Engineering Commons^™

Towards The Efficient Probabilistic Characterization Of Tropical Cyclone-Generated Storm Surge Hazards Under Stationary And Nonstationary Conditions, Senanu Kudjo Agbley

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The scarcity of observations at any single location confounds the probabilistic characterization of tropical cyclone-generated storm surge hazards using annual maxima and peaks-over-threshold methods. The EST and the JPM are indirect approaches aimed at estimating the probability distribution of the response variable of interest (i.e. storm surge) using the probability distributions of predictor variables (e.g. storm size, storm intensity etc.). In the first part of this work, the relative performance of the empirical simulation technique (EST; Borgman et al., 1992) and the joint probability method (JPM; Myers, 1970) is evaluated via stochastic simulation methods. It is shown that the JPM …

A Study Of Decision Analysis Methods In Aerospace Technology Assessments, Sharon Monica Jones

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Managers of aerospace technology programs and projects are faced with the challenge of making technology portfolio decisions under conditions of limited data, rapidly changing macro level factors and organizational uncertainties. To help make these technology investment decisions, some aerospace managers and analysts have used techniques from the field of decision analysis. In addition, there have been a limited number of research studies of real decision problems.

This dissertation presents the results of a non-experimental examination of the use of decision analysis methods for the assessment of aerospace technology portfolios. A web-based survey instrument was developed based on the results of …

Surface Dynamics Of Silicon Low-Index Surfaces Studied By Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction, Ibrahim El-Kholy

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Surface morphology during the growth of Si on Si(111)-(7x7) by femtosecond pulsed laser deposition (fsPLD) is studied using reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) at different temperatures. The growth of Si on Si(111) has received considerable attention as a model system of homoepitaxy. PLD is a deposition technique that uses much more energetic species (atoms and ions) compared to other physical vapor deposition (PVD), such as in molecular beam epitaxy. In this work, in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) was used to study the dynamics of PLD of Si on Si(111)-(7x7). Epitaxial growth of Si/Si(111)-(7x7) at temperatures as low …

3d Numerical Modeling Of Hydrodynamic Flow, Sediment Deposition And Transport In Stormwater Ponds And Alluvial Channels, Leying Zhang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Prediction of flow and sediment transport is an important and challenging problem for stormwater management and river engineering applications. This thesis concerns primarily the computation of flow, sediment deposition and transport processes in stormwater ponds and alluvial channels based on a multiphase flow approach in modeling sediment transport. Starting from an existing hydrodynamic Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes flow solver, numerical models are developed to predict flow, sediment deposition and transport under the FLUENT software package. Two types of sediment transport models are formulated to consider quantities of present sediment phase volume fractions: a Discrete Phase Model in a Lagrangian frame where …

An Analytical Framework And Model Formulation For Measuring Risk In Engineering Enterprise Systems: A Capability Portfolio Perspective, Paul Raphael Garvey

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This work formulates an analytical framework and computational model for assessing risk in engineering enterprise systems. It addresses the engineering management problem of how to represent, model, and measure risk in large-scale, complex systems engineered to function in enterprise-wide environments.

The research in this dissertation extends current practice in the management of risk for traditional systems and creates new constructs and protocols for the management of risk in engineering large-scale, complex, and highly networked enterprise systems. This work advances engineering management theory and analytic practice as applied to the measurement and management of risk for enterprise systems engineered within capability …

Reconciling Discontinuities And Disruptions: The Construction Of An Integrated Typology, David Jeffery Kern

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Radical innovations are often characterized by a rapid shift from one dominant design to another. The theories of discontinuous and disruptive innovation present two important and independent explanations for why these shifts occur. This research tests the usefulness of combining these two theories into a single integrated typology. First, a typology is constructed that classifies shifts in dominant designs according to the theories of discontinuous and disruptive innovation. Next, the usefulness of this typology is tested with a taxonomy derived from 100 randomly selected shifts in dominant designs from across a broad range of industries. This research reconciles the theories …

Compensation Of Loss And Stimulated Emission Of Surface Plasmon Polaritons, Guohua Zhu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have become in recent years an important research topic because of their interesting, physics and exciting potential applications, ranging from sensing and biomedicine to nanoscopic imaging and information technology. However, many applications of surface plasmon polaritons are hindered by one common cause—absorption loss in metal.

