Engineering Commons^™

Monitoring And Evaluation (M&E) Of Capacity Development For Irrigation Modernization, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Effective capacity development monitoring and evaluation (M&E) depends first upon targeted capacity development programs, with well-defined and attainable objectives that can be evaluated after completion of the program. This paper focuses on capacity development related to technical issues of irrigation modernization.

ITRC performs diagnostic research on irrigation projects and field irrigation systems in advance of developing targeted capacity development programs. If the capacity development is appropriate, and if it is targeted in both content and to specific audiences, one can expect an eventual improvement in post-capacity-building performance. ITRC has found that the improvements are incremental, and often require substantial changes …

Surface Drip Tape Irrigation Systems As An Alternative To Sdi For Field And Row Crops, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

In recent years, new equipment and techniques developed by farmers and private industry have improved the suitability of surface drip tape as an alternative to subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) for field crops and vegetable crops in highly mechanized farming. Retrievable drip tape systems now lack many of the disadvantages of SDI, yet provide the advantages typically expected from drip irrigation. Tape retrieval practices have now reached well beyond the theoretical realm to the point that they dominate drip systems for cauliflower, lettuce, celery, and broccoli on the Central Coast of California. It is expected that drip design and practices will …

Acuta Enews September 2006, Vol. 35, No. 9

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

Prepaid Calling Cards

From ACUTA Headquarters: Looking Ahead................. Jeri A. Semer, CAE, ACUTA Executive Director

Tech Talk: As a Framework, lTlL Leads the Way.............. Kevin Tanzillo, Dux PR

DC Update............ Jeanne Jansenius, University of the South

Wiretaps: lnterpreting the Constitution Becomes a Controversy............. Pat Scott, ACUTA Comm. Mgr.

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

ACUTA One-Day Workshop: Making Convergence Work

Be a State/Province Coordinator............ Mary Lou Emmons, lndiana Univ., Bloomington

lnfo Links................ Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern lowa

More Winners from ACUTA Annual Conference

Your Site Could Be a Site to See

Welcome …

The Effects Of Background Traffic On The End-To-End Delay For Video Streaming Applications Over Ieee 802.11b Wlan Networks, Nicola Cranley, Mark Davis

Conference papers

The bursty nature of video streaming applications is due to the frame-based structure of video and this has an important impact on the resource requirements of the WLAN, affecting its ability to provide Quality of Service (QoS) particularly under heavily loaded conditions. In this paper we analyse this bursty behaviour in depth. We show how each video frame is queued at the AP causing the packet delay to vary in a sawtooth manner that is related to the frame rate, the number of packets per video frame, and the packet size. We infer the maximum background traffic load that can …

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Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Application Of Data Mining Techniques For Real-Time Crash Risk Assessment On Freeways, A. Pande, M. A. Abdel-Aty

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Data mining is the analysis of large "observational" datasets to find unsuspected relationships that might be useful to the data owner. It typically involves analysis where objectives of the mining exercise have no bearing on the data collection strategy. Freeway traffic surveillance data collected through underground loop detectors is one such "observational" database maintained for various ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) applications such as travel time prediction etc. In this research data mining process is used to relate this surrogate measure of traffic conditions with rear-end crash occurrence on freeways. Crash and dual loop detector data from 36.25-mile instrumented Interstate-4 corridor …

Technology Influences On Small Logistics Providers: A Case Study Analysis, Pietro Evangelista, Alan Mckinnon, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

ICT has triggered many changes in the logistics service industry. New technology is reshaping the organisation and structure of this industry as ICT impacts significantly on the operations of 3PLs. Within this process, while large 3PLs are gaining substantial benefits from technology usage, the nature of changes resulting from ICT usage in small 3PLs remains unclear. This is critical particularly for those markets populated by a high number of small 3PLs such as the Italian logistics industry. From the research point of view, there is still a gap in the literature where the role of technological capability in small 3PLs …

Non-Standard Structure Flow Measurement Evaluation Using The Flow Rate Indexing Procedure - Qip, Stuart W. Styles, Bryan Busch, Daniel J. Howes, Marcus Cardenas

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This report details the proper installation and calibration techniques for hydroacoustic meters. The calibration procedure developed as part of this study is called the Flow Rate Indexing Procedure (QIP). The QIP can be competed by a professional technician with a boat-mounted Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADP) or a standard current meter. Once the QIP has been used to properly calibrate a hydroacoustic flow meter, the device can then measure and record the flow rate and volume in a channel to within +/- 6% of actual values.

