Engineering Commons^™

Silicon-Germanium Nanowire Heterojunctions: Optical And Electrical Properties, Xiaolu Wang

Dissertations

Semiconductor nanowires are quasi-one-dimensional objects with unique physical properties and strong potential in nanophotonics, nanoelectronics, biosensing, and solar cell devices. The next challenge in the development of nanowire functional structures is the nanowire axial heterojunctions, especially lattice mismatched heterojunctions. Si and Ge have a considerable lattice mismatch of ~ 4.2% as well as a mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion, and the formation of a Si_1-xGe_x transition layer at the heterointerface creates a non-uniform strain and modifies the band structures of the adjacent Si and Ge nanowire segments. These nanostructures are produced by catalytic chemical …

Formulation And Dissolution Of Polymer Strip Films For The Delivery Of Poorly Water-Soluble Drug Nanoparticles, Scott Matthew Krull

Dissertations

Polymer films have emerged as a promising platform for delivery of pharmaceutical products in recent years due to simplified processing, greater flexibility, and improved patient compliance over traditional solid dosage forms. However, the large majority of efforts have focused on incorporation of water-soluble drugs. The objective of this dissertation is to explore the robustness and versatility of the strip film platform for delivery of poorly water-soluble drug nanoparticles to ultimately develop a predictive model for drug release from such films.

The robustness of the polymer strip film platform to successfully deliver a variety of poorly water-soluble drug nanoparticles without the …

Field Induced Assembly Of Particulate Systems, Kinnari Shah

Dissertations

The primary focus of the first part of this dissertation is to study the AC field-driven assembly of monodisperse silica and glass particles on liquid - liquid interface and forming a liquid film of uniform thickness having arrangement of particles on it. This liquid film with arrangement of regular particles can be converted into a solid film by curing top UV curable liquid. Here, electric field is used as a tool to facilitate AC field-driven assembly. The work describes the assembly of different size of regular particles and effective development of solid film.

It is also shown that particles of …

Optimization Of The Front End Of Cdte Solar Cells, Yunfei Chen

Dissertations

The front end of CdTe solar cells consists of two layers: a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layer and a window layer. New wider band gap materials, ZnMgO are being used to replace CdS as the window layer for the purpose of removing blue loss. For ZnMgO, three important parameters, including the atomic Mg content (x), thickness (t), and doping concentration (n) can play important roles on the performance of CdTe solar cells. In this dissertation, systematic simulation, by solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS), and experiments are used to investigate the influences of these …

Co2 Reduction Over Noble Metal/Carbon Nanotube Catalyst, Yuan Zhu

Dissertations

Carbon nanotube-based Pt/Pd and Ru catalysts, independently synthesized by a microwave reaction technique, show good catalytic activity for CO2 reduction in the contexts of dry reforming (DR) of methane (CH₄ + CO₂ -> 2CO + 2H₂) and reverse water gas shift (RWGS) (H2 + CO₂ -> CO + H₂O). Reaction temperatures range from 773 to 973 K, with system pressure at 30 psig. The feed molar ratios CH4/CO₂ and CO₂/H₂ are varied from 0.5 to 2.0. Reactant conversions in DR and RWGS are strongly influenced by temperature and feed …

Assessment Of Nanocomposites Vs. Amorphous Solid Dispersions For Dissolution Enhancement Of Bcs Class Ii Drugs, Meng Li

Dissertations

Nanoparticle-based formulations (nanocomposites) and amorphous solid dispersions, shortly ASDs, are two major pharmaceutical formulation platforms used for the bioavailability enhancement of poorly water-soluble drugs. While they both have several advantages-disadvantages, a scientific comparative assessment of their drug release performance and dissolution mechanisms at different drug doses is not available. With the goal of addressing this issue, the dissertation aims to achieve three major objectives: (1) develop a processing-formulation understanding of wet media milling process for fast-efficient production of drug nanoparticles in stable nanosuspension form, (2) elucidate the impact of various classes dispersants on drug release rate and mechanisms during the …

Modeling Subconcussive And Cumulative Subconcussive Impacts Using A Lateral Fluid Percusion Injury Device, Todd Long

Dissertations

Repetitive mTBI and concussion are a major risk factor for developing long-term cognitive and behavioral impairments. Curiously, cumulative head injuries sustained over an individuals’ career, involving contact activities (e.g. athletes and military personnel), are beginning to be implicated in long-term consequences, such as dementia. Recently, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has gained momentum in the science and medical community as a neurodegenerative disease of repetitive head injuries. CTE was observed at autopsy of former athletes that did not closely correlate with a clinical history of concussion. Thus, suggesting cumulative subconcussive insults may induce long-term damage.

