Engineering Commons^™

Performance Evaluation Of A Prestressed Belitic Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement (Bcsa) Concrete Bridge Girder, Nick Markosian, Raed Tawadrous, Mohammad Mastali, Robert J. Thomas, Marc Maguire

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Belitic calcium sulfoaluminate (BCSA) cement is a sustainable alternative to Portland cement that offers rapid setting characteristics that could accelerate throughput in precast concrete operations. BCSA cements have lower carbon footprint, embodied energy, and natural resource consumption than Portland cement. However, these benefits are not often utilized in structural members due to lack of specifications and perceived logistical challenges. This paper evaluates the performance of a full-scale precast, prestressed voided deck slab bridge girder made with BCSA cement concrete. The rapid-set properties of BCSA cement allowed the initial concrete compressive strength to reach the required 4300 psi release strength at …

Premium-Cnn: Propagating Uncertainty Towards Robust Convolutional Neural Networks, Dimah Dera, Nidhal Carla Bouaynaya, Ghulam Rasool, Roman Shterenberg, Hassan M. Fathallah-Shaykh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have surpassed human-level accuracy in various learning tasks. However, unlike humans who have a natural cognitive intuition for probabilities, DNNs cannot express their uncertainty in the output decisions. This limits the deployment of DNNs in mission-critical domains, such as warfighter decision-making or medical diagnosis. Bayesian inference provides a principled approach to reason about model's uncertainty by estimating the posterior distribution of the unknown parameters. The challenge in DNNs remains the multi-layer stages of non-linearities, which make the propagation of high-dimensional distributions mathematically intractable. This paper establishes the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of uncertainty or belief propagation …

Impact Of Personality Traits And Team Criteria On Construction Team Performance, Arlys Silva Payne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigated how personality traits and team criteria influence team performance in real construction projects. Though personality influence on team performance has been significantly investigated in other business sectors, the literature revealed that the construction industry lacks investigations regarding personality influencing team performance. The existing literature revealed that the Big Five Factors (BFF) was the most popular assessment tool for personality. Thus, this dissertation adopted the 50-Item Personality questionnaire developed by Goldberg, which consited of extraversion, aggreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. The literature also revealed several common team criteria to evaluate team performance: team member satisfaction, shared …

Spanish And English Phoneme Recognition By Training On Simulated Classroom Audio Recordings Of Collaborative Learning Environments, Mario J. Esparza Perez

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Audio recordings of collaborative learning environments contain a constant presence of cross-talk and background noise. Dynamic speech recognition between Spanish and English is required in these environments. To eliminate the standard requirement of large-scale ground truth, the thesis develops a simulated dataset by transforming audio transcriptions into phonemes and using 3D speaker geometry and data augmentation to generate an acoustic simulation of Spanish and English speech. The thesis develops a low-complexity neural network for recognizing Spanish and English phonemes (available at github.com/muelitas/keywordRec). When trained on 41 English phonemes, 0.099 PER is achieved on Speech Commands. When trained on 36 Spanish …

Lessons To Be Learned In Adoption Of Autonomous Equipment For Field Crops, James Lowenberg-Deboer, Karl Behrendt, Melf-Hinrich Ehlers, Carl R. Dillon, Andreas Gabriel, Iona Yuelu Huang, Ian Kumwenda, Tyler Mark, Andreas Meyer-Aurich, Gabor Milics, Kehinde Oluseyi Olagunju, Søren Marcus Pedersen, Jordan M. Shockley, David Rose

Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Autonomous equipment for crop production is on the verge of technical and economic feasibility, but government regulation may slow its adoption. Key regulatory issues include requirements for on-site human supervision, liability for autonomous machine error, and intellectual property in robotic learning. As an example of the impact of regulation on the economic benefits of autonomous crop equipment, analysis from the United Kingdom suggests that requiring 100% on-site human supervision almost wipes out the economic benefits of autonomous crop equipment for small and medium farms and increases the economies-of-scale advantage of larger farms.

