Engineering Commons^™

Ferrihydrite Reduction Increases Arsenic And Uranium Bioavailability In Unsaturated Soil, Arindam Malakar, Michael Kaiser, Daniel D. Snow, Harkamal Walia, Banajarani Panda, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Redox driven mobilization and plant uptake of contaminants under transiently saturated soil conditions need to be clarified to ensure food and water quality across different irrigation systems. We postulate that solid-phase iron reduction in anoxic microsites present in the rhizosphere of unsaturated soil is a key driver for mobilization and bioavailability of contaminants under nonflooded irrigation. To clarify this, two major crops, corn and soybean differing in iron uptake strategies, were grown in irrigated synthetic soil under semiarid conditions with gravimetric moisture content ∼12.5 ± 2.4%. 2-line ferrihydrite, which was coprecipitated with uranium and arsenic, served as the only iron …

Use Of Multiple Environment Variety Trials Data To Simulate Maize Yields In The Ogallala Aquifer Region: A Two Model Approach, Vaishali Sharda, Mesfin Mekonnen, Chittaranjan Ray, Prasanna H. Gowda

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

With a long-term goal to optimize use of groundwater in the Ogallala Aquifer Region (OAR) to sustain food production systems, this study was conducted to calibrate Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) and AquaCrop crop modeling platforms to simulate maize production at a regional scale using historic datasets. Calibration of the models with local crop growth data and crop management practices is important, but usually this in-season crop growth information is not available. This study determined the possibility of using maize variety trial data for the evaluation of the CSM-Crop Estimation through Resources and Environmental Synthesis-Maize and AquaCrop models …

Machine Learning In Manufacturing: Review, Synthesis, And Theoretical Framework, Ajit Sharma, Zhibo Zhang, Rahul Rai

Business Administration Faculty Research Publications

There has been a paradigmatic shift in manufacturing as computing has transitioned from the programmable to the cognitive computing era. In this paper we present a theoretical framework for understanding this paradigmatic shift in manufacturing and the fast evolving role of artificial intelligence. Policy, Strategic and Operational implications are discussed. Implications for the future of strategy and operations in manufacturing are also discussed. Future research directions are presented.

Stormwater Management Model Analysis On The Effectiveness Of Low Impact Development Controls For Suburban Lid Designs In Brookings, South Dakota, Anne M. Salazar

Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate Students Plan B Capstone Projects

Urbanization’s influence the features of a watershed’s subcatchments. The soil’s low permeability causes a decrease in infiltration and storage and an increase in runoff. The management of peak runoff and stormwater quality must follow SCMs. LID controls provide natural practices for handling stormwater management. This study used the LID controls of traditional drainage, vegetative swales, and bioretention cells to handle the runoff quantity and quality resulting from a 5-year storm event and a 100-year storm event. The SWMM modelled and analyzed the effectiveness of each model to remove the most of three pollutant loads: TSS, lead, and nitrate. When compared …

Interaction Between The Metabolism Of Ketone Bodies In Brain Tissue And Neurological Disorders, Chan-Chih Hsiao

ETD Archive

Regulation of brain metabolism and cerebral blood flow involves complex control systems with several interacting variables at both cellular and organ levels. Quantitative understanding of the spatially and temporally heterogeneous brain control mechanisms during internal and external stimuli requires the development and validation of a computational (mathematical) model of metabolic processes in brain tissue. A computational model of the biochemical pathways in brain is presented in this paper. The model structure consists of neurons, astrocytes, and a surrounding capillary network. Glucose is the major oxidative energy substrate in the brain. However, under hypoglycemic conditions such as during diet or fasting …

A Validation Study For A New Erosion Model To Predict Erosive Airfoil Defouling, Arthur Rudek, David Muckenhaupt, Thomas Zitzmann, Gerald Russ, Barry Duignan

