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2015

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Articles 2491 - 2520 of 7527

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Creating Quality Metrics For The Capital Facilities Delivery Industry, Kelsey D. Lamb Jul 2015

Creating Quality Metrics For The Capital Facilities Delivery Industry, Kelsey D. Lamb

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A standard for industry-wide quality metrics, similar to safety metrics, for the capital facilities delivery industry is investigated and developed with the goal to motivate industry-wide adoption of this new quality metric program. A survey of the literature found key differences between capital facilities and other industries, mainly that other industries focus on the quality of the product while capital facilities focus on maintaining the cost and schedule of a project. Creating a framework that can be used across the industry can potentially lead to uniform improvement of quality for the entire industry. Quality is defined for the capital facilities …

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Development And Characterization Of Intermediate-Band Quantum Wire Solar Cells, Colin Stuart Furrow Jul 2015

Development And Characterization Of Intermediate-Band Quantum Wire Solar Cells, Colin Stuart Furrow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effects of a quantum wire intermediate band, grown by molecular beam epitaxy, on the optical and electrical properties of solar cells are reported. To investigate the behavior of the intermediate band, the quantum wires were remotely doped at three different doping concentrations, the number of quantum wire layers was varied from three to twenty, and the solar cell structure was optimized. For all the structures, current-voltage and external quantum efficiency measurements were performed to examine the effect of absorption and power conversion of the intermediate band solar cell (IBSC). Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements showed that δ-doping can increase the lifetime …

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Value Focused Inland Waterway Infrastructure Investment Decisions, Othman Boudhoum Jul 2015

Value Focused Inland Waterway Infrastructure Investment Decisions, Othman Boudhoum

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maritime transportation functions as the backbone of world trade. The U.S. inland waterway transportation system is comprised of 12,000 miles of navigable waterways that connect and move freight between the global supply chain and thirty eight States. When investing in inland waterway infrastructure, we should aim to maximize all benefits associated with the investment including flood protection, water supply, hydropower generation, recreation, and environmental impact benefits. We formulate an initial qualitative value model for the inland waterway infrastructure investment decision based on a value-focused thinking approach which allows us to holistically evaluate project investment alternatives. Given limited resources, a portfolio …

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Measuring Blood Flow In The Skeletal Muscle Microcirculation Using Laser Speckle Flowmetry, Kenneth Howard Gouin Iii Jul 2015

Measuring Blood Flow In The Skeletal Muscle Microcirculation Using Laser Speckle Flowmetry, Kenneth Howard Gouin Iii

Biomedical Engineering

The presence of a native collateral circulation, which serves as a natural bypass for blood flow around an occlusion, improves prognosis for patients with ischemic diseases, such as peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). However, not all patients have a native collateral circulation, and animal models suggest a genetic basis for this variability. In mice, such as the BALB/c, that lack native arteriolar collaterals, neocollateral formation from capillaries that connect two arterial trees can occur after arterial occlusion, resulting in reperfusion of the ischemic watershed. Immature arterialized collateral capillaries (ACCs) at 7 days post arterial occlusion do not vasodilate in response …

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Converting Medical Service Provider Data Into A Unified Format For Processing, Brandon Krugman Jul 2015

Converting Medical Service Provider Data Into A Unified Format For Processing, Brandon Krugman

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Most organizations process flat files regularly. There are different options for processing files, including SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), BizTalk, SQL import job, and other Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes. All of these options have very strict requirements for file formats. If the format of the file changes, all of these options throw a catastrophic error, and implementing a fix to handle the new format is difficult. With each of the methods, the new format needs to be configured in the development environment, and the data flow must be modified to process all of the changes. Due to the …

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Design And Characterization Of A Low Cost Mems Imu Cluster For Precision Navigation, Daniel R. Greenheck Jul 2015

Design And Characterization Of A Low Cost Mems Imu Cluster For Precision Navigation, Daniel R. Greenheck

