Engineering Commons^™

System For And Method Of Performing Evaluation Techniques On A Log Or Round Timber, Xiping Wang, Robert J. Ross, James A. Mattson, John Erickson, John W. Forsman, Earl A. Geske, Michael A. Wehr

Michigan Tech Patents

A system for and method of evaluating a log. The system includes an analysis module having at least one input terminal connectable to the at least one input device. The at least one input terminal is operable to receive at least one signal representing at least one measured property of the log and at least one determined parameter of the log determined in response to an energy being applied to the log. The analysis module further includes a processor coupled to the at least one input terminal. The processor determines a predictive modulus of elasticity (MOE) of the log based …

Coversion Of Hexamine Dinitrate Into Dinitro Pentamethylene Tetramine: Follow-Up And Kinetic Model Selection, Hany A. Elazab

Chemical Engineering

Synthesis of cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine through the action of nitrating mixture formed of ammonium nitrate and fuming nitric acid on hexamine in presence of acetic acid, acetic anhydride and p-formaldehyde has been proven. The pathway is relatively long and hexamine dinitrate and dinitro pentamethylene tetramine (DPT) are two of the main intermediate compounds. The former was prepared, purified, and then characterized. Conversion of this compound into the latter has been followed up experimentally. Different kinetic models have been tested.

Technology For Exploration, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A published article that included Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Technology for Exploration" from May 12, 2006.

Cement Stabilization Of Aggregate Base Materials Blended With Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement, Ashley Vannoy Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) content and cement content on the strength and durability of recycled aggregate base materials. Specifically, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and final dielectric value in the Tube Suction Test (TST) were measured in a full-factorial experimental design including five RAP contents, five cement contents, and three replicate specimens of each possible treatment. Specimen mixtures consisted of 0, 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent RAP and 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 percent Type I/II Portland cement. Both the RAP and base materials were sampled from …

Communications Protocol For Rf-Based Indoor Wireless Localization Systems, Tamas Kasza, Mohammad Mehdi Shahsavari, Veton Z. Këpuska

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

A novel application-specific communications scheme for RF-based indoor wireless localization networks is proposed. In such a system wireless badges, attached to people or objects, report positions to wireless router units. Badges have very limited communication, energy, and processing capabilities. Routers are responsible for propagating collected badge information hop-by-hop toward one central unit of the system and are significantly less constrained by battery than the badges. Each unit can radiate a special sequence of bits at selected frequencies, so that any router in the wireless neighborhood can sense, store, aggregate and forward Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) information. Once the central …

Intelligent Routing Protocol For Ad Hoc Wireless Network, Chaorong Peng, Chang Wen Chen

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

A novel routing scheme for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), which combines hybrid and multi-inter-routing path properties with a distributed topology discovery route mechanism using control agents is proposed in this paper. In recent years, a variety of hybrid routing protocols for Mobile Ad hoc wireless networks (MANETs) have been developed. Which is proactively maintains routing information for a local neighborhood, while reactively acquiring routes to destinations beyond the global. The hybrid protocol reduces routing discovery latency and the end-to-end delay by providing high connectivity without requiring much of the scarce network capacity. On the other side the hybrid routing …

Characterization Of Transmission Lines At Ir, Tasneem A. Mandviwala, José Manuel López-Alonso, Brian A. Lail, Glenn D. Boreman

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

We demonstrate the first long wave infrared (LWIR) transmission line design and characterization. Two of the widely used transmission-lines: coplanar striplines (CPS) and microstrip (MS) lines are characterized at IR frequency (28.3THz), in terms of transmission line parameters: characteristic impedance (Z₀, attenuation constant (α) and effective index of refraction (nᵉᶠᶠ), through modeling, fabrication and measurement. These transmission-line parameters cannot be directly measured, what can be measured is the antenna response. So we compute, measure and compare the response of the dipole antenna connected to these transmission lines as a function of transmission-line length. The response depends on the transformation of …

A Study Of Model Integration In Conjunction With The Extensible Model Definition Format, Melanie A. Fife