Articles

A new defouling erosion model for Lagrangian particle tracking is used to predict defouling of amor-phous, heterogeneous coatings such as those typically found in aircraft compressors. The main problem description, the mathematical formulation and the underpinning experiment of the model are presented in a previous communication by the authors. In this work, the Ansys CFX implementation of the model is described and an experiment is presented for the validation of the model. Air flows laden with a number of dry-ice particles are observed in an optically accessible stream channel containing a flat plate target. The defouling process of these particles …

Finite Element Simulation Of Head Impacts In Mixed Martial Arts, Stephen Tiernan, Aidan Meagher, David O'Sullivan Dr, Eoin O'Kelly Dr

Articles

This study determined brain stress and strain in an unhelmeted sport and correlated this with concussive injuries. Thirteen MMA athletes were fitted with the MiG2.0 Stanford instrumented mouthguard. The mouthguard records linear acceleration and angular velocity in 6 degrees of freedom. Angular acceleration was calculated by differentiation. All events were video recorded, time stamped and reported impacts confirmed. 298 impacts above 10g were recorded during sparring sessions and 153 impacts in competitive events. The competitive events resulted in five concussions which were diagnosed by a medical doctor. The impact with the highest angular acceleration from each sparring session and competitive …

Concussion And The Severity Of Head Impacts In Mixed Martial Arts, Stephen Tiernan, Aidan Meagher, David O'Sullivan, Eoin O'Keefe, Eoin O'Kelly, Eugene Wallace, Colin Doherty, Mathew Campbell, Yuzhe Liu, August Domel

Articles

Background: Concern about the consequences of head impacts in US football motivated researchers to investigate and develop instrumentation to measure the severity of these impacts. However, the severity of head impacts in unhelmeted sports is largely unknown as miniaturised sensor technology has only recently made it possible to measure these impacts in vivo.

Aim: The objective of this study was to measure the linear and angular head accelerations in impacts in mixed martial arts (MMA), and correlate these with concussive injuries.

Methods: Thirteen MMA fighters were fitted with the Stanford instrumented mouthguard (MiG2.0). The mouthguard records linear acceleration and angular …

Opinion-Mining On Marglish And Devanagari Comments Of Youtube Cookery Channels Using Parametric And Non-Parametric Learning Models, Sonali Shah, Abhishek Kaushik, Shubham Sharma, Janice Shah

Articles

No abstract provided.

Why Are Residential Property Developers In Ireland Not Using Bim?, Bim Tudublin, Simon Burke

Capstone Reports

The aim of this paper is to establish the level of BIM adoption by larger-scale residential property developers in Ireland and investigate the benefits and challenges of implementing BIM for residential housing. While BIM is a relatively new concept in Ireland for housing, developers and investors in larger scale developments are beginning to recognize areas where BIM can add value to their projects. The research also indicates that while there is evidence of successful BIM implementation for housing resulting in savings in cost and time, widespread adoption is hindered by a lack of knowledge and skills, costs of implementation, lack …

Computational Modeling Of The Human Microbiome, Shomeek Chowdhury, Stephen S. Fong

Chemical and Life Science Engineering Publications

The impact of microorganisms on human health has long been acknowledged and studied, but recent advances in research methodologies have enabled a new systems-level perspective on the collections of microorganisms associated with humans, the human microbiome. Large-scale collaborative efforts such as the NIH Human Microbiome Project have sought to kick-start research on the human microbiome by providing foundational information on microbial composition based upon specific sites across the human body. Here, we focus on the four main anatomical sites of the human microbiome: gut, oral, skin, and vaginal, and provide information on site-specific background, experimental data, and computational modeling. Each …

Brain Disease Detection From Eegs: Comparing Spiking And Recurrent Neural Networks For Non-Stationary Time Series Classification, Hristo Stoev

Dissertations

Modeling non-stationary time series data is a difficult problem area in AI, due to the fact that the statistical properties of the data change as the time series progresses. This complicates the classification of non-stationary time series, which is a method used in the detection of brain diseases from EEGs. Various techniques have been developed in the field of deep learning for tackling this problem, with recurrent neural networks (RNN) approaches utilising Long short-term memory (LSTM) architectures achieving a high degree of success. This study implements a new, spiking neural network-based approach to time series classification for the purpose of …