Riyadh Neighborhood Residents’ Use And Satisfaction With Urban Green Spaces, Tahar Ledraa, Majed Hallawani, Awad Al-Qahtani

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

Neighborhood urban green spaces are indispensable elements for residents’ rest and recreation. They are also of paramount importance to enhance quality of life within neighborhoods. However, these urban green spaces did not receive much research interest, particularly in cities of the developing world. Larger city parks seem to have been the focus of studies. The present study is undertaken under the contention that dissatisfaction with a service is the difference between what is expected from that service and what is really experienced out of it. The gap between expectancy and what is experienced in reality would lead to how satisfied …

The Development Of An Instrument To Measure Transdermal Hydrogen Sulfide As A Way To Evaluate Microvascular Health In Humans, Benjamin Thomas Matheson

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is a gasotransmitter critical in maintaining microcirculation homeostasis. Impaired microcirculation occurs in multiple disease states such as peripheral vascular disease, diabetes mellitus (DM), and hypertension. Early detection and identification of patients with DM who are at risk for heart attack, stroke and amputation due to microvascular disease is crucial. Human skin is an accessible vascular bed that provides an opportunity to non-invasively measure H₂S, which could be used as a biomarker to evaluate microvascular health.

In this work, a novel H₂S gas sensor, called the transdermal arterial gasotransmitter sensor (TAGS^{TM …}

Final 2021 Residential Metals Abatement Program (Rmap) School Soil Sampling Field Sampling Plan (Fsp) Submittal #2 (Covering Highland View Christian School, Hillcrest Elementary, Kennedy Elementary, Silver Bow Montessori, & West Elementary), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Extracting Microplastic From Anhydrous Beach Sediment Utilizing Relative Terminal Velocities, Grace Robertson, Jackson Schuler

Student Works

The primary intent of this research was to investigate and develop a method to extract microplastics from anhydrous beach sediment. Microplastic is found abundantly in coastal sea environments, including aqueous bottom sediment, and beach sediment (Sagawa, Kawaai, & Hinata, 2018). The scope of the microplastic extraction method in this case is limited to strictly the anhydrous beach sediment. The Venturi Effect and Burnoulli’s Principle have been utilized in the design of a nozzle with airflow that has been injected with a sediment and microplastic heterogenous mixture. A nozzle was designed to operate at the specific terminal velocity of sediment such …

Probabilistic Analysis Of The Active Earth Pressure On Earth Retaining Walls For C‑Φ Soils According To The Mazindrani And Ganjali Method, Julian Osorio, Juan Camilo Viviescas, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

The determination of the earth pressure coefficients (K) in geotechnical engineering is one of the most critical procedures in designing earth retaining walls. However, most earth pressure theories are made for either clay or sands, where the c-ϕ soils are the least analysed. In this paper, an analysis of the earth pressure for drained mixed soils based in Mazindrani and Ganjali (J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 123:110–112, 1997) theory was carried out. Earth pressure coefficients are generally used in a deterministic way and can represent designs under an inadmissible risk. Therefore, Reliability-based design arises as an essential tool to deal with …

Use Of Machine Learning For Automated Convergence Of Numerical Iterative Schemes, Leonardo A. Bueno-Benitez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Convergence of a numerical solution scheme occurs when a sequence of increasingly refined iterative solutions approaches a value consistent with the modeled phenomenon. Approximations using iterative schemes need to satisfy convergence criteria, such as reaching a specific error tolerance or number of iterations. The schemes often bypass the criteria or prematurely converge because of oscillations that may be inherent to the solution. Using a Support Vector Machines (SVM) machine learning approach, an algorithm is designed to use the source data to train a model to predict convergence in the solution process and stop unnecessary iterations. The discretization of the Navier …

Fixed Bottom Wind Turbine Wave-Wake Interaction, Ondrej Fercak

Dissertations and Theses

The interest and benefits of offshore wind energy has also brought along legitimate design challenges for engineers. Most notably, the complex interaction between wind and turbine is further complicated by the addition of dynamic ocean waves. This dynamic coupling between wind, wave, and turbine is not fully understood. Even small improvements in wind turbine performance are welcome, so characterizing a fundamental dynamic in offshore energy is necessary to optimize design. Experimentation and simulation have been used to characterize inflow and turbine wakes and separately, wind-wave interactions. But only simulations have just begun to look at the wind, wave, and turbine …