Over the years, numerous proposals have been made on how to conquer the plasmon loss. In this dissertation, (1) the known solutions to the loss problem by adding optical gain have been reviewed; (2) the properties of surface plasmon polaritons are studied theoretically, and the solution of the controversy regarding the …

Stability Analysis, Modeling, Simulation And Experimental Testing Of An Ems Maglev System With Structural Flexibility, Aravind M. Hanasoge

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Vehicle-guideway interaction studies of Magnetically Levitated (Maglev) vehicles indicate that structural flexibility can adversely affect the overall stability and performance of such systems. This is one of the reasons why guideways are generally made very rigid. This in turn leads to increased cost of the overall system since guideway construction forms a significant portion of the overall cost. In this dissertation, the influence of structural flexibility on the stability of Electromagnetic Suspension (EMS) Maglev systems is studied. It is shown how inherently unstable and flexible structure EMS Maglev systems can achieve guaranteed stability by using collocated actuators and sensors, along …

Geometrically Nonlinear Arc Length Sparse Finite Element Analysis And Optimal Design Of Truss Structures, Glenn A. Hrinda

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A technique for the optimization of stability-constrained geometrically nonlinear shallow trusses with snap-through behavior is demonstrated using the arc length method and a strain energy density approach within a discrete finite element formulation. The optimization method uses an iterative scheme that evaluates the performance of the design variables and then updates them according to a recursive formula that is controlled by the arc length method. A minimum weight design is achieved when a uniform nonlinear strain energy density is found in all members. This minimal condition places the design load just below the critical-limit load that causes snap-through of the …

Numerical/Experimental Investigation Of Plunge Stage And Effect Of Donor Material In Friction Stir Welding, Saptarshi Mandal

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) was developed in 1991 as a robust solid-state joining technique that uses a specially shaped rotating tool to generate heat and plasticize material around the tool. The tool then mixes plasticized material along the joint line to produce the weld. Over the last decade, FSW has become increasingly popular for welding aluminum. The combination of attractive properties of the weld and cost-efficiency has led researchers to investigate the feasibility of using FSW for steel. One of the major impediments for using friction stir welding for harder materials such as steel is tool wear. It is well-documented …

Exploring Inter-Concept Relationship With Context Space For Semantic Video Indexing, Xiao-Yong Wei, Yu-Gang Jiang, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Semantic concept detectors are often individually and independently developed. Using peripherally related concepts for leveraging the power of joint detection, which is referred to as context-based concept fusion (CBCF), has been one of the focus studies in recent years. This paper proposes the construction of a context space and the exploration of the space for CBCF. Context space considers the global consistency of concept relationship, addresses the problem of missing annotation, and is extensible for cross-domain contextual fusion. The space is linear and can be built by modeling the inter-concept relationship through annotation provided by either manual labeling or machine …

Large-Scale Near-Duplicate Web Video Search: Challenge And Opportunity, Wan-Lei Zhao, Song Tan, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The massive amount of near-duplicate and duplicate web videos has presented both challenge and opportunity to multimedia computing. On one hand, browsing videos on Internet becomes highly inefficient for the need to repeatedly fast-forward videos of similar content. On the other hand, the tremendous amount of somewhat duplicate content also makes some traditionally difficult vision tasks become simple and easy. For example, annotating pictures can be as simple as recycling the tags of Internet images retrieved from image search engines. Such tasks, of either to eliminate or to recycle near-duplicates, can usually be achieved by the nearest neighbor search of …

Learning And Inferencing In User Ontology For Personalized Semantic Web Search, Xing Jiang, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

