Engineering Commons^™

Ultrasonic Ndt Methods For The Evaluation Of Post-Tensioned Systems With Flexible Fillers, Denis Mcdonald

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Non-destructive evaluation of post-tensioned structures with flexible fillers is desperately needed due to their rapid implementation in the State of Florida, primarily in roadway structures. This study provides an overview of existing evaluation methods for traditional post-tensioned structures with cementitious grouts and further explores two promising methods to be applied to flexible filler systems. The first method, diffuse ultrasound spectroscopy, indirectly evaluates posttensioned structures by quantifying the severity of microcracking in the structure. Microcrack detection is accomplished by processing received waveforms generated with a pitch-catch transducer configuration. The second method, coda-wave interferometry, measures the velocity variation at the tail end …

Prediction Of Severity Of Aviation Landing Accidents Using Support Vector Machine Models, Dezsö V. Silagyi

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to apply support vector machine (SVM) models to predict the severity of aircraft damage and the severity of personal injury during an aircraft approach and landing accident and to evaluate and rank the importance of 14 accident factors to the severity. Three new factors were introduced using the theory of inattentional blindness: The presence of visual area surface penetrations for a runway, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) visual area surface penetration policy timeframe, and the type of runway approach lighting.

The study comprised 1,297 aircraft approach and landing accidents at airports within the United …

A Patient Risk Minimization Model For Post-Disaster Medical Delivery Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Mark J. Simpson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to develop a novel routing model for delivery of medical supplies using unmanned aircraft systems, improving existing vehicle routing models by using patient risk as the primary minimization variable.

The vehicle routing problem is a subset of operational research that utilizes mathematical models to identify the most efficient route between sets of points. Routing studies using unmanned aircraft systems frequently minimize time, distance, or cost as the primary objective and are powerful decision-making tools for routine delivery operations. However, the fields of emergency triage and disaster response are focused on identifying patient injury severity …

New Solid Polymer Electrolytes For Lithium, Sodium, And Calcium-Based Batteries, Francielli Silva Genier

Dissertations - ALL

The establishment of sustainable energy sources highly depends on efficient storage devices to guarantee a consistent power supply. The growing demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for this purpose, combined with concerns about lithium availability, has motivated the search for viable storage alternatives, such as sodium and calcium. While several studies have investigated different lithium-free liquid electrolytes, the transport of these alternative ions in their polymer counterparts remains understudied. The advantages of solid polymer electrolytes include the possibility of higher energy density in solid-state devices and the elimination of safety concerns associated with liquid electrolytes, such as flammability, leakage, and dendrite …

A Comparison Of Machine Learning Models To Prioritise Emailsusing Emotion Analysis For Customer Service Excellence, Mohammad Yasser Chuttur, Yashinee Parianen

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

There has been little research on machine learning for email prioritization for customer service excellence. To fill this gap, we propose and assess the efficacy of various machine learning techniques for classifying emails into three degrees of priority: high, low, and neutral, based on the emotions inherent in the email content. It is predicted that after emails are classified into those three categories, recipients will be able to respond to emails more efficiently and provide better customer service. We use the NRC Emotion Lexicon to construct a labeled email dataset of 517,401 messages for our proposal. Following that, we train …

Fish Image Classification Using Transfer Learning Method Withadaptive Learning Rate, Rizka Suhana, Wayan Firdaus Mahmudy, Agung Setia Budi

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

The diversity of fish species in coral reef ecosystems is one of the indications in determining health in coral reef ecosystems. Many Indonesian Fisheries and Marine Research and Development Agency experts carefully classify fish images. A reliable technique for performing image classification is Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Transfer learning appears and adopts part of CNN, namely the modified convolution layer. The paper aims to solve the fish classification problem using the pre-trained model of Mobilenet V2. The model has a low computational process and does not use too many memory resources when training image data. The research image data used …

Human Facial Expressions Identification Using Convolutionalneural Network With Vgg16 Architecture, Luther Alexander Latumakulita, Sandy Laurentius Lumintang, Deiby Tineke Salaki, Steven R. Sentinuwo, Alwin Melkie Sambul, Noorul Islam

