Engineering Commons^™

Object-Oriented Architecture For Concurrent Processes In A Port Simulation, Reejo Mathew

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

An architectural model to represent the resources and infrastructure within a cargo terminal, as well as to support the concurrent but opposite flow of cargo within the terminal, is presented in this thesis. The model supports the configuration of an individual cargo terminal according to its characteristics, as well as the processing involved in the simultaneous flow of cargo in opposite directions through the terminal. This is useful in the analysis of the flow of military cargo and aids the decision-making process to increase the efficiency and throughput of any military operation. This model has been developed with the aim …

Approaching High Fidelity Human Tracking And Representation In Interactive Virtual Environments, Taimur K. Khan

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis revolves around an Office of Naval Research (ONR) grant known as Virtual Environments for Training (VET). The primary goal is to determine the effectiveness of an immersive environment for training; the secondary goal is to compare the results of this study to a similar study conducted in an environment that is less immersive.

Effectiveness will be determined by the performance of trainees manning a virtual military checkpoint. A four-wall immersive environment employing cave technology will be compared to a three dimensional desktop version of the scenarios employed in the more immersive environment. In order to make this comparison, …

An Under-Hand Steering Wheel Grasp Produces Significant Risk To The Upper Extremity During Airbag Deployment, Patrick J. Atkinson, Prem Hariharan, Shresta Mari-Gowda, Paul Telehowski, Sidney Martin, Jack Van Hoof, Cynthia Bir, Theresa Atkinson

Crash Safety Center Publications

Recent laboratory investigations suggest that a deploying airbag may fracture the forearm. These studies positioned the arm in an overhand grasp placing the forearm over the airbag module. However, there is little published data on how drivers grip the steering wheel and the general proximity of the upper extremity to the airbag module. The objective of the current study was to identify 'real world' upper extremity positions and to correlate these with accident and experimental data. A survey of the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) for the years 1995-99 revealed an increase in the number of forearm fractures due to …

Near-Band-Edge Photoluminescence Of Wurtzite-Type Aln, E. Kuokstis, J. Zhang, Q. Fareed, J. W. Yang, Grigory Simin, M. Asif Khan, R. Gaska, M. Shur, C. Rojo, L. Schowalter

Faculty Publications

Temperature-dependentphotoluminescence(PL)measurements were performed for A-plane and C-plane bulk AlN single crystals and epitaxial layers on sapphire. A strong near-band-edge (NBE) emission and deep-level luminescence were observed. At low excitations, the emission spectra are dominated by free and bound excitonic transitions and their LO-phonon replicas. At high excitations, the broadening and redshift of the NBE band is attributed to dense electron–hole plasma formation. The PL spectra differences of bulk single crystals and epilayers is explained by the electron–hole plasma expansion peculiarities.

An Under-Hand Steering Wheel Grasp Produces Significant Risk To The Upper Extremity During Airbag Deployment, Patrick J. Atkinson, Prem Hariharan, Shresta Mari-Gowda, Paul Telehowski, Sidney Martin, Jack Van Hoof, Cynthia Bir, Theresa Atkinson

Mechanical Engineering Presentations And Conference Materials

Recent laboratory investigations suggest that a deploying airbag may fracture the forearm. These studies positioned the arm in an overhand grasp placing the forearm over the airbag module. However, there is little published data on how drivers grip the steering wheel and the general proximity of the upper extremity to the airbag module. The objective of the current study was to identify 'real world' upper extremity positions and to correlate these with accident and experimental data. A survey of the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) for the years 1995-99 revealed an increase in the number of forearm fractures due to …

Development Of A Mechanistic Understanding Of High-Temperature Deformation Of Alloy Ep-823 For Transmutation Applications: Annual Progress Report (September 2001 – August 2002), Ajit K. Roy, Brendan O'Toole

Transmutation Sciences Materials (TRP)

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the elevated temperature tensile properties of Alloy EP-823, a leading target material for accelerator-driven waste transmutation applications. This alloy has been proven to be an excellent structural material to contain the lead-bismuth-eutectic (LBE) nuclear coolant needed for fast spectrum operations. Very little data exist in the open literature on the tensile properties of this alloy. The test material will be thermally treated prior to the evaluation of its tensile properties at temperatures relevant to the transmutation applications. The deformation characteristics of tensile specimens, upon completion of testing, will be evaluated by surface …

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model Of The Chemical Separations Process, Yitung Chen, Randy Clarksean, Darrell Pepper

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The AAA program is developing technology for the transmutation of nuclear waste to address many of the long-term disposal issues. An integral part of this program is the proposed chemical separations scheme. This process, as envisioned by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) researchers, will be outlined later in this report.

