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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Effects Of Natural Organic Matter On Contaminant Removal By Superfine Powdered Activated Carbon Coupled With Microfiltration Membranes, Mengfei Li Aug 2014

Effects Of Natural Organic Matter On Contaminant Removal By Superfine Powdered Activated Carbon Coupled With Microfiltration Membranes, Mengfei Li

All Theses

Hybrid activated carbon/membrane systems are used in drinking water treatment for their significant capability of removing synthetic organic contaminants (SOCs) or taste-and-odor compounds along with particles. Preliminary data showed that decreasing the carbon particle size and creating superfine powdered activated carbon (S-PAC) removed phenanthrene and atrazine better than adsorbents with larger particle size in the presence of competitive adsorbents like natural organic matter (NOM). NOM is present in all natural water from degradation of terrestrial biomass which leaches from soil into a water source. Water treatment facilities target the removal of NOM because they are precursors to disinfection by-products formed …


Investigating The Non-Adoption Of Electronic Health Records In Primary Care, Saravanan Ramdoss Aug 2014

Investigating The Non-Adoption Of Electronic Health Records In Primary Care, Saravanan Ramdoss

All Theses

The objective of this study was to investigate the underlying reasons behind primary care centers in the United States not implementing an Electronic Health Record system in spite of looming penalties under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. In order to do this, survey was developed and distributed among healthcare providers who have not yet implemented an EHR system at their practice. The questions for the survey were developed after conducting a literature review of the barriers to EHR implementation. In this review, six themes emerged: technical, cost, productivity, change process, privacy and time. These …


Theoretical And Computational Design Analysis Of A Harmonica Type Aeroelastic Energy Harvester, Songkai Wang Aug 2014

Theoretical And Computational Design Analysis Of A Harmonica Type Aeroelastic Energy Harvester, Songkai Wang

All Theses

A wind energy harvester inspired by music playing harmonicas was proposed for micro-power generation. The energy harvester utilizes flow-excited self-sustained oscillations of a piezoelectric cantilever beam mounted in a wind pipe to generate electric power. The dependence of the energy harvester's power generation performance on a set of the design parameters such as the chamber volume, aperture width and beam dimensions has been studied previously. However, the performance of the nonlinear multi-physics system with two-way fluid structure coupling also depends on other design parameters such as the geometry of the oscillatory beam, the beam mounting configuration and the geometry of …


Optimal Design Of Validation Experiments For Calibration And Validation Of Complex Numerical Models, Matthew Egeberg Aug 2014

Optimal Design Of Validation Experiments For Calibration And Validation Of Complex Numerical Models, Matthew Egeberg

All Theses

As prediction of the performance and behavior of complex engineering systems shifts from a primarily empirical-based approach to the use of complex physics-based numerical models, the role of experimentation is evolving to calibrate, validate, and quantify uncertainty of the numerical models. Oftentimes, these experiments are expensive, placing importance on selecting experimental settings to efficiently calibrate the numerical model with a limited number of experiments. The aim of this thesis is to reduce the experimental resources required to reach predictive maturity in complex numerical models by (i) aiding experimenters in determining the optimal settings for experiments, and (ii) aiding the model …


Design And Simulation Of A Nerve Tracer System For Vagotomy Surgery, Guneet Bedi Aug 2014

Design And Simulation Of A Nerve Tracer System For Vagotomy Surgery, Guneet Bedi

All Theses

The vagus nerve is one of the most important nerves in the human body. It is associated with a plethora of functions one of them being acid secretion inside the stomach to aid in digestion. The cerebrum part of the brain initiates an action potential that is propagated along the vagus nerve to the parietal cells that secrete acid. In some cases, the cerebrum over stimulates the parietal cells leading to excess acid secretion, more than is needed for the digestion process. This excess acid leads to the formation of open sores along the stomach lining called gastric/peptic ulcers. In …


