Engineering Commons^™

The Broadband Satellite System "Ipstar": Applications In Asia-Pacific Region, Masudul Biswas

Online Journal of Space Communication

The increasing trend of data traffic has turned the world into an information society. Even so, a significant portion of the areas and populations of the world have remained outside the flow of data traffic keeping them information-poor. That is why the issue of "digital divide" has popped up. But it is the cost-effectiveness factor of delivering systems that has guided the changes taking place in information and communication technologies that will ultimately benefit the end users.

Access To Education In Africa Via Satellite, Hala Ibrahim

Online Journal of Space Communication

The potential of satellite technologies to improve access to education in Africa is discussed in this paper. Education contributes to sustainable development in Africa. However, accessibility to quality education has been stalled by many barriers, including lack of infrastructure, lack of trained teachers, high teacher/student ratios and shortage of educational materials. Satellites are among the information and communication technologies (ICTs) with the potential to by-pass terrestrial barriers to deliver educational services to scattered users.

The Challenges Of Distance Education, Abdul Waheed Khan

Online Journal of Space Communication

Education is of extreme importance as it is key to equipping the workforce with the skills needed to develop national economies. The importance is exemplified by the "Education for All" movement, a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults, which links directly to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Sustainable development of quality primary education is dependent on complementary development in the secondary and tertiary education sectors. With economies relying more and more on the generation and application of knowledge, productivity is increasingly dependent on the development and spread of technological innovation. Higher education …

Common Ground Newsletter Fall 2021, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

Common Ground

-Lighting the way with solar panel inspections
-CArEE Miner athletes score recognition
-Celebrating 150 years of civil engineering at S&T

Issue 11: Contributors, Don Flournoy

Online Journal of Space Communication

Biographical information for the Issue 11 contributors:

Daniel Butler

Don Flournoy

Scott Madry

Joseph Pelton

How The Pavement's Lifetime Depends On The Stress Level: An Explanation Of The Empirical Formula, Edgar Daniel Rodriguez Velasquez, Vladik Kreinovich, Olga Kosheleva, Hoang Phuong Nguyen

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

We show that natural invariance ideas explain the empirical dependence on the pavement's lifetime on the stress level.

In Situ Imaging Of Bacterial Outer Membrane Projections And Associated Protein Complexes Using Electron Cryo-Tomography, Mohammed Kaplan, Georges Chreifi, Lauren Ann Metskas, Janine Liedtke, Cecily R. Wood, Catherine M. Oikonomou, William J. Nicolas, Poorna Subramanian, Lori A. Zacharoff, Yuhang Wang, Yi-Wei Chang, Morgan Beeby, Megan J. Dobro, Yongtao Zhu, Mark J. Mcbride, Ariane Briegel, Carrie L. Shaffer, Grant J. Jensen

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

The ability to produce outer membrane projections in the form of tubular membrane extensions (MEs) and membrane vesicles (MVs) is a widespread phenomenon among diderm bacteria. Despite this, our knowledge of the ultrastructure of these extensions and their associated protein complexes remains limited. Here, we surveyed the ultrastructure and formation of MEs and MVs, and their associated protein complexes, in tens of thousands of electron cryo-tomograms of ~90 bacterial species that we have collected for various projects over the past 15 years (Jensen lab database), in addition to data generated in the Briegel lab. We identified outer MEs and MVs …

Performance Improvement Through Better Understanding Of Supply Chain Resilience, Amanda L. Femano

Theses and Dissertations

Businesses operate every day in a disruptive environment. Supply and demand uncertainty, natural disasters, global pandemics, and mishaps can all cause chaos to a supply chain’s flow. It is impossible to predict every disruption a supply chain may encounter. The best an organization can do to protect network performance is to build resilience in the supply chain and life-blood of its operations. Ensuring that a supply chain has the proper built-in mechanisms to resist and recover from disruptions is referred to as Supply Chain Resilience (SCR). While it is generally agreed that SCR can be improved through the implementation of …

Subnational Map Of Poverty Generated From Remote-Sensing Data In Africa: Using Machine Learning Models And Advanced Regression Methods For Poverty Estimation, Lionel N. Hanke

