Engineering Commons^™

Electrospun Nanofiber Scaffolds As A Platform For Breast Cancer Research, Carolynn Que

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Tumorigenesis is a complex process involving numerous cellular signaling cascades and environmental factors. Here, we report the fabrication of 3D scaffolds with different morphologies obtained by to study cancer cell proliferation and migration. Using an FDA approved, biocompatible and biodegradable polymer Polycaprolactone (PCL), we electrospun nanofiber scaffolds having mesh, aligned, and honeycomb morphologies. The role of the morphology and cellular preferences to nutrition in cell adhesion and proliferation was assessed using scaffolds obtained by electrospinning PCL with fluorescent fructose-like molecular probes. Cell viability, cell morphology, localized cellular growth as related to scaffold morphology and availability of the fructose-like molecular probes …

Sensor Fusion And Non-Linear Mpc Controller Development Studies For Intelligent Autonomous Vehicular Systems, Ahammad Basha Dudekula

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The demand for safety and fuel efficiency on ground vehicles and advancement in embedded systems created the opportunity to develop Autonomous controller. The present thesis work is three fold and it encompasses all elements that are required to prototype the autonomous intelligent system including simulation, state handling and real time implementation. The Autonomous vehicle operation is mainly dependent upon accurate state estimation and thus a major concern of implementing the autonomous navigation is obtaining robust and accurate data from sensors. This is especially true, in case of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor data. The IMU consists of a 3-axis gyro, …

Aperture-Level Simultaneous Transmit And Receive (Star) With Digital Phased Arrays, Ian Cummings

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In the signal processing community, it has long been assumed that transmitting and receiving useful signals at the same time in the same frequency band at the same physical location was impossible. A number of insights in antenna design, analog hardware, and digital signal processing have allowed researchers to achieve simultaneous transmit and receive (STAR) capability, sometimes also referred to as in-band full-duplex (IBFD). All STAR systems must mitigate the interference in the receive channel caused by the signals emitted by the system. This poses a significant challenge because of the immense disparity in the power of the transmitted and …

Assessment Of Different Seismic Retrofit Systems Of Rc Buildings For Earthquake Risk Mitigation, Aya Ragab Mohamed Abou Ei-Hamd

Theses

Many existing Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures were designed and constructed at a time when design codes were insufficient according to current standards. This class of structures is at risk of damage when subjected to strong earthquake loading. Therefore, several seismic retrofit techniques have been investigated experimentally to increase the earthquake resistance and damage-control potential of pre-seismic code structures using different methods such as quasi-static and pseudo-dynamic testing. However, a limited number of studies have focused on investigating the overall seismic performance of retrofitted RC structures using shake table testing. The first task of this study assesses analytically and experimentally the …

Right-Hook Crash Scenario: Effects Of Environmental Factors On Driver's Visual Attention And Crash Risk, Mafruhatul Jannat, Hagai Tapiro, Christopher Monsere, David Hurwitz

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A right-hook (RH) crash is a common type of bicycle–motor vehicle crash that occurs between a right-turning vehicle and through-moving bicycle at an intersection in right-hand driving countries. Despite the frequency and severity of this crash type, no significant driver-performance based evidence of the causes of RH crashes at signalized intersections was found in the literature. This study examined the driver’s visual attention in a right-turning scenario at signalized intersections with bicycle lanes but no exclusive right-turning lanes while interacting with a bicyclist to develop an understanding of RH crash causality. Fifty-one participants in 21 simulated road scenarios performed a …

Patenting Fast And Slow: Examiner And Applicant Use Of Prior Art, Shine Sean Tu

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Previous studies have shown that an applicant's ability to obtain a patent is inexorably linked to the random assignment of a patent examiner.1 However, not all patent examiners are created equal. Some patent examiners allow patent applications quickly within just one or two Office Actions, resulting in only a few months of substantive patent prosecution. In contrast, other patent examiners constantly reject patents applications, which can result in unnecessarily delaying prosecution and years of substantive patent prosecution. This study focuses on how different examiners use prior art rejections to prolong or compact prosecution.

