Engineering Commons^™

Automatic Merging Of Lidar Point-Clouds Using Data From Low-Cost Gps/Imu Systems, Scott E. Budge, K. Von Niederhausern

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Stationary lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) systems are often used to collect 3-D data (point clouds) that can be used for terrain modelling. The lidar gathers scans which are then merged together to map a terrain. Typically this is done using a variant of the well-known Iterated Closest Point (ICP) algorithm when position and pose of the lidar scanner is not accurately known. One difficulty with the ICP algorithms is that they can give poor results when points that are not common to both scans (outliers) are matched together. With the advent of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems)-based GPS/IMU systems, it is …

Acuta Enews June 2011, Vol 40, No. 6

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

From ACUTA Headquarters........ Corinne Hoch, lnterim Executive Director

Voice and Data Networks Weather the Storms at Sewanee.......Jeanne Jansenius, Univ. of the South

Announcing New ACUTA Online forums

CUPA Salary Survey Results

From the ACUTA Community Listserv: VolP lssues

lnfo Links ............ Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern lowa

Board Report......... Riny Ledgerwad, SDSU

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Come to Baltimore! Emerging ICT Technologies, Funding ICT Services, and more

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Characterization Of A Dual Acoustic Receiver System For Measuring Range And Bearing To Acoustic Tags, Victoria Campana, Justin Knight

Computer Engineering

Experiements were performed to determine the effectiveness of the Lotek RT-A Hydrophone system and if it could provide the data necessary for a particle filter to determine the location of a shark. Over the period of a few months, we tested off the Cal Poly Pier at set GPS coordinates to characterize how accurately the Lotek System can determine range and orientation. Ranges from 0-500 meters were tested with the Lotek system being in a stationary position and Lotek receiver tag being put at specified GPS coordinates. The two hydrophone rigging was then rotated a full 360 degrees to gauge …

In-Plane Cyclic Shear Performance Of Interlocking Compressed Earth Block Walls, David William Bland

Master's Theses

This thesis presents results from testing of interlocking compressed earth block (CEB) masonry shear walls.  CEBs are low strength earth masonry units sometimes stabilized with cement or lime.  The interlocking compressed earth blocks (ICEBs) used in this experiment are dry stacked interlocking hollow units, which can be reinforced and grouted after they are laid.  Although significant research has been undertaken to optimize the material properties of CEBs, little has been done to investigate the performance of structural systems currently being built using this technology.

Test results are reported for three 1800 mm x 1800 mm wall specimens constructed with cement …

Portable Solar Desalination System, Genaro Sanchez, Alan Galarza, Erick Del Real

Electrical Engineering

Clean water and reliable energy can be difficult to obtain in remote locations such as desert villages, secluded islands, and other places where no fresh water can be found. The primary goal for this project is address these problems by implementing a portable desalinization plant system that is to be powered by solar energy PV system as the main energy source.

A Study Of The New York / New Jersey Coastal Water : Bio-Optical Characteristics Of The Harbor Estuary And The Effects Of Heavy Metals On Brown Tide Alga Of The Bight, Bin Wang

Dissertations

The New York / New Jersey (NY/NJ) coastal area is one of the most productive regions around the world and a major natural and scenic resource for New York and New Jersey. As a result of excessive nutrient loading in the water, algal blooms have been observed since 1950’s. The NY/NJ coastal area includes the NY/NJ Bight and the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary, and in the former, brown tides (Aureococcus anophagefferens) were first observed in 1985 becoming a more serious water quality problem over the last 25 years. The influence of micronutrients, namely trace metals, on A. anophagefferens that are widespread …

Optimizing Resource Allocation In Next-Generation Optical Access Networks, Jingjing Zhang

Dissertations

To meet rapidly increasing traffic demands caused by the popularization of Internet and the spouting of bandwidth-demanding applications, Passive Optical Networks (PONs) exploit the potential capacities of optical fibers, and are becoming promising future-proof access network technologies. On the other hand, for a broader coverage area and higher data rate, integrated optical and wireless access is becoming a future trend for wireless access. This thesis investigates three next-generation access networks: Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) PONs, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) PONs, and WDM Radio-Over-Fiber (RoF) Picocellular networks.

