Engineering Commons^™

Environmental Exploration With Long, Thin Tendril Robots, Or Building Plant Based Robots And Teaching Them How To Feel, Michael Benjamin Wooten

All Dissertations

Continuum robots offer unique potential benefits for environmental exploration, notably in using their maneuverability to navigate congested environments. In this dissertation, we show how circumnutation, a motion strategy, commonly employed by plants, can be implemented, and usefully exploited, with continuum robots. We discuss how the kinematics of circumnutation, which combines local backbone growth with periodic backbone bending, can be created using extensible continuum robot hardware. The underlying kinematics are generated by adapting kinematic models of plant growth. We illustrate the effectiveness of that approach with experimental results with a tendril robot exploring a congested environment. However, significant challenges remain in …

Digitalization Of Construction Project Requirements Using Natural Language Processing (Nlp) Techniques, Fahad Ul Hassan

All Dissertations

Contract documents are a critical legal component of a construction project that specify all wishes and expectations of the owner toward the design, construction, and handover of a project. A single contract package, especially of a design-build (DB) project, comprises hundreds of documents including thousands of requirements. Precise comprehension and management of the requirements are critical to ensure that all important explicit and implicit requirements of the project scope are captured, managed, and completed. Since requirements are mainly written in a natural human language, the current manual methods impose a significant burden on practitioners to process and restructure them into …

Effects Of Continuous In Situ Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation On Microorganisms, Molly E. Wintenberg

All Dissertations

Precise detection and monitoring of nuclear fuel cycle, enrichment, and weapon development activities are critical for supporting warfighter preparation in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) operations, clandestine activities, and nuclear compliance. A biological sensing system could serve as an alternative to traditional detection methods by using organic material naturally present in the environment to discreetly detect residual trace nuclear material. Microorganisms provide an optimal platform for an alternative sensing system; however, their response to low levels of ionizing radiation is poorly characterized. Combining the power of next-generation sequencing and transcriptomic analysis, this dissertation takes an approach to obtain …

Extractive Membranes For The Detection And Screening Of Waterborne Plutonium, James Foster

All Dissertations

The development of rapid screening tools for special nuclear materials remains a crucial focus for nonproliferation efforts. Traditional approaches for the analysis of trace-level Pu isotopes in water requires tedious and time-consuming sample preparation steps that do not lend well to expeditious screening. Therefore, a novel analytical method that combines both Pu concentration and source preparation into a single detection system would make for an invaluable tool for nuclear security applications. Extractive membranes absorbers can help to fulfill this role as they are capable of concentrating Pu to detectable limits while subsequently serving as alpha spectrometry sample sources. In Chapter …

Development And Application Of 3d Kinematic Methodologies For Biomechanical Modelling In Adaptive Sports And Rehabilitation, Anne Marie Severyn

All Dissertations

Biomechanical analysis is widely used to assess human movement sciences, specifically using three-dimensional motion capture modelling. There are unprecedented opportunities to increase quantitative knowledge of rehabilitation and recreation for disadvantaged population groups. Specifically, 3D models and movement profiles for human gait analysis were generated with emphasis on post-stroke patients, with direct model translation to analyze equivalent measurements while horseback riding in use of the alternative form of rehabilitation, equine assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) or hippotherapy (HPOT). Significant improvements in gait symmetry and velocity were found within an inpatient rehabilitation setting for patients following a stroke, and the developed movement …

Examining The Impact Of Design Features Of Electronic Health Records Patient Portals On The Usability And Information Communication For Shared Decision Making, Rong Yin

All Dissertations

The use of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) patient portal has been shown to be effective in generating positive outcomes in patients’ healthcare, improving patient engagement and patient-provider communication. Government legislation also required proof of its meaningful use among patients by healthcare providers. Typical patient portals also include features such as health information and patient education materials. However, little research has examined the specific use of patient portals related to individuals with specific diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). IBDs are life-long, not curable, chronic diseases that can impact the whole population. Individuals with IBDs may have higher needs …