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The fast paced development of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology in recent years has resulted in the availability of low cost gyroscopes and accelerometers in commercial markets. These sensors can be integrated into a single device known as an inertial measurement unit (IMU). An IMU is capable of tracking and navigating a vehicle for a short period of time in the absence of external position and attitude updates. The precision of the manufacturing techniques used to fabricate commercial MEMS sensors as well as their mechanical nature result in noise and errors that limit their performance. It has been mathematically shown that …

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Common Mode Voltage Mitigation Strategies Using Pwm In Neutral-Point-Clamped Multilevel Inverters, Chad Alexander Somogyi Jul 2015

Common Mode Voltage Mitigation Strategies Using Pwm In Neutral-Point-Clamped Multilevel Inverters, Chad Alexander Somogyi

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Over the last several decades, there has been consistent growth in the research and development of multilevel voltage-source inverter-based adjustable speed motor drives (ASDs) as a result of low cost, high reliability power semiconductors. The three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) ASD is a popular multilevel inverter used in low and medium voltage applications because of its ability to produce lower levels of total harmonic distortion (THD) and withstand higher voltages while preserving the rated output power compared to two-level ASDs. As with other voltage-source inverters, three-level NPC ASDs produce common-mode voltage (CMV) that can cause motor shaft voltages, bearing currents, and excess …

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Municipal Wastewater Anaerobic Treatment With Enhanced Clarification, Kevin Berg Jul 2015

Municipal Wastewater Anaerobic Treatment With Enhanced Clarification, Kevin Berg

Master's Theses (2009 -)

As energy costs rise, water reclamation facilities (WRFs) desire lower cost, easily operated systems to remove BOD5 and suspended solids. WRFs typically utilize an aerobic process called activated sludge to remove biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). BOD, specifically 5 day BOD (BOD5), is used as an indicator of the organic strength of a solution. Anaerobic treatment provides an alternative to activated sludge by removing BOD5, generating biogas containing methane for energy and producing less biomass that requires disposal. Anaerobic treatment functions as an exceptional alternative to activated sludge when packaged as a system with a small footprint that operates at ambient …

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Quantification And Subjective Perception Of Varying Reflection Densities In Measured Room Impulsed Responses, Hyun Hong, Lily M. Wang Jul 2015

Quantification And Subjective Perception Of Varying Reflection Densities In Measured Room Impulsed Responses, Hyun Hong, Lily M. Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

This project focuses on quantifying and testing the subjective perception of reflection densities, or the number of reflections per second, from different room impulse responses. The widely used room acoustic metric, reverberation time, is linked to the perceived reverberation in a room. Two different rooms having the same reverberation time, though, can have different reflection densities in their room impulse responses, and this difference in reflection density may affect how listeners perceive spatial impression in rooms. To investigate how sensitive humans are to a change of reflection density, this paper first reviews assorted parameters for quantifying reflection density from measured …

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Composition Based Modaling Of Silicone Nano-Composite Strain Gauges, Daniel Alexander Baradoy Jul 2015

Composition Based Modaling Of Silicone Nano-Composite Strain Gauges, Daniel Alexander Baradoy

Theses and Dissertations

In this work a review of the technology surrounding high deflection strain sensing with an emphasis on that of a recently developed nickel nano-composite strain sensor is presented. A new base silicone material was identified for the nickel nano-composite strain sensor that improves its mechanical stiffness and conductive properties. A previously identified cyclic creep concern was mitigated through preconditioning and the use of adhered backing materials. Through a block design experiment the strain/resistance curves for the strain sensors were characterized over a wide range of nano-filler material compositions. An analytical model was developed based on observation that the resistance of …

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Evaluation Of The Accuracy Of Traffic Volume Counts Collected By Microwave Sensors, David Keali'i Chang Jul 2015

Evaluation Of The Accuracy Of Traffic Volume Counts Collected By Microwave Sensors, David Keali'i Chang

