Engineering Commons^™

Evaluating A Microbial Water Quality Prediction Model For Beach Management Under The Revised Eu Bathing Water Directive, Zeinab Bedri, Aisling Corkery, John O'Sullivan, Louise Deering, Katalin Demeter, Wim Meijer, Gregory O'Hare, Bartholomew Masterson

Articles

The revised Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) requires EU member states to minimise the risk to public health from faecal pollution at bathing waters through improved monitoring and management approaches. While increasingly sophisticated measurement methods (such as microbial source tracking) assist in the management of bathing water resources, the use of deterministic predictive models for this purpose, while having the potential to provide decision making support, remains less common.

This study explores an integrated, deterministic catchment-coastal hydro-environmental model as a decision-making tool for beach management which, based on advance predictions of bathing water quality, can inform beach managers on appropriate management …

Enhanced Cycle Life And Capacity Retention Of Iron Oxide Ultrathin Film Coated Sno₂ Nanoparticles At High Current Densities, Sai Abhishek Palaparty, Rajankumar L. Patel, Xinhua Liang

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Tin oxide (SnO₂) has a high theoretical capacity (∼782 mA h g^-1), but it experiences large volume changes during charge and discharge cycles that cause rapid capacity fade, which limits its practical use as an anode material. In an attempt to solve this, we coated these particles with ultrathin electrochemically active iron oxide (FeO_x) films that act as an artificial solid electrolyte interphase layer, thus stabilizing the SnO₂ particles for better longevity of significantly improved performance at high current densities in a practical voltage window. Since there exists a tradeoff between species transport …

Robust Non-Permanent Magnet Motors For Vehicle Propulsion, Tsarajidy Raminosoa, David A. Torrey, Ayman M. El-Refaie, Di Pan, Stefan Grubic, Kevin Grace

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

There has been growing interest in electrical machines that reduce or eliminate rare-earth material content. Traction applications are among the key applications where reducing cost and hence reduction or elimination of rare-earth materials is a key requirement. This paper will assess the potential of three non-permanent magnet options in the context of vehicle propulsion applications: 1) a conventional Switched Reluctance Machine (SRM), 2) a DC-biased Reluctance Machine (DCRM) and, 3) a Wound Field Flux Switching Machine (WFFSM). The three machines were designed to achieve the hybrid vehicle traction requirements of 55kW peak and 30kW continuous over a speed range going …

Design Of Introspective Circuits For Analysis Of Cell-Level Dis-Orientation In Self-Assembled Cellular Systems, Nicholas J. Macias, Christof Teuscher, Lisa J. K. Durbeck

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper discusses a novel approach to managing complexity in a large self-assembled system, by utilizing the self-assembling components themselves to address the complexity. A particular challenge is discussed – namely the question of how to deal with elements that are assembled in different orientations from each other – and a solution based on the idea ofintrospective circuitry is described. A methodology for using a set of cells to determine a nearby cell’s orientation is given, leading to a slow (O(n)) means of orienting a 2D region of cells. A modified algorithm is then describe …

Zncdmgse As A Materials Platform For Advanced Photonic Devices: Broadband Quantum Cascade Detectors And Green Semiconductor Disk Lasers, Joel De Jesus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ZnCdMgSe family of II-VI materials has unique and promising characteristics that may be useful in practical applications. For example they can be grown lattice matched to InP substrates with lattice matched bandgaps that span from 2.1 to 3.5 eV, they can be successfully doped n-type, have a large conduction band offset (CBO) with no intervalley scattering present when strained, they have lower average phonon energies, and the InP lattice constant lies in the middle of the ZnSe and CdSe binaries compounds giving room to experiment with tensile and compressive stress. However they have not been studied in detail for …

Erratum: "Composition- And Pressure-Induced Ferroelectric To Antiferroelectric Phase Transitions In Sm-Doped Bifeo₃ System" [Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 012903 (2015)], Fei Xue, Linyun Liang, Yijia Gu, Ichiro Takeuchi, Sergei V. Kalinin, Long-Qing Chen

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the acknowledgement of the original article, the Award No. DMR-0820404 should be replaced by DMR-1420620.

