Engineering Commons^™

Fatal General Aviation Accidents In Furtherance Of Business (1996–2015): Rates, Risk Factors, And Accident Causes, Scott Burgess, Stewart Boyd, Douglas D. Boyd

Publications

Introduction: General aviation missions related to furtherance of business potentially carry higher risk (operations in adverse weather, at night, for longer distances) than those undertaken for recreation. The study herein was undertaken to determine fatal accident rates, proportions, and risk factors/causes. Method: The National Transportation Safety Board aviation accident database was queried for accidents (1996–2015). Annual fleet times were from the general aviation annual activity survey. Statistical analyses used Poisson distributions, proportion testing, and Cohen’s Kappa tests. Results: The fatal accident rate for business operations was three- to six-fold lower than the rate for recreational flights with a decline evident …

Test 2207: Challenger Mt743, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Test 2205: Challenger Mt738, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Test 2202: John Deere 6215r Autoquad-Plus, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Test 2200a: New Holland Workmaster 70, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Test 2200: Case Ih Farmall 70a, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Test 2190a: New Holland Workmaster 50, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

The Effect Of Task Load, Automation Reliability, And Environment Complexity On Uav Supervisory Control Performance, Sarah M. Sherwood

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Over the last decade, military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have experienced exponential growth and now comprise over 40% of military aircraft. However, since most military UAVs require multiple operators (usually an air vehicle operator, payload operator, and mission commander), the proliferation of UAVs has created a manpower burden within the U.S. military. Fortunately, simultaneous advances in UAV automation have enabled a switch from direct control to supervisory control; future UAV operators will no longer directly control a single UAV subsystem but, rather, will control multiple advanced, highly autonomous UAVs. However, research is needed to better understand operator performance in a …

Engineering A Molecular Missile For Pancreatic Cancer Detection: Vector Design, Sophia Castillo, Zhiwen Zhang

Helene Lafrance Library Undergraduate Research Award

Pancreatic cancer, though rare, is expected to be the second-leading cause of cancer-related death by 2030 (Rahib et al., 2014). CA 19-9 is currently the most widely used biomarker for pancreatic cancer detection, but detection of CA 19-9 relies on the use of monoclonal antibodies, a technology that entails an expensive, lengthy, and ethically problematic manufacturing process. This paper presents the design of a DNA vector that can be used to program E. coli to produce a “molecular missile” that targets CA 19-9. Through the site-specific incorporation of an unnatural amino acid (L-DOPA), this peptide can be engineered to bind …

Handwritten Bangla Character Recognition Using The State-Of-The-Art Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Md Zahangir Alom, Paheding Sidike, Mahmudul Hasan, Tarek M. Taha, Vijayan K. Asari

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In spite of advances in object recognition technology, handwritten Bangla character recognition (HBCR) remains largely unsolved due to the presence of many ambiguous handwritten characters and excessively cursive Bangla handwritings. Even many advanced existing methods do not lead to satisfactory performance in practice that related to HBCR. In this paper, a set of the state-of-the-art deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) is discussed and their performance on the application of HBCR is systematically evaluated. The main advantage of DCNN approaches is that they can extract discriminative features from raw data and represent them with a high degree of invariance to object …

Field-Verified Integrated Eaf-Svc-Electrode Positioning Model Simulation And Anovel Hybrid Series Compensation Control For Eaf, Ahmed Hassan, Amr Abou-Ghazala, Ashraf Megahed

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, modeling and simulation of a typical steel-making network are realized using MATLAB Simulink environment and validated using trends collected from an actual steel plant. The models integrate different reactions between an electric arc furnace (EAF), a static Var compensator, and electrode positioning systems according to a previously introduced theory of operations. In addition, the conventional electrode positioning control performance is compared with the new hybrid series compensation control method to demonstrate the superiority of the new method regarding system response. With help of the proposed series compensation, the reference resistance value was restored 2.5 s faster than …

A Novel Efficient Tsv Built-In Test For Stacked 3d Ics, Badi Guibane, Belgacem Hamdi, Brahim Ben Salem, Abdellatif Mtibaa

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

A through-silicon via (TSV) is established as the main enabler for a three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) that increases system density and compactness. The exponential increase in TSV density led to TSV-induced catastrophic and parametric faults. We propose an original architecture that detects errors caused by TSV manufacturing defects. The proposed design for testability is a built-in technique that detects errors in an early manufacturing stage and is hence very economically attractive. The proposal is capable of testing each and every TSV in the network. The technique achieves high fault coverage and high observability.