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few years, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has developed a system called the Signal Performance Metrics System (SPMS) to evaluate the performance of signalized intersections. This system currently provides data summaries for several performance measures including: 1) Purdue Coordination Diagram, 2) Speed, 3) Approach Volume, 4) Purdue Phase Termination Charts, 5) Split Monitor, 6) Turning Movement Volume Counts, 7) Arrivals on Red, and 8) Approach Delay. There is a need to know the accuracy of the data that are being collected by the Wavetronix SmartSensor Matrix and displayed in the SPMS. The TAC members determined that …

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An Evaluation Of Soft Processors As A Reliable Computing Platform, Michael Robert Gardiner Jul 2015

An Evaluation Of Soft Processors As A Reliable Computing Platform, Michael Robert Gardiner

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates the benefits and limitations of soft processors operating in a radiation-hardened FPGA, focusing primarily on the performance and reliability of these systems. FPGAs designs for four popular soft processors, the MicroBlaze, LEON3, Cortex-M0 DesignStart, and OpenRISC 1200 are developed for a Virtex-5 FPGA. The performance of these soft processor designs is then compared on ten widely-used benchmark programs. Benchmarking results indicate that the MicroBlaze has the best integer performance of the soft processors, with at least 2.23X better performance on average than the other three processors. However, the LEON3 has the best floating-point performance, with benchmark scores …

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A Simple Method For Evaluating Wear In Different Grades Of Tooling Applied To Friction Stir Spot Welding, Kirtis Frankland Kennard Jul 2015

A Simple Method For Evaluating Wear In Different Grades Of Tooling Applied To Friction Stir Spot Welding, Kirtis Frankland Kennard

Theses and Dissertations

In this study tools consisting of a 5mm cylindrical pin and a 12mm shoulder held by a simple tool holder were used to compare the wear of 11 tooling materials. The objective was to determine if using these tools in a spot welding configuration to simulate friction stir welding could differentiate the potential performance of tooling materials. All tools were made of varying percentages of polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN), tungsten (W) and rhenium (Re). The materials are referred to herein as GV1, GV2, G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, G8 and G9.

The tools were run to 205 …

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Transport Enhancement Of Rate-Limited Chemical Reactions Via Pt-Decorated, Carbon Nanotube Microarray Membranes, Kevin M. Marr Jul 2015

Transport Enhancement Of Rate-Limited Chemical Reactions Via Pt-Decorated, Carbon Nanotube Microarray Membranes, Kevin M. Marr

Theses and Dissertations

Rate limited chemical reactions can be enhanced by improving the mass transport of the suspended analyte to the catalytic (or electrocatalytic) surface. While many attempts have been made to enhance this mass transport, these approaches are limited to utilizing only two enhancement methods – increasing available catalytic surface area, and increasing the flow of analyte in solution. Flow through high aspect ratio microstructures, however, would provide additional mass transport enhancement via boundary layer confinement. Platinum functionalized carbon nanotube microarray membranes (Pt-CNT-MMs) offer enhanced mass transport via all three methods, and were fabricated for demonstration in a H2O2 sample system, for …

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Correlation Of Fluorescence Spectroscopy And Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Bod5) Using Regression Analysis, Alexander Tetteh Narteh Jul 2015

Correlation Of Fluorescence Spectroscopy And Biochemical Oxygen Demand (Bod5) Using Regression Analysis, Alexander Tetteh Narteh

Theses and Dissertations

This research uses Regression analysis of fluorescence spectroscopy results to correlate with Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5). Fluorescence spectroscopy was applied to samples taken from seven sample sites in the Provo and Orem waste water treatment plants found in Utah County. A total of 161 samples were collected for this research. 23 samples each were taken from four sites in the Provo waste water treatment plant namely Provo head works, aeration basin, primary filter settlement basin and the Provo effluent basin. The Orem head works, the clarifier and the Orem effluent basin were the three sample sites in the Orem waste …

