Engineering Commons^™

Space-Time Transportation System Modelling: From Traveler’S Characteristics To The Network Design Problem, Mohsen Parsafard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditional network design problems only consider the long-term stationary travel patterns (e.g., fixed OD demand) and short-term variations of human mobility are ignored. This study aims to integrate human mobility characteristics and travel patterns into network design problems using a space-time network structure. Emerging technologies such as location-based social network platforms provide a unique opportunity for understanding human mobility patterns that can lead to advanced modeling techniques. To reach our goal, at first multimodal network design problems are investigated by considering safety and flow interactions between different modes of transport. We develop a network reconstruction method to expand a single-modal …

Characterization Of Surface Charges And Compensating Charges For Gene Delivery To Tissue, Ravi Shanmugha Preethi Vangapattu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ever since the discovery of DNA, there has been many pathologies identified effecting mankind. With the development in technology, there are many methods to alleviate these pathologies. One such is gene therapy or gene delivery. It is a process of introducing some foreign material into the body to correct the effected cells. In principle, it is a modern method to cure cells or a method to transfer nucleic acid into a cell to treat specific cells in the body. The process of delivering a genetic material is carried out using vectors, namely, viral vectors and non-viral vectors. In viral vectors, …

Comparative Analysis Of Tag Estimation Algorithms On Rfid Epc Gen-2 Performance, Arundhoti Ferdous

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) system the reader communicates with the tags using the EPC Global UHF Class 1 Generation 2 (EPC Gen-2) protocol with dynamic framed slotted ALOHA. Due to the unique challenges presented by a low-power, random link, the channel efficiency of even the most modern passive RFID system is less than 40%. Hence, a variety of methods have been proposed to estimate the number of tags in the environment and set the optimal frame size. Some of the algorithms in the literature even claim system efficiency beyond 90%. However, these algorithms require fundamental changes to the …

Morphometric Analysis Of The Talus On The Cohort Of Healthy And Arthritic Patient Population:, Tia Arvaneh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) is less common in the ankle compared to other joints; however, deformation brought on by degeneration causes pain, loss of function, and overall decreased quality of life. Current surgical interventions for end-stage ankle OA are not as reliable as surgical treatments for other joints. Ankle arthroplasty currently has high failure rates, and there are lack of substantial data from long-term outcome studies. By understanding the morphometric changes that occur during the different stages of OA, we are able to identify early signs of the disease with the intention to apply treatment earlier in order to preclude …

Assessment And Modeling Of Three Decentralized Resource Recovery Systems In The Cayes Of The Belize Barrier Reef, Mark D. Kalivoda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Three wastewater treatment systems (WWTS) situated on Cayes in the Belize Barrier Reef System were assessed in terms of the unique public health and environmental circumstances of being a tourist destination surrounded by fragile coral reef. Laughing Bird Caye, Silk Caye, and Little Water Caye are three small cayes that are the staging points for local diving, fishing, and other recreational tourism. All three systems are based upon pour-flush toilets, semi-anaerobic biodigesters and drainage fields. Limitations in cost, available resources, useable area, high infiltration rates of the sand, and salinity of the water have played a major factor in the …

Carbon And Nutrient Balances In Microalgal Bioenergy System, Eunyoung Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated life cycle environmental impacts and benefits of an integrated microalgae system with wastewater treatment system using an integrated process modeling approach combined with experimentation. The overall goal of this research is to understand energy, carbon and nutrient balances in the integrated system and to evaluate the environmental impacts and benefits of the integrated system from a carbon, nutrient, and energy perspective. In this study, four major research tasks were designed to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the environmental and economic sustainability of the integrated system, which included development of an integrated co-limitation kinetic model for microalgae …

A Study Of Rf/Microwave Components Using Fused Deposition Modeling And Micro-Dispensing, Joshua A. Stephenson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The design and study of multiple RF direct digital manufactured (DDM) devices are presented in this work. A 2.45 GHz, 180°; hybrid coupler is designed to provide the space required for other system components. The coupler is designed and manufactured on a 32 mil Rogers 4003C substrate and adapted to a 100% in-fill acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) substrate. A size reduction of 66% is accomplished with a bandwidth of 16%. A DDM Ku band connector is modeled and fabricated using varying relative dielectric constants of 50% and 100% in-fill ABS. The connector maintains less than 0.45 dB of insertion loss …

High Performance Digitally Manufactured Microwave And Millimeter-Wave Circuits And Antennas, Eduardo A. Rojas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for microwave and mm-wave applications is increasingly being revealed thanks to recent advancements in research. AM empowers engineers with new capabilities to manufacture complex conformal geometries quicker and at lower costs. It allows, for instance, the embedding of RF front ends into functional structures. In this dissertation, two aspects of AM are explored: (a) The development and characterization of techniques that improve the performance of AM microwave circuits and antennas, and (b) study of complex geometries, such as meshed structures, as an alternative to reduce material usage, cost, and weight of the components.

