Engineering Commons^™

Research On High-Rap Asphalt Mixtures With Rejuvenators - Phase Ii, Hamzeh Haghshenas, Gabriel Nsengiyumva, Yong-Rak Kim, Kommidi Santosh, Soroosh Amelian

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

A previous study by the authors have demonstrated effectiveness of three rejuvenators: R1 (triglyceride/fatty acid: agriculture-tech based), R2 (aromatic extract: petroleum-tech based), and R3 (tall oil: green-tech based) on rejuvenating properties of the aged binder. In that study, it was observed that the rejuvenators made high-RAP mixtures softer and more compliant, which may increase the rutting potential, while they simultaneously improve cracking resistance of the high-RAP materials. Research outcomes and findings from the previous study resulted in consequential research needs for more specific investigation of high-RAP mixtures with rejuvenators in order to achieve realistic implementation into future high-RAP paving projects …

Validation Of The Mechanical Rocker Test Method For Ice Melting Capacity (Mrt-Imc), Lieska Halsey, David Hansen

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The anti-icing and deicing industry has interest in the development of an objective, repeatable test procedure for the evaluation and comparison of anti-icing and deicing products. Pursuant to this goal, the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) funded research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to investigate methods for evaluating deicing products, beginning in 2011[1]. Researchers at UNL developed the procedure for the Mechanical Rocker Test for Ice Melting Capacity (MRT or MRT-IMC) in 2014[2].

From 2017-2019, NDOT evaluated the MRT-IMC procedure for validity and suitability as a standard test procedure for assessing deicer performance. NDOT also explored opportunities to improve …

Cpt-Based Pile Design, Chung R. Song, Seunghee Kim, Binyam Bekele, Jingtao Zhang, Alex Silvey

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The geotechnical design of a pile foundation is concerned with the determination of the safe magnitude of an external load that the foundation can carry without jeopardizing the stability of the supported structure. In recent years, in-situ sounding tests are becoming a more attractive method to predict pile capacity due to the rapid development of testing instruments, improved understanding of their mechanics and interpretation, and cost efficiency. The cone penetration test (CPT) and its upgraded version, the piezocone penetration test (PCPT), are the most widely used in situ sounding tests to predict pile capacity. This research report compared eight CPT-based …

Charged Nanoparticles Quench The Propulsion Of Active Janus Colloids, Marola W. Issa, Nicky R. Baumgartner, Mohammed A. Kalil, Shawn D. Ryan, Christopher L. Wirth

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Active colloidal particles regularly interact with surfaces in applications ranging from microfluidics to sensing. Recent work has revealed the complex nature of these surface interactions for active particles. Herein, we summarize experiments and simulations that show the impact of charged nanoparticles on the propulsion of an active colloid near a boundary. Adding charged nanoparticles not only decreased the average separation distance of a passive colloid because of depletion attraction as expected but also decreased the apparent propulsion of a Janus colloid to near zero. Complementary agentbased simulations considering the impact of hydrodynamics for active Janus colloids were conducted in the …

No-Reference Image Denoising Quality Assessment, Si Lu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A wide variety of image denoising methods are available now. However, the performance of a denoising algorithm often depends on individual input noisy images as well as its parameter setting. In this paper, we present a noreference image denoising quality assessment method that can be used to select for an input noisy image the right denoising algorithm with the optimal parameter setting. This is a challenging task as no ground truth is available. This paper presents a data-driven approach to learn to predict image denoising quality. Our method is based on the observation that while individual existing quality metrics and …

Need For Aeromedical Evacuation High-Level Containment Transport Guidelines, Shawn G. Gibbs, Jocelyn J. Herstein, Aurora B. Le, Elizabeth L. Beam, Theodore J. Cieslak, James V. Lawler, Joshua L. Santarpia, Terry L. Stentz, Kelli R. Kopocis-Herstein, Chandran Achutan, Gary W. Carter, John J. Lowe

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Circumstances exist that call for the aeromedical evacuation high-level containment transport (AE-HLCT) of patients with highly hazardous communicable diseases. A small number of organizations maintain AE-HLCT capabilities, and little is publicly available regarding the practices. The time is ripe for the development of standards and consensus guidelines involving AE-HLCT.

