Engineering Commons^™

Simulation Of National Intelligence Process With Fusion, Joseph S. Lupa

Theses and Dissertations

This work is a follow on effort of two previous Master's theses. The first was Modeling and Simulation of the Military Intelligence Process by Captain Carl Pawling in 2004. The other was A Knowledge Matrix Modeling of the Intelligence Cycle by Captain Kevin Whaley in 2005. Both of these were done to facilitate the study and analysis of the intelligence process for the National Security Space Organization (NSSO). Here, modifications are made the Pawling model to include tasking multiple intelligence sources for data collection to fulfill Requests for Information (RFIs) and fusing the collected data into one new piece of …

Forecasting Instability Indicators In The Horn Of Africa Region, Bryan R. Tannehill

Theses and Dissertations

The forecasting of state failure and the associated indicators has been a topic of great interest to a number of different agencies. USAID, CENTCOM, the World Bank, the Center for Army Analyses, and others have all examined the subject based on their own specific objectives. Whether the goal is denying terrorists space in which to operate, deciding how to pre-position materials in anticipation of unrest, stabilizing foreign markets and trade, or preventing or mitigating humanitarian disasters, man made or otherwise, this topic has been of interest for over a decade. The Horn of Africa has been one of the least …

An Analysis Of Methodologies & Best Practices For Rapidly Acquiring Technologies To Meet Urgent Warfighter Needs, Charles D. Solomon

Theses and Dissertations

The rapidly changing global security environment that today's military operates within requires an ever-increasing ability to quickly adapt to non-traditional threats. This has forced the United States to re-examine the traditional means of equipping its forces to ensure more agile acquisition practices are available to the Science and Technology (S&T) and acquisition communities. While there have been significant efforts to look towards industry for potential solutions to this problem, the heavily bureaucratic and restrictive government environment has made applying commercial lessons learned difficult. To effectively implement rapid fielding approaches within the government context, research into organizations facing the same or …

Investigation Of Voids/Cracking On The I-275 Twin Bridges Over The Ohio River In Kenton County - Phase I, Brad Rister, Theodore Hopwood Ii

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

An evaluation of the northbound bridge approach and the abutment wall of (Combs-Hehl) bridge on I-275 in Kenton County was conducted in September 2007. The inspection consisted of using ground penetrating radar to look for potential voids beneath the concrete approach slab and a video camera inspection to inspect the void space beneath the pier cap/concrete beam in front of the abutment wall.

Results of field testing and recommendations:

A possible void approximately 1-2 inches in depth resides under the approach slab approximately 105 feet before the bridge abutment in the fast lane. It is recommended that this section be …

Evaluation Of Noise Impact Mitigation Protocols To Support Css, Ted Grossardt, Lou Cohn, Al Harris, Keiron Bailey, John Ripy

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This research project developed and evaluated practical ways of involving the public in context sensitive sound mitigation strategies. The integrated use of photo montage, PowerPoint presentation, linked traffic sound files, and audience response systems demonstrated that significant visual and aural differences could be clearly portrayed and clear preferences could be expressed by citizens and professionals alike, even where the choice menu was quite complex.

Final Report: Nevada System Of Higher Education Quality Assurance Program, Nevada System Of Higher Education

Publications (YM)

The principal purpose of the cooperative agreement was to develop and continue providing the public and the Office of Repository Development (ORD) of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) with an independently derived, unbiased body of scientific and engineering data concerning the study of Yucca Mountain as a potential high-level radioactive waste repository. Under this agreement, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), formerly the University and Community CollegeSystem of Nevada (UCCSN), performed scientific and engineering research, and maintained and fostered collaborative working relationships between government and academic researchers. In performing these activities, …

Particle Swarm Optimization: Basic Concepts, Variants And Applications In Power Systems, Yamille Del Valle, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Salman Mohagheghi, Ronald G. Harley, J. C. Hernandez

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Many areas in power systems require solving one or more nonlinear optimization problems. While analytical methods might suffer from slow convergence and the curse of dimensionality, heuristics-based swarm intelligence can be an efficient alternative. Particle swarm optimization (PSO), part of the swarm intelligence family, is known to effectively solve large-scale nonlinear optimization problems. This paper presents a detailed overview of the basic concepts of PSO and its variants. Also, it provides a comprehensive survey on the power system applications that have benefited from the powerful nature of PSO as an optimization technique. For each application, technical details that are required …

Maxwellian Circuits-Based Analysis Of Loaded Wire Antennas And Scatterers, Mohamed A. Abou-Khousa, R. Zoughi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Based on the recently proposed Maxwellian circuit (MC) theory, a new method to analyze wire antennas and scatterers loaded with linear lumped elements is demonstrated in this letter. To effectively incorporate the load boundary condition into the numerical solution, the MC model is solved herein using finite element method (FEM).