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

The human facial expression identification system is essential in developing human interaction and technology. The development of Artificial Intelligence for monitoring human emotions can be helpful in the workplace. Commonly, there are six basic human expressions, namely anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, that the system can identify. This study aims to create a facial expression identification system based on basic human expressions using the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with a 16-layer VGG architecture. Two thousand one hundred thirty-seven facial expression images were selected from the FER2013, JAFFE, and MUG datasets. By implementing image augmentation and setting up the …

Sentiment Analysis Of Amazon Product Reviews Usingsupervised Machine Learning Techniques, Naveed Sultan

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

Today, everything is sold online, and many individuals can post reviews about different products to show feedback. Serves as feedback for businesses regarding buyer reviews, performance, product quality, and seller service. The project focuses on buyer opinions based on Mobile Phone reviews. Sentiment analysis is the function of analyzing all these data, obtaining opinions about these products and services that classify them as positive, negative, or neutral. This insight can help companies improve their products and help potential buyers make the right decisions. Once the preprocessing is classified on a trained dataset, these reviews must be preprocessed to remove unwanted …

Empirical Models Of 3d Air-To-Air Communication Channels, Neil Matson

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) often lack the size, weight, and power to support large antenna arrays or a large number of radio chains. Despite such limitations, emerging applications that require the use of swarms, where UAVs form a pattern and coordinate towards a common goal, must have the capability to transmit in any direction in three-dimensional (3D) space from moment to moment. In this work, we design a measurement study to evaluate the role of antenna polarization diversity on UAV systems communicating in arbitrary 3D space. To do so, we construct flight patterns where one transmitting UAV is hovering at …

Kean University Students Preparing For Cybersecurity Certification Exams In Free Summer Program, Stanley Mierzwa

Center for Cybersecurity

Fifteen Kean University students and recent graduates this summer are studying for cybersecurity certifications in a virtual pilot program offered free of charge through the University’s Center for Cybersecurity.

Development Of Ltcc-Packaged Optocouplers As Optical Galvanic Isolation For High-Temperature Applications, Pengyu Lai, David Gonzalez, Syam Madhusoodhanan, Abbas Sabbar, Salahaldein Ali Aboajila Ahmed, Binzhong Dong, Jiangbo Wang, H. Alan Mantooth, Shui-Qing Yu, Zhong Chen

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper reports high-temperature optocouplers for signal galvanic isolation. Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology was used in the design and fabrication of the high-temperature optocoupler package. The optimal coupling behaviors, driving capabilities and response speed of the optocouplers were concentrated and investigated in this paper. Emitters and detectors with different emission and spectral wavelengths were studied to achieve optimal coupling behaviors. Relatively high coupling efficiency is achieved with emitters and detectors of emission and spectral wavelength in the red spectrum (i.e., 620–750 nm), leading to higher current transfer ratios (CTR). To further enhance the electrical performance, optocouplers with multiple …

Neurochemical, Molecular, And Behavioral Effects Of Intranasal Insulin, Jennifer Marie Erichsen

Theses and Dissertations

Age-related cognitive decline (ARCD) is one of the most dreaded aspects of growing old and a public health concern. Unfortunately, there is currently no treatment that effectively ameliorates ARCD. In recent decades, intranasal insulin (INI) has demonstrated promising memory enhancements for rodents and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, both in basic science research laboratories and multi-center clinical trials. Other studies have shown INI improves memory and cognition in healthy rodents and humans, indicating that INI may hold promise as a successful ARCD therapeutic. However, there is a glaring lack of evidence regarding how INI produces these effects. The goal of these …

Role Of Ahr In The Epigenetic Regulation Of Immune Cells In Lungs During Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Bryan Latrell Holloman

