Engineering Commons^™

Secretion Of Proteins And Antibody Fragments From Transiently Transfected Endothelial Progenitor Cells, Loree Heller, Reynald Thinard, Melanie Chevalier, Sezgi Arpag, Yu Jing, Ruth Greferath, Richard Heller, Claude Nicolau

Bioelectrics Publications

In neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, neuroinflammation can lead to blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown. After intravenous or intra-arterial injection into mice, endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) home to the damaged BBB to promote neurovascular repair. Autologous EPCs transfected to express specific therapeutic proteins offer an innovative therapeutic option. Here, we demonstrate that EPC transfection by electroporation with plasmids encoding the reporter protein GFP or an anti-beta-amyloid antibody fragment (Fab) leads to secretion of each protein. We also demonstrate the secreted anti-beta-amyloid Fab protein functions in beta-amyloid aggregate solubilization.

Magnetically Induced Carrier Distribution In A Composite Rod Of Piezoelectric Semiconductors And Piezomagnetics, Guolin Wang, Jinxi Liu, Wenjie Feng, Jiashi Yang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this work, we study the behavior of a composite rod consisting of a piezoelectric semiconductor layer and two piezomagnetic layers under an applied axial magnetic field. Based on the phenomenological theories of piezoelectric semiconductors and piezomagnetics, a one-dimensional model is developed from which an analytical solution is obtained. The explicit expressions of the coupled fields and the numerical results show that an axially applied magnetic field produces extensional deformation through piezomagnetic coupling, the extension then produces polarization through piezoelectric coupling, and the polarization then causes the redistribution of mobile charges. Thus, the composite rod exhibits a coupling between the …

Dynamic Modeling And Optimal Design For Net Zero Energy Houses Including Hybrid Electric And Thermal Energy Storage, Huangjie Gong, Vandana Rallabandi, Dan M. Ionel, Donald G. Colliver, Shaun Duerr, Cristinel Ababei

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky Faculty Publications

Net zero energy (NZE) houses purchase zero net metered electricity from the grid over a year. Technical challenges brought forth by NZE homes are related to the intermittent nature of solar generation, and are due to the fact that peak solar generation and load are not coincident. This leads to a large rate of change of load, and in case of high PV penetration communities, often requires the installation of gas power plants to service this variability. This paper proposes a hybrid energy storage system including batteries and a variable power electric water heater which enables the NZE homes to …

Incorporating Stability In Deployable Origami-Based Engineering Applications, David Wayne Andrews

Theses and Dissertations

For origami-based designs to be functional, they need to be stable. Typically, stability is achieved through the introduction of exterior supports or members. This work focuses on incorporating stability into deployable origami-based engineering applications, including the development of deployable stiffeners or hard stops and generating concepts for stable origami-based systems in specific applications. Two types of deployable stiffeners are developed. Models for transcrease hard stops are presented, which can be directly implemented into origami-patterns to block motion at a specified angle. Thickness Utilizing Deployable Hard Stops (ThUDS), adapted from the transcrease hard stop models, can be implemented into thick materials …

Vector Magneto-Optical Generalized Ellipsometry On Magnetic Slanted Columnar Heterostructured Thin Films, Chad Briley

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Modern material growth techniques allow for nano-engineering highly complex three dimensionally nanostructured materials. These nano-engineered materials possess highly anisotropic physical properties that are significantly different from that of their bulk counterparts. The magnetization properties of nano-engineered materials can be modified through a close range interaction known as magnetic exchange. These materials are referred to as magnetic exchange-coupled materials. Exchange-coupled magnetic materials are composite magnetic materials where the magnetization of one material is influenced by the magnetization state of the neighboring materials.

The author describes the creation of a representative sample set of exchange-coupled nanoengineered magnetic materials. These materials are created …

Development Of An Improved Arterial Roadway Performance Reliability Methodology, Ernest Tufuor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The need for reliable performance measures of urban arterial roadways is increasing because of the rise in traffic congestion and the high value of travel time. Consequently, travel time reliability (TTR), which combines components of measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion of travel times, has recently received considerable research interest.