Improved Method Of Using Traffic Estimates To Evaluate Intersection Improvements, Karen Schurr, Krishna C. Movva, Linna Zhang

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of A Modified Three Cable Guardrail Adjacent To Steep Slope, Ryan J. Terpsma, Dean L. Sicking, Karla A. Polivka, John R. Rohde, Ronald K. Faller, John D. Reid

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Globally Optimal Grouping For Symmetric Closed Boundaries By Combining Boundary And Region Information, Joachim S. Stahl, Song Wang

Faculty Publications

Many natural and man-made structures have a boundary that shows a certain level of bilateral symmetry, a property that plays an important role in both human and computer vision. In this paper, we present a new grouping method for detecting closed boundaries with symmetry. We first construct a new type of grouping token in the form of symmetric trapezoids by pairing line segments detected from the image. A closed boundary can then be achieved by connecting some trapezoids with a sequence of gap-filling quadrilaterals. For such a closed boundary, we define a unified grouping cost function in a ratio form: …

Acoustic Model Adaptation For Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza Hortulana L.) Song-Type Classification, Jidong Tao, Michael T. Johnson, Tomasz S. Osiejuk

Dr. Dolittle Project: A Framework for Classification and Understanding of Animal Vocalizations

Automatic systems for vocalization classification often require fairly large amounts of data on which to train models. However, animal vocalization data collection and transcription is a difficult and time-consuming task, so that it is expensive to create large data sets. One natural solution to this problem is the use of acoustic adaptation methods. Such methods, common in human speech recognition systems, create initial models trained on speaker independent data, then use small amounts of adaptation data to build individual-specific models. Since, as in human speech, individual vocal variability is a significant source of variation in bioacoustic data, acoustic model adaptation …

An Improved Snr Estimator For Speech Enhancement, Yao Ren, Michael T. Johnson

Dr. Dolittle Project: A Framework for Classification and Understanding of Animal Vocalizations

In this paper, we propose an MMSE a priori SNR estimator for speech enhancement. This estimator has similar benefits to the well-known decision-directed approach, but does not require an ad-hoc weighting factor to balance the past a priori SNR and current ML SNR estimate with smoothing across frames. Performance is evaluated in terms of estimation error and segmental SNR using the standard logSTSA speech enhancement method. Experimental results show that, in contrast with the decision-directed estimator and ML estimator, the proposed SNR estimator can help enhancement algorithms preserve more weak speech information and efficiently suppress musical noise.

Macro-Mixing In A Draft-Tube Airlift Bioreactor, Hu Ping Luo, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Airlift Reactors Are Pneumatically Agitated Reactors that Have Been Widely Used in Industries, Particularly in Bioprocesses. Extensive Studies About the Flow Dynamics in Airlift Column Reactors Exist; However, Most of These Studies Have Focused on Global Hydrodynamic Parameters using Conventional Techniques. the Local Flow Characteristics, such as the Macro-Mixing and the Turbulence Intensity, Are Crucial for Reliable Design and Scale-Up, and They Remain Unclear. This Work Focuses on Studying the Macro-Mixing in a Draft-Tube Airlift Bioreactor Utilizing an Advanced Flow Dynamic Measurement Technique, Computer Automated Radioactive Particle Tracking (CARPT). True Residence Time Distribution Analyses for the overall Column as Well …

Computational Models Of Tandem Src Homology 2 Domain Interactions And Application To Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase, Dipak Barua, James R. Faeder, Jason M. Haugh

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Intracellular signal transduction proteins typically utilize multiple interaction domains for proper targeting, and thus a broad diversity of distinct signaling complexes may be assembled. Considering the coordination of only two such domains, as in tandem Src homology 2 (SH2) domain constructs, gives rise to a kinetic scheme that is not adequately described by simple models used routinely to interpret in vitro binding measurements. To analyze the interactions between tandem SH2 domains and bisphosphorylated peptides, we formulated detailed kinetic models and applied them to the phosphoinositide 3-kinase p85 regulatory subunit/platelet-derived growth factor β-receptor system. Data for this system from different in …

A Note On Discrete-Time Triply-Selective Mimo Rayleigh Fading Channel Models, Jan Mietzner, Chengshan Xiao, Peter A. Hoeher, Khaled Ben Letaief

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We discuss recent results on discrete-time models for triply-selective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Rayleigh fading channels. Our key finding is that a previously proposed model (Xiao et al., 2004), which allows for efficient computer simulations, is sufficiently accurate for a wide range of practical scenarios.

