Engineering Commons^™

Joining Of Aluminum And Long Fiber Thermoplastic (Lft) Composites, Rahul R. Kulkarni

All ETDs from UAB

Metal/polymer joints are used in variety of areas: aerospace, automotive, prosthetic devices, electronic packaging, etc. The present study involves a tailcone, which is currently made of aluminum and a new design will involve a joint between aluminum and long fiber thermoplastic (LFT) composite. The new tailcones were processed by insert molding, also called as extrusion-compression molding. Finite element (FE) models were used to obtain a temperature profile during cooling of tailcone from processing and to estimate thermal stresses generated. Experimental verification of the temperature profile was obtained by IR thermography. It was observed that the LFT part of the tailcone …

Enterprise Configuration Management In A Service-Oriented Architecture Environment Delivering It Services, Robert E. Raygan

All ETDs from UAB

Information Technology (IT) is a collaboration environment for business and engineering. The past decade has seen a reduction in business understanding of engineering principles because of the lack of trained engineers working in IT, while businesses have become increasingly dependent upon new and complex technologies. These new technologies, often still evolving, are system-of-systems environments and present significant challenges to early implementers. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is one such system-of-systems that pushes the discipline of Software Configuration Management (SCM) beyond traditionally defined bounds. Evolving standards associated with SOA and the nature of SOA contribute to these challenges of governance and management: loose …

Processing, Characterizati On And Modeling Of Carbon Nanofiber Modified Carbo N/Carbon Composites, Francis J. Samalot Rivera

All ETDs from UAB

Carbon/Carbon (C/C) composites are used in high temperature applications because they exhibit excellent thermomechanical properties. There are several challenges associated with the processing of C/C composites that include long cycle times, formation of closed porosity within fabric woven architecture and carbonization induced cracks that can lead to reduction of mechanical properties. This work addresses various innovative approaches to reduce processing uncertainties and thereby improve thermomechanical properties of C/C by using vapor grown carbon nanofibers (VGCNFs) in conjunction with carbon fabric and precursor phenolic matrix. The different aspects of the proposed research contribute to understanding of the translation of VGCNFs properties …

Assessment Of Uncertainty In Equivalent Sand Grain Roughness Methods, Chinmay P. Bhatt

All ETDs from UAB

The equivalent sand-grain roughness model is an empirical model initiated by Schlichting for predicting skin friction and heat transfer for turbulent flows over rough surfaces. For the equivalent sand-grain roughness model, rough surfaces with various features are compared to data from Nikuradse concerning flow in pipes with varying sizes of sieved sand glued to wetted surface. Rough surfaces are assigned a value of equivalent sand-grain roughness height based on comparisons with Nikuradse’s fully rough data. Recent literature on the equivalent sand-grain roughness method has involved seeking correlations for equivalent sand-grain roughness height based on roughness metrics such as height, density …

Transit Operations Under Emergency Conditions, Amar S. Chaukar

All ETDs from UAB

The events of September 11th and the recent terrorist attacks on transit systems around the world have increased interest in protection and emergency preparedness for the transit systems. Emergency preparedness planning for transit systems is necessary to prevent distractions and effectively respond to major man-made or natural disasters. In this thesis a large-scale dynamic simulation/assignment model was developed and used to evaluate the impact of emergency conditions on transit operations in the Birmingham, AL, area. The Birmingham regional model was developed using the Visual Interactive System for Transport Algorithms. After the base model was tested and calibrated, a major traffic …

Effects Of Pulsed Electromagnetic Stimulation On Cultured Dermal Fibroblasts From Diabetic And Non-Diabetic Rats, Cara Rouse Davis

All ETDs from UAB

Diabetes is a disease affecting an increasing number people each year. The medical costs of patients with diabetes are substantial due to the many complications associated with the disease. Dermal wounds are one of these complications and are often very difficult to properly heal. Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (PEMFs) have been introduced as a method by which to speed the healing of dermal wounds. In this study, a device (provided by Biomet/EBI, Parsippany, NJ) for supplying PEMFs in vitro was used to stimulate dermal fibroblasts, one of the key cells in wound healing. These cells were isolated from the genetically diabetic …

Metal-Tissue Interactions In Early Stage Biocorrosion Of Metallic Stents, Dina Halwani

All ETDs from UAB

In-vivo corrosion of endovascular stents presents two main risks; release of toxic metallic ions and deterioration of the mechanical properties of the stents which may lead to fracture. Several studies have reported corrosion of nickel-titanium stent wires as well as stainless steel sternal wires. It has been suggested that when corrosion occurs on the surface of implants, an amount of metallic ions equivalent to the corroded volumes is released into surrounding tissue. The purpose of this study was to analyze explanted metallic stents for corrosion. The focus was on the detection of metallic ions released into surrounding vascular tissue as …

