Engineering Commons^™

Battle Of The Blooms | Sustainable Waste-To-Bioproducts Engineering Center, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Harmful algal blooms or HABs for short are a growing problem in the United States and many parts of the world.

Prevalence Of Infection-Competent Serogroup 6 Legionella Pneumophila Within Premise Plumbing In Southeast Michigan, Brenda G. Byrne, Sarah Mccolm, Shawn P. Mcelmurry, Paul E. Kilgore, Joanne Sobeck, Rick Sadler, Nancy G. Love, Michele S. Swanson

Department of Pharmacy Practice

Coinciding with major changes to its municipal water system, Flint, MI, endured Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks in 2014 and 2015. By sampling premise plumbing in Flint in the fall of 2016, we found that 12% of homes harbored legionellae, a frequency similar to that in residences in neighboring areas. To evaluate the genetic diversity of Legionella pneumophila in Southeast Michigan, we determined the sequence type (ST) and serogroup (SG) of the 18 residential isolates from Flint and Detroit, MI, and the 33 clinical isolates submitted by hospitals in three area counties in 2013 to 2016. Common to one environmental and four …

Characterization Of Wellbore Microannuli, Serafin Garcia Fernandez

Civil Engineering ETDs

Wellbore integrity is a principal concern for the safe and efficient underground storage of hydrocarbons, disposal of various wastes and in oil and gas production. Poor wellbore integrity can lead to leakage and loss of extracted or stored material, and the potential for contamination of groundwater. The microannuli, which is the space between the steel casing and the cement sheath has been identified as a common and critical leakage pathway. There are no data of the actual size or character of microannuli; however, it is possible to estimate the hydraulic aperture of the microannulus from flow measurements at the wellhead. …

No-Releasing Polymers And Uses Thereof, Megan C. Frost, Genevieve Romanowicz

Michigan Tech Patents

The present invention provides stable, photosensitive polymers that release NO response to intensity and wavelength of light, methods of making such polymers and methods using such polymers.

Base Pressure Control Using Micro-Jets In Supersonic Flow Regimes, Vigneshvaran Sethuraman, Sher Afghan Khan

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Base pressure plays a vital role in aerospace-related applications and its control is essential in reduction of drag and improving fuel consumption. Low pressure at the base of Rockets, Missiles, bombs and shells are a very common problem happening at transonic and supersonic speeds. In most of the cases there is a significant dip in pressure at the base region which will have implications on the design of aerospace vehicles. This paper presents an experimental investigation carried out for flow control at supersonic regimes. Experiments were conducted to measure the base pressure in the base region and wall pressure distribution …

Mechanical And Geometrical Determinants Of Wall Stress In Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: A Computational Study, Dara Azar, Donya Ohadi, Alexander Rachev, John F. Eberth, Mark J. Uline, Tarek Shazly

Faculty Publications

An aortic aneurysm (AA) is a focal dilatation of the aortic wall. Occurrence of AA rupture is an all too common event that is associated with high levels of patient morbidity and mortality. The decision to surgically intervene prior to AA rupture is made with recognition of significant procedural risks, and is primarily based on the maximal diameter and/or growth rate of the AA. Despite established thresholds for intervention, rupture occurs in a notable subset of patients exhibiting sub-critical maximal diameters and/or growth rates. Therefore, a pressing need remains to identify better predictors of rupture risk and ultimately integrate their …

Monte Carlo Simulations Of Three-Dimensional Electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-Model Sources, Milo W. Hyde Iv, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Olga Korotkova

Faculty Publications

This article presents a method to simulate a three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic Gaussian-Schell model (EGSM) source with desired characteristics. Using the complex screen method, originally developed for the synthesis of two-dimensional stochastic electromagnetic fields, a set of equations is derived which relate the desired 3D source characteristics to those of the statistics of the random complex screen. From these equations and the 3D EGSM source realizability conditions, a single criterion is derived, which when satisfied guarantees both the realizability and simulatability of the desired 3D EGSM source. Lastly, a 3D EGSM source, with specified properties, is simulated; the Monte Carlo simulation …

H.264 Video Decoder Implemented On Fpgas Using 3×3 And 2×2 Networks-On-Chip, Ian Barge, Cristinel Ababei

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, we present the design and verification of the H.264 video decoder algorithm on FPGAs. The primary difference compared to previously reported designs is that the communication between the decoder modules is done via a network-on-chip in our case. The proposed design is a complete system level hardware design described in VHDL and Verilog. We report experimental results for two different implementations. The first implementation uses a 3×3 network-on-chip and is validated on the DE4 development board, which uses Altera's Stratix IV GX FPGA chip. The second implementation uses a 2×2 network-on-chip and is validated on the Cyclone …