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Geometry And Material Properties Of Vocal Fold Models, Kimberly Ann Stevens Jul 2015

Geometry And Material Properties Of Vocal Fold Models, Kimberly Ann Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

Voiced communication plays a fundamental role in society. Voice research seeks to improve understanding of the fundamental physics governing voice production, with the eventual goal of improving methods to diagnose and treat voice disorders. For this thesis, three different aspects of voice production research were studied. First, porcine vocal fold medial surface geometry was determined, and the three-dimensional geometric distortion induced by freezing the larynx, especially in the region of the vocal folds, was quantified. It was found that porcine vocal folds are qualitatively geometrically similar to canine and human vocal folds, as well as commonly used models, and that …

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Development Of A Simplified Performance-Based Procedure For Assessment Of Liquefaction Triggering Using Liquefaction Loading Maps, Kristin Jane Ulmer Jul 2015

Development Of A Simplified Performance-Based Procedure For Assessment Of Liquefaction Triggering Using Liquefaction Loading Maps, Kristin Jane Ulmer

Theses and Dissertations

Seismically-induced liquefaction has been the cause of significant damage to infrastructure and is a serious concern in current civil engineering practice. Several methods are available for assessing the risk of liquefaction at a given site, each with its own strengths and limitations. One probabilistic method has been shown to provide more consistent estimates of liquefaction risk and can be tailored to the specific needs of a given project through hazard-targeted (i.e. based on return periods or likelihoods) results. This type of liquefaction assessment is typically called “performance-based,” after the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center's performance-based earthquake engineering framework. Unfortunately, …

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Evaluating Generated Risk Event Effect Neutralization As A New Mitigation Strategy Tool In The Upstream Industry, Mohammad A. Alkazimi, Hanan Altabbakh, Susan L. Murray, Katie Grantham Jul 2015

Evaluating Generated Risk Event Effect Neutralization As A New Mitigation Strategy Tool In The Upstream Industry, Mohammad A. Alkazimi, Hanan Altabbakh, Susan L. Murray, Katie Grantham

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The upstream industry uses diverse risk mitigation approaches to mitigate eventual failures within its facilities. Yet, these approaches could not avert major accidents, on different scales, from happening as they negatively affect the industry. The purpose of this paper is to assess Generated Risk Event Effect Neutralization (GREEN) as a new tool to select suitable risk mitigation approach to prevent prospective failures in upstream industry. More than 200 hundred major accidents in the industry underwent GREEN evaluation and compared with existing risk mitigation approaches used in to mitigate eventual failures. Kuwait's’ Mina Al-Ahmadi explosion was chosen as a case study …

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Model Of A Tubular Perfusion Bioreactor Using Computational Fluid Dynamics., Matthew James Robeson 1991- Jul 2015

Model Of A Tubular Perfusion Bioreactor Using Computational Fluid Dynamics., Matthew James Robeson 1991-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through recent years, many novel bioreactor designs for tissue engineering have emerged. The Tubular Perfusion System (TPS) is one such bioreactor for bone and cartilage tissue engineering. The TPS is a perfusion type bioreactor, in which media flows through a bed of scaffold beads. The advantage of this system over similar designs is that it requires no special fabrication techniques and operates at low pressure. Experimental trials have shown increased osteoblastic differentiation and mineralization of bone tissue grown using the TPS versus static culture. The effectiveness of the TPS in promoting osteoblastic differentiation is believed to be due to enhanced …

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Computational Prediction Of Remodeling Of Collagen Fiber Network In Articular Cartilage Under Dynamic Unconfined Compression, Juan Andres Coello Amado Jul 2015

Computational Prediction Of Remodeling Of Collagen Fiber Network In Articular Cartilage Under Dynamic Unconfined Compression, Juan Andres Coello Amado