Master's Theses

According to the 2020 poverty estimates from the World Bank, it is estimated that 9.1% - 9.4% of the global population lived on less than $1.90 per day. It is estimated that the Covid-19 pandemic further aggravated the issue by pushing more than 1% of the global population below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day (WorldBank, 2020). To provide help and formulate effective measures, poverty needs to be located as exact as possible. For this purpose, it was investigated whether regression methods with aggregated remote-sensing data could be used to estimate poverty in Africa. Therefore, five distinct regression …

The Behaviour Of Rare Earth Elements From South African Coal Fly Ash During Enrichment Processes: Wet, Magnetic Separation And Zeolitisation, Mero Lee Ursula Cornelius, Alechine Emmanuel Ameh, Chuks Paul Eze, Olanrewaju Fatoba, Asel Sartbaeva, Leslie Felicia Petrik

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential raw materials in a variety of industries including clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. This places an ever-increasing demand on global rare earth element production. Coal fly ash (CFA) possesses appreciable levels of REEs. CFA, a waste by-product of coal combustion, is therefore a readily available source of REEs that does not require mining. CFA valorization to zeolites has been achieved via various synthesis pathways. This study aimed to evaluate one such pathway by monitoring how REEs partition during CFA processing by the wet, magnetic separation process and zeolitisation. South …

Stochastic Programming And Agent-Based Simulation Approaches For Epidemics Control And Logistics Planning, Xuecheng Yin

Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the resource allocation challenges of fighting against infectious disease outbreaks. The goal of this dissertation is to formulate multi-stage stochastic programming and agent-based models to address the limitations of former literature in optimizing resource allocation for preventing and controlling epidemics and pandemics. In the first study, a multi-stage stochastic programming compartmental model is presented to integrate the uncertain disease progression and the logistics of resource allocation to control a highly contagious infectious disease. The proposed multi-stage stochastic program, which involves various disease growth scenarios, optimizes the distribution of treatment centers and resources while minimizing the total expected …

The Emily Dickinson Machine & Hybrid Poetry Generation, Juliana Shihadeh

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

This thesis introduces EMILY, a machine that creates original poems in the style of renowned poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s succinct and syntactically distinct style with unconventional punctuation makes for an interesting challenge for automated poetry creation. Furthermore, we adapt EMILY to answer the following hypothetical question: What if Emily Dickinson had collaborated with another poet from a different time period? To this end, we introduce Hybrid Generative Poetry, which simultaneously integrates poetic elements from multiple poets. Using two distinct approaches to Hybrid Poetry generation, we create poetry in the combined styles of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. User studies are …

Geomagnetic Disturbances (Gmd) Impacts On Protection Systems, Qun Qiu, V. Madani, Tapan Manna, T. Raffield, S. Klecker, Yuan Liao, S. Meliopoulos, D. Fontana

Electrical and Computer Engineering Presentations

This paper provides background and historical events of Geomagnetic Disturbances (GMD), and reviews GMD impacts on power systems equipment, and associated protection and control systems, mitigating measures, and Geomagnetic Induced Current (GIC) monitoring methods. This paper is a summary of the IEEE PES-TR72 report, titled, GMD Impacts on Protection Systems, prepared by the K17 Working Group of the IEEE Power System Relaying and Control committee.

Assessment Of Key Imperatives For Enhancing Precast Adoptability In Egypt, Mostafa Sameh

Theses and Dissertations

Precast Concrete’s modular application concept is a major construction method that has been used historically seen in various shapes, forms, and with a wide range of constituents. Examples include Ancient Egypt and China among several impressive structures in old civilizations. The major advantages of precast concrete lie in its adaptability, resilience, and versatility which makes precast concrete one of the most agile building materials. Precast concrete as we know it today has been introduced to our markets over the past several decades. Having similar advantages to that of old precast building methods, the road has been paved for wider use …

Improved Ships Course-Keeping Robust Control Algorithm Based On Backstepping And Nonlinear Feedback, Sirui Wang

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Study On Risk Assessment Of Methanol Fueled Ship, Zhichao Chen

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Flow Behavior Of Granular Soil And Impounded Fly Ash Slurries, Nuzhath Fatema

