Engineering Commons^™

Examination Of The Effects Of Confined Migration On Androgen Resistant Prostate Cancer And Potential Treatment Option For Drug Resistant Pc3 Cells With Calcitriol, Emily Torrey Ann Hills

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

When localized to the prostate, prostate cancer (PCa) has a near 100% 5-year survival rate, however, when prostate cancer metastasizes the survival rate drastically drops to around 30%. The low death rate of primary PCa is due to the wealth of knowledge we have of non-metastatic cancer and the sufficient treatment regimens. However, this understanding does not apply to metastatic cancer, so therapies are greatly lacking. To gain a better understanding of the invasion process for PCa we utilized microchannel technology to uncover the differences between migratory and non-migratory PCa. Specifically, the following study examines the effects of confined migration …

Robust, Time-Critical, Evidence-Based Adaptive Data Fusion, Mohammad Amin Javadi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Sensors have become inevitable part of many studies and working areas ranging from navigation, transportation and medical applications. A sensor can help a user in a variety of situations including dangerous, inaccessible, time and money-consuming circumstances. Applying multiple sensors simultaneously allows for improving the accuracy of measurement estimates for system states. As an example, a part of this study uses a GPS sensor to increase the accuracy of the position estimation obtained by an IMU in an indoor environment. The same GPS device with position outputs can also be studied to provide a new measuring dimension such as velocity. This …

Some New Results On Statistical Information And Evidence, Maryam Moghimi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation represents an attempt to relate some fundamental statistical problems using the notions of information, entropy, and evidence.

Impact Of Viscoelastic Properties Of Low Loss Printed Circuit Boards (Pcbs) On Reliability Of Wcsp Packages Under Drop Test, Akshay Boovanahally Lakshminarayana

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Reliability of electronic packages is a major concern as different failure modes are induced due to factors such as temperature loads, mechanical stresses, humidity, corrosion and so on. Finite element analysis (FEA) is often performed to assess reliability under different loading conditions such as thermal cycling, drop testing, power cycling and vibrational loads. Having accurate material property data is one of the key requirements to perform successful FEA study, and a significant amount of time and money is spent to perform accurate material characterizations. Lump modeling approach, where components are represented by a block and assigned effective properties, is commonly …

Measurement Of Change In Cte Of Pcbs Due To Single Phase Immersion Cooling And Impact Of Changed Properties Of Pcbs On Solder Joint Reliability Of Bga Package, Sameer Hemant Dhandarphale

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Oil immersion cooling in high-density data centers is emerging as an alternative for traditional air cooling because of the less power consumption, capacity to handle high power density and less space requirement. To adopt this technique extensively, effect of immersion on reliability of server components in dielectric coolant needs to be evaluated. One of the major reliability concerns in BGA package is 2nd level solder joint failure. The primary reason of solder joint failure is CTE mismatch between the PCB and the package. Also, difference in stiffness of the PCB and the package affects the solder joint reliability. As properties …

Single Step Fabrication Of Shape Morphing 3d Surfaces, Amirali Nojoomi

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Shape-changing materials that can adopt programmable 3-dimensional (3D) shapes offer promise for a wide range of applications. Form the formation of the leaves and flowers to the shaping of complex organs, the analogues of such shape-morphing 3D surfaces are abundant in nature. However, since the formation of such surfaces in biological systems is fundamentally different from that of human-made materials, replicating their complex morphologies, movements, and thereby functions remains a challenge. Inspired by living organisms, we introduce an approach, called digital light 4D printing (DL4P), that encodes thermosensitive 2D hydrogels with a specific pattern of network density and thus temperature-induced …

Numerical Investigation Of Concrete Breakout Strength Of Anchors In Shear Within Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Yash Hitendrakumar Patel

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This study investigates the numerical analysis of concrete breakout strength of cast in place anchors in shear within synthetic fiber reinforced concrete (SYN-FRC). A three dimensional, full-scale model was developed using the ABAQUS 6.14 software. The 3D solid elements with consideration of material nonlinearities were chosen to stimulate the SYN-FRC beam anchorage. The numerical analysis was conducted with a fixed loading rate of 300lb per step to obtain the behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete breakout with design-mix compressive strength of 4,000 psi and fiber volume fraction of 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. An inverse analysis was used to calibrate the material …

Experimental And Numerical Study Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Structures Subjected To Internal Explosion, Nikhil Vasant Moon

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This research investigates the effect of an accidental explosion of a steam boiler in a boiler room on steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) structure in an industrial facility, using nonlinear analysis in ABAQUS FEA software. The mechanical properties of SFRC are calculated through testing at the UTA Civil Engineering Laboratory Building. Steel fiber dosages in concrete at different volume fractions are examined for the mechanical properties of concrete. In total, 9 (4” x 8”) cylindrical specimens for compressive strength and modulus of elasticity test, 9 (4” x 8”) cylindrical specimens for tensile strength test, and 9 (6” x 6” x …