Prior art rejections are one of the …

Nanostructured Device Designs For Enhanced Performance In Cds/Cu2S Heterojunction Solar Cells, Benjamin Wells

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Nanostructured CdS/Cu2S devices have been simulated using SCAPS-1D to demonstrate enhanced performance over traditional planar device structures. Two designs were examined: a nanowire CdS/planar Cu2S device and a nanowire CdS/nanowire Cu2S device. The addition of nanowires to a device had been previously demonstrated to improve device performance in a nanowire CdS/planar CdTe device by decreasing the amount of light absorbed by the CdS window layer, thus allowing more light to reach the absorber layer. Additionally, the total number of interface states can be greatly reduced due to the decreased total surface area between the window and absorber layers. The nanowire …

Investigation Of Host Nanotube Parameters For Enhancing The Performance Of Nanostructured Cds-Cdte Solar Cells, Deepak Kumar

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effects of host nanotube parameters (pore diameter and pitch for different CdS coverages) and CdTe doping density on device performance in nanowire CdS/ CdTe solar cells using SCAPS-1D. This research finds the optimum values for these parameters in order to achieve the highest efficiency. Experimentally the effect of anodization voltage and fluoride ion concentration on the pore diameter and the pitch are studied for the Titania nanotubes host. It is observed that in the range of 0.3 mL to 2 mL of ammonium fluoride content, pore diameter and the pitch of the Titania …

Rapid Prototyping Of Nanostructures With Electron Beam Induced Processing, Samaneh Esfandiarpour

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Focused electron beam induced processing (FEBIP) is a nano-scale fabrication technique that allows the direct deposition of functional materials. However, it suffers from significant drawbacks, such as high cost, low speed, unavailable precursors for many materials and low purity of deposits. Liquid-phase focused electron beam induced processes (LP-FEBIP) are being investigated due to the potential benefits over the gas phase technique. In this method, deposition or etching occurs at the interface between a substrate and a bulk liquid. In this work, electron beam induced deposition of copper nanostructures from aqueous solutions of copper sulfate is demonstrated. The addition of sulfuric …

End-To-End Prediction Of Weld Penetration In Real Time Based On Deep Learning, Wenhua Jiao

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Welding is an important joining technique that has been automated/robotized. In automated/robotic welding applications, however, the parameters are preset and are not adaptively adjusted to overcome unpredicted disturbances, which cause these applications to not be able to meet the standards from welding/manufacturing industry in terms of quality, efficiency, and individuality. Combining information sensing and processing with traditional welding techniques is a significant step toward revolutionizing the welding industry. In practical welding, the weld penetration as measured by the back-side bead width is a critical factor when determining the integrity of the weld produced. However, the back-side bead width is difficult …

Resource Efficient Design Of Quantum Circuits For Cryptanalysis And Scientific Computing Applications, Edgard Munoz-Coreas

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Quantum computers offer the potential to extend our abilities to tackle computational problems in fields such as number theory, encryption, search and scientific computation. Up to a superpolynomial speedup has been reported for quantum algorithms in these areas. Motivated by the promise of faster computations, the development of quantum machines has caught the attention of both academics and industry researchers. Quantum machines are now at sizes where implementations of quantum algorithms or their components are now becoming possible. In order to implement quantum algorithms on quantum machines, resource efficient circuits and functional blocks must be designed. In this work, we …

Integration Of Large Pv Power Plants And Batteries In The Electric Power System, Oluwaseun M. Akeyo

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

The declining cost of renewables, the need for cleaner sources of energy, and environmental protection policies have led to the growing penetration of inverter-based resources such as solar photovoltaics (PV), wind, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) into the electric power system. The intermittent nature of these resources poses multiple challenges to the power grid and substantial changes in the conventional generation and electrical power delivery practices will be required to accommodate the large penetration of these renewable power plants. The impact of large solar PV penetration on both generation and transmission systems, and the use of BESS to mitigate …

Articulatory-Wavenet: Deep Autoregressive Model For Acoustic-To-Articulatory Inversion, Narjes Alsadat Agha Seyed Mirza Bozorg