In Situ Uv-Visible Assessment Of Iron-Based High-Temperature Water-Gas Shift Catalysts Promoted With Lanthana: An Extent Of Reduction Study, Basseem B. Hallac, Jared C. Brown, Eli Stavitski, Roger G. Harrison, Morris D. Argyle

Faculty Publications

The extent of reduction of unsupported iron-based high-temperature water-gas shift catalysts with small (< 5 wt %) lanthana contents was studied using UV-visible spectroscopy. Temperature- programmed reduction measurements showed that lanthana content higher than 0.5 wt % increased the extent of reduction to metallic Fe, while 0.5 wt % of lanthana facilitated the reduction to Fe₃O₄. In situ measurements on the iron oxide catalysts using mass and UV-visible spectroscopies permitted the quantification of the extent of reduction under temperature-programmed reduction and high-temperature water-gas shift conditions. The oxidation states were successfully calibrated against normalized absorbance spectra of visible light using the Kubelka-Munk theory. The normalized absorbance relative to the fully oxidized Fe₂O₃ increased as the extent of reduction increased. XANES suggested that the average bulk iron oxidation state during the water-gas shift reaction was Fe^{+2.57 …}

A Constellation Of Cubesats For The Measurement Of Thermospheric Density, Kimberly Wright, James Flynn, Susannah Miller

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The ODU CubeSat is part of a multi-university collaborative project that aims to build a constellation of three small satellites that are shaped in the form of a cube with dimensions of 10 x 10 x 10 cm and will be deployed into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to study phenomena that influence the varying thermosphere density. Variations in the density of the thermosphere fluctuate due to seasonal differences, changes in solar activity, solar radiation, and geomagnetic variations, along with temperature and altitude. These factors lead to uncertainties in current atmospheric drag models, which are a major source of error in …

Stabilization Of Lead (Pb) And Zinc (Zn) In Contaminated Rice Paddy Soil Using Starfish: A Preliminary Study, Deok Hyun Moon, Inseong Hwang, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Kyung Hoon Cheong, Yong Sik Ok, Won Hyun Ji, Jeong Hun Park

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) contaminated rice paddy soil was stabilized using natural (NSF) and calcined starfish (CSF). Contaminated soil was treated with NSF in the range of 0-10 wt.% and CSF in the range of 0-5 wt.% and cured for 28 days. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) test was used to evaluate effectiveness of starfish treatment. Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analyses were conducted to investigate the mechanism responsible for effective immobilization of Pb and Zn. Experimental results suggest that NSF and CSF treatments effectively immobilize Pb and Zn in treated rice paddy soil. TCLP levels for …

Evaluation Of Route Changes Utilizing High-Resolution Gps Bus Transit Data, Travis Bradley Glick

PSU Transportation Seminars

Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence operating costs and service attractiveness. This research uses high resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. A set of tools was created to help visualize trends in bus behavior and movement; this allowed larger traffic trends to be visualized along urban corridors and urban streets. By using buses as probes and examining aggregated bus behavior, contoured speed plots can be used to understand the behavior of roadways outside the zone of influence of bus stops. Speed plots can be utilized to discover trends and travel patterns with …

Piezocone Penetration Testing Device, Chung R. Song, Benyam M. Bekele, Brian Sawyer

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Hydraulic characteristics of soils can be estimated from piezocone penetration test (called PCPT

hereinafter) by performing dissipation test or on-the-fly using advanced analytical techniques. This

research report presents a method for fast estimation of hydraulic conductivity of overconsolidated soils

based on the piezocone penetration test. The method relies on an existing relationship developed for the

determination of hydraulic conductivity of normally consolidated soils on-the-fly. The present research

revises this relationship so that it can be applied for overconsolidated soils by incorporating a proper

correction equation. The revised relationship provides a pore pressure representing the hydraulic

conductivity of a hypothetical “equivalent …

Patent Keyword Extraction Algorithm Based On Distributed Representation For Patent Classification, Jie Hu, Shaobo Li, Yong Yao, Liya Yu, Guanci Yang, Jianjun Hu

Faculty Publications

Many text mining tasks such as text retrieval, text summarization, and text comparisons depend on the extraction of representative keywords from the main text. Most existing keyword extraction algorithms are based on discrete bag-of-words type of word representation of the text. In this paper, we propose a patent keyword extraction algorithm (PKEA) based on the distributed Skip-gram model for patent classification. We also develop a set of quantitative performance measures for keyword extraction evaluation based on information gain and cross-validation, based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification, which are valuable when human-annotated keywords are not available. We used a standard …

A Method For Characterizing Essential Tremor From The Shoulder To The Wrist, Daniel W. Geiger, Dennis Eggett, Steven K. Charles

Faculty Publications

Background

Despite the pervasive and devastating effect of Essential Tremor (ET), the distribution of ET throughout the upper limb is unknown. We developed a method for characterizing the distribution of ET and performed a preliminary characterization in a small number of subjects with ET.