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

A poroelastic finite element model of a heterogeneous cartilage disk was created based on previous studies and experimental setups; this allows us to study cartilage behavior under dynamic unconfined compression. Previous studies have used a Post Hoc approach, which consist of searching for patterns or relationships between predicted mechanical parameters obtained through computational and experimental results. Our goal in this study is to take the same Post-Hoc approach and identify patterns between predicted mechanical parameters, such as fiber strain or stress, and experimentally-measured collagen fiber distribution (i.e. reorientation of fibers under dynamic unconfined compression). After computational predictions were obtained, it …

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Bs News July/August Jul 2015

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

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An Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Heuristic For The Inventory Routing Problem With Time Windows, Mina Hadianniasar Jul 2015

An Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Heuristic For The Inventory Routing Problem With Time Windows, Mina Hadianniasar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research addresses an integrated distribution and inventory control problem which is faced by a large retail chain in the United States. In their current distribution network, a direct shipping policy is used to keep stores stocked with products. The shipping policy specifies that a dedicated trailer should be sent from the warehouse to a store when the trailer is full or after five business days, whichever comes first. Stores can only receive deliveries during a window of time (6 am to 6 pm). The retail chain is seeking more efficient alternatives to this policy, as measured by total transportation, …

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Large-Scale Testing Of Passive Force Behavior For Skewed Bridge Abutments With Gravel And Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (Grs) Backfills, Amy Fredrickson Jul 2015

Large-Scale Testing Of Passive Force Behavior For Skewed Bridge Abutments With Gravel And Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (Grs) Backfills, Amy Fredrickson

Theses and Dissertations

Correct understanding of passive force behavior is particularly key to lateral evaluations of bridges because plastic deformation of soil backfill is vital to dissipation of earthquake energy and thermally-induced stresses in abutments. Only recently have studies investigated the effects of skew on passive force. Numerical modeling and a handful of skewed abutment tests performed in sand backfill have found reduced passive force with increasing skew, but previous to this study no skewed tests had been performed in gravel or Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (GRS) backfills. The goal of this study was to better understand passive force behavior in non-skewed and skewed …

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Computer Vision System For Grading Mangos In Bangladesh, Md Abdul Momin, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Mst Sabrina Sultana, Igathinathane Cannayen Jul 2015

Computer Vision System For Grading Mangos In Bangladesh, Md Abdul Momin, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Mst Sabrina Sultana, Igathinathane Cannayen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Mango (Mangifera indica) is one of the most common, important, and popular fruits among fruits produced in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, mango was cultivated in about 0.078 million acres with an annual production of 0.8 million tonne. However, the technologies used in post-harvest processing (e.g., grading, sorting, etc.) of mango are mostly traditional involving human labors; and the methods are far from satisfactory, in terms of accuracy and throughput. In order to grade mango according to size, we developed a machine vision system with image processing capabilities that can measure sizes of mango fruits from the images. In this system images …

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Channel Shallowing As Mitigation Of Coastal Flooding, Philip M. Orton, Stefan A. Talke, David A. Jay, Larry Yin, Alan F. Blumberg, Nickitas Georgas, Haihong Zhao, Hugh J. Roberts, Kytt Macmanus Jul 2015

Channel Shallowing As Mitigation Of Coastal Flooding, Philip M. Orton, Stefan A. Talke, David A. Jay, Larry Yin, Alan F. Blumberg, Nickitas Georgas, Haihong Zhao, Hugh J. Roberts, Kytt Macmanus

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Here, we demonstrate that reductions in the depth of inlets or estuary channels can be used to reduce or prevent coastal flooding. A validated hydrodynamic model of Jamaica Bay, New York City (NYC), is used to test nature-based adaptation measures in ameliorating flooding for NYC’s two largest historical coastal flood events. In addition to control runs with modern bathymetry, three altered landscape scenarios are tested: (1) increasing the area of wetlands to their 1879 footprint and bathymetry, but leaving deep shipping channels unaltered; (2) shallowing all areas deeper than 2 m in the bay to be 2 m below Mean …