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Acoustic-to-Articulatory Inversion, the estimation of articulatory kinematics from speech, is an important problem which has received significant attention in recent years. Estimated articulatory movements from such models can be used for many applications, including speech synthesis, automatic speech recognition, and facial kinematics for talking-head animation devices. Knowledge about the position of the articulators can also be extremely useful in speech therapy systems and Computer-Aided Language Learning (CALL) and Computer-Aided Pronunciation Training (CAPT) systems for second language learners. Acoustic-to-Articulatory Inversion is a challenging problem due to the complexity of articulation patterns and significant inter-speaker differences. This is even more challenging when …

Selective Electron Beam Etching Of Materials Using Liquid Reactants, Sarah Lami

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Selective Electron Beam Etching of Materials Using Liquid Reactants Nanoscience and nanotechnology require advances in processing, patterning, and characterization of materials to overcome current limitations and generate new de-vices. Electron and ion beam-based processes are vital for fabrication and nano-scale prototyping with significant applications in nanoscale electronic, photonic, and magnetic devices; integrated circuit debugging; and lithographic mask and imprint template repair.

Focused ion and electron beams are routinely used to locally add (printing) or sub-tract (machining) materials. This type of material processing is becoming increasingly important to the integrated circuit manufacturing industry for editing and debug applications. Most significantly, as …

A Blockchain Simulator For Evaluating Consensus Algorithms In Diverse Networking Environments, Peter Foytik, Sachin Shetty, Sarada Prasad Gochhayat, Eranga Herath, Deepak Tosh, Laurent Njilla

VMASC Publications

The massive scale, heterogeneity and distributed nature of Internet-of-Things (IoT) presents challenges in realizing a practical and effective security solution. Blockchain empowered platforms and technologies have been proposed to address aspects of this challenge. In order to realize a practical Blockchain deployment for IoT, there is a need for a testing and evaluation platform to evaluate performance and security of Blockchain applications and systems. In this paper, we present a Blockchain simulator that evaluates the consensus algorithms in a realistic and configurable network environment. Though, there are several Blockchain evaluation platforms, they are either wedded to a specific consensus protocol …

Measuring Decentrality In Blockchain Based Systems, Sarada Prasad Gochhayat, Sachin Shetty, Ravi Mukkamala, Peter Foytik, Georges A. Kamhoua, Laurent Njilla

VMASC Publications

Blockchain promises to provide a distributed and decentralized means of trust among untrusted users. However, in recent years, a shift from decentrality to centrality has been observed in the most accepted Blockchain system, i.e., Bitcoin. This shift has motivated researchers to identify the cause of decentrality, quantify decentrality and analyze the impact of decentrality. In this work, we take a holistic approach to identify and quantify decentrality in Blockchain based systems. First, we identify the emergence of centrality in three layers of Blockchain based systems, namely governance layer, network layer and storage layer. Then, we quantify decentrality in these layers …

High Gravity Fermentation Of Sugarcane Bagasse Hydrolysate By Saccharomyces Pastorianus To Produce Economically Distillable Ethanol Concentrations: Necessity Of Medium Components Examined, Sarah W. Harcum, Thomas P. Caldwell

Open Access Publishing Fund

A major economic obstacle in lignocellulosic ethanol production is the low sugar concentrations in the hydrolysate and subsequent fermentation to economically distillable ethanol concentrations. We have previously demonstrated a two-stage fermentation process that recycles xylose with xylose isomerase to increase ethanol productivity, where the low sugar concentrations in the hydrolysate limit the final ethanol concentrations. In this study, three approaches are combined to increase ethanol concentrations. First, the medium-additive requirements were investigated to reduce ethanol dilution. Second, methods to increase the sugar concentrations in the sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate were undertaken. Third, the two-stage fermentation process was recharacterized with high gravity …

Can The Integration Of Bim And Gis Enhance Information Management For Large Scale Linear Infrastructure Projects?, Bim Tudublin, Brendan Kennedy