Theses and Dissertations

A considerable amount of research has been done to connect or integrate separate numerical models. The Environmental Modeling Research Laboratory (EMRL) has developed a generic file format, the eXtensible Model Data Format (XMDF). One of the objectives of the XMDF project is to facilitate the spatial interpolation and data-sharing necessary when linking models. The objective of this research is to investigate how model linking capabilities can be added to the XMDF by defining a Model Linkage Object (MLO) that is compatible with current model linking frameworks. A potential design for an MLO is defined in this thesis after a detailed …

Early Moral Sense : Behavioral Self-Regulation, Temperament, And Prosocial Behavior In Young Children In Child-Centered Classrooms, Elizabeth Alliene Vale

Dissertations and Theses

Development of moral sense is a fundamental part of human development and the earliest manifestations of moral sense are of particular interest because it may be important to foster these behaviors early in life. However, despite many important discoveries about these moral sense behaviors over the last several decades, no consensus exists as to how these behaviors emerge and differ as a function of age.

The primary goal of the current research was to explore the development of multiple behaviors that reflect moral sense in very young children, aged 4 to 36 months. More specifically, the goals were: (1) to …

Job Insecurity And Work-Family Conflict: The Organizational, Situational, And Individual Influences On The Job Strain Process, Khatera Sahibzada

Dissertations and Theses

Globalization, new technologies, downsizing, and a shift from manufacturing to service-based economies have led to an increase in job insecurity, resulting in deleterious effects on employee work attitudes and behaviors. However, the literature has failed to examine the impact of job insecurity on work-family outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between job insecurity and work-family conflict. The specific research questions addressed were: (a) does job strain mediate the relationship between job insecurity and work-family conflict? and (b) is the relationship between job insecurity and work-family conflict moderated by individual, situational and organizational perceptions? …

An Adaptive Distributed Data Aggregation Based On Rcpc For Wireless Sensor Networks, Guogang Hua, Chang Wen Chen

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

One of the most important design issues in wireless sensor networks is energy efficiency. Data aggregation has significant impact on the energy efficiency of the wireless sensor networks. With massive deployment of sensor nodes and limited energy supply, data aggregation has been considered as an essential paradigm for data collection in sensor networks. Recently, distributed source coding has been demonstrated to possess several advantages in data aggregation for wireless sensor networks. Distributed source coding is able to encode sensor data with lower bit rate without direct communication among sensor nodes. To ensure reliable and high throughput transmission with the aggregated …

Information-Aware Collaborative Routing In Wireless Sensor Network, Ji Sun Lee, Chang Wen Chen

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this paper, we propose a new approach to routing protocol called information-aware collaborative routing for wireless sensor networks. Clustering and local data aggregation schemes have been developed to reduce the energy for transmitting redundant data in the wireless sensor network. Most existing approaches have been developed for the cases when there is direct communication between cluster head and base station. Even though these schemes are able to reduce data redundancy to be transmitted from the cluster heads to the base station, they have not exploited the data redundancy between neighboring clusters. In this research, we study a more general …

Thermal Analysis Of Adsorbed Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) On Silica, Frank D. Blum, Erin N. Young, Gregory Smith, Oliver C. Sitton

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Modulated differential scanning calorimetry has been used to quantify the glass transitions of small, adsorbed amounts of poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) on silica. While a relatively narrow, single glass transition was found for bulk PMMA, broader two-component transitions were found for the adsorbed polymer. a two-state model based on loosely bound polymer (glass transition similar to bulk) and more tightly bound polymer (glass transition centered around 156°C) was used to interpret the thermograms. on the basis of this model, the amount of tightly bound polymer was found to be approximately 1.3 mg/m 2, corresponding to a 1.1 nm thick layer. …

Microrobot For Surgical Applications: United States Patent No. Us 7,042,184 B2, Dmitry Oleynikov, Shane Farritor, Adnan Hadzialic, Stephen R. Platt

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

The present invention provides a micro-robot for use inside the body during minimally-invasive surgery. The microrobot may include various sensors, imaging devices or manipulators.