Methods

Using orientation sensors and inverse kinematics, we measured tremor in each of the seven major degrees of freedom (DOF) from the shoulder to the wrist while ten patients with mild ET assumed 16 different postures. We described the tremor in each DOF in terms of power spectral density measures and investigated how tremor varied between …

Aerobic Method For The Synthesis Of Nearly Size-Monodisperse Bismuth Nanoparticles From A Redox Non-Innocent Precursor, Hayden Winter, Elena Christopher-Allison, Anna L. Brown, Andrea M. Goforth

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Herein, we report an aerobic synthesis method to produce bismuth nanoparticles (Bi NPs) with average diameters in the range 40-80 nm using commercially available bismuth triiodide (BiI₃) as starting material; the method uses only readily available chemicals and conventional laboratory equipment. Furthermore, size data from replicates of the synthesis under standard reaction conditions indicate that this method is highly reproducible in achieving Bi NP populations with low standard deviations in the mean diameters. We also investigated the mechanism of the reaction, which we determined results from the reduction of a soluble alkylammonium iodobismuthate precursor species formed in situ …

Thermal Analysis Of Cold-Formed Steel Wall Assemblies, American Iron And Steel Institute

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

For building envelope assemblies, thermal bridging through conductive components can greatly reduce the overall thermal resistance of that assembly. Steel stud assemblies are particularly susceptible to thermal bridging due to the high thermal conductivity of the steel components. Being able to accurately capture these impacts can provide designers with more realistic information to drive better design decisions in regards to building thermal performance and building energy use.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) is developing a simplified calculation methodology for determining the thermal performance of generic steel stud assemblies that includes the impacts of thermal bridging. While hot-box testing …

Montana Tech's Underground Mine Education Center, Scott Rosenthal, Pete Knudsen

Mining Engineering

SME Annual Meeting, Feb. 24-27, 2018, Denver, CO. Preprint 19-057.

Discusses development and use of the Montana Tech Underground Mine Education Center (UMEC).

The Santa Clara, 2018-02-01, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Illuminator, Volume 1, Issue 5, Batten College Of Engineering & Technology, Old Dominion University

College of Engineering & Technology Newsletter

February 2018 issue of Illuminator, a monthly publication of ODU's Batten College of Engineering and Technology.

An Uncertainty-Aware Workflow For Keyhole Surgery Planning Using Hierarchical Image Semantics, Christina Gillmann, Robin G.C. Maack, Tobias Post, Thomas Wischgoll, Hans Hagen

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Keyhole surgeries become increasingly important in clinical daily routine as they help minimizing the damage of a patient's healthy tissue. The planning of keyhole surgeries is based on medical imaging and an important factor that influences the surgeries' success. Due to the image reconstruction process, medical image data contains uncertainty that exacerbates the planning of a keyhole surgery. In this paper we present a visual workfiow that helps clinicians to examine and compare different surgery paths as well as visualizing the patients' affected tissue. The analysis is based on the concept of hierarchical image semantics, that segment the underlying image …

The Development Of A Learning Dashboard For Lecturers: A Case Study On A Student-Centered E-Learning Environment, Harry B. Santoso, Alivia Khaira Batuparan, R. Yugo K. Isal, Wade H. Goodridge

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Student Centered e-Learning Environment (SCELE) is a Moodle-based learning management system (LMS) that has been modified to enhance learning within a computer science department curriculum offered by the Faculty of Computer Science of large public university in Indonesia. This Moodle provided a mechanism to record students’ activities when engaged in learning with e-Learning software. However, while the software captured the data and presented it adequately, there is room for enhancement and further refinement. The purpose of this research is to investigate and understand lecturer needs as they monitor student activities in SCELE and then develop a learning monitoring tool capable …

Electro-Kinetic Remediation Processes -- A Brief Overview And Selected Applications, Chandra Mouli Tummala, Sanjay Tewari

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this growing world the need for in-situ remediation has grown importance for various reasons. In-situ remediation is the application of remediation in the subsurface – as compared to ex-situ remediation, which applies to media readily accessible above ground and many times involves excavation and disruption of the soil. In-situ remediation may be applied in the unsaturated/vadoze zone or in saturated soils and groundwater. Anthropogenic activities (municipal and industrial) have resulted in contamination in subsurface soil/water environment. There are several in-situ remediation methods for example bio-remediation, thermal desorption, soil vapor extraction, and soil flushing just to name a few.