Investigating the etiology of subconcussive and …

Characterization Of Microporous Ectfe Membranes Exposed To Different Liquid Media And ?-Radiation And Nanoparticle Microfiltration Through Such Membranes, Na Yao

Dissertations

Microporous polymeric membranes are used in a variety of applications for separations, purification as well as barrier function. A major application is for microfiltration (MF). Changes in the properties of MF membranes exposed to acids, bases and organic solvents are of interest in semiconductor processing as well as in membrane contactor applications. Microfiltration membranes used for sterilization in beverage, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are sterilized by gamma radiation among others. Irradiation-induced degradation in membrane properties should be known. A variety of fluoropolymer-based microporous membranes are available with varying properties. Ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE) membranes are a new addition and are of …

Conference Program, Aldo R. Boccaccini, Omer Van Der Biest, James Dickerson, Tetsuo Uchikoshi

Electrophoretic Deposition VI: Fundamentals and Applications

No abstract provided.

Erosion Behavior And Scour Risk Of Extremely Coarse Streambeds, Abolfazl Bayat

Dissertations

Bridge scour, which is the erosion of soil and rock around bridge abutments and piers, is the principal cause of bridge failure in the United States and around the world. Previous investigations of scour have focused mostly on fine sediments such as sand, silt, and small gravel, because such alluvium underlies a majority of bridges. The erosion resistance of coarser sediments has received limited attention to date, even though they dominate many small to medium-size rivers in the northern tiers of the United States, Europe, and Asia. This study focuses on the scour behavior of extremely coarse particles (ECP), namely …

Simulation, Performance And Interference Analysis Of Multi-User Visible Light Communication Systems, Adel Aldalbahi

Dissertations

The emergence of new physical media such as optical wireless, and the ability to aggregate these new media with legacy networks motivate the study of heterogeneous network performance, especially with respect to the design of protocols to best exploit the characteristics of each medium.

This study considers Visible Light Communications (VLC), which is expected to coexist with legacy and future radio frequency (RF) media. While most of the research on VLC has been done on optimizing the physical medium, research on higher network layers is only beginning to gain attention, requiring new analyses and tools for performance analysis.

The first …

Engineering News, Fall 2017, School Of Engineering

Engineering News

No abstract provided.

Conference Program, Karsten Durst

Nanomechanical Testing in Materials Research and Development VI

No abstract provided.

Illuminator, Volume 1, Issue 1, Batten College Of Engineering & Technology

College of Engineering & Technology Newsletter

October 2017 issue of Illuminator, a monthly publication of ODU's Batten College of Engineering and Technology.

Magnus--An Ultra-High Specific Torque Pm Axial Flux Type Motor With Flux Focusing And Modulation, Vandana Rallabandi, Narges Taran, Dan M. Ionel, Ion G. Boldea

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky Faculty Publications

Axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) synchronous motors are attractive for low speed direct drive systems because of their high specific torque. The present paper proposes a novel axial flux machine topology, called MAGNUS, obtained by combining a yokeless central stator type NS arrangement with two external high polarity spoke-rotors, resulting in very high flux concentration. The stator, which includes main and auxiliary teeth for air-gap profiling has a small number of concentrated coils. Two stator configurations are discussed, the first, a yokeless construction with coils wound around the teeth, and the second with coils placed around the stator core in …

What Does Explainable Ai Really Mean? A New Conceptualization Of Perspectives, Derek Doran, Sarah Schulz, Tarek R. Besold

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

We characterize three notions of explainable AI that cut across research fields: opaque systems that offer no insight into its algo- rithmic mechanisms; interpretable systems where users can mathemat- ically analyze its algorithmic mechanisms; and comprehensible systems that emit symbols enabling user-driven explanations of how a conclusion is reached. The paper is motivated by a corpus analysis of NIPS, ACL, COGSCI, and ICCV/ECCV paper titles showing differences in how work on explainable AI is positioned in various fields. We close by introducing a fourth notion: truly explainable systems, where automated reasoning is central to output crafted explanations without requiring human …