Verifying A Systematic Application To Accelerator Roadmap Using Shallow Water Wave Equations, Ranajeet Anand Aug 2014

Verifying A Systematic Application To Accelerator Roadmap Using Shallow Water Wave Equations, Ranajeet Anand

All Theses

With the advent of parallel computing, a number of hardware architectures have become available for data parallel applications. Every architecture is unique with respect to characteristics such as floating point operations per second, memory bandwidth and synchronization costs. Data parallel applications possess inherent parallelism that needs to be studied and the hardware that can best exploit this parallelism can be identified and selected for large-scale implementation. The application that I have considered for my thesis is - numerical solution of shallow water wave equations using finite difference method. These equations are a set of partial differential equations that model the …


Finite Element Beam Model For Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Using Higher Order Shear Deformation Theory, Akhilesh Surabhi Aug 2014

Finite Element Beam Model For Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Using Higher Order Shear Deformation Theory, Akhilesh Surabhi

All Theses

Piezoelectric energy harvesting devices convert mechanical energy to usable electrical energy, which can be used to power other electronic devices and sensors. Typical piezoelectric harvesters are unimorph cantilever composite beams, which have a single active piezoceramic layer and a passive substrate or a bimorph that has a passive substrate sandwiched between two piezoceramic layers. Power is captured across a coupled load resistor circuit in either a series or parallel connection. The mathematical modeling approaches for piezoelectric beam harvesters present in literature range from analytical distributed parameter modeling, to approximate distributed parameter, Rayleigh- Ritz global discretization or finite element local discretization. …


Acoustic Scattering And Radiation Response Of Circular Hexagonal And Auxetic Honeycomb Shell Structures, Vaibhav Iyer Aug 2014

Acoustic Scattering And Radiation Response Of Circular Hexagonal And Auxetic Honeycomb Shell Structures, Vaibhav Iyer

All Theses

Sandwich panels with honeycomb cores are used in many engineering applications because of their high strength to weight ratio, vibration isolation and sound transmission loss characteristics. Previous studies indicate that such sandwich structures with auxetic honeycomb cores (negative in-plane Poisson's ratio) can have a higher sound transmission loss compared to a regular hexagonal honeycomb core structure. In this study, sound scattering and acoustic radiation characteristics of sandwich structures with hexagonal and auxetic cores arranged in a circular pattern interacting with exterior acoustic domains of both air and water have been investigated using finite element analysis. A novel in-plane honeycomb geometry …


Application Of Bamboo For Flexural And Shear Reinforcement In Concrete Beams, Nathan Schneider Aug 2014

Application Of Bamboo For Flexural And Shear Reinforcement In Concrete Beams, Nathan Schneider

All Theses

As the developing world is industrializing and people migrate to cities, the need for infrastructure is growing quickly and concrete has become one of the most widely used construction materials. One poor construction practice observed widely across the developing world is the minimal use of reinforcement for concrete structures due to the high cost of steel. As a low-cost, high-performance material with good mechanical properties, bamboo has been investigated as an alternative to steel for reinforcing concrete. The goal of this research is to add to the knowledge base of bamboo reinforced concrete (BRC) by investigating a unique stirrup design …


Ecohydrological Function Of Lower Coastal Plain Bioretention Cells In South Carolina, Jessica Palazzolo Aug 2014

Ecohydrological Function Of Lower Coastal Plain Bioretention Cells In South Carolina, Jessica Palazzolo

All Theses

Flooding and stormwater control is a critical issue in coastal South Carolina because of shallow water table elevation, topography and rapid urbanization in the region. A best management practice (BMP) using low impact design (LID) principles known as a bioretention cell (BRC) is gaining popularity for stormwater management. Five BRCs in four landscape positions (well-drained uplands, tidal-proximal, poorly-drained-uplands, and floodplain) were instrumented for microclimate, soil moisture, and water table elevation for hydraulic efficiency and for water quality measurements. Three BRCs did not have an overflow outlets, one BRC (floodplain) employed an underdrain system, and one BRC (tidal proximal) had an …