Capstone Reports

The integration of BIM and GIS is the subject of considerable research, particularly as the two coalesce for the purpose of information management. Large scale infrastructure projects require best practice in terms of how information is managed given the volume of information generated throughout the project lifecycle and the numerous parties requiring access to project content. This paper investigates whether the integration of BIM and GIS can enhance information management on large scale linear infrastructure projects. The research comprised a literature review and interviews with a number of BIM/GIS professionals actively working on linear infrastructure projects across the world. Some …

Evaluation Of An Interview-Based Internship Class In The Construction Management Curriculum: A Case Study Of The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Ali Karji, Stuart Bernstein, Mohammadsoroush Tafazzoli, Arash Arash Taghinezhad, Arefeh Mohammadi

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

Internships have been shown to be impactful tools to connect students’ learning in academia with real-world industrial needs. To help the students to get more out of their internship experience, some universities provide a summer internship class in which students do class assignments based on their experiences during their internship. There have been numerous studies on the benefits of internships. However, the benefits of a potential internship class for students in construction management (CM) programs at universities have not yet been investigated. This paper demonstrates the structure of an interview-based internship class and investigates its effectiveness. We have focused on …

Global Technology Economic Analysis Paradigm, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Abstract

Is true that it is not only the consumers that make the economy prospers? Business and government also play a role in the economy of a country and corporation. “The GLOBAL technology economy is driven perhaps by the example of a consumer-based society and capital driven citizenry," according to the article in the investor guide of 2013. The role of the government is very important in businesses, organizations and consumers alike depending on the decisions made by the government officials spending of the government. Research have indicated that dependencies of government, organizations, businesses and consumers are intertwine or intermediary. …

Far-Field Transient Absorption Nanoscopy With Sub-50 Nm Optical Super-Resolution, Yali Bi, Chi Yang, Lei Tong, Haozheng Li, Boyu Yu, Shuai Yan, Guang Yang, Meng Deng, Yi Wang, Wei Bao, Lei Ye, Ping Wang

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Nanoscopic imaging or characterizing is the mainstay of the development of advanced materials. Despite great progress in electronic and atomic force microscopies, label-free and far-field characterization of materials with deep sub- wavelength spatial resolution has long been highly desired. Herein, we demonstrate far-field super-resolution transient absorption (TA) imaging of two-dimensional material with a spatial resolution of sub-50 nm. By introducing a donut- shaped blue saturation laser, we effectively suppress the TA transition driven by near-infrared (NIR) pump–probe photons, and push the NIR-TA microscopy to sub-diffraction-limited resolution. Specifically, we demonstrate that our method can image the individual nano-grains in graphene with …

Precursor-Surface Interactions Revealed During Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition Of Metal Oxide Thin Films By In-Situ Spectroscopic Ellipsometry, Ufuk Kilic, Alyssa Mock, Derek Sekora, Simeon Gilbert, Shah R. Valloppilly, Natale J. Ianno, Marjorie Langell, Eva Schubert, Mathias Schubert

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

We find that a five-phase (substrate, mixed native oxide and roughness interface layer, metal oxide thin film layer, surface ligand layer, ambient) model with two-dynamic (metal oxide thin film layer thickness and surface ligand layer void fraction) parameters (dynamic dual box model) is sufficient to explain in-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry data measured within and across multiple cycles during plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition of metal oxide thin films. We demonstrate our dynamic dual box model for analysis of in-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry data in the photon energy range of 0.7–3.4 eV measured with time resolution of few seconds over large numbers of cycles …

Transcriptional Analysis Of Cleft Palate In Tgfβ3 Mutant Mice, J. Liu, S.K. Chanumolu, K.M. White, M. Albahrani, Hasan H. Otu, A. Nawshad

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Cleft palate (CP) is one of the most common craniofacial birth defects, impacting about 1 in 800 births in the USA. Tgf-β3 plays a critical role in regulating murine palate development, and Tgf-β3 null mutants develop cleft palate with 100% penetrance. In this study, we compared global palatal transcriptomes of wild type (WT) and Tgf-β3 −/− homozygous (HM) mouse embryos at the crucial palatogenesis stages of E14.5, and E16.5, using RNA-seq data. We found 1,809 and 2,127 differentially expressed genes at E16.5 vs. E14.5 in the WT and HM groups, respectively (adjusted p < 0.05; |fold change|> 2.0). We focused on the genes that …