Hvac System Remote Monitoring And Diagnosis, Jeffrey N. Arensmeier, Gregg M. Hemmelgarn, Fadi M. Alsaleem, Priotomo Abiprojo

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

A monitoring system for an HVAC system of a building includes a monitoring server located remotely from the building. The monitoring server receives, from a device installed at the building, (i) time-domain current data based on a measured aggregate current supplied to a plurality of components of the HVAC system, and (ii) data based on frequency-domain current data of the measured aggregate current. Based on the received data, the monitoring server accesses (i) whether a failure has occurred in a first com ponent of the plurality of components and (ii) generates a preliminary advisory in response to determining that the …

Strategies And Resources For Government Agencies To Utilize Disadvantaged Business Enterprises In Transportation Design-Build Projects, Baabak Ashuri, Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy, Stephanie Amoaning-Yankson, Yunping Liang, Yang Cao

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program was established to provide opportunities for businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, such as minority-owned and women-owned businesses, to participate in federally funded transportation-related projects. Such DBE participation has increasingly been achieved over the years with the appropriate guidance for traditional project delivery: design-bid-build. However, in recent times the onset of alternative project delivery methods, such as design-build (DB), has introduced challenges for state DOTs trying to implement the DBE program using traditional approaches. This paper presents a synthesis of strategies and resources being used in state DOTs to achieve …

Metadata-Based Image Collecting And Databasing For Sharing And Analysis, Xi Wu

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Data collecting and preparing is generally considered a crucial process in data science projects. Especially for image data, adding semantic attributes when preparing image data provides much more insights for data scientists. In this project, we aim to implement a general-purpose central image data repository that allows image researchers to collect data with semantic properties as well as data query. One of our researchers has come up with the specific challenge of collecting images with weight data of infants in least developed countries with limited internet access. The rationale is to predict infant weights based on image data by applying …

A Diverse Band-Aware Dynamic Spectrum Access Architecture For Connectivity In Rural Communities, Vijay K. Shah

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Ubiquitous connectivity plays an important role in improving the quality of life in terms of economic development, health and well being, social justice and equity, as well as in providing new educational opportunities. However, rural communities which account for 46% of the world's population lacks access to proper connectivity to avail such societal benefits, creating a huge "digital divide" between the urban and rural areas. A primary reason is that the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) providers have less incentives to invest in rural areas due to lack of promising revenue returns. Existing research and industrial attempts in providing connectivity …

Novel Applications Of Machine Learning In Bioinformatics, Yi Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Technological advances in next-generation sequencing and biomedical imaging have led to a rapid increase in biomedical data dimension and acquisition rate, which is challenging the conventional data analysis strategies. Modern machine learning techniques promise to leverage large data sets for finding hidden patterns within them, and for making accurate predictions. This dissertation aims to design novel machine learning-based models to transform biomedical big data into valuable biological insights. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on three bioinformatics domains: splice junction classification, gene regulatory network reconstruction, and lesion detection in mammograms.

A critical step in defining gene structures and mRNA …

Automated Network Security With Exceptions Using Sdn, Sergio A. Rivera Polanco

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Campus networks have recently experienced a proliferation of devices ranging from personal use devices (e.g. smartphones, laptops, tablets), to special-purpose network equipment (e.g. firewalls, network address translation boxes, network caches, load balancers, virtual private network servers, and authentication servers), as well as special-purpose systems (badge readers, IP phones, cameras, location trackers, etc.). To establish directives and regulations regarding the ways in which these heterogeneous systems are allowed to interact with each other and the network infrastructure, organizations typically appoint policy writing committees (PWCs) to create acceptable use policy (AUP) documents describing the rules and behavioral guidelines that all campus network …

Relation Prediction Over Biomedical Knowledge Bases For Drug Repositioning, Mehmet Bakal

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Identifying new potential treatment options for medical conditions that cause human disease burden is a central task of biomedical research. Since all candidate drugs cannot be tested with animal and clinical trials, in vitro approaches are first attempted to identify promising candidates. Likewise, identifying other essential relations (e.g., causation, prevention) between biomedical entities is also critical to understand biomedical processes. Hence, it is crucial to develop automated relation prediction systems that can yield plausible biomedical relations to expedite the discovery process. In this dissertation, we demonstrate three approaches to predict treatment relations between biomedical entities for the drug repositioning task …