The …

Students' And Instructor's Perspective On The Use Of Blackboard Platform For Delivering An Engineering Course, Jacek Uziak, M. Tunde Oladiran, Edmund Lorencowicz, Kurt Becker

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The use of Information Technology (IT) has been growing over the years in various human endeavours. It has also been adopted in education sector for teaching and learning. Various studies have been conducted to assess the effectiveness and acceptance of e-learning strategy by students. In particular, the current research is an attempt to obtain students’ and instructor’s perspective on the use of Blackboard software. The technology is a course management system used in a blended learning mode to deliver a third year mechanical engineering course at the University of Botswana (UB). In terms of students’ views, the study covered a …

Accelerating The Implementation Of Secondary Water Metering In Utah, Western Resource Advocates

All In-stream Flows Material

Utah is one of the fastest-growing states in the US, ⁱ and among the most arid. Water conservation has been identified by the state and many local communities as a key strategy for managing water supplies under these conditions. ⁱⁱ

Inspire E-News 02 2018, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences News

• WMU's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences is celebrating Pi Day 2018
• WMU researcher finds a way to repair heart defects using 3D printing
• The Funny Side of Engineering
• College will celebrate National Engineers Week 2018
• State of the college presented at February meeting
• Golden Opportunity - Tonya Noble returns to college to speak at event
• The Next Generation of Paper Makers

Condensation And Subsequent Freezing Delays As A Result Of Using Femtosecond Laser Functionalized Surfaces, Chongji Huang, Ryan Bell, Alfred Tsubaki, Craig Zuhlke, Dennis Alexander

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this paper, the authors report on the use of femtosecond laser surface processing (FLSP) to enhance the anti-icing properties of a commonly used aircraft alloy, Al 7075-O Clad. By changing the surface morphology through FLSP and the surface chemistry through siloxane vapor deposition, the wettability of Al 7075-O Clad was altered. Tall mound and short mound FLSP functionalized surfaces were created through two sets of laser parameters. Condensation and the subsequent freezing of condensates on FLSP Al 7075-O Clad was studied. Both structure height and surface wettability were shown to play a role in the delay of freezing. Freezing …

Future Hydrological Alterations In The Mekong Delta Under The Impact Of Water Resources Development, Land Subsidence And Sea Level Rise, Thanh Duc Dang, Thomas A. Cochrane, Mauricio E. Arias, Van Pham Dang Tri

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Study Region: The Mekong floodplains and delta are among the most agriculturally productive and biologically diverse waterscapes of the world, but sea level rise, land subsidence, and the proposed upstream development of over 126 hydropower dams and extensive delta-based water infrastructure have raised concern due to potential impacts on the hydrology of the region.

Study Focus: This study aims to quantify the effects of water infrastructure development, land subsidence and sea level rise on hydrological regimes of the Mekong floodplains and delta through the development and application of a hydrodynamic model.

New Hydrological Insights for the Region: Depending on hydrological …

An Airplane-Helicopter Hybrid Called Racer Is A New Convertiplane Design From Airbus, Nihad E. Daidzic

Aviation Department Publications

Airbus recently unveiled an airplane-hybrid design named Rapid and Cost Efficient Rotorcraft (RACER)...I'll explore the aerodynamics that make such a design possible.

Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers And Scientists Association (Oceesa) Report, Special Issue, February 2018, Jim Ho, Jacqueline Huang, Jolynn Huang, Yung-Tse Hung, Nancy Riley, Alina Waring

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (OCEESA) report is Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (OCEESA) Journal, Volume 35, Number S1, February 2018. This special issue of OCEESA Journal (Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association Journal) is dedicated to the memory of Professor Ju-Chang Howard Huang 黄汝常教授. This issue includes OCEESA Profile, 2018 OCEESA Officers and Board of Directors. This issue also includes: (1) Forewords of Special Issue, Dedicated to Memory of Prof. Ju-Chang Howard Huang, by Yung-Tse Hung; (2) Obituary of Professor Ju-Chang Howard Huang; (3) Biography of Professor Ju-Chang …