Automatic Drift Compensation Using Phase Correlation Method For Nanomanipulation, Qinmin Yang, Jagannathan Sarangapani, Eric W. Bohannan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Nanomanipulation and nanofabrication with an atomic force microscope (AFM) or other scanning probe microscope (SPM) are a precursor for nanomanufacturing. It is still a challenging task to accomplish nanomanipulation automatically. In ambient conditions without stringent environmental controls, the task of nanomanipulation requires extensive human intervention to compensate for the spatial uncertainties of the SPM. Among these uncertainties, the thermal drift, which affects spatial resolution, is especially hard to solve because it tends to increase with time, and cannot be compensated simultaneously by feedback from the instrument. In this paper, a novel automatic compensation scheme is introduced to measure and estimate …

Non-Invasive Raman Tomographic Imaging Of Canine Bone Tissue, Matthew V. Schulmerich, Jacqueline H. Cole, Kathryn A. Dooley, Michael D. Morris, Jaclynn M. Kreider, Steven A. Goldstein, Subhadra Srinivasan, Brian W. Pogue

Dartmouth Scholarship

Raman spectroscopic diffuse tomographic imaging has been demonstrated for the first time. It provides a noninvasive, label-free modality to image the chemical composition of human and animal tissue and other turbid media. This technique has been applied to image the composition of bone tissue within an intact section of a canine limb. Spatially distributed 785-nm laser excitation was employed to prevent thermal damage to the tissue. Diffuse emission tomography reconstruction was used, and the location that was recovered has been confirmed by micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) images.

With recent advances, diffuse tomography shows promise for in vivo clinical imaging.^{1, …}

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

2008 (Spring) Ensi Informer Magazine, Morehead State University. Engineering Sciences Department

ENSI Informer Magazine Archive

The ENSI Informer Magazine published in the spring of 2008.

Wideband Smaller Unit-Cell Planar Ebg Structures And Their Application, M. Faisal Abedin, Mohammed Z. Azad, Mohammod Ali

Faculty Publications

A new low-cost smaller unit-cell planar electromagnetic bandgap (ERG) structure operating at the lower GHz frequencies (below 6 GHz) is proposed. ERG structures based on this new geometry are designed on a number of commonly available substrates. Characteristics of such structures, such as bandgap and reflection phase profile are analyzed. a simple empirical model is proposed to predict the surface wave stopband frequency of the proposed ERG structure. Finally, a low-profile dipole antenna is designed and tested for operation on the ERG structure.

Spatial Variations In Nutrient And Microbial Transport From Feedlot Surfaces, John E. Gilley, Elaine D. Berry, Roger A. Eigenberg, David B. Marx, Bryan L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Nutrient and microbial transport by runoff may vary at different locations within a beef cattle feedlot. If the areas making the largest contributions to nutrient and microbial transport can be identified, it may be possible to institute site‐specific management practices to reduce runoff nutrient and microbial transport. The objectives of this study were to: (1) measure selected feedlot soil properties and nutrient and microbial transport in runoff from various feedlot locations, (2) compare the effects of unconsolidated surface materials (USM) (loose manure pack) and consolidated subsurface materials (CSM) (compacted manure and underlying layers) on nutrient and microbial transport, and (3) …

A Strategy For Reducing The Impact Of Driving Under Influence Of Intoxicants In Portland, Oregon, Christopher Monsere, Delia Chi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) applies to operating a vehicle under the influence of any substance that can impair driving performance. Nationally and locally there is a strong desire to reduce the societal impacts of this significant social problem. The trend in U.S. alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes was generally decreasing in the mid to late 1980’s but has remained fairly flat since the early 1990s. In 1982, approximately 60% of all US traffic fatalities were alcohol-related. By 1994, this had decreased to 43% but in the decade that followed it has changed little. In 2005, nearly 39% of …