Depth Enhancement And Surface Reconstruction With Rgb/D Sequence, Xinxin Zuo

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Surface reconstruction and 3D modeling is a challenging task, which has been explored for decades by the computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning communities. It is fundamental to many applications such as robot navigation, animation and scene understanding, industrial control and medical diagnosis. In this dissertation, I take advantage of the consumer depth sensors for surface reconstruction. Considering its limited performance on capturing detailed surface geometry, a depth enhancement approach is proposed in the first place to recovery small and rich geometric details with captured depth and color sequence. In addition to enhancing its spatial resolution, I present a …

Bmp2-Derived Molecules For Increasing Osteoinductivity Of Bone Grafts To Enhance Bone Regeneration, Andrew Scott Curry

All ETDs from UAB

The “gold standard” of bone grafting materials is autograft. Unfortunately, autogenous bone must first be harvested from the patient, leading to complications such as donor site morbidity. Because of this, many surgeons rely on non-autogenous bone grafting materials. While these grafts are more available than autogenous bone, they require extensive processing which significantly reduces their osteoinductivity. Therefore, there is substantial interest in finding ways to add osteoinductive molecules to these grafts. Previously, our lab has focused on utilizing molecules derived from bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) with an attached hydroxyapatite-binding domain (polyglutamate) to anchor them onto bone grafting materials. Previous …

High Efficiency, Fast Dynamic Response Sc Dc-Dc Converter For Battery Management System, Ruikuan Lu

All ETDs from UAB

Batteries have always been considered as one of the important, reliable, light-weight, and ubiquitous energy sources in our daily lives. As battery technology has progressed, different types of battery controlling, monitoring, and supervising technologies are also being rapidly developed. Most of the modern portable electronic devices are battery-powered (lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, fuel cells, etc.). The charging and discharging of the batteries are normally based on DC-DC converter. Form converter structure, the switches and capacitors based converter without inductive components is widely applied. In addition, the switched-capacitor (SC) converters are typically integrated with a monolithic integrated circuit, the low-cost and …

Low-Cost Smart Adaptation Of Acoustic For Blood Clot Monitoring System, Hanzhi Teng

All ETDs from UAB

The patented vascular access is critical for successful hemodialysis. Patients with renal failure undergoing dialysis have increased the risk of acute arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and graft (AVG) thrombosis, placing them with severe morbidity, mortality, and financial burden. In most cases, dialysis vascular access thrombosis leading to non-functional AVG/AVF occurs in a non-health environment and is usually not detected until the patient is seen at the next dialysis appointment. This leads to the loss of opportunities for early identification and timely intervention. Studies have shown that, the results of treatment are poor in patients who have undergone thrombectomy after coagulation, and …

An Ex Vivo Model Of Neuroendocrine Tumors: A Net Gain, Brendon R. Herring

All ETDs from UAB

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are a heterogeneous group of neoplasms that originate in a diverse array of anatomical locations and have widely variable clinical presentations and responses to treatment. Patient-derived xenografts and cell lines are valuable models of tumor biology and for testing personalized therapeutics on tumors prior to their administration to patients. However, as PDX models and cell lines for neuroendocrine tumors are lacking in both number and validity, we have developed a 3D flow perfusion polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) bioreactor model for the purpose of culturing patient derived NETs. The goal of this thesis is to determine the ability to use …

Shaping The Future Of Trusted Digital Identity: The Idef Registry With Health Information Use Cases, Noreen Y. Whysel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Modification Of Lipid Microenvironments On Solid Support Structures For Use In Transmembrane Protein Assays, William J. Houlihan

