Engineering Commons^™

A New Technique To Improve The Operation Of Prosthetic Limbs During Muscle Fatigue, H. Albunashee, G. Rasool, K. Iqbal, G. White

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Prosthetic limbs hold a promise to renew the quality of life for the amputee. Neural commands are decoded via a classifier to generate control signals for the prosthetic devices. In the literature, many challenges and limitations have been identified that affect the prosthesis operation. One such drawback is muscle fatigue which degrades the surface electromyogram (sEMG) signals, and consequently, the performance of the deployed classification algorithm declines from 90% to 50% of average accuracy. We used a new technique using the Linear Discrimination Analysis (LDA) algorithm and the muscle synergy-based task discrimination (MSD) algorithm to improve the classification accuracy. In …

Polyethylene Oxide Nanofiber Production By Electrospinning, H. E. Schneider, J. G. Steuber, W. Du, M. Mortazavi, D. W. Bullock

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Electrospinning is an inexpensive technique that is used to produce nanofibers for a variety of applications. In electrospinning, a polymer solution is dispensed from a hypodermic-like syringe where an intense electric field attracts the solution to a collector while drawing the polymer into a very thin fiber. The diameter of the fiber can be controlled by tuning the process parameters such as the applied electric field, solution flow rate, distance between syringe tip and collector, and the collector geometry. In this paper we describe results from electrospinning poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), a likely candidate for applications involving scaffolding for tissue engineering. …

New Frontiers In Chemical Energy And Environmental Engineering, Srinath Suranani, Sandeep Kumar, Sundergopal Sridhar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Energy is one of the major building blocks of modern society. Industries are attributed to be the main source of environmental pollution. The problems associated with the energy and environment have now become the subject of international debate. Engineers play vital role in devising environmental pollution mitigating techniques and developing sustainable energy technologies.

Simulation Of Gan Based Mis Varactor, Bojidha Babu

Theses and Dissertations

This work deals with novel microwave switches based on III-Nitride varactors. RF switches, power limiters and other control devices are important components of various RF systems, such as wireless modules of laptops, tablets, cell phones etc., satellites communication systems, radars, multi-band wireless and aerospace communications, phased array antennas and so worth. Traditional RF switches are fabricated using pin diodes or MEMS, Si MOSFETs or GaAs HEMTs. These devices have a number of fundamental limitations. Si or GaAs based devices suffer from a low breakdown voltage and cannot handle high RF power. Pin-diodes require large forward currents and do not allow …

Applications Of Impedance Identification To Electric Ship System Control And Power Hardware-In-The-Loop Simulation, Jonathan Siegers

Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in semiconductor technology, controls, and switching converter topologies have resulted in the increasing application of power electronics in power distribution systems. Power electronic enabled distribution systems have inspired a renewed interest in DC distribution architectures as an appealing alternative to traditional AC methods due to the significant performance and efficiency gains they offer. However, the notional power electronic based DC distribution system is a complex and extensively interconnected system consisting of multiple power converters. As a result, a number of system-level challenges related to stability arise due to interaction among multiple power converters. In addition, the power distribution …

Improving Cooling Tower Chemistry Control And Cost Savings Through Automation, Ryan Matthew Maxwell

Theses and Dissertations

Proper chemistry control of cooling towers reduces corrosion, biological growth, and precipitation of solids. Therefore, improving control can lead to increased equipment life, operating efficiency, and safety. Chemistry of cooling towers is highly dependent on loading, weather, and time. As such, cooling tower chemistry varies day to day and even hour to hour, requiring either continuous controls or large operating bands. Through automation, 24/7 monitoring and control can be achieved, allowing for deliberate operation within tight operating bands. As a direct result of automation water consumption has been reduced by 9.1 million gallons per year, CL-49 use has been reduced …

Revealing Malicious Contents Hidden In The Internet, Muhammad Nazmus Sakib

Theses and Dissertations

In this age of ubiquitous communication in which we can stay constantly connected with the rest of the world, for most of the part, we have to be grateful for one particular invention - the Internet. But as the popularity of Internet connectivity grows, it has become a very dangerous place where objects of malicious content and intent can be hidden in plain sight. In this dissertation, we investigate different ways to detect and capture these malicious contents hidden in the Internet. First, we propose an automated system that mimics high-risk browsing activities such as clicking on suspicious online ads, …

Learning Human Poses From Monocular Images, Xiaochuan Fan

Theses and Dissertations

In this research, we mainly focus on the problem of estimating the 2D human pose from a monocular image and reconstructing the 3D human pose based on the 2D human pose. Here a 3D pose is the locations of the human joints in the 3D space and a 2D pose is the projection of a 3D pose on an image. Unlike many previous works that explicitly use hand-crafted physiological models, both our 2D pose estimation and 3D pose reconstruction approaches implicitly learn the structure of human body from human pose data.

This 3D pose reconstruction is an ill-posed problem without …

Assessing Postural Stability Via The Correlation Patterns Of Vertical Ground Reaction Force Components, Chih-Yuan Hong, Lan-Yuen Guo, Rong Song, Mark L. Nagurka, Jia-Li Sung, Chen-Wen Yen

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Many methods have been proposed to assess the stability of human postural balance by using a force plate. While most of these approaches characterize postural stability by extracting features from the trajectory of the center of pressure (COP), this work develops stability measures derived from components of the ground reaction force (GRF).

