Engineering Commons^™

Universal Breakaway Steel Post For Other Applications, Robert W. Bielenberg, Ronald K. Faller, Karla A. Lechtenberg, Craig W. Price, Tyler L. Schmidt, John D. Reid

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Transit As An Alternative Mode Of Transportation: A Case Study Of Its Usage, Availability, Patterns And Value For Non-Commuter Trips, Sara Hardman

Honors Theses

The mode of transportation a user picks impacts the environment, the social environment, and the user himself/herself. While research on alternative modes of transportation is prevalent in both the engineering and sociology fields, little attention has been given to the choices people make concerning how they run errands and other social trips, focusing instead on commuter trips. This case study examines three different shopping malls and the surrounding bus stops in order to determine the role distance plays in bus usage and the value that shopping centers place on access to local bus routes. Determination of the value and potential …

Eps Power Supply Tech, Jeffrey Kruth

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A technology report by Jeff Kurth on "EPS Power Supply Tech" from April 1, 2014.

An Investigation Of Business Transformation Disruptors At The Military Strategic Command Level, Thomas Bock

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation contributes an empirical research on business transformation disruption in the military. Specifically, this exploratory research seeks a better understanding of disruption of business transformation and some of the factors that are likely to impact the transformation process at the military strategic command level. A lack of empirical studies existing in the literature, coupled with the continuous transformation challenges faced by military organizations, make it necessary to conduct this empirical study of business transformation disruption in the military.

This research was carried out utilizing a two-phase mixed-methods approach. The first phase included qualitative data gathering through a series of …

Characterization Of An Impulse Radiating Antenna In The Near Field, Chandra Barjracharya

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The biological effects of intense sub-nanosecond pulses on tissues or cells are in the dielectric domain and not based on thermal loading as in the conventional microwave radiation, which may lead to an entirely new approach of modifying cell functions. Moreover, the resulting cell functional change may be detected with higher resolution by broadband, sub-nanosecond pulses than conventional narrowband systems. The delivery of intense sub-nanosecond pulses to near-field biological tissues, however, has not been studied, not mentioning the focal depth and volume. In this dissertation, for the first time, an impulse radiating antenna with a balanced feed structure is studied …

A Systems-Based Framework For The Assessment Of Performance Measurement System Implementations In R&D Organizations, Kenneth S. Baggett Jr.

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Performance measurement is utilized by organizations in all industries, including research and development (R&D). Measures are developed, data are collected, and the measurement results are used to drive the organization. The implicit hope is, of course, that the measures drive the organization to improve. However, literature identifies high failure rates directly related to performance measurement system (PMS) implementations. Establishing the fundamental operational characteristics associated with successful PMSs would provide a significant contribution towards the establishment of PMS assessment criteria. This research addresses this gap through the use of a grounded theory method employed to identify these operational characteristics, assesses the …

Assessing The Impact Of Electronic Health Record Systems Implementation On Hospital Patient Perceptions Of Care, Katherine Sofia Palacio Salgar

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The delivery of health care services has been impacted by advances in Knowledge Management Information Systems (KMIS) and Information Technology (IT). The literature reveals that Electronic Health Records Systems (EHRs) are a comprehensive KMIS. There is a wide recognition in the body of knowledge that demonstrates the potential of EHRs to transform all aspects of health care services and, in consequence, the performance of Health Care Delivery Organizations (HCDO). Authors of published research also agree that there is a need for more empirical contributions that demonstrate the impact of EHRs upon HCDO. It is argued that in most cases, studies …

The Relationship Among Hfacs Levels And Analysis Of Human Factors In Unmanned And Manned Air Vehicles, Veysel Yesilbas

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the structural relationships among the Human Factors Accident Classification System levels for unmanned air vehicle and manned air vehicle accidents and the common relationships between unmanned air vehicle and manned air vehicle accident causes. The study acquired DOD HFACS accident classification data from 347 United States Air Force Class A accident reports for the years between 2000 and 2013.