Dissertations - ALL

Failure of an embankment dam around mine tailings and coal ash slurry impoundments typically results in a fast-moving flow of toxic waste that can carry for several miles with disastrous consequence. The most recent catastrophic tailing-dam failure took place on 25 January 2019, at Brumadinho, Brazil, where the resultant tailings flow killed at least 232 people. A similar impoundment failure also occurred in 2008 at the TVA Kingston fossil power plant in Tennessee, USA, where coal combustion residuals such as fly ash and bottom ash were stored in the impoundments. The catastrophic failure at Kingston released 4.2 million m3 of …

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Assessing Risk At The National Strategic Level: Visualization Tools For Military Planners, Wade A. Germann, Heather S. Gregg

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The reemergence of great power competition, conflict with near-peer competitor states below the level of armed conflict, and persisting threats from nonstate actors with transnational ambitions and global reach pose challenges for strategists planning, executing, and assessing military operations and strategy. Building on current visualization tools, two proposed models—the National Strategic Risk Abacus and the National Strategic Risk Radar Chart—address these challenges and better depict how the US military may inadvertently contribute to risk at the national strategic level.

Great (Soft) Power Competition: Us And Chinese Efforts In Global Health Engagement, Michael W. Wissemann

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Global health engagement, an underutilized strategy rooted in the strengths of soft power persuasion, can lead to more military-to-military cooperation training, help establish relationships that can be relied on when crises develop, stabilize fragile states, and deny violent extremist organizations space for recruiting and operations. Examining Chinese efforts worldwide to curry favor and influence and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this article shows health as a medium is a very compelling and advantageous whole-of-government approach to national security policy concerns.

The Challenges Of Applying Computational Legal Analysis To Mhealth Security And Privacy Regulations, Brian Tung

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

As our world has grown in complexity, so have our laws. By one measure, the United States Code has grown over 30x as long since 1935, and the 186,000-page Code of Federal Regulations has grown almost 10x in length since 1938. Our growing legal system is too complicated; it’s impossible for people to know all the laws that apply to them. However, people are still subject to the law, even if they are unfamiliar with it. Therein lies the need for computational legal analysis. Tools of computation (e.g., data visualization, algorithms, and artificial intelligence) have the potential to transform civic …

Towards Creating Smart Cities In Nepal, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Many urban centers in the world are seeking to become smart cities. Nepali city leaders are also aspiring to make their cities smart. A smart city basically has clever improvements made in three sectors of its operations: technological, human, and institutional. Globally, many cities have recently made impressive enhancements in at least one or more of these areas. Nepal’s National Planning Commission (NPC) in 2016 had released a concept paper on smart cities for Nepal, defining smart cities as sustainable, information and technology-based, with high quality services and replicable (NPC 2016). As most Nepali cities still operate with limited infrastructure, …

Assessment Of The Effects Of Airflow Conditions Related To Hop Drying, David Mabie

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Hops have been utilized by brewers for centuries to contribute bitterness, antimicrobial preservation and desirable aromatic profiles to beer. The hop cone is a small, lightweight, high moisture content flower which produces lupulin glands containing resins and essential oils that contribute desirable characteristics to beer. Due to the high harvest moisture content (75% wet basis), hops must be rapidly dried to properly preserve them for future processing and brewing. While hops have been dried for centuries, most literature from the past century has focused on drying to minimizing loss to the resin or physical cone structure. The objectives of this …

Direct Activation Of Light Alkanes To Value-Added Chemicals Using Supported Metal Oxide Catalysts, Md Ashraful Abedin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One of the most challenging aspects of modern-day catalysis is the conversion of methane. Direct conversion of methane via dehydroaromatization (MDHA) is a well-known process which can produce valuable hydrocarbons. Mo oxide supported on ZSM-5/MCM-22 has been studied extensively in recent years for MDHA. Mo carbides are responsible for activating methane by forming CHx species. These are dimerized into C2Hy and oligomerized on ZSM-5/MCM-22 Brønsted acid sites to form aromatics. Sulfated zirconia (SZ) supported Mo catalyst contains the acid sites necessary to produce benzene in MDHA. Here, sulfated hafnia (SH), a homologous oxide like SZ, has been proposed to provide …

Ensemble Data Fitting For Bathymetric Models Informed By Nominal Data, Samantha Zambo

Dissertations

Due to the difficulty and expense of collecting bathymetric data, modeling is the primary tool to produce detailed maps of the ocean floor. Current modeling practices typically utilize only one interpolator; the industry standard is splines-in-tension.

