Engineering Commons^™

Detecting, Modeling, And Predicting User Temporal Intention, Hany M. Salaheldeen

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

The content of social media has grown exponentially in the recent years and its role has evolved from narrating life events to actually shaping them. Unfortunately, content posted and shared in social networks is vulnerable and prone to loss or change, rendering the context associated with it (a tweet, post, status, or others) meaningless. There is an inherent value in maintaining the consistency of such social records as in some cases they take over the task of being the first draft of history as collections of these social posts narrate the pulse of the street during historic events, protest, riots, …

Object Tracking From Multiple Multi-Axis Platforms In Four Dimensions, Theodore A. Teates

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Object handoff in free space requires a sound framework between at least two optical sensors and one object. Previous work developed an algorithm that can determine the ap­ propriate time to initiate handoff of object tracking responsibilities from one optical sensor with an object in view to another optical sensor with the same object in view. In order to maintain persistent tracking of objects in this work, gimbal movements of optical sensors are determined by calculations using the Lagrange method to determine the trackability measures between the moving object and the handoff cone for the appropriate optical sensor. The rotation …

Flight Dynamics Nonlinearity Assessment Across A New Aerodynamic Attitude Flight Envelope, Ayman Muhammad Abdallah

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A new asymmetric level aerodynamic attitude flight envelope is introduced in this dissertation. The aerodynamic attitude envelope is an angle of attack vs. sideslip angle region which describes the extent of where an aircraft can sustain a steady slipping horizontal flight condition. The new envelope is thus an extension of the more common speed-altitude symmetric level flight envelope. This new envelope can be used for design requirements, dynamic analysis, control synthesis, or performance comparison. Moreover, this envelope provides enhanced insight into trimability-controllability limitations within the aircraft design model. The aerodynamic attitude flight envelope is constructed for a six degree of …

Classification Of Digital Communication Signal Modulation Schemes In Multipath Environments Using Higher Order Statistics, Meena Sreekantamurthy

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Automatic identification and classification of modulation schemes in communication signals and decoding of information from the captured signals has assumed great importance recently in the wireless communication industry. Advancements in communications have introduced a large variety of modulation schemes in the transmitted signals; consequently, reliable detection of the modulation scheme in the intercepted signal has become an important issue in communications. It is the aim of this thesis to address this issue of reliable detection. Therefore, this research is focused on modeling and simulation of an automatic modulation classifier and, in particular, on the development of algorithms to use higher …

Impact Of Limited Organic Carbon Addition On Nitrogen Removal In A Mainstream Anammox Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor, Johnnie Wayne Godwin

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Excessive nitrogen compounds are a growing problem in the world and are leading to further environmental degradation. For future nitrogen pennit limits, conventional water treatment processes tend to not meet the requirements to drive these concentrations to low levels, and if they do, it can be rather costly. However, in mid 1990s a new bacterium was discovered that has allowed for nitrogen removal to occur at a considerably reduced cost. The use of anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (anammox or AMX) is well established in sidestream deammonification (partial nitritation and anammox). However, as of late there has been discussion of applying …

Priming Middle School Females’ Engagement In Engineering And Technology, Mary Bonk Isaac

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to validate data collected between 2009-2013 via an instrument used to assess middle school girls’ identification with and interest in engineering and technology following the Society of Women Engineers’ WOW events. Recognizing the importance of measuring the impact of such mentored E & T activities on young females’ attitudes about and interest in STEM, and more specifically, engineering and technology, SWE outreach experts developed a participant survey based on event objectives and domain knowledge, but never rigorously examined whether it produced statistically valid data that could be used to draw inferences about girls’ propensity …

Energy Harvesting-Aware Design For Wireless Nanonetworks, Shahram Mohrehkesh

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Nanotechnology advancement promises to enable a new era of computing and communication devices by shifting micro scale chip design to nano scale chip design. Nanonetworks are envisioned as artifacts of nanotechnology in the domain of networking and communication. These networks will consist of nodes of nanometer to micrometer in size, with a communication range up to 1 meter. These nodes could be used in various biomedical, industrial, and environmental monitoring applications, where a nanoscale level of sensing, monitoring, control and communication is required. The special characteristics of nanonetworks require the revisiting of network design. More specifically, nanoscale limitations, new paradigms …

