Engineering Commons^™

Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Platform For Direct Clinical Samples, Terrance Zhang

Honors Scholar Theses

Infectious diseases and septicemia are two of the major causes of death in the U.S., necessitating rapid treatment of septic patients with proper, efficacious antibiotics. Unfortunately, the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria are continuously being aggravated by an abuse in antibiotic prescription at a clinical and agricultural level. It is known that antibiotic resistance evolves through the sequential accumulation of multiple mutations in bacteria, which is accentuated by prolonged exposure of bacteria to ineffective antibiotics when implementing traditional septicemia treatment. The goal of this project is to develop a novel, easy-to-use AST platform for rapid antimicrobial susceptibility profiling to …

Airline Quality Rating 2020, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Airline Quality Rating Report

To contribute to AQR 2020, we encourage you to take the Airline Passenger Survey. Please CLICK HERE.

The results of the 30th annual national Airline Quality Rating (AQR). The most comprehensive study of the performance quality of the 10 largest airlines in the United States, the AQR is conducted by researchers at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Ariz., campus. Airline performance, as presented by AQR researchers, encompasses a multifactor look at the overall quality of the airlines. It includes on-time performance, denied boardings, mishandled baggage and customer complaints. …

2-D Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis Of Folsom Dam: Seismically Induced Separation And Pore Pressure Along The Soil-Concrete Interface, Grace Amoussou

Master of Science in Civil Engineering Theses

The seismic soil-concrete interface stability of composite dams has been an area of interest to many researchers. However, the true interface behavior during a seismic event has not been well understood. During a ground shaking, bonding and de-bonding action along the interface may cause significant separation of soil and concrete surfaces, and such a separation may take place at any depth along the interface creating a stability concern for the overall dam. Moreover, the repetitive nature of bonding/debonding behavior may induce excess pore pressure along the interface, which in turn, may trigger a liquefaction failure or a hydraulic fracture in …

Quantitative Assessment Of Contested Water Uses And Management In The Conflict-Torn Yarmouk River Basin, Nicolas Avisse, Amaury Tilmant, David E. Rosenberg, Samer Talozi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The Yarmouk River basin is shared between Syria, Jordan, and Israel. Since the 1960s, Yarmouk River flows have declined more than 85% despite the signature of bilateral agreements. Syria and Jordan blame each other for the decline and have both developed their own explanatory narratives: Jordan considers that Syria violated their 1987 agreement by building more dams than what was agreed on, while Syria blames climate change. In fact, because the two countries do not share information, neither on hydrological flows nor on water management, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the flow regime. …

Isolation And Selective Glycosylation Of Antisalmonellal Anthraquinones From The Stem Bark Of Morinda Lucida Benth. (Rubiaceae), Napoleon A. Mfonku, James A. Mbah, Norbert Kodjio, Donatien Gatsing, Jixun Zhan

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

In this work we report the isolation, identification and antibacterial activity of two anthraquinones, 2-hydroxy-1-methoxyanthraquinone (1) and 2,5-dihydroxy-1-methoxy-6-methoxymethylanthraquinone (2), from the stem bark of Morinda lucida. These two natural products were selectively converted into two new glycosylated derivatives, 2-hydroxy-1-methoxyanthraquinone-4′-O-methyl-2-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (3) and 2,5-dihydroxy-1-methoxy-6-methoxymethylanthraquinone-4′-O-methyl-2-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (4) by the filamentous fungus Beauveria bassiana ATCC 7159. Structure elucidation was accomplished based on the 1D and 2D NMR, IR and mass spectra. The glycosylated compounds 3 and 4 showed higher in vitro antibacterial activity against Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica sérovars Typhimurim (MIC of 8 μg/mL each) than the corresponding aglycons 1 and 2 (MIC of …

Silicone 3d Printing Processes For Fabricating Synthetic, Self-Oscillating Vocal Fold Models, Taylor Eugene Greenwood

Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic, self-oscillating vocal fold (VF) models are physical models whose life-like vibration is induced and perpetuated by fluid flow. Self-oscillating VF models, which are often fabricated life-size from soft silicone elastomers, are used to study various aspects of voice biomechanics. Despite their many advantages, the development and use of self-oscillating VF models is limited by the casting process used to fabricate the models. Consequently, this thesis focuses on the development of 3D printing processes for fabricating silicone VF models. A literature review is first presented which describes three types of material extrusion 3D printing processes for silicone elastomers, namely direct …

Small Mode Volume Plasmonic Film-Coupled Nanostar Resonators, Negar Charchi, Ying Li, Margaret Huber, Elyahb Allie Kwizera, Xiaohua Huang, Christos Argyropoulos, Thang Hoang

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Confining and controlling light in extreme subwavelength scales are tantalizing tasks. In this work, we report a study of individual plasmonic film-coupled nanostar resonators where polarized plasmonic optical modes are trapped in ultrasmall volumes. Individual gold nanostars, separated from a flat gold film by a thin dielectric spacer layer, exhibit a strong light confinement between the sub-10 nm volume of the nanostar's tips and the film. Through dark field scattering measurements of many individual nanostars, a statistical observation of the scattered spectra is obtained and compared with extensive simulation data to reveal the origins of the resonant peaks. We observe …

Understanding Eye Gaze Patterns In Code Comprehension, Jonathan Saddler

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Program comprehension is a sub-field of software engineering that seeks to understand how developers understand programs. Comprehension acts as a starting point for many software engineering tasks such as bug fixing, refactoring, and feature creation. The dissertation presents a series of empirical studies to understand how developers comprehend software in realistic settings. The unique aspect of this work is the use of eye tracking equipment to gather fine-grained detailed information of what developers look at in software artifacts while they perform realistic tasks in an environment familiar to them, namely a context including both the Integrated Development Environment (Eclipse or …

A Physics-Based Machine Learning Study Of The Behavior Of Interstitial Helium In Single Crystal W–Mo Binary Alloys, Adib J. Samin

Faculty Publications

In this work, the behavior of dilute interstitial helium in W–Mo binary alloys was explored through the application of a first principles-informed neural network (NN) in order to study the early stages of helium-induced damage and inform the design of next generation materials for fusion reactors. The neural network (NN) was trained using a database of 120 density functional theory (DFT) calculations on the alloy. The DFT database of computed solution energies showed a linear dependence on the composition of the first nearest neighbor metallic shell. This NN was then employed in a kinetic Monte Carlo simulation, which took into …

Integrating Hydrologic Modeling Web Services With Online Data Sharing To Prepare, Store, And Execute Hydrologic Models, Tian Gan, David G. Tarboton, Pabitra Dash, Tseganeh Z. Gichamo, Jeffery S. Horsburgh

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Web based applications, web services, and online data and model sharing technology are becoming increasingly available to support hydrologic research. This promises benefits in terms of collaboration, computer platform independence, and reproducibility of modeling workflows and results. In this research, we designed an approach that integrates hydrologic modeling web services with an online data sharing system to support web-based simulation for hydrologic models. We used this approach to integrate example systems as a case study to support reproducible snowmelt modeling for a test watershed in the Colorado River Basin, USA. We demonstrated that this approach enabled users to work within …

Spaspace Humidity Control Through A Single Speed Versus A Variable Speed Hvac Solution, Koukouni P. Kone

Mechanical Engineering Theses

Conventional air conditioning systems in houses respond to thermal loads by means of controlling dry-bulb temperature through the thermostat. As part of the process of conditioning the air, dehumidification is also provided. However, as houses are becoming more efficient, supplemental dehumidification is often necessary in homes located in hot and humid climates to control relative humidity intentionally. This study compared the dehumidification performance of three residential air conditioning systems: a system with a variable speed mode (VSPD), a system with an enhanced dehumidification mode activated (Enhanced Dehum), and a system without enhanced dehumidification capabilities (Normal Cooling). The research facility was …