To address resource allocation problems in these three networks, this thesis first investigates respective …

The Green, Blue And Grey Water Footprint Of Crops And Derived Crop Products, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Abstract. This study quantifies the green, blue and grey water footprint of global crop production in a spatially-explicit way for the period 1996–2005. The assessment improves upon earlier research by taking a high-resolution approach, estimating the water footprint of 126 crops at a 5 by 5 arc minute grid. We have used a grid-based dynamic water balance model to calculate crop water use over time, with a time step of one day. The model takes into account the daily soil water balance and climatic conditions for each grid cell. In addition, the water pollution associated with the use of nitrogen …

Wired For Business: The Roebling Story., Kelley Marie Hatch-Draper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

John Augustus Roebling, a classically educated civil engineer and young Hegelian, immigrated to America in 1831 in search of freedom from a repressive political system that afforded him no opportunity for advancement. Arriving in the midst of the American market revolution, his dream of establishing an agrarian farming colony changed in response to societal transformations resulting from mechanization and the rise of industry. Within forty years, Roebling achieved fame as a canal engineer and bridge designer while establishing the American wire rope industry. Without Roebling's innovation in wire-rope, modern suspension bridges, high-rise elevators, construction cranes, and cable cars would not …

Description Of Pressure Fluctuations In A Circulating Fluidized Bed By Statistical Analysis, Adam Luckos, Roelof Coetzer, Andre Mostert

10th International Conference on Circulating Fluidized Beds and Fluidization Technology - CFB-10

In this paper we evaluate different methods for statistically analyzing the variability in pressure fluctuations measured at three locations in an 80-mm-ID, 5-m-tall CFB model operated with natural rutile particles and air at ambient conditions. The methods evaluated are the Shannon entropy, Fischer information matrix together with kernel density estimation, and an estimation of the magnitude of the pressure amplitudes. The accuracy of the different methods is estimated by the bootstrap method. We illustrate how informative statistics from these methods can be used to quantify the effect of the process variables on fluidization at different bed locations. Depending on the …

Oxy-Combustion Of Different Coals In A Circulating Fluidized Bed, Adam Luckos, Monika Kosowska-Golachowska, Konrad Klos, Tomasz Musial

10th International Conference on Circulating Fluidized Beds and Fluidization Technology - CFB-10

Combustion of three Polish and one South African bituminous coal particles in air versus O2/CO2 mixtures with oxygen concentrations in the range from 21% to 60% vol. was conducted at temperature of 850°C in a 12 kW bench-scale CFB combustor. Combustion in air was proceeded at ~50˚C higher centre temperatures and was slightly shorter in time compared to combustion in O2/CO2 mixture with 21% vol. O2. Larger heat capacity of CO2 compared to that of N2 also retards the ignition of volatiles in O2/CO2 mixtures with 21% O2. However, when the concentration of oxygen in O2/CO2 mixtures is larger than …

Bio-Gasoline From Jatropha Oil: New Applications For The Fcc- Process, Alexander Weinert, Alexander Reichhold, Peter Bielansky, Christoph Schönberger, Bettina Schumi

10th International Conference on Circulating Fluidized Beds and Fluidization Technology - CFB-10

Jatropha curcas L. is a very drought-resistant plant, and jatropha oil can be ex-tracted from its seeds. Whilst not suitable for human consumption, we found that it is a promising feedstock for producing (bio)-gasoline. The oil was cracked in an inter-nally circulating FCC-reactor using a Grace Davison Ultima® catalyst. The total con-version was around 65%, with ca. 40% gasoline and ca. 25% crack gas (exact num-bers varied with reactor temperature). The gasoline has a RON > 95 and oxy-gen < 0.3% m. The crack-gas consisted of ca. 35% propylene, ca. 13% 1-butene and ca. 6% ethylene.