Laboratory And Full-Scale Pavement Sections Testing For Evaluating Frost Action In Cold Regions, Dorin Papuc

Theses and Dissertations

A comprehensive laboratory testing plan was conducted as part of this project to select two frost-susceptible soils for use in constructing three full-scale test strips. A total of 16 soils were obtained from various suppliers in NJ and were evaluated to determine their frost-susceptibility. The evaluation included conducting sieve analysis, hydrometer analysis, and specific gravity. Using these measures, two soils were selected (namely, Soil #2 and Soil #13) for constructing the test strips. The properties (Atterberg Limits, moisture-density relationships, California bearing ratio (CBR), Resilient Modulus among others) were determined through a laboratory testing plan. In addition, this study involved constructing …

Single-Family Residential Flood Loss Reduction Through Freeboard, Ehab Said Gnan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The lack of flood loss estimation methods conducted on a micro-scale level that consider the full loss‐exceedance probabilities curve poses a significant problem in flood risk assessment. Also, the lack of robust benefit-cost analysis (BCA) that quantifies benefits at the micro-scale level leads to sub-optimal results, and therefore sub-optimal decisions when determining the optimal freeboard. Further, flood loss assessments focus on owner-occupied housing and neglect rental housing. These loss assessment deficiencies underscore the need for a robust assessment that quantifies the life-cycle benefits for all stakeholders and provides actionable information to enable informed decisions.

This research presents a comprehensive methodology …

Correlating Diffusional Dynamics And Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Function Using Single Quantum Dot Tracking, Irais Ortiz Caraveo

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signal transduction is initiated via ligand (EGF) binding, followed by dimerization, autophosphorylation of the C-terminal tails, and recruitment of proteins that form a larger signaling complex to propagate the signal. We explored the relationship between receptor mobility and signaling using single-particle tracking (SPT) by examining the diffusional dynamics of EGFR and two truncation mutants to understand whether mobility changes are correlated with signaling. Results revealed that phosphorylation of the C-terminal tail of EGFR is required for maximal reduction in mobility that occurs with EGF stimulation, indicating that receptor mobility is a read-out for receptor signaling. …

Pathcnn: Interpretable Convolutional Neural Networks For Survival Prediction And Pathway Analysis Applied To Glioblastoma, Jung Hun Oh, Wookjin Choi, Euiseong Ko, Mingon Kang, Allen Tannenbaum, Joseph O. Deasy

Computer Science Faculty Research

Motivation: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved great success in the areas of image processing and computer vision, handling grid-structured inputs and efficiently capturing local dependencies through multiple levels of abstraction. However, a lack of interpretability remains a key barrier to the adoption of deep neural networks, particularly in predictive modeling of disease outcomes. Moreover, because biological array data are generally represented in a non-grid structured format, CNNs cannot be applied directly. Results: To address these issues, we propose a novel method, called PathCNN, that constructs an interpretable CNN model on integrated multi-omics data using a newly defined pathway image. …

In-Vitro And In-Silico Investigations Of Alternative Surgical Techniques For Single Ventricular Disease, Arka Das

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Single ventricle (SV) anomalies account for one-fourth of all cases of congenital Heart disease. The conventional second and third stage i.e. Comprehensive stage II and Fontan procedure of the existing three-staged surgical approach serving as a palliative treatment for this anomaly, entails multiple complications and achieves a survival rate of 50%. Hence, to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate associated with the second and third stages of the existing palliative procedure, the novel alternative techniques called “Hybrid Comprehensive Stage II” (HCSII), and a “Self-powered Fontan circulation” have been proposed. The goal of this research is to conduct in-vitro investigations to …

An Exploration Of Soil Moisture Reconstruction Techniques, Spencer Nishimoto Low

Theses and Dissertations

Satellite radiometers are used to remotely measure properties of the Earth's surface. Radiometers enable wide spatial coverage and daily temporal coverage. Radiometer measurements are used in a wide array of applications, including freeze/thaw states inference, vegetation index calculations, rainfall estimation, and soil moisture estimation. Resolution enhancement of these radiometer measurements enable finer details to be resolved and improve our understanding of Earth. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer was launched in April 2014 with a goal to produce high resolution soil moisture estimates. However, due to hardware failure of the radar channels, prepared algorithms could no longer be used. …

