Engineering Commons^™

Assessing Toxicity Of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds In Wastewater For Water Reuse, Ryan Duchanois

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Reclaiming treated wastewater for potable water use may be necessary to supplement drinking water sources in water scarce regions. However, Snyder et al. (2003) indicates that endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are commonly found in wastewater effluents and natural waters around the world. These compounds with endocrine disrupting potential are typically found in personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides. Furthermore, according to Lemanik et al. (2007), typical wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove EDCs.

For the purpose of water reuse, benchmarking wastewater treatment for endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) is necessary. The cytotoxicities of five EDCs (namely, amoxicillin, acetaminophen, triclosan, …

Towards A Fast Reconstruction Paradigm For Urban Environments In Developing Regions Affected By Natural Disasters, Christopher Maestri

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Natural disasters in developing regions often displace people from their homes, into temporary shelters. These temporary shelters often consist of single-story pre-assembled tents designed to provide short-term aid for individual families. Unfortunately, single-story temporary shelters are not sufficient for accommodating large displaced populations in urban settings due to issues of land overcrowding and disruption to utilities providing water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services (along with many other issues).

This study investigates the feasibility of implementing a multi-story steel structure, constructed with multi-use structural members and special end connectors, into future relief efforts. A multi-use structural member is an element whose …

Analysis Of Bolted Beam-Column Connections With Multiple Bolts Per Row And Column Web Stiffeners, Benjamin C. Sutherland

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bolted beam-column connections are a common moment connection used in the design of steel buildings. Existing design guides include design parameters for bolt configurations having one bolt on either side of the beam web for each row of bolts. There is potential for increasing connection strength by adding additional bolts on the outside of these rows. This addition could be useful in retrofit scenarios, or even in the design of new structures. In this research, finite element analysis is used to analyze various beam-column connections and t-stub connections. The modeling methods, research process, and conclusions are explained in the thesis …

Measuring Relative Humidity In Concrete Pavements As A Method To Assess Asr Mitigation Measures, Remington G. Reed

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) in concrete is partly facilitated by available moisture within the concrete. In order to better understand this facilitation and to develop processes for ASR mitigation methods, it is necessary to establish a means of monitoring internal relative humidity (RH) within the concrete. Current procedures for measuring RH are time consuming; requiring several hours of equilibration time and specific external conditions to yield accurate results. In order to better understand RH monitoring, laboratory tests were conducted using commercially available RH probes and different controlled environments. Probes were carefully monitored and calibrated in controlled environments, and laboratory tests on …

Effect Of Thermal Treatment On High Temperature Deformation Of Alloy Ep-~823, Martin Milburn Lewis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The objective of this research topic is to determine mechanical properties of Alloy EP-823 and to provide a mechanistic understanding of its sensitivity to both thermal treatment and performance temperature. EP-823 is a leading target material for accelerator-driven waste transmutation applications. Overall, the tensile test results of Alloy EP-823 indicated a general trend of decreasing mechanical performance with an increase in tempering time. An increase in tempering time had a statistically significant inverse relationship with ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS). An increase in tempering time did not have a significant effect on elongation and reduction in area. …

Framework Of Performance-Based Contracting For Chip Seal And Striping Maintenance Activities, Kishor Shrestha

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the United States, there are more than four million miles of road network and new roads are being constructed every year. Most of the road networks were constructed more than two decades ago. Therefore, the age of the majority of the pavement inventory has exceeded original design life. This results in increased work load for the maintenance division of the state Departments of Transportation (DOTs). To maintain the road system, state DOTs use In-House or outsource maintenance works to private contractors using Method Based Contracting (MBC), or Performance Based Contracting (PBC), or any combination of these three. Literature reviews …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Graphene, Ashok Em Sudhakar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Graphene is an important nanoscale material with unique electronic and optical properties. Due to its many potential applications, grapheme was the subject of a Nobel Prize in physics 2010; Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov of Manchester University received the Nobel Prize for demonstrating the ability to create single atom thick graphene layers from bulk graphite. Since then, many alternative synthesis techniques and device applications of graphene have been explored. An important and unique property of graphene is its excellent thermal properties. Graphene has a two dimensional structure and the thermal properties are significantly different than three dimensional bulk materials. Using …

Ism S-Band Cubesat Radio Designed For The Polysat System Board, Craig Lee Francis

Master's Theses

Cal Poly’s PolySat CubeSat satellites have begun to conduct more complex and scientifically significant experiments. The large data products generated by these missions demonstrate the necessity for higher data rate communication than currently provided by the PolySat UHF radio. This thesis leverages the proliferation of consumer wireless monolithic transceivers to develop a 250kbps to 2000kbps, 2W CubeSat radio operating within the 2.45GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) radio band.

