Engineering Commons^™

State Space Model Of A Light Weight Flexible Telescope, Chi-Yeh Hsu

Master's Theses

The accuracy of optical telescope in the past was dominated by the construction of the telescope body and the precision of optical surface. This thesis fits into a larger project with a goal of controlling a flexible telescope in order to help a cheaper telescope achieve higher accuracy. In order to understand the internal motion of telescope, the goal of this thesis is to build a state space model of a two-degree-of-freedom telescope using a known star location as feedback. The model presented in this thesis may be used for the telescope simulation and the control design in the future. …

Multi-Frequency Processing For Lumen Enhancement With Wideband Intravascular Ultrasound, Rory A. Carrillo

Master's Theses

The application of high frequency ultrasound is the key to higher resolution intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) images. The need to further improve the IVUS spatial resolution may drive the transducer center frequency even higher than the current 40 MHz range. However, increasing the center frequency may be challenging as it leads to stronger scattering echoes from blood. The high level of blood scattering echoes may obscure the arterial lumen and make image interpretation difficult. Blood backscatter levels increase with transmission center frequency at a much greater rate compared to arterial tissue. These different frequency dependencies provide a potential method to distinguish …

The Electronic Structure And Secondary Pyroelectric Properties Of Lithium Tetraborate, Volodymyr T. Adamiv, Yaroslav V. Burak, David J. Wooten, John W. Mcclory, James C. Petrosky, Ihor Ketsman, Ya B. Losovyj, Peter A. Dowben, Jie Xiao

Faculty Publications

We review the pyroelectric properties and electronic structure of Li₂B₄O₇(110) and Li₂B₄O₇(100) surfaces. There is evidence for a pyroelectric current along the [110] direction of stoichiometric Li₂B₄O₇ so that the pyroelectric coefficient is nonzero but roughly 10³ smaller than along the [001] direction of spontaneous polarization. Abrupt decreases in the pyroelectric coefficient along the [110] direction can be correlated with anomalies in the elastic stiffness contributing to the concept that the pyroelectric coefficient is not simply a vector but has qualities of …

Integration Of Antennas And Solar Cells For Autonomous Communication Systems, Maria Jose Roo Ons

Doctoral

Solar energy is becoming an attractive alternative for powering autonomous communication systems. These devices often involve the use of separate photovoltaics and antennas, which demand a compromise in the utilization of the limited space available. This thesis deals with the design, analysis, fabrication and validation of different techniques for the integration of antennas and solar cells in a single multifunctional device. Four different photovoltaic technologies are considered within this work, namely, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si), monocrystalline (mono-Si) emitter-wrap-through (EWT) rear contact solar cells, amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film on glass substrate, and bifacial solar cells. The use of a poly-Si solar …

Design Of Novel Drug Delivery System And Optimal Dosage Regimens, Kwang Seok Kim

Dissertations

Three representative drug delivery systems were analyzed to emphasize the roles of mathematical models and computer-aided simulations in pharmaceutical research. In the first project, a protocol was developed so that the optimal regimen, consisting of the intravenous boluses and subsequent infusion of theophylline, could be obtained once information on the pharmacokinetics became available. The method was based on a two-compartment model of the human body. A module was created and posted on a website for free access. The second project dealt with the transdermal heat-assisted delivery of corticosterone. Heat conduction and drug diffusion through the patch and the skin were …

Atomic And Electronic Structure Studies Of Nano-Structured Systems : Carbon And Related Materials, Sumit Saxena

Dissertations

Modeling in the framework of density functional theory has been conducted on carbon nanotubes and graphene nano-structures. The results have been extended to non-carbon systems such as boron nanostructures. Computational studies are complemented by experimental methods to refine the structural models and obtain a better understanding of the electronic structure.

