Engineering Commons^™

An Analog Evolvable Hardware Device For Active Control, Saranyan A. Vigraham

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The field of Evolvable Hardware (EH) has recently gained a lot of interest due to the novel methodology it offers for designing electrical circuits and machines. EH techniques involve configuring a reconfigurable hardware platform with the aid of learning engines such as evolutionary algorithms. The EH devices normally act as closed loop controllers with the capability of learning necessary control laws adaptively. Current EH practices have several shortcomings, which have restricted their use as reliable controllers. This dissertation will present an improved EH device based on behavioral reconfigurability that addresses the current open challenges in the field of analog Evolvable …

Report On Realizing Practical Approximate And Distributed Reasoning For Ontologies, Pascal Hitzler, Peter Dolog, Perry Groot, Michel Klein, Malgorzata Mochol, Lyndon Nixon, Linda Peelen, Sebastian Rudolph, Stefan Schlobach, Heiner Stuckenschmidt, Denny Vrandecic, Holger Wache

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

We report on the progress we have made in KnowledgeWeb on the topic of scalable ontology reasoning. This deliverable contains contributions which advance the state of the art on a broad front, covering query approximation, ABox reasoning and TBox reasoning. It also covers approximation for uncertainty handling and for multi-perspective reasoning.

Análisis De Deslizamientos En La Ciudad Capital Utilizando Sistemas De Información Geográfica, Pedro Pablo Conlledo, Ronaldo Luna

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

En Guatemala, los daños ocasionados por deslizamientos de tierra son innumerables, y sin embargos son pocos los esfuezos que se han hecho a nivel nacional por estudiarlos. El principal objetivo de este trabajo fue utilizar Sistemas de lnformacion Geografica (SlG) para estudiar sistematicamente la ocurrencia de deslizamientos en el Departamento de Guatemala con la informacion disponible.

Pairwise Cobalt Doping Of Boron Carbides With Cobaltocene, A. Yu. Ignatov, Yaroslav B. Losovyj, L. Carlson, D. Lagraffe, Jennifer I. Brand, Peter A. Dowben

Materials Research Science and Engineering Center: Faculty Publications

We have performed Co K-edge x-ray absorption fine structure and x-ray absorption near edge structure measurements of Co-doped plasma enhanced chemical vapor phase deposition (PECVD) grown “C₂B₁₀H_x” semiconducting boron carbides, using cobaltocene. Cobalt does not dope PECVD grown boron carbides as a random fragment of the cobaltocene source gas. The Co atoms are fivefold boron coordinated (R=2.10±0.02 Å) and are chemically bonded to the icosahedral cages of B₁₀CH_x or B₉C₂H_y. Pairwise Co doping occurs, with the cobalt atoms favoring sites some 5.28±0.02 …

Cluster-Assembled Iron-Platinum Nanocomposite Permanent Magnets, Xiangxin Rui, Zhiguang Sun, Yinfan Xu, David J. Sellmyer, Jeffrey E. Shield

Materials Research Science and Engineering Center: Faculty Publications

Exchange-spring nanocomposite permanent magnets have received a great deal of attention for their potential for improved the energy products. Predicted results, however, has been elusive. Optimal properties rely on a uniformly fine nanostructure. Particularly, the soft magnetic phase must be below approximately 10 nm to ensure complete exchange coupling. Inert gas condensation (IGC) is an ideal processing route to produce sub-10 nm clusters method. Two distinct nanostructures have been produced. In the first, Fe clusters were embedded in an FePt matrix by alternate deposition from two sources. Fe cluster content ranged from 0 to 30 volume percent. Post-deposition multi-step heat …

United States Patent Application Publication: System And Method For Sequence Distance Measure For Phylogenetic Tree Construction, K. Sayood, Hasan H. Otu, Steven H. Hinrichs

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

The present invention permits identification of biological materials following recovery of DNA using standard techniques by comparing a mathematical characterization of the unknown sequence with the mathematical characterization of DNA sequences of known genera and species. The clinical identification of infectious organisms is required for accurate diagnosis and selection of antimicrobial therapeutics. The invention allows an ab initio approach with the potential for rapid identification of biological materials of unknown origin. The approach provides for identification and classification of emergent or new organisms without previous phenotypic identification. The technique may also be used in monitoring situations where the need exists …