A Method For Uncertainty Managementin Life Cycle Assessment Studies –A Tiered-Hybrid Case Study Of An Irish Construction Project, Deidre Wolff

Doctoral

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifies the potential environmental impact of a product system throughout its life cycle from raw material extraction, production, manufacture, use and maintenance through to final disposal. The results from LCA studies are often used to support decision-making processes andpolicy development. LCA is conducted in four iterative steps, beingGoal and Scope definition, Life Cycle InventoryAnalysis (LCI), Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), andInterpretation. The guidelines for each step are provided in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006. Uncertainty arises in all steps of an LCA,yet the propagation and reporting of these uncertainties is …

Joint Location And Inventory Models And Algorithms For Deployment Of Hybrid Electric Vehicle Charging Stations., Jie Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a study of a novel concept of hybrid electric vehicle charging stations in which two types of services are offered: battery swapping and fast level-3 DC charging. The battery swapping and fast-charging service are modeled by using the M/G/s/s model and the M/G/s/$\infty$ model, respectively. In particular, we focus on the operations of joint battery swapping and fast charging services, develop four joint locations and inventory models: two for the deployment of battery swapping service, two for the deployment of hybrid electric vehicle charging service. The first model for each deployment system considers a service-level constraint for …

Microrobots For Wafer Scale Microfactory: Design Fabrication Integration And Control., Ruoshi Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Future assembly technologies will involve higher automation levels, in order to satisfy increased micro scale or nano scale precision requirements. Traditionally, assembly using a top-down robotic approach has been well-studied and applied to micro-electronics and MEMS industries, but less so in nanotechnology. With the bloom of nanotechnology ever since the 1990s, newly designed products with new materials, coatings and nanoparticles are gradually entering everyone’s life, while the industry has grown into a billion-dollar volume worldwide. Traditionally, nanotechnology products are assembled using bottom-up methods, such as self-assembly, rather than with top-down robotic assembly. This is due to considerations of volume handling …

Optimization And Simulation Models To Improve Access To Organ Transplantation In The United States., Fatemeh Karami

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Organ allocation in the U.S. is administrated by the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS). UNOS’s mission is to ensure fair and equitable allocation of organs as stated in the Code of Federal Regulations, which reads "neither place of residence nor place of listing shall be a major determinant of access to transplant". Despite the regulations, there has been endless controversy surrounding the disparity in access to organ transplants. In this context, the primary research goal in this dissertation was to reduce geographic disparity in access to transplants in the U.S., with a focus on heart and kidney transplants. To …

Impact Of Magnetocaloric Material Properties On Performance Of A Magnetocaloric Heat Pump., Michael G. Schroeder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the field of magnetocaloric heat pumps much research has been performed around machine design and theoretical machines, but little has been researched around practical problems such as variability in material properties. The present work defines a simulation tool that has been proven with experimental data. Magnetocaloric material cascades were statistically analyzed and parameterized, such that they could be recreated parametrically using a split Lorentz function with normally distributed parameters. Correlated curve-defining values with standard deviations were used as input into the simulation tool to determine the effect of variation on cooling heat pump performance for a household refrigerator application. …

Susceptibility Assessment Of Bank And Floodplain Erosion In Stream Restoration Using A Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic., Fereshteh Noorbakhsh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the design of stream restorations, boundary shear stress (shear stress) and velocity during high flow events are the key parameters in the assessment of the risk of morphological failure associated with channel bank and bed erosion and sediment transport. The use of two-dimensional hydrodynamic models (2D Models) is becoming more common to estimate critical shear stress and velocity for stream restoration projects. These models can give detailed distribution of shear stress and velocity over floodplain surfaces and channel. Obtaining reliable and correct estimates of stress and velocity require an accurate digital terrain model, estimates of input flows at the …

Mathematical Modeling Approaches In Sustainable Food Supply Chains, Amin Gharehyakheh

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Access to high quality and safe food is vital for sustainable development in societies. Perishable foods lose a major portion of their quality after harvesting until the consumption point due to poor storage and distribution conditions. Thus, improvements in food supply chain operations are very critical in the sustainable development of society and the industry. The first part of this dissertation seeks to find a cost-effective and reliable tool to monitor the quality loss and implementation of the least shelf life first-out inventory management policy in food banks. Application of the Gompertz model and Arrhenius equation based on time-temperature data …

Locating Relay Nodes To Maximize Wireless Sensor Network Lifetime: A Numerical Study, Maria Rene Arandia Jimenez