It is observed that the zigzag edged bilayered graphene nanoribbons are highly unstable as compared to their armchair counterparts. A novel approach has been proposed for the patterning of chirality/diameter controlled single walled carbon nanotubes. Nanotube formation is found to be assisted by edge ripples along with the intrinsic edge …

Architecture And Compiler Support For Leakage Reduction Using Power Gating In Microprocessors, Soumyaroop Roy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Power gating is a technique commonly used for runtime leakage reduction in digital CMOS circuits. In microprocessors, power gating can be implemented by using sleep transistors to selectively deactivate circuit modules when they are idle during program execution. In this dissertation, a framework for power gating arithmetic functional units in embedded microprocessors with architecture and compiler support is proposed. During compile time, program regions are identified where one or more functional units are idle and sleep instructions are inserted into the code so that those units can be put to sleep during program execution. Subsequently, when their need is detected …

Reducing Explosive Potential Of Ammonium Nitrate, Darrell Neal Taulbee

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty Patents

A method for reducing the explosive potential of a nitrogen-based fertilizer product includes coating the product with a composition including a coal combustion by-product. The coal combustion by-product may be oxidized prior to coating the product, and further may be one or more of Class C fly ash, Class F fly ash, and flue gas desulfurization waste. A primary binder and one or more secondary binders may be included. The primary binder may be water. The secondary binder may be one or more of an organic and an inorganic binder.

The Use Of Spike-Based Representations For Hardware Audition Systems, Shih Chii Liu, Nima Mesgarani, John Harris, Hynek Hermansky

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Humans are able to process speech and other sounds effectively in adverse environments, hearing through noise, reverberation, and interference from other speakers. To date, machines have been unable to match human performance. One profound difference between biological and engineering systems comes at the input stage. In machines, an acoustic signal is typically chopped into short equally spaced segments in time. In biological systems, the cochlea outputs asynchronous spikes that respond in real-time to acoustic inputs. In this paper we describe a spiking cochlea implementation and recent experiments in both speaker and speech recognition that use spikes as input. ©2010 IEEE.

Design Of A New Suturing And Knot Tying Device For Laparoscopic Surgery, Sinan Onal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Minimally invasive or laparoscopic surgery has completely changed the focus of surgery becoming an alternative to various types of open surgery. Minimally invasive surgery avoids invasive open surgery as the operation is performed through one or more small incisions in the abdomen and using a small camera called laparoscope. Through these incisions, surgeons insert specialized surgical instruments to perform the operation resulting in less postoperative pain, shorter hospital stay, and faster recovery. However, the main problems during minimally-invasive surgery are the limited space for operating instruments and the reduced visibility and range of motion inside the patient’s body. During minimally-invasive …

Mean Firing Rate Spike Representations For Speech Recognition, John G. Harris, Yukun Feng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The nature of spike coding of auditory signals is studied by comparing mean firing rate codes with conventional approaches in speech recognition tasks. Mean firing rate spike representations are problematic since most auditory nerve fibers are saturated at typical conversation levels. However, these problems are eased somewhat when it is considered that there are other nerve fibers (e.g. low spontaneous firing rate fibers) that could efficiently encode the information at each channel of the cochlea. We show that window-based, mean firing rate features can be used with a crude cochlea model to achieve the same level of performance as a …

An Adaptive Neuron Circuit For Signal Compression, Sheng Feng Yen, John G. Harris

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present a low-bandwidth analog circuit for implementing an adaptive biphasic leaky integrate-and-fire neuron. This neuron circuit is targeted for signal compression in neural recording applications. Unlike other adaptive neuron circuits, this adaptive integrate-and-fire neuron supports signal reconstruction with known threshold voltages. Matlab simulations show promising bandwidth reduction comparing to an integrate-and-fire neuron without the adaptive feature. We quantify the circuit performance in terms of the tradeoff between signal reconstruction accuracy and bandwidth. ©2010 IEEE.

A Haptic Control System For Functional Electrical Stimulation Of Paraplegic Legs, Mark R. Shaker

Theses

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a means by which paraplegic men and women can use their natural legs for walking. In FES the impaired muscles are stimulated with electricity in a proper cycle to cause the legs to move in a walking pattern. It can be greatly beneficial for paraplegics however, current systems are not widely used because they are difficult to control in a useful manner.