Micro-dispensing …

The Effect Of Antigen Polymorphisms On Serological Antibody Detection Assays Based Upon The, Kristi M. Miley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Onchocerca volvulus is a filarial parasite transmitted to humans by female Simulium spp. black flies. Infection with this parasite can cause blindness and severe skin disease among humans in Africa and the Americas. Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay serological testing of OV-16 antigen is a diagnostic tool for determining effective elimination of the parasite. Programs typically rely on OV–16 ELISA to evaluate the progress towards interruption and/or elimination of disease by mass drug distribution of ivermectin and vector larvicidal control efforts. As elimination grows closer, monoclonal antibody positive controls for OV-16 ELISA become important to develop for Onchocerca testing due to the …

Analysis Of A Potential A(H7n9) Influenza Pandemic Outbreak In The U.S., Walter A. Silva Sotillo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a collection of manuscripts that describe development of models and model implementation to analyze impact of potential A(H7N9) pandemic influenza outbreak in the U.S. Though this virus is still only animal-to-human transmittable, it has potential to become human-to-human transmittable and trigger a pandemic. This work is motivated by the negative impact on human lives that this virus has already caused in China, and is intended to support public health officials in preparing to protect U.S. population from a potential outbreak of pandemic scale.

An agent-based (AB) simulation model is used to replicate the social dynamics of the …

Machine Learning And Adaptive Signal Processing Methods For Electrocardiography Applications, Calvin A. Perumalla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is directed towards improving the state of art cardiac monitoring methods and automatic diagnosis of cardiac anomalies through modern engineering approaches such as adaptive signal processing, and machine learning methods. The dissertation will describe the invention and associated methods of a cardiac rhythm monitor dubbed the Integrated Vectorcardiogram (iVCG). In addition, novel machine learning approaches are discussed to improve diagnoses and prediction accuracy of cardiac diseases.

It is estimated that around 17 million people in the world die from cardiac related events each year. It has also been shown that many of such deaths can be …

Force Compensation And Recreation Accuracy In Humans, Benjamin Rigsby

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As industry becomes increasingly reliant on robotic assistance and human-computer interfaces, the demand to understand the human sensorimotor system’s characteristics intensifies. Although this field of research has been going on for over a century, new technologies push the limits of the human motor system and our knowledge of it. With new technologies come new abilities, and, in the area of medical care and rehabilitation, the need to expand our knowledge of the sensorimotor system comes from both the patient and physician.

Two studies relating to human force interaction are presented in this thesis. The first study

focuses on humans’ ability …

Photopolymerization Synthesis Of Magnetic Nanoparticle Embedded Nanogels For Targeted Biotherapeutic Delivery, Daniel Jonwal Denmark

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Conventional therapeutic techniques treat the patient by delivering a biotherapeutic to the entire body rather than the target tissue. In the case of chemotherapy, the biotherapeutic is a drug that kills healthy and diseased cells indiscriminately which can lead to undesirable side effects. With targeted delivery, biotherapeutics can be delivered directly to the diseased tissue significantly reducing exposure to otherwise healthy tissue. Typical composite delivery devices are minimally composed of a stimuli responsive polymer, such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), allowing for triggered release when heated beyond approximately 32 °C, and magnetic nanoparticles which enable targeting as well as provide a mechanism for …

Quantifying And Modeling Surface Inflow And Groundwater Infiltration Into Sanitary Sewers In Southern Pinellas County, Fl, Megan E. Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following large rain events, excess flow in sanitary sewers from inflow and infiltration (I/I) cause sanitary sewer overflows (SSO), resulting in significant problems for Pinellas County and the Tampa Bay area. Stormwater enters the sanitary sewers as inflow from improper or illegal surface connections, and groundwater enters the system as infiltration through cracks in subsurface infrastructure. This pilot study was designed to develop methods to separate and quantify the components of I/I and to build a predictive model using flowmeter and rainfall data.