Temporal And Spatial Correspondence Of Intramural Rotors And Epicardial Breakthrough Patterns During Ventricular Tachycardia And Fibrillation In The Swine Heart, Jong Jin Kim

All ETDs from UAB

The mechanisms of life threatening cardiac arrhythmias such as ventricular tachycardia (VT) and fibrillation (VF) are very complex. The 3D reconstruction of electrical activity helps us to understand these complex arrhythmias. A new isolated heart preparation and combined electrical and optical mapping system was developed to simultaneously record surface and intramural activation patterns. Epicardial activity on a 6 cm by 6 cm region of the left ventricular wall was recorded optically with 1mm by 1mm spatial resolution using voltage sensitive fluorescent dye (di-4-ANNEPS) and a high speed CCD video camera. Intramural activation patterns were recorded using specially fabricated fiberglass plunge …

Hole Patching In 3d Unstructured Surface Mesh, Amitesh Kumar

All ETDs from UAB

A three-dimensional object of interest in a volumetric data can be visualized using direct surface rendering methods or volume rendering approaches. Volume rendering is a visualization technique without providing the geometry information at all. However, an engineering analysis requires watertight surface geometry information of the object. Thus a three-dimensional object representation for the visualization using direct surface rendering may not necessarily be valid for engineering analysis, as such models are not necessarily watertight. Obtaining watertight surfaces has been a challenging task in the field of computational engineering due to presence of deficiencies such as gaps and holes in the surfaces. …

Regional Cerebral Blood Flow (Rcbf) Calculations In Awake, Behaving Non-Human Primates Using Continuous Arterial Spin Labeling (Casl) Techniques, Rajiv G. Menon

All ETDs from UAB

MRI can be employed to measure blood flow changes, which is an important in-dex of tissue health and function. One of the methods used to quantify perfusion is Ar-terial Spin Labeling (ASL) - a non-invasive method that uses arterial blood water as an endogenous contrast agent. The aim of this study was to quantify cerebral blood perfusion in awake, behaving non-human primates by using a class of techniques called Continuous Arterial Spin Labe-ling (CASL). This study involved the experimental design, setup and post-processing for the measurement of perfusion to facilitate validation studies in animals and compare them with existing perfusion …

Numerical Study Of Turbulence Transition Models, Kshitij D. Neroorkar

All ETDs from UAB

The transition of an attached boundary layer from laminar to turbulent greatly affects the performance of aerospace and turbomachinery devices. In the past, a wide range of methods have been employed for modeling this physical phenomenon, including the Stability theory, Direct Numerical Simulation, and numerous proposed modifications to the existing Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes turbulence models. It is believed that the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes based models, of all the existing models, are easiest for coupling with production Computational Fluid Dynamics codes in order to achieve rapid, satisfactorily accurate estimates. There exists a huge body of literature on predicting turbulence transition using models based …

Design Of A Service-Oriented Dashboard, Gayathri Sundar

All ETDs from UAB

Service-Oriented Enterprises are currently focused on offering enhanced user experiences to customers, employees, and enterprise partners who use the enterprise’s software applications. A better user experience is delivered through the presentation of services and business processes to the user in a composite manner, and by facilitating a better user-application interaction for the user. Our experience with the bioinformatics domain helped us to see that although existing models of enterprise portals offer an integrated environment to present applications and enterprise resources, they are not sufficient to address certain complex user-application interactions. In this thesis, we present a design for a Service-Oriented …

An Entropy-Based Measurement Framework For Component-Based Hierarchical Systems, Ozgur Aktunc

All ETDs from UAB

Component-based software systems are becoming larger and more complex. The quantification of these systems is possible through representation in a hierarchical structure with the use of software metrics. Metrics provide information about such features as complexity, design, quality, size, development time, effort, and cost. Entropy-based software metrics promise important improvements in measuring complexity, design quality, and information flow. The entropy-based measurement framework, the core of this dissertation, offers quantitative representation and decomposition processes to apply the entropy-based metrics that we developed: Design Information Content, Interaction Complexity, Interaction Coupling, and Interaction Cohesion. The objective is to achieve a hierarchical representation of …

A Comparison Of Agent Paradigms For Resource Management In Distributed Sensor Networks, Anish Anthony

All ETDs from UAB

Management of power and other resources that effect field life is an important consideration in sensor networks. Sensing, data fusion, target tracking, and network resources are some of the factors that have to be effectively managed in order to improve the field life of an underwater distributed sensor network application. A hierarchical sensor network is considered in which the sensors report the range and bearing of the target to the cluster nodes. The cluster nodes then fuse data from the sensor nodes to generate a local estimate of the target position. The master node fuses data from the different cluster …

