Engineering Commons^™

Multi Sensor System For Pedestrian Tracking And Activity Recognition In Indoor Environments, Juan Jose Marron Monteserin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The widespread use of mobile devices and the rise of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have allowed mobile tracking applications to become very popular and valuable in outdoor environments. However, tracking pedestrians in indoor environments with Global Positioning System (GPS)-based schemes is still very challenging given the lack of enough

signals to locate the user. Along with indoor tracking, the ability to recognize pedestrian behavior and activities can lead to considerable growth in location-based applications including

pervasive healthcare, leisure and guide services (such as, museum, airports, stores, etc.), and emergency services, among the most important ones.

This thesis presents a …

Ontology Driven Model For An Engineered Agile Healthcare System, Balaji Ramadoss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare is in urgent need of an effective way to manage the complexity it of its systems and to prepare quickly for immense changes in the economics of healthcare delivery and reimbursement. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) releases policies affecting inpatient and long-term care hospitals policies that directly affect reimbursement and payment rates. One of these policy changes, a quality-reporting program called Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR), will effect approximately 3,400 acute-care and 440 long-term care hospitals. IQR sets guidelines and measures that will contain financial incentives and penalties based on the quality of care provided. CMS, the …

Electronic Structure Characterization Of Hybrid Materials, Zhi Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the studies aim to characterize the electronic structure at the internal interface of hybrid materials. The characterization challenge is originating from the spectral superposition of hybrid constituents. A characterization protocol based on photoemission spectroscopy (PES) was developed and applied to investigate the orbital alignment at the internal interface of the oligothiophene-TiO2 and ArS-CdSe hybrid materials by characterizing the individual constituents and the assembly hybrids respectively. Electrospray deposition technique was used to deposit targeting materials which enabled preparation of thin films in vacuum minimizing ambient contaminations while transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to investigate the morphology and …

Scene-Dependent Human Intention Recognition For An Assistive Robotic System, Kester Duncan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In order for assistive robots to collaborate effectively with humans for completing everyday tasks, they must be endowed with the ability to effectively perceive scenes and more importantly, recognize human intentions. As a result, we present in this dissertation a novel scene-dependent human-robot collaborative system capable of recognizing and learning human intentions based on scene objects, the actions that can be performed on them, and human interaction history. The aim of this system is to reduce the amount of human interactions necessary for communicating tasks to a robot. Accordingly, the system is partitioned into scene understanding and intention recognition modules. …

Quantification Of Transhumeral Prosthetic Socket Residual Limb Interface Movement Using Motion Capture And A Slip Detection Sensor, Matthew Wernke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current literature focusing on the prosthetic socket is limited by measurement techniques and modeling assumptions, leading to a limited understanding of the forces and motions occurring between the residual limb and prosthesis and how they can be used to influence socket design and fitting. Prosthetic socket fitting and prescription would benefit from an elegant method for comparing socket designs. This dissertation focuses on the development and implementation of a 3D motion capture model and a Slip Detection Sensor to quantify rotations and translations at the prosthetic socket-residual limb interface. The 3D motion capture model defines the residual limb bone position …

Theoretical And Experimental Investigations To Improve The Performance Of Surface Acoustic Wave (Saw) Biosensors, Mandek Richardson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to improve the performance of surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensors for use in point-of-care-testing (POCT) applications. SAW biosensors have the ability to perform fast, accurate detection of an analyte in real time without the use of labels. However, the technology suffers from the inability to differentiate between specific and non-specific binding. Due to this limitation, direct testing of bodily fluids using SAW sensors to accurately determine an analyte's concentration is difficult. In addition, these sensors are challenged by the need to detect small concentrations of a biomarker that are typically required to give a …

Contrast Adaptation In The Lateral Eye Of Limulus Polyphemus, Tchoudomira Valtcheva

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Luminance and contrast adaptation are neuronal mechanisms that the retina applies for continuous adjustment to light sensitivity though a collection of cellular and synaptic mechanisms distributed across the retinal network, thus accommodating the wide input range of the visual system within the constricted output range of retinal ganglion cells. Luminance mean adaptation has been demonstrated in the output neurons of the invertebrate eye (eccentric cells), and the aim of the study was to investigate whether the homology in visual processing extends to luminance variance (contrast) adaptation as well. The spike trains of individual eccentric cells were recorded from live horseshoe …