Theses and Dissertations

Acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) arises from pulmonary inflammatory diseases that stem from direct and indirect activation of immune cells. Severe complications from ALI/ARDS arise when inflammatory mediators initiate an overzealous immune response leading to the destruction of lung epithelial cell barriers, which causes systematic oxygen deprivation. Infiltrating innate immune cells drive the immune response during the acute phase of a lung injury. However, I3C, a naturally occurring AhR ligand found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, collard greens, and kale, plays a crucial role in suppressing inflammatory mediators through its immunomodulatory functionality, which regulates both …

Molecular Theoretical Model For Lipid Bilayers: Adsorption Of Lipidated Proteins On Lipid Bilayers As A Function Of Bilayer Composition And Curvature, Shauna Celeste Kennard

Theses and Dissertations

Protein localization on biological membranes is motivated by either highly selective recognition of specific target membrane components or nonspecific attraction to general physical properties of the membrane, such as charge, lipid heterogeneity, and curvature. Here we discuss the interaction between lipidated proteins and lipid bilayer membranes from a comprehensive examination of how features of the membrane and its lipid constituents, including lipid composition, headgroup size, degree of tail saturation, tail length (bilayer thickness), and membrane geometry, affect the adsorption ability of the proteins. Of key importance is the strong interconnection among these compositional and morphological elements of the membrane in …

An Ontology For Cardiothoracic Surgical Education And Clinical Data Analytics, Maryam Panahiazar, Yorick Chern, Ramon Riojas, Omar S.Latif, Usha Lokala, Dexter Hadley, Amit Sheth, Ramin E.Beygui

Faculty Publications

The development of an ontology facilitates the organization of the variety of concepts used to describe different terms in different resources. The proposed ontology will facilitate the study of cardiothoracic surgical education and data analytics in electronic medical records (EMR) with the standard vocabulary.

One-Bit Algorithm Considerations For Sparse Pmcw Radar, Ethan Triplett

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Phase Modulated Continuous Wave (PMCW) radar an emerging technology for autonomous cars. It is more flexible than the current frequency modulated systems, offering better detection resolution, interference mitigation, and future development opportunities. The issue preventing PMCW adoption is the need for high sample-rate analog to digital converters (ADCs). Due to device limits, a large increase in cost and power consumption occurs for every added resolution bit for a given sampling rate. This thesis explores radar detection techniques for few-bit and 1-bit ADC measurements. 1-bit quantization typically results in poor amplitude estimation, which can limit detections if the target signals are …

Modeling And Analysis Of A 12kw Solar-Wind Hybrid Renewable Energy System, Ekaterina Muravleva

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The increase in rate of depletion of natural resources in the last decade as well as the increased global focus on climate change has made the transition to renewable resources of energy a priority for various countries and organizations across the globe. The sporadic nature of energy generated by photovoltaic systems and wind energy conversion systems has led to an increased utilization of more reliable hybrid renewable energy systems. A combination of both solar and wind energy-based power generations systems reduces the impact of seasonal variation on the amount of power generated and therefore, can be used under varying weather …

Learning Depth From Images, Zhenyao Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Estimating depth from images has become a very popular task in computer vision which aims to restore the 3D scene from 2D images and identify important geometric knowledge of the scene. Its performance has been significantly improved by convolutional neural networks in recent years, which surpass the traditional methods by a large margin. However, the natural scenes are usually complicated, and hard to build the correspondence between pixels across frames, such as the region containing moving objects, illumination changes, occlusions, and reflections. This research explores rich and comprehensive spatial correspondence across images and designs three new network architectures for depth …

Molecular Arrangement And Fringe Identification And Analysis From Molecular Dynamics (Mafia-Md): A Tool For Analyzing The Molecular Structures Formed During Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulation Of Hydrocarbons, Khaled Mosharraf Mosharraf Mukut, Somesh Roy, Eirini Goudeli