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of sensors deployed over an area, which monitor changes in the environment, collects them as data and forwards it between sensors through wireless links. Data is routed, either in a single-hop or multi-hop manner, with the goal of getting this collected data to the sink nodes, which have higher computational capabilities and connects the network with a user interface. Studies have determined that multi-hop WSNs that integrate relay nodes, which function is to only receive and forward data, can maximize lifetime network. A linear programming model, created by Chang and Tassiulas in …

Potential Of Existing And Proposed Bicycle Facilities To Link Multiple Origin And Destination Needs For Non-Motorized Travel In San Luis Obispo, Sheridan Nansen

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of linking multiple origins and destinations for efficient non-motorized travel in San Luis Obispo, California. The city currently has seventy-five miles of bicycle infrastructure with the intention to add thirty-five more miles to create a more functional bicycle network and foster an increase in bicycle trips taken.

Many cities in the United States are following their European counterparts in the push towards more sustainable forms of transportation by promoting bicycling, walking, and the use of public transit. Recently, we have seen an increase in both local and national legislative efforts …

Bike And Pedestrian Safety Planning: Excelsior/Outer Mission District, Alexandra Lee-Gardner

City and Regional Planning

San Francisco’s Outer Mission and Excelsior districts host a vibrant community of small business owners and residents from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The neighborhood is known for its diversity and sense of community. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and high-speed roadways has created great safety concerns within the community. In the last five years, the Excelsior/Outer Mission area had 828 collisions, nine of which were fatal (Transbase, n.d.). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has identified nearly 14 miles of streets in the project area that are on the City’s high injury network, meaning collisions there are highly …

Extracellular Matrix Disparities In An Nkx2-5 Mutant Mouse Model Of Congenital Heart Disease, Deanna Bousalis, Christopher S. Lacko, Nora Hlavac, Fariz Alkassis, Rebecca A. Wachs, Sahba Mobini, Christine E. Schmidt, Hideko Kasahara

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects almost one percent of all live births. Despite diagnostic and surgical reparative advances, the causes and mechanisms of CHD are still primarily unknown. The extracellular matrix plays a large role in cell communication, function, and differentiation, and therefore likely plays a role in disease development and pathophysiology. Cell adhesion and gap junction proteins, such as integrins and connexins, are also essential to cellular communication and behavior, and could interact directly (integrins) or indirectly (connexins) with the extracellular matrix. In this work, we explore disparities in the expression and spatial patterning of extracellular matrix, adhesion, and …

Optical Metabolic Imaging As A Predictor Of Patient Tumor Response To Therapy And Apoptosis, Andrew Larey

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite a plethora of medical advancements, malignant tumors remain difficult to treat due to complex cancer biology and interpatient heterogeneity. Phenotypically similar tumors may respond differently to a given treatment. In clinical oncology, it is paramount to quantify tumor response to therapy for predicting treatment outcome, monitoring tumor changes, identifying effective therapies, and avoiding unnecessary cost and toxicity to the patient. Current standards of monitoring tumor response to therapy include CT, MRI, PET, and histopathology; these methods either take a merely anatomical approach or are invasive and time consuming, necessitating a functional biomarker approach. MPM represents a metabolic-level method of …

Identifying And Addressing Improvement Opportunities In Primary Care Clinics, Mozhdeh Sadighi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

ABSTRACT: The main aim of this dissertation is to study how unrecognized opportunities for improving efficiency of in-person patient visits in a primary care clinic can be identified and addressed. To fulfill this goal, the research is divided into three distinct but related sections. Section one, with the most holistic view, uses a combination of scientific and rigorous methods along two research paths and, as a result, explores two opportunities for improvement in the clinic. These opportunities are high patient waiting time and unbalanced workload. Sections two and three each focus on underlying conditions driving one of these two opportunities. …

Përdorimi I Veturave Elektrike Në Komunën E Prishtinës Në Mbështetje Të Impaktit Ekologjik, Rron Kamberi

Theses and Dissertations

Ndotja e ajrit nga veprimtaria e njeriut është duke u cilësuar si problem global i cili është duke paraqitur shqetësime në mjedis dhe në shëndetin e njeriut. Ndotja e ajrit si koncept është shumë i gjerë, por ajo mund të kuptohet si lloj i kontaminimit të ajrit i cili shkaktohet nga shumë faktorë të ndryshëm, duke filluar nga djegia e vazhdueshme e karburanteve fosile për gjenerim të energjisë, qoftë ajo elektrike apo termike, përdorimi i tepruar i insekticideve, pesticideve dhe plehrave në aktivitetet bujqësore e shumë faktorë tjerë nga të cilët kryësori është njeriu me veprimet e tij të pakontrolluara. …

Improving Offensive Player Performance Measures For Assessing Free Agent Major League Baseball Players, Henley Wells

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Professional sports teams are important to their local economies, so successful franchises are significant contributors to their prosperity. This need for successful teams drives the owners and general managers to perform in-depth analyses on potential players to gain insight, so the best players can be chosen. Major League Baseball is one of the largest sports leagues in the world, so their analysis of players must be excellent to ensure they sign the best players and can compete at a high level.