The system proposed here uses a haptic interface, one that utilizes the sense of touch, attached to a user’s index and middle fingers. The haptic device allows the wearer to feel with the …

Motor Data Scaling By Respiration Frequencies In Rest, Amit Madhukar Kamble

Theses

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is widely used as a tool to see activations in the different brain regions. Motor data acquired from fMRI scan is accompanied with signal due to hemodynamic changes taking place during the scan. This hemodynamic signal is dominated by parameter alteration in the large vessels of brain. Scaling of task induced BOLD signal with hypercapnic or breathold data is one of the effective methods to minimize the signal due to large vessels. Patient discomfort and compliance has been a major issue with these methods hence in this study we used respiration frequencies in rest data …

Transmission Of P- And S-Polarized Light Through A Prism And The Condition Of Minimum Deviation, R. M.A. Azzam, Ryan M. Adams

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

The condition of minimum deviation (MD) by a transparent optically isotropic prism is re-derived, and expressions for the intensity transmittances Tp(θ) and Ts(θ) of an uncoated prism of refractive index n and prism angle α for incident p- ands-polarized light and their derivatives with respect to the internal angle of refraction θ are obtained. When the MD condition(θ=α/2) is satisfied, Ts is maximum and Tp is maximum or minimum. The transmission ellipsometric parametersψt,Δt of a symmetrically coated prism are also shown to be locally stationary with respect to θ at θ=α/2 . The constraint on (n,α) for …

An Analysis Of The Travel Patterns And Preferences Of The Elderly, Sujan Sikder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The number of elderly is increasing; to meet their transportation needs, it is important to clearly understand their travel patterns and preferences. Since travel patterns and preferences depend on socio-demographic and other factors, it is essential to identify these factors first to understand the travel behavior of the elderly. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the travel patterns and preferences of the elderly age 65 and above using 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data. This thesis presents a detailed descriptive analysis of 2009 NHTS data to understand the travel patterns of the elderly. Along with a …

A Roof Runoff Strategy And Model For Augmenting Public Water Supply, Robert Carnahan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water is the essential resource that is becoming extremely scarce worldwide. The 21st century will further stress all available water resources through the growth and expansion of developing nations. It is not only the quantity of cheap water that is being depleted, but the quality of these waters is being endangered. Florida is an example where rapid development and an exploding population are competing for shrinking groundwater resources. Current water use does not address the use of alternative supplies and reuses in the United States.

The objective of this research was to determine a strategy for augmenting existing water supplies …

Enhancement Of Predictive Capability Of Transit Boardings Estimation And Simulation Tool (Tbest) Using Parcel Data: An Exploratory Analysis, Tejsingh Rana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

TBEST is a comprehensive third generation transit demand forecasting model, developed by the FDOT Public Transit Office (PTO) to help transit agencies in completing their Transit Development Plans (TDPs). The on-going project funded by FDOT, related to TBEST, aims at further enhancing the capabilities of the TBEST model based on additional opportunities identified by the research team. The project focuses on enhancing TBEST’s capabilities in following areas: 1) Improving the precision of socio- demographic data by using property appraisal data (parcel data) and, 2) Improving the quality of data regarding trip attraction. Based on the improvement areas, this study aims …

Morehead State University Space Science Center: A Vision For The Future, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Morehead State University Space Science Center: A Vision for the Future" from August 30, 2010.

Dynamic Solidification In Nanoconfined Water Films, Peter M. Hoffmann, Shah H. Khan, George Matei, Shivprasad Patil

Publications

Mechanical properties of nanoconfined water layers are still poorly understood and continue to create controversy, despite their importance for biology and nanotechnology. We report on dynamic nanomechanical measurements of water films compressed to a few single molecular layers. We show that the mechanical properties of nanoconfined water layers change significantly with their dynamic state. In particular, we observed a sharp transition from viscous to elastic response even at extremely slow compression rates, indicating that mechanical relaxation times increase dramatically once water is compressed to less than 3–4 molecular layers.