Multi-Objective Optimization Of Multi-Loop Control Systems, Yuekun Chen

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Cascade Control systems are composed of inner and outer control loops. Compared to the traditional single feedback controls, the structure of cascade controls is more complex. As a result, the implementation of these control methods is costly because extra sensors are needed to measure the inner process states. On the other side, cascade control algorithms can significantly improve the controlled system performance if they are designed properly. For instance, cascade control strategies can act faster than single feedback methods to prevent undesired disturbances, which can drive the controlled system’s output away from its target value, from spreading through the process. …

Eyecom: An Innovative Approach For Computer Interaction, Anam Mazhar

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The world is innovating rapidly, and there is a need for continuous interaction with the technology. Sadly, there do not exist promising options for paralyzed people to interact with the machines i.e., laptops, smartphones, and tabs. A few commercial solutions such as Google Glasses are costly and cannot be afforded by every paralyzed person for such interaction. Towards this end, the thesis proposes a retina-controlled device called EYECOM. The proposed device is constructed from off-the-shelf cost-effective yet robust IoT devices (i.e., Arduino microcontrollers, Xbee wireless sensors, IR diodes, and accelerometer). The device can easily be mounted on to the glasses; …

Quaternary Hydrides Pd1-Y-Zagycuzhx Embedded Atom Method Potentials For Hydrogen Energy Applications, Chaonan Zhang

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Pd-H system has attracted extensive attention. Pd can absorb considerable H at room temperature, this ability is reversible, so it is suitable for multiple energy applications. Pd-Ag alloys possess higher H permeability, solubility and narrower miscibility gap with better mechanical properties than pure Pd, but sulfur poisoning remains an issue. Pd-Cu alloys have excellent resistance to sulfur and carbon monoxide poisoning and hydrogen embrittlement, good mechanical properties, and broader temperature working environments over pure Pd, but relatively lower hydrogen permeability and solubility than pure Pd and Pd-Ag alloys. This suggests that alloying Pd with Ag and Cu to create …

A Review Of A Collaborative Online International Learning, Philip Appiah-Kubi, Ebenezer Annan

Engineering Management and Systems Faculty Publications

Globalization has exacerbated the need for engineers who are capable of working in a cross-cultural environment. Multinational companies continuously seek for engineers who are interculturally competent and capable of conducting business successfully in a cross-cultural environment. However, the skills required to be successful in a multicultural environment are difficult to be taught in the traditional classroom. One of the most effective approaches to acquiring intercultural competency skills is through experiential learning. It is, therefore, not surprising that most colleges all over the world are devoting resources towards the internationalization of their classrooms and the campus community. This ensures that students …

Load-Balancing Rendezvous Approach For Mobility-Enabled Adaptive Energy-Efficient Data Collection In Wsns, Jian Zhang, Jian Tang, Zhonghui Wang, Feng Wang, Gang Yu

Faculty and Student Publications

Copyright © 2020 KSII The tradeoff between energy conservation and traffic balancing is a dilemma problem in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). By analyzing the intrinsic relationship between cluster properties and long distance transmission energy consumption, we characterize three node sets of the cluster as a theoretical foundation to enhance high performance of WSNs, and propose optimal solutions by introducing rendezvous and Mobile Elements (MEs) to optimize energy consumption for prolonging the lifetime of WSNs. First, we exploit an approximate method based on the transmission distance from the different node to an ME to select suboptimal Rendezvous Point (RP) on the …

Revisiting Lightweight Encryption For Iot Applications: Error Performance And Throughput In Wireless Fading Channels With And Without Coding, Yazid M. Khattabi, Mustafa M. Matalgah, Mohammed M. Olama