User modeling is aimed at capturing the users’ interests in a working domain, which forms the basis of providing personalized information services. In this paper, we present an ontology based user model, called user ontology, for providing personalized information service in the Semantic Web. Different from the existing approaches that only use concepts and taxonomic relations for user modeling, the proposed user ontology model utilizes concepts, taxonomic relations, and non-taxonomic relations in a given domain ontology to capture the users’ interests. As a customized view of the domain ontology, a user ontology provides a richer and more precise representation of …

Method For The Preparation Of Secondary Emulsions Of Fish Oil In Water, S Siramard, L Dubas, S T. Dubas

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The method for the preparation of stable secondary emulsion has been detailed and discussed in terms of polymer capping and emulsion ratio. The dispersion of omega-3 oil in water by emulsion stabilized with casein was further coated with a polycationic polyelectrolyte, Poly (dially dimethyl ammonium chloride). The stability of the emulsion was studied by turbidity measurements using a UV-visible spectrophotometer. The particles size of the primary and secondary emulsion was investigated by light scattering and zeta potential measurements. Results shown in this article provide some details about the mechanism of the formation of secondary emulsion, mainly regarding the polymer/emulsion-mixing ratio.

Characterizations Of Fibers Produced From Polypropylene/Silica Composite, N Srisawat, M Nithitanakul, K Srikulkit

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Fumed silica particles filled polypropylene (PP) filament fibers were prepared by melt spin pilot plant. First, virgin PP and silicas(hydrophilic and hydrophobic) were premixed using twin screw extruder to prepare silica containing PP composite resin. Then, the resin composite was again mixed with virgin PP and spun into filaments with various filler loadings in the range of 0.5 - 2.5 wt%. The characterizations of spun composite fibers including crystallization temperature (DSC analysis), polymer orientation (sonic modulus) and the fine structure (XRD) were studied. XRD results showed β-form crystallinity peak in x-ray pattern of fiber drawn with low take-up speed (300 …

Analysis Of Partial Discharge Pulse Height Distribution Parameters, Vinay N. Nimbole

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Partial Discharges (PD) have been traditionally used to assess the state of any insulation system and its remnant life. In earlier work, Perspex (PMMA) samples with a needle plane gap have been aged with AC voltage. Their tree growth was monitored simultaneously by collecting PD at regular intervals of time and taking microphotographs in real time without interrupting the aging voltage. The obtained partial discharge pulse amplitude records were clustered together into groups of class intervals. The sequence of PD pulse height records was quantified as a time series of shape (η), and scale (σ) parameters of a Weibull distribution. …

Access Mars: Assessing Cave Capabilities Establishing Specific Solutions: Final Report, Abdul Mohsen Al Husseini, Luis Alvarez Sanchez, Konstantinos Antonakopoulos, Jeffrey (Johannes) Apeldoorn, Kenneth Lowell Ashford Jr., Kutay Deniz Atabay, Sara Langston, Et Al.

Publications

The human race has evolved, grown and expanded through the exploration of Earth. After initial steps on the Moon, our next challenge is to explore the solar system. Mars shows potential for both scientific discovery and future human settlement, and so is a prime candidate for the next leap of human exploration. Such a bold endeavor will be a driver for an unprecedented worldwide cooperative effort and the catalyst for a new era of international, intercultural and interdisciplinary human relations. Scientific and technological progress will also accelerate as mankind is ushered into a new era of space exploration.

