Engineering Commons^™

Computerized Analysis Of Gastrointestinal Spike Burst Activity, Karthik Krishnan

Theses

This thesis describes a computer algorithm for locating gastrointestinal spike bursts. The algorithm also finds the the number of spikes within each spike burst, the average duration, and average amplitude of each spike burst. The algorithm was applied to the automation of the analysis of the Migrating Colonic Complex.

The algorithm detects the spike burst using threshold, time interval and frequency criteria. The computer program is implemented on a PDP 11/73 digital computer. The operation of the algorithm was tested on animal models to detect the spike bursts, before and after the inducement of certain drugs to alter the colonic …

Finite Element Method In Turbo Pascal, Tingwang Kuo

Theses

A finite element program FEM2D in FORTRAN language by J.N. Reddy has been translated into TURBO PASCAL and several features such as interactive input, mesh generation for a rectangular plate with a circular hole at the center of the plate and graphical display of the meshes and node numbers have been implemented. Four examples including potential flow and plane stress problems have been tested successfully. It is concluded that the PASCAL language on a microcomputer can he used to write a finite element program and is easier to give graphical display than FORTRAN language. The maximal number of nodes that …

Development Of A Novel Dentin Bonding Agent And Testing For Mechanical Properties, Mircroleakage And Toxicity, Sanjay V. Odak

Theses

In this study a dentin bonding agent based on Tolylene diisocyanatc with o chlorophenol as a blocking agent was tested. Bond strength with dentin was determined using a clinically relevant test method. A comparison was made using commercially available bonding agents and restorative resins. A simulation of microleakage around restorations was performed using a "Silver staining technique". Microleakage was quantified using digital image analysis, and a method was proposed to compensate for the loss of the third dimension during image analysis. Layer-by-layer curing of restorative, and an acid etching technique was used to improve bonding to dentin. The oral LD50 …

Arithmetic Pipline Scheduler, Chun-Ta Pan

Theses

A schedule is used to determine which stages of an arithmetic pipeline are active at any particular time. It can determine when another process can be introduced into the pipeline so no more than one set of data will use the same stage at the same time. The Arithmetic Pipeline Scheduler (APS) is a software tool used to analyze schedules for different operations and determine greedy schemes for introducing data into the pipeline. The user can use APS to process up to ten arithmetic equations. The user also can use APS to define different configurations of stages. Besides, APS can …

Kalman Filtering Applied To The Analysis Of Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials, Chong An Qian

Theses

The objective of this thesis is to detect the Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) using lower numbers of averages than at present, by using an optimal smoothing method which is based on the Kalman Filter.

By using this method, the wave V latency of the BAER which is useful in testing for hearing loss can be detected with as low as 500 averages, while the traditional signal averaging method requires at least 2000 averages. Thus the time required for a hearing loss test can be reduced from one hour to approximately 20 minutes.

Also several other methods for detecting BAER …

Formation Of Light Hydrocarbons And Soot In The Pyrolysis Reactions Of Chloro, Dichlorobenzene, Acetylene And Benzene In An Atmosphere Of Hydrogen, Larry Jiyuan Zhu

Theses

The kinetics of thermal decomposition of chlorobenzene and dichlorobenzene in a hydrogen and helium atmosphere were further studied to investigate formation of soot and light hydrocarbons. The experiments were performed at atmosphere pressure with residence times rangeing from 0.2 to 1.2 seconds, and the temperature ranges of 850°C to 925°C for chlorobenzene and 870°C to 910°C for dichlorobenzene. Flame ionization detectors, which were connected to GC columns, were utilized for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the reaction products. A methyl silicone capillary column was used analyzing of heavy aromatics and a Carbosive G was used to analyze light hydrocarbons. …

High-Energy, Curable Polycyclopentadiene Binder For Solid Rocket Propellants, Jian Guo Ning

Theses

Diels Alder polymerization of cyclopentadiene ( CPD ) has been carried out at 170°C under inert atmosphere. The resulted polymer has a low bulk viscosity, 7.4 cps, and a number average molecular weight M_n up to 3000. This liquid Prepolymer is curable with maleic anhydride. With ammonium perchlorate, aluminum, and maleic anhydride, a high energy solid propellant has been formulated with this polymer. Via bomb calorimeter, Instron, and density measurement, it was found that this propellant has a better heat of combustion, tensile strength, and solid loading than that of the commercial rocket propellant based on hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene.