Effects Of Hydrogen On The Phases And Transition Temperatures Of Niti, Amanda Runciman, Katherine C. Chen, Alan R. Pelton, Christine Trepanier

Materials Engineering

Austenitic (B2) NiTi samples were cathodically charged with various amounts of hydrogen. Trends are tracked based on temperature, time and voltage throughout the process to establish consistent and predictive hydrogen charging procedures. The effect of hydrogen on the austenitic structure and the formation of hydrides are studied with x-ray diffraction (XRD). An increase in the austenite lattice parameter with increased hydrogen content is observed up to a hydrogen solubility limit of approximately 85 wppm. At greater hydrogen concentrations, additional XRD peaks appear, suggesting possible hydride formation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results show a decrease in both the austenitic and martensitic …

First Impressions : A Study Of The Relationship Between Presenting Problems And Clinical Perception, Holly Elizabeth Fussell

Dissertations and Theses

Processes involved in clinical perception typically result in tangible outcomes of interest to clients and practitioners (e.g., diagnoses). In developing an overall impression of clients, practitioners integrate information related to target problems clients present. Substance abuse counselors, in particular, are increasingly being asked to assess clients for co-occurring problems. Domestic violence has been identified as a particularly salient co-occurring problem associated with substance abuse.

This dissertation draws on theory by Solomon Asch (1946, 1952) to examine how presenting problems such as domestic violence shape clinical outcomes and processes in substance abuse assessment interviews. Most clinical interactions occur, however, under confidential …

Simulations Of A New Continuous Steelmaking Process, Jorg Annie Peter, Kent D. Peaslee, D. G. C. Robertson

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new continuous steelmaking process has been designed in an effort to reduce meltshop costs and increase productivity beyond the possibilities of current EAF-LMF-CC meltshops. This paper discusses possible operational performance based on industrially-verified kinetic, thermodynamic, and heat-transfer models. Dynamic simulations predict variations in steel chemistry and temperature, resulting from steel treatment and upsets. Savings in costs are projected because of increased metallic yield, lower energy requirements, more efficient use of deoxidants and alloys, fewer man-hours per ton, and decreased capital investment.

Tile Size Selection For Low-Power Tile-Based Architectures, John Y. Oliver, Ravishankar Rao, Michael Brown, Jennifer Mankin, Diana Franklin, Frederic T. Chong, Venkatesh Akella

Electrical Engineering

In this paper, we investigate the power implications of tile size selection for tile-based processors. We refer to this investigation as a tile granularity study. This is accomplished by distilling the architectural cost of tiles with different computational widths into a system metric we call the Granularity Indicator (GI). The GI is then compared against the communications exposed when algorithms are partitioned across multiple tiles. Through this comparison, the tile granularity that best fits a given set of algorithms can be determined, reducing the system power for that set of algorithms. When the GI analysis is applied to the Synchroscalar …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2006, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

United States Patent: Sound Generating Apparatus For Use With Gloves And Similar Articles, Jan A. Frohman, James L. Jorgensen

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

The present invention is directed to a sound generating apparatus, including an article adapted to be worn on a user's hand, and an electronic assembly attached to the article. It further includes structure for generating a sound within the electronic assembly. Still further, it includes an actuator for energizing the electronic assembly to emit the sound.

Robust Image Transmission Over Mimo Space-Time Coded Wireless Systems, Daewon Song, Chang Wen Chen

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present in this paper an integrated robust image transmission scheme using space-time block codes (STBC) over multi-input multi-output (MIMO) wireless systems. First, in order to achieve an excellent error resilient capability, multiple bitstreams are generated based on wavelet trees along the spatial orientations. The spatial-orientation trees in the wavelet domain are individually encoded using SPIHT. Error propagation is thus limited within each bitstreams. Then, Reed-Solomon (R-S) codes as forward error correction (FEC) are adopted to combat transmission errors over error-prone wireless channels and to detect residual errors so as to avoid error propagation in each bitstream. FEC can reduce …

Unconventional Optical Imaging Using A High Speed, Neural Network Based Smart Sensor, William W. Arrasmith

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The advancement of neural network methods and technologies is finding applications in many fields and disciplines of interest to the defense, intelligence, and homeland security communities. Rapidly reconfigurable sensors for real or near-real time signal or image processing can be used for multi-functional purposes such as image compression, target tracking, image fusion, edge detection, thresholding, pattern recognition, and atmospheric turbulence compensation to name a few. A neural network based smart sensor is described that can accomplish these tasks individually or in combination, in real-time or near real-time. As a computationally intensive example, the case of optical imaging through volume turbulence …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, Volume 22, Number 7, May 2006, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

An eight page newsletter created by the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science that addresses the current affairs of the college.