To identify surface inflow, daily wastewater production and groundwater infiltration patterns were filtered from the flow data, …

Predictive Analytics In Cardiac Healthcare And 5g Cellular Networks, Dilranjan S. Wickramasuriya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes the use of Machine Learning (ML) to two very distinct, yet compelling, applications – predicting cardiac arrhythmia episodes and predicting base station association in 5G networks comprising of virtual cells. In the first scenario, Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are used to classify features extracted from electrocardiogram (EKG) signals. The second problem requires a different formulation departing from traditional ML classification where the objective is to partition feature space into constituent class regions. Instead, the intention here is to identify temporal patterns in unequal-length sequences. Using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), it is demonstrated that accurate predictions can be …

Speed, Power Efficiency, And Noise Improvements For Switched Capacitor Voltage Converters, Orhun Aras Uzun

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Switched-capacitor (SC) DC-DC converters provide a viable solution for on-chip DC-DC conversion as all the components required are available in most processes. However, power efficiency, power density characteristics of SC converters are adversely affected by the integration, and characteristics such as response time and noise can be further improved with an on-chip converter. An analysis on speed, power efficiency, and noise performance of SC converters is presented and verified using simulations. Based on the analysis two techniques, converter-gating and adaptive gain control, are developed. Converter-gating uses a combination of smaller stages and reconfiguration during transient load steps to improve the …

Multi-Scale Spatial Cognition Models And Bio-Inspired Robot Navigation, Martin I. Llofriu Alonso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rodent navigation system has been the focus of study for over a century. Discoveries made lately have provided insight on the inner workings of this system. Since then, computational approaches have been used to test hypothesis, as well as to improve robotics navigation and learning by taking inspiration on the rodent navigation system.

This dissertation focuses on the study of the multi-scale representation of the rat’s current location found in the rat hippocampus. It first introduces a model that uses these different scales in the Morris maze task to show their advantages. The generalization power of larger scales of …

Enhanced Visible Light Photocatalytic Remediation Of Organics In Water Using Zinc Oxide And Titanium Oxide Nanostructures, Srikanth Gunti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The techniques mostly used to decontaminate air as well as water pollutants have drawbacks in terms of higher costs, require secondary treatment, and some methods are very slow. So, emphasis has been given to water though the use of photocatalysts, which break organic pollutants to water and carbon dioxide and leave no trace of by-products at the end. Photocatalytic remediation aligns with the waste and wastewater industries’ zero waste schemes with lower cost, eco-friendly and sustainable treatment technology. The commonly used photocatalysts such as titanium oxide (TiO₂), zinc oxide (ZnO), tungsten oxide (WO₃) have band gap …

The Development Of A Platform Interface With The Use Of Virtual Reality To Enhance Upper-Extremity Prosthetic Training And Rehabilitation, Ashley D. Knight

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the investigation and development of an effective prosthetic training and rehabilitation platform with the use of virtual reality to facilitate an effective process to return amputees to the highest level of independence and functioning possible.

It has been reported that approximately 10 million people live with a limb loss worldwide, with around 30% being an upper-extremity amputee. The sudden loss of a hand or arm causes the loss of fine, coordinated movements, reduced joint range of motion (ROM), proprioceptive feedback and aesthetic appearance, all which can be improved with the use of a prosthesis and proper …

Real-Time Classification Of Biomedical Signals, Parkinson’S Analytical Model, Abolfazl Saghafi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The reach of technological innovation continues to grow, changing all industries as it evolves. In healthcare, technology is increasingly playing a role in almost all processes, from patient registration to data monitoring, from lab tests to self-care tools. The increase in the amount and diversity of generated clinical data requires development of new technologies and procedures capable of integrating and analyzing the BIG generated information as well as providing support in their interpretation.

To that extent, this dissertation focuses on the analysis and processing of biomedical signals, specifically brain and heart signals, using advanced machine learning techniques. That is, the …

Exploiting On-Chip Voltage Regulators As A Countermeasure Against Power Analysis Attacks, Weize Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-invasive side-channel attacks (SCA) are powerful attacks which can be used to obtain the secret key in a cryptographic circuit in feasible time without the need for expensive measurement equipment. Power analysis attacks (PAA) are a type of SCA that exploit the correlation between the leaked power consumption information and processed/stored data. Differential power analysis (DPA) and leakage power analysis (LPA) attacks are two types of PAA that exploit different characteristics of the side-channel leakage profile. DPA attacks exploit the correlation between the input data and dynamic power consumption of cryptographic circuits. Alternatively, LPA attacks utilize the correlation between the …

Adaptive Region-Based Approaches For Cellular Segmentation Of Bright-Field Microscopy Images, Hady Ahmady Phoulady

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microscopy image processing is an emerging and quickly growing field in medical imaging research area. Recent advancements in technology including higher computation power, larger and cheaper storage modules, and more efficient and faster data acquisition devices such as whole-slide imaging scanners contributed to the recent microscopy image processing research advancement. Most of the methods in this research area either focus on automatically process images and make it easier for pathologists to direct their focus on the important regions in the image, or they aim to automate the whole job of experts including processing and classifying images or tissues that leads …

Evaluating The Effect Of Temporary Casing On Drilled Shaft Rock Socket Capacity, Daniel J. Hagerman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect on side shear resistance in limestone when temporary casing is used. Due to testing in actual limestone being an unrealistic goal, simulated limestone mixes were prepared and cast into 6 – 42 in. diameter beds. Limestone throughout Florida can be quite varied (e.g. 50-5000 psi) but where stronger limestone is not likely to be penetrated by casing installation. Therefore, target unconfined compressive strengths of the study specimens ranged between 60 psi to 850 psi.

