Engineering Commons^™

Lab Home Testing Of Residential Isolation Space Control To Minimize Infectious Disease Transmission In Existing Single-Family Homes, Florida Solar Energy Center, Tanvir Khan

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Existing evidence strongly suggests that viral infectious diseases can be transmitted via an airborne route across distances in indoor environments. Accordingly, the risk of airborne transmission within homes should be managed. The public health emergency associated with SARS-CoV-2 makes controlling airborne transmission of respired viruses in indoor environments critical, especially in poorly ventilated indoor environments. The effectiveness of engineering interventions requiring minor efforts that create a negative-pressure isolation zone (IZ) for a contagious person has yet to be tested for existing residential homes.

To mitigate the risk of airborne virus transmission and maximize health protection for the population in existing …

Lab Home Testing Of Residential Isolation Space Control To Minimize Infectious Disease Transmission In Existing Single-Family Homes - Fact Sheet, Florida Solar Energy Center, Tanvir Khan

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The FSEC Energy Research Center at the University of Central Florida performed research to test the effectiveness of interventions to isolate an ill person recovering from a contagious disease in a single-family home from the rest of the occupants in the home. Focus was placed on interventions requiring minor cost and effort on the part of the occupants.

DOE/GO-102021-5537, https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/79519.pdf

Understanding Process Controls On Flow Duration Curves Through A Novel Framework, Saba Ghotbi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Flow duration curve (FDC) is a hydrologically representation of the statistical distribution of daily streamflows. For a long time, hydrologists have sought deeper understanding of the process controls on the shape of FDC, which has been a challenge due to contrasting processes controlling the fast flow and slow flow components of streamflow and their interactions. This dissertation addresses the challenge by outlining a novel framework to explore the physical controls on FDC. The framework involves separating streamflow into fast flow and slow flow and studying their duration curves separately then combining them statistically to obtain FDC. Initially, the potential of …

Topological Changes In The Functional Brain Networks Induced By Isometric Force Exertions Using A Graph Theoretical Approach: An Eeg-Based Neuroergonomics Study, Lina Ismail

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Neuroergonomics, the application of neuroscience to human factors and ergonomics, is an emerging science focusing on the human brain concerning performance at work and in everyday settings. The advent of portable neurophysiological methods, including electroencephalography (EEG), has enabled measurements of real-time brain activity during physical tasks without restricting body movements. However, the EEG signatures of different physical exertion activity levels that involve the musculoskeletal system in everyday settings remain poorly understood. Furthermore, the assessment of functional connectivity among different brain regions during different force exertion levels remains unclear. One approach to investigating the brain connectome is to model the underlying …

Performance Enhancement Of Time Delay And Convolutional Neural Networks Employing Sparse Representation In The Transform Domains, Masoumeh Kalantari Khandani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Deep neural networks are quickly advancing and increasingly used in many applications; however, these networks are often extremely large and require computing and storage power beyond what is available in most embedded and sensor devices. For example, IoT (Internet of Things) devices lack powerful processors or graphical processing units (GPUs) that are commonly used in deep networks. Given the very large-scale deployment of such low power devices, it is desirable to design methods for efficient reduction of computational needs of neural networks. This can be done by reducing input data size or network sizes. Expectedly, such reduction comes at the …

Investigating Topologic And Geometric Properties Of Synthetic And Natural River Networks Under Changing Climate, Shiblu Sarker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

River networks are important landscape features that collect and transport water, sediment and nutrients from regions of higher elevation to lower elevations. These networks have been studied for several decades from a range of geomorphological and hydrological perspectives. Investigating the geometric and topological properties of river networks is important for developing predictive models describing the network dynamics under changing climate as well as for quantifying the physical processes operating upon them. Although these networks have been characterized for a wide range of geomorphic properties, topological properties, and in particular, spectral properties of river networks received limited attention. In this dissertation, …

