitive success. However, the use of traditional budgeting methods has proved unsatisfactory when evaluating this type of investment, primarily because of the inadequate consideration being given to the resultant strategic benefits.

A methodology considered suitable for evaluating FA investments is proposed together with an illustrative application. To determine its industrial usefulness, manufacturing managers of North American and West German companies were surveyed both via interviews and via questionnaires. Their response confirms the merit of the procedure, despite the differences in competitive foci found between the American and the …

Effects Of Peripheral And Microwave-Core Heating On Survival In Hemorrhagic Shock In Rats, Ashraf Sabry El-Assuooty

Theses

In a model of rats resuscitated from hemorrhagic shock,where 11 of 12 animals were alive up to 4 hours after shock, there was an average drop of 10°C in core body temperature. Survival and morbidity was much impaired when the shocked animals were externally heated with an infrared lamp to maintain a core body temperature of 35°C. Since the increased intrashock mortality is possibly due to the circulatory changes induced by peripheral heating, an attempt was made to determine the effects of heating the animal at its core. Twelve rats were shocked in the same fashion, however the body core …

Ibm/Xt-Based Automatic Monitoring Instrumentation System For Eating Behavior Studies In Rats, Binghong Gui

Theses

An auto-feeding system based on the IBM-XT microcomputer has been designed for use in the anti-obesity research program in the Pharmacology Department at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. By using this system, experimental rats can be automatically fed, some which have been given anti-obesity drugs and some which have not. The system can also collect data, such as eating times and food intake, which are used for studying the rat's eating behavior.

The system is designed to control thirty six cages with one experimental rat in each cage and it performs three functions:

1 ) To automatically dispense a preset quantity of …

Micro Cad/Cam System Selection And Implementation, Christian Georg Haas

Theses

The rapid growth of the computer market in the last four decades causes difficulties in evaluating the various systems and configurations of this complex market.

This thesis focuses on graphics capable microcomputers in the computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) field. The thesis emphasizes the technical possibilities such a system offers in terms of hardware, software and applications. Each hardware and software component is detailed to give a new-comer the opportunity to update him or herself in this high technology field. Technical information, as well as installation and implementation are described. Also, provided are lists of several …

The Application Of Zero-Sum Games To Low Sensitivity Optimal Control, Jun Huang

Theses

This thesis deals with the synthesis of low sensitivity optimal control systems. Zero-Sum games are applied to the first order linear differential equation system. The goal is to obtain an optimal control of the system performance, and at the same time, reduce the sensitivity of the performance index and sensitivity trajectory.

In this thesis, the quadratic index of performance is selected in the argumented system which is combined/ the system equation with the sensitivity equation. Two control variables U & V are selected to maximize and minimize the system, in order to obtain the optimal value of the system.

Two …

Investigation Of A Technology For Glass Shaping By The Use Of Abrasive Waterjet, Wu-Tzung Lee

Theses

This study investigates the effects of AWJ properties on the results of glass machining and examines the feasibility of contour glass cutting. The principal defects of AWJ glass cutting are identified. A practical technique to prevent defects and to improve the quality of the glass surface is presented. A computer package was developed to provide a computer-aided programming function, a control program transformation fuction, and a object image operation function. Throughout the programming function, robot control programs can be generated to improve cutting quality and cutting speed. The transformation function can be used to change the programming modes or the …

Fetal Phonocardiography, Jeng-Kwan Lin

Theses

A reliable non-invasive tracking of the fetal heart rate from the maternal abdominal surface could be of significant diagnostic importance in the monitoring of pregnancies, not only for fetal heart rate assessment, but also for the observation of congenital cardiac malformations and transient difficulties during labor. Further, the fetal heart rate recording may be used to assess fetal heart rate variability in the antepartum period of gestation when it is not possible to obtain a fetal scalp lead electrocardiogram.

There are several methods being used to detect the fetal heart rate. Phonocardiography, abdominal electrocardiography and ultrasound cardiography are the three …

Gallium Arsenide Standard Cell Cad Database For Digital Design, Nanchou Liu

Theses

This thesis develops a selected design database of gallium arsenide logic cells for automated design. Uniformly applied 1 um gate length physical layout rules are used for the design database with a standard cell design methodology.

Schottky Diode FET Logic (SDFL) technology with double level metallization was selected following a consideration of alternative gallium arsenide MESFET logic types. The SDFL approach is judged to provide improved noise margin, production yield, density, and lower power dissipation.

A cell library with 60 um cell height has been implemented with double entry for each cell input/output. Each cel1 has been simulated with SPICE …

Contrast Sensitivity Measurement Via Evoked Potential, Ken-Gen Lu

Theses

This work is concerned with the use of the visual Evoked Response (VER) to determine Contrast Sensitivity in humans. For this purpose, a system has been developed where signals, obtained from scalp electrodes, and stimulated by visual grating patterns, are recorded digitized and processed on a personal computer (IBM compatible). Processing includes signal averaging and digital filtering. The system provides storage, retrieval and graphic representation of data as well as the capability to transfer data to other computer systems. Data processing includes parameter estimation of suitable signal models, which provide effective data compression of the signal into a finite set …

Asics Application On Voice Processing Interface Design- Qegg Multiplier, Gwo-Jen Luar

Theses

Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) is a high density VLSI design that including the lower cost, higher performance, small size, and increased reliability. The ASIC, XILINX's LCA is applied on the signal processing ahead of computer I/O interface, specially for the quantitative Electroglottograph. This thesis covers the logic design, simulation test, realization, and stand alone test.