Experimental And Numerical Comparison Of Flexural Capacity Of Light Gage Cold Formed Steel Roof Deck, Christopher H. Raeel, Dawid Gwozdz

American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Specifications, Standards, Manuals and Research Reports (1946 - present)

This paper presents an analysis of experimental data and compares it to two numerical analysis methods of light gage cold formed steel roof deck. The flexural capacity was determined upon the first failure mode of the light gage cold formed steel roof deck. A comparison of the experimental data was made to both the effective width method and the direct strength method. The objective of the comparison was to have a physical test provide the actual behavior of the light gage cold formed steel roof deck and grade how well the numerical analysis, effective width and direct strength methods, compare …

Using Taint Analysis And Reinforcement Learning (Tarl) To Repair Autonomous Robot Software, Damian Lyons, Saba Zahra

Faculty Publications

It is important to be able to establish formal performance bounds for autonomous systems. However, formal verification techniques require a model of the environment in which the system operates; a challenge for autonomous systems, especially those expected to operate over longer timescales. This paper describes work in progress to automate the monitor and repair of ROS-based autonomous robot software written for an a-priori partially known and possibly incorrect environment model. A taint analysis method is used to automatically extract the data-flow sequence from input topic to publish topic, and instrument that code. A unique reinforcement learning approximation of MDP utility …

Client Dashboard, Siddharth Ausekar

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this project is to create a microservice which provides API endpoints, stateless REST APIs which can be accessed over HTTP just like a standard web page. The idea behind this approach is to make the application easy to build and maintain as they are broken down into smaller components which work together. Each component is continuously developed and maintained separately and therefore are easier to understand and test. This approach helps organizations to achieve much higher agility and be able to vastly improve the time it takes to get working improvements to production. In this project, JAVA’s …

Ahead: Automatic Holistic Energy-Aware Design Methodology For Mlp Neural Network Hardware Generation In Proactive Bmi Edge Devices, Nan-Sheng Huang, Yi-Chung Chen, Jørgen Christian Larsen, Poramate Manoonpong

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research

The prediction of a high-level cognitive function based on a proactive brain–machine interface (BMI) control edge device is an emerging technology for improving the quality of life for disabled people. However, maintaining the stability of multiunit neural recordings is made difficult by the nonstationary nature of neurons and can affect the overall performance of proactive BMI control. Thus, it requires regular recalibration to retrain a neural network decoder for proactive control. However, retraining may lead to changes in the network parameters, such as the network topology. In terms of the hardware implementation of the neural decoder for real-time and low-power …

Illuminator, Volume 3, Issue 9, Batten College Of Engineering & Technology, Old Dominion University

College of Engineering & Technology Newsletter

May 2020 issue of Illuminator, a monthly publication of ODU's Batten College of Engineering and Technology.

Concentrating Photovoltaic Retrofit For Existing Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors: Design, Experiments, And Levelized Cost Of Electricity, Todd P. Otanicar, Rhetta Wingert, Matthew Orosz, Clay Mcpheeters

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Photovoltaics and concentrating solar thermal power are two ways for generating electricity from sunlight, albeit through different methods. Parabolic trough style powerplants represent 3.6 GW of electricity production, but many of these plants are aging and being replaced with photovoltaics. An alternative option that could be employed to leverage the sunk capital cost associated with the primary optics would be the design of a pure photovoltaic retrofit working within the existing plant architecture. Here, a secondary optical concentrator is designed to use the existing primary optics of a parabolic trough type solar thermal powerplant. The design is a v-shaped secondary …

A Generalisable Bottom-Up Methodology For Deriving A Residential Stock Model From Large Empirical Databases., Ciara Ahern, Brian Norton

