Engineering Commons^™

Analysis Of Primary-Secondary Incident Events On Urban Freeways, Hongbing Zhang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study is to understand the nature of primary and secondary traffic incidents, assess their impacts and explore the implications in traffic operations, safety, and planning. To achieve the objective, a queue-based secondary incident identification method was developed and applied based on detailed incident, traffic and geometric data sets from Hampton Roads, Virginia. This identification method can overcome the limitations in earlier studies and identify secondary incidents in both road directions. An innovative event categorization defines the term "primary-secondary incident event", as one characterized by a primary incident and one or more associated secondary incidents in both …

Earth Observation Time Estimates Using Curve Fitted Perturbed Orbit Tracks, Taner Gundogdu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, time to observation for a generic perturbed low Earth orbit satellite, which is tasked, for reconnaissance of a given surface target is investigated. A curve fitting concept applied to past orbital track data is used to estimate and predict the overflight observation time. The least squares method is selected for the curve fitting process and used for both linear and non-linear aspects. Since orbital track data for actual spacecraft are not widely available, numerical integration of the governing motion equations is used as an alternate data source. One of the numerical integration methods, fourth-order Runge-Kutta, is used …

Integrating Probe Vehicles And Stationary Detector Data To Construct Accurate Cumulative Curves To Study Bottlenecks, Khairul Azfi Anuar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Advancements in sensors technologies have given researchers and practitioners access to an immense amount of traffic data from multiple types of sensors. However, because of the diversity of the data types, developing a relationship between the different data sources can be challenging. To further complicate the issue, the presence of error or noise makes it difficult to infer any reliable conclusions from the data. To develop a relationship between different data sources, a new methodology is proposed in this thesis for fusing stationary detector data and probe vehicle data to construct an accurate cumulative curve. To remove or to reduce …

A Vision-Based Automatic Safe Landing-Site Detection System, Yufei Shen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

An automatic safe landing-site detection system is proposed for aircraft emergency landing, based on visible information acquired by aircraft-mounted cameras. Emergency landing is an unplanned event in response to emergency situations. If, as is unfortunately usually the case, there is no airstrip or airfield that can be reached by the un-powered aircraft, a crash landing or ditching has to be carried out. Identifying a safe landing-site is critical to the survival of passengers and crew. Conventionally, the pilot chooses the landing-site visually by looking at the terrain through the cockpit. The success of this vital decision greatly depends on the …

Evaluation Of Ocean-Energy Conversion Based On Linear Generator Concepts, Michael Allen Stelzer

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A turbine generator is a device that converts mechanical rotation into electrical energy. Unfortunately, the primary driving force that has been used to provide this rotation has, thus far, been fossil fuels. Although fossil fuels have proven to be a reliable resource to continually supply the growing demand for electrical power, they are not without their financial and environmental drawbacks. With the continuously increasing demand for energy, it is hypothesized that the world may, in time, exhaust this precious natural resource and/or inflict permanent environmental damage upon our planet.

However, motions that occur in nature, such as ocean waves, can …

Super-Resolution Of Unmanned Airborne Vehicle Images With Maximum Fidelity Stochastic Restoration, Amr Yousef

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Super-resolution (SR) refers to reconstructing a single high resolution (HR) image from a set of subsampled, blurred and noisy low resolution (LR) images. One may, then, envision a scenario where a set of LR images is acquired with sensors on a moving platform like unmanned airborne vehicles (UAV). Due to the wind, the UAV may encounter altitude change or rotational effects which can distort the acquired as well as the processed images. Also, the visual quality of the SR image is affected by image acquisition degradations, the available number of the LR images and their relative positions. This dissertation seeks …

The Modified Coastal Storm Impulse Parameter, Sayed Gholamreza Mahmoudpour

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The correlation of the morphological changes to the coast and storm characteristics is among interests of coastal engineers. Better understandings of a storm's potential forces ultimately lead engineers to safer designs and minimize the damages. Therefore, a need to quantify the storm potential forces to a storm parameter is evident. The desired storm parameter is to consider all the relative physical factors and is to present realistic results that then can be proven by actual nature response.

