Engineering Commons^™

Socio-Technical Transitions In The Water Sector: Emerging Boundaries For Utility Resilience In Barbados, Wainella N. Isaacs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resilience is gaining popularity in the water sector where it described as contributing to reduced vulnerability to water-related risks and hazards including climate change. Unfortunately, literature in this area, contributed mainly from North America and Europe, is fragmented with a concentration on engineering resilience in water supply infrastructure. The absence of any scholarship on resilience for a small island nation, coupled with the absence of sociological contributors to building resilience in this sector motivated this research.

The goal of this research was to understand and evaluate how resilience is characterized and operationalized in the Barbados water and wastewater infrastructure system, …

17 Β-Estradiol And Phytoestrogens Attenuate Apoptotic Cell Death In Hiv-1 Tat Exposed Primary Cortical Cultures, Sheila Marie Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), neurological disorders develop in most people infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The poor CNS delivery of anti-retrovirals allows continued virus production and renders neurons susceptible to the toxic effects of released viral proteins. The neurotoxic potential of HIV-1 viral protein Tat has been shown to include excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction leading to subsequent cell death. Thus, Tat is thought to have a key role in the pathogenesis of HIV-associated neurodegeneration. Estrogens are universally considered to be neuroprotective, as such; estrogens have positive implications in the treatment …

Performance Analysis Of Renewable Energy Resources In Rural Areas: A Case Study Of Solar Energy, Jackson Justo

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

This paper presents an overview of the recent development trends of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and the performance in the Tanzanian context. The two types of solar power generation that are considered in this paper are: i) solar PV systems and ii) concentrated solar power (CSP). The two are compared in terms of cost of energy and energy storage mechanism. Moreover, the effect of ambient temperature on the solar PV module is analyzed. In addition, a detailed analysis on using solar axis tracking to increase the power generation is also presented. The extent to which the cell surface temperature and …

Estimating Flood Magnitudes Of Ungauged Urban Msimbazi River Catchment In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Patrick Valimba Dr

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

More often daily climate data have been used in hydrological models to estimate flood flows in small data scarce urban and rural catchments where flow peaking and recession are quick within short periods of few hours. This study assesses magnitudes of error of using daily climate data to simulate flood flow hydrographs of a small urban river catchment, Msimbazi River. Spot discharge measurements were available for Apr-May 2014 and Mar May 2015 periods.10-minutes climate records were available at one station, daily temperatures at two stations while daily rainfall records at several stations within the catchment. Visual analysis characterise rainfall events …

Spatial And Temporal Variation Of Rainfall And Streamflow In The Kikuletwa Catchment Of Upper Pangani Basin, Tanzania, Upendo Msovu

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Streamflow and rainfall records from 1980 to 2015 as a (common period for the analyzed stations) were used to analyze the variations of rainfall and streamflow in the Kikuletwa catchment. Also, the analysis of the longest time series available at each station up to 2015 (referred to as the whole series in this study) was conducted to relate past rainfall and streamflow changes, at the tributaries of Kikuletwa River located above the Rundugai natural springs as recommended from previous studies. Various methods such as simple statistics of the mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variance, and graphs were used to analyze …

Analysis Of Paleoclimatic Cycles In The Ultra Thick Coal Seam Of Yan'an Formation In The Southern Ordos Basin, Dong Guoqi, Wang Dongdong, Liu Haiyan, Mao Qiang, Yin Lusheng

Coal Geology & Exploration

Coal is a climate-sensitive sediment that contains abundant paleoclimate information. In order to find out the paleoclimate information contained in the coal seam and the evolution of its controlling factors, the No.4 thick coal seam in the first member of Yan’an Formation in the south of Ordos basin was studied. Based on the intensive sampling of the thick coal seam, the information of organic macerals, major and trace elements, and stable carbon isotopes of organic matter were systematically tested. By using the macerals, characteristic elements and carbon isotopes of coal and rocks, four cycles of paleoclimate with alternation of warm-wet …