Hollow Massive Timber Panels: A High-Performance, Long-Span Alternative To Cross Laminated Timber, William Graham Montgomery Aug 2014

Hollow Massive Timber Panels: A High-Performance, Long-Span Alternative To Cross Laminated Timber, William Graham Montgomery

All Theses

Since the development of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), there has been a surge in interest in massive timber buildings. Furthermore, recent conceptual and feasibility designs of massive timber towers of 30 or more stories indicate that performance of mass timber structural elements can compete with other building materials in the commercial industry (MGB Architecture and Design et al.). However, in order for massive timber to penetrate the commercial market even further, a solution is needed for long-span massive timber floor systems. Unfortunately, CLT falls short in this area and is unable to span long distances. The hollow massive timber (HMT) …


Anaerobic And Aerobic Biodegradation Of The Oil Dispersant Components 1,2-Propanediol And 2-Butoxyethanol In Seawater, Benjamin Rhiner Aug 2014

Anaerobic And Aerobic Biodegradation Of The Oil Dispersant Components 1,2-Propanediol And 2-Butoxyethanol In Seawater, Benjamin Rhiner

All Theses

Oil spills are a recurring issue associated with fossil fuel consumption. The largest accidental oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry was the Deepwater Horizon explosion and seafloor well blowout, where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank, allowing the well to gush uncontrolled from April 20, 2010, until it was capped on July 15, 2010, releasing an estimated 210,000,000 gallons of oil. Oil dispersants were used in unprecedented quantities during the cleanup response to the spill with a total of 1,840,000 gallons of the dispersant COREXIT being applied. The goal of this research was to evaluate …


Automatically Measuring Individual Consumption Events During Natural Eating Using A Table Embedded Scale, Ryan Mattfeld Aug 2014

Automatically Measuring Individual Consumption Events During Natural Eating Using A Table Embedded Scale, Ryan Mattfeld

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This thesis is motivated to improve the tools available for tracking energy intake. The goal of this work is to develop a table-embedded scale capable of measuring the weight of individual consumption events during unrestricted eating. The method was tested on a data set gathered from 276 subjects eating 518 courses consisting of 22,383 marked individual consumption events in a cafeteria environment. Approximately 30% of the consumption events can be detected and weighed. The remaining 70% of the events occur without participants interacting with the scale or when noisy interactions with the scale prevent weight measurement. The relationship between bite …


Static And Dynamic In Vitro Testing Of Estrogen Coated Balloons, Adam Metzger Aug 2014

Static And Dynamic In Vitro Testing Of Estrogen Coated Balloons, Adam Metzger

All Theses

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Atherosclerosis is the main contributing factor for CVD. Current treatment methods for atherosclerosis include balloon angioplasty and stent implantation, which both have drawbacks associated with them. Balloon angioplasty shows restenosis in 3-6 months after deployment in 25-50% of patients. Bare metal stents have all the risks associated with implanting a medical device in a blood contacting area along with restenosis due to neointimal hyperplasia and stent fracture. In coronary arteries, drug-eluting stents (DES) have been shown to be very safe and effective with a very low percentage of …


Modeling And Design Strategy Of Online Advertising Ecosystem, Qiuchen Wang Aug 2014

Modeling And Design Strategy Of Online Advertising Ecosystem, Qiuchen Wang

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Internet has undoubtedly become a major and effective medium for advertising, and it will soon replace traditional advertising media. Online advertising ecosystem is consisted of thousands of agents, which can be divided into three types: users, advertisers and publishers. Each type of the agents plays an important role in the ecosystem. However, it is generally very difficult to model such a complex and large-scale system, not to mention the design of suitable strategies for the ecosystem. On the other side, replicator-mutator (RM) dynamics combine tools from evolutionary dynamics of populations, complex networks, and control theory to study evolution of behavior …