Combining Multiple Scoring Systems For Video Target Tracking Based On Rank-Score Function Variation, D. Frank Hsu, Damian M. Lyons, Jizhou Ai

Faculty Publications

Tracking of video targets is the process of estimating the current and predicting the future state of a target from a sequence of video sensor measurements. Multitarget video tracking is complicated by the fact that targets can occlude one another and affect video feature measurements in a highly non-linear and difficult to model fashion., Tracking multiple targets that undergo repeated mutual occlusions is a challenging problem with several issues to be addressed. In this paper we propose a multisensory fusion approach to the problem of multitarget video tracking with occlusion. Each sensory cue is treated as a scoring system on …

Using Matlab(C) To Design A Program That Analyze And Compare Zero Correlation Zone Codes With Various Orthogonal And Pseudo Noise Seeds, Reginald L. Cooper

Electronic Dissertations and Theses

Under the direction of Dr. Ernest L. Walker, professor of electrical engineering at Southern University and A & M College, Baton Rouge, LA, the author conducted research under the DOE-NNSA Dr. Samuel P. Massie Chair of Excellence grant, and the AFRL grant. Under these grants the author research information on Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) sequence for Ad hoc Wireless Sensing Networks (AWSN). The focus of this research was to simulate and analyzing CDMA code sets known as the zero-correlation zone (ZCZ) coding, and how its usage reduces multiple access interference (MAI), and the effects of the near far problem. ZCZ …

Acuta Enews May 2006, Vol. 35, No. 5

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Nominees for ACUTA Board of Directors 2006-2007

From ACUTA Headquarters................. Jeri A. Semer, CAE, ACUTA Executive Director

Info Links................. Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern Iowa

Tech Talk: R U Protected from the Dangers of IM?.................. Kevin Tanzillo, DUX PR

Audio Seminar: Wireless Network Security

Be a Monitor or Moderator at the Annual Conference

Web Tip: Conference 2006: Register & Details Online....... Aaron Fuehrer, ACUTA Information Tech. Mgr.

Dues Notices to Mail May 1

Board Report................. Riny Ledgerwood, San Diego State Univ., ACUTA Sec./Treasurer

DC Update..................... Whitney Johnson, Retired, NO. Michigan Univ.

Welcome New Members

ACUTA Online Press …

Economics Of Engineering Design Under Interval (And Fuzzy) Uncertainty: Case Study Of Building Design, Carlos M. Ferregut, Jan Beck, Araceli Sanchez, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the main objectives of engineering design is to find a design that is the cheapest among all designs that satisfy given constraints. Most of the constraints must be satisfied under all possible values within certain ranges. Checking all possible combinations of values is often very time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a faster algorithm for checking such constraints.

Growth Rates Under Interval Uncertainty, Janos Hajagos, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

For many real-life systems ranging from financial to population-related to medical, dynamics is described by a system of linear equations. For such systems, the growth rate lambda can be determined as the largest eigenvalue of the corresponding matrix A. In many practical situations, we only know the components of the matrix A with interval (or fuzzy) uncertainty. In such situations, it is desirable to find the range of possible values of lambda. In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm for computing lambda for a practically important case when all the components of the matrix A are non-negative.

Interval And Fuzzy Techniques In Business-Related Computer Security: Intrusion Detection, Privacy Protection, Mohsen Beheshti, Jianchao Han, Luc Longpre, Scott A. Starks, J. Ivan Vargas, Gang Xiang

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

E-commerce plays an increasingly large role in business. As a result, business-related computer security becomes more and more important. In this talk, we describe how interval and fuzzy techniques can help in solving related computer security problems.

Biotreatment Of Synthetic Drill-Cutting Waste In Soil, Laleh Rastegarzadeh, Yarrow Nelson, Todd G. Ririe

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Oil and gas drilling operations create drill cutting wastes around the world. Drill cutting waste includes synthetic drilling fluids typically consisting of petroleum-based compounds mixed with clay-type materials and water. Biological treatment is an effective means of disposing of drill cutting wastes, but proper biodegradation conditions are critical. In this study biological treatment of drill cutting wastes containing Saraline® (synthetic paraffin mineral oil) was examined using a variety of amendments to study the effect of different conditions on the biodegradability of synthetic drill cutting wastes. Soil was collected from a drilling site in Southeast Asia and soil microcosms were incubated …