Engineering Commons^™

Inference Of Genetic Regulatory Networks With Recurrent Neural Network Models Using Particle Swarm Optimization, Rui Xu, Donald C. Wunsch, Ronald L. Frank

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Genetic regulatory network inference is critically important for revealing fundamental cellular processes, investigating gene functions, and understanding their relations. The availability of time series gene expression data makes it possible to investigate the gene activities of whole genomes, rather than those of only a pair of genes or among several genes. However, current computational methods do not sufficiently consider the temporal behavior of this type of data and lack the capability to capture the complex nonlinear system dynamics. We propose a recurrent neural network (RNN) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach to infer genetic regulatory networks from time series gene …

Workshop - Building Reflective Team Skills With A T-Group, Ray Luechtefeld, Steve Eugene Watkins

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

ABET criteria require that engineering graduates have the ability to "function on multidisciplinary teams" and "communicate effectively". An important component of these skills is the ability to reflect on one's personal actions and the dynamics occurring within the group. This workshop is intended to provide participants with a practical exercise that can help students become more self-reflective and aware of group dynamics, while demonstrating the use of the "virtual facilitator" system to improve group dialogue. The workshop will engage the participants in a self- directed learning exercise modeled after T-Groups. This exercise will help participants: 1) Become aware of their …

Expert System For Team Facilitation Using Observational Learning, Ray Luechtefeld, R. K. Singh, Steve Eugene Watkins

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

While ABET criteria require that engineering graduates be able to "function on multidisciplinary teams" and "communicate effectively", the need for effective team skills goes far deeper. One solution is the use of a computationally intelligent "virtual facilitator" that contains a subset of the expert knowledge of a skilled facilitator. The "virtual facilitator" models behaviors of an expert facilitator to engineering student teams as they are working together. Albert Bandura's theory of observational learning suggests that skills can be developed through observation of expert "others" engaged in practice. Preliminary research indicates that students can increase beneficial team behaviors (such as inquiry) …

Simulation To Augment Standardized Patients In Obstetric Ultrasound Training, Scott Richard Guirlinger

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Standardized patients are actors used in medical training to teach and eval11atc clinical skills of students prior to their using these skills on an actual patient. Augmented Reality is a relatively new technology that can be used to augment standardized patients with abnonnalitie8 and pathologies that they cannot portray themselves as normal healthy human beings. In our project, we sought to augment standardized patients with a 12-week- old fetus in order to train and possibly evaluate medical students and professionals in performing obstetric ultrasound procedures and interpreting the corresponding ultrasound image results.

The software library ARToolkit provided the framework for …

A Robust Method For Multiple Face Tracking Using Kalman Filter, Zaheer Shaik

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A robust method for tracking faces of multiple people moving in a scene using a Kalman filter is proposed. This method overcomes the problem of partial and total occlusion for a short period. The method uses a combination of face detection and cloth matching to track and differentiate between people. A Template matching technique for face and a non-parametric distribution for cloth are used. Face templates are obtained from the first frame of a video sequence by applying the Viola-Jones face detection method. Cloth color distribution is obtained from people's clothes, assuming that the bodies move along with the faces. …

Active Control Of Nonlinear Panel Flutter At Supersonic Speed Using Aeroelastic Modes And Self-Sensing Piezoelectric Actuators Under Yawed Flow Angle, Myounghee Kim

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Suppression of nonlinear panel flutter at supersonic speeds has been investigated traditionally with system equations of motion in terms of in vacuo modal coordinates. For isotropic and symmetrically laminated orthotropic composite plates, the limit-cycle oscillations converged with six in vacuo natural modes at zero yaw angle. However, as laminated composite plates undergo the effect of an arbitrary yawed flow angle, complicated characteristics emerge when increasing the required in vacuo natural modes for an analysis of limit-cycle oscillations. In order to design an effective controller, the large number of modes should be reduced. As a result, the small number of modes …

Stochastic Optimization Formulations For Structure Design, Shivanandini Tanuku

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The production process and the operational environment of a product usually involve many unpredictable elements, such as the manufacturing tolerance, the service loads, the maintenance schedule, etc. Furthermore, the targeted functionality of a product can also be alternated or enhanced in its service life due to the technology advancement, new demands, or new regulation. It is thus a challenge to a designer to include these uncertainties in the early design stage of a product.