Estimating a link budget for a realistic CubeSat leads to the conclusion that this system will require a large deployable CubeSat antenna, large earth station satellite dish, and a fine-pointing attitude …

Optimization Of Rfid System Coverage In A Manufacturing Environment, Scott D. Malatesta

Master's Theses

This paper compiles existing ideas, theories, and experiments across multiple disciplines to provide guidance for a company looking to implement an optimal RFID system in their production facility. The desire is to maximize the information received by the system while minimizing the cost. Four potential layouts of RFID antennas, two with overlapping antenna coverage and two with non-overlapping layouts, are first analyzed to understand the special coverage and the number of antennas required. The value of information is then quantified to determine whether higher coverage layouts are worth the additional costs associated with the higher number of antennas required. It …

Risk Estimation Toward A Natural History Model For Low Grade Glioma Patients, Anh Thi Hoang Pham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Glioma is a common type of primary brain tumor that represents 28% of all brain tumors and 80% of malignant tumors. According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gliomas account for 53%, 35% and 29% of all brain tumors (68%, 74% and 81% of malignant brain tumors) among children (aged 0-14), teenagers (aged 15-19) and young adults, respectively. Gliomas are often diagnosed through radiological imaging and histopathology. There are two main groups of gliomas following World Health Organization’s classification: Low grade gliomas (LGG), or grade I and II gliomas; and high grade gliomas …

A Backend Framework For The Efficient Management Of Power System Measurements, Benjamin Mccamish, Rich Meier, Jordan Landford, Robert B. Bass, David Chiu, Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increased adoption and deployment of phasor measurement units (PMU) has provided valuable fine-grained data over the grid. Analysis over these data can provide insight into the health of the grid, thereby improving control over operations. Realizing this data-driven control, however, requires validating, processing and storing massive amounts of PMU data. This paper describes a PMU data management system that supports input from multiple PMU data streams, features an event-detection algorithm, and provides an efficient method for retrieving archival data. The event-detection algorithm rapidly correlates multiple PMU data streams, providing details on events occurring within the power system. The event-detection algorithm …

Design Of A Wide Area Controller Using Eigenstructure Assignment In Power Systems, Parimal Saraf

All Dissertations

Small signal stability has become a major concern for power system operators around the world. This has resulted from constantly evolving changes in the power system ranging from increased number of interconnections to ever increasing demand of power. In highly stressed operating conditions, even a small disturbance such as a load change can make the system unstable resulting in small signal instability. The main reason for small signal instability in power systems is an inter-area mode/s becoming unstable. Inter-area modes involve a group of generators oscillating against each other. Traditionally, power system stabilizers installed on the synchrous machines were used …

An Example Of Atomic Requirements - Login Screen, William L. Honig

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A simple example of what an atomic or individual or singular requirement statement should be. Using the example of the familiar login screen, shows the evolution from a low quality initial attempt at requirements to a complete atomic requirement statement. Introduces the idea of a system glossary to support the atomic requirement.

Atomic Requirements Quick Notes, William L. Honig, Shingo Takada

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Working paper on atomic requirements for systems development and the importance of singular, cohesive, individual requirements statements. Covers possible definitions of atomic requirements, and their characteristics. Atomic requirements improve many parts of the development process from requirements to testing and contracting.

Multilayer Composite Solid Electrolytes For Lithium Ion Batteries, Wei Liu

Dissertations - ALL

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are becoming the standard energy storage option for an increasingly diverse range of applications from mobile phones to cars. The conventional liquid electrolytes based LIBs are prone to failure in conditions such as high operating temperature, solvent leakage, lithium dendrites formation and thermal runaway, etc. All-solid-state lithium ion batteries (ASSLIBs) provide a promising power strategy to overcome the drawbacks of liquid electrolyte by substituting the highly flammable organic liquid electrolyte with solid electrolytes (SEs). However, up to the present time, the SEs fabrication for practical ASSLIB construction is still a significant challenge. The existing problems include …

Effects Of Substrate Stiffness On Bacterial Biofilm Formation, Fangchao Song

Dissertations - ALL

Biofilms are communities of microbial cells attached on surfaces and embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix comprised of polysaccharides, DNA, and proteins. Biofilms of pathogenic bacteria cause serious chronic infections due to high tolerance to antibiotics and host immune systems compared to their planktonic compartments. Biofilm formation is known to be influenced by many properties of substrate materials, such as surface chemistry, hydrophobicity, roughness, topography, and charge. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of substrate stiffness. In this study, Escherichia coli RP437 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 were used as model strains to investigate the early stage …