Analyzing The Spectral Energy Cascade In Turbulent Channel Flow, João Rodrigo Andrade, Ramon Silva Martins, Gilmar Mompean, Laurent Thais, Thomas B. Gatski

CCPO Publications

An analysis of the spectral turbulent kinetic energy budget in a fully developed turbulent plane channel flow is performed. Direct numerical simulation data are evaluated at friction Reynolds numbers Re_τ of 180 and 1000. The analysis is focused on the influence of the Reynolds number on the spectral cascade of energy and the corresponding energy cascade in physical space in the presence of inhomogeneity and anisotropy. The turbulent kinetic energy distribution is compared for both Reynolds numbers, and the relevant characteristics of the energy transfer process in a wall-bounded turbulent flow are described. Differences in energy cascade are noted …

Two Pumps, One Volcano: An Epanet Feasbility Study Of Connecting Two Groundwater Pumps In Rural Coastal Communities In West Ambae, Vanuatu, Helen Amiri

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In situations where groundwater supply shows vulnerability, improving water distribution network resiliency can be desirable. To do so, one water source can be linked with another to provide a redundant source.

On the South Pacific island of Ambae, the water demands of its residents routinely exceeded supply. Residents had traditionally used rainwater collection as their sole water supply source. In 2017, groundwater drilling operations created an alternative water supply at two community institutions, Ndui Ndui Health Center and Londua Junior Secondary School. One borehole went dry during pump testing; the feasibility of linking these two boreholes is investigated herein.

EPANET …

The Influence Of Employee's Perceptions Of Top Management Support, Information Technology Competence, Technology Strategy, Organizational Climate, And Organization's Nationality On Information Systems Security, And Quality Success, Saud Fawwaz Alsahli

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research investigated the relationship between levels of top management, information technology, competence, technology strategy, and organizational climate within an organization and organization’s success of information systems. The study conducted a quantitative study of 120 employees working for two organizations within the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia and determine whether organizational attributes affect changes in information systems success. In addition, an American organization (40 employees) was used as a comparison. The analysis of the study found that top management support, information technology competence, technology strategy, and organizational climate were strongly correlated with information systems success in Saudi organizations. In …

Sequence Effects On The Glass Transition Temperature, William Drayer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Lithium ion batteries are widely used for the energy needs of portable electronic devices. Unfortunately, current liquid organic solvents used as the electrolytic portion of the battery have low thermal stability, resulting in batteries that may combust upon failure. This flammability can be attributed to the configurational strain in cyclic organic electrolytes. Due to the lack of configurational strain in a flexible polymer chain, designing polymer electrolytes for use in lithium ion batteries may result in a safer battery due to their lower flammability in comparison to traditional liquid organic electrolytes. From the perspective of an electrolytic polymer, lowering the …

Reflections On Teaching System Dynamics Modeling To Secondary School Students For Over 20 Years, Diana Fisher

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper contains the description of a successful system dynamics (SD) modeling approach used for almost a quarter-century in secondary schools, both in algebra classes and in a year-long SD modeling course. Secondary school students have demonstrated an ability to build original models from the news, write technical papers explaining their models, and present a newfound understanding of dynamic feedback behavior to an audience. The educational learning theory and instructional methods used for both the algebra and modeling courses are detailed, with examples. Successful student SD modeling experiences suggest the SD approach can expand the sophistication of topics that secondary …

Evaluation Of White Rot Fungus As A Pretreatment For Thermochemical Processing Of Switchgrass, Melody Embry

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Hydrothermal liquefaction is a thermochemical technique for obtaining crude bio-oil from lignocellulosic biomass with moderate temperature and pressure. The crude bio-oil can then be upgraded to various biofuels and bioproducts. Hydrothermal liquefaction is amenable to use of biomass feedstocks that have high-moisture. The overall goal of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of white rot fungus (WRF) as a pretreatment option in the production of bio-oil from switchgrass through hydrothermal liquefaction. If WRF is an effective pretreatment, it could be a cost-effective option for commercialization, allowing hydrothermal liquefaction to be used on an industrial scale to produce high quality …

Robotic Mining Digging Core, John Stefan, Ryan Weir

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this design project is to design a digging core for a lunar robot that will collect large amounts of material buried beneath the surface of Mars so one day, astronauts can use those resources. This lunar robot will be competing in the NASA Robotic Mining Competition, where teams from universities around the country display and test their designs. This design must adhere to a newly implemented rule which states that the amount of gravel a robot collects will determine the team score. The layer of gravel is located underneath a layer of Regolith, which simulates the surface …

Retail Data Analytics Using Graph Database, Rashmi Priya

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Big data is an area focused on storing, processing and visualizing huge amount of data. Today data is growing faster than ever before. We need to find the right tools and applications and build an environment that can help us to obtain valuable insights from the data. Retail is one of the domains that collects huge amount of transaction data everyday. Retailers need to understand their customer’s purchasing pattern and behavior in order to take better business decisions.

