Engineering Commons^™

System For Enhanced Removal Of Gastrointestinal Clots, Neha Boinpally, Megan Buford, Emma Hammelef, Sharmila Iyer, Keyvon Rashidi

Intersections Fall 2020

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is a hazardous clinical condition often resulting in morbidities and mortality in patients. After diagnosis, treatment options include administering proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), embolic agents to aid in the breakdown of the clots. At the same time, hemostasis can also be achieved using targeted endoscopic techniques and hemostatic forceps. During the procedure, the blood clots and other fibrous material are removed from the GI tract via suction from the endoscope instrument. However, this process is not overly effective with regard to removing the clots from the GI tract since the clots often cause blockages in the suction …

Stress Measurement Wearable Device Optimized For Use In The Clinical Icu, Jacob Baraz, Max Jesurum, Mason Jiang, Cierra Spriggs, Ryan Tatton

Intersections Fall 2020

The current benchmark for measuring stress in the intensive care unit (ICU) is the perceived stress questionnaire (PSQ). Validated by a large population of in-patients, the PSQ is a self-reported questionnaire used in clinical and laboratory settings for assessing stressful circumstances that typically exacerbate disease symptoms. However, clinicians and nurses operating in the ICU could benefit from a more efficient system for measuring the stress of admitted patients. Monitoring physiological markers for the degree of stress can aid clinicians in providing accurate and effective treatment methods to benefit the health condition and alleviate the stress of the patient. The proposed …

Accommodating Face Mask For Those With Hearing Impairments, Anushka Khanna, Emily Hauser, Rashi Shukla, David Yo, Adam Portugali

Intersections Fall 2020

As COVID-19 continues to spread in our society, wearing face masks have become an integral part of daily life. For users with disabilities, specifically those with hearing impairments, the utilization of face masks creates additional problems. The obstruction of facial and visual expressions from mask wearing poses an increased difficulty in communicating with individuals when lip reading is not accessible; additionally, the elastic straps that hold the mask in place can become entangled or dislodge hearing aids, creating more discomfort for the users. Further, blocking a majority of the face from view makes it harder to see critical vital and …

Port Injection Site Sanitization (Pss) Dispenser Design, Ya Gao, Lindsey Greenwood, Rachel Mann, Katherine He

Intersections Fall 2020

Peripheral venous catheters (PVCs) are the most used device in hospitals, used for intravenous medication and for drawing blood. It is estimated that over 150 million catheters are inserted into patients each year in the US. About 250,000 patients with PVCs get catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBIs) which are estimated to have a $2.8 billion additional cost nationwide and a 12%-15% mortality rate. It is also estimated that a 1.6% decrease in the incidence of CRBIs would yield a cost savings of $113 per inserted catheter. These statistics denote a clinical need for a reduction of infections caused by PVCs, saving …

Episleeve: Multimodal Night-Time Seizure Detection, Jorge Mirabelli, Sophia Hall, Dylan Rasmussen, Luca Lin, Devin Lewis

Intersections Fall 2020

This project involves the creation of a nighttime wearable device that can measure heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, temperature, motion, and skin resistivity using sensors placed on the upper and lower arm. Incorporating a wide variety of sensors allows for detection of focal and generalized epilepsy. These sensors will be used to collect data to wirelessly (via Bluetooth) transmit to a separate base station for processing to determine if a seizure has occurred. If a seizure is detected for a specified period of time, the base station can call (via cellular communications) for medical aid to prevent harm to users. …

Development Of Core Body Temperature (Cbt) And Heart Rate Wearable Device, Brenna Carbone, Madison Castellanos, Jonathan Chen, Jenna Wagner

Intersections Fall 2020

Hyperthermia is a condition when the body's heat-regulation system is overwhelmed and a person's core body temperature (CBT) is above 100.4°F (38°C). This is a major risk among athletes and occupational workers in the military, construction, manufacturing, and emergency response who engage in intense physical activity. Currently the gold standard to measure CBT is through a rectal thermometer. While rectal thermometers are accurate, they are quite invasive and do not provide a way for continuous monitoring. Other skin and oral thermometers which are considered noninvasive are not accurate because they only measure surface temperature and are easily influenced by other …