The Effect Of Posterior Foot Positions On Electromyography, Joint Kinetics And Energetics During A Sit-To-Stand In Young And Older Adults, Eric A. Pitman

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

The sit-to-stand (STS) movement, defined as standing up from a chair to an upright posture, is a common task performed daily. The inability to accomplish this task may lead to dependence, institutionalization and even death in older adults. A common strategy change for the STS is positioning the feet posteriorly by increasing flexion at the knee joint. This reduces the displacement of the center of mass to the base of support while increasing the joint moment of force at the knee while decreasing it at the hip. The aims of this study were to: 1) examine the joint kinetics, joint …

Vocal Classification Of Vocalizations Of A Pair Of Asian Small-Clawed Otters To Determine Stress, Peter M. Scheifele, Michael T. Johnson, Michelle Fry, Benjamin Hamel, Kathryn Laclede

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Asian Small-Clawed Otters (Aonyx cinerea) are a small, protected but threatened species living in freshwater. They are gregarious and live in monogamous pairs for their lifetimes, communicating via scent and acoustic vocalizations. This study utilized a hidden Markov model (HMM) to classify stress versus non-stress calls from a sibling pair under professional care. Vocalizations were expertly annotated by keepers into seven contextual categories. Four of these—aggression, separation anxiety, pain, and prefeeding—were identified as stressful contexts, and three of them—feeding, training, and play—were identified as non-stressful contexts. The vocalizations were segmented, manually categorized into broad vocal type call types, and analyzed …

Establishing The Relative Merits Of Interior And Spoke-Type Permanent-Magnet Machines With Ferrite Or Ndfeb Through Systematic Design Optimization, Peng Zhang, Gennadi Y. Sizov, Dan M. Ionel, Nabeel Demerdash

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, a multiobjective design optimization method combining design-of-experiments techniques and differential-evolution algorithms is presented. The method was implemented and utilized in order to provide practical engineering insights for the optimal design of interior and spoke-type permanent-magnet machines. Two combinations with 12 slots and 8 poles and 12 slots and 10 poles, respectively, have been studied in conjunction with rare-earth neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) and ferrites. As part of the optimization process, a computationally efficient finite-element electromagnetic analysis was employed for estimating the performance of thousands of candidate designs. Three optimization objectives were concurrently considered for minimum total material cost, power …

On The Calculation And Measurement Of Mean Room Surface Exitance, James Duff, G. Antonutto, S. Torres

Articles

Cuttle has proposed mean room surface exitance as a metric for use within interior lighting design. Two reported barriers to its use are: a lack of available software to calculate the metric and the tedious and cumbersome nature of recording its values in the field using current equipment and methodologies. This paper presents a method for facilitating the calculation of mean room surface exitance using readily available freeware, namely Radiance, and also presents a methodology that utilises high dynamic range imaging as a pragmatic alternative for field measurement.

Bridge Seismic Retrofit Measures Considering Subduction Zone Earthquakes, Peter Dusicka, Ramiro Bazaez, Sarah Knoles

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the years, earthquakes have exposed the vulnerability of reinforced concrete structures under seismic loads. The recent occurrence of highly devastating earthquakes near instrumented regions, e.g. 2010 Maule, Chile and 2011 Tohoku, Japan, has demonstrated the catastrophic impact of such natural force upon reinforced concrete structures. Research was conducted to investigate the effect of subduction zone earthquakes on structural damage. The study suggests that large magnitude ground motions of long duration have the potential of significantly increasing the number of inelastic excursions and consequently incur more extensive structural damage as compared to ground motions with similar elastic spectral demands but …

Sandwich-Type Cobalt Tungstophosphate: Synthesis, Characterization And Catalytic Activity, Wimonrat Trakarnpruk, Aphiwat Wannatem, Jutatip Kongpeth