Erratum: Orientations Of Low-Energy Domain Walls In Perovskites With Oxygen Octahedral Tilts (Physical Review B - Condensed Matter And Materials Physics (2014) 90 (220101)), Fei Xue, Yijia Gu, Linyun Liang, Yi Wang, Long-Qing Chen

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the Acknowledgment of the original article, the Award No. DMR-0820404 should be replaced by DMR-1420620.

Multi-Decadal Satellite Measurements Of Global Volcanic Degassing, S. A. Carn, L. Clarisse, A. J. Prata

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Satellite instruments have been providing measurements of global volcanic emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) since 1978, based on observations in the ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR) and microwave spectral bands. We review recent advances in satellite remote sensing of volcanic gases, focusing on increased instrument sensitivity to tropospheric SO2 emissions and techniques to determine volcanic plume altitude. A synthesis of ~36 years of global UV, IR and microwave satellite measurements yields an updated assessment of the volcanic SO2 flux to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) between 1978 and 2014 (~1-Tg/yr). The present availability of multiple UV and IR satellite …

Effects Of Intraframe Distortion On Measures Of Cone Mosaic Geometry From Adaptive Optics Scanning Light Ophthalmoscopy, Robert F. Cooper, Yusufu N. Sulai, Adam M. Dubis, Toco Y.P. Chui, Richard B. Rosen, Michel Michaelides, Alfredo Dubra, Joseph Carroll

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose: To characterize the effects of intraframe distortion due to involuntary eye motion on measures of cone mosaic geometry derived from adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscope (AOSLO) images.

Methods: We acquired AOSLO image sequences from 20 subjects at 1.0, 2.0, and 5.08 temporal from fixation. An expert grader manually selected 10 minimally distorted reference frames from each 150-frame sequence for subsequent registration. Cone mosaic geometry was measured in all registered images (n ¼ 600) using multiple metrics, and the repeatability of these metrics was used to assess the impact of the distortions from each reference frame. In nine additional subjects, …

Ambient And Smartphone Sensor Assisted Adl Recognition In Multi-Inhabitant Smart Environments, Nirmalya Roy, Archan Misra, Diane Cook

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Activity recognition in smart environments is an evolving research problem due to the advancement and proliferation of sensing, monitoring and actuation technologies to make it possible for large scale and real deployment. While activities in smart home are interleaved, complex and volatile; the number of inhabitants in the environment is also dynamic. A key challenge in designing robust smart home activity recognition approaches is to exploit the users’ spatiotemporal behavior and location, focus on the availability of multitude of devices capable of providing different dimensions of information and fulfill the underpinning needs for scaling the system beyond a single user …

The Bridge Newsletter Spring 2016, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

The Bridge Newsletter

-Steel Bridge Team qualifies for nationals
-Concrete, reimagined
-Going with the flow
-Remembering Vernon T. Jones

Direct Voltage Measurements Using Bulk Acoustic Waves In Linbo3, Nishant Patel

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Accurate (< 1%) direct measurement of high voltage pulse amplitudes above 10 kilovolts becomes challenging due to voltage breakdown limitations in materials, parasitic impedance effects that can distort the pulse shape, and pickup of extraneous signals resulting from electromagnetic interference effects. A piezoelectric crystal-based bulk acoustic wave sensor using lithium niobate (LiNbO3) that has applications to metrology, research, and power metering was developed to overcome these measurement issues with the factors of scalability, ease of use, and compactness in mind. A Y+36° cut LiNbO3crystal was coupled to two acoustic transducers, where direct current (DC) voltages ranging from 128—1100\u2009V were applied transversely to the crystal. An acoustic wave was used to interrogate the crystal before, during, and after voltage application. Both single and multiple pass measurements were performed and compared to linear piezoelectric theory. A comparison study between Y+36° and 0° X-cut LiNbO3 was performed to evaluate the influence of crystal cut on acoustic propagation. The study was extended to applying alternating current (AC), and pulsed voltages. The measured DC data was compared to a 1-D impedance matrix model that was based on a three port circuit with voltage-induced strain effects inputted as a model parameter. An uncertainty budget was carried out for both crystal cuts and compared. Environmental effects such as pressure and temperature were also measured to determine their influence on the sensor under ambient conditions. Published literature regarding material constants, such as elastic constants and piezoelectric constants, for LiNbO3 do not account for the influence of an electric field. In light of this, measurements of the acoustic velocities and material constants under the presence of a DC electric field were performed up to 896 V. This information was used to develop an uncertainty analysis for the determination of stress-charge form piezoelectric constants e15 and e22. All measured and calculated values were input into a Monte Carlo simulation to determine the error of the strain-charge form piezoelectric constants, dij, and how these new values can be used to predict the voltage sensor response.