Inductive Learning Of Quantum Behaviors, Marek Perkowski, Martin Lukac

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper studied are new concepts of robotic behaviors - deterministic and quantum probabilistic. In contrast to classical circuits, the quantum circuit can realize both of these behaviors. When applied to a robot, a quantum circuit controller realizes what we call quantum robot behaviors. We use automated methods to synthesize quantum behaviors (circuits) from the examples (examples are cares of the quantum truth table). The don’t knows (minterms not given as examples) are then converted not only to deterministic cares as in the classical learning, but also to output values generated with various probabilities. The Occam Razor principle, fundamental …

Search For Universal Ternary Quantum Gate Sets With Exact Minimum Costs, Marek Perkowski, Normen Giesecke, Dong Hwa Kim, Sazzad Hossain

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The choice of the best set of universal ternary gates for quantum circuits is an open problem. We create exact minimum cost ternary reversible gates with quantum multiplexers using the method of iterative deepening depth-first search (IDDFS) [25]. Such search is better for small problems than evolutionary algorithms or other search methods. Several new gates that are provably exact minimum cost have been discovered. These gates are next used as library building blocks in the minimization of larger ternary quantum circuits like highly testable GFSOP cascades [15,16] (that generalize ESOP) as well as the wave cascades [24] generalized to ternary …

Realization Of Incompletely Specified Functions In Minimized Reversible Cascades, Marek Perkowski, Manjith Kumar, Bala Iyer, Natalie Metzger, Ying Wang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is a need to convert non-reversible functions to their corresponding reversible functions to be realized as reversible cascades. The original MMD (D.M.Miller, D. Maslov, and G.W.Dueck) algorithm for synthesis of reversible functions using cascades of reversible gates [1] can be modified to allow for the inclusion of “don't cares” within the given function's truth table (reversible or irreversible). This was achieved in the approach presented, by first initializing the “don't cares” to binary values, synthesizing the network using the base MMD algorithm, comparing the cost, and iterating to find an implementation with the smallest possible cost. The “don't care” …

Bismuth Surfactant Effects For Gaasn And Beryllium Doping Of Gaasn Grown By Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Ting Liu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Bi was investigated as a possible surfactant for growth of GaAs1-xNx layers on (100) GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy using an RF plasma nitrogen source. Bi extends the useable growth conditions producing smoother surfaces to a significantly higher N content than without Bi. The conductivity of Be-doped GaAsN decreased significantly with increasing N concentration. Temperature dependent Hall measurement suggests possible compensation and increased activation energy. SIMS and Raman measurements indicate that the N composition increased by introducing Be, and for low [N], Bi. The addition of Bi during growth of Be-doped GaAsN only produced semi-insulating layers.

GaAs1-xNx layers and …

Monolithic Integration Of High-Aspect-Ratio Microstructures With Cmos Circuitry, Tinghui Xin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work involves developing processing techniques for monolithically integrating a high-aspect-ratio microstructures with CMOS circuitry. A microsystem comprising of a microprobe array and signal processing circuitry is utilized as a test vehicle to demonstrate this fabrication process. One potential application of this microsystem is for recording neural signals from the central nervous system. The main results include thick photoresist processing, DC and pulse electroplating to form high-aspect-ratio microprobes, microprobe sharpening and developing a post-IC monolithic integration process. SU-8 is utilized for thick photoresist application. This work focuses on realization of a deep microrecess array in thick resists rather than traditional …

Minimizing The Number Of Constraints For Shared Backup Path Protection (Sbpp) In Shared Risk Link Group (Srlg) Optical Mesh Networks, Daryoush Habibi, Viet Quoc Phung, Hoang N. Nguyen

Research outputs pre 2011

Path-arc integer linear programming (ILP) models for shared backup path protection (SBPP) in optical mesh networks generally contain many redundant constraints for calculating shared backup capacity. This greatly increases the computational time of the ILP solvers. In this paper, we first identify the sharing relationship between working and backup capacities, which facilitates the development of two novel algorithms for minimizing the number of constraints in ILP models for SBPP in mesh networks. Next, we consider the more realistic case of Shared Risk Link Group (SRLG) networks, where some optical fibers have the same risk of a physical cut due to …

Integrated Broadband Microphotonics Beamformer For Adaptive Nulling In Smart Antennas, Budi Juswardy, Kamal Alameh, Yong Lee

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper presents an integrated MicroPhotonic beamformer that processes RF-modulated optical signals to adaptively synthesise multiple broadband nulls in smart phased-array antennas, The beam former is designed to operate at centre frequency of 5.6 GHz with I GHz bandwidth. Designs of the different photonic and RF components are presented. Simulation results show that a 4-element MicroPhotonic broadband smart antenna beamformer operating in the 5.1-6,1- GHz range can generate three broadband nulls, with less than 1.121 0 beam squint.