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Reactive molecular dynamics (RMD) simulations are becoming popular, with the recent developments in high-performance and efficient computing architecture, for investigating fundamental physico-chemical behaviors of reacting species. Due to the complexity of hydrocarbon systems, characterization of molecules formed during RMD simulations of hydrocarbons can be very challenging for simulations involving a large number of molecules. The novel post-processing utility “MAFIA-MD” – an acronym for “Molecular Arrangement and Fringe Identification and Analysis from Molecular Dynamics” – presented in this manuscript can analyze and perform molecular characterization of a large number of RMD trajectory files (.XYZ files) simultaneously. The utility will be useful …

Engineering Education In Developing Nations: Progress On The School Of Engineering At Northrise University In Ndola, Zambia, Jeff Gladstone, Gitogo Churu, John Tixier, Nolan Van Gaalen

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The engineering and technology capabilities of developed nations continues to advance and to be a major driver of the economies of those nations. Developing nations recognize this reality, and they accordingly recognize the importance of nurturing the growth of their own countries’ STEM capabilities. Engineering education in developing nations is thus a critical need; but it is work that, for a variety of reasons, tends to be under-resourced by developing nations themselves as well as by potential participants from developed nations. As followers of Jesus, we sometimes find our hearts stirred on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ …

Carbon Capture, Utilization, And Storage, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and the Energy & Environmental Research Center’s CCUS capabilities. Includes information on the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership initiative, Brine Extraction and Storage Test (BEST), Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE), Red Trail Energy Carbon Capture and Storage, a feed study at Coal Creek Station, Bell Creek and Cedar Creek anticline projects, and Partnership for CO₂ Capture (PCO₂C). [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Experimental Study And Piezoresistive Mechanism Of Electrostatic Self-Assembly Of Carbon Nanotubes–Carbon Black/Epoxy Nanocomposites For Structural Health Monitoring, Yanlei Wang, Yao Fu, Ziping Meng, Baolin Wan, Baoguo Han

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Since electrostatic self-assembly carbon nanotubes–carbon black (CNTs–CB) composite fillers have good electrical conductivity and an easy dispersion process, they were incorporated into epoxy matrix to fabricate the CNTs–CB/epoxy nanocomposites. The mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, piezoresistivity, as well as microstructure characterization of the CNTs–CB/epoxy nanocomposites were experimentally investigated. The piezoresistive mechanisms of the CNTs–CB/epoxy nanocomposites were also established based on tunneling conduction and contacting conduction. The significant improvements in compressive yielding strength and elastic modulus of the nanocomposites could be attributed to the stable interfacial interaction. A moderate percolation threshold was obtained at 0.41 vol% for the CNTs–CB/epoxy nanocomposites in comparison …

Meta-Analysis Of The Prevalence Of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen (Don) In Water And Wastewater And Review Of Don Removal And Recovery Strategies, Synthia P. Mallick, Zayed Mallick, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Most wastewater removal and recovery processes primarily target dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) species, leaving the untreated non-reactive dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in the effluent. This DON fraction can account for a substantial part of the total nitrogen (N) load. We analyzed large datasets of N species and concentrations (with a focus on quantifying the fraction of DON) in surface water, ground water, and wastewater effluent across the United States. We then reviewed strategies to remove and recover DON based on results of a range of treatment technologies reported in the literature, including laboratory-scale up to full-scale operation in wastewater treatment …

Simple Rebar Anchorage Slip Macromodel Considering Corrosion, Ahmad Soraghi, Qindan Huang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Reinforcement slip in the footing of a reinforced concrete (RC) column can significantly influence the lateral displacement of the column, a critical structural response under lateral loads such as seismic loading. Many past researchers studied and developed models to capture the anchorage slip of rebar; however, there is still a need for a model that can reflect the actual bond-slip relationship (especially in the presence of corrosion) and yet is simple-to-use for structural analysis. In this study, a simple bar stress-slip macromodel is developed to predict reinforcement anchorage slip given a rebar stress. The proposed rebar anchorage slip model is …

Lab-Scale Data And Microbial Community Structure Suggest Shortcut Nitrogen Removal As The Predominant Nitrogen Removal Mechanism In Post-Aerobic Digestion (Pad), Fabrizio Sabba, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Eric Redmond, Mike Young, Leon Downing