Currently proposed …

On-Board Orbit Determination And 3-Axis Attitude Determination For Picosatellite Applications, John Arthur Bowen

Master's Theses

This thesis outlines an orbit determination and 3-axis attitude determination system for use on orbit as applicable to 1U CubeSats and other picosatellites. The constraints imposed by the CubeSat form factor led to the need for a simple configuration and relaxed accuracy requirements. To design a system within the tight mass, volume, and power constraints inherent to CubeSats, a balance between hardware complexity, software complexity and accuracy is sought. The proposed solution consists of a simple orbit propagator, magnetometers with a magnetic field look-up table, Sun sensors with an analytic Sun direction model, and the TRIAD method to combine vector …

Robust Unconstrained Face Detection And Lip Localization Using Gabor Filters, Robert E. Hursig

Master's Theses

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a well-researched field of study aimed at augmenting the man-machine interface through interpretation of the spoken word. From in-car voice recognition systems to automated telephone directories, automatic speech recognition technology is becoming increasingly abundant in today’s technological world. Nonetheless, traditional audio-only ASR system performance degrades when employed in noisy environments such as moving vehicles. To improve system performance under these conditions, visual speech information can be incorporated into the ASR system, yielding what is known as audio-video speech recognition (AVASR). A majority of AVASR research focuses on lip parameters extraction within controlled environments, but these …

Phase Change Memory: Array Development And Sensing Circuits Using Delta-Sigma Modulation, Mahesh Balasubramanian

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Chalcogenide based non-volatile Phase Change Memory (PCM) circuits were designed to investigate new emerging non-volatile memory technologies. An overview of the operation of chalcogenide-based resistive PCM for circuit designers is presented. MOSIS fabrication service was used along with Idaho Microfabrication Lab at Boise State University to develop PCM chips. Experimental results show successful integration of two discreet processing services for developing chalcogenide based non-volatile memory circuits. Possible multi-state capabilities were observed during the testing of single memory bits.

Four Delta Sigma Modulation (DSM) based sensing techniques for resistive memory are presented. The proposed sensing techniques have the advantage over traditional …

Construction Costs - Using Federal Vs. Local Funds, Varun Kishore, Dulcy M. Abraham

JTRP Technical Reports

Costs of highway construction projects have been rising with rising prices of construction materials such as asphalt, concrete and steel. Identifying cost saving strategies is one of the ways of efficient utilization of available funds (federal and local) by the state Department of Transportations (DOTs) and Local Public Agencies (LPAs). A case study comprising of a sample pair of projects (a federal-aid project and a 100% locally funded project) constructed in Elkhart County, Indiana was undertaken to compare construction costs when sources of funding vary. Based on analysis of cost details from these two projects and discussions with the general …

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Glenohumeral Joint Stabilizing Muscles During Provocative Tests Designed To Diagnose Superior Labrum Anterior-Posterior Lesions, Vanessa J. C. Wood

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Despite considerable advances in the understanding of glenohumeral (GH) biomechanics and glenoid labral pathologies, arthroscopy remains the only definitive means of Superior Labrum Anterior-Posterior (SLAP) lesion diagnosis. Unfortunately, natural GH anatomic variants limit the reliability of radiography. Accurate clinical diagnostic techniques would be advantageous due to the invasiveness, patient risk, and financial cost associated with arthroscopy. Twenty provocative tests designed to elicit labral symptoms as a diagnostic sign have shown promising accuracy by their respective original authors, but later studies generally fail to reproduce those findings. The purpose of this study was to compare the behavior of GH joint stabilizing …

A Wireless Sensor Data Fusion Framework For Contaminant Detection, Joshua Kiepert

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In the search for more effective instruments to collect data for the identification of threats to security, health, and safety, new tools must be designed to meet the challenges of a diverse set of possible applications. The extensive range of potential applications raises the need for a general purpose system capable of addressing a wide variety of deployment environments. This thesis focuses on a wireless sensor network framework for collecting environmental data in an effort to develop a sensing solution that fits within many design spaces. The framework includes reconfigurable wireless sensor node hardware, firmware, and software for interfacing sensor …

Brain Tumor Progression Assessment Using Multiple Mri Volumes, Yufei Shen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Predicting and assessing tumor progression is important in brain tumor treatment. We attempt to use machine learning techniques to achieve consistency in assessing brain tumor progression. This thesis presents a prediction method of brain tumor progression by exploring a large MR database, which contains two patients ' complete records covering all their visits in the past two years. All ten MRI series, namely, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) , diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) , fractional anisotropy (FA), fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), max eigenvalue (MAX), mid eigenvalue (MID), min eigenvalue (MIN) , post-contrast T₁-weighted, T₁- weighted, and …