The dissertation utilized a set of analysis that is considered to contribute substantially to the respective domain of the study. The correlations found among categorical levels were applied to HFACS taxonomy based on the Reason Model via path …

Assessing Organizational Effectiveness Through The Competing Values Framework A Data Envelopment Approach, Raghavender Macherla

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This study proposes a model to diagnose organizations using the mathematical principles of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the variables generated using competing values framework (CVF) in order to evaluate overall organizational effectiveness. The notion of organizational effectiveness is abstract and difficult to measure due to its complexity and multi-functional nature. Over the years, measurement of organizational effectiveness has remained a challenge due to the lack of agreement on the factors that should be assessed to determine effectiveness. This research is aimed at shedding some light into this topic by using data envelopment analysis as a tool to measure relative …

An Adaptive Kalman Filter For Voltage Sag Detection In Power Systems, Hisham Odeh Alrawashdeh

Dissertations

The exact values of the noise covariance matrix of the Kalman filter state vector Q and the measured signal noise covariance matrix R must be obtained in order to achieve the optimal performance of the Kalman filter. There have been many techniques and assumptions made to evaluate and compute Q and R. The effects of Q and R are investigated in detail in this dissertation. Based on these investigations, the Kalman filter has been modeled to detect the fundamental signal amplitude variations of power system signals. This technique helps in evaluating voltage sags in power systems.

Two algorithms are …

A Metaevaluation Of Energy Efficiency Evaluations, Brandy Brown

Dissertations

This study systematically reviews the methodological characteristics of energy efficiency evaluations and uses metaevaluation to assess its quality. Metaevaluation is used to systematically assess the quality of evaluation products, confirm that evaluations deliver sound findings and conclusions, are useful to the client, are credible, are ethically conducted, and are done as cost-effective as possible. The results of this study show that the ability to accurately assess evaluation for methodological quality using evaluations reports as a primary data source depends on the presence of detailed descriptions of evaluation methods. Furthermore, the study suggests that methodological variations of energy efficiency evaluations coalesce …

Numerical And Experimental Investigation Of Orthopaedic Fracture Fixation, Bipinchandra Patel

Dissertations

Poor bone fracture fixation leads to malunion, delayed union, non-union, or infection. These malunited fractures affect a bone’s ability to carry loads. Patient outcomes regarding fixation quality can be affected by the healing environment and human factors such as bone quality and surgeons’ perception. Furthermore, the stiffness and strength of the screw-plate construct affect the healing environment. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the stiffness and strength of the non-locking (conventional) and locking (fixed angle) type screw-plate constructs and the factors that contribute to them, such as screw-plate interface, screw design, bone density, cortical bone thickness and load orientation. Additionally, the surgeon’s …

Simulation Modeling And Analysis Of Customs-Regulated Container Terminal Operations With Multimodal Transportation, Mariam A. Kotachi

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

World trade has been increasing dramatically in the past two decades and, as a result, container exchange has grown significantly. Consequently and to meet this increase, several container terminals are expanding and many new ones are being established. A port with one or more container terminals is considered a complex system in which many entities interact to accomplish seamless handling of containers inbound and outbound. The level of complexity is drastically heightened for container terminals containing multimodal transportation systems as they typically involve ships, rail, and trucks arriving to one or more terminals delivering containers of different sizes to several …

System Identification Of An Autonomous Surface Vehicle, Christopher John Cook

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The modeling and system identification of a small pontoon based marine craft, without rudder control, in a controlled environment. Old Dominion University's autonomous surface vehicle was modeled using the Observer/Kalman System Identification method. The experimental position data was collected using a laser positioning system along with Arduino based sensors on board the boat to collect the motor speeds of the dual outboard motors. The data was then compiled using the System/ Observer/Controller Identification Toolbox to derive a dynamic model that is capable of providing path estimation and prediction information to the autonomous robotic system.

Design And Construction Of A Reconfigurable Pilot-In-The-Loop Aircraft Simulation Workstation, John J. Miller

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents and explains the methodology used to design and construct an aircraft dynamics simulation workstation. Beginning from an outdated Navy T-34 training simulator, a gift to the school by the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory via a previous student, a new system was created to allow an engineer and/or pilot to manually control and evaluate vehicle characteristics for the purposes of research, development, and testing. Retaining only the superstructure of the original T-34 trainer, the entire system was re-engineered to provide a functional, immersive, and expandable simulation environment, complete with a five-screen visual system covering 97.5 deg of …

Long-Term Results Of Comprehensive Clubfoot Release Versus The Ponseti Method: Which Is Better?, Peter A. Smith, Ken N. Kuo, Adam Graf, Joseph Krzak, Ann Flanagan, Sahar Hassani, Angela Caudill, Frederick Dietz, Jose Morcuende, Gerald F. Harris

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Clubfoot can be treated nonoperatively, most commonly using a Ponseti approach, or surgically, most often with a comprehensive clubfoot release. Little is known about how these approaches compare with one another at longer term, or how patients treated with these approaches differ in terms of foot function, foot biomechanics, or quality-of-life from individuals who did not have clubfoot as a child.