A simulated limestone material was developed based on over 200 cylinders cast for unconfined compression testing …

Improving Doping And Minority Carrier Lifetime Of Cdte/Cds Solar Cells By In-Situ Control Of Cdte Stoichiometry, Vamsi Krishna Evani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) is a leading thin film photovoltaic (PV) material due to its near ideal bandgap of 1.45 eV and its high optical absorption coefficient. Advancements in efficiencies of CdTe/CdS solar cells over the past few decades have come from improving the short circuit current (JSC) and Fill Factor (FF) but the Open Circuit Voltage (VOC) has been stagnant. Further improvements in efficiencies should come from increased VOC’s. VOC’s can be improved by increasing the acceptor concentration and minority carrier lifetime. Both these parameters can be controlled by manipulating the native defect concentration in CdTe which can be achieved …

Resilience Of Cloud Networking Services For Large Scale Outages, Mahsa Pourvali

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cloud infrastructure services are enabling organizations and enterprises to outsource a wide range of computing, storage, and networking needs to external service providers. These offerings make extensive use of underlying network virtualization, i.e., virtual network (VN) embedding, techniques to provision and interconnect customized storage/computing resource pools across large network substrates. However, as cloud-based services continue to gain traction, there is a growing need to address a range of resiliency concerns, particularly with regards to large-scale outages. These conditions can be triggered by events such as natural disasters, malicious man-made attacks, and even cascading power failures.

Overall, a wide range of …

Decision Support Models For A Few Critical Problems In Transportation System Design And Operations, Ran Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Transportation system is one of the key functioning components of the modern society and plays an important role in the circulation of commodity and growth of economy. Transportation system is not only the major influencing factor of the efficiency of large-scale complex industrial logistics, but also closely related to everyone’s daily life. The goals of an ideal transportation system are focused on improving mobility, accessibility, safety, enhancing the coordination of different transportation modals and reducing the impact on the environment, all these activities require sophisticated design and plan that consider different factors, balance tradeoffs and maintaining efficiency. Hence, the design …

Experimental Evaluation Of Cooling Effectiveness And Water Conservation In A Poultry House Using Flow Blurring® Atomizers, Rafael M. Rodriguez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increases in population as well as economic improvements in developing countries are generating a larger demand for animal protein products. Current animal growth processes inherently, require the use of water in many forms throughout the growth cycle. Water is the most important natural resource on earth to sustain life, and in many developing countries is a scarce resource that must be used wisely. Studies have revealed that poultry growth can take place with less water consumption, when compared with other sources of animal protein (e.g., cattle, pork). In this research, an evaporative Flow Blurring^® cooling system was considered as …

In Vivo Channel Characterization And Energy Efficiency Optimization And Game Theoretical Approaches In Wbans, Yang Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents several novel accomplishments in the research area of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), including in vivo channel characterization, optimization and game theoretical approaches for energy efficiency in WBANs.

First, we performed the in vivo path loss simulations with HFSS human body model, built a phenomenological model for the distance and frequency dependent path loss, and also investigated angle dependent path loss of the in vivo wireless channel. Simulation data is produced in the range of 0.4−6 GHz for frequency, a wide range of distance and different angles. Based on the measurements, we produce mathematical models for in …

Interference Of Light In Multilayer Metasurfaces: Perfect Absorber And Antireflection Coating, Khagendra Prasad Bhattarai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We have studied several metamaterials structures with multiple layers by explaining them theoretically and verifying experimentally. The engineered structures we have designed work either as a perfect absorber or antireflection coating. The multilayer model as we call it Three Layer Model (TLM) has been developed, which gives the total reflection and transmission as a function of reflection and transmission of individual layers. By manipulating the amplitude and phase of the reflection and the transmission of the individual layers, we can get the required functionality of the optoelectronic devices. To get zero reflection in the both perfect absorber and the antireflection …

Neuropeptide Modulation Of The Large Conductance Potassium (Bk) Channel In The Auditory System: Therapeutic Implications For Age-Related Hearing Loss, Ellliott James Brecht

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The auditory temporal processing deficits associated with age-dependent hearing decline have been increasingly attributed to issues beyond peripheral hearing loss. Age-related hearing loss (ARHL), also known as presbycusis, is linked with changes in the expression of both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters in the central auditory system. There are also age-related changes in the expression and function of the ion channels which mediate action potential firing. The slow, Ca²⁺ activated, K⁺ channels of the BK-type are essential in controlling both neurotransmitter release and neural communication via alteration of action potential durations, firing frequency, and neural adaptation. There are many …