Analytical Modeling Of Rutting Potential Of Asphalt Mixes Using Hamburg Wheel Tracking Device, Matias Mario Mendez Larrain

Civil Engineering ETDs

Asphalt Concrete (AC) is susceptible to permanent deformation under traffic loading which is affected by AC temperature, mixture type, gradation, aggregate type, binder type and so on. There is no complete research in the literature which examined all these factors at the same time. This study evaluated the above mentioned factors in the deformation behavior of AC. Thin AC cylindrical samples were prepared using 20 different AC mixtures collected from different construction sites in New Mexico (NM). As a first step, effects of test temperatures, type of aggregate, binder grade, type of mixture and gradation on the permanent deformation of …

Characterization Of Silica-Based And Borate-Based, Titanium-Containing Bioactive Glasses For Coating Metallic Implants, Omar Rodriguez, Declan J. Curran, Marcello Papini, Lana M. Placek, Anthony W. Wren, Emil H. Schemitsch, Paul Zalzal, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Bioactive glasses have found applications in diverse fields, including orthopedics and dentistry, where they have been utilized for the fixation of bone and teeth and as scaffolds for drug delivery. The present work outlines the characterization of two novel titanium-containing glass series, one silica-based and one borate-based. For the silica-based series, titanium is added at the expense of silicon dioxide whereas for the borate-based series, it is added at the expense of boron oxide as confirmed by Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy. Amorphous structures are obtained for silica-based glass at 15 mol% TiO₂ and for borate-based glasses at 0 mol% and …

Hsr: L 1/2-Regularized Sparse Representation For Fast Face Recognition Using Hierarchical Feature Selection, Bo Han, Bo He, Tingting Sun, Tianhong Yan, Mengmeng Ma, Yue Shen, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In This Paper, We Propose a Novel Method for Fast Face Recognition Called L1/2-Regularized Sparse Representation using Hierarchical Feature Selection. by Employing Hierarchical Feature Selection, We Can Compress the Scale and Dimension of Global Dictionary, Which Directly Contributes to the Decrease of Computational Cost in Sparse Representation that Our Approach is Strongly Rooted In. It Consists of Gabor Wavelets and Extreme Learning Machine Auto-Encoder (Elm-Ae) Hierarchically. for Gabor Wavelets' Part, Local Features Can Be Extracted at Multiple Scales and Orientations to Form Gabor-Feature-Based Image, Which in Turn Improves the Recognition Rate. Besides, in the Presence of Occluded Face Image, the …

Composition And Manufacturing Effects On Electrical Properties Of Li/Fes2 Thermal Battery Cathodes, Emilee Lolita Reinholz

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Li/FeS2 thermal batteries provide a stable, robust, and reliable power source capable of long-term electrical energy storage without performance degradation. These systems rely on a eutectic salt that melts at elevated temperature, activating the cell. When the electrolyte melts, the cathode becomes a suspension, with cathode particles suspended in a molten salt. The suspension experiences mechanical deformation, or slumping.' This slump changes the mechanical compression of the cell, as well as the tortuosity and electronic and ionic conductivity of the cell as the cathode mesostructure is reordered in response to the external compressive stress. The combined effect of deformation, component …

Sensitivity Of Distress Rate To Observed Distress Levels, David R. Barboza

Civil Engineering ETDs

The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) uses a composite pavement condition index to identify and rank roads for budgeting and scheduling repairs. NMDOT uses an index number called the Pavement Serviceability Index or PSI. A key component of this index number is the Distress Rate (DR) which is comprised of pavement distress severities and extents with a weighting factor assigned for each distress. Until 2013, NMDOT conducted pavement evaluations manually and in 2012 revised how pavement distress data were collected and evaluated. The two pavement distress collection procedures that were altered the most were for transverse cracking and alligator …