The Delivery Of Poly(Lactic Acid) Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Nanoparticles Loaded With Non-Toxic Drug To Overcome Drug Resistance For The Treatment Of Neuroblastoma, Jhilmil Dhulekar Jul 2014

The Delivery Of Poly(Lactic Acid) Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Nanoparticles Loaded With Non-Toxic Drug To Overcome Drug Resistance For The Treatment Of Neuroblastoma, Jhilmil Dhulekar

All Theses

Neuroblastoma is a rare cancer of the sympathetic nervous system. A neuroblastoma tumor develops in the nerve tissue and is diagnosed in infants and children.1 Approximately 10.2 per million children under the age of 15 are affected in the United States and is slightly more common in boys.1,2 Neuroblastoma constitutes 6% of all childhood cancers and has a long-term survival rate of only 15%.2-4 There are approximately 700 new cases of neuroblastoma each year in the United States. With such a low rate of survival, the development of more effective treatment methods is necessary. A number of therapies are available …


Influence Of Different Rubber Modified Binder Variables On Performance Properties Of Porous Asphalt Mixtures, Katelyn Love May 2014

Influence Of Different Rubber Modified Binder Variables On Performance Properties Of Porous Asphalt Mixtures, Katelyn Love

All Theses

Porous asphalt is a type of pavement in which surface water can permeate down into the subbase below. Open graded friction course (OGFC) is a type of porous asphalt often used as a surface course on top of dense graded pavements on high speed roadways. Due to an increase in waste tires, rubber modified asphalt has become an increasingly popular material around the world, including the US. The rubber modified asphalt is created by utilizing processed rubber particles blended into the mixture. This research investigated the effects of rubber modified binder on the performance of porous asphalt by evaluating the …


Design And Implementation Of A Real-Time Adaptive Oxygen Transfer Rate Estimator, Li Wang May 2014

Design And Implementation Of A Real-Time Adaptive Oxygen Transfer Rate Estimator, Li Wang

All Theses

Oxygen transfer rate (OTR) is the most signicant signal for aerobic bioprocess control, since most microbic metabolic activity relies on oxygen consumption. However, accurate estimation of OTR is challenging due to the difficulty of determining uncertain oxygen transfer parameters and system dynamics. This paper presents an adaptive estimator, which incorporates exhaust gas, stir speed and dissolved oxygen measurements, to predict the real-time OTR. The design of this estimator takes into account the headspace dilution effect, off-gas sensor dynamics and uncertain oxygen transfer parameters. Accurate and real-time OTR signal is derived by combining the low latency property of stir speed and …


Ear Contour Detection And Modeling Using Statistical Shape Models, Satish Ravindran May 2014

Ear Contour Detection And Modeling Using Statistical Shape Models, Satish Ravindran

All Theses

Ear detection is an actively growing area of research because of its applications in human head tracking and biometric recognition. In head tracking, it is used to augment face detectors and to perform pose estimation. In biometric systems, it is used both as an independent modality and in multi-modal biometric recognition. The ear shape is the preferred feature used to perform detection because of its unique structure in both 2D color images and 3D range images. Ear shape models have also been used in literature to perform ear detection, but at a cost of a loss in information about the …


Identifying Target Properties For The Design Of Meta-Material Tank Track Pads, Venkata Sampath Dangeti May 2014

Identifying Target Properties For The Design Of Meta-Material Tank Track Pads, Venkata Sampath Dangeti

All Theses

On track vehicle systems, track pads are designed to provide traction and support the weight of the vehicle, they have limited service life due to common failure by blowout. According to the literature, blowout is a failure mode caused by overheating due to hysteresis in elastomeric materials during high speed operations. Elastomers are used primarily for their high compliance, which is essential to protect the suspension components and maintain structural integrity of the track pad. The objective of the work is to explore the use of linear elastic meta-materials with optimized topology to replace elastomers and reduce or eliminate the …