Surface Engineering Of Cerium Oxide Nanocyrstal Dispersions: Colloidal Properties, Ageing Effects, & Electroanalysis, Craig Neal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Colloidal materials are highly diverse and present complex physicochemical properties which define their utilities in applications spanning diverse industries. In particular, nano-scale colloids have received tremendous attention due to their unique, specific activities as compared to larger-sized preparations. Within the biomedical sciences, nano-colloids are routinely used as inert carriers of therapeutics and/or diagnostic agents. Beyond this, researchers have developed functional colloids which demonstrate bio-active or diagnostic properties themselves: often related to an optimized, or tuned, surface character. Among these, nanoscale cerium oxide (nanoceria) has shown great promise as a bi-functional, therapeutic material: producing pro- or anti- oxidative chemical response in …

Development Of Rf-Mems Based Passive Wireless Respiratory Monitoring Systems, Sina Moradian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This dissertation explores the application of high frequency, low loss, high quality factor thin-film piezoelectric MEMS resonators as passive wireless respiratory monitoring sensors. In this work we build on advances in RF MEMS technology and wearables to develop a respiratory monitoring system capable of measuring respiration without any on-board circuitry and battery First, a wireless MEMS-based respiration sensor that operates without a battery or any on-board circuitry is presented. The sensing system is made up two major components, the wireless sensor and a base transceiver and computational unit. The sensor is only made of up of two RF-MEMS resonators and …

Robust And Scalable Data Representation And Analysis Leveraging Isometric Transformations And Sparsity, Alireza Zaeemzadeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The main focus of this doctoral thesis is to study the problem of robust and scalable data representation and analysis. The success of any machine learning and signal processing framework relies on how the data is represented and analyzed. Thus, in this work, we focus on three closely related problems: (i) supervised representation learning, (ii) unsupervised representation learning, and (iii) fault tolerant data analysis. For the first task, we put forward new theoretical results on why a certain family of neural networks can become extremely deep and how we can improve this scalability property in a mathematically sound manner. We …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 2

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 2.

Social Robots As The Bride? Understanding The Construction Of Gender In A Japanese Social Robot Product, Jindong Liu

Human-Machine Communication

This study critically investigates the construction of gender on a Japanese hologram animestyle social robot Azuma Hikari. By applying a mixed method merging the visual semiotic method and heterogeneous engineering approach in software studies, the signs in Azuma Hikari’s anthropomorphized image and the interactivity enabled by the multimedia interface have been analyzed and discussed. The analysis revealed a stereotyped representation of a Japanese “ideal bride” who should be cute, sexy, comforting, good at housework, and subordinated to “Master”-like husband. Moreover, the device interface disciplines users to play the role of “wage earner” in the simulated marriage and reconstructs the gender …

Forms And Frames: Mind, Morality, And Trust In Robots Across Prototypical Interactions, Jaime Banks, Kevin Koban, Philippe De V. Chauveau

Human-Machine Communication

People often engage human-interaction schemas in human-robot interactions, so notions of prototypicality are useful in examining how interactions’ formal features shape perceptions of social robots. We argue for a typology of three higher-order interaction forms (social, task, play) comprising identifiable-but-variable patterns in agents, content, structures, outcomes, context, norms. From that ground, we examined whether participants’ judgments about a social robot (mind, morality, and trust perceptions) differed across prototypical interactions. Findings indicate interaction forms somewhat influence trust but not mind or morality evaluations. However, how participants perceived interactions (independent of form) were more impactful. In particular, perceived task interactions fostered functional …

Moving Ahead With Human-Machine Communication, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

In this essay, we introduce the 10 articles comprising Volume 2 (2021) of Human-Machine Communication, each of which is innovative and offers a substantial contribution to the field of human-machine communication (HMC). As a collection, these articles move forward the HMC project by touching on four layers of important discourse: (1) updates to theoretical frameworks and paradigms, including Computers as Social Actors (CASA), (2) examination of ontology and prototyping processes, (3) critical analysis of gender and ability/disability relations, and (4) extension of HMC scholarship into organizational contexts. Building upon the insights offered by the contributing authors and incorporating perspectives …