Questions/purposes

We compared (1) focused physical and radiographic examinations, (2) gait analysis, and (3) quality-of-life measures at long-term followup between groups of adult patients with clubfoot treated either with the Ponseti method of nonsurgical management or a comprehensive …

Web Archive Services Framework For Tighter Integration Between The Past And Present Web, Ahmed Alsum

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Web archives have contained the cultural history of the web for many years, but they still have a limited capability for access. Most of the web archiving research has focused on crawling and preservation activities, with little focus on the delivery methods. The current access methods are tightly coupled with web archive infrastructure, hard to replicate or integrate with other web archives, and do not cover all the users' needs. In this dissertation, we focus on the access methods for archived web data to enable users, third-party developers, researchers, and others to gain knowledge from the web archives. We build …

Design And Implementation Of An Aircraft Human-In-The-Loop Engineering Simulator, Joshua Reed

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Simulation is a powerful tool for examining a dynamic system or process, but ensuring the model represents the real world sufficiently well for a given objective is difficult. This thesis will present and explain the methodology used to design a Human-In-The-Loop Engineering Aircraft Simulator. For aircraft simulation, numerical methods must be employed to perform the calculations required. The number of required calculations per second is computationally and resource expensive. Some existing aircraft simulations trade off mathematical accuracy of the model so available computing power can be used to run a human interface. Conversely, another simulator may have a very poor …

A Quantitative Tool For Identifying The Epileptogenic Zone Using Network Connectivity Analysis, James Michael Gurisko

Masters Theses

Approximately one-third of patients diagnosed with focal epilepsy do not respond to medication and may be candidates for surgery to remove epileptogenic tissue known as the epileptogenic zone. A detailed pre-surgical evaluation is required and often includes invasive video electroencephalographic monitoring (IVEM) using intracranial surface and depth electrodes, and a camera. The resulting large pools of electrocorticorticographic (ECoG) data are manually analyzed by an expert epileptologist to determine epileptic events. The process is time consuming and prone to human error. This thesis investigates the use of measures to identify the causal relationship between ECoG signals during propagation of a seizure …

Design Of A Portable Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry System For Measuring Neurotransmitter Levels, Jayson Foster

Masters Theses

The goal of this project is to design, build, and validate a more economic portable Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry (FSCV) device to measure the concentration of neurotransmitters like dopamine. The device will allow educational demonstrations in classrooms and allow researchers to gather data without the financial burden of a full cost system. The device is created on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that interfaces with a standard computer through MATLAB. This allows data collected on the PCB to be accessible to the user to display and analyze at will, all while maintaining the system’s portability and low cost. The device …

Relative Navigation Approach For Vision-Based Aerial Gps-Denied Navigation, Timothy Mclain, Randal W. Beard, Robert C. Leishman

Faculty Publications

GPS-denied aerial flight is a challenging research problem and requires knowledge of complex elements from several distinct disciplines. Additionally, aerial vehicles can present challenging constraints such as stringent payload limits and fast vehicle dynamics. In this paper we propose a new architecture to simplify some of the challenges that constrain GPS-denied aerial flight. At the core, the approach combines visual graph-SLAM with a multiplicative extended Kalman filter. More importantly, for the front end we depart from the common practice of estimating global states and instead keep the position and yaw states of the MEKF relative to the current node in …

Modeling And Experimental Methods To Predict Oxygen Distribution In Bone Defects Following Cell Transplantation, Christopher M. Heylman, Sharon Santoso, Melissa D. Krebs, Gerald M. Saidel, Eben Alsberg, George F. Muschler

Biomedical Engineering

We have developed a mathematical model that allows simulation of oxygen distribution in a bone defect as a tool to explore the likely effects of local changes in cell concentration, defect size or geometry, local oxygen delivery with oxygen-generating biomaterials (OGBs), and changes in the rate of oxygen consumption by cells within a defect. Experimental data for the oxygen release rate from an OGB and the oxygen consumption rate of a transplanted cell population are incorporated into the model. With these data, model simulations allow prediction of spatiotemporal oxygen concentration within a given defect and the sensitivity of oxygen tension …

Quantification Of Local Hemodynamic Alterations Caused By Virtual Implantation Of Three Commercially Available Stents For The Treatment Of Aortic Coarctation, Sung Kwon, Jeffrey A. Feinstein, Ronak Jashwant Dholakia, John F. Ladisa

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Patients with coarctation of the aorta (CoA) are prone to morbidity including atherosclerotic plaque that has been shown to correlate with altered wall shear stress (WSS) in the descending thoracic aorta (dAo). We created the first patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a CoA patient treated by Palmaz stenting to date, and compared resulting WSS distributions to those from virtual implantation of Genesis XD and modified NuMED CP stents, also commonly used for CoA. CFD models were created from magnetic resonance imaging, fluoroscopy and blood pressure data. Simulations incorporated vessel deformation, downstream vascular resistance and compliance to match measured …