This thesis uses a simple three-bar truss problem as a vehicle to investigate the qualities of the optimal solutions resulted from various stochastic programming formulations. The …

Distributed Cluster-Based Outlier Detection In Wireless Sensor Networks, Swetha Gali

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wireless sensor networks find several potential applications in a variety of fields, such as environmental monitoring and control, battlefields, surveillance, smart buildings, human health monitoring, etc. These sensor networks consist of a large number of very tiny, inexpensive, and low power sensor nodes, which are deployed in a variety of harsh environments that may result in the sensor data getting corrupted. It is thus critical to detect and report these abnormal values in the sensor data, in order to have a better understanding of the monitored environment. Detection of the abnormal values is of special interest for the sensor network …

2007 Summary Of Major Moves Money Distribution, Indiana Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This report contains a summary of local units' use of the Major Moves funding to enhance their transportation systems provided for by the Indiana Legislature passing of House Bill 1008 on March 14, 2006.

The information contained herein is from either written or verbal responses to a survey that was sent to all Indiana counties and to the Indiana cities and towns over 20,000 in population. A copy of this survey can be found in the Appendix. In Appendix I, you will find a copy of the survey that was sent. Appendix II contains a table containing a breakdown of …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Rapid Detection Of Analytes With Improved Selectivity Using Coated Microcantilever Chemical Sensors And Estimation Theory, Michael J. Wenzel, Fabien Josse Phd, Edwin E. Yaz, Stephen M. Heinrich, P. G. Datskos

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Rapid detection of analytes with improved selectivity is achieved though the use of estimation theory to analyze the response of polymer-coated microcantilever chemical sensors. In general, chemical sensors exhibit partial selectivity and can have relatively long response times. Using estimation theory, it is possible to make short-term response predictions from past data. This makes it possible to use the transient information (response time), often unique to an analyte/coating pair, to achieve an improvement in analyte species recognition while simultaneously allowing for a reduction in the time required for identification and quantification. An extended Kalman filter is used as a recursive …

Wigner Distribution Of A Transducer Beam Pattern Within A Multiple Scattering Formalism For Heterogeneous Solids, Goutam Ghoshal, Joseph A. Turner, Richard Weaver

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Faculty Publications

Diffuse ultrasonic backscatter measurements have been especially useful for extracting microstructural information and for detecting flaws in materials. Accurate interpretation of experimental data requires robust scattering models. Quantitative ultrasonic scattering models include components of transducer beam patterns as well as microstructural scattering information. Here, the Wigner distribution is used in conjunction with the stochastic wave equation to model this scattering problem. The Wigner distribution represents a distribution in space and time of spectral energy density as a function of wave vector and frequency. The scattered response is derived within the context of the Wigner distribution of the beam pattern of …

Electroelastic Effect Of Thickness Mode Langasite Resonators, Haifeng Zhang, Joseph A. Turner, J. S. Yang, J. A. Kosinski

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Faculty Publications

Langasite is a very promising material for resonators due to its good temperature behavior and high piezoelectric coupling, low acoustic loss, and high Q factor. The biasing effect for langasite resonators is crucial for resonator design. In this article, the resonant frequency shift of a thickness-mode langasite resonator is analyzed with respect to a direct current (DC) electric field applied in the thickness direction. The vibration modes of a thin langasite plate fully coated with an electrode are analyzed. The analysis is based on the theory for small fields superposed on a bias in electroelastic bodies and the first-order perturbation …

Bioluminescence Imaging For Assessment And Normalization In Transfected Cell Arrays, Angela K. Pannier, Eric A. Ariazi, Abigail D. Bellis, Zain Bengali, V. Craig Jordan, Lonnie D. Shea

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Transfected cell arrays (TCAs) represent a high-throughput technique to correlate gene expression with functional cell responses. Despite advances in TCAs, improvements are needed for the widespread application of this technology. We have developed a TCA that combines a two-plasmid system and dual-bioluminescence imaging to quantitatively normalize for variability in transfection and increase sensitivity. The two-plasmids consist of: (i) normalization plasmid present within each spot, and (ii) functional plasmid that varies between spots, responsible for the functional endpoint of the array. Bioluminescence imaging of dual-luciferase reporters (renilla, firefly luciferase) provides sensitive and quantitative detection of cellular response, with minimal post-transfection processing. …

Case Study: Applying A Regional Cge Model For Estimation Of Indirect Economic Losses Due To Damaged Highway Bridges, Chakkaphan Tirasirichai, David Lee Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Destruction from natural and man-made disasters can result in extensive damage to the affected area's infrastructure. While the destruction results in costs that are necessary to restore the physical destruction and repair of existing infrastructure, a wider economic impact is often indirectly measured and felt. Policymakers generally focus only on losses that are directly caused by the destruction, such as the replacement of roads and bridges, yet tend to overlook the consequences from indirect economic losses. This study proposes a framework to estimate the indirect economic loss due to damaged bridges within the highway system of a major metropolitan area. …