The concept of Coastal Storm Impulse (COSI) parameter was first introduced by Basco and Klentzman (2006) and is based on the conservation of …

Design And Implementation Of A Z-Axis Mems Gyroscope With A Symmetric Multiple-Mass Mechanical Structure, Yujie Zhang

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents a z-axis MEMS gyroscope with a symmetric mechanical structure. The multiple-mass design prioritizes the sense-mode Quality Factor (Q) and thus improves its scale factor. The proposed mechanically coupled, dynamically balanced anti-phase sense-mode design minimizes energy dissipation through the substrate in order to maximize the Q. Numerical simulation is implemented in a finite element analysis software, COMSOL, to identify the two operation modes of the gyroscope: drive-mode and sense-mode. The multiple-mass gyroscope design is further fabricated using a one-mask process. Experimental characterization of frequency response in both drive-mode and sense-mode of the device are conducted, proving the design …

Creation Of Large Scale Face Dataset Using Single Training Image, Qun Wang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Face recognition (FR) has become one of the most successful applications of image analysis and understanding in computer vision. The learning-based model in FR is considered as one of the most favorable problem-solving methods to this issue, which leads to the requirement of large training data sets in order to achieve higher recognition accuracy. However, the availability of only a limited number of face images for training a FR system is always a common problem in practical applications. A new framework to create a face database from a single input image for training purposes is proposed in this dissertation research. …

What Are The Characteristics Of A Scholar?, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

How Is M&S Interoperability Different From Other Interoperability Domains?, Andreas Tolk, Saikou Y. Diallo, Jose J. Padilla, Charles D. Turnitsa

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

During every standard workshop or event, the examples of working interoperability solutions are used to motivate for 'plug and play' standards for M&S as well, like standardized batteries for electronics, or the use of XML to exchange data between heterogeneous systems. While these are successful applications of standards, they are off the mark regarding M&S interoperability. The challenge of M&S is that the product that needs to be made interoperable is not the service or the system alone, but the model behind it as well. The paper shows that the alignment of conceptualizations is the real problem that is not …

Factors Impacting Technology Transfer: The Maquiladora Industry In Yucatan, Mexico, Ana Maria Canto, Carlos Blanco, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Technology transfer and knowledge transfer are the building blocks for innovation, efficiency and increased competitiveness. The topic of technology transfer in the context of multinational companies has been the focus of technology management researchers for well over two decades. Developing countries housing twin plans have been exposed to technology transfer from very diverse countries with different approaches to the technology transfer process and different levels of success. This cultural and national diversity adds an additional level of complexity to the technology transfer domain that has been largely unexplored. This paper will explore critical factors that had an impact in successful …

The Impact Of Online Collaboration Spaces On Virtual Team Outcomes, Anil Ustun, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

With the emergence of information technology, organizational teams often work virtually, relying on different technologies to successfully complete tasks. This paper investigates the influence of online collaboration spaces on team performance and team affective outcomes such as satisfaction with the process. An experiment will be conducted in which teams of 3 participants will work together on a survival decision-making activity (Lost at Sea). Teams will be collaborating in a web-conferencing (Adobe Connecta™) space and a 3D (three-dimensional) virtual space (Second Life). Based on Social Presence Theory, we expect that the avatar-based 3D environment will provide a richer environment for social …

Cell Permeabilization And Inhibition Of Voltage-Gated Ca²+ And Na+ Channel Currents By Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields, Vasyl Nesin, Angela M. Bowman, Shu Xiao, Andrei G. Pakhomov