Determining The Duration Of R&D Processes Through Monte Carlo Simulation, Florentin Smarandache, Moga Monika, Calefariu Gavrila, Sarbu Flavius Aurelian

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The research and development (R&D) processes influence the economic development of a company, because in an industry that is changing fast, firms must continually revise their projects and range of products. Therefore in order to determine the specific costs of research and development activity we have to highlight the efforts and effects of these activities and to calculate some indicators of economic efficiency. In the cost calculation process in R & D we have emphasized the identification of the components of cost and the duration of the R & D processes, as a component of the R&D cost, that is …

Using Evolutionary Programming To Increase The Accuracy Of An Ensemble Model For Energy Forecasting, James Gramz

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Natural gas companies are always trying to increase the accuracy of their forecasts. We introduce evolutionary programming as an approach to forecast natural gas demand more accurately. The created Evolutionary Programming Engine and Evolutionary Programming Ensemble Model use the current GasDay models, along with weather and historical ow to create an overall forecast for the amount of natural gas a company will need to supply to their customers on a given day. The existing ensemble model uses the GasDay component models and then tunes their individual forecasts and combines them to create an overall forecast. The inputs into the Evolutionary …

The Derivation Of Euler's Equations Of Motion In Cylindrical Vector Components To Aid In Analyzing Single Axis Rotation, James J. Jennings

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The derivation of Euler's equations of motion in using cylindrical vector components is beneficial in more intuitively describing the parameters relating to the balance of rotating machinery. Using the well established equation for Newton's equations in moment form and changing the position and angular velocity vectors to cylindrical vector components results in a set of equations defined in radius-theta space rather than X-Y space. This easily allows for the graphical representation of the intuitive design parameters effect on the resulting balance force that can be used to examine the robustness of a design. The sensitivity of these parameters and their …

Computational Evaluation Of Shear Stress And Restenosis In Stented Coronary Arteries Using Optical Coherence Tomography, Joshua K. Hughey

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The cause of coronary artery neointimal thickness (NT) leading to restenosis in ~10% of drug-eluting stents (DES) is unknown, but adverse wall shear stress (WSS) may contribute. Prior studies comparing WSS to restenosis for first generation DES yielded conflicting results, and cited different mechanisms of action for DES agents. Studies to date have not accounted for stent geometry, which dictates local WSS patterns influencing drug concentration. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate current generation stent platforms via their WSS patterns and their respective impact on NT. We prospectively enrolled 19 patients, who were randomized to thin-strut (81μm) 2-link …

Markerless Analysis Of Upper Extremity Kinematics During Standardized Pediatric Assessment, Jacob R. Rammer

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy experience reduced motor performance in the affected upper extremity and are typically evaluated based on degree of functional impairment using activity-based assessments such as the Shriners Hospitals for Children Upper Extremity Evaluation (SHUEE), a validated clinical measure, to describe performance prior to and following rehabilitative or surgical interventions. Evaluations rely on subjective therapist scoring techniques and lack sensitivity to detect change. Objective clinical motion analysis systems are an available but time-consuming and cost-intensive alternative, requiring uncomfortable application of markers to the patient. There is currently no available markerless, low-cost system that quantitatively assesses upper extremity …

Blending As A Multi-Horizon Time Series Forecasting Tool, Tian Gao

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Every day, millions of cubic feet of natural gas is transported through interstate pipelines and consumed by customers all over the United States of America. Gas distributors, responsible for sending natural gas to individual customers, are eager for an estimate of how much natural gas will be used in the near future. GasHour software, a reliable forecasting tool from the Marquette University GasDay lab, has been providing highly accurate hourly forecasts over the past few years. Our goal is to improve current GasHour forecasts, and my thesis presents an approach to achieve that using a blending technique. This thesis includes …

Analysis Of Power Converter's Control Techniques In Grid-Tie And Ac Micro/Smart Grid, Abdulgafor Mohammed Alfares

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Power converters have an outstanding potential in micro and smart grid applications that require flexible and fast power control as well as rigid voltage regulation at the point of common coupling. Power converters are required to properly operate under several modes of operation such as grid-tie and micro-grid modes of operations. In addition, the control system should be designed to enable proper load sharing between several units. Several control techniques have been proposed in the literature to address most of the control requirements of the power converters under different operating modes mentioned above. However, references found in the literatures are …