Cell Bank Characterization And Fermentation Optimization For Production Of Recombinant Heavy Chain C-Terminal Fragment Of Botulinum Neurotoxin Serotype E (Rbonte(HC): Antigen E) By Pichia Pastoris, Jayanta Sinha, Mehmet Inan, Sarah Fanders, Shinichi Taoka, Mark Gouthro, Todd Swanson, Rick Barent, Ardis Barthuli, Bonnie M. Loveless, Leonard A. Smith, Theresa Smith, Ian Henderson, John Ross, Michael M. Meagher

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

A process was developed for production of a candidate vaccine antigen, recombinant C-terminal heavy chain fragment of the botulinum neurotoxin serotype E, rBoNTE(H_c)in Pichia pastoris. P. pastoris strain GS115 was transformed with the rBoNTE(H_c) gene inserted into pHILD4 Escherichia coli—P. pastoris shuttle plasmid. The clone was characterized for genetic stability, copy number, and BoNTE(H_c) sequence. Expression of rBoNTE(H_c) from the Mut⁺ HIS4 clone was confirmed in the shake-flask, prior to developing a fed-batch fermentation process at 5 and 19 L scale. The fermentation process consists of a glycerol growth phase in …

Work In Progress - Increasing Transfer Student Enrollment, Retention And Graduation Through The Strengthening Transitions Into Engineering Programs, Stephanie G. Adams, Lance C. Pérez, John J. Ballard

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Large populations of students are matriculating to community colleges (CC). However, transferring from a CC to 4-year undergraduate engineering degree program is often quite difficult. There are few, if any, engineering courses offered at the CCs. In addition, long prerequisite chains reduce many transfer students to Freshman or Sophomore status, even though they have had two years of post-secondary education. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Strengthening Transitions into Engineering Programs (STEP) is a program designed to facilitate the transfer of CC students to undergraduate baccalaureate engineering degree programs. The program consists of four engineering courses taught at the CCs with …

Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time-Frequency Codes In Mb-Ofdm Uwb Communications, L. C. Tran, A. Mertins, Tadeusz A. Wysocki

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications (to 2015)

The paper examines the implementation of Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time-Frequency Codes (QOSTFCs) to increase data rates and error performance in recently proposed STFC Multiband OFDM Ultra Wideband (MB-OFDM UWB) communications systems. It is shown that, an order-4 QOSTFC not only can provide the full rate, but also may provide significantly better error performance, compared to the conventional MB-OFDM (without STFCs), and considerably better error performance, compared to order-4, orthogonal STFC MBOFDM, without increasing the total transmission power.

Design Of A 1.8v 8-Bit 500msps Folding-Interpolation Cmos A/D Converter With A Folder Averaging Technique, Dongjin Lee, Jaewon Song, Jongha Shin, Sanghoon Hwang, Minkyu Song, Tad Wysocki

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications (to 2015)

In this paper, a CMOS analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with an 8-bit 500MSPS at 1.8V is designed. The architecture of the proposed ADC is based on a Folding ADC with a cascaded-folding and a cascaded-interpolation structure. A self-linearized preamplifier with source degeneration technique and a folder averaging technique for the high-performance are introduced. Further, a novel auto-switching encoder is also proposed. The chip has been fabricated with 0.18μm 1-poly 5-metal CMOS technology. The active chip area is 0.79mm² and it consumes about 200mW at 1.8V power supply. The DNL and INL are within ±0.6/±0.6LSB, respectively. The measured result of SNDR …

Impulsive-Actuation Part Positioning Through Constrained Energy Balance Planning, Laine Mears, Thomas R. Kurfess

Publications

Impulsive actuation has been researched in the past two decades as an inexpensive alternative to multi-degree-of-freedom precision positioning systems. The position of a sliding workpiece can be controlled by a 2-degree-offreedom actuation system through simple pushing path planning. However, the final part position as a result of the last touch of the actuator is subject to uncertainty in the friction model used for actuation planning, particularly the free-sliding distance undergone by the workpiece after losing contact with the actuator. This paper first reviews an impact planning method, then augments it using a restitutionbased model that results in an explicit actuator …