The basis of all TTR metrics is the travel time distribution (TTD). Estimating and forecasting arterial TTDs for TTR analysis is the focus of this dissertation. This dissertation proposes a new TTR methodology that is a marked improvement on recent TTR estimation and forecasting methodologies including the current …

Born-Digital Preservation: The Art Of Archiving Photos With Script And Batch Processing, Rachel S. Evans, Leslie Grove, Sharon Bradley

Articles, Chapters and Online Publications

With our IT department preparing to upgrade the University of Georgia’s Alexander Campbell King Law Library (UGA Law Library) website from Drupal 7 to 8 this fall, a web developer, an archivist, and a librarian teamed up a year ago to make plans for preserving thousands of born-digital images. We wanted to harvest photographs housed only in web-based photo galleries on the law school website and import them into our repository’s collection. The problem? There were five types of online photo galleries, and our current repository did not include appropriate categories for all of the photographs. The solution? Expand our …

Remediation Of Desiccation Cracking In Clayey Soils Through Bio-Cementation And Bottom Ash, Mark Vail

Theses and Dissertations

Desiccation cracking considerably impairs the hydraulic and mechanical properties of clayey soils and is critical to the long-term performance of infrastructure foundations and earth structures. Classical crack remediation methods are associated with high labor and maintenance costs or the usage of environment-unfriendly chemicals. Recycling waste materials and developing bio-mediated techniques have emerged as green and sustainable soil stabilization solutions. The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of soil crack remediation through the usage of microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) and bottom ash admixtures. We carry out monotonic drying and cyclic drying-wetting tests to characterize the effects of bottom …

Improved Classification Of Medical Data Using Meta-Best Feature Selection, Matthew Chaplin, Jacob Grubb, Thomas Clifford, Justin Bruce, Tayo Obafemi-Ajayi, John Matta

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Feature selection provides a useful method for reducing the size of large data sets while maintaining integrity, thereby improving the accuracy of neural networks and other classifiers. However, running multiple feature selection models and their accompanying classifiers can make interpreting results difficult. To this end, we present a data-driven methodology called Meta-Best that not only returns a single feature set related to a classification target, but also returns an optimal size and ranks the features by importance within the set. This proposed methodology is tested on six distinct targets from the well-known REGARDS dataset: Deceased, Self-Reported Diabetes, Light Alcohol Abuse …

A Design Of Taper-Like Etched Multicore Fiber Refractive Index-Insensitive A Temperature Highly Sensitive Mach-Zehnder Interferometer, Farhan Mumtaz, Pu Cheng, Chi Li, Shu Cheng, Cheng Du, Minghong Yang, Yutang Dai, Wenbin Hu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We propose and demonstrate Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), which is the refractive index (RI) insensitive and temperature highly sensitive based on etched multi-core fiber (MCF) structure. The MCF and Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) are used as hybrid sensing elements. The fabrication of the interferometer is provided a new taper-like structure by etching the MCF to further expose the side cores to the surroundings. The interferometer has produced a sensitivity of 103.2pm/°C within the ambient temperature up-to 70°C. Moreover, the superior temperature sensitivity is 89.19pm/°C, 66.64pm/°C, 56.42pm/°C in the range of 24°C to 130°C, and RI-insensitive in the range of 1.34 to …

An Algorithm For The Evolutionary-Fuzzy Generation Of On-Line Signature Hybrid Descriptors, Marcin Zalasinski, Krzysztof Cpalka, Lukasz Laskowski, Donald C. Wunsch, Krzystof Przybyszewski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In biometrics, methods which are able to precisely adapt to the biometric features of users are much sought after. They use various methods of artificial intelligence, in particular methods from the group of soft computing. In this paper, we focus on on-line signature verification. Such signatures are complex objects described not only by the shape but also by the dynamics of the signing process. In standard devices used for signature acquisition (with an LCD touch screen) this dynamics may include pen velocity, but sometimes other types of signals are also available, e.g. pen pressure on the screen surface (e.g. in …