Managing Off-Grid Power Use For Solar Fueled Residences With Smart Appliances, Prices-To-Devices And Iot, Donnelle L. January

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electricity availability has a profound impact in day to day life. Activities such as lighting homes, charging cellphones, and running appliances all depend on electricity use. Around 1 billion people around the world do not have access to electricity, and the majority of these people hail from developing countries in remote areas. Moreover, many of these remote areas lack utility grid access due to the infeasible cost of extending the grid to remote communities. To combat this, various projects on microgrids have been implemented in order to distribute power to these off-grid areas. Nanogrids are defined as “a single domain …

Exploiting Earth Observation Data To Impute Groundwater Level Measurements With An Extreme Learning Machine, Steven Evans, Gustavious P. Williams, Norman L. Jones, Daniel P. Ames, E. James Nelson

Faculty Publications

Groundwater resources are expensive to develop and use; they are difficult to monitor and data collected from monitoring wells are often sporadic, often only available at irregular, infrequent, or brief intervals. Groundwater managers require an accurate understanding of historic groundwater storage trends to effectively manage groundwater resources, however, most if not all well records contain periods of missing data. To understand long-term trends, these missing data need to be imputed before trend analysis. We present a method to impute missing data at single wells, by exploiting data generated from Earth observations that are available globally. We use two soil moisture …

An Assessment Of The Decision-Making Units' Efficiency In Service Systems, Maoloud Yakhlif Dabab

Dissertations and Theses

Most tools and models of performance and quality of service management are generic and do not solve complex technical systems. The critical components of the system need such tools to assess their efficiency to make a better decision about them. One of the primary objectives in the service systems is to improve the ability of efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of critical assets. One of the challenges with improving critical assets is the amount of major capital spending needed to upgrade a technology infrastructure with a high obsolescence rate. This along with usage and reliability issues, makes evaluating mobile cells to …

Quantifying The Environmental Impacts Of Cookstove Transitions A Societal Exergy Analysis Based Model Of Energy Consumption And Forest Stocks In Honduras, Noah Ver Beek, Elvin Vindel, Matthew K. Heun, Paul E. Brockway

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Unsustainable consumption of biofuels contributes to deforestation and climate change, while household air pollution from burning solid biofuels in homes results in millions of premature deaths globally every year. Honduras, like many low and medium Human Development Index countries, depends on primary solid biofuels for more than 30% of its primary energy supply (as of 2013). We conducted a societal exergy analysis and developed a forest stock model for Honduras for 1971–2013 and used the results to model an energy transition from traditional wood stoves to either improved efficiency wood cookstoves or modern fuel cookstoves (using Electricity or Liquefied petroleum …

Climate Change Impacts The Subsurface Transport Of Atrazine And Estrone Originating From Agricultural Production Activities, Renys Enrique Barrios, Simin Akbariyeh, Chuyang Liu, Khalid Muzamil Gani, Margarita T. Kovalchuk, Xu Li, Yusong Li, Daniel D. Snow, Zhenghong Tang, John Gates, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Climate change will impact soil properties such as soil moisture, organic carbon and temperature and changes in these properties will influence the sorption, biodegradation and leaching of trace organic contaminants to groundwater. In this study, we conducted a modeling case study to evaluate atrazine and estrone transport in the subsurface under current and future climate conditions at a field site in central Nebraska. According to the modeling results, in the future, enhanced evapotranspiration and increased average air temperature may cause drier soil conditions, which consequently reduces the biodegradation of atrazine and estrone in the water phase. On the other hand, …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Hurricane Maria On The Residential Construction Industry In Puerto Rico And The Effectiveness Of Reconstruction Efforts, M. Bradley Wells

Theses and Dissertations

In September of 2017, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, both category 5 hurricanes, swept across the Caribbean, including the U.S. Territory island of Puerto Rico. These two storms, particularly Hurricane Maria, caused catastrophic damages from high winds and flooding to the island paradise. This research investigates the direct effects that Hurricane Maria had on the residential construction industry within Puerto Rico and evaluates how to better prioritize and manage these types of efforts in the future. This research was initiated to identify challenges and opportunities that have been encountered within the Puerto Rican construction industry during the first year of …