Fretting Corrosion Of Cocrmo Alloy Biomaterials: Instrumentation Development, Heredity Integral Modeling And The Effect Of Frequency, Zhe Li

Dissertations - ALL

Mechanically assisted crevice corrosion, a process of corrosion that generally occurs in joint replacements of the hip and knee, is a major problem for metallic biomaterials. Though extensive research has already been undertaken, the basic concepts of fretting corrosion including prediction of the instantaneous current response during fretting corrosion, still needs to be understood in a systematic form. The aim of this study is to present the mechanical and electrochemical elements of a model pertaining to the process of fretting crevice corrosion and the prediction of fretting corrosion current transients. The influence of sliding speed on fretting corrosion severity of …

Assessing Gender Inequality From Large Scale Online Student Reviews, Souradeep Sinha

Dissertations - ALL

Career growth in academia is often dependent on student reviews of university profes-

sors. A growing concern is how evaluation of teaching has been affected by gender biases

throughout the reviewing process. However, pinpointing the exact causes and consequen-

tial effects of this form of gender inequality has been a hard task.

Current work focusses on university-wide student reviewing system, that depends on

objective responses on a Likert scale to measure various aspects of an instructor’s qual-

ity. Through our work, we access online student review data which are not limited by

geographies, universities, or disciplines.

Thereafter, we come up …

Understanding Soft Molecular Interfaces Using Multiscale Molecular Dynamics, Xiaoyi Wang

Dissertations - ALL

Molecular dynamics simulations have proven to be a breakthrough approach in providing molecular structure and function details of biological macromolecules. The fact that molecular simulations can provide details of individual particle motions as a function of time, opens infinite possibilities of answering specific questions about a model system with atomistic and molecular precision, often more easily than experiments on the actual system. Instead of relying solely on experiments, molecular dynamics systems are based on empirical force fields that mimic molecular interactions over time. There has been increasing interest in utilizing the multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) approach to simulate the properties …

Development Of A “2-D” Test System For Visualizing Fretting Corrosion: A Study Of The Fretting Corrosion Behavior Of Co-Cr-Mo Alloy, Dongkai Zhu

Dissertations - ALL

Fretting corrosion, one of the most common forms of mechanically-assisted corrosion (MAC), has become a major concern in orthopedic medical devices. In order to a better understand of the mechanism of fretting corrosion in orthopedic alloys and the ways to prevent implants from corroding, custom test systems need to be developed to simulate fretting corrosion in vitro and to allow visualizing of the process. This study aimed to develop a new “two dimensional” fretting crevice corrosion test system with the capacity to visualize damage progression during systematic controlled fretting corrosion processes. Another goal of the study was to experimentally verify …

Understanding The Characteristics Of Successful Projects And Post-Campaign Activities In A Crowdfunding Platform, Madhavi Reddy Dontham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Online crowdfunding platforms provide project creators with new opportunities for seeking funds from people in the world. But reaching a fund-raising goal or making a project successful is always a challenge. Besides, little is known about post-campaign activities of project creators and backers. To fill the gap, in this research, we are interested in understanding (i) the characteristics of successful projects, (ii) how project creators reacted when their projects failed, and (iii) what post-campaign activities creators and backers made. To achieve our research objectives, first, we analyzed successful projects and failed projects on Kickstarter, the most popular crowdfunding platform. Then …

Analysis And Modeling Of Pedestrian Walking Behaviors Involving Individuals With Disabilities, Mohammad Sadra Sharifi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Walking facilities like walkways and stairs are important infrastructures which must be designed to effectively accommodate the behavior of pedestrians. Heterogeneity in pedestrian composition is one important factor generally overlooked in walking facility design guidelines and handbooks. While individuals with disabilities constitute a significant portion of the population in the United States, they are often overlooked due to lack of available data. To remedy this, large scale controlled walking experiments were performed at Utah State University (USU) to study the walking behavior of various types of individuals with disabilities (including vision and mobility impairments) in different walking environments. These environments …

Live Load Testing And Analysis Of A 48-Year-Old Double Tee Girder Bridge, Victor J. Torres

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A 48-year-old prestressed double tee girder bridge located on Icy Springs road in Coalville, Utah, was tested for live load. The test measured strains, deflections and rotations. The instruments used for measuring the respective measurements were strain gages, deflectometers ("twangers") and tiltmeters.