A Framework For Recommendation Of Highly Popular News Lacking Social Feedback, Nuno Moniz, Luís Torgo, Magdalini Eirinaki, Paula Branco

Faculty Publications

Social media is rapidly becoming the main source of news consumption for users, raising significant challenges to news aggregation and recommendation tasks. One of these challenges concerns the recommendation of very recent news. To tackle this problem, approaches to the prediction of news popularity have been proposed. In this paper, we study the task of predicting news popularity upon their publication, when social feedback is unavailable or scarce, and to use such predictions to produce news rankings. Unlike previous work, we focus on accurately predicting highly popular news. Such cases are rare, causing known issues for standard prediction models and …

Evaluating The Performance Of Contech's Stormfilter With Zpg Media Under The City Of Portland's 2016 Stormwater Management Manual Requirements For Manufactured Stormwater Treatment Technologies, Mawj T.H. Khammas

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Stormwater runoff is the water generated from excess rainfall or snowmelt that flows over impervious surfaces such as paved roads, parking lots, and on roofs, it often carries a variety of pollutants that adversely affect water quality in that region. Portland is a well-developed city; the majority of the streets are paved and impervious and will consequently generate a tremendous amount of stormwater this creates the necessity for management to help preserve and mimic natural hydrologic cycle through improving water quality. The StormFilter® with ZPG media, manufactured by CONTECH, is a manufactured stormwater treatment technology(MSTT) in which zeolite, perlite, and …

Teaching Image Processing And Visualization Principles To Medicine Students, Christina Gillmann, Thomas Wischgoll, Jose T. Hernandez, Hans Hagen

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Although image processing becomes increasingly important in most applications such as medicine, image processing and visualization is usually not a part of the medical education and therefore not widely spread in clinical daily routine. Contrary to students from computer science, medical students are usually not familiar to computational models or algorithms and require a different view of the algorithms instead of knowing each computational detail. To solve this problem this paper presents the concept of a lecture that aims to impart image processing and visualization principals for students in medicine in order to pioneer a higher acceptance and propagation of …

Ua66 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter, Wku Ogden College Of Science & Engineering

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

Newsletter created by and about Ogden College of Science & Engineering.

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Writing And Women's Retention In Engineering, Jennifer C. Mallette

English Literature Faculty Publications and Presentations

Engineering disciplines have focused on recruiting and retaining women, assessing factors that contribute to decisions to enter or exit the field at every level. While many studies have examined writing in engineering disciplines, few have looked at writing’s role in women’s decisions to remain in or leave engineering. Using a case study of a professional civil engineer, Katy, this study examines the role that writing played in her dissatisfaction with engineering and her ultimate decision to leave the field. The author analyzes two genres of writing, meeting minutes and a preliminary engineering report, to explore how Katy’s writing practices often …

People Like Me: Increasing Likelihood Of Success For Underrepresented Minorities In Stem By Providing Realistic And Relatable Role Models, Nir Aish, Philip Asare, Elif Miskioglu

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

Seeing themselves represented in the role models they aspire to, has been shown to be important to students' sense of belonging and success. Underrepresented college students in STEM fields are exposed to only a small set of role models. This set often consist of famous individuals with extraordinary stories (we call these outliers), and represent unfeasible paths to success for a large majority of these students. We aim to remedy this by identifying a set of role models who represent more feasible paths to success (we call these non-outliers) for many underrepresented students. We contend that, despite the less extraordinary …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 58 Number 4, Fall 2017, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

18 - TIME FOR A BIG SHIFT We work and save for decades. And then what? A behavioral finance expert writes about the tough transition many face. By Meir Statman. Illustrations by Hanna Barczyk.

22 - WHAT WE OWE At the very least: stories that capture the contour of a life. A Pulitzer Prize– winning reporter on tales of human strife and resilience. By Tatiana Sanchez ’10.