Effects Of Heat Treatments On Steels For Bearing Applications, K. Clemons, C. Lorraine, G. Salgado, A. Taylor, J. Ogren, P. Umin, Omar S. Es-Said

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Works

AISI 52 100, 440C, REX20, and Crucible CRU80 steel samples were exposed to 16 different heat treatments to vary the levels of retained austenite. Rockwell C hardness measurements, optical microscopy, and compression testing were used to compare the properties of the different steels.

Chronic Hypoxia-Induced Pulmonary Hypertension Does/Does Not Lead To Loss Of Pulmonary Vasculature, Marlene Rabinovitch, Naomi Chesler, Robert C. Molthen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Byu Wideband Mimo Channel Sounder Technical Reference Manual, Jon W. Wallace

Faculty Publications

This document serves as a technical reference manual for the wideband multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) wireless channel sounder developed at the Wireless Research Laboratory at Brigham Young University. The development of this system is considered an "open hardware project," which means that the details of the system may be freely used by others interested in designing and building similar systems. Also, it is hoped that the open hardware methodology will lead to fruitful cooperation in improving the system and sharing ideas.

Self-Organization In Cathode Boundary Layer Discharges, Nobuhiko Takano

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Cathode boundary layer (CBL) discharge, which has been developed as a UV light source, operates in a direct current between a planar cathode and a ring-shape anode that are separated by a dielectric with an opening of the same diameter as the anode. The nonthermal CBL discharges operate in a medium pressure range down to 30 Torr, emitting excimer radiation when operated with noble gases. The radiant excimer emittance at 172 nm in xenon reaches 1.7 W/cm², and a maximum excimer efficiency of 6 % has been obtained. The high excimer radiant emittance, in addition to low cost …

Radical Impact Of Change In Actions And Confidence Index On Reverse Decision Making An Application Based Study, Swatee Trimbak Paithankar

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

While making decisions under uncertainty, people are often unaware of the logical approach to form the decision process. It is assumed that collecting details, analyzing and evaluating data is enough to make 'proper' decisions. However, past research in the decision making arena has significantly validated that there exists a class of decision problems which is complex, ill-structured and not defined to the level where decision makers can draw logical conclusions based on existing traditional decision approaches. RDM (reverse decision making), one of the novel approaches of decision making under conditions of uncertainty, has shown potential towards addressing some of these …

Simulation And Thermo-Economic Analysis Of A Solar-Assisted Heat Pump System For Domestic Water Heating Application, Vaibhav D. Gagrani

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The present study examines the potential of solar-assisted heat pump (SAHP) system for domestic water heating application over conventional electrical water heating system. The focus of study is on developing a user-friendly and interactive software using Java platform with Microsoft Access being used for maintaining the database. The software developed is capable of predicting the thermal and economic performance of a SAHP system under varying conditions. The software allows the user to select the geographic location, specify condensing temperature, collector, and compressor parameters, and thermal load requirement. Location specific meteorological data, such as latitude, solar radiation, and ambient temperature, are …

Parmela Based Simulations On Jefferson Lab Free Electron Laser Injector, Deepesh Kumar Koppunuru

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Free Electron Lasers (FELs) have many applications and are under continuing development to meet various needs and in areas from materials processing to life sciences research. This is because of its unique capability of generating high-average power, coherent, and wavelength tunable light by employing relativistic beam of un-bounded electrons. The main challenge in FEL development is the generation of a high intensity, high-quality electron beam in an injector. Further acceleration to relativistic energies is accomplished in a linear accelerator (LINAC) for producing laser light in a device known as wiggler. The Jefferson Lab FEL team intents to increase the injector …

Gap-Based Estimation: Choosing The Smoothing Parameters For Probabilistic And General Regression Neural Networks, Mingyu Zhong, Dave Coggeshall, Ehsan Ghaneie, Thomas Pope, Mark Rivera, Michael Georgiopoulos, Georgios C. Anagnostopoulos, Mansooreh Mollaghasemi, Samuel Richie