Market basket analysis is a field in data mining, that is focused on discovering patterns in retail’s transaction data. Our goal is …

Interactive Clinical Event Pattern Mining And Visualization Using Insurance Claims Data, Zhenhui Piao

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

With exponential growth on a daily basis, there is potentially valuable information hidden in complex electronic medical records (EMR) systems. In this thesis, several efficient data mining algorithms were explored to discover hidden knowledge in insurance claims data. The first aim was to cluster three levels of information overload(IO) groups among chronic rheumatic disease (CRD) patient groups based on their clinical events extracted from insurance claims data. The second aim was to discover hidden patterns using three renowned pattern mining algorithms: Apriori, frequent pattern growth(FP-Growth), and sequential pattern discovery using equivalence classes(SPADE). The SPADE algorithm was found to be the …

Improving Table Scans For Trie Indexed Databases, Ethan Toney

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

We consider a class of problems characterized by the need for a string based identifier that reflect the ontology of the application domain. We present rules for string-based identifier schemas that facilitate fast filtering in databases used for this class of problems. We provide runtime analysis of our schema and experimentally compare it with another solution. We also discuss performance in our solution to a game engine. The string-based identifier schema can be used in addition scenarios such as cloud computing. An identifier schema adds metadata about an element. So the solution hinges on additional memory but as long as …

“Woodlands” - A Virtual Reality Serious Game Supporting Learning Of Practical Road Safety Skills., Krzysztof Szczurowski, Matt Smith

Conference Papers

In developed societies road safety skills are taught early and often practiced under the supervision of a parent, providing children with a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge. At some point children will attempt to cross a road unsupervised, at that point in time their safety depends on the effectiveness of their road safety education. To date, various attempts to supplement road safety education with technology were made. Most common approach focus on addressing declarative knowledge, by delivering road safety theory in an engaging fashion. Apart from expanding on text based resources to include instructional videos and animations, some stakeholders …

Mintbase V2.0: A Comprehensive Database For Trna-Derived Fragments That Includes Nuclear And Mitochondrial Fragments From All The Cancer Genome Atlas Projects., Venetia Pliatsika, Phillipe Loher, Rogan Magee, Aristeidis G. Telonis, Eric R. Londin, Megumi Shigematsu, Yohei Kirino, Isidore Rigoutsos

Computational Medicine Center Faculty Papers

MINTbase is a repository that comprises nuclear and mitochondrial tRNA-derived fragments ('tRFs') found in multiple human tissues. The original version of MINTbase comprised tRFs obtained from 768 transcriptomic datasets. We used our deterministic and exhaustive tRF mining pipeline to process all of The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets (TCGA). We identified 23 413 tRFs with abundance of ≥ 1.0 reads-per-million (RPM). To facilitate further studies of tRFs by the community, we just released version 2.0 of MINTbase that contains information about 26 531 distinct human tRFs from 11 719 human datasets as of October 2017. Key new elements include: the ability …

Optical Mapping Of Cardiac Electromechanics, Hanyu Zhang

All ETDs from UAB

Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the world. One of the common causes of sudden cardiac arrest is acute regional ischemia due to coronary occlusion. However, the mechanism of arrhythmia onset in this setting is still unclear. Previous stud-ies suggest that abnormal mechanical stretch during acute regional ischemia may play a role in initiating arrhythmia through triggering ectopic electrical activation. Optical map-ping has been widely used in cardiac electrophysiological research in the past decades. Compared with conventional electrical mapping techniques, optical mapping offers a number of advantages. But a major limitation of optical mapping is that …

Centrifugal Microfluidics For Label-Free Isolation Of Leukocytes Subpopulations From Whole Blood, Yuxi Sun