Development Of A Pseudo-Uniform Structural Velocity Metric For Use In Active Structural Acoustic Control, Jeffery M. Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Active control of sound and vibration fields has become an strong area of research over the past few decades. In regards to the active control of acoustic radiation from vibration fields, known as active structural acoustic control (ASAC), there have been many different methods employed to understand structural and acoustic relationships and to control vibrations to limit the acoustic radiation. With active sound field control, sensors, usually microphones, need to be dispersed in the sound field, or an array of microphones must be placed directly in the sound field which, in many cases, uses up too much space for practical …

The Mechanism Of 13CoAd/12Co Isotope Exchange At Pt Electrode,A Combined Study By Electrochemical In-Situ Infrared Spectroscopy And Dipole-Dipole Coupling Analysis, Sang-Zi Liang, Shao-Xiong Liu, Ling-Wen Liao, Qian Tao, Jing Kang, Yan-Xia Chen

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this contribution,we have analyzed the IR spectra of saturated CO adlayer at rough Pt film electrode as a function of fractional surface coverage of ¹³CO_ad /¹²CO recorded during ¹³CO_ad /¹²CO isotope exchange process according to dipole-dipole coupling theory and coherent potential approximation. By properly choosing the parameters of adlayer structure and dipole-dipole coupling interaction under coherent potential approximation, we demonstrated that we can successfully simulate the IR spectra as a function of the surface coverage of CO adlayer at rough Pt film electrodes by assuming that CO_ad molecules with low …

An In Situ Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroelectrochemical Study On Alcohols Electrocatalytic Oxidation At Pd Electrode In Acidic Solution, Hai-Ping Huang, Lian-Qin Wang, Pei-Kang Shen

Journal of Electrochemistry

The methanol and ethylene glycol electrooxidation on palladium electrode in acidic solution has been investigated by cyclic voltammetry and in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroelectrochemistry. It shows that the oxidation of methanol and ethylene glycol at Pd electrode cannot proceed until over 1.5 V in acidic and neutral media. The overpotential decreases and the peak current density increases with the reduction in pH values. The formation of the oxygen-containing species significantly affects the alcohol oxidation on Pd electrode. The in situ FTIR spectroscopic measurements show that the oxidation products of ethylene glycol on Pd electrode are CO₂ and oxalic …

In-Situ Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Electrochemical Investigation Of 4-Aminoantipyrine On Silver Electrode, Li-Jun Zhang, Wei Song, Ling Chen, Zong-Rang Zhang, Hai-Feng Yang

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this paper, 4-AAP was self-assembled on silver surface to form monolayers. Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) was used to in-situ investigate the adsorption mechanism of the 4-aminoantipyrine(4-AAP) on silver surface dependent on shifting potentials and the effect of solution pH. Based on density functional theory(DFT) calculation of vibration modes,approximate assignment of 4-AAP SERS spectrum was conducted. In situ SERS spectral electrochemical experiments indicated that the 4-AAP monolayers experience a dynamic adsorption process from a tilted fashion to a more vertical mode for benzene ring and more parallel for pyrine ring with the potential applied toward more negative voltages. The complete …

Phenomena Characterization Of Energy Materials By X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy, Ming-Yao Cheng, Chun-Jen Pan, Ju-Hsiang Cheng, Bing-Joe Hwang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The aim of this review is to introduce the characterization of energy materials by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) . This technique allows us to probe changes in the valance state and the local environment of the targeted element in the active material; thereby,leading to a better understanding of its electrochemical behavior,and hopefully showing the way to improved performance. Here,electrocatalysts for fuel cells and active electrode materials for Li-ion batteries are taken as the examples that illustrate the capability of XAS and allow observation and theory to be correlated with electrochemical phenomena.