Optimal Control Of Linear Continuous-Time Systems In The Presence Of State And Input Delays With Application To A Chemical Reactor, Rohollah Moghadam, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the optimal regulation of linear continuous-time systems with state and input delays is introduced by utilizing a quadratic cost function and state feedback. The Lyapunov-Krakovskii functional incorporating state and input delays is defined as a value function. Next, the Bellman type equation is formulated, and a delay Algebraic Riccati equation (DARE) over infinite time horizon is derived. By using the stationarity condition for the Bellman type equation, the optimal control input is obtained. It is demonstrated that the proposed optimal control input makes the closed-loop system asymptotically stable. Finally, simulation results confirm the theoretical claims by applying …

Complex Permittivity Extraction From Synthetic Aperture Radar Images, Yuan Gao, Mohammad Tayeb Al Qaseer, Reza Zoughi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Microwave and millimeter wave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging techniques are commonly used to generate high-resolution qualitative images showing the reflectivity (or complex permittivity) contrast in a sample-under-test (SUT). These techniques have been successfully applied for many diverse applications. However, these images lack quantitative information about the SUT, namely, its complex permittivity distribution. In this article, a novel method to extract the spatial distribution of complex permittivity from SAR images is proposed. The principle of the proposed method is outlined, then verified by a series of electromagnetic simulations, demonstrating that the proposed method can accurately extract the complex permittivity. Additionally, …

Distributed Adaptive State Estimation And Tracking Scheme For Nonlinear Systems Using Active Passive Sensor Networks, Akhilesh Raj, S. Jagannathan, Tansel Yucelen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a novel adaptive neural network (NN) based distributed state estimation scheme for a heterogeneous sensor network (HSN), to estimate the state vector of an unknown nonlinear process/target by using sensed output when the target input remains unknown. The active nodes in the HSN can sense the target output based on the detection range. By using a connected graph, the active nodes will communicate their estimated state vector from their adaptive NN observer to other passive nodes in the neighborhood that cannot sense the target, so that they can estimate the target state vector. Next, a subset of …

Dynamic Trajectory Generation And A Robust Controller To Intercept A Moving Ball In A Game Setting, Ravi Prakash, Laxmidhar Behera, Santhakumar Mohan, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Complex and interactive robot manipulation skills, such as playing a game of table tennis against a human opponent, are a novel problem with multifaceted challenges. Accurate dynamic trajectory generation in order to respond to the tennis ball from the opponent and a novel control scheme for robust and high-performance tracking of the ball in such dynamic situations is a prerequisite to winning the game. In this paper, the dynamic movement primitives (DMPs) are employed for the stable generation of dynamic trajectories in the presence of environmental uncertainties such as ball position and velocity, opponent position and velocity and so on. …

Noise Coupling Mechanism Analysis And Mitigation Method For Receiver Sensitivity Improvement In An Optical Qsfp Transceiver Module, Yuandong Guo, Shuai Jin, Xinglin Sun, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The increasingly growth of the traffic in data centers demands for high-speed data transition and high bandwidth density. Optical communication is a promising way for the propagation of high-speed signals with less distortions. The quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) transceiver module is an essential component converting an electrical signal into an optical signal for point-to-point data transition. Considerable attentions have been paid to the signal integrity (SI) optimization for the optical QSFP transceiver modules with different data rates, where the receiver sensitivity is generally considered to be critical. In this paper, the receiver sensitivity problem of a typical QSFP transceiver …

Effect Of Rf Signals On Tvs Diode Trigger Voltage For Esd Protection, Giorgi Maghlakelidze, Shubhankar Marathe, Wei Huang, Joost Willemen, David Pommerenke

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Discrete transient voltage suppressor devices are used in addition to the on-chip ESD protection to protect the ICs from ESD damage. In applications involving snapback TVS devices, the trigger voltage is selected to be higher than the desired signals on the net. The presence of RF on the net affects the TVS behavior, even if the RF levels are less than the snapback trigger voltage. Known effects are RF intermodulation and harmonic generation, which diminish SNR. This work describes the other effect on the TVS diodes - the observed reduction of the snapback trigger voltage, monotonically dependent on the amplitude …