A Framework For Safer Driving In Mauritius, V Bassoo, V Hurbungs, V. Ramnarain Seetohul, T.P Fowdur, Y Beeharry

Future Computing and Informatics Journal

According to the National Transport Authority (NTA), there were 493,081 registered vehicles in Mauritius in April 2016, which represents a 1.4% annual increase compared to 2015. Despite the sensitization campaigns and the series of measures setup by the Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, the number of road accidents continues to rise. The three main elements that contribute to accidents are: road infrastructure, vehicle and driver. The driver has the highest contribution in collisions. If the driver is given the right information (e.g. driving behaviour, accident-prone areas and vehicle status) at the right time, he/she can make better driving …

Benefits And Challenges Of Cloud Erp Systems – A Systematic Literature Review, Mohamed Abd Elmonem, Eman Nasr, Mervat Geith

Future Computing and Informatics Journal

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems provide extensive benefits and facilities to the whole enterprise. ERP systems help the enterprise to share and transfer data and information across all functions units inside and outside the enterprise. Sharing data and information between enterprise departments helps in many aspects and aims to achieve different objectives. Cloud computing is a computing model which takes place over the internet and provides scalability, reliability, availability and low cost of computer reassures. Implementing and running ERP systems over the cloud offers great advantages and benefits, in spite of its many difficulties and challenges. In this paper, we …

Youlearn: Offline Media Streaming Application For Rural Uganda, Emma Allegrucci, Jiabei Luo, Brianna Mcgovern

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

The country of Uganda has implemented universal primary and secondary education. But still, some families cannot afford to send their children to school. When young people drop out of school, they often must resort to working illegal, unsafe, and low-paying jobs. Job prospects are even worse for disabled children. The objective of this project is to bring digital educational resources into rural villages in a low-cost manner.

YouLearn is an educational system that allows for o✏ine media streaming. Our system includes a Raspberry Pi to store the media locally and allows for streaming without WiFi being necessary. Our system supports …

Drive Health: Road Condition Detection, Peter Ferguson, Brian Walker

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Roadways play an essential role in toady’s society by contributing to economic growth and development, providing social benefits and fast routes to travel around efficiently. With more and more cars on roads, the quality of the streets is deteriorating faster than before. This decrease in road health contributes to hazards such as potholes and can cause significant damage to vehicles on the road. Currently, the process of improving and monitoring roads’ health is done infrequently and is time-consuming for the government. Therefore, many road quality issues are manually reported by the people who drive on them. This requires filling out …

'Bici-Bomba' Pedal Powered Well Purification System, Matthew Kamimura, Devan Hollar, Ally Belica, Liam Scobey

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This senior design project consists of designing and building a bike powered well pump that purifies water. The Guatemalan NGO Maya Pedal is the critical customer that requested this project, and will help facilitate implementing it in the San Andres community. The project addresses these main needs: providing an easier, faster way to retrieve water and to clean water to safe drinking levels. In addition to these primary needs, a major goal is having the project be scalable within the San Andres community. This means that all of the components are available in Guatemala at reasonable prices, it is durable …

Sunny-Side Solutions: A Solar Powered Water Heating And Shower System, Adrienne Lee, Malonda Mcelwee, Jada Paddock, Jesus Reyes

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Sunny-Side Solutions is a solar water heating and shower system designed for Naretu Academy in Narok, Kenya, to provide the academy's teachers a simple, reliable, and frugal method of receiving hot water for daily showers. After thorough research and testing, the final system's main components are ½ diameter, 54.9 m long irrigation piping solar collector, a 100 L insulated hot water tank, and a 67 W circulation pump. These components ensure that all water that enters the system will be able to achieve a final temperature of 38 °C and maintain this temperature until the teachers shower and drain the …

"Thinking Across Borders." 13th Annual Research Week: Event Proceedings, Office Of Research And Sponsored Projects Operations

Excellence Summit (Research Week) Archived Proceedings

Poster and podium presentations of research by students and faculty of University of the Incarnate Word.