Assessing Change In Runoff Water Parameters Through Road Shoulder Vegetated Filter Strips: Experimental Comparison Of Soils And Engineered Infiltration Media, Andrew Corrado, Mohammad Shokri

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Placement of Vegetated Filter Strips (VFS) along roadways may facilitate removal of nutrients from stormwater runoff. The objective of this research is to compare water quality performance of a VFS containing engineered media to that of typical Florida sandy soil. Storms of variable intensity were simulated over two 1:1 scale physical models of typical one- and two-lane roadway shoulders, one with engineered media (treatment), and one without (control). Simulated roadway runoff was introduced as sheet flow from the roadway and precipitation was applied with a rainfall simulator. Samples of runoff and infiltrate were tested for Dissolved Oxygen (DO) concentration and …

Survey Of Unvented Attics In Climate Zone 2a, Florida Solar Energy Center, Eric Martin

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Moisture risk must be managed in unvented attics to ensure durability of components and longevity of the system. The FSEC Energy Research Center (FSEC), at the University of Central Florida tested and collected data in six homes in the northern Florida portion of IECC Climate Zone 2A built after 2015 with unvented (semi-conditioned) attics to add to the body of knowledge on the accumulation of moisture in the attic and its effects on roof moisture that can impact durability.

Relative International Energy Conservation Code (Iecc) Energy Impacts By Compliance Path, Florida Solar Energy Center, Philip W. Fairey

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The EnergyGauge® USA (v.6.2) residential building energy simulation software tool is used to examine energy impacts in two-story, 2,376 ft², single-family homes configured in accordance with the minimum requirements of Section R402-R404 of the 2018 IECC in fourteen representative U.S. cities.⁴ EnergyGauge USA is a RESNET-accredited HERS software tool capable of evaluating not only the HERS Index and the IECC Section R406 Energy Rating Index Compliance Alternative but also the IECC Section R405 Simulated Performance Alternative as well as the IECC Section R402 R-Value and Total UA Alternative prescriptive methods along with all of the IECC mandatory …

Resilient Florida Buildings: Alternative Fuel Options For Maintaining Power During Outages, Brochure, Florida Solar Energy Center, Colleen Mccann Kettles

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Electricity outages impact buildings as well as the fueling infrastructure that delivers energy resources for power generation and transportation. A fueling infrastructure with minimal downtime during power outages is needed to increase the resiliency of buildings and the economy. This brochure describes alternative fuels to consider for a buildings resiliency plan. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Energy Technology Development Program Award Number DE-EE0008880. FSEC Art#: BLDG-89 Updated: 05/20/2021

Metal And Flexible Duct Systems Impacts Upon Cooling Energy And Performance, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Flexible duct is commonly used throughout the U.S. in residential construction. It performs well when installed in accordance with industry standards, however, they are often not installed as such. Issues such as not cutting ducts to the exact length needed, and instead using significantly more duct, result in compression and higher static pressure. Poorly supported ducts or turns without proper radius also increase static pressure. A research project was completed to evaluate the differences in performance between a metal duct and flexible duct systems in two side-by-side otherwise identical residential laboratories. Testing evaluated three different flex duct system configurations compared …

Multifactorial Media Analysis Via Design Of Experiment For Type Ii Collagen In Primary Rabbit Chondrocytes, Javier A. Velez Toro

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Osteoarthritis is a prevalent disease that affects the articular cartilage of the joints. Millions of people suffer worldwide and it is a major cause of disability in the United States. Current research for treatments of osteoarthritis are studying tissue-engineered cartilage in vitro generated by articular chondrocytes. A challenge faced in vitro for cartilage tissue engineering is the failure of chondrocytes to produce adequate expression of type II collagen. Surprisingly, the media commonly used in vitro lacks 14 vitamins and minerals present in the physiological environment of chondrocytes. Therefore, studying the interactions between micronutrients and chondrocytes may help in potentially increasing …

