Engineering Commons^™

Reliable Frontal Cortex Activity For An Oral Stroop Task Using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Matthew Allen Cloud

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Analysis tools such as HomER and NIRS-SPM for functional Near-Infrared systems are commercially or freely available; however, they are difficult for clinicians to use as an assessment tool. One barrier to their use is the reliability of a given functional test. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) provide a measure of group and individual reliability. NIRS-SPM was extended with ICC to assess a two part modified Stroop task. The protocol was repeated once every two weeks over a period of one month. Changes in neural activity attributed to inhibition of distraction, show significant covariance to the protocol with moderate to strong reliability …

Test 2054a: Case Ih Farmall 75c, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Medium Power, Compact Periodic Spiral Antenna, Jonathan O'Brien

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Historical, well developed, procedures for RF design have minimal emphasis on exploring the third dimension due to the difficulty of fabrication. Recent material advancements applicable to 3D printing have brought about low-loss thermoplastics with excellent mechanical properties. Research into depositing conductive inks onto arbitrary 3D shapes has achieved resolutions better than 50 μm with conductivity values approaching that of copper cladding. The advancements in additive manufacturing have improved reliability and repeatability of three dimensional designs while decreasing fabrication time. With this design approach other considerations, such as stability and strength, can be concentrated on during the structure design to realize …

Reconfigurable Low Profile Antennas Using Tunable High Impedance Surfaces, David Cure

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation shows a detailed investigation on reconfigurable low profile antennas using tunable high impedance surfaces (HIS). The specific class of HIS used in this dissertation is called a frequency selective surface (FSS). This type of periodic structure is fabricated to create artificial magnetic conductors (AMCs) that exhibit properties similar to perfect magnetic conductors (PMCs). The antennas are intended for radiometric sensing applications in the biomedical field. For the particular sensing application of interest in this dissertation, the performance of the antenna sub-system is the most critical aspect of the radiometer design where characteristics such as small size, light weight, …

Design, Construction And Load Testing Of The Pat Daly Road Bridge In Washington County, Mo, With Internal Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers Reinforcement, Zhibin Lin, Mostafa Fakharifar, Chenglin Wu, Genda Chen, Wesley James Bevans, Arun Vijay Kumar Gunasekaran, Sahra Sedigh

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The overarching goal of this project is to deploy and assess an innovative corrosion-free bridge construction technology for long-term performance of new and existing bridges. The research objective of this project is to conduct a comprehensive study (instrumentation, construction, both laboratory and field evaluation) of a rapidly constructed and durable, three-span bridge with cast-in-place cladding steel reinforced concrete substructure and precast concrete decks/girders reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP). The bridge has one conventional concrete-girder span, one conventional steel-girder span, and one innovative concrete box-girder span. The conventional concrete and steel girders were used to demonstrate the effective use …

Graphene-Supported Metal Nanoparticles For Applications In Heterogeneous Catalysis, Hany Elazab

Theses and Dissertations

Due to its unique properties and high surface area, Graphene has become a good candidate as an effective solid support for metal catalysts. The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene". Microwave-assisted synthesis of various metallic nanostructured materials was investigated for CO oxidation applications. These metallic nanostructured materials were used to convert CO to CO2 as an effective approach for carbon monoxide elimination due to its harmful effect on health and environment. In particular, this dissertation is focusing on palladium as a transition metal that …

Information Security Challenge Of Qr Codes, Nik Thompson, Kevin Lee

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The discipline of information security must adapt to new technologies and methods of interaction with those technologies. New technologies present both challenges and opportunities for the security professional, especially for areas such as digital forensics. Challenges can be in the form of new devices such as smartphones or new methods of sharing information, such as social networks. One such rapidly emerging interaction technology is the use of Quick Response (QR) codes. These offer a physical mechanism for quick access to Web sites for advertising and social interaction. This paper argues that the common implementation of QR codes potentially presents security …

Measuring Inconsistency Methods For Evidentiary Value, Fred Cohen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Many inconsistency analysis methods may be used to detect altered records or statements. But for admission as evidence, the reliability of the method has to be determined and measured. For example, in China, for evidence to be admitted, it has to have 95% certainty of being correct,1 and that certainty must be shown to the court, while in the US, evidence is admitted if it is more probative than prejudicial (a >50% standard).2 In either case, it is necessary to provide a measurement of some sort in order to pass muster under challenges from the other side. And in most …