Investigating The Relationship Between User's Densities And Functions Distribution On Mediterranean Waterfronts: Statistical Analysis Approach, Sima El-Cheikh, Mary Felix, Nabil Mohareb, Ibtihal Y. El-Bastawissi

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

The type of buildings and activities along the waterfronts have to stimulate the interactivity between public spaces and their users to reach the desired comfort, enjoyment and appropriate densities. This study is part of a continuing research and it aims to highlight the spatial relationship between the type of buildings and the densities on cities waterfronts of the Mediterranean Sea. It undertakes three case studies with different economic and touristic levels. It is a top-bottom approach that analyzes the existing population densities on waterfronts and the surrounding building functions. This paper uses quantitative analysis based on spatial statistics along each …

The Efficiency Of Rainwater Harvesting Systems In The Lebanese Coastal Zone, Kareem Galal

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Water conservation is one of the most important trends within sustainable applications in the world today. The global fresh water demand has increased by 1% per year since the 1980s, and it is estimated that it will continue increasing at this rate until 2050. Therefore, utilizing the available rain water has become a vital parameter for most of the world's countries that lie within the water demand red-zone. Lebanon is moving toward the water demand red-zone rapidly, which has prompted the consideration of rain water harvesting (RWH) systems in the last ten years. The variety in precipitation in the different …

Identifying High-Potential Work Areas In Engineering For Global Development: Linking Industry Sectors To The Human Development Index, Daniel Oliver Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Those working in Engineering for Global Development seek to improve the conditions in developing countries. A common metric for understanding the development state of a given country is the Human Development Index (HDI), which focuses on three dimensions: health, education, and income. An engineer’s expertise does not always align with any of those dimensions directly, while they still hope to perform impactful work for human development. To discover other areas of expertise that are highly associated with the HDI, correlations and variable selection were performed between all World Development Indicators and the HDI. The resultant associations are presented according to …

Research On Adaptive Analysis For Battlefield Environment Voxel Model And Classification Method Of Volume Elements, Bingchuan Jiang, Wan Gang, Chengxiao Fan, Xia Qing

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: For the lack of battlefield environment modeling based on surface model, the whole elements and details of the battle-field environment were described. The fundamental conception and feature of the voxel and voxel model were discussed. The battle-field environment modeling and visualization like battle-filed terrestrial environment, weather environment, electromagnetic environment and ocean environment were analyzed and researched using the voxel model. The adaptability of each battlefield environment elements modeling was discussed using the Voxel model, and the elements were classified which were suitable with the voxel model. It is the basis for modeling and visualizing the battlefield environment elements using …

Cervis: Cervical Cancer Early Response Visual Identification System, Kira Palazzo, Lauren Serfas, Juliana Trujillo

Bioengineering Senior Theses

The goal of CERVIS is to increase screening for cervical cancer through the development of a low-cost, minimally invasive screening procedure for women in low-resource settings that requires minimal healthcare expertise. There currently exist two primary screening procedures: the Pap smear, primarily used in developed countries, and visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), primarily used in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Both of these procedures require a high degree of healthcare training in order to administer and interpret, and are highly invasive, requiring direct interaction with the cervix. Our alternative procedure utilizes a particular bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum , within the …

Energy And Economic Losses Due To Soiling On Utility Scale Pv Systems To Guide Timing Of Cost Effective Cleaning, Jackson P. Puckett, Maximilian M. Sosa, Brandon F. Grossman