Assessment Of Freeway Traffic Parameters Leading To Lane-Change Related Collisions, Anurag Pande, Mohamed Abdel-Aty

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This study aims at ‘predicting’ the occurrence of lane-change related freeway crashes using the traffic surveillance data collected from a pair of dual loop detectors. The approach adopted here involves developing classification models using the historical crash data and corresponding information on real-time traffic parameters obtained from loop detectors. The historical crash and loop detector data to calibrate the neural network models (corresponding to crash and non-crash cases to set up a binary classification problem) were collected from the Interstate-4 corridor in Orlando (FL) metropolitan area. Through a careful examination of crash data, it was concluded that all sideswipe collisions …

Biomass Energy Data Book, Volume 1, Lynn Wright, Bob Boundy, Bob Perlack, Stacy Davis, Bo Saulsbury

United States Department of Energy: Publications

The Biomass Energy Data Book is a statistical compendium prepared and published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under contract with the Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program of the Department of Energy (DOE). Designed for use as a convenient reference, the book represents an assembly and display of statistics and information that characterize the biomass industry, from the production of biomass feedstocks to their end use.
This is the first edition of the Biomass Energy Data Book and is currently only available online in electronic format. There are five main …

Comppknots: A Framework For Parallel Prediction And Comparison Of Rna Secondary Structures With Pseudoknots, Trilce Estrada, Abel Licon, Michela Taufer

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Codes for RNA structure prediction based on energy minimization are usually very time and resource intensive. For this reason several codes have been significantly simplified: in some cases they are unable to predict complex secondary structures such as pseudoknots, while at other times they are able to predict structures with reduced lengths, or they are only able to predict some elementary and simple pseudoknots. Each of the existing codes has its strengths and weaknesses. Providing scientists with tools that are able to combine the strengths of the several codes is a worthwhile objective.

To address this need, we present compPknots, …

What’S The Hang Up? The Future Of Voip Regulation And Taxation In New Hampshire, Kate Winstanley

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Alice in Austria wishes to call her friend Bob in Boston, using a Boston area code to avoid charges for an international call. Using VoIP, Alice may initiate her call from any location in Austria where she may find Internet access. Once Alice connects to the Internet, she can transmit her call with the aid of a VoIP service provider, such as Skype. In order to hear and communicate with Bob, Alice can rely on a microphone and a headset that she can plug into her computer. Through VoIP, not only may Alice carry on a telephone conversation, but most …

Covariance Searches For Ncrna Gene Finding, Jennifer A. Smith

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The use of covariance models for non-coding RNA gene finding is extremely powerful and also extremely computationally demanding. A major reason for the high computational burden of this algorithm is that the search proceeds through every possible start position in the database and every possible sequence length between zero and a user-defined maximum length at every one of these start positions. Furthermore, for every start position and sequence length, all possible combinations of insertions and deletions leading to the given sequence length are searched. It has been previously shown that a large portion of this search space is nowhere near …

Monitoring And Fault Diagnosis Of Multiconverter Power Electronic Systems, Ranjit Jayabalan

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Over the recent years the electric loads in automobiles have increased considerably due to advancements in high-power semiconductor based converters. However, with increasing electrical and electrically driven loads, there have been increasing concerns on system reliability. Faults occurring in such application specific solid state converters can lead to fatal consequences as compared to their mechanical counter parts. Thus, it is vital to identify faults in such systems to develop necessary safety techniques and methodologies. Detailed analysis of faults processes has indicated the need to act quickly following a device failure to prevent propagation of faults that may lead to catastrophic …

Acuta Enews September 2006, Vol. 35, No. 9

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

Prepaid Calling Cards

From ACUTA Headquarters: Looking Ahead...................... Jeri A. Semer, CAE, ACUTA Executive Director

Tech Talk: As a Framework, lTlL Leads the Way................ Kevin Tanzillo, Dux PR

DC Update................ Jeanne Jansenius, University of the South

Wiretaps: lnterpreting the Constitution Becomes a Controversy.............. Pat Scott, ACUTA Comm. Mgr.