Skeletal Muscle Contraction Simulation: A Comparison In Modeling, Jonathan M. Ford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Computer generated three-dimensional (3-D) models are being used at increasing rates in the fields of entertainment, education, research, and engineering. One of the aspects of interest includes the behavior and function of the musculoskeletal system. One such tool used by engineers is the finite element method (FEM) to simulate the physics behind muscle mechanics. There are several ways to represent 3-D muscle geometry, namely a bulk, a central line of action and a spline model. The purpose of this study is to exmine how these three representations affect the overall outcome of muscle movement. This is examined in a series …

Theory, Synthesis, And Application Of Adiabatic And Reversible Logic Circuits For Security Applications, Matthew Arthur Morrison

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Programmable reversible logic is emerging as a prospective logic design style for implementation in modern nanotechnology and quantum computing with minimal impact on circuit heat generation. Adiabatic logic is a design methodology for reversible logic in CMOS where the current flow through the circuit is controlled such that the energy dissipation due to switching and capacitor dissipation is minimized. Recent advances in reversible logic using and quantum computer algorithms allow for improved computer architectures. Production of cost-effective Secure Integrated Chips, such as Smart Cards, requires hardware designers to consider tradeoffs in size, security, and power consumption. In order to design …

Future Engineering Professors' Conceptions Of Learning And Teaching Engineering, Ana Teresa Torres Ayala

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Conceptions of learning and teaching shape teaching practices and are, therefore, important to understanding how engineering professors learn to teach. There is abundant research about professors' conceptions of teaching; however, research on the conceptions of teaching of doctoral students, the future professors, is scarce. Furthermore, there is a need to understand not just future engineering professors' conceptions of teaching but also their conceptions of learning. The purpose of this study was to explore qualitative variations in future engineering professors' conceptions of learning and teaching as well as understanding how they came to these conceptions.

The research questions that guided this …

Hydraulic Evaluation Of A Community Managed Wastewater Stabilization Pond System In Bolivia, Louis Lizima

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work explores the hydraulic performance of a wastewater lagoon system located in San Antonio, Bolivia. The system consists of one facultative pond and two maturation ponds in series and is managed through a locally elected water committee. A tracer study was performed on the primary facultative pond and an analysis of the solids accumulation on the bottom of the facultative lagoon was also performed. The results were used to generate residence time distribution curves and provide an estimate of mean residence time in the system. The data was used to examine hydraulic efficiency as it relates to short-circuiting and …

Environmental And Energy Saving Technologies Of Vinyl Chloride Production, Mykola Kurta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recently, because of the increase of environmental concerns in process design, the need to enhance conversion to product and prevent generation of wasteful byproducts in the reactor network has become urgent. This prevents high cost treatment and separation costs downstream in the process. Therefore, in this thesis I focus on making production of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) more efficient and on possible ways of industrial organochlorine waste (OCW) recycling. In particular, in the first experiment, we investigate how catalyst and its structure can affect product output.

Infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were utilized to investigate the structure of the …

Location And Capacity Modeling Of Network Interchanges, Aldo D. Fabregas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Network design decisions, especially those pertaining to urban infrastructure, are made by a central authority or network leader, and taking into consideration the network users or followers. These network decision problems are formulated as non-linear bi-level programming problems. In this work, a continuous network design problem (CNDP) and discrete network design problem (DNDP) bi-level optimization programs are proposed and solved in the context of transportation planning. The solution strategy involved reformulation and linearization as a single-level program by introducing the optimality conditions of the lower level problem into the upper level problem. For the CNDP, an alternative linearization algorithm (modified …

Nano-Magnetic Devices For Computation, Dinuka Karunaratne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The continuous scaling down of the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET)

has improved the performance of electronic appliances. Unfortunately, it has come to a

stage where further scaling of the MOSFET is no longer possible due to the physical and the

fabrication limitations. This has motivated researchers towards designing and fabricating novel

devices that can replace MOSFET technology. Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors, Single

Electron Tunneling Junctions, Nano-Magnetic Devices, and Spin Field-Effect Transistors are some

prospective candidates that could replace MOSFET devices. In this dissertation, we have studied

the computational performance of Nano−Magnetic Devices due to their attractive features such

as room …

Multidimensional Signal Analysis For Wireless Communications Systems, Ali Gorcin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wireless communications systems underwent an evolution as the voice oriented applications evolved to data and multimedia based services. Furthermore, current wireless technologies, regulations and the un-

derstanding of the technology are insufficient for the requirements of future wireless systems. Along with the rapid rise at the number of users, increasing demand for more communications capacity to deploy multimedia applications entail effective utilization of communications resources. Therefore, there is a need for effective spectrum allocation, adaptive and complex modulation, error recovery, channel estimation, diversity and code design techniques to allow high data rates while maintaining desired quality of service, and reconfigurable …