National Water Footprint Accounts: The Green, Blue And Grey Water Footprint Of Production And Consumption. Volume 1: Main Report, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This study quantifies and maps the water footprints of nations from both a production and consumption perspective and estimates international virtual water flows and national and global water savings as a result of trade. The entire estimate includes a breakdown of water footprints, virtual water flows and water savings into their green, blue and grey components. The main finding of the study can be summarized as:

The global water footprint in the period 1996-2005 was 9087 Gm3/yr (74% green, 11% blue, 15% grey). Agricultural production contributes 92% to this total footprint.

About one fifth of the global water footprint relates …

National Water Footprint Accounts: The Green, Blue And Grey Water Footprint Of Production And Consumption, Volume 2: Appendices, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Contents

Appendix I. The water footprint of national production (Mm³/yr)

Appendix II. Virtual-water flows related to trade in crop, animal and industrial products, per country (Mm³/yr)

Appendix III. International virtual-water flows per product category (Mm³/yr)

Appendix IV. National water saving related to trade in agricultural and industrial products per country (Mm³/yr)

Appendix V. Global water saving related to trade in agricultural and industrial products, per product (Mm³/yr)

Appendix VI. The average water footprint per ton of commodity per country, weighted based on origin (WF* in m³/ton)

Appendix VII. …

When Is Busemann Product A Lattice? A Relation Between Metric Spaces And Corresponding Space-Time Models, Hans-Peter Künzi, Francisco Zapata, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The causality relation of special relativity is based on the assumption that the speed of all physical processes is limited by the speed of light. As a result, an event (t,x) occurring at moment t at location x can influence an event (y,s) if and only if s >= t+d(x,y)/c. We can simplify this formula if we use units of time and distance in which c=1 (e.g., by using a light second as a unit of distance). In this case, the above causality relation takes the form s >= t+d(x,y). Since the actual space can be non-Euclidean, H. Busemann generalized …

Simple And Appropriate Methods For Household Water Treatment, Morris Elya Demitry

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Shortage of drinking water is the big challenge for Sudan. The cost of water treatment is the main reason for using untreated water for drinking purposes in many urban areas in Sudan. Water born‐diseases (diarrhea, typhoid, etc) are common and there are many victims in unimproved urban areas in Khartoum (Sudan) due to poor or the lack of treatment of drinking water.

In this work, a simple and appropriate method (sand filter) for household water treatment was tested and developed. The main objective of using this method is to help people in urban areas without access to treated water to …

Evaluating Changes And Estimating Seasonal Precipitation For Colorado River Basin Using Stochastic Non-Parametric Disaggregation Technique, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Precipitation estimation is an important and challenging task in hydrology because of high variability and changing climate. This research involves (1) analyzing changes (trend and step) in seasonal precipitation and (2) estimating seasonal precipitation by disaggregating water year precipitation using a k-nearest neighbor (KNN) nonparametric technique for 29 climate divisions encompassing the Colorado River Basin. Water year precipitation data from 1900 to 2008 are subdivided into four seasons (i.e., autumn, winter, spring, and summer). Two statistical tests (Mann-Kendall and Spearman’s rho) are used to evaluate trend changes, and a rank sum test is used to identify the step change in …

Statistical Comparisons Of Watershed-Scale Response To Climate Change In Selected Basins Across The United States, John Risley, Hamid Moradkhani, Lauren Hay, Steve Markstrom

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In an earlier global climate-change study, air temperature and precipitation data for the entire twenty-first century simulated from five general circulation models were used as input to precalibrated watershed models for 14 selected basins across the United States. Simulated daily streamflow and energy output from the watershed models were used to compute a range of statistics. With a side-by-side comparison of the statistical analyses for the 14 basins, regional climatic and hydrologic trends over the twenty-first century could be qualitatively identified. Low-flow statistics (95% exceedance, 7-day mean annual minimum, and summer mean monthly streamflow) decreased for almost all basins. Annual …