Electrical Engineering

The energy and associated economic losses due to soiling on both residential and utility scale PV (photovoltaic) systems can be both significant and avoidable. Losses from 1.2% up to 6% have been reported, which is of interest to system operators [1]. Modules may be cleaned to reduce losses, but this comes with an offsetting economic cost. A quantification of energy losses, and the corresponding economic loss, will allow a determination of a closer to optimal cleaning schedule depending on the level of soiling and corresponding energy loss. Two methods are proposed and compared. Method 1 uses an ARES Soiling Measurement …

Quantitative And Qualitative Error Re-Analysis Of Tidal Datasets, Ernesto Andrew Ledezma

Master's Theses

Tidal data forms the basis for understanding and quantifying sea-level rise and tidal statistics. While quality assurance methods based upon spectral and harmonic analysis have been applied to individual tidal records, these methods have not been used to assess global tidal datasets. In this thesis, four west coast tidal records were examined using harmonic analysis methods to investigate uncertainty on a monthly averaged basis. Uncertainty was identified using a method that quantifies time lag as a linear regression of height difference between a predicted and measured tidal height and the predicted rate of change of tidal height. Errors identified through …

Atmospheric Water Harvester, Adam C. Goldstein, Scott Seno, Kristen E. Dentici

Mechanical Engineering

Access to potable water is a global issue that has yet to be adequately solved. In regions with limited access to electricity and ground or surface water, it is not always possible to provide clean water requiring external power or extensive infrastructure to implement. This Final Design Report document will outline the background, design and manufacturing plan involved in the development of a passive atmospheric water harvester. This report builds on the earlier Preliminary Design Review and Critical Design Review documents to reflect further research, analysis, comments from reviewers, and detailed design documentation. While a final design was decided on …

Wind/Hydro Power Generation Simulator, Justin Shaun Otus, Nicholas Joseph Steele, Patrick Daniel Murphy

Electrical Engineering

This project aims to design a wind or hydro power generation simulator. The original scope of this project was to construct a physical simulation apparatus in which wind/water speed data is fed to a microcontroller that adjusts the control voltage of a motor drive. The spinning DC motor would generate power via a coupled generator whose power output would be a scaled down version of wind/hydroelectric generator power output given the same wind/water speed input. Due to Covid-19, the project was altered to be entirely virtual and was made through Simulink in MATLAB. The virtual simulator attempts to mimic physical …

Spectroscopic Measurements Of Dissolved O3, H2o2 And Oh Radicals In Double Cylindrical Dielectric Barrier Discharge Technology: Treatment Of Methylene Blue Dye Simulated Wastewater, Emile Salomon Massima Mouele, Jimoh O. Tijani, Milua Masikini, Ojo O. Fatoba, Chuks P. Eze, Chionydua T. Onwordi, Myo Tay Zar Myint, Htet Htet Kyaw, Jamal Al-Sabahi, Mohammed Al-Abri, Sergey Dobretsov, Katri Laatikainen, Leslie F. Petrik

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Advanced oxidation technologies (AOTs) focusing on nonthermal plasma induced by dielectric barrier discharge are adequate sources of diverse reactive oxygen species (ROS) beneficial for water and wastewater treatment. In this study, indigo, peroxytitanyl sulphate and terephthalic acid methods were used to approximate the concentrations of O₃, H₂O₂ and OH produced in a double cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (DCDBD) plasma configuration. The effect of pH and scavengers as well as the amount of chemical probes on the generation of oxidants was investigated. The efficiency of the DCDBD reactor was further evaluated using methylene blue (MB) as …

The Effect Of Climate Change On Groundwater Recharge In The United Arab Emirates, Yuliya Fadlallah Saade

Civil and Environmental Theses

Climate change is impacting ecosystems and the water resources by causing temperature variation. Evapotranspiration rates are increasing when the temperature is high whereas, precipitation amount and intensity are varying based on geographical locations.

This change in precipitation has an inevitable impact on the groundwater recharge. Quantification of groundwater recharge is a prerequisite for efficient and sustainable groundwater resources management in arid regions.

Although, both surface and groundwater resources in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are scarce; the anticipated climate change impacts could make these resources even scarcer. As such, the main aim of this thesis is to assess the potential …