Baseball is a complex sport with many different statistics evaluating nearly every part of a player’s game. Because of …

Curriculum Optimization Via Activity-On-Node Network Modeling, Caroline Rhomberg

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

University degree plans must be carefully planned so that they allow students the best chance of succeeding. Although for the better, with the advancement of technology and its incorporation into the classroom, it can be argued that the complexity and difficulty of some long-established engineering core classes has changed. With this trend certain combinations of engineering courses have become unfavorable in terms of course withdrawal and fail rates stemming from the interaction of course challenges. A wealth of data has been collected on this topic and will be utilized in this project. As one can imagine, the probability of success …

Characterizing Statin Use Among Prediabetic Patients With Predictive Analytics, Alexandra Gentile

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and can cause severe impairments to those diagnosed. Prediabetes is a state when a patient has higher fasting plasma glucose levels than a non-diabetic person but is not quite high enough to be considered diabetes. Both diabetic and prediabetic patients are at higher risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which is the leading cause of death in the United States. The primary form for prevention and treatment of CVD is through statin therapy. Statins are a class of medications used to treat and prevent CVD by limiting cholesterol …

Optimal Emergency Response Shelter Placement Based On Population Vulnerabilities, Alexander Johnson

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hurricane Florence was a category 4 storm which caused an estimated $24 billion in damages and the loss of 53 lives. During and immediately following Florence, there were 235 shelters operating in and around the North Carolina (NC) area. These were used as temporary housing for storm victims and by emergency responders to distribute relief supplies and provide medical services. Emergency officials consider several factors when deciding where to open shelters, including, for example, proximity of victims and their levels of medical needs. Access disparities, or factors creating barriers that limit entry to shelters, put certain populations and regions at …

A Simulation Approach To Evaluate The Impact Of Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis On Patient Outcomes, Sierra Wagner

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breast cancer overdiagnosis risk is difficult to estimate and varies significantly across current research. This research establishes a simulation approach to examine the relationship between breast cancer overdiagnosis and patient outcome and understand the impact that the range of breast cancer overdiagnosis rate estimates in the current literature has on patient outcomes. Overdiagnosis is represented in this study by a set of disease regression probabilities. Using microsimulation, we evaluate patient outcome, measured by number of mammograms and lifetime breast cancer mortality risk, as a function of treatment policy and regression probability. We use numerical experiments to evaluate treatment policies and …

Intruder Preference And Route Selection: A Gis Data Approach, Griffin Mathews

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested an Engineering Research and Development Center study incorporating modeling and simulation to determine the selection, amount, and optimal location of sensor suites along the U.S. Border. The study objective is to maximize the probability of detection and apprehension of illegal elements attempting to enter. A study on intruders and their preferences were conducted to create an intruder preference value map to determine the preferred intruder routes taken after crossing the border. The results of this research were integrated into another study on the selection and simulation of sensor suites.

Intruder context and preferences …

Investigation Of Driver License Issuance Alternatives, Steven Andrew Martin, Abraham Najarzadeh, Jennifer R. Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study develops an alternative model for issuing driver licenses and personal identifications in Kentucky. Under the current model, most licenses are distributed by circuit court clerks at 142 offices across the state while the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) provides central and regional support for specific license types. Given the cumbersome administrative structure and impending REAL ID requirements, both circuit clerks and KYTC administrators would like to explore an alternative distribution model. Researchers at the Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) projected the costs of transitioning from the current issuance model to a centralized DMV model where licenses are distributed at 18 …

Hybrid Machine Learning Architecture For Automated Detection And Grading Of Retinal Images For Diabetic Retinopathy, Barath Narayanan, Barath Narayanan, Russell C. Hardie, Manawaduge Supun De Silva, Nathaniel K. Kueterman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Purpose: Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness, affecting over 93 million people. An automated clinical retinal screening process would be highly beneficial and provide a valuable second opinion for doctors worldwide. A computer-aided system to detect and grade the retinal images would enhance the workflow of endocrinologists. Approach: For this research, we make use of a publicly available dataset comprised of 3662 images. We present a hybrid machine learning architecture to detect and grade the level of diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity. We also present and compare simple transfer learning-based approaches using established networks such as AlexNet, VGG16, ResNet, …