Novel Wearable System To Monitor, Predict, And Acutely Treat Epileptic Seizures, Jackie Kresic, Katherine Glaess, Sunayana Jampanaboyana, Cathy Tao

Intersections Fall 2020

Epilepsy, a chronic condition involving recurrent and unprovoked seizures, affects over 50 million individuals globally. Characterized by abnormalbrain activity, these seizures affect the daily functioning of individuals, and increase the risk of further physical, mental, and emotional harm.Traditional treatment options such as invasive brain surgery and anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) do not fully prevent the occurrence of epileptic seizures,can remain ineffective for certain individuals, and can lead to severe adverse effects. To reduce the incidence of serious lifestyle complications, weare proposing a novel design for a daily-use wearable that involves biopotential monitoring, seizure prediction, and an automated acute interventionstrategy to reduce …

"Apps"—An Innovative Way To Share Extension Knowledge, Joseph S. Dvorak, Tanya C. Franke-Dvorak, Randy R. Price

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Extension professionals across the country are continuously seeking innovative ways to reach clientele and to disseminate timely, educational information. A new avenue to reach clientele includes the use of smartphone "apps." The "Machinery Sizing" app, which was developed to ease the estimation of tractor horsepower to implement sizing for Extension clientele anytime, anywhere, is explained as a key example for Extension professionals to utilize apps in disseminating information to clientele. There are many benefits to using apps, including information availability wherever Internet service is available on the smartphone, ease of computations of equations, and automatic updates being sent to users.

A Mechanistic Model Of Early Fcεri Signaling: Lipid Rafts And The Question Of Protection From Dephosphorylation, Dipak Barua, Byron Goldstein

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present a model of the early events in mast cell signaling mediated by FcεRI where the plasma membrane is composed of many small ordered lipid domains (rafts), surrounded by a non-order region of lipids consisting of the remaining plasma membrane. The model treats the rafts as transient structures that constantly form and breakup, but that maintain a fixed average number per cell. The rafts have a high propensity for harboring Lyn kinase, aggregated, but not unaggregated receptors, and the linker for the activation of T cells (LAT). Phosphatase activity in the rafts is substantially reduced compared to the nonraft …

In-Plane Shear Resistance Of Sustainable Structural Walls With Large Openings, Matija Radovic

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Shear walls are primary structural systems that support building against lateral loads (tornadoes and hurricanes). Even though concrete shear walls are the most efficient lateral resisting system, they are rarely used in a residential construction. The reasons for why contractors do not use concrete walls in residential construction were due to higher construction cost and slower construction paces. This study proposes building and testing residential concrete structural wall system that is energy efficient, cost competitive and structurally safe.

In order to decrease environmental impact of the residential construction process, this study proposed implementing sustainability concept while building residential structures. The …

Morphometric, Biochemical, And Raman Spctral Analyses Of Muscle Damage In Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease: Provising Objective Criteria For Diagnosis And Treatment Monitoring, Kim Cluff

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which affects approximately 10 million Americans, is characterized by atherosclerosis of the non-coronary arteries. PAD produces a progressive accumulation of ischemic injury to the limbs that is reflected in a gradual worsening in the myofiber morphology and oxidative damage in the gastrocnemius muscle. In this study, we evaluated the hypothesis that quantitative morphological and biochemical parameters of gastrocnemius myofibers change in a consistent manner during the progression of PAD, provide an objective grading of muscle degeneration in the ischemic limb, and correlate to clinical stage of PAD. Myofiber morphometrics were determined precisely with mathematical equations that …

A Characterization And Measurement System For Propylene Glycol Properties (Means Of Attitude Control In Space), Abdoul Maiga

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Recently, engineers have been able to design smaller satellites called Nano-satellites. Nano-satellites (1-10kg) also known as “Cube Sat” are based nominally on multiples of a unit cube of 10 centimeters on each side. The basic cube shape is known as 1U CubeSat. A major obstacle when designing the nano-satellites is to choose a propulsion system that would be safe, effective, low cost, and could easily function with a resistojet. The proposed system uses Propylene Glycol (C3H8O2) as a safe propellant for a resistojet. In order to predict the behavior of the propellant, the property to be characterized is its surface …