Faculty and Student Publications

© 2013 IEEE. Employing heavy conventional encryption algorithms in communications suffers from added overhead and processing time delay; and in wireless communications, in particular, suffers from severe performance deterioration (avalanche effect) due to fading. Consequently, a tremendous reduction in data throughput and increase in complexity and time delay may occur especially when information traverse resource-limited devices as in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. To overcome these drawbacks, efficient lightweight encryption algorithms have been recently proposed in literature. One of those, that is of particular interest, requires using conventional encryption only for the first block of data in a given frame being transmitted. …

Cooperative Relay Selection For Load Balancing With Mobility In Hierarchical Wsns: A Multi-Armed Bandit Approach, Jian Zhang, Jian Tang, Feng Wang

Faculty and Student Publications

© 2013 IEEE. Energy efficiency is the major concern in hierarchical wireless sensor networks(WSNs), where the major energy consumption originates from radios for communication. Due to notable energy expenditure of long-range transmission for cluster members and data aggregation for Cluster Head (CH), saving and balancing energy consumption is a tricky challenge in WSNs. In this paper, we design a CH selection mechanism with a mobile sink (MS) while proposing relay selection algorithms with multi-user multi-armed bandit (UM-MAB) to solve the problem of energy efficiency. According to the definition of node density and residual energy, we propose a conception referred to …

Metamaterial Absorbers For Mitigating Unintentional Radiated Emissions, Ali Khoshniat

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

Unintentional radiated emission spikes are one of the causes of failure in electromagnetic compliance tests of high-speed systems. In this thesis, a new absorber solution for mitigating such emissions is proposed using the concept of metamaterial structures. The absorber is placed inside the high-speed system shield box to match the low (almost zero) impedance of the metal walls to the wave impedance of unwanted radiations. As a result, waves reflected from the shield box are attenuated which eventually reduces the emissions leaked outside of the box. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is demonstrated through simulations and experimental evaluations of …

Test Article, Test Author

Documentation

Description

Finding Data Races In Software Binaries With Symbolic Execution, Nathan D. Jackson

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Modern software applications frequently make use of multithreading to utilize hardware resources better and promote application responsiveness. In these applications, threads share the program state, and synchronization mechanisms ensure proper ordering of accesses to the program state. When a developer fails to implement synchronization mechanisms, data races may occur. Finding data races in an automated way is an already challenging problem, but often impractical without source code or understanding how to execute the program under analysis. In this thesis, we propose a solution for finding data races on software binaries and present our prototype implementation BINRELAY. Our solution makes use …

Agricultural Byproducts As Amendments In Bioretention Soils For Metal And Nutrient Removal, Camille Morgan, Cara Poor, Ben D. Giudice, Jacob Bibb

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

This study investigated the effectiveness of metal and nutrient removal from stormwater in bioretention systems amended with agricultural byproducts. Both batch and column studies were conducted to evaluate three amendments: hazelnut shells, pecan shells, and spent grain from the brewing process. Batch studies using buffered synthetic water containing copper and zinc evaluated adsorptive properties of the three amendments. Of the three amendments, hazelnut shells had the highest sorption coefficient based on Kd ranges of 19,200–106,000 L=kg and 8,610–18,900 L=kg for zinc and copper, respectively. Both pecan shells and spent grain had significantly lower Kd values for zinc (2,160–6,030 L=kg and …

Tangle-Free Exploration With A Tethered Mobile Robot, Danylo Shapovalov, Guilherme Pereira

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Exploration and remote sensing with mobile robots is a well known field of research, but current solutions cannot be directly applied for tethered robots. In some applications, tethers may be very important to provide power or allow communication with the robot. This paper presents an exploration algorithm that guarantees complete exploration of arbitrary environments within the length constraint of the tether, while keeping the tether tangle-free at all times. While we also propose a generalized algorithm that can be used with several exploration strategies, our implementation uses a modified frontier-based exploration approach, where the robot chooses its next goal in …

Tuning The Size And Composition Of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles Through Varying Temperature Ramp And Aging Time, Celia Martinez De La Torre, Jasmine H. Grossman, Andrey A. Bobko, Margaret F. Bennewitz