Design Of A Custom Software Application To Monitor And Communicate Cnc Machining Process Information To Aid In Chatter Identification, Valerie Pezzullo May 2014

Design Of A Custom Software Application To Monitor And Communicate Cnc Machining Process Information To Aid In Chatter Identification, Valerie Pezzullo

All Theses

In any manufacturing environment, it is important to be able to monitor the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining process so that high quality parts can be produced in the least amount of time in order to be profitable. This involves acquiring the proper parameters needed from the machine's controller, which can prove to be difficult with proprietary machine tools that tend to limit access to the internal data collected by the controller. This closed approach to controller design also means that many technological advances that have recently become prevalent in society are not being adopted in the manufacturing industry, preventing …


Ultra-Wideband Position Tracking On An Assembly Line, Harikrishnan Ravikrishnan May 2014

Ultra-Wideband Position Tracking On An Assembly Line, Harikrishnan Ravikrishnan

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This works considers the problem of tracking objects on an assembly line using an ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning system. Assembly line tracking can be accomplished using touch sensors that physically detect when an object reaches a given location. Such tracking requires sensors placed throughout the entire assembly line, and only provides readings at the sensor locations. In contrast, UWB position tracking utilizes a set of sensors surrounding the whole area, enabling continuous position tracking with less infrastructure. Similar tracking can be accomplished using radio frequency identication (RFID) sensing, but this only provides readings when the parts are near RFID readers. The …


Monitoring Hospital Safety Climate Using Control Charts Of Non-Harm Events In Reporting Systems, Susan Robinson May 2014

Monitoring Hospital Safety Climate Using Control Charts Of Non-Harm Events In Reporting Systems, Susan Robinson

All Theses

The primary aim of this thesis is to design an approach and demonstrate a methodology to supplement safety culture assessment efforts. The framework affords an enhanced understanding of hospital safety climate, specifically reporting culture, through the use of control charts to monitor non-harm patient safety events documented in reporting systems. Assessing safety culture and climate remains difficult. One of the most common methods to assess safety culture is a self-report survey administered annually. Surveys assess safety climate, because they are a snapshot of the management's and front-line staff's perceptions of safety within their settings. One component of safety culture is …


Lateral Dynamics Of Multiple Trailer Trucks In Windy Environments, David Wafer May 2014

Lateral Dynamics Of Multiple Trailer Trucks In Windy Environments, David Wafer

All Theses

The lateral response of three-trailer commercial vehicles has been assessed using the simulation package TruckSimTM. Aerodynamic and mechanical characterizations for the vehicle were developed for this investigation. Simulations were carried out with various aerodynamic and load configurations with several different arbitrarily defined crosswinds. The aerodynamic configurations were tested in constant and random crosswinds. The load configurations were tested only in random crosswinds. Each aerodynamic configuration differed by the aerodynamic side-force coefficient for the trailers. Each load configuration consisted of reducing the payload in a single trailer. The tractor was identically defined for each load and aerodynamic configuration. Increasing …


The Effect Of Decorative Foil Stamping On Consumer Attention, Julianne Holmes May 2014

The Effect Of Decorative Foil Stamping On Consumer Attention, Julianne Holmes

All Theses

Packaging plays a key role in communicating product benefits to consumers at the point of sale (Rundh, 2009). Oftentimes, designers use high visibility enhancements to help the package stand out among competitors. Although luxury products often use high-end graphic techniques to convey high quality product, many private label package designers are also using these enhancements to attract attention to their products. Foil stamping is a high visibility enhancement that can create a rich and elegant effect on a package. The process involves transferring a thin layer of foil onto a substrate by using pressure and heat. No quantitative research has …


Electric Power Synchrophasor Network Cyber Security Vulnerabilities, Christopher Beasley May 2014

Electric Power Synchrophasor Network Cyber Security Vulnerabilities, Christopher Beasley