Scalable Universalspace Vector Pulse Width Modulation Scheme For Multilevel Inverters, Wei Qiao, Fa Chen, Liyan Qu

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A scalable universal space vector pulse-width modulation (SVPWM) scheme for multilevel inverters is disclosed. In the disclosed SVPWM scheme, the modulation triangle is quickly identified based on a coordinate transformation from an a-ß coordinate system to a 120° oblique coordinate system. Then, the duty cycles and switching states of the three vertices of the modulation triangle are determined by simple algebric computations. In a switching period, any vertex of the modulation triangle can be flexibly selected as the start point to optimize the switching sequence with flexibly adjustable duty cycles(s) for the redundant switching state(s) according to specific applications.

Detecting Faults In Wind Turbines, Wei Qiao, Xiang Gong

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

A wind turbine generator faultdetection method is described.The method includes acquiring curent data from a wind turbine generator during operation, determining frequency demodulated signals and amplitude demodulated signals by frequency demodulating and amplitude demodulating the current data, resampling the frequency and amplitude demodulated signals corresponding to the current data, monitoring a frequency spectra of the resampled frequency and amplitude demodulated signals corresponding to the current data to identify one or more excitations in the frequency spectra. In response to identifying one or more excitations in the frequnecy spectra at one or more of the variable fault characteristic frequecies, the method …

Long-Term Tracking Of Group-Housed Livestock Using Keypoint Detection And Map Estimation For Individual Animal Identification, Eric T. Psota, Ty Schmidt, Benny Mote, Lance C. Pérez

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Tracking individual animals in a group setting is a exigent task for computer vision and animal science researchers. When the objective is months of uninterrupted tracking and the targeted animals lack discernible differences in their physical characteristics, this task introduces significant challenges. To address these challenges, a probabilistic tracking-by-detection method is proposed. The tracking method uses, as input, visible keypoints of individual animals provided by a fully-convolutional detector. Individual animals are also equipped with ear tags that are used by a classification network to assign unique identification to instances. The fixed cardinality of the targets is leveraged to create a …

Ieee Access Special Section Editorial: Security And Privacy For Cloud And Iot, Kuo-Hui Yeh, Weizhi Meng, Sk Hafizul Islam, Kuan Zhang, Ennan Zhai

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ieee Access Special Section Editorial: Energy Management In Buildings, Kun Wang, Yi Qian, Joel J.P.C. Rodrigues, Fei Richard Yu, Peng Li

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bibliometric Review Of Energy Storage System For Grid Connected Wind Power Plant, Jayshree Ashok Pande, Paresh Nasikkar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The integration of RESs like wind energy pose several problems for aggregators and grid operators majorly because of their intermittent and unstable behavior. The instability and intermittency can be reduced through accuracy in forecasting and reliable and effective storage and utilization. The main objective of this bibliometric review is to understand the extent of the available literature for the area of Energy Storage Systems for renewable energy resource specifically grid connected wind power plants. The bibliometric analysis is primarily based on Scopus, Research Gate, Mendeley and tools like GPS visualizer. It is revealed from the bibliometric analysis that major publications …

Bibliometric Analysis Of Bearing Fault Detection Using Artificial Intelligence, Pooja Kamat, Rekha Sugandhi Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The new industrial revolution called Industry 4.0 is proliferating at its peak. The time is no longer away when the human race is going to witness a huge paradigm shift. Intelligent machines empowered by Artificial Intelligence (AI)will take over the presence of human workers in the industrial manufacturing sector with the target of achieving 100% automation. With the emergence of cut-throat price competition in the product market, it has become equally important to manufacture goods at minimal costs and with the highest quality. Predicting the decrease in machinery efficiency at an earlier stage to accomplish this objective helps to reduce …