Molten Regolith Electrolysis Processing For Lunar Isru: Financial And Physics Analysis Of Spacex Starship Transportation, Cheyenne Harper

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of the following research is to explore molten regolith electrolysis (MRE) methodology for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) of Highlands lunar regolith, to be explored during the initial Artemis missions. An analysis of potential commercial launch providers for MRE-equipment based on technology-readiness level (TRL), payload mass support, and $ USD/kg payload price is provided. SpaceX is ultimately proposed as a launch provider of MRE equipment following multi-factorial analysis, with the SpaceX Starship human landing system (HLS) variant proposed for supporting MRE payload. Finally, customers of regolith-derived oxygen, aluminum, and silicon are distinguished to form the business case for operating …

Impact Of Climate Change On Storms And Coastal Morphodynamics, Kelsey Perez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Storms have been impacting coastal morphodynamics directly due to its intensifying effects over the years. Climate change has caused an exponential impact on storms and therefore morphodynamic changes in the coasts. A specific land that has constantly been threatened is Dauphin Island, a barrier island in Alabama. Over time, it has experienced a total land loss of 100 ft of shoreline over the past of 3 decades and an overall 16% land loss of the island due to the intensifying effects of storms due to a changing climate. In this study, we use Hurricane Ivan as an example. In order …

A Finite Difference Model For Induced Hypothermia During Shock, Dylan S. Lyon

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The modified Fiala model from Westin was implemented with conditions for circulatory shock and hypothermia. The purpose is to model Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR), a procedure for inducing hypothermia in patients. Cold tissue temperatures reduce metabolism exponentially, greatly extending the window of anaerobic metabolic activity before permanent deoxygenation damage. EPR in patients undergoing hypovolemic shock can preserve the patient until primary surgical care and blood transfusions are attainable., thereby increasing survival rates. The main applications of EPR are military in-situ stabilization for transit to clinical care and extending the survivability of patients requiring prolonged surgery before blood transfusion. The …

Fluid-Structure Interaction For A Deformable Anisotropic Cylinder: A Case Study, Jared T. Decker

Honors Undergraduate Theses

For a structure designed to interact with the surrounding fluid, structural deformation under loads induced by fluid flows is an important factor to consider, and one which is traditionally difficult to account for analytically. Coupling the finite element method for structural analysis with the finite volume method for the determination of fluid response allows for accurate simulation of the pressure and shearing loads applied by the fluid onto the fluid-structure interface, while also determining localized structural displacements that would cause changes to the geometry of the interface. This work seeks to simulate the behavior of cylinders with varying heights and …

Targeting T Cell Glycolysis To Mitigate Graft-Versus-Host Disease, Kevin Ezhakunnel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Hematological cancers account for nearly ten percent of cancer cases diagnosed annually in the United States. Patients who fail to respond to chemotherapy or radiotherapy must often undergo a bone marrow transplant to treat their malignancy. A significant complication following this procedure is Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD), which occurs when donor T cells mount an immune response against recipient tissues. Immunological research has highlighted the role of aberrant T cell metabolism, specifically a shift toward aerobic glycolysis, as a key driver behind the occurrence of this condition. The transcription factor FoxK1 has been revealed to be a key regulator …

Computational Studies For Extending Understanding Of Complex Droplet Breakup Mechanisms, Caroline Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Conventional methods of classifying droplet breakup are evaluated in the context of unique variation in environmental and droplet fluid conditions. Most characterization is developed for subsonic speeds and Newtonian fluids, so this study extends understanding on how these forms change to a span of applications outside these conditions. Presented examples include the impact effects on hypersonic vehicles travelling through precipitation, where even smallest of rain drops at such speeds can cause damage. Before the droplet even reaches the vehicle, it interacts with the detached bow shock that leads it. Another example of exceptional recent concern is risk of viral transmission …