Nearly all issues related to risks to future generations arising from long-term disposal of such spent nuclear fuel is attributable to ~1% of its content. This 1% is made up primarily of plutonium, neptunium, americium, and curium (the transuranic elements) and long-lived isotopes of iodine and technetium created as products from …

Methods Of Modifying Lignin In Plants By Transformation With A 4-Coumarate Coenzyme A Ligase Nucleic Acid, Vincent Lee C. Chiang, Chung-Jui Tsai, Wen-Jing Hu

Michigan Tech Patents

The invention pertains to methods of altering growth, lignin content, coniferyl and sinapyl alcohol units in the lignin structure, disease resistance and cellulose content in plants by transformation with a lignin pathway p-coumarate Co-enzyme A ligase (4CL) nucleic acid.

An Approach To Sequence Dna Without Tagging, Sanjun Niu, Ravi F. Saraf

Papers in Biotechnology

Microarray technology is playing an increasingly important role in biology and medicine and its application to genomics for gene expression analysis has already reached the market with a variety of commercially available instruments. In these combinatorial analysis methods, known probe single-strand DNA (ssDNA) ‘primers’ are attached in clusters of typically 100 μm × 100 μm pixels. Each pixel of the array has a slightly different sequence. On exposure to ‘unknown’ target ssDNA, the pixels with the right complementary probe ssDNA sequence convert to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) by a hybridization reaction. To transduct the conversion of the pixel to dsDNA, the …

Trends. War On Personality And Personality And War: Comments On Nass And Lee (2002), Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses another article – Identity and deconstruction, by Clifford Nass and Kwan Min Yee – published in volume 3 (2002) of Archives of Psychiatry & Psychotherapy in which the authors demonstrate that people reliably attribute personality characteristics to computer-synthesized speech, exploring the ramifications in a political psychological context.

Self-Assembled Networks With Neural Computing Attributes, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay, L. Menon, N. Kouklin, P. F. Williams, Natale J. Ianno

P. F. (Paul Frazer) Williams Publications

Two-dimensional arrays of vertical quantum wire Esaki tunnel diodes, laterally connected to their nearest neighbors by resistive/capacitive connections, constitute a powerful and versatile neuromorphic architecture that can function as classical Boolean logic circuits, associative memory, image processors, and combinatorial optimizers. In this paper, we discuss the basic philosophy behind adopting this architecture for nanoelectronic circuits and report on our experimental progress towards synthesizing this system.

Darpa, Robert J. Twiggs, Jordi Puig-Suari, Brian Horias

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professors Bob Twiggs, Jordi Puig-Suari, and Brian Horais titled "DARPA" from September 18, 2002.

An Algorithm Applicable To Clearing Combinatorial Exchanges, Marius Silaghi

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

It is important to approach negotiations in a way that ensures privacy. So far, research has focused on securely solving restricted classes of negotiation techniques, mainly the (M+1)-st-price auctions. Here we show how these results can be adapted to more general problems. This paper extends our previous results on how distributed finite discrete problems can be solved securely. Such problems can model larger classes of negotiation problems, .e.g. Combinatorial Exchanges [Sil02]. In Finite Discrete Maximization, each tuple in the problem space is associated with an integer value in a predefined interval and we search for a maximizing input. Values from …

Fatigue Thresholds Of Cracks Resulting From Impact Damage To Γ-Tial, Trevor S. Harding, J. Wayne Jones

Materials Engineering

Significant research has been conducted in recent years on the γ-based titanium aluminide alloys. The low density of γ-TiAl relative to current nickel-based superalloys, has made it an attractive candidate for use in the low-pressure turbine blades of gas turbine engines . In addition to weight savings, the lower density leads to higher specific stiffness and good high temperature strength retention [1, 2 and 3]. However, the ordered crystal structure, typical of intermetallics, leads to inherently low room temperature ductility and fracture toughness. This raises serious concerns about the ability of this material to resist the formation of cracks at …

Trends. Aviation Security: Problems In Arguments Against Arming Pilots, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses a press release from the Violence Policy center, which strongly advocates against arming commercial airline pilots against terrorists.