First Read Rate Analysis Of 2d-Barcodes For Camera Phone Applications As A Ubiquitous Computing Tool, Hiroko Kato, Keng T. Tan

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper presents a detailed study on the first read rate (FRR) of seven 2D-barcodes currently used for camera phone applications. The study revealed a few surprising observations. Through our analysis, we identified three key factors to improve the robustness of 2D-barcode reading, the range of the reading distance and the stability of the readers. This will contribute to the widespread use of 2D-barcode mobile technology as a ubiquitous computing tool.

Performance Evaluation Of Java Web Services: A Developer's Perspective, Je-Loon Yang

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid growth of traffic on the internet, further development of the web technology upon which it is based becomes extremely important. For the evolvement of Web 2.0, web services are essential. Web services are programs that allow different computer platforms to communicate interactively across the web, without the need for extra data for interfaces and formats, such as webpage structures. Since web services are a future trend for the growth of the internet, the tools used for their development are also important. Although there are many choices of web service frameworks to choose from, developers should choose the …

Capillary Flow Analysis And Computation Of De-Wetting And Wetting Resistances In Angular Geometries, Daniel Bolleddula

Dissertations and Theses

Capillary flows in containers or conduits with interior corners are commonplace in nature and industry. The majority of investigations addressing such flows solve the problem numerically in terms of a flow resistance coefficient (friction factor) for cases where spontaneous liquid spreading along the corner occurs for contact angles below the Concus-Finn critical wetting condition for the particular conduit geometry of interest. This research effort provides missing numerical data for the flow resistance function F_i for partially wetting systems above the Concus-Finn condition. In such cases the fluid spontaneously de-wets the interior corner and often retracts into corner-bound drops. A …

Gis-Based Integration Of Swat And Remm For Estimating Water Quality Benefits Of Riparian Buffers In Agricultural Watersheds, Y. Liu, Wanhong Yang, Xixi Wang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a process-based, watershed-scale model with a hydrologic response unit (HRU) as the basic computation element, which makes it difficult to accurately represent riparian buffers using their physical parameters (e.g., vegetation structure). On the other hand, the field-scale Riparian Ecosystem Management Model (REMM) provides the opportunity to consider details of hydrologic processes within a riparian buffer zone. However, the runoff and its associated constituents from the upland area that is hydraulically connected to the riparian buffer zone must be provided as inputs into REMM. The rationale proposed here is that the integration of …

Identifying Non-Volatile Data Storage Areas: Unique Notebook Identification Information As Digital Evidence, Nikica Budimir, Jill Slay

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The research reported in this paper introduces new techniques to aid in the identification of recovered notebook computers so they may be returned to the rightful owner. We identify non-volatile data storage areas as a means of facilitating the safe storing of computer identification information. A forensic proof of concept tool has been designed to test the feasibility of several storage locations identified within this work to hold the data needed to uniquely identify a computer. The tool was used to perform the creation and extraction of created information in order to allow the analysis of the non-volatile storage locations …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Making Molehills Out Of Mountains: Bringing Security Research To The Classroom, Richard G. Taylor

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Security research published in academic journals rarely finds its way to the business community or into the classroom. Even though the research is of high quality, it is written in a manner that is difficult to read and to understand. This paper argues that one way to get this academic research into the business community is to incorporate it into security classrooms. To do so, however, academic articles need to be adapted into a classroom-friendly format. This paper suggests ways to do this and provides an example of an academic article that was adapted for use in a security management …

The Common Body Of Knowledge: A Framework To Promote Relevant Information Security Research, Kenneth J. Knapp, F. N. Ford, Thomas E. Marshall, R. K. Rainer

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This study proposes using an established common body of knowledge (CBK) as one means of organizing information security literature. Consistent with calls for more relevant information systems (IS) research, this industrydeveloped framework can motivate future research towards topics that are important to the security practitioner. In this review, forty-eight articles from ten IS journals from 1995 to 2004 are selected and cross-referenced to the ten domains of the information security CBK. Further, we distinguish articles as empirical research, frameworks, or tutorials. Generally, this study identified a need for additional empirical research in every CBK domain including topics related to legal …

Book Review: Computer Forensics: Principles And Practices, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This issue presents the third Book Review column for the JDFSL. It is an experiment to broaden the services that the journal provides to readers, so we are anxious to get your reaction. Is the column useful and interesting? Should we include more than one review per issue? Should we also review products? Do you have suggested books/products for review and/or do you want to write a review? All of this type of feedback -- and more -- is appreciated. Please feel free to send comments to Gary Kessler ([email protected]) or Glenn Dardick ([email protected]).