From the recorded measurements a finite element model (FEM) was calibrated to validate the modeling techniques based on the test data. The FEM implemented two joint link elements to connect the flanges of the FEM deck to model the transverse load distribution of the bridge deteriorated shear connectors. The abutment restraints were modeled by one joint link elements. …

Urban Agriculture And Small Farm Irrigation: Case Studies From Cache Valley, Utah, Tyler Pratt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The socioeconomic landscape of water in Utah is rapidly changing due to population growth, conversion of agricultural land to urban development, and increasing awareness of future water scarcity. The Utah Division of Water Resources (DWRe) forecasts that the currently developed water supplies will not be enough to provide for Utah’s future population, and is pursuing conservation and new development to be able to meet the state’s needs.

Along with the urban growth Utah is experiencing a quickly growing sector of urban and small farm agriculture, but knowledge of water use and current practices in this area is limited. Further research …

Chromium Oxidation By Disinfectants And Oxidants Used In Drinking Water Treatment, Nathan D. Rogers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This project investigated the behavior of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI), a potential carcinogen) in drinking water. While Cr(VI) can exist naturally, it can also be oxidized from Cr(III), a known trace nutrient. Recently, the State of California implemented a water regulation specifically for Cr(VI) at 10 parts per billion (ppb). This project completed a comprehensive evaluation of chromium behavior when in contact with common drinking water treatment chemicals including chlorine, monochloramine, chlorine dioxide, potassium permanganate, and ozone.

The results of these oxidation experiments are highly applicable to water treatment facilities. If a treatment plant is using monochloramine, there is no indication …

Size Scale Effects On Linear Weir Hydraulics, Kedric W. Curtis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Linear weirs are a type of hydraulic structure that have been used for centuries with many different applications. One of the characteristics of weirs that is particularly useful is the head-discharge relationship where the discharge over the weir is directly related to the upstream water depth above the crest. In general, the head-discharge relationship for a weir is determined experimentally using geometrically similar models. Due to space, time, money, and discharge capacity limitations at water laboratories, creating full scale models is not always a feasible option when determining head-discharge relationships for weirs, resulting in the use of smaller scale models. …

Rhizosphere Interactions Between Copper Oxide Nanoparticles And Wheat Root Exudates In A Sand Matrix; Influences On Bioavailability And Uptake, Paul Mcmanus

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) are extremely small particles (less than 1 nm in one or more dimension, or one billionth (10^-9) of a meter) used in a diverse range of industries. They have been shown to travel through water systems, and like pharmaceuticals, can end up in wastewater treatment plants and then be land applied as biosolids, where crops are grown for animal consumption, potentially leading to food chain accumulation.

Cu is an essential micronutrient for plants, but is phytotoxic at higher concentrations. CuO NPs present an increasingly real environmental threat to agriculture in soils treated with …

Physically Based Modeling Of The Impacts Of Climate Change On Streamflow Regime, Nazmus Shams Sazib

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding the implications of climate change on streamflow regime is complex as changes in climate vary over space and time. However, a better understanding of the impact of climate change is required for identifying how stream ecosystems vulnerable to these changes, and ultimately to guide the development of robust strategies for reducing risk in the face of changing climatic conditions. Here I used physically based hydrologic modeling to improve understanding of how climate change may impact streamflow regimes and advance some of the cyberinfrastructure and GIS methodologies that support physically based hydrologic modeling by: (1) using a physically based model …

A Comprehensive Safety Analysis Of Diverging Diamond Interchanges, Holly Lloyd

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the implementation of new roadway configurations, there is a great need to study the influence of the roadway design on the crash rate. Utah is one of the leading states in the implementation of the Diverging Diamond Interchange.

In order to determine the effects of the new roadway configuration on the safety of the intersection, this study employs an Empirical Bayes before-after study of the crash rates at selected Diverging Diamond Interchanges in Utah. The results of the Empirical Bayes method were also used to calculate crash modification factors. The total number of crashes at each site were analyzed. …

A New Low-Cost Microstrip Antenna Array For 60 Ghz Applications, Darwin J. Joaquin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The use of telecommunications and the amount of data exchanged continue to grow at exponential rates. New technologies allowing for higher data transfer speeds while keeping the products affordable are required. Among these technologies, the WiGig protocol promises to be a shorter-range complement for high-speed Wi-Fi. One of the most important elements in a communication system are the antennas. For this reason, it is of great interest to have antennas that keep on pace with the other elements of the system. It is important to have affordable and high performance antennas to expand the use of the technology. This research …