Research Into Evaporative Cooling Of Buildings In Maritime Climates, Ben Costelloe, Donal Finn

Reports

Concern with environmental emissions has focused attention on traditional forms of energy use in buildings, with a view to reducing and making more rational use of energy consumption. One area of concern is the traditional, refrigeration based, commercial air conditioning system, which has high levels of electrical power consumption in fans and refrigeration compressors. There is also concern among building owners and design teams, supported by the PROBE series of post occupancy studies, conducted by the CIBSE, that many buildings, with traditional forms of air conditioning, under perform in terms of occupant satisfaction, ease of operation and control, maintenance costs …

Method For Sintering Ceramic Tapes, Fatih Dogan, Jian-Huei Feng, Lucian G. Ferguson

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Flexible Setter powder deposition sheets containing Setter powders were developed for Sintering of ceramic articles including tapes by an economical, fast and Simple method. The sheets provide for deposition of a thin and uniform layer of Setter powders on a green ceramic article after burnout of a binder in the sheet. Because of high Strength and low burnout temperature, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose binder is preferred for production of these sheets. Tape cast sheets with low Solids loading can be obtained by optimizing the wetting behavior of aqueous slurries on tape carrier. Setter, powder deposition sheets are of particular benefit in processing …

Performance Analysis Of A Maximum-Likelihood Speckle Motion Estimator, Donald D. Duncan, Sean J. Kirkpatrick

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presented herein is a performance analysis of a maximum likelihood estimator for calculating small speckle motions. Such estimators are important in a variety of speckle techniques used in non-destructive evaluation. The analysis characterizes the performance (bias and RMS deviation) of the estimator as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio. This SNR parameter is a convenient surrogate for decorrelation of sequential speckle patterns such as are seen in biological tissues. Although the particular estimator is predicated on speckle motions that are a small fraction of a pixel, accurate performance is demonstrated for instantaneous motions of up to ±0.8 pixel/record. Beyond this …

Trends. Aviation Security I: Stopping Asking, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the inclusion or exclusion of questions during airport security procedures.

Network Traffic Anomaly Detection Based On Packet Bytes, Philip K. Chan, Matthew V. Mahoney

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Hostile network traffic is often "different" from benign traffic in ways that can be distinguished without knowing the nature of the attack. We describe a two-stage anomaly detection system for identifying suspicious traffic. First, we filter traffic to pass only the packets of most interest, e.g., the first few packets of incoming server requests. Second, we model the most common protocols (IP, TCP, telnet, FTP, SMTP, HTTP) at the packet byte level to flag events (byte values) that have not been observed for a long time. This simple system detects 132 of 185 attacks in the 1999 DARPA IDS evaluation …

A Cubesat Derived Design For A Unique Commericial Science Application, Matthew R. Long, Eric Tapio, Glenn Tran, Greg Rodgers, Allen Lorenz, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

An article authored by Matthew R. Long, Eric Tapio, Glenn Tran, Greg Rodgers, Allen Lorenz, and Robert Twiggs titled "A CubeSat Derived Design for a Unique Commericial Science Application" from September 5, 2002.

Design Behaviours: The Innovation Advantage - The Multi-Faceted Role Of Design In Innovation, R. Cooper, A. Wootton, D. Hands, M. Economidou, M. Bruce, L. Daly, R. Harun

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design is a ‘good thing.’ “Use it well,” companies are often told, and you will reap the many rewards. But how exactly is design ‘used’ by the commercial organisation during NPD? As a complex activity that deals with at least as many intangible as tangible factors, how can design be constrained by any business process? And if businesses should adapt to gain more value from designers, in what ways should they change? Based on the results of Design Drivers, a three-year EPSRC-funded investigation, these are some of the questions that this paper seeks to answer. Examining the way in which …