Approximate Sub-Graph Isomorphism For Watermarking Finite State Machine Hardware, Richard William Piper Meana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We present a method of mitigating theft of sequential circuit Intellectual Property hardware designs through means of watermarking. Hardware watermarking can be performed by selectively embedding a watermark in the state encoding of the Finite State Machine. This form of watermarking can be achieved by matching a directed graph representation of the watermark with a sub-graph in state transition graph representation of the FSM. We experiment with three approaches: a brute force method that provides a proof of concept, a greedy algorithm that provides excellent runtime with a drawback of sub-optimal results, and finally a simulated annealing method that provides …

A Distributed Local-Leg Feedback Algorithm For Robust Walking On Uneven Terrain, Mayur Ramakant Palankar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Legged animals can traverse significantly more of the Earth's land mass than man-made wheeled and tracked vehicles~\cite{Anonymous67}. Their impressive mobility is largely due to multiple dexterous legs and the robust algorithms that coordinate and control them. A legged animal such as a squirrel can exhibit multiple locomotion modes such as walking, running and jumping and also multiple gaits or leg phase timings within each mode. A robot that could mimic this level of robust locomotion would be highly useful for planetary exploration, military reconnaissance, and time-critical search and rescue in cluttered or collapsed buildings.

A number of biological studies on …

A Novel Method For Watermarking Sequential Circuits, Matthew Lewandowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We present an Intellectual Property (IP) protection technique for sequential circuits driven by embedding a decomposed signature into a Finite State Machine (FSM) through the manipulation of the arbitrary state encoding of the unprotected FSM. This technique is composed of three steps: (a) transforming the signature into a watermark graph, (b) embedding watermark graphs into the original FSM's State Transition Graph (STG) and (c) generating models for verification and extraction. In the watermark construction process watermark graphs are generated from signatures. The proposed methods for watermark construction are: (1) BSD, (2) FSD, and (3) HSD. The HSD method is shown …

Algorithms And Data Structures For Efficient Timing Analysis Of Asynchronous Real-Time Systems, Yingying Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a framework to verify asynchronous real-time systems based on model checking. These systems are modeled by using a common modeling formalism named Labeled Petri-nets(LPNs).

In order to verify the real-time systems algorithmically, the zone-based timing analysis method is used for LPNs. It searches the state space with timing information (represented by zones). When there is a high degree of concurrency in the model, firing concurrent enabled transitions in different order may result in different zones, and these zones may be combined without affecting the verification result. Since the zone-based method could not deal with this problem efficiently, …

Processing Of Advanced Two-Stage Cigs Solar Cells, Manikandan Sampathkumar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An advancement of the two stage growth recipe for the fabrication of CIGS solar cells was developed. The developed advancement was inconsistent in producing samples of similar stoichiometry. This was a huge barrier for up scaling the process as the behavior of devices would be different due to variation in stoichiometry. Samples with reproducible stoichiometry were obtained once the heating rate of elements, selenium in particular was better understood. This is mainly attributed to the exponential increase of selenium flux after its evaporation temperature. Monitoring the selenium flux was vital in getting constant selenium fluxes. Few changes to the growth …

The Impact Of Organizations' Collaboration Strategies And Alliance Network Positions On Invention Performance, Fethullah Caliskan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the impact of organizations' collaboration strategies and network positional variables on invention performance. Organizations, particularly those pursuing a differentiation strategy, are motivated to introduce novel products and services in order to remain competitive. Thus, two questions of interest to such organizations regarding the network dynamics of the invention process are: 1) What kind of strategies allow them to attain superior invention results? 2) What is the most advantageous structural positioning in a collaborative network of innovators? Three independent studies attempt to find answers to these questions by using three complementary study approaches.

In the first study, in …

Full 3d Reconstruction From Multiple Rgb-D Cameras, Owen Watson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a novel procedure for achieving full 3D reconstruction from multiple RGB-D cameras configured such that the amount of overlap between views is low. Overlap is used to describe the portion of a scene that is common in a pair of views, and is considered low when at most 50% of the scene is common. Compatible systems are configured such that interpreting cameras as nodes and overlap as edges, a connected undirected graph can be constructed. The fundamental goal of the proposed procedure is to calibrate a given system of cameras. Calibration is the process of finding the …

Predicting The Clinical Outcome In Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury Using Clinical Pathway Scores, Jennifer Lorena Mendoza Alonzo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Polytrauma/TBI Rehabilitation Center (PRC) of the Veterans Affairs Hospital (VAH) treats patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). These patients have major motor and cognitive disabilities. Most of the patients stay in the hospital for many months without major improvements. This suggests that patients, family and the VAH could benefit if healthcare provider had a way to better assess or "predict" patients' progression. The individual progress of patients over time is assessed using a pre-defined multi-component performance measure Functional Independence Measures (FIM) at admission and discharge, and a semi-quantitative documentation parameter Clinical Pathway (CP) at weekly intervals. This work uses …