A Configurable Mining Approach For Learning Services Customization, Aya M. Mostafa Amm, Yehia M. Helmy Ymh, Amira M. Idrees Ami

Future Computing and Informatics Journal

There is no doubt that this age is the age of data and technology. Moreover, there is tremendous development in all fields. The personalized material is a good approach in the different fields. It provides a fit material that matches the styles of readers. It supports readers in various reading domains. This research paper aims to support students in the educational system. Additionally, the research paper designs to increase education values for students. Furthermore, the research paper builds the smart appropriate materials through Egyptian Knowledge Banking (EKB) based on the learner question. The Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) is a rich …

Review Of Data Mining Techniques For Detecting Churners In The Telecommunication Industry, Mahmoud Ewieda, Mohamed Ismail Roushdy, Essam Shaaban

Future Computing and Informatics Journal

The telecommunication sector has been developed rapidly and with large amounts of data obtained as a result of increasing in the number of subscribers, modern techniques, data-based applications, and services. As well as better awareness of customer requirements and excellent quality that meets their satisfaction. This satisfaction raises rivalry between firms to maintain the quality of their services and upgrade them. These data can be helpfully extracted for analysis and used for predicting churners. Researchers around the world have conducted important research to understand the uses of Data mining (DM) that can be used to predict customers' churn. This …

Learning-To-Dispatch: Reinforcement Learning Based Flight Planning Under Emergency, Kai Zhang, Yupeng Yang, Chengtao Xu, Dahai Liu, Houbing Song

Publications

The effectiveness of resource allocation under emergencies especially hurricane disasters is crucial. However, most researchers focus on emergency resource allocation in a ground transportation system. In this paper, we propose Learning-to- Dispatch (L2D), a reinforcement learning (RL) based air route dispatching system, that aims to add additional flights for hurricane evacuation while minimizing the airspace’s complexity and air traffic controller’s workload. Given a bipartite graph with weights that are learned from the historical flight data using RL in consideration of short- and long-term gains, we formulate the flight dispatch as an online maximum weight matching problem. Different from the conventional …

Dynamic Hvac Energy Management Using Commercial Building Occupancy Metrics & Neural Networks, Krishna Chaitanya Jagadeesh Simma

Civil Engineering ETDs

With the rise of technology use in buildings, it is now possible to collect data that can be used to improve building energy consumption. One factor that has significant impact on building energy consumption is occupancy. Recent studies have shown promising results in obtaining occupancy information from existing infrastructure such as WiFi router networks. However, these existing frameworks require additional investments through software upgrades, added infrastructure, computational resources, and may raise occupant privacy concerns. Additionally, with occupant thermal comfort statistics being lower than ASHAREA specified standards, a novel approach for indoor climate control is needed. To address the limitations in …

Issue 8: Contributors, Sukarno Abdulrachman

Online Journal of Space Communication

List of contributors for Issue 8.

Sudah Waktunya Menggunakan Ku-Band Di Indonesia, Prima Setiyanto Widodo

Online Journal of Space Communication

Sistem Komunikasi Satelit adalah salah satu sarana atau infrastruktur yang dapat digunakan untuk aplikasi broadband multimedia. Dalam dunia sistem komunikasi satelit, frekuensi C-band telah lama digunakan dan saat ini telah penuh. Dan telah lama pula dunia menerapkan frekuensi Ku-band untuk sistem komunikasi satelit karena dengan frekuensi ini aplikasi broadband bisa lebih baik digunakan (bandwidth lebih lebar). Selain keuntungan lainnya, yaitu terhindar dari interferensi dengan sistem microwave terestrial yang banyak memakai frekuensi C-band. Namun bagi Indonesia penggunaan frekuensi Ku-band ini memerlukan pengkajian yang cermat, karena frekuensi di atas 10 GHz. rentan terhadap hujan, terlebih hujan deras yang sering melanda Indonesia. Tulisan …