Technology Corner Visualising Forensic Data: Evidence (Part 1), Damian Schofield, Ken Fowle

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Visualisation is becoming increasingly important for understanding information, such as investigative data (for example: computing, medical and crime scene evidence) and analysis (for example: network capability assessment, data file reconstruction and planning scenarios). Investigative data visualisation is used to reconstruct a scene or item and is used to assist the viewer (who may well be a member of the general public with little or no understanding of the subject matter) to understand what is being presented. Analysis visualisations, on the other hand, are usually developed to review data, information and assess competing scenario hypotheses for those who usually have an …

How Often Is Employee Anger An Insider Risk I? Detecting And Measuring Negative Sentiment Versus Insider Risk In Digital Communications, Eric Shaw, Maria Payri, Michael Cohn, Ilene R. Shaw

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This research introduced two new scales for the identification and measurement of negative sentiment and insider risk in communications in order to examine the unexplored relationship between these two constructs. The inter-rater reliability and criterion validity of the Scale of Negativity in Texts (SNIT) and the Scale of Insider Risk in Digital Communications (SIRDC) were established with a random sample of email from the Enron archive and criterion measures from established insiders, disgruntled employees, suicidal, depressed, angry, anxious, and other sampled groups. In addition, the sensitivity of the scales to changes over time as the risk of digital attack increased …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Technology Corner: Visualising Forensic Data: Evidence Guidelines (Part 2), Damian Schofield, Ken Fowle

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Visualisation is becoming increasingly important for understanding information, such as investigative data (for example: computing, medical and crime scene evidence) and analysis (for example, network capability assessment, data file reconstruction and planning scenarios). Investigative data visualisation is used to reconstruct a scene or item and is used to assist the viewer (who may well be a member of the general public with little or no understanding of the subject matter) to understand what is being presented. Analysis visualisations, on the other hand, are usually developed to review data, information and assess competing scenario hypotheses for those who usually have an …

How Often Is Employee Anger An Insider Risk Ii? Detecting And Measuring Negative Sentiment Versus Insider Risk In Digital Communications–Comparison Between Human Raters And Psycholinguistic Software, Eric Shaw, Maria Payri, Michael Cohn, Ilene R. Shaw

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This research uses two recently introduced observer rating scales, (Shaw et al., 2013) for the identification and measurement of negative sentiment (the Scale for Negativity in Text or SNIT) and insider risk (Scale of Indicators of Risk in Digital Communication or SIRDC) in communications to test the performance of psycholinguistic software designed to detect indicators of these risk factors. The psycholinguistic software program, WarmTouch (WT), previously used for investigations, appeared to be an effective means for locating communications scored High or Medium in negative sentiment by the SNIT or High in insider risk by the SIRDC within a randomly selected …

Trends In Android Malware Detection, Kaveh Shaerpour, Ali Dehghantanha, Ramlan Mahmod

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper analyzes different Android malware detection techniques from several research papers, some of these techniques are novel while others bring a new perspective to the research work done in the past. The techniques are of various kinds ranging from detection using host based frameworks and static analysis of executable to feature extraction and behavioral patterns. Each paper is reviewed extensively and the core features of each technique are highlighted and contrasted with the others. The challenges faced during the development of such techniques are also discussed along with the future prospects for Android malware detection. The findings of the …

Risk Management Of Email And Internet Use In The Workplace, John Ruhnka, Windham E. Loopesko

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The article surveys the changing risk environment for corporations from their employees’ electronic communications. It identifies the types of liabilities that corporations can incur from such employee communications. It discusses the objectives of corporate internet use policies and the types of provisions such policies should contain. It suggests an alternative risk-based approach to corporate acceptable use policies instead of a traditional “laundry list” of internet use prohibitions.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of A Second Hand Google Mini Search Appliance, Stephen Larson

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Information and the technological advancements for which mankind develops with regards to its storage has increased tremendously over the past few decades. As the total amount of data stored rapidly increases in conjunction with the amount of widely available computer-driven devices being used, solutions are being developed to better harness this data (LaTulippe, 2011). One of these solutions is commonly known as a search appliance. Search appliances have been used in e-discovery for several years. The Google Mini Search Appliance (Mini) has not only been used for e-discovery, but for indexing and searching internal documents. To accomplish these tasks, search …