Evaluation Of Shock Induced Spallation In Nanocrystalline Copper, Chase Philpot

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research uses atomistic simulations to examine the behavior of nanocrystalline Cu under impact at ballistic speeds. The advantage of using atomistic simulations to study shock induced deformation is that a real-time picture of the evolution of the microstructure can be attained, whereas experimentally this is not possible. Specifically, molecular dynamics simulations are used to build models of the material and run the simulations. Six cases are explored: Single crystal Cu loaded along the <100>, <110>, and <111> directions, and nanocrystalline samples with average grain diameters of 5, 10, and 15 nm. The target to flyer ratio is varied to generate …

Design Of A Pretreatment And Enzymatic Saccharification Scheme Of Understory From Managed Pine Forest For A Biochemical-Refinery Platform: The Example Of The Sweetgum Tree, Angele Djioleu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The possibility of using sweetgum from southern pine dominated forests as a biobased refinery feedstock was investigated. First, a baseline hydrolysis scheme for sweetgum wood and bark was designed. Sweetgum wood and bark were pretreated with 0.98% (v/v) sulfuric acid at 140°C for 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 min and at 160°C for 30, 40, 50 or 60 min. The water insoluble solid (WIS) fraction was hydrolyzed with a cellulase enzyme cocktail. Results showed that maximum xylose and glucose yields from the wood were 82 and 86%, respectively. Similarly, the respective maximum yields of xylose and glucose from the …

Gas Adsorption In Novel Environments, Including Effects Of Pore Relaxation, W. Milton Cole, Silvina M. Gatica, Hye Young Kim, Angela D. Lueking, Sarmishtha Sircar

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Adsorption experiments have been interpreted frequently with simplified model geometries, such as ideally flat surfaces and slit or cylindrical pores. Recent explorations of unusual environments, such as fullerenes and metal-organic-framework materials, have led to a broadened scope of experimental, theoretical and simulation investigations. This paper reviews a number of such studies undertaken by our group. Among the topics receiving emphasis are these: universality of gas uptake in pores, relaxation of a porous absorbent due to gas uptake and the novel phases of gases on a single nanotube, all of which studies have been motivated by recent experiments.

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Portable Variable Message Signs In Improving Safety For Motorists And Workers At Construction Zones In Abu Dhabi, Khalid Ismail Al-Zoubi

Theses

In March 2008, a single accident resulted in three people being killed and nearly 350 injured in a horrific crash involving over 60 vehicles on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway near Ghantoot. The cause of this crash was attributed to failure by motorists to adhere to severe weather conditions (fog). In response to the increasing number of accidents on Abu Dhabi roads, the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport (DoT) has deployed approximately 40 portable Variable Message Signs (PVMSs) throughout the main DOT's highway network as one of the strategies to control driver behavior and to improve road safety. The objective of …

Numerical Simulation Of Particle-Driven Gravity Currents, Sangdo An, Pierre Y. Julien, Subhas K. Venayagamoorthy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Particle-driven gravity currents frequently occur in nature, for instance as turbidity currents in reservoirs. They are produced by the buoyant forces between fluids of different density and can introduce sediments and pollutants into water bodies. In this study, the propagation dynamics of gravity currents is investigated using the FLOW-3D computational fluid dynamics code. The performance of the numerical model using two different turbulence closure schemes namely the renormalization group (RNG) k-ε scheme in a Reynold-averaged Navier-Stokes framework (RANS) and the large-eddy simulation (LES) technique using the Smagorinsky scheme, were compared with laboratory experiments. The numerical simulations focus on two different …

A Comparative Study On The Corrosion Resistance Of Cerium-Based Conversion Coatings On Az91d And Az31b Magnesium Alloys, C. E. Castano, Surender Maddela, Matthew J. O'Keefe, Y. M. Wang

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the present work a comparative study has been carried out on the surface morphology, electrochemical properties and corrosion performance of cerium-Based conversion coatings (CeCCs) on AZ91D and AZ31B magnesium alloys. the as-deposited coatings consisted of a two-layer structure: A continuous Mg/Al oxide transition layer of ∼ 50 nm thick and a CeCC layer of ∼ 400 nm thick. Potentiodynamic polarization and impedance spectroscopy results using a 0.6 wt.% NaCl and 0.6 wt.% (NH₄)₂SO₄ electrolyte showed that cerium-Based conversion coatings enhanced the corrosion resistance of AZ91D and AZ31B magnesium alloys compared to polished uncoated samples. …

