Engineering Commons^™

Longitudinal Growth Of Vex Robotic Competitions In Utah And The Rocky Mountain Region, Trevor P. Robinson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The Utah State University VEX Robotics Team (USUVRT) is in its fifth year of promoting the VEX Robotics Competition in the Utah and Rocky Mountain Region. The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF) annually hosts the VEX World Championships to identify and award the best middle school, high school, and college robotics teams. The USUVRT has partnered with the Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities via VEX Robotics to middle and high school students in the Utah and Rocky Mountain Region. This paper discusses the outreach methods qualifying system used by …

Middle Atmosphere Temperature Results From A New, High-Powered, Large-Aperture Rayleigh Lidar, Leda Sox, Vincent B. Wickwar, Joshua P. Herron

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In June–July 2012, observations were carried out using the recently upgraded, large-aperture, Rayleigh-scatter lidar system located at the Atmospheric Lidar Observatory (ALO) on the campus of Utah State University, in Logan, UT (41.7 N, 111.8 W). This time period was significant because it enabled us to observe the annual temperature minimum in the upper mesosphere-lower thermosphere region. The data collected during the campaign were analyzed for temperatures between ~70–109 km. The results above ~95 km are the first obtained with a Rayleigh-scatter lidar, extending the technique well into the lower thermosphere. A great deal of variability from night-to-night is evident …

Monte Carlo Uncertainty Analysis For Photothermal Radiometry Measurements Using A Curve Fit Process, Kyle Horne, Austin Fleming, Heng Ban

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Photothermal Radiometry (PTR) has become a popular method to measure thermal properties of layered materials. Much research has been done to determine the capabilities of PTR, but with little uncertainty analysis. This study performs a Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis to quantify uncertainty of film diffusivity and effusivity measurements, presents a sensitivity study for each input parameter, compares linear and logarithmic spacing of data points on frequency scans, and investigates the validity of a 1-D heat transfer assumption.

Spurlock, Christy Leigh, B. 1963 (Mss 451), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 451. Paper titled “White Stone Quarry of Bowling Green, KY” written by Christy Leigh Spurlock for a Western Kentucky University history department independent study project. Includes research materials such as maps, deeds, photos, and transcriptions of interviews with former quarry employees and their family members.

Surface Waves In Three-Dimensional Electromagnetic Composites And Their Effect On Homogenization, Xiaoyan Y.Z. Xiong, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Vadim A. Markel, Igor Tsukerman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reflection and transmission of electromagnetic waves at the boundaries of periodic composites (electromagnetic/optical metamaterials) depends in general on both bulk and surface waves. We investigate the interplay of these two contributions using three-dimensional full-wave numerical simulations and a recently developed non-asymptotic homoge-nization theory. © 2013 Optical Society of America.

Stress Distribution At The Bone-Cement Interface Changes During Kyphoplasty Rehabilitation, Philip Purcell, Stephen Tiernan, Fiona Mcevoy, Magdalena Tyndyk, Seamus Morris

Conference Papers

Balloon Kyphoplasty uses an inflatable bone tamp and cement augmentation to repair vertebral compression fractures. A recent clinical study observed a 78% re-collapse rate in patients showing a radiolucent phenomenon at the bone-cement interface following Kyphoplasty. Two experimental studies showed significant height loss following Balloon Kyphoplasty under cyclical loads. The present study investigates the alteration in load angle corresponding to this height loss and its effect on load transfer to the bone-cement interface. A validated finite element model of a human thoracolumbar spine was segmented into a single L1 vertebral body and modified to replicate bilateral Balloon Kyphoplasty. Cement was …

Stress Distribution At The Bone-Cement Interface Changes During Kyphoplasty Rehabilitation, Philip Purcell, Stephen Tiernan, Fiona Mcevoy, Magdalena Tyndyk, Seamus Morris

Other Resources

Balloon Kyphoplasty uses an inflatable bone tamp and cement augmentation to repair vertebral compression fractures. A recent clinical study observed a 78% re-collapse rate in patients showing a radiolucent phenomenon at the bone-cement interface following Kyphoplasty. Two experimental studies showed significant height loss following Balloon Kyphoplasty under cyclical loads. The present study investigates the alteration in load angle corresponding to this height loss and its effect on load transfer to the bone-cement interface. A validated finite element model of a human thoracolumbar spine was segmented into a single L1 vertebral body and modified to replicate bilateral Balloon Kyphoplasty. Cement was …

American Architectural, Engineering And Construction Companies Working In The Green Building Industry In The Republic Of India, Matthew O. Harbour