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

ACUTA One-Day Workshop: Making Convergence Work

Be a State/Province Coordinator........... Mary Lou Emmons, lndiana Univ., Bloomington

lnfo Links................... Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern lowa

More Winners from ACUTA Annual Conference

Your Site Could Be a Site to See

Welcome …

The Effect Of Various Upfc Operating Points On Transient Stability, Mahyar Zarghami, Mariesa Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, it is shown that using the power injection model for a UPFC, there exists a set of operating points for which the same amount of AC bus voltage and active/reactive series power injections can be evaluated. These various operating points are designated by different dc bus voltages (V_dc) and modulation amplitudes (k₁,k₂) and phases (α₁,α₂). Simulations show that the dynamic behavior of a UPFC could be related to its pre-fault operating situations. The question to be answered is to verify which operating point would be the best …

A Three-Phase Soft Switching Rectifier Based On A Zcs Zeta Converter, Kai-Tak Wan, Mehdi Ferdowsi

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new three-phase high power factor rectifier based on Zeta converter is presented. A resonant inductor and capacitor are added to the circuit to create zero-current switching condition for the switch. The circuit is operated in the PWM mode by putting a parallel switch and diode in series with the resonant capacitor. Different operating modes of the new topology are presented in detail. The simulation results verify the analysis.

A Domain Decomposition Scheme Based On Equivalence Theorem, Mao Kun Li, Weng C. Chew, Li (Lijun) J. Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A domain decomposition scheme based on the equivalence theorem and the method of moments is introduced. The unknowns on every subscatterer are transferred to the unknowns on its surrounding equivalent surface. With this scheme, both the number of unknowns and the memory usage are reduced. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Distributed Control Of Hybrid Motor Drives, Keith Corzine, Shuai Lu, T. H. Fikse

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The hybrid inverter fed motor drive with two cascaded multilevel inverters is an attractive option for high performance high power applications such as naval ship propulsion systems due to a number of unique features. There is a natural split between a higher-voltage lower-frequency "bulk" inverter and a lower-voltage higher-frequency "conditioning" inverter in the cascaded system which matches the availability of semiconductor devices. Furthermore, the bulk inverter may be a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) motor drive meaning that only the conditioning inverter needs to be custom made. However, a drive involving a COTS bulk inverter would require a distributed conditioning inverter control which …

An Instance-Based Structured Object Oriented Method For Co-Analysis/Co-Design Of Concurrent Embedded Systems, Matt Ryan, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Ying Cheng, Sule Simsek

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The current object-oriented class-based approaches to hardware/software co-analysis/co-design of embedded systems are limited in their abilities to properly capture the structure of individual instances of hardware and software components and their interactions. This paper discusses a methodology to extend a structured objectoriented hardware/software co-design methodology based on the High Order Object-oriented Modeling Technique (HOOMT) to incorporate instance-based object and behavioral models. The instance-based structured object-oriented methodology will enable description of a system's structure based on individual instances of hardware and software components and specification of the interactions among them. In addition, lattices are introduced to specify the concurrent behavior of …

Seismic Evaluation And Ranking Of Bridge Embankments Along I-24 In Western Kentucky, Wael Zatar, Issam E. Harik, Peng Yuan, Ching Chiaw Choo

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study represents one of the Seismic Evaluation of I-24 Bridges investigative series. The focus is on slope or embankment stability and liquefaction potential of embankments of bridges along I-24 in Western Kentucky. A rating system is derived to assist in identifying and prioritizing bridge embankments that are susceptible to failure during to projected seismic events. Embankments of one hundred and twenty seven (127) bridges along I-24 in Western Kentucky are evaluated for 50-year and 250-year seismic events. Fifty-two (52) of the 127 embankments were rated as ‘critical’ for the 50-year event, and 60 were rated as ‘critical’ for the …

Development Of A Low-Latency, High Data Rate, Differential Gps Relative Positioning System For Uav Formation Flight Control, Stephen J. Comstock

Theses and Dissertations

In order for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to be able to fly missions currently performed by manned aircraft, they must be able to conduct in-flight refueling. Additionally, significant fuel savings can be realized if multiple UAV's are able to fly in precise formation and align wingtip vortices. In either case, the precise relative position between the aircraft must be known to an accuracy of only a few centimeters. Previous research at the Air Force Institute of Technology culminated in the development of a relative positioning system for manned aircraft. This thesis presents the development of the next-generation system designed for …

A General Framework For Analyzing, Characterizing, And Implementing Spectrally Modulated, Spectrally Encoded Signals, Marcus L. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

Fourth generation (4G) communications will support many capabilities while providing universal, high speed access. One potential enabler for these capabilities is software defined radio (SDR). When controlled by cognitive radio (CR) principles, the required waveform diversity is achieved via a synergistic union called CR-based SDR. Research is rapidly progressing in SDR hardware and software venues, but current CR-based SDR research lacks the theoretical foundation and analytic framework to permit efficient implementation. This limitation is addressed here by introducing a general framework for analyzing, characterizing, and implementing spectrally modulated, spectrally encoded (SMSE) signals within CR-based SDR architectures. Given orthogonal frequency division …