A Study On The Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate)/Flouropolymer Blends, Chyan-Nin Chiu

Theses

The rate of crystallization of Polyethylene terephthalate) (PET) can be improved by blending it with polyethylene co chlorotrifluoroethylene) (ECTFE; tradename Halar) so that it can be suitable for injection molding. The special advantage of this method is that molecular weight of the blend will not decrease so much as by adding nucleating agents. That is to say, the mechanical strength of the blend will not decrease very much compared with that of virgin PET.

Determination Of Aromatic Amines By Diazonium Salt, Hong-Hue Hsu

Theses

There are many analytical methods used in the identification of aniline by the production of various colors upon treatment with certain reagents. In this work a new inexpensive, easy and sensitive methods to quantitate aniline is developed. The change of absorbance is large enough to measure with a difference of only 1 ppm in the aniline concentration.

In this method, the reagent (2,4-dinitrodiazonium sulphate) which reacts with aniline produces a yellow color. Formation of this color (which absorbs at 486 nm) indicates the presence of aniline. The amount of aniline can be determined by measuring the absorbance at 486 nm. …

Computer Analysis Of The Electrocardiogram Using Hardware Digital Signal Processing, Mohammad Ashfaque Shaikh

Theses

A system based on the microcomputer IBM PC-AT has been realized to acquire and filter the clinical electrocardiogram (ECG) data in real time. The system program further detects and analyzes the ECG signals for possible cardiac arrhythmias.

This research is based on work done by previous researchers and achieves significant goals towards achieving on-line arrhythmia detection using a microcomputer. The system uses the hardware and software package ASPI 320/PC from Atlanta Signal Processors Inc. This hardware configuration uses a special purpose instrumentation microprocessor ( TMS32010 from Texas Instruments) to coprocess the ECG signals. Coprocessing the signals with the ASPI 320/PC …

Development Of A Knowledge-Based System For Human Error Analysis, Bang-Chiang Sung

Theses

Human Factors is one of several essential issues in a discussion of system productivity. Its consideration must be included in the design, development, operation, and maintenance of any human-machine system. In order to maximize the system productivity, humans must perform with their maximum possible efficiency. To achieve this, all human-related activities must be evaluated to determine their possible causes of errors and the consequences. Then, if unable to completely remove, the causes of human errors must be minimized.

This thesis integrates a knowledge of expert system into an analysis of human errors. Its objective is to develop a knowledge-based system …

The Strategic Planning Dilemma In American Manufacturing, James Andrew Kiray

Theses

The decline of American manufacturing competitiveness is a highly publicized and controversial issue. This publicity has led to a panacea of solutions being offered to this problem. As a result, many conflicting viewpoints have emerged, which have aided in making any solution to this problem extremely difficult. Top executives have been inundated with recommendations for change, causing confusion at all levels of management.

In an effort to define the underlying problems existing within the American strategic planning process, this author has selected current literature which supports his own views, and has expended upon these views.

Once these underlying problems are …

Simulation Of Aids Patient Detoxification By An Extracorporeal Device And Related Experimental Studies, Mansoor Yusuf Kapadvanjwala

Theses

A simple numerical simulation of an AIDS patient detoxification by an extracorporeal device for the removal of virus has been designed. The mathematical model accounts for healthy white cells (W) attacking and destroying the virus (V), while at the same time the virus attacks and infects certain white cells. The infected white cells (W_i) serve as a site for viral growth, and finally the cell is lysed, releasing a large number of viruses in the blood stream. This model can be used to predict concentrations over a given period for the patient.

The device incorporates an antitwister mechanism …

A Productivity Measurement System For Human Resources Management, Vivian C. Keenan

Theses

A Productivity Measurement System was designed to meet the needs of a company's Human Resources management. This thesis presents the design, testing, and implementation of this system.

During the design stage, the jobs and main activities were identified and the key volume indicators were established. Data was collected using time studies, work sampling techniques and historical data. Time studies and historical data were used primarily to measure the information for the activities. Work sampling techniques proved to be very effective in obtaining measurements for personal time and unavoidable delays.