In this dissertation we introduce a new nominal-informed ensemble interpolator designed to improve modeling accuracy in regions of sparse data. The method is guided by a priori domain knowledge provided by artificially intelligent classifiers. We recast such geomorphological classifications, such as ‘seamount’ or ‘ridge’, as nominal data which we utilize as foundational shapes in an expanded ordinary least squares regression-based algorithm. To our knowledge …

Quantification Of Compound And Cascading Hydroclimatic Extreme Events, Sourav Mukherjee

All Dissertations

Compound and cascading hydroclimatic extreme events have garnered much attention in recent studies. The combined effects of interconnected extremes can cause widespread damage, with a higher potential impact than individual extremes. Both anthropogenic warming and natural climate variability affect these extremes, which is why detecting past extreme events, understanding the underlying mechanisms, and assessing their future impacts can aid in mitigation efforts to reduce their overall impact. However, thus far, identifying such events is oversimplified and the propagation of their impact as cascades from the physical to human systems remains partly explored.

The overreaching goal of this thesis is to …

Mechanical Response Of Chemically Treated Sulfate-Rich Clay Under Multiple Triaxial Stress Path, Azadeh Asghariastaneh

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Expansive clayey soils, which are abundant in arid and semi-arid areas, including the state of Texas, can lead to excessive distress in pavements, foundations, embankments, earth retaining systems and other civil infrastructure that is either made of or supported by this type of soils. Calcium-based stabilizers, such as lime, cement and fly ash, have become popular soil stabilizers due to their ready availability and relatively low cost; however, myriad cases of failures of pavements and foundation built over sulfate-rich treated clay have led researchers to search for more efficient substitutes for calcium-based stabilizers. A very limited number of studies, however, …

Development Of Cost-Effective High-Modulus Asphalt Concrete (Hmac) Mixtures Using Crumb Rubber And Local Construction Materials In Louisiana, Momen R. Mousa, Marwa Hassan, Ibrahim A.I.E Elnaml

Publications

One of the emerging solutions to enhance the durability of asphalt pavements is the use of a French asphalt mix known as “High-Modulus Asphalt Concrete (HMAC).” This mix uses a hard asphalt binder, high binder content (about 6%), and low air voids content as compared to Superpave mixtures. The key objective of this study was to develop a cost-effective HMAC mixture using crumb rubber and local materials in Louisiana. To achieve this objective, four HMAC mixtures were prepared using two asphalt binders (PG 82-22 and PG 76-22 plus 10% crumb rubber) and two Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) contents (20% and …

In-Situ Alloying Of Cucrfenitial High Entropy Alloy Using Spark Plasma Sintering, Yash P. Patil

Theses and Dissertations

Primary objective of this research was to study the correlation between energy parameters (temperature, time and pressure) of spark plasma sintering (SPS) and design/structural properties (uniform distribution of elements, sever lattice distortion, density), indirectly proving consolidation of a stable High-entropy alloy (HEA) that consists of minimum of five elements. Therefore, powders of five principal elements (CuCrFeNiTi) and one minor element (Al) in near equimolar ratios were used for HEA consolidation using SPS but without mechanical alloying. Overall results demonstrated that the HEA was not generated using heterogenous solution of CuCrFeNiTiAl using SPS. This suggests that the mechanical alloying of CuCrFeNiTiAl …

Assessment Of The Impacts Of Climate Variability On Hydropower Generation: A Case Study Of The New Pangani Falls, Tanzania, Dativa Byarufu

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Climate change poses potential impacts on hydropower generation either positively by increasing or negatively by decreasing river flow. This study assessed the impacts of climate variability on hydropower with a focus on the New Pangani Falls in Tanzania. Rainfall and temperature time series data from 1980-2014 were analyzed in relation to river discharge and associated impacts to hydropower generation. The Man-Kendall test was used to detect trend in both annual and seasonal time series. The results showed a negative trend in annual rainfall with Z= -2.41 at α = 0.05 and the slope Q = -0.964. Seasonal trend analysis showed …