It Is Time To Use The Ku-Band In Indonesia, Prima Setiyanto Widodo

Online Journal of Space Communication

Satellite Communications Systems are infrastructures that can be used for broadband multimedia applications. In the communication satellite field, the C-band (4-6 GHz) frequencies have been used since the beginning and are now saturated. The Ku-band (11-18 GHz) has been used also for communication satellite systems, because with this frequency a bigger bandwidth can be applied. The Ku-band has other advantages, such as avoidance of interference with terrestrial microwave systems that often use the C-band frequency. However, for Indonesia, the use of the Ku-band needs a thorough examination because frequencies above 10 GHz are vulnerable to rain, especially heavy rain that …

Tulang Punggung Ip Pita Lebar Memakai Satelit Di Indonesia Dengan Beaya Rendah, Onno W. Purbo

Online Journal of Space Communication

Artikel ini menyajikan tentang beberapa tulang punggung berbasis IP yang beroperasi di Indonesia.

Pada dasarnya, jasa IP melalui VSAT yang digunakan bersama, seperti misalnya jasa DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) nampaknya merupakan solusi murah yang menjadi favorit sebagai tulang punggung IP pita lebar melalui satelit, dibandingkan dengan pemecahan SCPC (Single Carrier Per Channel) yang biayanya lebih tinggi.

Pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang sering dikemukakan, seperti konfigurasi tipikal atau perusahaan mana yang memberikan jasa tersebut, juga diulas. Beberapa diantara jasa tersebut, khususnya jasa VSAT IP Satu Arah - Receive Only tidak memerlukan lisensi atau izin Pemerintah Indonesia.

Sebuah jasa VSAT DVB satu arah (receive only) …

Development Of An Indonesian Micro Satellite, Rakhim Yuba

Online Journal of Space Communication

Indonesia's geographical condition is a blessing, at the same time a challenge to the continuity of its national development. Its numerous islands, big and small, stretching from Sabang to Merauke makes it imperative for Indonesia to use satellites for communication and other applications purposes.

Low Cost Broadband Ip Satellite Backbone In Indonesia, Onno W. Purbo

Online Journal of Space Communication

This article will report on several IP-based satellite backbones in operation in Indonesia. Basically, shared VSAT IP service, such as Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) service seems to be the favorite low cost solution for broadband IP satellite backbone compared to the more costly Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC).

Answers to questions, such as typical configurations providing the service, will be described. Some of these services may be run without any government license. The receive-only IP VSAT service is one of these.

A one-way receive-only IP-based DVB VSAT service may be obtained for US $33-270 per month. Two-way DVB/RCS VSAT service …

Kerjasama Strategis Sistem Vsat Dalam Teknologi Informasi Perusahaan: Kasus Infocom, Rafdian Rasyid

Online Journal of Space Communication

Apakah VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) bisa menjadi sistem pendukung bagi teknologi informarsi (TI) perusahaan? Atau, dapatkah VSAT memainkan peran strategis yang penting dalam mendukung bisnis?

Sangat jelas bahwa di Indonesia VSAT merupakan infrastruktur yang mutlak keberadaanya. Tidak dapat disangkal bahwa sampai saat ini Indonesia belum memiliki prasarana terestrial yang dapat mencakup daerah-daerah terpencil, bahkan kadang-kadang juga daerah metropolitan. Hanya VSAT-lah yang dapat menjangkaunya. Namun, hubungan apa yang dapat kita tarik antara eksistensi VSAT-VSAT dan teknologi informasi dalam lingkungan suatu perusahaan? Artikel ini mencoba menjawab hal itu. Kemudian, penulis akan membahas tantangan-tantangan apa yang dihadapi oleh operator-operator VSAT, serta pemecahan …

Strategic Alignment Of Vsat System In Corporate It: Infokom's Case, Rafdian Rasyid

Online Journal of Space Communication

Can VSATs play a significant strategic role in terms of supporting businesses? Can VSATs support corporate IT?

It is obvious that in Indonesia, VSAT is a must have infrastructure for business. Nobody can argue that Indonesia up to now does not have terrestrial infrastructures that can cover remote areas or even metropolitan areas. Only VSATs can reach them. However, what link can we make between the existence of VSATs and IT in the corporate environment? This article attempts to answer that. We will also discuss challenges faced by VSAT operators, and solutions that can be applied.