Moisture Migration In Concrete Slabs During Drying, Niall Holmes, Roger West

Conference papers

This paper presents the profiles of relative humidity (RH) readings taken at various depths in concrete slabs during a time period of over 230 days using probes attached to a humidity-reading device. It also examines the effect ambient conditions have on the drying process. For the experimental work, two sets of slabs were tested, one in a controlled environment with an elevated temperature and the other in a laboratory at room temperatures. It was found, not surprisingly that the slabs in the controlled room appeared to dry out at a much faster rate than those held at room temperature. However, …

Field Testing And Computer Modeling To Characterize The Energy Impacts Of Air Handler Leakage, Florida Solar Energy Center, James Cummings

FSEC Energy Research Center®

In order to determine the impact of air handler location upon heating and cooling energy use, the amount of air leakage which occurs in the air handler cabinet needs to be known. Also, the leakage which occurs at the connections between the air handler cabinet and the return and supply plenums needs to be known as well because these connection leaks would also be located in the attic or any other location.

In order to assess this leakage, testing was performed on a total of 69 air conditioning systems. Thirty systems were tested in the year 2001 under funding from …

Impact Of Soil Type And Compaction Conditions On Soil Water Characteristic, C. J. Miller, N. Yesiller, K. Yaldo, S. Merayyan

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Tests were conducted to determine the variation of water content and pore water suction for compacted clayey soils. The soils had varying amounts of clay fraction with plasticities ranging from low to high plasticity. The unsaturated soil behavior was investigated for six conditions, covering a range of compactive efforts and water contents. The experimental data were fit to four commonly used models for the water content-pore water suction relationship. Each model provided a satisfactory fit to the experimental data. However, the individual parameters obtained from the curve fits varied significantly between models. The soil water characteristic curves (SWCCs) were more …

Introducing Molecular Biology To Environmental Engineers: Through Development Of A New Course, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The introduction of a course "Molecular Methods in Environmental Engineering" is discussed. The course is developed to address the growing national need for integrating geonomics and molecular biology into the engineering curriculum. Fifteen graduate students were successfully introduced to molecular biology through lectures and hands-on laboratory excercises following the "full-cycle 165 rRNA approach". The course helps in providing supportive and independent learning environment to the students.

Shared-Data Or Message Passing Computing Models – A Human Factor In Technical Choices, Angela Sodan, Luiz Fernando Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Ethyl Tert-Butyl Ether And Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether: Status, Review, And Alternative Use Exploring The Environmental Issues Of Mobile, Recalcitrant, Hossein Noureddini

Papers in Biomaterials

Petroleum products leaking from under ground storage tanks have raised concerns regarding the quality of ground water resources, The concerns about the environmental behavior and rate of MTBE as an oxygenated additive prompted this iuvestigation to explore the technical characteristics of MTBE in comparison to ETBF. Evaluation of the existing literature suggests that ETBE has more favorable characteristics than MTBE. Findings in this research suggest that ETBE is a technically sound oxygenated octane enhancer, which can help refiners meet specificatios for cleaner burning gasoline.

A Mechanical System For Soil Reconstruction, John Patrick Fulton, Larry G. Wells, Timothy D. Smith

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

One of the most perplexing problems associated with reclaiming surface–mined lands is excessive compaction of soil due to the heavy earthmoving equipment used during the reclamation process. Over the years, some innovative material handling schemes have been devised to limit vehicle traffic during reclamation on reconstructed soil. However, final grading operations can often create root–limiting bulk densities, which affect plant growth and yield. The purpose of this article is to describe a mechanism designed at the University of Kentucky whereby mine soil can be reconstructed without introducing compaction caused by surface traffic in order for the soil to sustain desirable …

Acuta Enews September 2002, Vol 31, No. 9

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

One Year Later at BMCC

Meeting Demands of Tech-Savvy Students......................... Jeanne Jansenius, Univ. of the South

Tech Talk: An Emerging Acronym.................... Kevin Tanzillo, Dux Public Relations

10 Things that Could Influence Your IP-PBX Purchasing Decision Allan Sulking, TEQ Consult Group

Web Site of the Quater

DC Update..................... Whitney Johnson, Retired, Northern Michigan Univ.

Press Takes Note of Higher Ed Telecom Issues.................Jeri Semer, CAE, Executive Director

Board Report...................... John Bradley, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Welcome New Members