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

odium tungstophosphate, Na9[HPW9O34].7H2O was synthesized by reaction in aqueous solution of sodium tungstate, phosphoric acid and acetic acid. It was used as a precursor for synthesis of sandwich-type cobalt tungstophosphate, K10[Co4(H2O)2(PW9O34)2].20H2O by reacting with cobalt chloride and potassium acetate. The potassium ion can be exchanged with tetrabutylammonium bromide. The characterization was carried out by means of elemental analysis, FT-IR, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DR-UV-vis). The sandwich-type cobalt tungstophosphate was used to catalyze oxidation of cyclooctane with H2O2 as oxidant in absence and presence of phase transfer agent. The experimental results showed that with phase transfer agent, the sandwich-type cobalt tungstophosphate …

Properties Of Binary And Ternary Composites Of Polypropylene Containing Soybean Oil-G-Chitosan And Hydrophobic Phosphonated Silica, Natthaphop Suwannamek, Kawee Srikulkit

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

PP/soybean oil-g-chitosan binary composite, PP/hydrophobic phosphonated silica binary composite, and PP/chitosan/hydrophobic phosphonated silica ternary composite were prepared. Firstly, the preparation of soybean oil-g-chitosan was carried out by surface hydrophobicity modification of chitosan powder with soybean oil maleate and hydrophobicallyphosphonated silica was prepared by silanization of phosphonated silica with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (an organosilane). Binary and ternary composites were prepared using a twin screw extruder. It was found that soybean oil-g-chitosan not only caused a decrease in tensile strength but also enhanced flexibility of PP due to its plasticization effect. In the opposite direction, the addition of hydrophobic phosphonated silica resulted in an …

An Updated Mineralogical Analysis Of Sediment Materials From Three Therapeutically-Used Peruvian Lagoons, Maria Luisa Ceron Loayza, Jorge Aurelio Bravo Cabrejos, F. A. R. Navarro, F. Urcia Ch.

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Herein, we determine the elemental, structural and mineralogical characterization of samples collected in three Peruvian lagoons; likewise, we investigate the physical and chemical properties of their fractions, both clay and magnetic. These lagoons are located in the Chilca District, Cate Province, southern Lima Region, Peru; their morphology has been altered since we carried out a previous study five years ago. The physical analytical techniques we used were energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF); X-ray diffractometry (XRD); and transmission Msbauer spectroscopy (TMS), at room and liquid-helium temperatures, and at low and high velocities. The results indicate that dolomite is the main clayey …

Use Of Roadway Attributes In Hot Spot Identification And Analysis, David R. Bassett

Theses and Dissertations

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Traffic and Safety Division continues to advance the safety of roadway sections throughout the state. In an effort to aid UDOT in meeting their goal, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Brigham Young University (BYU) has worked with the Statistics Department in developing analysis tools for safety. The most recent of these tools has been the development of a hierarchical Bayesian Poisson Mixture Model (PMM) of traffic crashes known as the Utah Crash Prediction Model (UCPM), a hierarchical Bayesian Binomial statistical model known as the Utah Crash Severity Model (UCSM), and a …

Lateral Resistance Of Pipe Piles Near 20-Ft Tall Mse Abutment Wall With Strip Reinforcements, Jason James Besendorfer

Theses and Dissertations

Full scale lateral load testing was performed on four 12.75x0.375 pipe piles spaced at 3.9, 2.9, 2.8, and 1.7 pile diameters behind an MSE wall which was constructed for this research to determine appropriate reduction factors for lateral pile resistance based on pile spacing behind the back face of the wall. The load induced on eight soil reinforcements located at various transverse distances from the pile and at different depths was monitored to determine the relationship between lateral load on the pile and load induced in the reinforcement. Each pile was loaded towards the wall in 0.25 in. increments to …

Understanding Technology Diffusion And Spatial Accessibility In The Home Healthcare Industry, Mehmet Serdar Kilinç

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Home healthcare is becoming an important alternative to institutionalized care. It not only reduces costs but also increases health outcomes and patient satisfaction. However, the availability and efficiency of home healthcare services need to be improved as the aging population increases in the US. Hence, understanding home healthcare utilization and access are the essential steps to develop strategies ensuring effective and sustainable services to patients.