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Implementing an aerobic digestion step after anaerobic digestion, referred to as “post aerobic digestion” (PAD), can remove ammonia without the need for an external carbon source and destroy volatile solids. While this process has been documented at the lab-scale and full-scale, the mechanism for N removal and the corresponding microbial community that carries out this process have not been established. This research gap is important to fill because the nitrogen removal pathway has implications on aeration requirements and carbon demand, that is, short-cut N-removal requires less oxygen and carbon than simultaneous nitrification–denitrification. The aims of this research were to (i) …

Seasonal And Spatial Patterns Differ Between Intracellular And Extracellular Antibiotic Resistance Genes In Urban Stormwater Runoff, Kassidy N. O'Malley, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Walter M. Mcdonald

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Antibiotic resistance is a public health threat that is exacerbated by the dispersion of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) into aquatic environments. Urban stormwater runoff has been recognized as a source of and a mechanism by which intracellular ARGs (iARGs) can be transported into receiving environments. The prevalence and behavior of extracellular ARGs (eARGs) in stormwater, however, has yet to be considered. This study quantified four iARGs and eARGs under baseflow and stormflow conditions. Urban stormwater runoff was found to be a source of all the ARGs examined, with the absolute concentration of all iARGs and two eARGs (ermF …

Immobilized Phosphate-Binding Protein Systems To Remove And Recover Phosphate, Faten Bakri Hussein

Dissertations (1934 -)

Inorganic phosphorus (Pi) is a critical element for all life and a major component of DNA’s backbone. Global agriculture requires Pi to support the rapid growth of plants and high crop productivity. Yet, the mineable Pi supply needed for global agriculture is in short supply in nature and Pi reserves are unevenly distributed around the world. In contrast, surplus Pi in water poses a serious pollution problem as it can cause eutrophication. Scarcity of non-renewable Pi resources combined with pollution in the form of overabundant Pi presents a phosphorus paradox. Tackling this issue is necessary and using innovative approaches targeting …

Changes In Drought Characteristics Under Future Climate Projections, Diogo Stalin De Alcantara Araujo

Theses and Dissertations

Accumulating evidence on the impact of climate change on droughts, highlight the necessity for developing effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. Global Drought Layers were developed for historic and future runs of nine global climate models (GCM) of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Model 6th phase (CMIP6). Relative changes of drought characteristics were estimated, and hotspots were identified, especially in South America, Africa, Europe, Western USA, and Australia. Further, changes in future drought risk and severity in Australia are quantified. Historic conditions (1981-2014) and projections for mid-century (2015-2050) and end-century (2051-2100) from four shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5) are …

Ti–6al–4v Alloy Deposition Characteristics At Electrode-Negative Polarity In The Cold Metal Transfer–Gas Metal Arc Process, Tae Hyun Lee, Dong Hyuck Kam, Je Hoon Oh, Cheolhee Kim

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) of Ti alloys using gas metal arc yields a high deposition rate, cathode spots exhibit unstable behavior. In this study, the cold-metal-transfer process and an electrode-negative (EN) polarity were used in the WAAM process of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy. High-speed imaging was performed to investigate the mechanisms to stabilize cathode plasma jets, arc plasma, and molten metal transfer in the EN polarity. Arc plasma and cathode jets had the same direction, and sound cathode jets were shrouded by arc plasma in the EN mode. The metal transfer was also stabilized by balanced plasma formation under …

An Assessment Of Requirements In Investments, New Technologies, And Infrastructures To Achieve The Sdgs, Peter Yang

Faculty Scholarship

Background: The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires much planning and the provision of resources, especially regarding the necessary investments, technologies and infrastructures needed. Yet, it is presently unclear how available these elements are, what gaps exist, what changes have taken place in terms of their availability since the adoption of the SDGs and what their requirements will be in the future. The knowledge gap has become even more concerning because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a bibliometric analysis, an assessment of the global progress of SDG implementation and requirements, identifying challenges through the development …