Methods

In comparison with previous GRF-based approaches that extract stability features from the GRF resultant force, this study proposes three feature sets derived from the correlation patterns among the vertical GRF (VGRF) components. The first and second feature sets quantitatively assess the strength and changing speed of …

Radio-Frequency Plasma Polymerized Biodegradable Carrier For In Vivo Release Of Cis-Platinum, Sudhir Bhatt, Fatemeh Valamanesh, Jerome Pulpytel, Rea Lo Dico, Aliby Baiyukha, Iman Al-Dybiat, Marc Pocard, Farzaneh Arefi-Khonsari, Massoud Mirshahi

Bioelectrics Publications

A low pressure plasma process based on plasma deposition has been used to develop a drug delivery strategy. In this study, a drug delivery system based on different layers of plasma co-polymerized Poly ε-caprolactone-Polyethylene glycol (PCL-PEG) co-polymers was deposited on biocompatible substrates. Cis-platinum (118 μgm/cm²) was used as an anti-cancer drug and incorporated for local delivery of the chemotherapeutic agent. The co-polymer layers and their interaction with cancer cells were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Our study showed that the plasma-PCL-PEG coated cellophane membranes, in which the drug, was included did not modify the flexibility and appearance of …

Mitigating Interference During Virtual Machine Live Migration Through Storage Offloading, Morgan S. Stuart

Theses and Dissertations

Today's cloud landscape has evolved computing infrastructure into a dynamic, high utilization, service-oriented paradigm. This shift has enabled the commoditization of large-scale storage and distributed computation, allowing engineers to tackle previously untenable problems without large upfront investment. A key enabler of flexibility in the cloud is the ability to transfer running virtual machines across subnets or even datacenters using live migration. However, live migration can be a costly process, one that has the potential to interfere with other applications not involved with the migration. This work investigates storage interference through experimentation with real-world systems and well-established benchmarks. In order to …

Mainframe Relevance In Modern It: How A 50+ Year Old Computing Platform Can Still Play A Key Role In Today’S Businesses, Ian Thomas Newcombe

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

System Frequency Support Of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator-Based Wind Power Plant, Ziping Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With ever-increasing penetration of wind power into modern electric grids all over the world, a trending replacement of conventional synchronous generators by large wind power plants will likely result in the poor overall frequency regulation performance. On the other hand, permanent magnet synchronous generator wind Turbine System (PMSG-WTG) with full power back to back converters tends to become one of the most promising wind turbine technologies thanks to various advantages. It possesses a significant amount of kinetic energy stored in the rotating mass of turbine blades, which can be utilized to enhance the total inertia of power system. Additionally, the …

Implementation Of An Air Supply Unit Control Scheme For The Uc2av (Unmanned Circulation Control Aerial Vehicle), Cameron Rosen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The expanded prevalence of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in recent years has created many opportunities to research novel applications for their use, enabled by the reduced cost, mission flexibility, and reduced risk that small-scale unmanned platforms provide in comparison to larger aircraft. Despite the versatility of unmanned aviation, limitations on payload size and weight, fuel and power capacity, and takeoff and landing infrastructure can restrict UAV applications, and have created a need for lift augmenting technologies that can reduce the impact of these limitations. Circulation Control (CC) is an active flow technique that has been proven as a method for …

An Integrated Completion And Reservoir Modeling Methodology For Horizontal Shale Wells: A Montney Formation Example, Rashid S. Kassim, Larry K. Britt, Shari Dunn-Norman, Bryan Lang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Montney Formation is one of the largest unconventional resources in North America covering from southwestern Alberta to northeast British Columbia. The Montney Formation has natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL) and oil from conventional and unconventional reservoirs. The first multiple fractured horizontal well (MFHW) was drilled in 2005. However, since the first MFHW, different methods were proposed to optimize completion designs in the Montney Formation. Some of the optimized completions utilized the "operational effectiveness" of high-rate slick-water fracture designs while other designs utilized energized fracturing fluids. What has been missing was an integrated methodology that utilizes all available data …

Proceedings Of The 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference (Front Matter), Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. i-xi

Section 1: Bio-Medical/Bioengineering, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 1-30

Section 3: Materials, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 63-94

Section 2: Design & Manufacturing, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 31-62

Section 4: Materials, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 95-124

Section 5: Miscelleneous, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 125-152

Respiratory Airflow Characteristics In Obstructed Small Airways, Jongwon Kim, Ramana Pidaparti

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 1: Bio-Medical/Bioengineering; pp. 3-8

Section 6: Thermal Sciences, Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; pp. 153-174

Dynamical Response Of Alveolar Sac Due To Different Breathing Condition: A Mechanical Model, Tarin Singhapakdi, Israr B M Ibrahim, Ramana Pidaparti

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 1: Bio-Medical/Bioengineering; pp. 9-14

Proceedings Of The 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference (Complete Issue), Ectc Coordinating Committee

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Proceedings of the 16th Annual Early Career Technical Conference, November 5, 2016. School of Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama

A Subject-Variability Study Of Airflow Transport For Three Human Lung-Airway Configurations, Yu Feng, Clement Kleinstreuer

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 1: Bio-Medical/Bioengineering; pp. 22-29

Tractor Power Hop: Wheel Normal Reaction Analysis, Siyuan Hunter Zhang, Vladimir Vantsevich

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 2: Design & Manufacturing; pp. 38-41

Design Of A Balance Sensing System For People With Physical Disabilities Using Velostat, John M. Hoyle, Alan W. Eberhardt

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 2: Design & Manufacturing; pp. 50-55

Viscosity And Morphology Modification Of Length Sorted Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes In Pib Matrices, Hanxiao Huang, Bohoa Li, Daneesh Simien

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 2: Design & Manufacturing; pp. 42-49

Design And Analysis Of A Long-Endurance Humanitarian Uav, Ali Darwish, Arie Nakhmani

Early Career Technical Journal (ECTJ)

Section 2: Design & Manufacturing; pp. 56-61