System-Generated Digital Forensic Evidence In Graphic Design Applications, Enos Mabuto, Hein Venter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Graphic design applications are often used for the editing and design of digital art. The same applications can be used for creating counterfeit documents such as identity documents (IDs), driver’s licences, passports, etc. However, the use of any graphic design application leaves behind traces of digital information that can be used during a digital forensic investigation. Current digital forensic tools examine a system to find digital evidence, but they do not examine a system specifically for the creating of counterfeit documents created through the use of graphic design applications. The paper in hand reviews the system-generated digital forensic evidence gathered …

An Investigation Into Energy Consumption And Existing Energy Management Practices In A Dublin Sports Centre, Colin J. Conway

Dissertations

Rising energy costs are a concern to all businesses but especially to those who have a large energy demand. Sports centres with swimming pools have large requirements for heat and electricity in order to maintain thermal comfort within the pool and surrounding areas.

Sports centres which were built in the 1970s were designed at a time when energy was cheap and many of today’s control strategies and energy efficiency measures were unavailable.

This project is an investigation into the electrical and thermal consumption of the Tallaght Sports Complex. The Tallaght Sports Complex was built in the 1970s and is lacking …

An Evaluation Of Seawater Pumped Hydro Storage For Regulating The Export Of Wind Energy To The National Grid, Eoin D. Mclean

Dissertations

Hydroelectric power generation has been in use for a very long time. From the earliest watermills to the current large scale Hydro power plants, this is a technology that is proven to be reliable and commercially viable. The use of wind energy to provide mechanical power for the purpose of turning a rotor is also not a new concept.Four years ago TCD Professor of Applied Physics Igor Shvets conceived the idea of solving Ireland’s energy crisis by taking these two proven renewable technologies and combining them. (McGreevey, 2012) The spirit of Ireland initiative seeks to resolve the biggest issues facing …

Applying Data Visualisations To Open New Perspectives In Birdwatching, Frank Kendlin

Dissertations

Advances in data analytics for big data have affected many different domains and are providing new insights from these data for their respective communities. One such community is conservation science. A part of section of this community, ornithologists and bird conservationists has at its disposal millions of volunteers willing to contribute to a new ‘big’ data set. This can be achieved by means of new technology and the use of citizen science. This is already underway in North America through the excellent work of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO). This institute has harnessed the technology and the people and …

Integration Of Nanoporous Zeolite With Optical Fiber Devices For Chemical Sensing, Xinwei Lan

Doctoral Dissertations

"Label-free optical fiber chemical sensors have provoked significant research interest in recent years due to their unique advantages of small size, low cost, potential for distributed sensing, capability of in situ and remote operation, and tolerance to harsh environments. However, existing optical fiber chemical sensors lack the desired sensitivity and specificity for many applications such as chemical and biological analysis, industrial process control, environmental monitoring, and national security.

The dissertation summarizes our research efforts and results in functional integration of nanoporous zeolites with optical fiber devices for development of label-free optical fiber chemical sensors with high sensitivity and selectivity. Fundamental …

Photocatalytic Degradation Of Nox By Concrete Pavement Containing Tio₂, Joel K. Sikkema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Emissions from motor vehicles cause the concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NOX) in the immediate vicinity of highways to be 30-100% higher than background concentrations. Photocatalytic pavements have been proposed to address this localized pollution problem. Bench-scale evaluation of environmental variables confirmed that nitric oxide (NO) oxidation rate positively correlated with influent NO concentration and irradiance and negatively correlated with relative humidity. However, comparison of the slope of these correlations found significant differences between this study and other published work. Slab water loss, a variable not investigated in prior work, positively correlated with NO oxidation rate at water losses of 0-2% …

Brust-Schiffrin Synthesis Of Catalytic Bipodal Pdpt Nanoparticles With Some Mechanistic Insights, Sangbum Han, Vara P. Sheela, Wei Cao, Balasubramanian Ramjee