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Probabilistic neural networks (PNN) and general regression neural networks (GRNN) represent knowledge by simple but interpretable models that approximate the optimal classifier or predictor in the sense of expected value of the accuracy. These models require the specification of an important smoothing parameter, which is usually chosen by crossvalidation or clustering. In this article, we demonstrate the problems with the cross-validation and clustering approaches to specify the smoothing parameter, discuss the relationship between this parameter and some of © 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology the data statistics, and attempt to develop a fast approach to determine the optimal value of …

An Adaptive And Non-Linear Technique For Enhancement Of High Contrast Images, Saibabu Arigela

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In night time surveillance, there is a possibility of having extremely bright and dark regions in some image frames of a video sequence. Neither the object details in the low intensity areas nor in the high intensity areas can be clearly interpreted. Several image processing techniques have been developed to retrieve meaningful information under low lighting conditions. The algorithm based on integrated neighborhood dependency of pixel characteristics, and that based on the illuminance reflectance model perform well for improving the visual quality of digital images captured under extremely low and nonuniform lighting conditions. But these techniques cannot perform well in …

Rational De Novo Gene Synthesis By Rapid Polymerase Chain Assembly (Pca) And Expression Of Endothelial Protein-C And Thrombin Receptor Genes, Tarlan G. Mamedov, Nisha V. Padhye, Hendrik J. Viljoen, Anuradha Subramanian

Anuradha Subramanian Publications

The assembly of synthetic oligonucleotides into genes and genomes is an important methodology. Several methodologies for such synthesis have been developed, but they have two drawbacks: (1) the processes are slow and (2) the error frequencies are high (typically 1–3 errors/kb of DNA). Thermal damage is a major contributor to biosynthetic errors. In this paper, we elucidate the advantages of rapid gene synthesis by polymerase chain assembly (PCA) when used in combination with smart error control strategies. We used a high-speed thermocycler (PCRJet®) to effectively minimize thermal damage and to perform rapid assembly of synthetic oligonucleotides to construct two different …

Bulk Behavior Of Nanostructured Aluminum: Nanocrystalline Powders Compaction, Canning And Consolidation Via Intense Plastic Straining, Mohamed Mahmoud Hamed Shamma

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Gnep Quarterly Input – Unlv July 1 Through September 30, 2007, Harry Reid Center For Environmental Studies. Nuclear Science And Technology Division

Transmutation Research Program Reports (TRP)

Quarterly report highlighting research projects, activities and objectives of the Transmutation Research Program at the Nuclear Science & Technology Division, Harry Reid Research Center.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas supports the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) through research and development of technologies for economic and environmentally sound refinement of spent nuclear fuel. The UNLV program has four components: infrastructure, international collaboration, student-based research, and management and program support.

Review Of Chilled Water And Electric Energy Use At The West And North/South Buildings Of The Orange County Convention Center, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) has the 2nd largest convention facility utilization in the nation. Two primary buildings provide about seven million square feet of conditioned space to one million visitors per year. In efforts to reduce energy conservation, OCCC began implementing several energy conservation measures beginning in 2005 and continuing over the last 2 years with plans to continue additional efforts in the future. Examples of the types of energy conservation involved changing lighting and HVAC schedules and control methods, replacement of motors with higher efficiency, and turning off power to other unused equipment. An analysis of monthly …

Low-Power-Dissipation Cmos Oscillator Circuits With Capacitively Coupled Frequency Control, Thaddeus Gabara, Vladimir I. Prodanov

Electrical Engineering

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for adjusting the frequency tuning range of an oscillator circuit. The oscillator circuit is comprised of at least two MOS devices; a first reactance connecting a drain electrode of a first MOS device to a gate electrode of a second MOS device and a second reactance connecting a drain electrode of the second MOS device to a gate electrode of the first MOS device; and a tank circuit connected to the source and drain electrodes. The first and second reactance may comprises a capacitor or a diode or a combination thereof. In addition, one or …

Sample Entry Purge System In Spectrophotometer, Ellipsometer, Polarimeter And The Like Systems, Steven E. Green, Ping He, Galen L. Pfeiffer, Brian D. Guenther, Gerald T. Cooney, John A. Woollam, Martin M. Liphardt, Blaine D. Johs, Craig M. Herzinger

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A sample sequestering system which allows access to a subspace in a chamber encompassed generally enclosed space, for use in entering and removing a sample when the subspace is opened to atmosphere. Sufficient purge gas is flowed from withing the generally enclosed space into the subspace discourage atmospheric contaminates from entering into the space is a spectrophotometer, ellipsometer or polarimeter or the like system which operates at wavelengths, (eg. UV), which are advesely affected, (eg. absorded), by typical atmospheric contents.