Construction Management Theses

This research paper has addressed the problem statement "Too few American Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) companies are participating in the green building market in the Republic of India." This paper provides a conceptual model to support American AEC companies to become involved in the green building market in the Republic of India. This model is a result of a literature review, an analysis of an online survey and a personal interview. This paper addresses the need for American AEC companies to remain competitive in the green building market in the Republic of India. This paper provides a brief history …

Relating Air Quality In The Work Environment To Occupational Health Disease, Hussien Awad Alumar

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Comprehensive knowledge of the air pollutants effects on the human health generally is a crucial requirement in developing effective policies for reducing such adverse effects related to ambient air pollution. Such knowledge would be essential in helping various affected countries, including the less developed countries (LDCs), to develop effective regulatory frameworks for assessing and managing air quality in the workplaces. Developed and developing countries therefore need to develop effective techniques or strategies focused towards improving the workplace monitoring competence in diverse industrial environments. Such initiatives are essential in reducing or eliminating the industrial pollutants within the workplaces while also helping …

Conserved Extracellular Cysteines Differentially Regulate The Potentiation Produced By Zn2+ In Rat P2x4 Receptors, Chao-Ying Li, Ke-Ming Xiong, Yu-Xiang Wu, Yu-Wei Liu, Lin Chen, Randall B. Stewart, Robert W. Peoples, Chu-Li Yi

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

One feature of the amino acid sequence of P2X receptors identified from mammalian species, Xenopus laevis and zebrafish is the conservation of ten cysteines in the extracellular loop. Little information is available about the role of these conserved ectodomain cysteines in the function of P2X receptors. Here, we investigated the possibility that ten conserved cysteine residues in the extracellular loop of the rat P2X4 receptor may regulate zinc potentiation of the receptor using a series of individual cysteine to alanine point mutations and functional characterization of recombinant receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes. For the C116A, C132A, C159A, C165A, C217A and …

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 34 General Infrastructure Retroactive Reporting Implementation Assistance Manual, Government Fixed Asset Services, Inc.

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This assistance manual is intended to provide guidance for local agencies to report their assets in compliance with the general infrastructure reporting requirements of Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 34. This manual is an update to the original manual, which was developed in 2004, and includes current depreciators and information on annual updates.

Multilayer Bioactive Glass/Zirconium Titanate Thin Films In Bone Tissue Engineering And Regenerative Dentistry, Masoud Mozafari, Erfan Salahinejad, Vahid Shabafrooz, Mostafa Yazdimamaghani, Daryoosh Vashaee, Lobat Tayebi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Surface modification, particularly coatings deposition, is beneficial to tissue-engineering applications. In this work, bioactive glass/zirconium titanate composite thin films were prepared by a sol-gel spin-coating method. The surface features of the coatings were studied by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and spectroscopic reflection analyses. The results show that uniform and sound multilayer thin films were successfully prepared through the optimization of the process variables and the application of carboxymethyl cellulose as a dispersing agent. Also, it was found that the thickness and roughness of the multilayer coatings increase nonlinearly with increasing the number of the layers. This new class …

Oxygen Tomography By Čerenkov-Excited Phosphorescence During External Beam Irradiation, Rongxiao Zhang, Scott C. Davis, Jennifer-Lynn H. Demers, Adam K. Glaser, David J. Gladstone, Tatiana V. Esipova, Sergei A. Vinogradov, Brian W. Pogue

Dartmouth Scholarship

The efficacy of radiation therapy depends strongly on tumor oxygenation during irradiation. However, current techniques to measure this parameter in vivo do not facilitate routine monitoring in patients. Herein, we demonstrate a noninvasive method for tomographic imaging of oxygen partial pressure (pO₂ ) in deep tissue using the phosphorescence decay of an oxygen-sensitive probe excited by Čerenkov radiation induced by external beam radiotherapy. Tissue-simulating scattering phantoms (60 mm diameter with a 20 mm anomaly) containing platinum(II)-G4 (PtG4), a dendritic porphyrin-based phosphor, whose phosphorescence is quenched in the presence of oxygen, were irradiated with a clinical linear accelerator. The …

Preliminary Analysis Of Ghg Production From The Lincoln Water System To Determine Operating Energy And Infrastructure Construction Impacts, Martin Gakuria

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

The Lincoln Water System (LWS) provides water to the citizens, industries, and commercial areas within and near the City of Lincoln, Nebraska. The intent of this thesis is to determine if reductions in future per capita water demand will help reduce the building of infrastructure and reduce future pumping costs and uses the computation of greenhouse gasses to compare the effects of different degrees of water conservation.