Myoglobin Detection On Sic: Immunosensor Development For Myocardial Infarction, Alexandra Oliveros Villalba

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Silicon carbide (SiC) has been around for more than 100 years as an industrial material and has found wide and varied applications because of its unique electrical and thermal properties. In recent years there has been increased attention on SiC as a viable material for biomedical applications. Among these applications are those where SiC is used as a substrate material for biosensors and biotransducers, taking advantage of its surface chemical, tribological and electrical properties.

In this work we have used the proven bio- and hema-compatibility of SiC to develop a viable biorecognition interface using SiC as the substrate material for …

Novel Models And Algorithms For Uncertainty Management In Power Systems, Long Zhao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of previously-published manuscript and conference papers. In this dissertation, we will deal with a stochastic unit commitment problem with cooling systems for gas generators, a robust unit commitment problem with demand response and uncertain wind generation, and a power grid vulnerability analysis with transmission line switching. The latter two problems correspond to our theoretical contributions in two-stage robust optimization, i.e., how to efficiently solve a two-stage robust optimization, and how to deal with mixed-integer recourse in robust optimization. Due to copyright issue, this dissertation does not include any methodology papers written by the author during …

Energy Efficient Context-Aware Framework In Mobile Sensing, Ozgur Yurur

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ever-increasing technological advances in embedded systems engineering, together with the proliferation of small-size sensor design and deployment, have enabled mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) to recognize daily occurring human based actions, activities and interactions. Therefore, inferring a vast variety of mobile device user based activities from a very diverse context obtained by a series of sensory observations has drawn much interest in the research area of ubiquitous sensing. The existence and awareness of the context provides the capability of being conscious of physical environments or situations around mobile device users, and this allows network services to respond proactively and intelligently …

Towards Interference-Immune And Channel-Aware Multicarrier Schemes: Filters, Lattices, And Interference Issues, Alphan Sahin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, multicarrier schemes are reviewed within the framework of Gabor Systems. Their fundamental elements; what to transmit, i.e., symbols, how to transmit, i.e., filters or pulse shape, and where/when to transmit, i.e., lattices are investigated extensively. The relations between different types of multicarrier schemes are discussed.

Within the framework of Gabor systems, a new windowing approach, edge windowing, is developed to address the out-of-band (OOB) radiation problem of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based multicarrier schemes. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time, the diversity on the range of the users is exploited to suppress …

Novel Approach Of Using Polyvinylidene Fluoride Langmuir-Schaefer Film On Graphene-Polyaniline Nanocomposite For Supercapacitor Applications, Venkata Priyanka Bolisetty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Supercapacitors are well known for their improvised power density compared to batteries. Ongoing research is mainly focused on improving the energy density of supercapacitors by using different electrode material nanocomposites. The recent research has revealed that graphene (G)-polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposite could be a promising material for supercapacitor applications. The supercapacitor is also associated with self-leakage current regardless of any electrode material. The main objectives of the project are to: (i) synthesize highly fabricate supercapacitor based of G-PANI electrode; (ii) improve the energy density of supercapacitor by applying ultrathin monolayer/monolayers film electrode surface. It is crucial to either improve or retain …

Design Of An Advanced Lighting Measurement System For Roadway Safety, Mathew Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Roadway illumination is a vital component of safety while driving during the night. There are regulations in place to ensure all publicly maintained roads are properly lit, but the validation process is too time consuming, costly, and dangerous for adequate data collection studies. The work in this thesis is aimed toward remedying this problem by creating an Advanced Lighting Measurement System (ALMS) capable of recording illumination readings while traveling at normal driving speeds. This solution is based on the Arduino Uno development board, a cost effective yet powerful embedded platform. This thesis involves collecting data along 100 centerline miles of …

Robotic Swarming Without Inter-Agent Communication, Daniel Jonathan Standish

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many physical and algorithmic swarms utilize inter-agent communication to achieve advanced swarming behaviors. These swarms are inspired by biological swarms that can be seen throughout nature and include bee swarms, ant colonies, fish schools, and bird flocks. These biological swarms do not utilize inter-agent communication like their physical and algorithmic counterparts. Instead, organisms in nature rely on a local awareness of other swarm members that facilitates proper swarm motion and behavior. This research aims to pursue an effective swarm algorithm using only line-of-sight proximity information and no inter-agent communication. It is expected that the swarm performance will be lower than …