Adjacent Slice Prostate Cancer Prediction To Inform Maldi Imaging Biomarker Analysis, Shao-Hui Chuang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer among men in the U.S. [1]. Traditionally, prostate cancer diagnosis is made by the analysis of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and histopathological images of biopsy samples under microscopes. Proteomic biomarkers can improve upon these methods. MALDI molecular spectra imaging is used to visualize protein/peptide concentrations across biopsy samples to search for biomarker candidates. Unfortunately, traditional processing methods require histopathological examination on one slice of a biopsy sample while the adjacent slice is subjected to the tissue destroying desorption and ionization processes of MALDI. The highest confidence tumor regions gained from …

A Simulation Study Of Convergence Speed For Distributed Codeword Adaptation Algorithms In Cdma Wireless Systems, Sahana Maharjan

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis we present a side-by-side comparison of interference avoidance (IA) algorithms for distributed codeword adaptation in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems. In CDMA systems, the interference is determined by the values of the cross-correlation of codewords assigned to users, and various algorithms can be used for codeword optimization. The IA algorithms for codeword adaptation considered are the eigen-algorithm, the Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) update, and the adaptive IA algorithm, for which we investigate convergence speed using the extensive simulations of several uplink CDMA system scenarios. The results of this thesis were presented at the Fourth IEEE …

An Agent-Based Commodity Trading Simulation, Shih-Fen Cheng, Yee Pin Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, an event-centric commodity trading simulation powered by the multiagent framework is presented. The purpose of this simulation platform is for training novice traders. The simulation is progressed by announcing news events that affect various aspects of the commodity supply chain. Upon receiving these events, market agents that play the roles of producers, consumers, and speculators would adjust their views on the market and act accordingly. Their actions would be based on their roles and also their private information, and collectively they shape the market dynamics. This simulation has been effectively deployed for several training sessions. We will …

Using Geographically Weighted Regression Models To Analyze Crash Harm, Libin Zheng

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Society pays a high cost for collisions in terms of property damage, injuries and loss of life. This paper has two objectives. One is to examine various factors associated with harm caused by highway collisions. Both global OLS and local GWR models are provided to identify specific variables influencing crash harm. Another objective is to demonstrate the use of a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) method in this complex safety problem, which can estimate models for each crash location and show spatial variation. The results show that the GWR model is a significant improvement on the OLS model; the test for …

Time Valuation Of Risk: A Delayed-Bang Approach, Abhishek Pathak

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The subject of this thesis is the combined use of engineering economics and survival analysis in estimating time-value of risk-related resources. The discussion includes (1) the need for sustainable risk management, (2) the importance of time-valuation of risk related resources in the allocation or selection among competing risk mitigation alternatives, (3) the convergence of deterministic engineering economics, survivability analysis, and probabilistic analysis, and (4) results and examples of application in the context of prevention of risk event or mitigation of its consequences.

The significance of this thesis is in how three topics: engineering economics, survivability analysis, and probability theory can …

Effects Of Low-Temperature Atmospheric Pressure Plasma On Streptococcus Mutans, Margaret Farrer Lemaster

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

The recent emergence of low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma (LTAPP) technology has led researchers to explore biomedical applications. The present study set out to determine if LTAPP has the ability to inactivate dental caries causing bacteria, specifically Streptococcus mutans. Methods: A total of 90 samples were processed. Seventy-two samples of S. mutans at 1: 100 dilution in BHI broth were exposed to LTAPP for various time intervals (60, 120, 180, 300 seconds). Eighteen control samples were plated but not exposed to LTAPP. Samples were plated on Mi tis salivarius (MS) agar and incubated 48 hours at 37° C. Colony …