Novel Liquid Crystal Photonic Devices Enabled By Liquid Crystal Alignment Engineering, Ziqian He

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Liquid crystals (LCs) are self-assembled soft materials composed of certain anisotropic molecules with orientational orders. Their widespread applications include information displays and photonic devices, such as spatial light modulators for laser beam steering and tunable-focus lens, where achieving desired LC alignment is pivotal. In general, LC alignment is influenced by several factors, including chemical bonding, dipolar interactions, van der Waals interactions, surface topographies, and steric factors. Here, we focus on three alignment techniques for aligning rod-like LC molecules and highlights the photonic devices enabled by these techniques: 1) Two-photon polymerization direct-laser writing-induced alignment, 2) Weigert effect-based reversible photoalignment, and 3) …

Mechanical Behavior Of Bioceramic Materials: Case Study Of The Skeleton Of The Staghorn Coral, Acropora Cervicornis And The Tibia Of The Laboratory Mouse, Mus Musculus, Mahmoud Omer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

I studied two types of bioceramics: (A) the aragonite CaCO3 skeleton of the staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis and (B) the hydroxyapatite Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 bones of the laboratory mouse, Mus musculus. The research aimed to analyze coral deformation behavior and study dietary and estrogen depletions effects on bone strength. I compared the mechanical and structural properties of staghorn coral skeletons cleaned by chemical bleaching and biological processes. Optical microscopy and computed tomography (CT) revealed a sophisticated microstructure of non-homogenously distributed pores. Staghorn coral skeletons showed ''gracious" fracture, where the unique pore arrangements resisted catastrophic crack growth and prevented instantanous failure. Elastic moduli …

Improving Pedestrian Safety Using Video Data, Surrogate Safety Measures And Deep Learning, Shile Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The research aims to improve pedestrian safety at signalized intersections using video data, surrogate safety measures and deep learning. Machine learning (including deep learning) models are proposed for predicting pedestrians' potentially dangerous situations. On the one hand, pedestrians' red-light violations can expose the pedestrians to motorized traffic and pose potential threats to pedestrian safety. Thus, the prediction of pedestrians' crossing intention during red-light signals is carried out. The pose estimation technique is used to extract features on pedestrians' bodies. Machine learning models are used to predict pedestrians' crossing intention at intersections' red-light, with video data collected from signalized intersections. Multiple …

Corticomuscular Adaptation To Mechanical Perturbations In A Seated Locomotor Task, Seyed Yahya Shirazi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Cortical control during walking is most pronounced when the person is perturbed. Although seated locomotor tasks such as cycling or recumbent stepping improve walking performance, the electrocortical correlates of perturbed seated tasks have not been studied in detail. The primary purpose of this research was to quantify cortical and muscular responses to mechanical perturbations during recumbent stepping. We also aimed to quantify possible differences between young and older adults' responses to perturbed stepping. A secondary aim of this research was to determine the accuracy of electroencephalography (EEG) source imaging to interpret the electrocortical findings adequately. We hypothesized that both young …

Fpga-Augmented Secure Crash-Consistent Non-Volatile Memory, Yu Zou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Emerging byte-addressable Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) technology, although promising superior memory density and ultra-low energy consumption, poses unique challenges to achieving persistent data privacy and computing security, both of which are critically important to the embedded and IoT applications. Specifically, to successfully restore NVMs to their working states after unexpected system crashes or power failure, maintaining and recovering all the necessary security-related metadata can severely increase memory traffic, degrade runtime performance, exacerbate write endurance problem, and demand costly hardware changes to off-the-shelf processors. In this thesis, we summarize and expand upon two of our innovative works, ARES and HERMES, to design …