Sustainable Composites From Agricultural And Petroleum Waste, Menisha S. Karunarathna

All Dissertations

Green gas emission has been a pervasive and persistent subject of debate for a prolonged period. The soaring number of industries and vehicle fuel emissions presage a concomitant rise in global CO₂ emissions. Global cement production is responsible for 8% of the total CO₂ release, yet, the production continues due to the surging demand. Hence, there is an ongoing quest to find alternatives for cement and building materials produced with zero to lower CO₂ emissions. The work presented in this dissertation focuses on finding recyclable, zero CO₂ gas-producing high sulfur biocomposites materials, which can compete with …

Graphene Oxide-Thermoplastic Nanocomposites: Fabrication And Properties, Seyedeh Mastooreh Seyedi Ghezghapan

All Dissertations

Polymer nanocomposites are used for a wide variety of applications. These nanocomposites can have a number of important characteristics depending on the nature of the nanomaterial, its size, volume fraction, its distribution, and interactions within the host polymer. Mechanical strength, thermal and electrical conductivity are some of these materials' most focused and studied features. Besides the positive influences of the reinforcements, nanomaterials also might have some adverse impacts on the polymer matrix. These issues could arise from the aggregation of the fillers and the poor interfacial interactions of the components. Several approaches are introduced to modify the nanofillers and enhance …

Pulse-Coupled Oscillator Networks: Achieving Phase Continuity And Learning Optimal Control In Physical Systems, Timothy Anglea

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, we consider the application of pulse-coupled oscillator theory to real-world, physical networks. When the phase of an oscillator is associated with a physical measure, such as clock timing or robotic heading, discontinuous adjustments of the oscillator's phase is undesirable and potentially disadvantageous. Rather, continuous adjustment of the oscillator phase value is needed over a certain amount of time. To ensure that both synchronization and desynchronization can still be achieved under the constraint of continuous phase value changes, we pursue a novel approach to analyze the generalization of a pulse-coupled oscillator network with a time-varying coupling strength. We …

Synthesis And Molecular Processes Governing Self-Healing Polymeric Materials, Siyang Wang

All Dissertations

Self-healing polymers capable of recovering from physical damages are promising materials for advanced technologies. In these studies, we developed routes to achieve self-healable properties in acrylic-based copolymers that rely on non-covalent dipolar interactions present in essentially all polymeric materials. Using a combination of spectroscopic tools, thermo-mechanical analysis, and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations, these studies have shown that dipolar interactions lead to conformational changes of macromolecular segments which, in turn, result in self-healing without external intervention. This dissertation also describes the development of novel self-healable acrylic-based covalent adaptable networks (CANs) that combine reprocessing and self-healing properties. The utilization of dipolar interactions …

Photoassisted Nanoscale Memory Resistors, Amir Shariffar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Memristors or memory resistors are promising two-terminal devices, which have the potential to revolutionize current electronic memory technologies. Memristors have been extensively investigated and reported to be practical devices, although they still suffer from poor stability, low retention time, and laborious fabrication processes.

The primary aim of this project was to achieve a device structure of quantum dots or thin films to address a fundamental challenge of unstable resistive switching behavior in memristors. Moreover, we aimed to investigate the effects of light illumination in terms of intensity and wavelength on the performance of the fabricated memristor. The parameters such as …

The Impact Of Reliability In Conceptual Design - An Integrated Trade-Off Analysis, Tevari James Barker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research presented in this paper focuses on developing models to estimate the systemreliability of Unmanned Ground Vehicles using knowledge and data from similar systems. Traditional reliability approaches often require detailed knowledge of a system and are used in later design stages as well as development, operational test and evaluation, and operations. The critical role of reliability and its impact on acquisition program performance, cost, and schedule motivate the need for improved system reliability models in the early design stages. Reliability is often a stand-alone requirement and not fully included in performance and life cycle cost models. This research seeks to …

