Engineering Commons^™

Computational Sciences: At The Intersection Of Science And Engineering - Case Study For Academic And Research Programs, Menas Kafatos, P. A. Becker, Z. Boybeyi

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

No abstract provided.

Change In Conduction Velocity Due To 2d Fiber Curvature In Cultured Neonatal Rat Ventricular Myocytes, Elliot Blake Bourgeois

All ETDs from UAB

Continuum modeling of two-dimensional curved fiber fields has suggested that fiber curvature modulates conduction velocity (CV) in the myocardium. To verify the existence of this effect in living tissue, we measured CV in macroscopically anisotropic monolayers of cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes with controlled fiber curvature. A novel growthdirecting substrate was used to produce fiber fields with significant curvature (78°/cm to 333°/cm). Anisotropy ratios (longitudinal CV / transverse CV) measured in cultures grown using this method (n=32) were 2.3±0.3, which is similar to the anisotropy exhibited by human ventricular myocardium. Propagating wavefronts were initiated transverse to fiber orientation in two …

Network And Data Security, Chintan Dalwadi

All ETDs from UAB

With a growing number of users getting connected to the Internet and given their growing reliance on computers, it has become increasingly important to protect the confidential information stored locally or on the Internet. There are people who greatly under estimate the threats posed in the world of information technology and believe that their identities and information are safe, and of those people who are actually concerned about security, most are unaware of the areas where they can be targeted. It is not surprising that there are very few areas in information technology that have not been compromised. It is …

Coalgebras And Their Logics, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

"Transition systems pervade much of computer science. This article outlines the beginnings of a general theory of specification languages for transition systems. More specifically, transition systems are generalised to coalgebras. Specification languages together with their proof systems, in the following called (logical or modal) calculi, are presented by the associated classes of algebras (e.g., classical propositional logic by Boolean algebras). Stone duality will be used to relate the logics and their coalgebraic semantics."

A Sustainable, Systematic Process For Continuous Program Improvement, Nikos J. Mourtos

Faculty Publications

The USA Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) adopted recently a new set of criteria for evaluating engineering programmes. One of these (criterion 3) refers to programme outcomes and assessment. In this article, the author describes the design and implementation of a sustainable, systematic process for defining and assessing programme outcomes. This process involves analysing each outcome into elements, defining a set of attributes for each element, selecting outcome indicators and performance targets, and developing special rubrics for an accurate assessment of student skills. The author also describes a systematic way of addressing specific programme outcomes through course and …

An Analysis And Policy Implications Of Comfort Levels Of Diverse Constituents With Reported Units For Blast Vibrations And Limits: Closing The Communication Gap, Braden Lusk

Doctoral Dissertations

"Differences exist between public perception of construction blasting and quarry blasting. In general, people are able to tolerate short term inconveniences much better than long term ones. Quarries and other long term mining operations utilizing blasting are coming under increasing public and legislative pressure in the United States. The question being posed for the blasting industry is, "Has our past haste in adopting complex scientific scales and units been detrimental to us?" In other words, are the most palatable things being reported? The goal of this dissertation is to determine whether current units create an atmosphere of discomfort among neighbors …

Evaluation Of The Effect Of Vehicle Performance On Consumer Satisfaction, Elizabeth A. Cudney

Doctoral Dissertations

"Value is the relationship of functionality or benefit to the cost of a product or service. Consumers appear to seek value, but not all consumers are alike in their needs and wants. Common characteristics that consumers desire in automobiles include a high level of value relative to the product's cost. Consumers measure vehicle performance in terms of twenty-three attributes such as roominess, ride, reliability, handling, brake pedal feel, visibility, interior noise, acceleration, etc. Problems arise when automakers try to translate these characteristics into vehicle performance specifications and capabilities.