Bioelectrics Publications

Previous studies have found that nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) exposure causes long-term permeabilization of the cell plasma membrane. In this study, we utilized the whole-cell patch-clamp method to study the nsPEF effect on currents of voltage-gated (VG) Ca²⁺ and Na⁺ channels (I_Ca and I_Na) in cultured GH3 and NG108 cells. We found that a single 300 or 600 ns pulse at or above 1.5-2 kV/cm caused prolonged inhibition of I_Ca and I_Na. Concurrently, nsPEF increased a non-inactivating leak current (I_leak), presumably due to the formation of nanoelectropores or larger …

Rq-Tech, A Strategic-Level Approach For Conceptualizing Enterprise Architectures, Christine A. Hoyland

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to present a system-theoretic based methodology and corresponding model for Enterprise Architecture development. Enterprise Architecture models can assist managers by illustrating the systemic relationships of their business and the impact their decisions can make. Unfortunately, today's modeling practices are proprietary, time-consuming, and generally ineffective as tools for communicating strategic-level planning across and down all levels of the enterprise. This research explored the most significant factors that must be considered when translating authoritative text and rich pictures of business doctrine into semantic models. An ontology, namely RQ-Tech, was used to parse and tag representative samples …

An Analysis Of Factors Affecting The Effective Use Of Knowledge Management In Counter Improvised Explosive Device (C-Ied) Operations, Umit Gencer, Rafael E. Landaeta, Resit Unal, C. Ariel Pinto, Gokay Sursal

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is a weapon of choice and is likely to remain a major component of the Global War on Terrorism. It is critical that gaps in knowledge transfer are quickly addressed in order to more effectively equip personnel to counter IED (C-IED) threat. Therefore, the military must analyze the current Knowledge Management (KM) programs in C-IED arena in order to maximize transfer of knowledge derived from experience and skill to staffs and finally to commanders. This study investigates the factors that influence effective use of KM in C-IED operations in the military. The study suggests that effective …

Simulation Visualization Rhetoric And It's Practical Implications, D'An Knowles Ball, Andrew J. Collins

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Modeling and simulation has moved far beyond simple data representation into the world of visual communication over the past 15 years; ultimately, the acceptance of M&S within mainstream science and society will depend on the results that are produced visually. A simulation’s function is of primary importance to its end result, but it cannot be denied that the discipline of M&S now prizes fancy graphics to communicate. Rhetorical methodological decisions have the greatest impact on the end user, and considerations that bring visual rhetoric to modeling and simulation should be examined as a necessity to application. This paper will expose …

Effectiveness In Executive Decision-Making Bodies: The Role Of Conflict, Chris L. Day, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The theory and practice related to team processes such as communication, coordination, conflict, and their impact on team performance and effectiveness has been focused on principles applied to teams in general and to specific subsets of teams/situations. Executive decision-making bodies are a specialized subset of teams charged with managing strategic and enterprise-wide change typically consisting of talented team members who make decisions having a broad impact on the organizations they lead. Executive decision-making bodies have been largely unexplored in the team research literature. This study presents an in-depth review of prior research exploring the role of input factors and conflict …

A Case Study Of Key Factors Driving Global Virtual Team Effectiveness, Pilar Pazos, Ana María Canto, Nina C. Magpili

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of the factors contributing to global virtual team effectiveness. We report on a case study on global virtual teams whose members differed in location and nationalities, worked on common collaborative projects, and used media to communicate and coordinate their work. This paper examines the relationships between input factors such as goal commitment, planning and resource availability and team outcomes. Data were collected from 14 teams in an international Master's program in Quality Management, Safety and Environmental Impact hosted in Bolivia and Chile. Students were from nine different countries in South …

Alignment And Composition Of Laminin-Polycaprolactone Nanofiber Blends Enhance Peripheral Nerve Regeneration, Rebekah A. Neal, Sunil S. Tholpady, Patricia L. Foley, Nathan Swami, Roy C. Ogle, Edward A. Botchwey