Decolorization Of An Azo And Anthraquinone Textile Dye By A Mixture Of Living And Non-Living Trametes Versicolor Fungus, Christine M. Dykstra

HIM 1990-2015

Wastewater from the textile industry is difficult to treat effectively due to the prevalent use and wide variety of synthetic dyes that are resistant to conventional treatment methods. White-rot fungi, such as Trametes versicolor, have been found to be effective in decolorizing many of these synthetic dyes and current research is focusing on their application to wastewater treatment. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the ability of both living and nonliving Trametes versicolor to separately decolorize textile dyes, no studies were found to have investigated the use of a mixture of live and dead fungus for decolorization. This study …

Impacts Of Climate Change And Weather Modification On Hydrologic Characteristics Of Watersheds In The Western United States, Anil Acharya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research quantifies the impacts of climate change and weather modification (WM) on hydrologic characteristics of watersheds in the arid regions of the western United States. This research performs a long-term simulation of streamflow for present and future climate conditions in the North Platte (NP) Watershed, Wyoming; a shorter duration simulation is then performed to observe the likely impacts of event based changes in an urban watershed in Las Vegas, Nevada.

First, a study is carried out in Chapter 3 that evaluates the impacts of WM on water supply by developing a hydrologic model for the NP Watershed. The variable …

Association Of Oceanic-Atmospheric Oscillations And Hydroclimatic Variables In The Colorado River Basin, Ajay Kalra

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With increasing evidence of climatic variability, there is a need to improve forecast for hydroclimatic variables i.e., precipitation and streamflow preserving their spatial and temporal variability. Climatologists have identified different oceanic-atmospheric oscillations that seem to influence the behavior of these variables and in turn can be used to extend the forecast lead time. In the absence of a good physical understanding of the linkages between oceanic-atmospheric oscillations and hydrological processes, it is difficult to construct a physical model. An attractive alternative to physically based models are the Artificial Intelligence (AI) type models, also referred to as machine learning or data-driven …

Design And Modeling Of Infrastructure For Residential And Community Water Reuse, Shannon M. Killion

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

Water scarcity and deteriorating water infrastructure are of growing concern in the United States. The conventional methods of treating and transporting potable water and wastewater are being challenged as new technology creates opportunities for water reuse. Instead of simply replacing the current infrastructure for centralized treatment systems, alternatives such as dual distribution and decentralized treatment systems are being investigated as more sustainable alternatives.

Implementing dual distribution systems leads to benefits such as reducing the amount of water treated to potable standards and reducing freshwater withdrawals. A dual distribution system allows the non-potable demands to be shifted from the potable water …

Quantitative And Visualized Interpretation Of Public Works Civil Litigation Scenario Of First Instance Review In Taiwan, Hsien-Sang Wu, John Chien-Chung Li, Jeng-Rong Lee, Wen-Yen Wu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Existing studies regarding public works disputes and claims have drawn on small-scale cases to the exclusion of other cases and few have met the requirements of statistical tests. This paper performs an investigation of a total of 400 cases of civil litigation in which owners lost their disputes in Taiwan High Courts and branches between 1999 and 2008. Category analysis coding is used to construct a Log-linear model for judgment decisions; this model is augmented by Multiple Correspondence Analysis to reduce judicial opinions of over 4 million words to a two-dimensional figure, allowing for visual interpretation and identifying specific cases …

Numerical Investigation Of Damping Effects On Coupled Heave And Pitch Motion Of An Innovative Deep Draft Multi-Spar, Bin-Bin Li, Jin-Ping Ou, Bin Teng