Generic Modeling Of Differential Striplines Using Machine Learning Based Regression Analysis, Srinath Penugonda, Shaohui Yong, Anna Gao, Kevin Cai, Bidyut Sen, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a generic model for a differential strip line is created using machine learning (ML) based regression analysis. A recursive approach of creating various inputs is adapted instead of traditional design of experiments (DoE) approach. This leads to reduction of number of simulations as well as control the data points required for performing simulations. The generic model is developed using 48 simulations. It is comparable to the linear regression model, which is obtained using 1152 simulations. Additionally, a tabular W-element model of a differential strip line is used to take into consideration the frequency-dependent dielectric loss. In order …

A Study Of Coverlay Coated Microstrip Lines For Crosstalk Reduction In Ddr5, Qiang Ming Cai, Yuyu Zhu, Runren Zhang, Yinglei Ren, Xiaoning Ye, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Crosstalk becomes a serious problem in microstrip design of printed circuit boards (PCBs) in DDR5. In high-density and high-speed PCBs, widening space or putting shielding between traces to mitigate crosstalk noise may become less effective, because of the limited space. This paper presents a simple and efficient crosstalk reduction approach by using coverlay coated microstrip lines. This coverlay is available in a variety of film and adhesive thicknesses, which is commonly used materials for the resistance welding transform in PCB production. Based on the simulated S-parameters, the FEXT keeps under -40 dB from dc to 16.0 GHz, and more than …

Sensitivity Analysis Of Local Soldermask And Coverlay In High Speed Transimission Lines For Ddr5 Applications To Reduce Fext, Zhu Lin, Xin Cao, Qiang Ming Cai, Yinglei Ren, Xiaoning Ye, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article investigated the effects of local solder-mask and overlay structure changes on crosstalk. This structure is based on a four-layer high-speed PCB on a computer DDR5 board. Our goal is to use the obtained simulation results to locate the optimal response that not only meets the performance requirements but is also robust to geometric changes caused by manufacturing tolerances. These two methods have a good correlation with the simulation results and show strong capabilities in the practical applications.

Design And Optimization Of Multichip Gan Module Enabling Improved Switching Performance, Asif Imran Emon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wide bandgap semiconductors (SiC & GaN) due to their enhanced performance and superior material properties compared to traditional silicon power devices have become the ultimate choice for future high-performance power electronics energy conversion. GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) offers very fast switching capability enabling the designer to push switching frequency to the MHz range. Traditional device packaging becomes a limiting factor in fully harnessing the benefits offered by these advanced power devices, and thus, improved and advanced packaging structures are a must to bridge the gap between GaN devices and their applications. A co-design, co-optimization method has been followed …

Experience Of Teaching Introduction To Electrical Engineering With An Online Platform, Junfei Li, Jaime Ramos-Salas, Cara Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

To engage engineering students in their field of studies, it is essential for the students to take major courses as early as possible. However, first year EE major students in our institution don’t have many options as almost all major courses need physics and math courses as prerequisites. For most of our students, the Introduction to Electrical Engineering is available to them as the only Electrical Engineering course during their first semester in college. It is offered to introduce the students to such topics as electrical circuits, digital logic, and robotics. In addition to learning fundamental topics, the students are …

Machine Learning For The Internet Of Things: Applications, Implementation, And Security, Vishalini Laguduva Ramnath

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence and ubiquitous sensor systems have seen tremendous advances in recent times, resulting in groundbreaking impact across domains such as healthcare, entertainment, and transportation through a collective ecosystem called the Internet of Things. The advent of 5G and improved wireless networks will further accelerate the research and development of tools in deep learning, sensor systems, and computing platforms by providing improved network latency and bandwidth. While tremendous progress has been made in the Internet of Things, current work has largely focused on building robust applications that leverage the data collected through ubiquitous sensor nodes to provide actionable rules and …

Improving Mode Ii Fracture Toughness Of Secondary Bonded Joints Using Laser Patterning Of Adherends, A. Wagih, R. Tao, A. Yudhanto, G. Lubineau

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We improve mode II fracture toughness of secondary bonded joints based on the laser treatment of adherend surfaces. We applied CO₂ Laser treatment to adherend surface alternatively with low and high energy, resulting in a repeated pattern of rough and smooth surfaces. We used ENF test to characterize mode II fracture toughness, GII, of the bonded CFRP substrates. The results demonstrated that our proposed pattern arrested the crack propagation and triggered new damage mechanisms, such as adhesive cracking, adhesive failure and crack migration to the other interface. These additional mechanisms, some of them were non-local in nature, resulted in …