Quality is an essential element for both the consumer and producer since …

Use Of Polyhydroxyalkanoates For Denitrification In Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, Maria Teresa Gutierrez-Wing

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Increasing demand of aquacultural products is driving the industry toward more intensive culture practices. Aquacultural operations are constrained by limitations on the availability high quality waters and regulatory pressures on the discharges. Recirculating systems can address these issues by reducing the amount of water required in the operation. Closed systems are especially suited where biosecurity is important. In closed systems, nitrate accumulates, limiting the time the water can be reused. In marine inland systems, water reuse reduces the cost of salt for make up water. To increase the water reuse time, some form of nitrate removal process must be incorporated …

Theoretical And Experimental Study On Cable Vibration Reduction With A Tmd-Mr Damper, Wenjie Wu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Stay cables are vulnerable to dynamic excitations because of their low intrinsic damping. Excessive cable vibrations cause frequent maintenance and are detrimental to the safety of the entire bridge. Targeting the severe cable vibration problem, in addition to using the existing Magnetorheological (MR) damper, the current study proposes a new type of damper, called the Tuned Mass Damper-Magnetorheological (TMD-MR) damper. Theoretical and experimental investigations for the damper performance on the cable vibration reduction are conducted, which provides the necessary research support for practical implementation. Experiments on the individual MR damper are carried out first to gain some experience on the …

Interactions Between Trains Of Premature Stimuli And Anatomically Anchored Reentrant Wavefronts: Implications For Antitachycardia Pacing, Israel A. Byrd

All ETDs from UAB

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators can terminate accelerated heart rhythms with either high energy shocks or antitachycardia pacing. Shocks are highly effective, but they reduce the quality of life in patients that receive them. Antitachycardia pacing is a train of pulses administered at a rate slightly faster than the arrhythmia rate. These pulses are low energy, and terminate ventricular tachycardia in patients without causing pain. The paced wavefronts penetrate the reentrant circuit, and interact with the underlying reentrant wavefront to block all arrhythmic activity. Currently, these interactions between paced wavefronts and reentrant wavefronts are not well understood. A better understanding of these …

Double-Matching In Anti-Correlated Random Dot Stereograms Of Panum's Limiting Case Reveals The Interactions Among The Elementary Disparity Signals Across Scale, Hwan Sean Lee

All ETDs from UAB

A fundamental problem in binocular vision is to understand the rules that govern matching of features in the two eyes. We adopted Panum’s limiting case (PLC) into random-dot stereograms (RDS) to determine whether our visual system permits non-unique binocular matching for stereopsis. Using PLC RDS, we found that i.) the PLC-defined depth was compatible with the disparity-defined depth, which suggests that our visual system detects the relative disparity in PLC; ii.) the upper depth limits discriminating the PLC-defined surfaces and disparity-defined surfaces were almost identical, which suggests that there is a common mechanism – correlation-based stereopsis – responsible for the …

Simultaneous And Sequential Multi-Site Impact Response Of Composite Laminates, Shane D. Bartus

All ETDs from UAB

The unique feature in this study was the investigation of the response of polymer composite material to impact by multiple high velocity projectiles. Energy absorption, new surface creation, and failure mechanisms from both sequential and nearsimultaneous multi-site, high velocity impact were compared to assess synergistic and cumulative effects. A single-stage light-gas gun capable of launching three projectiles with controlled impact location and velocity in both near-simultaneous and sequential impact modes was developed to study these effects. Two test programs were conducted to evaluate these impact scenarios on thin S-2 glass/epoxy laminates. In the first program, the effect of laminate thickness …

Geometry Modeling For Patterned And Repetitive Configurations, Dipesh S. Dimble

All ETDs from UAB

Over the years, the use of computational engineering applications such as computer-aided design (CAD), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and computational structural mechanics (CSM) has grown rapidly in the aerospace, automotive, electronics, biomedical, and many other industries. Various software tools have emerged and evolved to meet the user’s demand for solving the complex physics associated with complex configurations in the processes of design, analysis, and optimization. The value of computational tools in product designs is obvious: They can provide reliable data for improving the design, reduce the design cycle and product validation process, and provide on effective and efficient means for …

Cross Chip Probe Matching Tool: A Tool For Linking Probes From Microarrays Within And Across Species, Ruchi Ghanekar

All ETDs from UAB

raditionally, but not exclusively, a microarray experiment is conducted on a single type of microarray. However, different labs often use different chip types, and new versions of chips may be developed. Comparing experiments can be problematic in such cases, as it is not always clear which probe sets correspond to the same gene across experiments. The goal of this research was to develop a tool that allows investigators to identify probe sets that correspond to the gene within and across species. The Cross Chip Probe Matching Tool (CCPMT) makes use of the probe sequences for all features on arrays from …