Junction Temperature Estimation Of Silicon Carbide Power Module Using Internal Gate Resistance As Temperature Sensitive Electrical Parameter, Michael Sykes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The junction temperature of a power module is measured non-intrusively and uninterrupted in its application by analyzing the dependency of gate resistance to temperature. The circuit configuration proposed consists of altering the gate loop path and adding a basic peak detection circuit with an added low-pass filter to accurately measure the small differences seen during a temperature change on the internal gate resistance. The testing on this Silicon Carbide power module shows that the internal gate resistance has a positive temperature coefficient. This causes the current and the voltage drop on the gate loop sensing resistance to reduce as the …

Optimizing Virus Prefiltration For Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing, Solomon Isu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Virus filters are single-use devices that use a size-based separation process. In virus filters, contaminating virus particles are retained while the therapeutic molecules pass through the membrane pores. Virus filters are an essential component of the overall virus clearance strategy. Sections 1 and 2 of this dissertation provide an introduction and extensive review of monoclonal antibody (mAb) process development, where virus filtration is pivotal. In section 3, prefiltration studies were performed with an industrially relevant IgG1 type mAb using adsorptive and size-exclusion-based prefilters with different mechanisms of action. This mAb has an isoelectric point range of 7.1 to 8.0 and …

Predicting The Likelihood And Scale Of Wildfires In California Using Meteorological And Vegetation Data, Matthew Walters

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wildfires have devastating ecological, environmental, economical, and public health impacts through the deterioration of water and air quality, CO2 emissions, property damage, and lung illnesses. The early detection and prevention of wildfires allow for the minimization of these risks. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in wildfire detection and prediction has been highly researched as a tool to assist firefighters in stopping wildfires in its early stages. The three common wildfire prediction categories include image and video detection, behavior prediction, and susceptibility prediction. Data such as climate, weather, vegetation, satellite images, and historical wildfire data is most commonly used. Many …

Diffusive Dynamics Of Biological Macromolecules In The Cytoplasm Of Live Bacteria, Asmaa Ali Sadoon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria are small organisms that play important roles in our bodies and in maintaining our surrounding environment. However, bacterial infections are considered as one of the health diseases that threatens the lives of humans. Resistance of bacteria to antibiotics has made treating bacterial infections more challenging. With the emergence of many developed optical techniques, it has become possible to study various biological mechanisms of molecules inside these small organisms with high resolution and precise localization. In this research, single particle tracking photoactivation localization microscopy (sptPALM) technique was used to investigate the dynamics of fluorescent histonelike nucleoid-structuring proteins (H-NS) in live …

Optimal Relative Path Planning For Constrained Stochastic Space Systems, Nathan Bohus Stastny

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rendezvous and proximity operations for automated spacecraft systems requires advanced path planning techniques that are capable of generating optimal paths. Real-world constraints, such as sensor noise and actuator errors, complicate the planning process. Operations also require flight safety considerations in order to prevent the spacecraft from potentially colliding with the associated companion spacecraft. This work proposes a new, ground-based trajectory planning approach that seeks an optimal trajectory while meeting all mission constraints and accounting for vehicle performance and safety requirements. This approach uses a closed-loop linear covariance simulation of the relative trajectory coupled with a genetic algorithm to determine fuel …

Competition And Third-Party Platform-Integration In Ride-Sourcing Markets, Yaqian Zhou, Hai Yang, Jintao Ke, Hai Wang, Xinwei Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recently, some third-party integrators attempt to integrate the ride services offered by multiple independent ride-sourcing platforms. Accordingly, passengers can request ride through the integrators and receive ride service from any one of the ride-sourcing platforms. This novel business model, termed as third-party platform-integration in this work, has potentials to alleviate market fragmentation cost resulting from demand splitting among multiple platforms. Although most existing studies focus on operation strategies for one single monopolist platform, much less is known about the competition and platform-integration and their implications on operation strategy and system efficiency. In this work, we propose mathematical models to describe …