Significance Of U-Wrap Frp Shear Strengthening On Flexural Behavior Of Rc Beams Strengthened Using Near Surface Mounted Frp Bars, Rahulreddy Chennareddy

Civil Engineering ETDs

The aim of this study is to investigate the significance of U-wrap shear strengthening on the flexural behavior of Near Surface Mounted (NSM) Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) strengthened Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams. It is well-known that the performance of NSM-FRP technique is strongly dependent on bond performance between adhesive-concrete and adhesive-FRP interface. Although a full development length is provided for the NSM FRP bar, rupture of the FRP bar is highly unlikely. This is attributed to the fact that the NSM FRP bar typically observes a stress level lower than 60% of its ultimate capacity at RC beam failure by …

The State-Based Peridynamic Lattice Model And Reinforced Concrete Structures, Seth Mcvey

Civil Engineering ETDs

Continuum mechanics is the leading tool used in computational solid mechanics. Continuum mechanics, however, assumes a materials body to be continuous, represented by analytical functions. This assumption is unrealistic for reinforced concrete structures, which become discontinuous as cracks form. Silling has proposed a nonlocal theory called peridynamics and Gerstle has specialized his idea to develop the state-based peridynamic lattice model (SPLM). The SPLM sufficiently models nonlinear deformation fields using an organized lattice, force states, and stretches. In this thesis, we use, develop, and modify the SPLM to model reinforced concrete structures. We use the SPLM to predict the strength of …

Theory, Fabrication, And Experimentation Of Phononic Crystals In Mems At Micro/Nano Scale: Engineering Of Thermal And Rf Phonons To Applications In Thermoelectrics And Microresonators, Seyedhamidreza Alaie

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Phononic Crystals (PnCs) are novel materials comprised of a periodic structure of inclusions in a matrix. This periodic arrangement creates phononic bandgaps, and modifies phononic bandstructures of a material. Such a property offers promising applications at the micro and nano scales to engineer acoustic filters, high Q-factor resonators, and thermoelectric properties of materials. Studying PnCs at the micro/nano scale requires specific characterization techniques, which rely on Micro Electro Mechanical Structures (MEMS). This work focuses on the study, and characterization of PnCs using MEMS in view of their prospective applications in thermoelectric materials, microresonators and acoustic filters, and also the prospective …

Shortest Path Based Decision Making Using Probabilistic Inference, Akshat Kumar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present a new perspective on the classical shortest path routing (SPR) problem in graphs. We show that the SPR problem can be recast to that of probabilistic inference in a mixture of simple Bayesian networks. Maximizing the likelihood in this mixture becomes equivalent to solving the SPR problem. We develop the well known Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for the SPR problem that maximizes the likelihood, and show that it does not get stuck in a locally optimal solution. Using the same probabilistic framework, we then address an NP-Hard network design problem where the goal is to repair a network of …

Electrodeposition Of High Magnetostrictive Cobalt Iron Alloy Films For Smart Tags And Sensor Applications, Jamin Pillars

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Magnetostrictive CoFe films were investigated for use as magnetoelastic tags or sensors. The ability to electrodeposit these films enables batch fabrication processes to pattern a variety of geometries while controlling the film stoichiometry and crystallography. In current research looking at CoFe, improved magnetostriction was achieved using a co-sputtering, annealing, and quenching method1. Other current research has reported electrodeposited CoFe films using a sulfate based chemistry resulting in film compositions that are Fe rich in the range of Co0.3-0.4Fe0.7-0.6 and have problems of co-deposition of undesirables that can have a negative impact on magnetic properties2, 3. The research presented here focused …

A Study Of Asphalt Aging Behavior Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Jielin Pan