School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Publications

Peripheral nerve transection occurs commonly in traumatic injury, causing deficits distal to the injury site. Conduits for repair currently on the market are hollow tubes; however, they often fail due to slow regeneration over long gaps. To facilitate increased regeneration speed and functional recovery, the ideal conduit should provide biochemically relevant signals and physical guidance cues, thus playing an active role in regeneration. To that end, laminin and lamininpolycaprolactone (PCL) blend nanofibers were fabricated to mimic peripheral nerve basement membrane. In vitro assays established 10% (wt) laminin content is sufficient to retain neurite-promoting effects of laminin. In addition, modified collector …

Enhanced Killing Effect Of Nanosecond Pulse Electric Fields On Panc1 And Jurkat Cell Lines In The Presence Of Tween 80, Gaurav Basu, Bhargava Subhash Kalluri, Ahmet Can Sabuncu, Christopher J. Osgood, Michael W. Stacey

Bioelectrics Publications

We investigated the effects of nanosecond pulse electric fields (nsPEFs) on Jurkat and PANC1 cells, which are human carcinoma cell lines, in the presence of Tween 80 (T80) at a concentration of 0.18% and demonstarted an enhanced killing effect. We used two biological assays to determine cell viability after exposing cells to nsPEFs in the presence of T80 and observed a significant increase in the killing effect of nsPEFs. We did not see a toxic effect of T80 when cells were exposed to surfactant alone. However, we saw a synergistic effect when cells exposed to T80 were combined with the …

Probing Nanoparticle Interactions In Cell Culture Media, Ahmet C. Sabuncu, Janna Grubbs, Shizhi Qian, Tarek M. Abdel-Fattah, Michael W. Stacey, Ali Beskok

Bioelectrics Publications

Nanoparticle research is often performed in vitro with little emphasis on the potential role of cell culture medium. In this study, gold nanoparticle interactions with cell culture medium and two cancer cell lines (human T-cell leukemia Jurkat and human pancreatic carcinoma PANC1) were investigated. Gold nanoparticles of 10, 25, 50, and 100 nm in diameter at fixed mass concentration were tested. Size distributions and zeta potentials of gold nanoparticles suspended in deionized (DI) water and Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Media (DMEM) supplemented with fetal calf serum (FCS) were measured using dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique. In DI water, particle size distributions …

Oxidative Effects Of Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field Exposure In Cells And Cell-Free Media, Olga N. Pakhomova, Vera A. Khorokhorina, Angela M. Bowman, Raminta Rodaitė-Riševičienė, Gintautas Saulis, Shu Xiao, Andrei G. Pakhomov

Bioelectrics Publications

Nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) is a novel modality for permeabilization of membranous structures and intracellular delivery of xenobiotics. We hypothesized that oxidative effects of nsPEF could be a separate primary mechanism responsible for bioeffects. ROS production in cultured cells and media exposed to 300-ns PEF (1–13 kV/cm) was assessed by oxidation of 2′, 7′-dichlorodihydrofluoresein (H₂DCF), dihidroethidium (DHE), or Amplex Red. When a suspension of H₂DCF-loaded cells was subjected to nsPEF, the yield of fluorescent 2′,7′dichlorofluorescein (DCF) increased proportionally to the pulse number and cell density. DCF emission increased with time after exposure in nsPEF-sensitive Jurkat …

The Use Of An In Vitro 3d Melanoma Model To Predict In Vivo Plasmid Transfection Using Electroporation, Benadette Marrero, Richard Heller

Bioelectrics Publications

A large-scale in vitro 3D tumor model was generated to evaluate gene delivery procedures in vivo. This 3D tumor model consists of a "tissue-like" spheroid that provides a micro-environment supportive of melanoma proliferation, allowing cells to behave similarly to cells in vivo. This functional spheroid measures approximately 1 cm in diameter and can be used to effectively evaluate plasmid transfection when testing various electroporation (EP) electrode applicators. In this study, we identified EP conditions that efficiently transfect green fluorescent protein (GFP) and interleukin 15 (IL-15) plasmids into tumor cells residing in the 3D construct. We found that plasmids …