Shellfusion: Answer Generation For Shell Programming Tasks Via Knowledge Fusion, Neng Zhang, Chao Liu, Xin Xia, Christoph Treude, Ying Zou, David Lo, Zibin Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Shell commands are widely used for accomplishing tasks, such as network management and file manipulation, in Unix and Linux platforms. There are a large number of shell commands available. For example, 50,000+ commands are documented in the Ubuntu Manual Pages (MPs). Quite often, programmers feel frustrated when searching and orchestrating appropriate shell commands to accomplish specific tasks. To address the challenge, the shell programming community calls for easy-to-use tutorials for shell commands. However, existing tutorials (e.g., TLDR) only cover a limited number of frequently used commands for shell beginners and provide limited support for users to search for commands by …

Quantifying Responsiveness In The Vaccine Industry To Evaluate And Improve Pandemic Response, Connor Hill

Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of the pandemic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) we can look at many aspects of the global response, including social, scientific, and governmental. Current research in the areas of vaccine development and manufacturing find the process of developing a new vaccine takes an especially long time and is unresponsive. Understanding the factors that influence responsiveness can help organizations be better prepared to address the needs of society should another pandemic strike. Responsiveness can be linked to product, process, and volume. The vaccine development and manufacturing process historically takes years to reach distribution for public use. …

Analysis Of Factors To Distinguish Between Passenger And Cargo Air Carrier Accidents, Warren Phillip Pittorie

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to analyze a set of factors for their ability to distinguish between passenger and cargo air carrier accidents. This study utilized a historical dataset of air carrier accidents that occurred between 2002 and 2019 and identified common factors that were able to be categorized according to the theoretical SHELO model. This model, commonly used for analyzing human factors-related causation of aircraft accidents, was utilized to categorize accident factors in levels of the SHELO model, consisting of Software, Hardware, Environment, and Organizational Influences. Data analysis in the form of several logistic regressions revealed a …

Residual Strength Estimation Of Degraded Bonded Joints Based On Non-Destructive Evaluations, Guilherme Garcia Momm

Theses and Dissertations

Pioneer designers acknowledged structural bonding advantages over other joining methods, sparking many aerospace applications. Nonetheless, durability issues, weak bonds, and the inability to non-destructively interrogate bond quality after-the-fact hindered widespread bonding use. These challenges also contributed to several aircraft accidents, fostering extensive related research. Firstly, we examined the bonding operational history in aviation. The challenge to simulate or experimentally reproduce bonded joints’ long-term behavior under real-life conditions magnifies the value of in-service data. Since 1944 the International Civil Aviation Organization has recommended investigating aircraft incidents/accidents. Among numerous investigation reports publicly available, we identified 73 bond-related occurrences involving type-certified aircraft registered …

Flight Test Of A Floatplane Modification To The C-130j Aircraft, Daniel Jacob Kulp

Theses and Dissertations

This report details the future flight test of a potential amphibious modification to the C-130J Super Hercules. The goal of the project is to enable an amphibious capability through the installation of dual floats via a truss structure attached to the fuselage. This project uses an iterative design process which leans heavily on digital engineering and subscale testing. Through the iterative design process, several float and truss versions underwent 6-degree of freedom aerodynamic simulation and finite element analyses to validate landing load limits and stability and control parameters. These simulators informed subsequent versions which underwent subscale physical testing in a …

Development Of Simulation Framework For Impact Analysis Of Launch Delays On Lunar Base Station, Giulio Cristello

Theses and Dissertations

Humans have not ventured beyond Earth since the days of the Apollo missions. NASA astronauts were the first and last to set foot on the lunar surface, and it is again thanks to NASA that the initiative to go back to the Moon is moving forward. The Artemis missions will land men and women on the lunar surface with the purpose of establishing a long-term presence on the Moon. The current Artemis Plan includes the Artemis Base Camp, a lunar base stationed on the lunar South Pole. The maintenance of the base will require frequent missions to be performed in …