An Ultrahigh Vacuum Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon Compatible Nonlithographic System To Fabricate Nanoparticle-Based Devices, Arghya Banerjee, Biswajit Das

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

Nanoparticles of metals and semiconductors are promising for the implementation of a variety of photonic and electronic devices with superior performances and new functionalities. However, their successful implementation has been limited due to the lack of appropriate fabrication processes that are suitable for volume manufacturing. The current techniques for the fabrication of nanoparticles either are solution based, thus requiring complex surface passivation, or have severe constraints over the choice of particle size and material. We have developed an ultrahigh vacuum system for the implementation of a complex nanosystem that is flexible and compatible with the silicon integrated circuit process, thus …

Effect Of Unitization And Product Types On Readability Of Tagged Packages Of Consumer Goods, Jay A. Singh, R. Holtz, S. P. Singh, K. Saha

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Proper implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) has the potential to revolutionize supply chain management. This technology provides simultaneous indirect scanning of multiple packages and palletized loads equipped with a RFID tag, transmitting substantially more information than a bar code. Also, stored information on the tag can be updated according to inventory status, thus, eliminating key limitations of barcode technology. This study was designed to address some of the currently known shortcomings of the RFID technology. One of the commonly occurring drawbacks is transmitted signal from RFID antennae is reflected from metal objects or absorbed by water contained in a …

Rfid Research And Testing For Packages Of Apparel, Consumer Goods And Fresh Produce In The Retail Distribution Environment, S. P. Singh, M. Mccartney, Jay Singh, R. Clarke

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a term used for any device that can be sensed at a distance by radio frequencies with few problems of obstruction. The origins of the term lie in the invention of tags that reflect or retransmit a radiofrequency signal. According to a recent article by Forrester Research, the minimal ‘Slap and Ship’ approach to RFID compliance will cost an individual company between $2 million and $20 million. Because retailers like Wal-Mart plan to share with their suppliers all the RFID-generated data points (from when a case/pallet enters their distribution centre until it leaves their stockroom), …

Simulated Multi-Echelon Readiness-Based Inventory Leveling With Lateral Resupply, Todd C. Burnworth

Theses and Dissertations

For the past fifty years, U.S. Air Force reparable inventory has been allocated based on an analytic model developed by Dr. Craig C. Sherbrooke. Although versions of his model can be implemented easily with the help of a computer, the analytic approach fundamentally lacks the flexibility to address numerous logistics issues. This body of research will offer a novel alternative approach that will enable researchers to investigate currently unsolved logistics problems such as quantifying the benefits of lateral resupply.

Discrete Event Simulation Of A Suppression Of Enemy Air Defenses (Sead) Mission, Ahmet Aydin Candir

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary military campaigns increasingly count on the use of air power. Suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) operations have been a crucial element of military air power for 50 years. Several developments and evolution in both air defense and attack systems suggest that SEAD missions will continue to have growing importance to air forces. Since SEAD operations have a significant impact on air campaigns, it is important to examine their efficiency and identify improvement opportunities. This study explores factors that influence SEAD operations through use of a discrete event simulation built in Arena and subsequent statistical analysis of the results.

Combat Identification Modeling Using Robust Optimization Techniques, Taeho Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this research were: (1) the modeling of a CID situation and (2) the search for robust and controllable input variable settings. The inputs were defined as controllable and noise variables and the confusion matrices in ROC theory were adapted to act as controllable factors. In this research a simple virtual battlespace representation is employed. The experimental results of the CID system are summarized by a posterior confusion matrix and throughout the confusion matrix analysis we can obtain all various types of data such as accuracy, error cost, error rates, and so forth. To find the optimal parameters …

Robust Sensitivity Analysis Of Courses Of Action Using An Additive Value Model, Hunter A. Marks

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DoD) requires the ability to quantifiably measure progress in arenas that are complex and difficult to measure, such as the stability of a region. Therefore, the DoD works diligently to predict the effect of operations and sponsors research to improve prediction and analysis. They desire a repeatable, systematic methodology to aid in the selection of courses of action (COA) that efficiently meet stated objectives and quantitatively measure the degree of accomplishment of these objectives. The author proposes a value-focused thinking (VFT) decision analysis (DA) approach to this problem. This methodology not only aids in selection of …