The data was analyzed and time standards were set for the …

Clinical Base Station For Portable Patient Monitoring Equipment, Silin Kuang

Theses

In today's clinical environment, where it is not always desirable to have a computer terminal present, a microcontroller-based biomedical system with multi-purpose features is needed. The present work offers an approach for a clinical based desktop workstation that provides the physician with record files, general management of his patient group, and specific algorithms for patient or group analyses. The workstation has the capabilities to acquire a large number of data from a portable patient monitoring device, generate a hard copy graphic record, create a patient cardfile and an . office personnel loggin file, and check patient's appointment and emergency list. …

Istemcr : Integrated System For Truck Engine Monitoring Via Cellular Radio, Tse-Shan Pan

Theses

The study presented is aimed at the application of the Data Acquisition to The Truck Engine as the source of all the signals, with the mobile telephone Cellular Radio system.

Data Extraction And Analysis In Glucose Monitor, Chang Qian

Theses

For the purpose of building a workstation to read and analyze data from hand-held, home use glucose monitor, a new high performance Digital Oscilloscope Peripheral (DOP) for PC is used to easy sample and store data, and it is described here. The new features of DOP are discussed and some application software packages for different purpose are described here in detail.

Since the sampled data from the hand-held, home use glucose monitor is irregular and in random form, the Least-Square Polynomial Modeling Method is used to produce a fit curve line, which best goes through most data points. Using the …

Implementation Of A Cross Coupled Phase Locked Loop System With Closed Loop Amplitude Control, Behzad Sadeghi

Theses

A system was designed, to demodulate an FM signal in presence of an interfering signal whose frequency was very close to the desired signal, this system was implemented and tested based on the theory of cross coupled phase locked loop systems, originaly proposed by (1).

This system included two phase locked loops for the purpose of demodulation, two low pass filters and two integrators, for the purpose of amplitude estimation. Two additional phase locked loops were designed to act as a 90° phase shifter. The following is the result of the theory, design procedure and some tabulated data for this …

Oxidation Of Toluene, Benzene And P-Xylene In A Photoreactor, Shiey-Shiun Horng

Theses

A new photoreactor was designed with stainless steel to oxidize refractory chemicals found on the EPA priority list. This new system was investigated by conducting experiments with three three model compounds, namely, toluene benzene and p-xylene. While toluene and benzene reactions are similar, they are faster with UV/ozone than UV/H₂O₂ and p-xylene reacts even faster with UV/ozone than UV/H₂O₂. The experimental data obtained were analyzed by GC and used to interpret the reaction kinetics from proposed models. The rate constants and mass transfer coefficients were found by using the Rosenbsrock Hillclimb optimization algorithm. …

A Word Based Data Compression Using Arithmetic Encoding, Christopher Dean Peckham

Theses

It is usually difficult to compress data from a statistically unknown source and yield a good compression ratio. Using the fact that words are the fundamental basis of the written language, a data compression scheme based on words should yield high compression ratios. Discussed here is a compression scheme that gathers words from the source stream and places them in a dictionary, or word list, to use later in the coding, thereby becoming adaptive to the words in a given file without prior knowledge of the source. When a word is in the word dictionary, it is encoded by its …

Logic Design Using Programmable Logic Devices, Loc Bao Nguyen

Dissertations and Theses

The Programmable Logic Devices, PLO, have caused a major impact in logic design of digital systems in this decade. For instance, a twenty pin PLO device can replace from three hundreds to six hundreds Transistor Transistor Logic gates, which people have designed with since the 60s. Therefore, by using PLD devices, designers can squeeze more features, reduce chip counts, reduce power consumption, and enhance the reliability of the digital systems.

This thesis covers the most important aspects of logic design using PLD devices. They are Logic Minimization and State Assignment. In addition, the thesis also covers a seldomly used but …

The Effects Of Low Doses (1 To 500 Kilograys) Of 100-Kev Electrons On Four Polymers, Cynthia Anne Bradbury

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Commercial films of polyetherimide (PEI), polyetheretherimide (PEEI), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polycarbonate (PC) were exposed in vacuum to l 00-keV electron radiation to total absorbed doses of l, l 0, l 00, 300, and 500 kilograys. The concentration of radiation-generated radicals, as measured by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), increased by over an order of magnitude in all four polymers. Correspondingly, the intensity of the infrared absorption peaks increased uniformly for all doses. Solubility tests resulted in decreased solubility in all polymers. IR, EPR, and solubility suggest dehydrogenation of the aliphatic C-H and phenyl C-H sites. The data indicated that cross …

Reactions Of Diketones With Phosphorous Ylides, Amal Mohamed Lakany

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Viscous Shock Layer Analysis Of Hypersonic Flows Over Long Slender Vehicles, Kam-Pui Lee

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A method for solving the viscous shock-layer equations for hypersonic flows over long slender bodies is presented. The governing equations are solved by employing a spatial-marching implicit finite-difference technique. The two first-order equations, continuity and normal momentum, are solved simultaneously as a coupled set. This method yields a simple and computationally efficient technique.