Millimeterwave And Mimo Antenna Beamforming For Next-Generationwireless Communications, Ahmed Nadhim Mohammed

Theses and Dissertations

Millimeter wave (mmWave) hybrid precoding systems are likely to have large antenna arrays to overcome the high channel path loss. In such circumstances, low cost hardware and power consumption are the main challenges. Furthermore, the hardware is tasked with computation of high dimensional optimal matrices of hybrid precoding design using Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP). This dissertation addresses two algorithms to enhance the efficiency of the OMP reconstruction algorithm in mmWave precoding design. The spectral efficiency of the mmWave system using the proposed algorithms is compared with previous works and the optimal case (a fully digital precoder). The results show that …

Software Security Management In Critical Infrastructures: A Systematic Literature Review, Gülsüm Ece Ekşi̇, Bedi̇r Teki̇nerdoğan, Cagatay Catal

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Critical infrastructure (CI) is an integrated set of systems and assets that are essential to ensure the functioning of a nation, including its economy, the public's health and/or safety. Hence, protecting critical infrastructures (CI) is vital because of the potential severe consequences that may emerge at the national level. Many CIs are now controlled by software, and likewise, software is often the major source of many security problems in critical infrastructures. Software security management in CIs has been addressed in the literature and several useful approaches have been provided. Yet, these approaches are fragmented over multiple different studies, often do …

A Comprehensive Survey For Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring, Efe İsa Tezde, Eray Yildiz

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Energy-saving and efficiency are as important as benefiting from new energy sources to supply increasing energy demand globally. Energy demand and resources for energy saving should be managed effectively. Therefore, electrical loads need to be monitored and controlled. Demand-side energy management plays a vital role in achieving this objective. Energy management systems schedule an optimal operation program for these loads by obtaining more accurate and precise residential and commercial loads information. Different intellegent measurement applications and machine learning algorithms have been proposed for the measurement and control of electrical devices/loads used in buildings. Of these, nonintrusive load monitoring (NILM) is …

A Survey On Organizational Choices For Microservice-Based Software Architectures, Hüseyi̇n Ünlü, Burak Bi̇lgi̇n, Onur Demi̇rörs

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

During the last decade, the demand for more flexible, responsive, and reliable software applications increased exponentially. The availability of internet infrastructure and new software technologies to respond to this demand led to a new generation of applications. As a result, cloud-based, distributed, independently deployable web applications working together in a microservice-based software architecture style have gained popularity. The style has been a common practice in the industry and successfully utilized by companies. Adopting this style demands software organizations to transform their culture. However, there is a lack of research studies that explores common practices for microservices. Thus, we performed a …

An Adaptive Search Equation-Based Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm For Transportation Energy Demand Forecasting, Durmuş Özdemi̇r, Safa Dörterler

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This study aimed to develop a new adaptive artificial bee colony (A-ABC) algorithm that can adaptively select an appropriate search equation to more accurately estimate transport energy demand (TED). Also, A-ABC and canonical artificial bee colony (C-ABC) algorithms were compared in terms of efficiency and performance. The input parameters used in the proposed TED model were the official economic indicators of Turkey, including gross domestic product (GDP), population, and total vehicle kilometer per year (TKM). Three mathematical models, linear (A-ABCL), exponential (A-ABCE), and quadratic (A-ABCQ) were developed and tested. Also, economic variables were generated using the "curve fitting" technique to …

Evaluation Of Social Bot Detection Models, Muhammet Buğra Torusdağ, Mücahi̇d Kutlu, Ali̇ Aydin Selçuk

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Social bots are employed to automatically perform online social network activities; thereby, they can also be utilized in spreading misinformation and malware. Therefore, many researchers have focused on the automatic detection of social bots to reduce their negative impact on society. However, it is challenging to evaluate and compare existing studies due to difficulties and limitations in sharing datasets and models. In this study, we conduct a comparative study and evaluate four different bot detection systems in various settings using 20 different public datasets. We show that high-quality datasets covering various social bots are critical for a reliable evaluation of …