28 - THE MOST IMPORTANT Lawsuit on the Planet It was first filed against the Obama administration and draws on decades of government records. It seeks no monetary damages. But advocates and critics …

A Comparative Study On The Durability Of Geopolymer Mortars Produced With Ground Glass Fiber, Fly Ash, And Glass-Powder In Sodium Sulfate Solution, Hassan Rashidian-Dezfouli, Prasada Rao Rangaraju

Publications

An experimental investigation was conducted to investigate the performance of geopolymers made with three different precursors consisting of fly ash, Ground Glass Fiber (GGF), and Glass-Powder (GLP) exposed to sodium sulfate solution. Precursors were activated using either sodium hydroxide solution or combinations of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solution with varying levels of sodium and silica content. Among the mixtures with each of the three precursors, mortar mixtures with the highest compressive strength were selected to test their resistance against exposure to a 5% sodium sulfate solution. Changes in the weight and compressive strength of the specimens were monitored up …

Scalable Data Structure To Compress Next-Generation Sequencing Files And Its Application To Compressive Genomics, Sandino Vargas-Perez, Fahad Saeed

Parallel Computing and Data Science Lab Technical Reports

It is now possible to compress and decompress large-scale Next-Generation Sequencing files taking advantage of high-performance computing techniques. To this end, we have recently introduced a scalable hybrid parallel algorithm, called phyNGSC, which allows fast compression as well as decompression of big FASTQ datasets using distributed and shared memory programming models via MPI and OpenMP. In this paper we present the design and implementation of a novel parallel data structure which lessens the dependency on decompression and facilitates the handling of DNA sequences in their compressed state using fine-grained decompression in a technique that is identified as in …

Power-Efficient And Highly Scalable Parallel Graph Sampling Using Fpgas, Usman Tariq, Umer Cheema, Fahad Saeed

Parallel Computing and Data Science Lab Technical Reports

Energy efficiency is a crucial problem in data centers where big data is generally represented by directed or undirected graphs. Analysis of this big data graph is challenging due to volume and velocity of the data as well as irregular memory access patterns. Graph sampling is one of the most effective ways to reduce the size of graph while maintaining crucial characteristics. In this paper we present design and implementation of an FPGA based graph sampling method which is both time- and energy-efficient. This is in contrast to existing parallel approaches which include memory-distributed clusters, multicore and GPUs. Our …

Case Study: Modernization Of The Walker River Irrigation District, Stuart Styles, Robert C. Bryan, Sierra Layous

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The Irrigation Training and Research Center (ITRC) and Walker River Irrigation District (WRID) collaborated on the modernization of WRID with support from the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of Interior in Carson City, Nevada. This paper presents an update to the USCID case study that was presented in 2014 on the initial proposed plan for improving water gauges throughout WRID. There has been phased implementation of the initial proposed plan as well as modification and expansion of that plan. The initial scope of work for system improvements was developed by ITRC in 2009 following field investigations and engineering analyses of …

A Hierarchical Approach For Creating Electrically Conductive Network Structure In Polyurethane Nanocomposites Using A Hybrid Of Graphene Nanoplatelets, Carbon Black And Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Pashupati Pokharel, Dequan Xiao, Folarin Erogbogbo, Ozgur Keles, Dai Soo Lee

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Faculty Publications

Hierarchical organization of carbon nanomaterials is the best strategy to combine desirable factors and synergistically impart mechanical and electrical properties to polymers. Here, we investigate the relaxation behavior of carbon nanofillers filled polyurethane (PU) with special reference to particle size and aspect ratio, filler morphology, filler loading to understand the conductive network formation of fillers in the PU matrix. Typically, an addition of 2 wt% hybrid fillers of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), conductive carbon black (CB) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in PU at 1:1:2 mass ratio (GCM112-PU2) showed lowest surface resistivity ~10^6.8 ohm/sq along with highest improved mechanical properties. …

Ransomware In Healthcare Facilities: The Future Is Now, Nikki Spence, David P. Paul Iii, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Cybercriminals have begun to target the healthcare industry with a type of malware called ransomware, malware that encrypts an infected device and any attached devices or network drives. After encryption, cybercriminals demand a sum of money, also known as a “ransom,” to release the devices from encryption. Without adequate disaster recovery and backup plans, many businesses are forced to pay the ransom. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of recent ransomware infections in healthcare settings, the risk liabilities and cost associated with such infections, and to determine possible risk mitigation tactics. Financial costs associated with business …

Geopolitical Relations: Uganda’S Role In The Development Of The River Nile, Jordan Williams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examined the geopolitical relations of the Nile Basin by looking at Uganda as a case study, and analyzed Uganda’s use and development of the River Nile. It reviews the history of transboundary politics and treaties along with Uganda’s development projects in the region. The paper then discusses modern relations and agreements, with a focus on the most recent agreement between the Riparian States, the Cooperative Framework Agreement, and how Uganda fits into them with regards to their interest in hydropower development within their borders on the Nile. It then explores possible future developments on the river and the …