Energy Audits Of State Buildings In Alabama, Harshad Prakash Shetye

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this project was to perform preliminary energy audits at various state buildings in Alabama. Energy audits were conducted for a total of 18 buildings at the Department of Youth Services (Chalkville campus) and the Alabama State Capitol complex. Facility reports and summaries were prepared with the help of data obtained from building managers. Our research team identified areas in these facilties where energy conservation could be employed at no or low cost. The energy savings resulting from these audits were estimated based upon the guidelines presented in the Science Technology and Energy Division Guide for Calculating Program …

Speciation Of Alkali Metals In Biomass Combustion And Gasification, Pavankumar Bajrang Sonwane

All ETDs from UAB

Electricity from biomass and biomass–derived fuels has become an attractive and viable alternative energy source. Alkali metals, mainly sodium and potassium, together with other ash forming inorganic components in biomass, increase fouling, slagging, and high temperature corrosion of heat transfer surfaces in boilers thus reduces efficiency during biomass combustion. Future biomass-to-electricity facilities will benefit from increased efficiencies, by incorporating integrated gasification combined cycle systems that use biomass syngas directly in gas turbine. These systems will have even lower tolerances for alkali vapor release, because accelerated erosion and corrosion of turbine blades results in shorter turbine life. One solution to the …

Investigation Of Routing Protocols In A Sensor Network, Ramesh Praveenkumar

All ETDs from UAB

The objective of this thesis is to model the communication and computation resources of the sensor netork, develop a framework for lifetime estimation and performance evluation of the network, and explore routing schemes so as to extend the functional lifetime of both the individual nodes and the entire network. The sensor network is severly constrained by limited resources, so, energy efficiency is the most important factor in designing the network. Designing an efficient routing protocol in a sensor network is challenging due to various factors, such as limited resources, concentration of load to a limited portion of the network, and …

Design Of Randomly Placed Microphone Array, Srichandana Jasti

All ETDs from UAB

Microphone arrays can be employed in noise and vibration analysis to detect and analyze changes in noise sources. One weakness of microphone arrays is the presence of artifacts (ghost sounds not present in the true signal) caused by the array geometry. Previous researchers have attempted to move the microphones around their original array positions (moving over a small amount from the current position) to distinguish the presence of true noise sources from artifacts. While these methods have shown promise, the original authors have hypothesized that the best method would be to randomly move the microphones around their respective positions. This …

Stem Cells, Tgf-Ss, And The Adenoviral Mediated Overexpression Of Fibromodulin To Promo Te Incisional Wound Healing, Steven T. Moore

All ETDs from UAB

Incision wounds are a clinical problem due to insufficient strength with cosmeti-cally and functionally unacceptable scarring. The primary goals of therapy are increasing the rate of tissue repair and reducing scar stiffness. Assessment of the wounds is neces-sary to determine the state of the tissue in terms of strength, stiffness, and function as well as to compare the efficacy of various treatments and therapies. Mechanical testing can reveal both the speed in which a wound is healing in addition to the amount of scar-ring that is present in a wound. Presently, mesenchymal stem cells have shown potential to heal injured …

Addressing Cheating And Workload Characterization In Online Games, Christopher Chambers

Dissertations and Theses

The Internet has enabled the popular pastime of playing video games to grow rapidly by connecting game players in disparate locations. However, with popularity have come the two challenges of hosting a large number of users and detecting cheating among users. For reasons of control, security, and ease of development, the most popular system for hosting on-line games is the client server architecture. This is also the most expensive and least scalable architecture for the game publisher, which drives hosting costs upwards with the success of the game. In addition to the expense of hosting, as a particular game grows …

Robust Design And Model Validation Of Nonlinear Compliant, Michael S. Baker, Larry Howell, Jonathan W. Walker

Faculty Publications

Although the use of compliance or elastic flexibility in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) helps eliminate friction, wear, and backlash, compliant MEMS are known to be sensitive to variations in material properties and feature geometry, resulting in large uncertainties in performance. This paper proposes an approach for design stage uncertainty analysis, model validation, and robust optimization of nonlinear MEMS to account for critical process uncertainties including residual stress, layer thicknesses, edge bias, and material stiffness. A fully compliant bistable micromechanism (FCBM) is used as an example, demonstrating that the approach can be used to handle complex devices involving nonlinear finite element models. …