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Manganese oxide (MnO) nanoparticles (NPs) can serve as robust pH-sensitive contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) due to Mn2+ release at low pH, which generates a ~30 fold change in T1 relaxivity. Strategies to control NP size, composition, and Mn2+ dissolution rates are essential to improve diagnostic performance of pH-responsive MnO NPs. We are the first to demonstrate that MnO NP size and composition can be tuned by the temperature ramping rate and aging time used during thermal decomposition of manganese(II) acetylacetonate. Two different temperature ramping rates (10°C/min and 20°C/min) were applied to reach 300°C and NPs were aged …

Comparing Rf Fingerprinting Performance Of Hobbyist And Commercial-Grade Sdrs, Travis R. Smith

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Radio Frequency Fingerprinting (RFF) research typically uses expensive, laboratory grade receivers which have high dynamic range, very stable oscillators, large instantaneous bandwidth, multi-rate sampling, etc. In this study, the RFF effectiveness of lower grade receivers is considered. Using software-defined radios (SDRs) of different cost and performance, a linear regression model is developed to predict RFF performance. Unlike two previous studies of SDR effectiveness that used commercial and lab-grade SDRs, the experiment here focused on hobbyist and commercial-grade SDRs (RTL-SDR, B200-mini, N210). A regression model is proposed for a generic SDR. Using a full-factorial experiment matrix, the gain, sample rate, and …

Computational Assessment Of Aortic Valve Function And Mechanics Under Hypertension, Saurav Kadel

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), the most common valvular heart disorder, is associated with complications such as stroke, heart attack, aortic aneurysm, left ventricular hypertrophy, and ultimately death. While hypertension has been identified as a major risk factor for CAVD, the mechanisms by which it may promote calcification are still unknown. Given the sensitivity of valvular tissue to mechanical stress alterations, the hemodynamic abnormalities linked to hypertension may play a role in the development of CAVD. Further, the effects of hypertension on the left ventricular functionality and coronary flow resistance remain largely uninvestigated. Hence, the objectives of this thesis were …

A Mobile Learning Community In A Living Learning Community: Perceived Impact On Digital Fluency And Communication, Devshikha Bose, Krishna Pakala, Lana Grover

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Though mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and tablet computers have an immense potential for improving student learning, there is little empirical research which reports ways in which students actually use these technologies for learning, especially in fields like Engineering. Based on a social-constructivist approach to learning, the purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate student perceptions regarding changes in mobile device based digital fluency and communication, after participation in a Living Learning Community (LLC) based Mobile Learning Community. This study contributes to existing literature in the field in that it reports student perceptions of how mobile devices can …

Thermal Modeling Of Coordinated Multi-Beam Additive Manufacturing, Rachel Elizabeth Evans

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

In additive manufacturing (AM), it is necessary to know the influence of processing parameters in order to have better control over the microstructure and mechanical performance of the part. Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a metal AM process in which thin layers of powdered material are selectively melted to create a three-dimensional structure. This manufacturing process is beneficial for many reasons; however, it is limited by the thermal solidification conditions achievable in the available processing parameter ranges for single-beam processing methods. Therefore, this work investigates the effect of multiple, coordinated heat sources, which are used to strategically modify the …

Bench-Scale Investigation Of Remote Detection Of Clay Pockets In Granular Soils, Nick W. Hudyma, Brian Kopp, Joshua Oglesby, Sukris Vong

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The detection of deleterious materials in compacted soil fills is an important part of earthwork construction. These materials are often identified a priori using laboratory techniques such as the visual assessment of sieve analyses. However, it is possible that deleterious materials, such as clay pockets, can be larger than particles characterized in laboratory tests. Bench scale imaging using simulated unmanned aerial vehicle flights were conducted to determine if clay pockets, 15.24 cm by 15.24 cm by 5 cm thick, could be detected in granular soils. The imaging techniques employed were digital imaging, thermal imaging, and electromagnetic imaging. All imaging techniques …