Dissertations and Theses

Gamma-Secretase (γ-secretase) is a transmembrane protease of increasing interest, which has been shown to have significant connections to both cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. γ-secretase cleaves both Notch-1, a transmembrane signaling protein, and Amyloid precursor protein (APP), a transmembrane protein whose cleavage may result in the formation of β-amyloid plaques in the brain. Notch-1 and APP are widely studied proteins that have substantial impacts on the development and proliferation of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, respectively. Notch-1 partakes in the signaling of apoptosis in damaged and mutated cells, thus its cleavage by γ-secretase within the plasma membrane has ramifications on cell growth …

Enhancing Synchrony In Multiplex Network Due To Rewiring Frequency, Sarbendu Rakshit, Bidesh K. Bera, Jürgen Kurths, Dibakar Ghosh

Journal Articles

Most of the previous studies on synchrony in multiplex networks have been investigated using different types of intralayer network architectures which are either static or temporal. Effect of a temporal layer on intralayer synchrony in a multilayered network still remains elusive. In this paper, we discuss intralayer synchrony in a multiplex network consisting of static and temporal layers and how a temporal layer influences other static layers to enhance synchrony simultaneously. We analytically derive local stability conditions for intralayer synchrony based on the master stability function approach. The analytically derived results are illustrated by numerical simulations on up to five-layers …

Non-Marginal Decisions: A Novel Bayesian Multiple Testing Procedure, Noirrit Kiran Chandra, Sourabh Bhattacharya

Journal Articles

In this paper, we consider the problem of multiple testing where the hypotheses are dependent. In most of the existing literature, either Bayesian or non-Bayesian, the decision rules mainly focus on the validity of the test procedure rather than actually utilizing the dependency to increase efficiency. Moreover, the decisions regarding different hypotheses are marginal in the sense that they do not depend upon each other directly. However, in realistic situations, the hypotheses are usually dependent, and hence it is desirable that the decisions regarding the dependent hypotheses are taken jointly. In this article, we develop a novel Bayesian multiple testing …

Word Sense Disambiguation Using Semantic Kernels With Class-Based Term Values, Ayşe Berna Altinel, Murat Can Gani̇z, Bi̇lge Şi̇pal, Eren Can Erkaya, Onur Can Yücedağ, Muhammed Ali̇ Doğan

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this study, we propose several semantic kernels for word sense disambiguation (WSD). Our approaches adapt the intuition that class-based term values help in resolving ambiguity of polysemous words in WSD. We evaluate our proposed approaches with experiments, utilizing various sizes of training sets of disambiguated corpora (SensEval). With these experiments we try to answer the following questions: 1.) Do our semantic kernel formulations yield higher classification performance than traditional linear kernel?, 2.) Under which conditions a kernel design performs better than others?, 3.) Does the addition of class labels into standard term-document matrix improve the classification accuracy?, 4.) Is …

Groundwater Transfer And Injection Pilot Project: Construction Of A Three Dimensional Groundwater Flow Model, Wesley Bluvstein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer has experienced substantial groundwater declines in eastern Arkansas and northwest Mississippi due largely to irrigation for rice corn soybeans and other water intensive crops. To alleviate groundwater decline and ensure future sustainability of water resources the U.S. Department of Agriculture has in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Mississippi initiated studies to determine potential avenues of remediation. Options include improved irrigation efficiency installation of surface weirs inter-basin transfers and groundwater transfer and injection. This study develops a three-dimensional groundwater flow model of a withdrawal well adjacent to a river for …

Monitored Indoor Environmental Quality Of A Mass Timber Office Building: A Case Study, Jason Stenson, Suzanne L. Ishaque, Aurélie Laguerre, Andrew Loia, Georgia Maccrone, Ignace Mugabo, Dale Northcutt, Mariapaola Riggio, Andre Barbosa, Elliott T. Gall, Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A broad range of building performance monitoring, sampling, and evaluation was conducted periodically after construction and spanning more than a year, for an occupied office building constructed using mass timber elements such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor and roof panels, as well as glue-laminated timber (GLT) beams and columns. This case study contributes research on monitoring indoor environmental quality in buildings, describing one of the few studies of an occupied mass timber building, and analyzing data in three areas that impact occupant experience: indoor air quality, bacterial community composition, and floor vibration. As a whole, the building was found to …