Impacts Of The 2004 Tsunami On Groundwater In Sri Lanka, T. Illangasekare, S. W. Tyler, T. P. Clement, K. G. Villholth, A. P.G.R.L. Perera, J. Obeysekera, A. Gunatilaka, C. R. Panabokke, D. W. Hyndman, K. J. Cunningham, W-G. Yeh, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi, M-Rien Van Genuchten, K. Jensen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The 26 December 2004 tsunami caused widespread destruction and contamination of coastal aquifers across southern Asia. Seawater filled domestic open dug wells and also entered the aquifers via direct infiltration during the first flooding waves and later as ponded seawater infiltrated through the permeable sands that are typical of coastal aquifers. In Sri Lanka alone, it is estimated that over 40,000 drinking water wells were either destroyed or contaminated. From February through September 2005, a team of United States, Sri Lankan, and Danish water resource scientists and engineers surveyed the coastal groundwater resources of Sri Lanka to develop an understanding …

Active Flow Control Of Low Pressure Turbine Blade Separation Using Plasma Actuators, Karthik Ramakumar

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The current study examines plasma actuators as flow control devices. The actuators are placed on a turbine blade profile in a 2D turbine cascade for separation flow control. The configuration involves copper strips separated by a layer of dielectric material, across which an AC electric potential in the range of 5 kHz and 5 kV is applied. The efficiency of the actuator is monitored by measuring power input and flow control effectiveness. Preliminary observations are performed for a quiescent case on a flat plate profile to analyze the average and instantaneous velocities generated by the actuator for varied input parameters, …

Selective Growth Of Carbon Nanotubes And Oxide Nanowires: Applications In Shadow Lithography And Fabrication Of Aligned Carbon Nanotube Membranes, Nitin Chopra

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

A promising approach investigated here is to utilize thin film multilayer structures where the thickness of a catalyst layer at an exposed edge of photolithographically defined pattern determines the diameter of the nanotubes/nanowires grown from it. This can in turn be incorporated into photolithographically defined post structures resulting in an array of suspended nanowires for line-of-site shadow lithography. Success of the diameter control approach has been shown by selectively growing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) from narrow lines (12-60 nm) of SiO₂, Fe, Ni, Co on micron-scale patterned substrates in a ferrocene or nonferrocene catalyzed CVD process. In addition, the …

Development And Delivery Of Coursework: The Legal/Regulatory/Policy Environment Of Cyberforensics, John W. Bagby, John C. Ruhnka

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes a cyber-forensics course that integrates important public policy and legal issues as well as relevant forensic techniques. Cyber-forensics refers to the amalgam of multi-disciplinary activities involved in the identification, gathering, handling, custody, use and security of electronic files and records, involving expertise from the forensic domain, and which produces evidence useful in the proof of facts for both commercial and legal activities. The legal and regulatory environment in which electronic discovery takes place is of critical importance to cyber-forensics experts because the legal process imposes both constraints and opportunities for the effective use of evidence gathered through …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Is Forensic Computing A Profession? Revisiting An Old Debate In A New Field, Bernd C. Stahl

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Forensic Computing is a new and quickly developing field. It is in the process of becoming an academic discipline or sub-discipline with all the features from full undergraduate and postgraduate course provision to conferences and journals. An important question in this process of turning into an established discipline is whether it will coincide with the recognition of the graduates as professionals. This paper hopes to stimulate the debate as to whether forensic computing is or should be a discipline. In order to approach this question, the paper will discuss the concept of forensic computing including the most salient topics of …

Development Of An Ontology Based Forensic Search Mechanism: Proof Of Concept, Jill Slay, Fiona Schulz

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper examines the problems faced by Law Enforcement in searching large quantities of electronic evidence. It examines the use of ontologies as the basis for new forensic software filters and provides a proof of concept tool based on an ontological design. It demonstrates that efficient searching is produced through the use of such a design and points to further work that might be carried out to extend this concept.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.