How The Spatial Correlation In Adhesion Properties Influences The Performance Of Secondary Bonding Of Laminated Composites, Xiaole Li, Ran Tao, Arief Yudhanto, Gilles Lubineau

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Spatial heterogeneity of adhesion properties is known to result in bridging during debonding of secondary bonded composite joints. The ligaments that bridge both substrates have crack-arrest features and thus significantly enhance the fracture resistance of joints. We have investigated the effect of randomly distributed adhesion properties between the adhesive layer and each composite substrate in previous works; however, the spatial correlation of adhesion heterogeneity within or between the substrates and how it effects the failure of secondary bonded composites is still poorly understood. In this current work, we assume that the spatial heterogeneity of adhesion follows a log-normal distribution. The …

Identification Of The Planetary Boundary Layer (Pbl) Using Upper Air Observation, Elok Suci Wulandari

International Programs

No abstract provided.

A Nonlinear Distortion Removal Based On Deep Neural Network For Underwater Acoustic Ofdm Communication With The Mitigation Of Peak To Average Power Ratio, Xuefei Ma, Waleed Raza, Zhiqiang Wu, Muhammad Bilal, Ziqi Zhou, Amir Ali

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

Machine learning and deep learning algorithms have proved to be a powerful tool for developing data-driven signal processing algorithms for challenging engineering problems. This paper studies the modern machine learning algorithm for modeling nonlinear devices like power amplifiers (PAs) for underwater acoustic (UWA) orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexing (OFDM) communication. The OFDM system has a high peak to average power ratio (PAPR) in the time domain because the subcarriers are added coherently via inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT). This causes a higher bit error rate (BER) and degrades the performance of the PAs; hence, it reduces the power efficiency. For long-range …

A Novel Wideband Decoupling Network For Two Antennas Based On The Wilkinson Power Divider, Min Li, Lijun Jiang, Kwan Lawrence Yeung

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this article, a wideband decoupling network (DN) is presented based on the Wilkinson power divider (WPD). The DN is composed of 2 two-way unequal WPDs, three transmission lines (TLs), and two reactive components. Two techniques are introduced for the wideband performance: 1) by using the WPD with high output isolation, the antenna matching becomes independent of antenna decoupling. So, the decoupled antennas with the proposed DN could perform broad impedance bandwidths without using matching networks and 2) the DN is designed to minimize antennas' coupling coefficients at two frequencies, which collectively contribute to a broader decoupling bandwidth. In addition, …

Enhanced Deep Learning Approach Based On The Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture For Electromagnetic Inverse Scattering Problems, He Ming Yao, Lijun Jiang, Wei E.I. Sha

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This letter proposes a novel deep learning (DL) approach to resolve the electromagnetic inverse scattering (EMIS) problems. The conventional approaches of resolving EMIS problems encounter assorted difficulties, such as high contrast, high computational cost, inevitable intrinsic nonlinearity, and strong ill-posedness. To surmount these difficulties, a novel DL approach is proposed based on a novel complex-valued deep fully convolutional neural network structure. The proposed complex-valued deep learning model for solving EMIS problems composes of an encoder network and its corresponding decoder network, followed by a final pixel-wise regression layer. The complex-valued encoder network extracts feature fragments from received scattered field data, …

Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors And Triboelectric Energy Harvesters Using Laser-Assisted Patterning Process For Flexible Hybrid Electronic Applications, Valliammai Palaniappan

Masters Theses

This work focuses on the design, fabrication and characterization of novel flexible capacitive pressure sensors and triboelectric energy harvesters using laser-assisted patterning process for flexible hybrid electronic applications. Initially, the capacitive pressure sensor was developed by fabricating a set of polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) dielectric films with pyramid shaped micro-structures using a laser-assisted patterning process. The pressure sensor consists of two electrodes (top and bottom) that were fabricated by depositing silver (Ag) on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using additive screen-printing process. Finally, the pressure sensor was assembled by attaching the top and bottom Ag electrodes to the smooth side of pyramid shaped …