This research aims to study two main issues in the US home healthcare system: diffusion and long-term impacts of home telehealth and potential spatial accessibility of home healthcare services. Home telehealth is a promising technology …

Cfd Investigation Of Resistance Of High-Speed Trimaran Hull Forms, Chang Hwan Son

Theses and Dissertations

Although catamarans continue to increase in size and application with bigger and better designs than the present generation, trimaran and multi-hull forms for high-speed operation are a recent phenomenon due to speed of turnaround time and payload. To fulfill the stringent requirement for commercial and military transportation, various versions of optimum design are being undertaken recently. In particular, the high-speed ferry industry is presently looking at novel hull forms such as the form of trimarans and pentamarans which are considered in one of the most affordable hull forms for high-speed operation around the world. However, few published articles are in …

National Culture And Business Resilience: An Exploratory Study Of Two Chinese Construction Firms Operating In Singapore, Low Sui Pheng, Gao Shang, Teo Wee Kiat Ken

Business Review

The study of national culture focuses on differences in values and beliefs among people of different nationalities. With the increasing globalization of economies around the world, the construction industry is inherently exposed to risk at an unprecedented level. This is particularly true for Chinese construction firms, which are aggressively setting up subsidiaries and branches all around the world as they partake in large-scale complex projects overseas. With the liberal foreign trade policies adopted by China after its reforms, domestic construction firms in China also face immense pressure from the international players that are now able to enter the Chinese construction …

A Modified Rank Ordered Logit Model To Analyze Injury Severity Of Occupants In Multi-Vehicle Crashes, Shelley Bogue

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Research on methodological approaches to model injury severity has become important in order to prevent crash fatalities. Roadways have always been dangerous, with significant congestion and uncontrollable variables, such as weather, coupled with road users' decisions including seat belt and alcohol/drug use. These decisions can influence the severity of injuries sustained by vehicle occupants in the event of a crash. Few studies have examined the potential impacts of comprehensive roadway user injury severity profiles of all occupants ( drivers as well as passengers) in all vehicles involved in a crash. The focus of past studies has been on examining the …

Wind Farm Layout Optimization Using Sound Pressure Level Constraints, Eric Tingey, Jared Thomas, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

This project explored wind farm layout optimization using turbine acoustic and wake models. For two existing wind farms, the position of each wind turbine was optimized to maximize power output while constraining noise. Semi-empirical calculations were used for both the acoustic and wake models to predict how the turbine noise and wake disturbances propagated downstream. Turbine layout was optimized using a sequential quadratic programming optimizer called SNOPT. The optimization was able to constrain the noise level of the wind farms with a small impact on power output.

Effect Of Airfoil And Composite Layer Thicknesses On An Aerostructural Blade Optimization For Wind Turbines, Ryan Barrett, Ian Freeman, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research is to enhance the performance of wind turbine blades by exploring the effect of adding airfoil and material layer thicknesses to the optimization design process. This is accomplished by performing an aerostructural blade optimization to minimize mass over annual energy production and thereby reduce the cost of energy. Changing airfoil thickness allows the airfoil shape to evolve as part of the optimization. The airfoil thicknesses are allowed to vary within two airfoil families, the TU-Delft and NACA 64-series, that are used in the NREL 5-MW reference turbine. Both experimental wind tunnel and computational data are …

Plant-Level Dynamic Optimization Of Cryogenic Carbon Capture With Conventional And Renewable Power Sources, Seyed M. Safdarnejad, John Hedengren, Larry Lin Baxter

Faculty Publications

Increasing competitiveness of renewable power sources due to tightening restrictions on CO₂ emission from fossil fuel combustion is expected to cause a shift in power generation systems of the future. This investigation considers the impact of the Cryogenic Carbon Capture™ (CCC) process on transitional power generation. The CCC process consumes less energy than chemical and physical absorption processes and has an energy storage capability that shifts the parasitic loss of the CCC process away from peak hours. The CCC process responds rapidly to the variation of electricity demand and has a time constant that is consistent with the intermittent …