All ETDs from UAB

Leukocytes carry critical information regarding the immediate immune and inflammation status of the patients. Analysis of leukocytes requires isolation from blood since the leukocytes only consist <1% of all blood cells. Commonly used isolation processes exploit physical or biochemical differences between different cell types to enable separations. Current isolation methods inevitably subject cells to physical or biochemical stress that can activate leukocytes and change their natural state. Thus, information contained within isolated leukocytes is a combination of the natural state of the cell and an artifact of the isolation process. Microfluidics which takes advantage of scaling effects within microscale structures can ensure rapid and gentle alternatives to conventional isolation methods and is ideal for sorting, and analysis of cells and particles. The precise control of flow/particles and scaling effects of microfluidics have been applied for blood cells sorting and isolation. However, the limited processing capability and throughput as well as complex fabrication and operations have hampered widespread adoption of these approaches for replacement of conventional methods. My goal was to develop a simple yet powerful microfluidic tool that enables rapid separation of leukocytes while ensuring sufficient throughput, and minimizing isolation process induced activation without the need any sample pre-processing. This project is divided into two specific aims: i) to miniaturize the conventional density gradient centrifugation using centrifugal microfluidics for PBMC isolation and evaluate separation efficiency and activation status of isolated cells in comparison to conventional techniques; ii) develop new approach for PBMC sorting using microfluidic phase partitioning to enable separation of cells based on differences in cell surface energy. For specific aim 1, PBMCs were isolated based on differences in densities using microfluidic density gradient centrifugation. We show that PBMCs can be isolated from 100µl whole blood within 5 minutes. Evaluation of leukocyte activation via profiling of expression of surface integrins and chemokine receptors shows that our microfluidic approach significantly reduced PBMC activation in comparison to conventional isolation approaches. In specific aim 2, we sought to isolate cells based on differenced in surface energy using two-phase partitioning of dextran (DEX) and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Proof of concept demonstrations was accomplished using with polystyrene and silicon dioxide microbeads which represent a mixture of white blood cells and red blood cells. The DEX and PEG mixtures were introduced into a circular channel and phase separated under centrifugal force into unique DEX and PEG phases. The bead mixture was isolated via differences in their affinity to the two phases.

Novel Topologies Based Rf Filtering Components And Methodologies For Wireless Communication System, Wei Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

Driven by the rapid progress of wireless communication technology in the past several decades, multiple generations of cellular technologies have been developed, deployed, and adopted to provide more convenient communication services to users. Nowadays, the personal hand-held devices, supporting multiple wireless standards, have been a multimedia terminal encompassing elements and functions such as video callers, Internet connectivity, home appliances remote controller, GPS, TV reception, and beyond. In order to accommodate a variety of wireless standards in a single device without imposing a substantial increase in cost and size, current and future RF transceiver front-ends should be designed with more attention. …

Energy Management System Of Hybrid Wayside Storage In Urban Railway Traction, Anil Rajpatei

Dissertations and Theses

In a city that never sleeps, NYC, also called the big apple, there is the largest population in the United States with close to 9 million people. In addition, it is the second wealthiest city in the world according to ranking by gross domestic product (GDP). Being such a densely populated city, people cannot only rely on their vehicles as the only source of commute. The alternative is to use mass transit. New York City Transit (NYCT) is the largest mass transit system that offers commuting services via subway or buses. More than half of the population rely on mass …

Fundamental Aspects Of A Novel Technology For Abatement Of Indoor Allergens, Odell Lendor Glenn Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The overall goal of this research was to develop a novel approach to reduce the potency of certain asthma triggers, namely, proteins produced by pests or pets in indoor environments. The broad hypothesis of the research was that naturally occurring essential oils will demonstrate enhanced denaturing ability. In any indoor environment, allergens are bound to dry dust particles. In this work, the effectiveness of using dry ice and CO2 with potential for essential oils on dry allergenic proteins through CFD modeling and ELISA methods were evaluated.

There are three objectives central to this work. The first objective was to apply …

Information Systems Continuance: Faculty Perceptions Of Canvas, Leila Halawi, Richard V. Mccarthy, James Farah

Publications

This research in process proposes a study of the theoretical background, motivation, and methods to examine factors that predict faculty perceived usefulness, ease of use, satisfaction and learning facilitation of the Canvas learning management system. We propose utilizing a model to predict continuance intention of use in an online class using Canvas and describe the methodology that will be used to test this model. The focus of this research is on continuance usage as it is the variable that enhances the teaching and learning experience with factors that are helpful in understanding the phenomenon.