A Dendroclimatic Record Of Paleoclimate Of The Last 10,000 Years, Glacier Bay National Park And Preserve: Progress Understanding Climate Change In Southeast Alaska, Daniel Lawson, Greg Wiles, David Finnegan

United States Army: Publications

Our investigations in 2007 focused on continuing collection and analyses of tree rings from living trees and building a long ring-width series from interstadial wood. These interstadial forests were extensive and their preservation, although discontinuous and fragmented, is remarkable. In situ stumps, still rooted in growth position, and logs held within sediments remain from forests that existed at various times between glaciations over approximately the last 10,000 years.
We have analyzed previous and new collections of ring-width tree-ring series, including a multiple species collection from near Excursion Ridge in the southeast portion of the Park. These tree-ring series have a …

The Design And Performance Of Pressure Pipe Liners Under Static And Cyclic Loading, Shanhai Guan

Doctoral Dissertations

Cured-in-place pipe (CIPP), is a widely used trenchless technology. Based on the current liner design method, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F2207-02, several aspects are studied for the effect on estimating the long-term performance of the liners.

While estimating the liner burst pressure, the effect from host pipe material properties, liner material properties, defect geometry, liner creep properties and loading condition should be considered. The burst pressure calculated based on the existing method is overestimated and this allows an increased risk of structural failure before the expected design life is reached.

Compared with cast-iron, a PVC host pipe …

Drug Loading And Release From Polypeptide Multilayer Nanofilms, Yang Zhong

Doctoral Dissertations

Polypeptides, linear macromolecules, are formed from amino acid residues by linkage of peptide bonds. Proteins are polypeptides too, with more complex conformations contributing to specific functionalities. Disulfide bonds are very important to maintain the structure and functions of proteins, which will form between two cysteine (Cys) residues under oxidizing circumstance.

Cys containing polypeptides are designed and synthesized by F-moc (9-Fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl) chemistry. The number and position of Cys residues can be controlled by amino acid sequences design and following peptide synthesis, which is important to gain insights on the nature of polyelectrolyte multilayer film assembly and stability.

Both commercial and designed …

Building A Seismology Workflow-Driven Ontology: A Case Study, Leonardo Salayandia, Aaron Velazco

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

No abstract provided.

Electron Effective Mass And Phonon Modes In Gaas Incorporating Boron And Indium, Tino Hofmann, Mathias Schubert, G. Leibiger, V. Gottschalch

Materials Research Science and Engineering Center: Faculty Publications

The strain-free boron- and indium-containing GaAs compounds are promising candidates for III-V semiconductor solar cell absorber materials with lattice match to GaAs, for which experimental data of the electronic band structure are widely unknown. For nondegenerate, silicon-doped, n-type B_0.03In_0.06Ga_0.91As with band-gap energy of 1.36 eV, determined by near-infrared ellipsometry, a strong increase of the electron effective mass of 44% in B0.03In0.06Ga0.91As compared to In_0.06Ga_0.94As is obtained from far-infrared magneto-optic generalized ellipsometry studies. The authors thereby obtain the vibrational lattice mode behavior. For BAs, an experimentally obscure compound, the curvature …

Structural Behavior Of Pvc Pipe Liners Subjected To Seasonal Groundwater Loading, Qing Cai

Doctoral Dissertations

Thin-walled polymeric liners are routinely used to rehabilitate deteriorated underground pipe lines that are structurally sound but have lost their hydraulic integrity. These host pipes are said to be "partially deteriorated" since they can support soil and surface loading. For this case, the pipe liners must only be designed to withstand the pressure of the groundwater that seeps through openings in the host pipe and migrates through the small annular gap between the liner and the host pipe. This external pressure will cause the polymeric liner to slowly deform inward toward the center of the pipe, and the compressive hoop …

Mercury Contamination In Forest And Freshwater Ecosystems In The Northeastern United States, Charles T. Driscoll, Young-Ji Han, Celia Y. Chen, David C. Evers, Kathleen Fallon Lambert