Data analysis was performed on water production statistics and data (1994-2011) collected and provided by the City of Lincoln, Nebraska. Projections in accordance with the Lincoln-Lancaster County 2040 Comprehensive Plan were made to …

Tissue Engineering Composite Biomimetic Gelatin Sponges For Bone Regeneration, Isaac Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The field of tissue engineering aims to develop viable substitutes with the ability to repair and regenerate the functions of damaged tissue. Common practices to supplement bone regeneration in larger defects include bone graft biomaterials such as autografts, allografts, xenografts, and synthetic biomaterials. Autologous bone grafting is the current gold-standard procedure used to replace missing or damaged bone. However, these grafts have disadvantages such as donor site morbidity, limited availability, and the need for a secondary surgery. The focus of this study is to tissue engineer a lyophilized gelatin composite sponge composed of hydroxyapatite (HA), chitin whiskers (CW), and preparations …

The Santa Clara, 2013-05-02, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Engineers Without Borders El Salvador Project, Patrick Jentz

TECHxpo

This is a report on an Engineers Without Borders project located in San Juan El Espino, El Salvador. For this project, EWB Montana Tech is working to mitigate an erosion problem that is making it difficult for children to travel to school.

Structural Modification Of Graphene Sheets To Create A Dense Network Of Defect Sites, Mei-Xian Wang, Qi Liu, Zhe-Fei Li, Hong-Fang Sun, Eric A. Stach, Jian Xie

Birck and NCN Publications

Pt/graphene composites were synthesized by loading platinum nanoparticles onto graphene and etched at 1000 degrees C in a hydrogen atmosphere. This results in the formation of a dense array of nanostructured defect sites in the graphene, including trenches, nanoribbons, islands, and holes. These defect sites result in an increase in the number of unsaturated carbon atoms and, consequently, enhance the interaction of the CO2 molecules with the etched graphene. This leads to a high capacity for storing CO2; 1 g of the etched samples can store up to 76.3 cm(3) of CO2 at 273 K under ambient pressure.

Partners On Campus: Open Access Transportation Research At Purdue University, David Scherer

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

In the third community webinar presentation on regional and community partnerships, David Scherer, the Scholarly Repository Specialist at Purdue University, described how institutional repositories can support community engagement through the rewards of the partnership between Purdue's institutional repository, Purdue e-Pubs, and Indiana's Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP). The Purdue Libraries and the Purdue University Press have worked to archive and showcase the fruits of over 75 years of strong collaboration between Purdue University and the Indiana Department of Transportation on research that has a significant impact on the safe and efficient operation of transportation systems throughout Indiana, the United States, …

Continuous Correction Of Differential Path Length Factor In Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, Tanveer Talukdar, Jason H. Moore, Solomon G. Diamond

Dartmouth Scholarship

In continuous-wave near-infrared spectroscopy (CW-NIRS), changes in the concentration of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin can be calculated by solving a set of linear equations from the modified Beer-Lambert Law. Cross-talk error in the calculated hemodynamics can arise from inaccurate knowledge of the wavelength-dependent differential path length factor (DPF). We apply the extended Kalman filter (EKF) with a dynamical systems model to calculate relative concentration changes in oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin while simultaneously estimating relative changes in DPF. Results from simulated and experimental CW-NIRS data are compared with results from a weighted least squares (WLSQ) method. The EKF method was found to effectively …

Image-Based Respiratory Motion Extraction And Respiration-Correlated Cone Beam Ct (4d-Cbct) Reconstruction, Salam Dhou

Theses and Dissertations

Accounting for respiration motion during imaging helps improve targeting precision in radiation therapy. Respiratory motion can be a major source of error in determining the position of thoracic and upper abdominal tumor targets during radiotherapy. Thus, extracting respiratory motion is a key task in radiation therapy planning. Respiration-correlated or four-dimensional CT (4DCT) imaging techniques have been recently integrated into imaging systems for verifying tumor position during treatment and managing respiration-induced tissue motion. The quality of the 4D reconstructed volumes is highly affected by the respiratory signal extracted and the phase sorting method used. This thesis is divided into two parts. …

Analysis Of Bimetallic Adhesion And Interfacial Toughness Of Kinetic Metallization Coatings, Alec D. Guraydin

Master's Theses

Due to their ability to confer enhanced surface properties without compromising the properties of the substrate, coatings have become ubiquitous in heavy industrial applications for corrosion, wear, and thermal protection, among others. Kinetic Metallization (KM), a solid-state impact consolidation and coating process, is well-suited for depositing industrial coatings due to its versatility, low substrate heat input, and low cost. The ability of KM coatings to adhere to the substrate is determined by the quality of the interface. The purpose of this study is to develop a model to predict the interfacial quality of KM coatings using known coating and substrate …