Improvement Of The Tribological Characteristics Of Aisi 8620, 8640 And 52100 Steels Through Thermo-Reactive Treatments, Rafael Magalhães Triani, Fábio Edson Mariani, Lucas Fuscaldi De Assis Gomes, Pedro Gabriel Bonella De Oliveira, George E. Totten, Luiz Carlos Casteletti

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The production of vanadium and niobium carbides (VC and NbC) layers on AISI 8620, 8640, and 52100 steels may increase hardness and wear resistance of substrates. Thermochemical treatments were performed at 1000 °C for 2 and 4 h. The characterization of the treated samples was carried out by means of Knoop microhardness tests, “calotest” type microadhesive wear test, layer adhesion test according to VDI 3198 standard, and X-ray diffraction. Compact and uniform layers of VC and NbC were obtained in all treatments, with hardness up to 2500 HK and microadhesive wear resistance far superior to that of the substrates, indicating …

Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Of Acetylene On Codeposited Bimetal Catalysts Increasing Graphene Sheet Continuity Under Low-Temperature Growth Conditions, Joshua Tracy, Otto Zietz, Samuel Olson, Jun Jiao

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Here, we report a novel method for low-temperature synthesis of monolayer graphene at 450 °C on a polycrystalline bimetal Ni-Au catalyst. In this study, low-temperature chemical vapor deposition synthesis of graphene was performed at 450 °C on codeposited Ni-Au which shows successful monolayer graphene formation without an extra annealing process. The experimental results suggest that electron beam codeposition of bimetal catalyst is the key procedure that enables the elimination of the pre-growth high-temperature annealing of the catalyst prior to graphene synthesis, an indispensable process, used in previous reports. The formation was further improved by plasma-assisted growth in which the inductively …

Accumulation Of Di-2-Ethylhexyl Phthalate From Polyvinyl Chloride Flooring Into Settled House Dust And The Effect On The Bacterial Community, Samantha Velazquez, Chenyang Bi, Jeff Kline, Susie Nunez, Richard Corsi, Ying Xu, Suzanne L. Ishaque

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is a plasticizer used in consumer products and building materials, including polyvinyl chloride flooring material. DEHP adsorbs from material and leaches into soil, water, or dust and presents an exposure risk to building occupants by inhalation, ingestion, or absorption. A number of bacterial isolates are demonstrated to degrade DEHP in culture, but bacteria may be susceptible to it as well, thus this study examined the relation of DEHP to bacterial communities in dust. Polyvinyl chloride flooring was seeded with homogenized house dust and incubated for up to 14 days, and bacterial communities in dust were identified at …

Temperature Dependent Thermoelectric Properties Of Cuprous Delafossite Oxides, Yining Feng, Aline Elquist, Yuepeng Zhang, Kaizhong Gao, Ian Ferguson, Athanasios Tzempelikos, Na Lu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The use of nanostructured delafossite oxides in thermoelectric (TE) applications has attracted a great interest due to their high performance and long-term stability at elevated temperatures. Cuprous delafossites, CuMO₂ (M = Al, Cr, Fe, Ga, Mn), compared to conventional TE materials, such as Bi₂Te₃, PbTe and SiGe, are non-toxic and more earth abundant. In particular, CuAlO₂ compound shows a great potential for high performance thermoelectric materials. In this work, a systematic study of temperature dependent TE properties of cuprous delafossite materials, CuAlO₂, is reported. The optimization of the TE properties has been …

Identifying Key Topics Bearing Negative Sentiment On Twitter: Insights Concerning The 2015-2016 Zika Epidemic, Ravali Mamidi, Michele Miller, Tanvi Banerjee, William Romine, Amit Sheth

Publications

Background To understand the public sentiment regarding the Zika virus, social media can be leveraged to understand how positive, negative, and neutral sentiments are expressed in society. Specifically, understanding the characteristics of negative sentiment could help inform federal disease control agencies’ efforts to disseminate relevant information to the public about Zika-related issues.

Objective The purpose of this study was to analyze the public sentiment concerning Zika using posts on Twitter and determine the qualitative characteristics of positive, negative, and neutral sentiments expressed.

Methods Machine learning techniques and algorithms were used to analyze the sentiment of tweets concerning Zika. A supervised …