Articles

Average reference dwellings representing a predominant housing typology are defined in this work. Specifying such reference buildings is a prerequisite for (i) calculating cost-optimal energy performance requirements for buildings and building elements and (ii) ensuring valid calculations of national building energy consumption. In the EU, an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating is an assessment of the energy consumption of a dwelling. The use of inappropriate default-values for the building envelope thermal transmittance coefficients (U-values) and standardised thermal bridging transmittance coefficients (Y-values) in the production of EPCs leads to an over-estimation of potential energy savings from interventions in the existing dwelling …

Bulk Properties Correlated To The Hydrogen Bond Organization In Dendrimers, Hyperbranched Polymers, And Linear Polymers, Beibei Chen

Dissertations

Although a lot of research was conducted on dendritic polymers, our understanding of their structure-property is still limited. Our previous study, which focused on a family of dendritic polymers based on 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl) propionic acid (bis-MPA) as a monomer, discovered unique hydrogen bond organizations contributed by their dendritic structures. However, the influence of the H-bond organization on bulk properties has yet to be understood. The goal of this dissertation is to elucidate the correlation between the H-bond organization with the dielectric and volumetric properties of bis-MPA based dendritic polymers, with an emphasis on developing a fundamental understanding of to what extent …

Dual-Cure Benzoxazine Networks For Additive Manufacturing, Jeremy Weigand

Dissertations

The research presented addresses the design of novel materials for additive manufacturing through a dual-cure approach that combines UV initiated free-radical polymerization of an acrylic network combined with the thermally initiated ring opening polymerization of a benzoxazine network. This work is split into three primary sections: the first and second sections focus on the synthesis and characterization of networks based on dual-cure BOX monomers, while the third develops simulation tools to further investigate thermoset networks prepared via additive manufacturing. A novel 3D printing formulation based on a multifunctional benzoxazine (BOX) monomer possessing both photo and thermally polymerizable functional groups is …

A Capacitive Sensing Gym Mat For Exercise Classification & Tracking, Adam Goertz

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Effective monitoring of adherence to at-home exercise programs as prescribed by physiotherapy protocols is essential to promoting effective rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions. Currently physical therapists and other health professionals have no reliable means of tracking patients' progress in or adherence to a prescribed regimen. This project aims to develop a low-cost, privacy-conserving means of monitoring at-home exercise activity using a gym mat equipped with an array of capacitive sensors. The ability of the mat to classify different types of exercises was evaluated using several machine learning models trained on an existing dataset of physiotherapy exercises.

Image Enhancement And Restoration For Colonoscopy Images, Sarah Paracha

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Colonoscopy images contain specular highlights that occur as a result of the tiny camera on the colonoscope being perpendicular to the image location. These specular highlights may prevent the Gastroenterologist from having a full picture of the patient’s condition and potentially giving an early diagnosis. The purpose of my honors research is to remove the specular highlights from these colonoscopy images.

The process to achieve the above objective involves two steps. The first step would require locating the specular highlights in the image through image segmentation. For this purpose, information from nearby x and y pixels may be utilized. The …

Methods Of High-Fidelity, High-Efficiency Class-D Audio Amplification, Kaleb Kassaw

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Gallium nitride-based field effect transistors (FETs) have opened a path for full-frequency-range class-D audio amplifiers with low distortion and noise, thanks to their ability to switch at much higher frequencies than that of the upper range of human hearing. Compared to traditional silicon-based transistors, GaN-based transistors offer superior efficiencies, particularly at power levels below their maxima. Paired with an analog-to-digital converter, digital signal processor, and pulse-code modulation to pulse-width modulation converter, these transistors are used to design and implement a solid-state amplifier capable of generating 100 watts of output through speakers with an impedance of 8 ohms using a 1-volt …

Smart Textiles As The Digital Interface Of The Future, Audra Beneux

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The growing field of smart textiles could change everyday life, adding an element of interactivity to commonly used items such as clothing and furniture. Smart textiles measure then respond to external stimuli. For scalability in the future, smart textiles must be produced using conventional textile manufacturing craftsmanship. The resulting textile must be durable and comfortable while retaining electrical capabilities. Smart textiles can be fabricating through embroidery, weaving, and knitting using conductive threads. Electronics can also be printed onto textiles. Researchers are also creating higher-order electronics, such as the transistor, on the fiber-level to make the technology in smart textiles as …