Altered Hemodynamics, Endothelial Function, And Protein Expression Occur With Aortic Coarctation And Persist After Repair, Arjun Menon, Thomas J. Eddinger, Hongfeng Wang, David C. Wendell, Jeffrey M. Toth, John F. Ladisa

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is associated with substantial morbidity despite treatment. Mechanically induced structural and functional vascular changes are implicated; however, their relationship with smooth muscle (SM) phenotypic expression is not fully understood. Using a clinically representative rabbit model of CoA and correction, we quantified mechanical alterations from a 20-mmHg blood pressure (BP) gradient in the thoracic aorta and related the expression of key SM contractile and focal adhesion proteins with remodeling, relaxation, and stiffness. Systolic and mean BP were elevated for CoA rabbits compared with controls leading to remodeling, stiffening, an altered force response, and endothelial dysfunction both …

Loss Enhanced Transmission And Collimation In Anisotropic Epsilon-Near-Zero Metamaterials, L. Sun, S. Feng, Xiaodong Yang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We verify the extraordinary transmission enhancement and collimation induced by the material loss in anisotropic epsilon-near-zero metamaterials, and reveal the physical mechanism of this exotic electromagnetic phenomenon via the iso-frequency contour analysis. In addition, we demonstrate the possibility in realization of such loss enhanced transmission of Gaussian beam in realistic silver-germanium multilayered structures by applying full-wave numerical simulations.

Electric Field-Induced Tetragonal To Orthorhombic Phase Transitions In [110]C-Oriented Batio₃ Single Crystals, D. J. Franzbach, Yijia Gu, Long-Qing Chen, K. G. Webber

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electric field-induced phase transitions in [110]_c-oriented BaTiO₃ single crystals were studied by macroscopic electrical measurements in the temperature range from 20 °C to 50 °C. Discontinuous, hysteretic jumps in the polarization and strain were observed, indicating a tetragonal ↔ orthorhombic phase transition. The critical electric field to induce the transition was found to shift to higher values with increasing temperature. The Landau-Devonshire theory was used to analyze the observed electric field-induced T ↔ O phase transitions.

Novel Production Techniques Of Radioisotopes Using Electron Accelerators, Daniel Robert Lowe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Non-traditional radioisotope production techniques using a compact, high power linear electron accelerator have been demonstrated and characterized for the production of 18F, 47Sc, 147Pm, and 99mTc from a variety of target candidates. These isotopes are used extensively in the medical field as diagnostic and therapy radioisotopes, as well as the space industry as RTG's. Primary focus was placed on 99mTc as it constitutes approximately 80% of all diagnostic procedures in the medical community that use radioactive tracers. It was also the prime focus due to recent events at the Chalk River nuclear reactor, which caused global shortages of this isotope …

The Impact Of Advanced Wastewater Treatment Technologies And Wastewater Strength On The Energy Consumption Of Large Wastewater Treatment Plants, Timothy Stephen Newell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Wastewater treatment is an energy intensive process often requiring the use of advanced treatment technologies. Stricter effluent standards have resulted in an increase in the number of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with advanced treatment over time. Accordingly, associated energy consumption has also increased. Concerns about lowering operating costs for WWTPs and reducing associated greenhouse gas generation present an incentive to investigate energy use in WWTPs. This research investigated the impact of wastewater strength and the introduction of advanced treatment technologies, to replace traditional technologies on energy use to treat wastewater in WWTPs. Major unit processes were designed for a 100 …

Image Segmentation For Quantification Of Air-Water Interface In Micro-Ct Soil Images, Kranthi Kumar Potteti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Soils are complex environments comprising various biological (roots, water, air etc) and physical constituents (minerals, aggregates, etc). Synchrotron radiation based X-ray microtomography (XMT) is widely used in extracting qualitative and quantitative information regarding spatial distribution of biological and physical soil constituents. Segmentation of these micro-CT soil images is of interest to geologists, hydrologists, civil and petroleum engineers and soil scientists. In this present work, we study and implement segmentation algorithms for microhydrology studies, specifically for soil water conductivity. Three well-known image segmentation algorithms are studied for evaluating their performance for the task. We demonstrate the problems and ways to segment …