Flows past hyperboloids and sphere cones with body half angles of five to 35 degrees are considered. The flow conditions included are from high Reynolds numbers at low altitudes to low Reynolds numbers at high altitudes. Detailed comparisons have been made with other predictions and experimental data …

Atamm Multicomputer System Design, William Robert Tymchyshyn

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The Algorithm To Architecture Mapping Model, or ATAMM, is a graph theoretic design methodology that has been created to resolve design and performance issues involved with concurrent processing. Petri-net marked graphs are used to represent the computational environment.

This thesis describes the development of a multicomputer system which will operate within the bounds specified by the ATAMM model. The system is first designed and implemented using the framework of standard multicomputer design theory. A validation is then performed by the comparison of the system's computational performance to results predicted by ATAMM. This validation is shown to be successful for three …

Effect Of Fabric On Stress-Strain Relation, Volume Change, And Dynamic Shear Modulus Of Ottawa Sand, Ming-Tarng Chen

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

To evaluate the effect of fabric on stress-strain behavior, volume change, and the dynamic shear modulus of Ottawa sand, four series of tests on hollow cylindrical specimens were performed by a torsional simple shear/resonant apparatus. All specimens were first isotropically consolidated, and then sheared along the different stress paths while keeping the mean effective stress constant. The test results showed that depositional fabric had a slight influence on the stress-strain behavior, and one half-cycle of pre-shearing created a clear anisotropy on the stress-strain response. The intermediate principal stress had a dominant effect on volume change characteristics but it might not …

Application Of Advanced Grid Generation Techniques For Flow Field Computations About Complex Configurations, Monchai Kathong

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In the computation of flow fields about complex configurations, it is very difficult to construct a boundary-fitted coordinate system. An alternative approach is to use several grids at once, each of which is generated independently. This procedure is called the "multiple grids" or "zonal grids" approach, and its applications are investigated in this study. The method is a conservative approach and provides conservation of fluxes at grid interfaces. The Euler equations are solved numerically on such grids for various configurations. The numerical scheme used is the finite-volume technique with a three-stage Runge-Kutta time integration. The code is vectorized and programmed …

A Finite Element Formulation For The Large Deflection Random Response Of Thermally Buckled Structures, James Eugene Locke

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The effects of temperature and acoustic loading are included in a theoretical finite element large deflection formulation for thin, isotropic plate and beam type structures. Thermal loads are applied as steady-state temperature distributions, and acoustic loads are taken to be stationary and Gaussian with zero mean and uniform magnitude and phase over the surface of the structure. Material properties are considered to be independent of temperature. Also, inplane and rotary inertia terms are assumed to be neglegible, and all inplane edge conditions are taken to be immovable. For the random vibration analysis, cross correlation terms are included.

The nature of …

Numerical Simulation Of Turbulent Flows Past Three-Dimensional Cavities, Shivakumar Srinivasan

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Computations have been performed to simulate turbulent supersonic, transonic, and subsonic flows past three-dimensional deep, transitional, and shallow cavities. Simulation of these self sustained oscillatory flows has been generated through time accurate solutions of Reynolds averaged full Navier-Stokes equations using the explicit MacCormack scheme. The Reynolds stresses have been modeled, using the Baldwin-Lomax algebraic turbulence model with certain modifications. The computational results include instantaneous and time averaged flow properties everywhere in the computational domain. Time series analyses have been performed for the instantaneous pressure values on the cavity floor. Comparison with experimental data is made in terms of the mean …

Calculations Of Three-Dimensional Transonic Flows Using The Implicit Formulation Of The Isenthalpic Euler Equations With Flux Vector Splitting, Frank E. Cannizzaro

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A numerical method for solving three-dimensional transonic flows using the isenthalpic formulation of the Euler equations is developed. The method uses van Leer's flux vector splitting to solve the implicit formulation of the governing equations, which are applied to a cell centered finite-volume scheme. A three factor spatial approximate factorization is implemented in solving the implicit part of the governing equations. Time marching to a steady state solution requires short computational times due to the relative efficiency of the basic method. Computational times are further reduced by the implementation of the multigrid acceleration technique, which provided converged solutions in approximately …