Civil and Environmental Engineering - All Scholarship

Eastern North America receives elevated atmospheric mercury deposition from a combination of local, regional, and global sources. Anthropogenic emissions originate largely from electric utilities, incinerators, and industrial processes. The mercury species in these emissions have variable atmospheric residence times, which influence their atmospheric transport and deposition patterns. Forested regions with a prevalence of wetlands and of unproductive surface waters promote high concentrations of mercury in freshwater biota and thus are particularly sensitive to mercury deposition. Through fish consumption, humans and wildlife are exposed to methylmercury, which markedly bioaccumulates up the freshwater food chain. Average mercury concentrations in yellow perch fillets …

Super-Resolution Enhancement Of Digital Video, Russell C. Hardie, Richard R. Schultz, Kenneth E. Barner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

SR from digital video is a relatively new field, in only its third decade of existence. There is no doubt that as imaging sensor technologies, optical fabrication techniques, and computational algorithms mature, SR will find its way into digital video products such as cameras and digital cable set-top boxes. These papers on the fundamental SR topics of image registration, regularization, photometric diversity, detector nonuniformity, compression, optical design, and performance metrics serve as pioneers in the dynamic and evolving field of SR image reconstruction research and development. We are proud to present them to the image and video processing research community. …

A Map Estimator For Simultaneous Superresolution And Detector Nonunifomity Correct, Russell C. Hardie, Douglas R. Droege

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

During digital video acquisition, imagery may be degraded by a number of phenomena including undersampling, blur, and noise. Many systems, particularly those containing infrared focal plane array (FPA) sensors, are also subject to detector nonuniformity. Nonuniformity, or fixed pattern noise, results from nonuniform responsivity of the photodetectors that make up the FPA. Here we propose a maximuma posteriori (MAP) estimation framework for simultaneously addressing undersampling, linear blur, additive noise, and bias nonuniformity. In particular, we jointly estimate a superresolution (SR) image and detector bias nonuniformity parameters from a sequence of observed frames. This algorithm can be applied to video in …

Surface Modification Of 6h-Sic Under Vacuum Annealing Studied By Time Of Flight Positron Annihilation Induced Auger Electron Spectroscopy, Saurabh Mukherjee

Material Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis presents the first study of vacuum annealing of 6H- SiC surface using Time-of-Flight-Positron Annihilation induced Auger Electron Spectroscopy(TOF-PAES) . The study was the first application of a TOF-PAES spectrometer to the SiC. The increased efficiency of the TOF-PAES allows us to see simultaneously for the first time Si-LVV, C-KVV, O-KVV peaks in the PAES spectrum for SiC. The top layer surface concentrations of C, O and Si were monitored by TOF-PAES surface. The results indicate that the SiC surface was initially covered with a layer containing oxygen but largely devoid of Si which was subsequently removed as a …

Improvement Of Mechanical Properties Of Uv-Curable Resin For High-Aspect Ratio Microstructures Fabricated In Microstereolithography, Su-Do Lee, Jae-Won Choi, In-Baek Park, Chang-Sik Ha, Seok-Hee Lee

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Recently, microstructures fabricated using microstereolithography technology have been used in the biological, medical and mechanical fields. Microstereolithography can fabricate real 3D microstructures with fine features, although there is presently a limited number of materials available for use in the process. Deformation of the fine features on a fabricated microstructure remains a critical issue for successful part fabrication, and part deformation can occur during rinsing or during fabrication as a result of fluid flow forces that occur during movement of mechanical parts of the system. Deformation can result in failure to fabricate a particular feature by breaking the feature completely, spatial …

Fabrication Of Microstructure Array Using The Projection Microstereolithography System, Jae-Won Choi, Young-Myoung Ha, Seok-Hee Lee

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Microstereolithography technology is similar to the conventional stereolithography process and enables to fabricate a complex 3D microstructure. This is divided into scanning and projection type according to aiming at precision and fabrication speed. The scanning MSL fabricates each layer using position control of laser spot on the resin surface, whereas the projection MSL fabricates one layer with one exposure using a mask. In the projection MSL, DMD used to generate dynamic pattern consists of micromirrors which have per side. The fabrication range and resolution are determined by the field of view of the DMD and the magnification of the projection …