Applied Research Center Publications

Brust–Schiffrin reduction of Pd and Pt precursors in the presence of resorcinarene amine surfactant led to the formation of substantially Pt rich, PdPt bimetallic nanoparticles of a V-shape or variants on the V-shape. New insights into this reaction are provided on the basis of reversed Brust–Schiffrin syntheses, DLS, UV-vis, and NMR analysis. Based on our experiments we conclude that the resorcinarene amine surfactant is part of the inverse micelle formed from TOABr and it also selectively complexes with the Pd salts prior to their reduction. Remarkably, the composition of the bipodal nanoparticles could be varied substantially by varying the reaction …

Titanium-Oxygen Bond Length -Bond Valence Relationship, D. Dodd, F. D. Hardcastle, S. Laffoon

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

A bond length–bond valence correlation is a simple method of checking and evaluating molecular structures and is of great interest in chemistry, biology, geology, and material science. Recently, we used quantum-mechanical arguments to derive Pauling’s bond length-valence relationship and to define the adjustable fitting parameter b in terms of atomic-orbital exponents. Improved orbital exponents were generated for elements 1-103 using published atomic radii and single-bond covalent radii as well as a continuous function for effective principal quantum number. In this study, we use orbital exponents for titanium (Ti) and oxygen (O) to generate a bond length-valence relationship for Ti-O bonds. …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Compact High Resolution Radiation Detectors Based On 4h-Sic N-Type Epilayer And Cdznte, Kelvin Juvenal Zavalla Mendoza

Theses and Dissertations

The need of room-temperature, compact, and high resolution radiation detectors has opened the path for the development of new materials with suitable properties. Silicon carbide (SiC) and CdZnTe (CZT) are semiconductor materials with wide band gap that can operate efficiently at room temperatures (RT) and above. CZT has a high average atomic number (Z) which offers a high photoelectric absorption coefficient for x-/gamma rays. SiC allows high energy heavy ion detection due to its high radiation hardness even at temperatures much higher than room temperatures (RT). This thesis focuses on the fabrication and characterization of semiconductor based radiation detectors for …

Experimental Study On Piping Failure Of Earthen Levee And Dams, Yusuf Ahmed Sharif

Theses and Dissertations

Piping in an earthen levee, one of the main causes of failure, is a complex phenomenon. Most of the available research on piping failure has been on non-cohesive sandy soils. Jet Erosion Test and Hole Erosion Test have been conducted to study piping failure in an indirect manner. However, no general purpose formula is presently available to describe the erosion process due to complex erosion characteristics of cohesive soils in earthen levees.

Experimental investigations in a flume to understand the piping erosion process in an earthen levee are conducted in this research. One of the sidewalls and the bottom of …

Electrokinetic Mixing And Separation In Microfluidic Systems, Fang Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Electrokinetics involves the study of liquid or particle motion under the action of an electric field; it includes electroosmosis, electrophoresis, dielectrophoresis, and electrowetting, etc. The applications of electrokinetics in the development of microfluidic devices have been widely attractive in the past decade. Electrokinetic devices generally require no external mechanical moving parts and can be made portable by replacing the power supply by small battery. Therefore, electrokinetic based microfluidic systems can serve as a viable tool in creating a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) for use in biological and chemical assays. Here we present our works of electrokenitic based mixing and separation in microfluidics …

Synthesis And Characterization Of New Ionic And Mixed Ionic/Electronic Conductors, Kevin Gregory Romito

Theses and Dissertations

In a constantly growing and developing world, there is a great need to develop new forms of clean energy generation. Many solutions have been proposed to ameliorate these global concerns, which include fuel cell technology and new processes for reducing polluting chemicals in the atmosphere. These technologies are still in their infancy and require further development before becoming viable options.

In the case of fuel cells, particularly solid oxide fuel cells, and CO2 separation membranes, there is a need to develop ion conducting materials that are highly efficient, less costly to synthesize, and can perform strongly under many real-world conditions. …

Predicting The Crack Response For A Pipe With A Complex Crack, Robert George Lukess

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional flaw evaluation in the nuclear field uses conservative methods to predict maximum load carrying capacity for flaws in a given pipe. There is a need in the nuclear industry for more accurate estimates of the load carrying capacity of nuclear piping such that probabilistic tools can be used to predict the time to failure for various types of cracks. These more accurate estimates will allow the nuclear industry to repair flaws at a more appropriate time considering external factors such as costs and man-rem planning along with the flaw repair. Analysis of the maximum load carrying capacity of a …