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Toward A Spatial-Temporal Measure Of Land-Use Mix, Steven R. Gehrke, Kelly Clifton Jul 2015

Toward A Spatial-Temporal Measure Of Land-Use Mix, Steven R. Gehrke, Kelly Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban planning and public-health research has long been interested in the connection between land-use mix and travel. Interest from urban planners stems from the potential of transportation efficiency gains achieved by an increased land-use mix and subsequent shortening of trip lengths; whereas, public-health research advocates an increased land-use mix as an effective policy for facilitating greater physical activity. Yet, despite the transportation, land-use, and health benefits related to improving land-use mix and the extent of topical attention given by researchers, no consensus has been reached regarding the magnitude of its effect on travel. This absence of agreement may largely be …

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Investigation Of Electrical And Magneto Transport Properties Of Reduced Graphene Oxide Thin Films, Ariful Haque Jul 2015

Investigation Of Electrical And Magneto Transport Properties Of Reduced Graphene Oxide Thin Films, Ariful Haque

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Large area uniform thin films of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was synthesized by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. A number of structural properties including the defect density, average size of sp2 clusters, and degree of reduction were investigated by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The temperature dependent (5K - 350K) four terminal electrical transport property measurement confirms variable range hopping and thermally activated transport mechanism of the charge carriers at low (5K - 210K) and high temperature (210K - 350K) regions, respectively. The calculated localization length, density of states (DOS) near Fermi level (EF), hopping energy, and Arrhenius …

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Design Of High Temperature Evaporator For Spectroscopic Study Of Equilibrated Vapor Phase Materials, Yarden Bosch Jul 2015

Design Of High Temperature Evaporator For Spectroscopic Study Of Equilibrated Vapor Phase Materials, Yarden Bosch

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This work details the design, assembly, and testing of a high temperature electron beam evaporator for equilibrated vapor phase evaporation of rock oxides for the purpose of astrophysical characterization of extrasolar planetary atmospheres. Infrared spectroscopy of high temperature SiO2 atmosphere created through the electron beam evaporation technique and trapped by argon ice matrix isolation was performed to generate a reference spectrum against which absorption lines in stellar spectra taken during planetary transits can be compared. Studies demonstrate that water inclusions in milky quartz (SiO2) can be used to create H2O/SiO2 equilibrated atmospheres within a Knudsen cell. Modeling of exoplanet spectra …

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Terminological Mediation In Information Technology And Related Fields, Jessica Smith Richards Jul 2015

Terminological Mediation In Information Technology And Related Fields, Jessica Smith Richards

Theses and Dissertations

Terminological dissonance is created by the inherent ambiguity of natural language and compounded by ontological specialization efforts within fields. Terminological dissonance creates high-risk miscommunications in two key areas: within Information Technology as a singular domain, and also between IT and other fields in interdisciplinary projects. A comprehensive literature review revealed a lack of previous effort to acknowledge or solve problems of terminological dissonance within Information Technology. This research provides a comprehensive overview and definition of the terminology mediation space as it relates to Information Technology and adjacent fields. An analysis and verification of the contents and implementation of the terminology …

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Temperature Measurement Using Infrared Spectral Band Emissions From H2o, Daniel Jared Ellis Jul 2015

Temperature Measurement Using Infrared Spectral Band Emissions From H2o, Daniel Jared Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

Currently there is no known method for accurately measuring the temperature of the gas phase of combustion products within a solid fuel flame. The industry standard is a suction pyrometer and thermocouple which is intrusive, both spatially and temporally averaging, and difficult to use. In this work a new method utilizing the spectral emission from water vapor is investigated through modeling and experimental measurements. This method was demonstrated along a 0.75m line of sight, averaged over 1 minute in the products of a natural gas flame but has the potential to produce a spatial resolution on the order of 5 …

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