All Theses

Smart grid technologies such as synchrophasor devices (Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs)), make real-time monitoring, control, and analysis of the electric power grid possible. PMUs measure voltage and current phasors across the electrical power grid, add a GPS time stamps to measurements, and sends reports to the Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs) in the control centers. Reports are used to make decisions about the condition and state of the power grid. Since this approach relies on Internet Protocol (IP) network infrastructure, possible cybersecurity vulnerabilities have to be addressed to ensure that it is stable, secure, and reliable. In literature, attacks that are …


Investigation Of Warm Mix Asphalt Overlays And Geosynthetic Pavement Interlayers, William Bolger May 2014

Investigation Of Warm Mix Asphalt Overlays And Geosynthetic Pavement Interlayers, William Bolger

All Theses

Geosynthetics play an ever increasing role in enhancing pavements. The construction of asphalt overlays with geosynthetic interlayers is a common method to rehabilitate flexible and rigid pavements. Geosynthetic interlayers provide numerous benefits to a pavement system. When utilized properly, geosynthetic interlayers can prevent water from infiltrating a roadway base and can extend the life of a pavement and assist in absorbing stresses. Geoysnthetics lead to an increase in a pavement overlay's performance and also retard reflective cracking. Warm mix asphalt has become more popular as a result of the search for more sustainable construction practices. WMA and its technologies are …


Inverse Problems Using Reduced Basis Method, Phil Gralla May 2014

Inverse Problems Using Reduced Basis Method, Phil Gralla

All Theses

Inverse Problems is a field of great interest for many applications, such as parameter identification and image reconstruction. The underlying models of inverse problems in many applications often involve Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). A Reduced Basis (RB) method for solving PDE based inverse problems is introduced in this thesis. The RB has been rigorously established as an efficient approach for solving PDEs in recent years. In this work, we investigate whether the RB method can be used as a regularization for solving ill-posed and nonlinear inverse problems using iterative methods. We rigorously analyze the RB method and prove convergence of …


Improved Oxidative Stability In Biodiesel Via Commercially-Viable Processing Strategies, Gregory Lepak May 2014

Improved Oxidative Stability In Biodiesel Via Commercially-Viable Processing Strategies, Gregory Lepak

All Theses

Biodiesel made from waste cooking oil (WCO) frequently requires antioxidants to meet oxidation stability specifications set forth in ASTM D6751 or EN 14214. In contrast, unrefined cottonseed oil (CSO), containing tocopherols and high concentrations of gossypol, a toxic polyphenolic antioxidant, is unique for biodiesel processing because it produces biodiesel resulting in higher oxidation stability. During biodiesel production, however, only a portion of these endogenous natural antioxidants are suspected to be retained. Because the economics of biodiesel manufacturing rely upon inexpensive sources of triglycerides, emphasis was placed upon developing improved alternative commercially-viable processing strategies where WCO is the main source of …


Biomass And Lipid Production Of Chlorella Protothecoides Under Heterotrophic Cultivation On A Mixed Waste Substrate Of Brewer Fermentation And Crude Glycerol, Xiaoyu Feng May 2014

Biomass And Lipid Production Of Chlorella Protothecoides Under Heterotrophic Cultivation On A Mixed Waste Substrate Of Brewer Fermentation And Crude Glycerol, Xiaoyu Feng

All Theses

Biodiesel production using Chlorella protothecoides microalgae species has become an attractive topic due to the intense requirements of renewable energy in past decades. While, the expensive capital cost of the carbon and nitrogen substrates for algae growth is becoming a restrictive problem in this filed. In this study, heterotrophic cultivation of Chlorella protothecoides in the dark was conducted in 500mL shake flasks. Chlorella protothecoides growth in mixed substrate of brewer fermentation and biodiesel crude glycerol by-products containing a relatively high concentration of carbon and nitrogen was discussed and compared with that in microalgae basal medium which was supplied with 30 …