A Framework For Delivering Contextually Appropriate Opportunities For Warfighter Practice, Michael Allan White

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Computer-based modeling and simulation has been a training staple in the military domain since the first aircraft simulators were adopted. More recently, virtual environments based on modeling, simulation and serious games, have introduced relatively low-cost, yet high value additions to the learning environment. As these virtual environments have proliferated, many researchers have investigated the relationship between theoretical foundations of learning, learner development and content delivery, and applied their findings in an attempt to bolster learning, yet performance deficiencies continue to exist. This study asserts that performance deficiencies exist in part because of insufficient contextually appropriate opportunities to practice.

This work …

Enhancing Spectrum Utilization In Dynamic Cognitive Radio Systems, Dusadee Treeumnuk

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Cognitive radio (CR) is regarded as a viable solution to enabling flexible use of the frequency spectrum in future generations of wireless systems by allowing unlicensed secondary users (SU) to access licensed spectrum under the specific condition that no harmful interference be caused to the licensed primary users (PU) of the spectrum. In practical scenarios, the knowledge of PU activity is unknown to CRs and radio environments are mostly imperfect due to various issues such as noise uncertainty and multipath fadings. Therefore, important functionalities of CR systems are to efficiently detect availability of radio spectrum as well as to avoid …

Analysis Of Relative Sea Level Variations And Trends In The Chesapeake Bay: Is There Evidence For Acceleration In Sea Level Rise?, Tal Ezer, William B. Corlett

CCPO Publications

Over the past few decades the pace of relative sea level rise (SLR) in the Chesapeake Bay (CB) has been 2-3 times faster than that of the globally mean absolute sea level. Our study is part of ongoing research that tries to determine if this SLR trend is continuing at the same pace, slowing down (SLR deceleration) or speeding up (SLR acceleration). We introduce a new analysis method for sea level data that is based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT); the analysis separates the SLR trend from other oscillating modes of different scales. Bootstrap calculations using …

Evaluation Of Niobium As Candidate Electrode Material For Dc High Voltage Photoelectron Guns, Mahzad Bastaninejad, Md. Abdulla Mohamed, Abdelmageed Elmustafa, P. Adderley, J. Clark, S. Covert, J. Hansknecht, C. Hernandez-Garcia, M. Poelker, R. Mammei, K. Surles-Law, P. Williams

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The field emission characteristics of niobium electrodes were compared to those of stainless steel electrodes using a DC high voltage field emission test apparatus. A total of eight electrodes were evaluated: two 304 stainless steel electrodes polished to mirrorlike finish with diamond grit and six niobium electrodes (two single-crystal, two large-grain, and two fine-grain) that were chemically polished using a buffered-chemical acid solution. Upon the first application of high voltage, the best large-grain and single-crystal niobium electrodes performed better than the best stainless steel electrodes, exhibiting less field emission at comparable voltage and field strength. In all cases, field emission …

Electrokinetic Flow In Polyelectrolyte–Modified Nanopores, L. H. Yeh, M. Zhang, Shizhi Qian, J. P. Hsu, S. W. Joo

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Implementation And Assessment Of A Virtual Reality Experiment In The Undergraduate Themo-Fluids Laboratory, Sushil Chaturvedi, Jaewan Yoon, Rick Mckenzie, Petros J. Katsioloudis, Hector M. Garcia, Shuo Ren

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Results are presented from an NSF supported project that is geared towards advancing the development and use of virtual reality (VR) laboratories, designed to emulate the learning environment of physical laboratories. As part of this project, an experiment in the undergraduate thermo-fluids laboratory course titled "Jet Impact Force" was transformed into a 3-D virtual reality experiment using the widely used MAYA R and VIRTOOLS R software. In order to facilitate students' interactions with the newly created 3-D interactive, immersive and stereoscopic virtual laboratory environment, the human computer interfaces (HCI) were programmed and incorporated in the simulation software. Two immersion levels …