Ohmic Contact Metallization For Silicon Carbide In Future Transportation And Aviation Systems, Tanner W. Rice

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper analyzes metallization stacks in both n-type and p-type used in Silicon Carbide to create Ohmic Contacts. Silicon Carbide has shown its significance in usage as a semiconductor in high temperatures, and other extreme environments compared to its silicon counterpart. Additionally, silicon carbide exhibits many other favorable attributes such as strong radiation hardness, high power capability, and high-temperature tolerance. These attributes translate into great components for use in aviation and other future transportations by increasing reliability in a sector that already requires high reliability. Applications of this material could prove useful in fields such as aviation, among others. This …

Simultaneous Ohmic Contacts To N And P-Type Silicon Carbide For Future Electric Vehicles, Hayden Hunter

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The paper explores possible metallization schemes to form simultaneous ohmic contacts to n-type and p-type silicon carbide contacts. Silicon carbide has shown promise in revolutionizing the power electronics market due to its increased switching speed, compact design, and higher temperature tolerance when compared to Silicon, the market standard. With the continuing development of silicon carbide technology, higher efficiency in future electric vehicles can be achieved by employing this new technology. This paper discusses theoretical contact formation between metals and semiconductors along with a proposed experiment to create a Ni/Al metallization scheme on both n and p-type contacts simultaneously on a …

Lexicon Based Approaches To Sentiment Analysis Of Spanish Tweets: A Comparative Study, Jean Roca

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing technique that aims to classify text based on the emotions expressed in them. It is a research area that has been around for almost 20 years and has seen a lot of development. The works presented in this paper attempts to target a less-developed area in sentiment analysis known as multilingual sentiment analysis. More specifically, multilingual sentiment analysis of micro-texts. Using the existing WordNet lexicon and a domain-specific lexicon for a corpus of Spanish tweets, we analyze the effectiveness of these techniques.

Overview And Uncertainty Analysis For An Irrigation Flow Measurement Facility, Kyle Feist, Zachary Markow, Stuart Styles

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Accurate flow measurement is critical for modern water resource management. At the irrigation district level, instantaneous flow rates must be well-measured at key bifurcation points to reliably meet downstream demand in open channel systems while also minimizing diversions. Furthermore, good flow measurement at each delivery point is a pre-requisite for successful volumetric water billing. Accuracy and repeatability are important characteristics of good flow measurement. Maximizing these traits requires periodic calibration to a common standard.

This paper presents an overview of calibration efforts and the engineering background behind an active flow measurement facility at the Irrigation Training and Research Center at …

Flow Rate Equation For Suppressed And Submerged Sluice Gates, Charles M. Burt, Albert J. Clemmens, Kyle Fesit

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

In irrigation projects, the control and measurement of flow rates at key bifurcation points is essential. Sluice gates at the heads of irrigation canals are used by operators to control the flow into these canals. In US irrigation districts, canal operators often estimate flow rate at the heads of canals by “experience” unless they have a flume downstream. For example, they may open a gate a certain number of turns for a change in flow rate, regardless of upstream and downstream conditions. Theoretical estimates of discharge are often inaccurate in field situations. Problems include varying and uncertain discharge coefficients, entrance …

Tri-State Mining District, Ecological System, And Human Health: Systematic Literature Review Analysis, Jihyun Jane Min

Posters

Objective: Although extensive research exists on corrosive environments in the Tri-State Mining District (TSMD), there has been a lack of research on how such harmful effects in the TSMD could affect residents living in those areas. However, quite recently, such research regarding relationships between the health conditions of low-income residents and toxic elements in TSDM began to grow. Therefore, the increase of empirical studies means greater complexity of the findings that require a more intricate understanding.

Methods: To meet the necessity of the study, this research was conducted by an extensive systematic review of the literature on the harmful effects …