Factors And Interactions That Affect Air Force C-17 Aircraft Mission Capable Rates, Scotty A. Pendley

Theses and Dissertations

Given the high demand for mission capable airlift aircraft and considering increasing budget pressures, Air Mobility Command decision makers need a better understanding of mission capable (MC) rate-related factors and their interactions for mobility aircraft. This is needed to comprehend how issues such as airlift funding, current and future force reductions, and manning and experience levels may impact future MC rates for air mobility assets. Existing tools do not incorporate several key variables that the literature suggests are related to MC rates. Using a longitudinal approach, this thesis combines C-17 aircraft data with a structural equations modeling approach to evaluate …

Navigation Using Signals Of Opportunity In The Am Transmission Band, Jonathan A. Mcellroy

Theses and Dissertations

Maintaining a precision navigation solution both in a GPS hostile jamming environment and also in a GPS non-compatible terrain area is of great importance. To that end, this thesis evaluates the ability to navigate using signals from the AM band of the electromagnetic spectrum (520 to 1710 kHz). Navigation position estimates are done using multi-lateration techniques similar to GPS. However, pseudoranges are created using Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) distances between a reference receiver and a mobile receiver, allowing the mobile receiver to obtain absolute position estimates over time. Four methods were developed for estimating the cross-correlation peak within a …

Dual Fine Tracking Control Of A Satellite Laser Communication Uplink, Louis A. Noble

Theses and Dissertations

A dual fine tracking control system (FTCS) is developed for a single aperture optical communication receiver to compensate for high frequency disturbances affecting tracking of two incident laser communication beams. The optical communication receiver resides within a payload module aboard a geosynchronous satellite, while each laser communication transmitter is housed within a module aboard a high altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In addition to platform specific disturbances, the impact of atmospheric optical disturbances affecting tracking error are investigated. The system dynamics and FTCS are modeled and evaluated in MATLAB and SIMULINK. An optimal controller is developed to mitigate these disturbances …

Development And Testing Of A High-Speed Real-Time Kinematic Precise Dgps Positioning System Between Two Aircraft, Christopher J. Spinelli

Theses and Dissertations

This research involves the design, implementation, and testing of a high-speed, real-time kinematic, precise differential GPS positioning system for use in airborne applications such as automated aerial-refueling and close formation flying. Although many of the current ambiguity resolution techniques use the residuals from the least squares position estimation to determine the true ambiguity set, this thesis presents a novel approach to the ambiguity resolution problem, called the minimum indicator. Instead of assuming the ambiguity set with the lowest residuals is the true set, other special characteristics of the residuals are examined. This increases the confidence that the algorithm has selected …

Laser Covariance Vibrometry For Unsymmetrical Mode Detection, Michael C. Kobold

Theses and Dissertations

Simulated cross - spectral covariance (CSC) from optical return from simulated surface vibration indicates CW phase modulation may be an appropriate phenomenology for adequate classification of vehicles by structural mode. The nonlinear structural to optical relationship is close to unity, avoiding nulls and high values; optical return contains sufficient spectral ID information necessary for data clustering. The FE model has contact between the homogeneous rolled armor and vehicle hull, a simple multi - layer skin model typical of most vehicles. Most of the high frequency energy moved to lower frequencies. This nonlinearity segments contact vibration modes into two classes: symmetrical …

Some Aspects Of The Mechanical Response Of Pmr-15 Neat Resin At 288°C: Experiment And Modeling, Christina M. Falcone

Theses and Dissertations

The mechanical response of PMR-15 neat resin was investigated at 288?C. Monotonic loading/unloading tests performed at several constant stress rates revealed considerable rate dependence, especially on the unloading path. Effect of prior stress rate on creep behavior was evaluated in creep tests preceded by uninterrupted loading to a target stress. Creep response was dependent on the prior stress rate. Effect of loading history was studied in stepwise creep tests, where specimens were subjected to a constant stress rate loading followed by unloading to zero stress with intermittent creep periods during both loading and unloading. Comparison of creep strains accumulated during …

Optimal Dynamic Soaring For Full Size Sailplanes, Randel J. Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic soaring is a unique flying technique designed to allow air vehicles to extract energy from horizontal wind shears. Dynamic soaring has been used by seabirds like the Albatross to fly hundreds of kilometers a day across the ocean. Small hobby radio controlled sailplanes have also used this technique to achieve sustained speeds of over 200 miles per hour from just a simple hand toss. Dynamic soaring, however, has never before been studied for use on full size aircraft. The primary goal of this research was to prove or disprove the viability of dynamic soaring for enhancing a full size …