Directflow: A Domain-Specific Language For Information-Flow Systems, Andrew P. Black, Chuan-Kai Lin

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Programs that process streams of information are commonly built by assembling reusable information-flow components. In some systems the components must be chosen from a pre-defined set of primitives; in others the programmer can create new custom components using a general-purpose programming language. Neither approach is ideal: restricting programmers to a set of primitive components limits the expressivity of the system, while allowing programmers to define new components in a general-purpose language makes it difficult or impossible to reason about the composite system. We advocate defining information-flow components in a domain-specific language (DSL) that enables us to infer the properties of …

Conditions For Capacitor Voltage Regulation In A Five-Level Cascade Multilevel Inverter: Application To Voltage-Boost In A Pm Drive, John Chiasson, Burak Ozpineci, Zhong Du, Leon M. Tolbert

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A cascade multilevel inverter is a power electronic device built to synthesize a desired AC voltage from several levels of DC voltages. Such inverters have been the subject of research in the last several years, where the DC levels were considered to be identical in that all of them were either batteries, solar cells, etc. Similar to previous results in the literature, the work here shows how a cascade multilevel inverter can be used to obtain a voltage boost at higher speeds for a three-phase PM drive using only a single DC voltage source. The input of a standard three-leg …

A Five-Level Three-Phase Hybrid Cascade Multilevel Inverter Using A Single Dc Source For A Pm Synchronous Motor Drive, John N. Chiasson, Burak Ozpineci, Leon M. Tolbert

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The interest here is in using a single DC power source to construct a 3-phase 5-level cascade multilevel inverter to be used as a drive for a PM traction motor. The 5-level inverter consists of a standard 3-leg inverter (one leg for each phase) and an H-bridge in series with each inverter leg, which use a capacitor as a DC source. It is shown that one can simultaneously maintain the regulation of the capacitor voltage while achieving an output voltage waveform which is 25% higher than that obtained using a standard 3-leg inverter by itself.

On The Error Performance Of Wireless Systems With Frequency Selective Fading And Receiver Timing Phase Offset, Jingxian Wu, Y. Rosa Zheng, Khaled Ben Letaief, Chengshan Xiao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Sofc-Based Fuel Cells For Load Following Stationary Applications, Nagasmitha Akkinapragada, Badrul H. Chowdhury

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a dynamic model of SOFC and the response of the fuel cell for sudden load changes. Slow response of the fuel cell prevents it from following the load, Hence connection with the DC/DC buck-boost converter is required. The models are developed in PSCAD with and without a feedback control system. Power characteristics obtained in order to validate the need of the DC/DC converter which allows the SOFC system to be used for load following applications

Noise-Robust Automatic Speech Recognition Using A Discriminative Echo State Network, Mark D. Skowronski, John G. Harris

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The echo state network (ESN) is a recurrent neural network proposed by Herbert Jaeger with a simplified training routine. Previously, we have demonstrated the noise-robust performance of the predictive ESN classifier in automatic speech recognition experiments in which the network was trained to predict the next frame of speech features. Classification performance was limited because the predictive models lacked discriminability, so we changed the model output to a one-of-many output encodings scheme and trained the model discriminatively. Performance was compared to a hidden Markov model (HMM) in small-vocabulary ASR experiments with additive noise. Accuracy of 50% was achieved by a …

Distance Learning For Instrument Flight: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Virtual Mentor, Andrew S. Mendolia

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

PC-based flight simulators are sometimes used as an alternative to traditional forms of instrument training. This type of training typically requires an instructor to be present with the student in order to facilitate training. Flight instructors play many important roles in aviation training, one of which is the role of mentor. The premise of this study was to examine the use of synchronous web-based instruction for instrument flight via Microsoft Flight Simulator’s (10.0) “shared-cockpit” feature, where the instructors serves as a mentor from a distance. The results indicate that web-based instruction is no more effective than practice without instruction. Although …