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Deep draft multi-spar (DDMS), a novel deepwater platform, possesses the similar hydrodynamic and motion performances with the Spar platform. Therefore the DDMS may have instability of Mathieu’s type because the heave natural period is close to the half pitch natural period. The objective of this paper is to numerically study the damping effects on the Mathieu instability and the mechanism of this singular phenomena. In this simulation, the damping is determined through the free-decay tests based on a rigorous coupled hull and mooring model. The nonlinear motion equations of coupled heave and pitch considering the time-varying restoring forces are established …

Wright State University Celebration Of Research, Scholarship And Creative Activities Book Of Abstracts Friday, April 8, 2011, Wright State University Office Of Undergraduate Research And Stemm Activities

Celebration of Undergraduate & Graduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students' oral and poster presentations at Wright State University's second annual Celebration of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities on April 8, 2011.

The Solvent Effectiveness On Extraction Process Of Seaweed Pigment, Warkoyo Warkoyo, Elfi Anis Saati

Makara Journal of Technology

Eucheuma cottonii seaweed is a species of seaweed cultured in Indonesian waters, because its cultivation is relatively easy and inexpensive. It has a wide variety of colors from green to yellow green, gray, red and brown, indicating photosynthetic pigments, such as chlorophyll and carotenoids. An important factor in the effectiveness of pigment extraction is the choice of solvent. The correct type of solvent in the extraction method of specific natural materials is important so that a pigment with optimum quality that is also benefical to the society can be produced. The target of this research is to obtain a high …

Leaching Of Potential Hazardous Elements Of Coal Cleaning Rejects, Luis F.O. Silva, Maria Izquierdo, Xavier Querol, Robert B. Finkelman, Marcos L.S. Oliveira, Marcus Wollenschlager, Mark R. Towler, Rafael Pérez-López, Felipe Macias

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The geochemical characteristics of coal cleaning rejects (CCR) in Santa Catarina State, Brazil, were investigated. Around 3.5 million ton/ year of coal waste are dumped in Santa Catarina State. Coal beneficiation by froth flotation results in large amounts of CCR composed of coaly and mineral matter, the latter characterized by the occurrence of sulphide minerals and a broad array of leachable elements. The total and leachable contents of more than 60 elements were analyzed. Atmospheric exposure promotes sulphide oxidation that releases substantial sulphate loads as well as Ca²⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl- and Al^{3+ …}

Strength And Deformation Characteristics Of A Cement-Treated Reclaimed Pavement With A Chip Seal, Bryan T. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research was to analyze the strength and deformation characteristics of a cement-treated base (CTB) constructed using full-depth reclamation, microcracked, and then surfaced with a single chip seal. In this field study, strength characteristics of the CTB layer were determined at the time of construction, and then both strength and deformation characteristics were evaluated after 9 months of low-volume, heavy truck traffic. After 9 months, observed distresses included transverse cracking, rutting, and chip seal joint failure. The loss of the chip seal was caused by poor chip seal construction practices and not a deficiency in the CTB …

Migration Issues In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Michael J. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Since the end of the Cold War, the number of weak and failing states has increased significantly. The United States (US) military has been deployed in multiple nation states in an effort to prevent these weak states from collapsing into chaos. This thesis explores one of the driving factors of state collapse, net migration, to gauge how US foreign policy might be employed to reduce the flow of people out of a country. To demonstrate the foreign policies and their effects, a pilot model was constructed using a system dynamics methodology. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was selected as …

Investigation Of The Behavior Of Free-Standing Gabions In Seismic Regions, Amy Ransom

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the behavior of free-standing gabion walls in areas of mild seismicity. To investigate this behavior, three walls of varying internal cable patterns were constructed at a quarter-scale. These walls were tested with a mass shaker, and mode shapes, tone extractions, and damping ratios were calculated. A modal analysis was conducted using design spectra created from a suite of seven earthquakes from countries bordering Kenya. The corresponding lateral forces to these spectral displacements were found, and the restoring eccentricities from the soil restoring force were backed out through a summation of moments. All analysis was experimentally done due …