Comparative Study Of Nanoporous Pt, Ptru And Ptruir Catalysts Using Electrochemical Ftir Spectroscopy, M. Amussen Robert, Holt-Hindle Peter, Nigro Samantha, Aicheng Chen

Journal of Electrochemistry

In recent years much effort has been put towards developing efficient Pt-based electrocatalysts for applications in fuel cells. With the rising cost of precious metals such as Pt,the need to enhance the activity and to decrease the load of catalysts is prominent. Herein we report on the synthesis and comparative study of nanoporous Pt,PtRu and PtRuIr electrocatalysts. The nanoporous electrodes were fabricated using a hydrothermal method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) ,energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) ,X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) . The electrocatalytic activity of the fabricated nanopo- rous materials was evaluated using both CO …

Electrochemical Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy—Current Status And Perspective, Bin Ren, Jian-Feng Li, Yi-Fan Huang, Zhi-Cong Zeng, Zhong-Qun Tian

Journal of Electrochemistry

Electrochemical interface is a very important interface closely related to various energy and life processes. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering was widely used in electrochemistry soon after its discovery to understand the surface bonding,configuration,and orientation of the surface species. In recent 10 years,the fast development of nanoscience and nanotechnology has offered SERS with abundant substrates and characterization methods,which has allowed impressive development of electrochemical SERS. This articles will follow the time line to make systematically overview of SERS on Au and Ag,thin-layer transition-metal SERS,pure transition metal SERS,core-shell SERS and those methods for studying single crystal surfaces,including gap-mode SERS, TERS and SHINERS. Emphasis …

Electrochemical Sers Studies On The Adsorption Of Benzoimidazole And Derivative In Nonaqueous Solution, Ya-Xian Yuan, Feng-Zhu Yang, Wei Liu, Ping-Jie Wei, Jian-Lin Yao, Ren-Ao Gu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The surface adsorption of benzoimidazole (BIMH) and 2-mercaptobenzimidazole(MBI) was investigated by electrochemical in-situ surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and direct electrochemical synthesis on Cu electrode. The influence of the neutral ligand of triphenylphosphine (pph₃) on the adsorption and surface coordination of BIMH and MBI were investigated respectively. BIMH interacted with metal surface by the neutral molecule to form chemical adlayer in the extremely negative potential,while it adsorbed onto metal surface through the N atoms to form a polymer film which may suppress the corrosion of the metal. The introduction of pph₃ destroyed the film formation of BIMH …

The Sers Effect Of AuCore@PtShelL Nanoparticles With Different Pt Shell Thicknesses, Yan Zhong, Liang-Liang Yan, Gui-Shi Rao, Xiao-Cong Deng, Fei-Peng Wen, Jin-Long Xu, Qi-Ling Zhong

Journal of Electrochemistry

By using Au nanoparticles with a diameter of 55 nm as the core and ascorbic acid as the reductant, Au_core@ Pt_shell nanoparticles of controllable Pt shell thickness (0.3 ～ 6 nm) were synthesized by controlling the concentration of [PtCl₆]^2- ions. The ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrometry,scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) ,high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) , and electrochemical cyclic voltammetry were employed to determine surface morphology and structure of  Au_core@Pt_shell. With SCN^- ion as a probe,the effect of the thickness of the Pt shell on the SERS …

Electrooxidation Of Carbon Monoxide On Pd Thin Film-Coated Au Electrodes: Film Thickness Dependence, Yuqing Yang, Shouzhong Zou

Journal of Electrochemistry

The adsorption and electrooxidation of CO on Pd-coated Au electrodes were studied by cyclic voltammetry and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) . It is found that CO oxidation activity is film thickness dependent. Cyclic voltammograms (CVs) showed that CO oxidation peak potential shifted positively with the increase of the Pd thickness. SERS showed a redshift of the C—O stretching frequency with increasing Pd film thickness. These observations were explained by the dband theory. The strain effect strengthens CO adsorption and stabilizes adsorbed CO,while the ligand effect weakens CO adsorption and eases its oxidation. The ligand effect overpowers the strain effect.