Skin-Effect Model For Round Wires In Peec, Albert E. Ruehli, Giulio Antonini, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper we consider the skin-and radiation effects for a thin wire segment. Circuit models are being constructed which are suitable for the modeling of thin wires like the wire bonds. We use the internal-external inductance model for this purpose of including the skin-effect in the partial inductance. These models make it possible to include thin, round conductors in a PEEC model at a much lower cost in compute time. The ultimate goal is to construct a circuit model which can be applied both in the time and frequency domain to signal and power integrity problems. © 2012 IEEE.

Linear Mimo Precoding In Multi-Antenna Wiretap Channels For Finite-Alphabet Data, Yongpeng Wu, Chengshan Xiao, Zhi Ding, Xiqi Gao, Shi Jin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we investigate the secrecy rate of finite alphabet communications over multiple-input, multiple-output, multiple-antenna eavesdropper (MIMOME) systems. Traditional precoder designs at the transmitter for achieving secrecy capacity (maximum secrecy rate) for MIMOME systems are developed according to the assumption of Gaussian input signals. Such designs may risk substantial secrecy rate loss when Gaussian inputs are replaced by practical finite alphabet inputs. to address this issue, we propose a linear precoding design to directly maximize the secrecy rate for MIMOME systems under the constraint of finite alphabet input. Exploiting convex optimization and matrix calculus, we present necessary conditions required …

Online Optimal Control Of Affine Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems With Unknown Internal Dynamics By Using Time-Based Policy Update, Travis Dierks, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is solved forward-in-time for the optimal control of a class of general affine nonlinear discrete-time systems without using value and policy iterations. the proposed approach, referred to as adaptive dynamic programming, uses two neural networks (NNs), to solve the infinite horizon optimal regulation control of affine nonlinear discrete-time systems in the presence of unknown internal dynamics and a known control coefficient matrix. One NN approximates the cost function and is referred to as the critic NN, while the second NN generates the control input and is referred to as the action NN. the cost …

A Cross Layer Approach To The Novel Distributed Scheduling Protocol And Event-Triggered Controller Design For Cyber Physical Systems, Hao Xu, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), multiple real-time dynamic systems are connected to their corresponding controllers through a shared communication network in contrast with a dedicated line. for such CPS, the existing scheduling schemes for instance Centralized or Distributed Scheduling schemes are unsuitable since the behavior of real-time dynamic systems is ignored during the network protocol design. Therefore, in this paper, a novel distributed scheduling protocol design via cross-layer approach is proposed to optimize the performance of CPS by maximizing the utility function which is generated by using the information collected from both the application and network layers. Subsequently, a novel …

Video Compressive Sensing With 3-D Wavelet And 3-D Noiselet, Dao Lam, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new compressive video sampling method is investigated. as opposed to other video sampling methods for which processing is conducted on a single-frame basis, this method is applied on multiple frames of the video stream. by exploiting the extension of Wavelet to 3-D with the support of Noiselet 3-D and combining it with fast reconstruction algorithms, this framework produces successful results quickly while maintaining the quality of the video stream. Despite its simplicity, this new approach outperforms other sophisticated methods. © 2012 IEEE.

Tdma For Wireless Passive Backscatter Networks: An Information Theoretic Approach, Aditya V. Padaki, Maciej Zawodniok

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The passive backscatter technology is increasingly employed in wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. in contrast to existing technologies, it offers several advantages including a battery-less operation, extremely small-form factor, and low costs. Our previous works demonstrated that theoretically such backscatter-Based network outperforms existing solutions. in contrast, this paper presents a new time division multiple access (TDMA) based approach that considers a practical realization of the multi-hop framework. the capacity limits for the proposed scheme are evaluated for two frameworks - (a) single hop with direct backscatter signal and (b) a multi-hop transmission. an analytical comparison shows that the multi-hop transmission …