Performance Verification For Behavior-Based Robot Missions, Damian M. Lyons, Ronald Arkin, Shu Jiang, Tsung-Ming Liu, Paramesh Nirmal, J. Deeb

Faculty Publications

Certain robot missions need to perform predictably in a physical en-vironment that may only be poorly characterized in advance. This requirement raises many issues for existing approaches to software verification. An approach based on behavior-based controllers in a process-algebra framework is proposed by Lyons et al [15] to side-step state combinatorics. In this paper we show that this approach can be used to generate a Dynamic Bayesian Network for the problem, and that verification is reduced to a filtering problem for this network. We present validation results for the verification of a multiple waypoint robot mission using this approach.

What’S The Big Deal With Big Data?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Big Data does not necessarily cost big bucks, and smaller companies can benefit from it too. There are companies - branded consumer companies - which have developed technologies to scan the broad variety of data sources. What they’re doing is testing the success and popularity of their own products by seeing how often they crop up.

The Effect Of Platinum In Nafion For Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, Elliott Korb

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Under the growing pressure to veer from fossil fuel use to more environmentally conscious energy options, fuel cells of all kinds are coming to the forefront as viable options to replace part of fossil fuels’ present role. This effort not only includes automobiles, but fuel cells are also emerging as options for emergency generators, modern war ships and submarines, portable charging devices, and space applications. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are likely to dominate the smaller or more domestic applications of fuel cell technology. For the membrane, DuPont’s polymer Nafion was used in varying sizes. Using small testing platforms …

Spice Netlist Generation For Electrical Parasitic Modeling Of Multi-Chip Power Module Designs, Peter Tucker

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Multi-Chip Power Module (MCPM) designs are widely used in the area of power electronics to control multiple power semiconductor devices in a single package. The work described in this thesis is part of a larger ongoing project aimed at designing and implementing a computer aided drafting tool to assist in analysis and optimization of MCPM designs. This thesis work adds to the software tool the ability to export an electrical parasitic model of a power module layout into a SPICE format that can be run through an external SPICE circuit simulator. The code was implemented in python using NetworkX graphs …

The People Dimension In Logistics And Supply Chain Management – Its Role And Importance, Edward Sweeney

Books/Book chapters

It is widely recognised that the effective application of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) has a vital role to play in European economic recovery. Experience suggests that success in achieving higher levels of supply chain integration (SCI) depends on both physical and technical components (the hard-wiring), as well as human and behavioural components (the soft-wiring). There is significant evidence that the latter has been largely neglected by the logistics and SCM community. Furthermore, it appears that the majority of supply chain improvement initiatives by practitioners have been primarily concerned with technological, structural and process issues. This chapter …

Nanowire Metal-Insulator-Metal Plasmonic Devices, Joseph W. Haus, Li Li, Cong Deng, Nkorni Katte, Michael Scalora, Domenico De Ceglia, Maria Antonietta Vincenti

Electro-Optics and Photonics Faculty Publications

In this paper we theoretically study the responsivity of Metal-Insulator-Metal nanostructures to light illumination over a broad wavelength band (1 - 25 microns) and we examine the role of a local field enhancement and electrostatic field on the responsivity.

Deposition And Fate Of Atmospheric Mercury In Forested Landscapes Of The Adirondack Park, Ny, Bradley Blackwell

Civil and Environmental Engineering - Dissertations

In this dissertation, I investigated the deposition and fate of atmospheric mercury (Hg) to forested landscapes of the Adirondack region in Upstate New York. Despite the fact that forests are the dominant land cover in North America, there has been relatively little research on the deposition, transport, and fate of Hg within forested ecosystems. The objective of this dissertation was to quantify pathways of Hg deposition in forested sites in the Adirondack Park and to examine spatial and geographic patterns of Hg deposition and fate.

The research for this dissertation was conducted in three phases. In Phase One, I compared …

Rank Based Anomaly Detection Algorithms, Huaming Huang

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Dissertations

Anomaly or outlier detection problems are of considerable importance, arising frequently in diverse real-world applications such as finance and cyber-security. Several algorithms have been formulated for such problems, usually based on formulating a problem-dependent heuristic or distance metric. This dissertation proposes anomaly detection algorithms that exploit the notion of ``rank," expressing relative outlierness of different points in the relevant space, and exploiting asymmetry in nearest neighbor relations between points: a data point is ``more anomalous" if it is not the nearest neighbor of its nearest neighbors. Although rank is computed using distance, it is a more robust and higher level …