Broadband High Efficiency Fractal-Like And Diverse Geometry Silicon Nanowire Arrays For Photovoltaic Applications, Omar Hassan Al-Zoubi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Solar energy has many advantages over conventional sources of energy. It is abundant, clean and sustainable. One way to convert solar energy directly into electrical energy is by using the photovoltaic solar cells (PVSC). Despite PVSC are becoming economically competitive, they still have high cost and low light to electricity conversion efficiency. Therefore, increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost are key elements for producing economically more competitive PVSC that would have significant impact on energy market and saving environment. A significant percentage of the PVSC cost is due to the materials cost. For that, thin films PVSC have been …

On The Efficacy Of Through-Silicon-Via Inductors, Umamaheswara Rao Tida, Rongbo Yang, Cheng Zhuo, Yiyu Shi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Through-silicon-vias (TSVs) can potentially be used to implement inductors in 3-D integrated systems for minimal footprint and large inductance. However, different from conventional 2-D spiral inductors, TSV inductors are fully buried in the lossy substrate, thus suffering from low quality factors. In this paper, we systematically examine how various process and design parameters affect their performance. A few interesting phenomena that are unique to TSV inductors are observed. We then propose a novel shield mechanism utilizing the microchannel, a technique conventionally used for heat removal, to reduce the substrate loss. The technique increases the quality factor and inductance of the …

Solving Nonlinear Heat Transfer Problems Using Variation Of Parameters, Travis J. Moore, Matthew R. Jones

Faculty Publications

Nonlinear problems arise in many heat transfer applications, and several analytical and numerical methods for solving these problems are described in the literature. Here, the method of variation of parameters is shown to be a relatively simple method for obtaining solutions to four specific heat transfer problems: 1. a radiating annular fin, 2. conduction-radiation in a plane-parallel medium, 3. convective and radiative exchange between the surface of a continuously moving strip and its surroundings, and 4. convection from a fin with temperature-dependent thermal conductivity and variable cross-sectional area. The results for each of these examples are compared to those obtained …

Text-Independent Speaker Identification Using Statistical Learning, Alli Ayoola Ojutiku

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of voice-activated devices and systems and over-the-phone bank transactions has made our daily affairs much easier in recent times. The ease that these systems offer also call for a need for them to be fail-safe against impersonators. Due to the sensitive information that might be shred on these systems, it is imperative that security be an utmost concern during the development stages. Vital systems like these should incorporate a functionality of discriminating between the actual speaker and impersonators. That functionality is the focus of this thesis.

Several methods have been proposed to be used to achieve this system …

Synthesis Of Palladium And Palladium-Copper Nanostructures As Electrocatalysts, Haibin Wu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pd and its alloys are alternatives of Pt as promising catalysts and electrocatalysts for many reactions. Size controlled synthesis of nanoparticles remains a major research subject, since smaller size particles show better catalytic performance. In this work, we developed a modified chemical wet method to prepare Pd and Pd-Cu nanostructures with uniform small size. Different sizes and shapes of Pd nanostructures were successfully synthesized by using the two reducing agents (i.e., L-ascorbyl-6-palmitate or phenylphosphinic acid). The reducing agents play a role to control the final morphologies and sizes of particles. The use of L-ascorbyl-6-palmitate favors to form irregular branch shapes …

Automatic User Profile Construction For A Personalized News Recommender System Using Twitter, Shiva Theja Reddy Gopidi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern society has now grown accustomed to reading online or digital news. However, the huge corpus of information available online poses a challenge to users when trying to find relevant articles. A hybrid system “Personalized News Recommender Using Twitter’ has been developed to recommend articles to a user based on the popularity of the articles and also the profile of the user. The hybrid system is a fusion of a collaborative recommender system developed using tweets from the “Twitter” public timeline and a content recommender system based the user’s past interests summarized in their conceptual user profile. In previous work, …