Civil Engineering ETDs

Oxidative aging is a major issue in asphalt pavements that leads to hardening of the asphalt, which further contributes significantly to asphalt pavement embrittlement and eventually results in excessive pavement cracking. In addition, the performance of asphalt binder is also highly related to its service conditions which involve climatic conditions and traffic conditions, such as temperature, moisture and traffic loads. Generally, the mechanical properties of asphalt before and after oxidative aging can be tested in the laboratory; however, the fundamental material science of asphalt before and after oxidative aging is difficult to be investigated in the laboratory regarding chemical composition …

Data-Driven Bayesian Method-Based Traffic Crash Driver Injury Severity Formulation, Analysis, And Inference, Cong Chen

Civil Engineering ETDs

Traffic crashes have resulted in significant cost to society in terms of life and economic losses, and comprehensive examination of crash injury outcome patterns is of practical importance. By inferring the parameters of interest from prior information and studied datasets, Bayesian models are efficient methods in data analysis with more accurate results, but their applications in traffic safety studies are still limited. By examining the driver injury severity patterns, this research is proposed to systematically examine the applicability of Bayesian methods in traffic crash driver injury severity prediction in traffic crashes. In this study, three types of Bayesian models are …

Taxonomy Of Pathways To Dangerous Artificial Intelligence, Roman V. Yampolskiy

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In order to properly handle a dangerous Artificially Intelligent (AI) system it is important to understand how the system came to be in such a state. In popular culture (science fiction movies/books) AIs/Robots became self-aware and as a result rebel against humanity and decide to destroy it. While it is one possible scenario, it is probably the least likely path to appearance of dangerous AI. In this work, we survey, classify and analyze a number of circumstances, which might lead to arrival of malicious AI. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to systematically classify types …

Evaluation Of Nitrous Acid Sources And Sinks In Urban Outflow, Elliott T. Gall, Robert J. Griffin, Allison L. Steiner, Jack Dibb, Eric Scheuer, Longwen Gong, Andrew P. Rutter, Basak K. Cevik, Saewung Kim, Barry Lefer, James Flynn

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Intensive air quality measurements made from June 22–25, 2011 in the outflow of the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) metropolitan area are used to evaluate nitrous acid (HONO) sources and sinks. A two-layer box model was developed to assess the ability of established and recently identified HONO sources and sinks to reproduce observations of HONO mixing ratios. A baseline model scenario includes sources and sinks established in the literature and is compared to scenarios including three recently identified sources: volatile organic compound-mediated conversion of nitric acid to HONO (S1), biotic emission from the ground (S2), and re-emission from a surface nitrite reservoir …

Online Chemical Sensor Signal Processing Using Estimation Theory: Quantification Of Binary Mixtures Of Organic Compounds In The Presence Of Linear Baseline Drift And Outliers, Karthick Sothivelr, Florian Bender, Fabien Josse, Edwin E. Yaz, Antonio J. Ricco, Mary E. Mohler

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Compact sensor systems for on-site monitoring of groundwater for trace organic compounds in the liquid phase are currently under development in our laboratories. Potential challenges include sensor baseline drift and the presence of outliers in the data, along with difficulties extracting the contribution of individual BTEX compound (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) from the sensor response to mixtures containing multiple chemically similar compounds. As a first step, the approach presented here permits online estimation of analyte concentrations in binary mixtures of BTEX compounds in the presence of linear baseline drift and outliers. This paper investigates a sensor signal-processing approach based …

A Ridge-Fed Conical Horn Antenna For Small Satellites, Arjun Gupta

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The increased popularity of small satellites such as CubeSats as an alternative vehicle for efficient and low cost space exploration has revolutionized the space research industry. The small physical size and other constraints owing to outer space applications has presented a myriad of exciting opportunities for antenna engineers to come up with alternative solutions to meet the ever evolving needs of the CubeSat applications. The advancement of technology has enabled small satellites to carry out sophisticated missions such as space weather monitoring, space telescopes, imaging and relaying of information from distant satellites. Advanced applications require a high speed downlink with …

Acoustic Sequences In Non-Human Animals: A Tutorial Review And Prospectus, Arik Kershenbaum, Daniel T. Blumstein, Marie A. Roch, Çağlar Akçay, Gregory Backus, Mark A. Bee, Kirsten Bohn, Yan Cao, Gerald Carter, Cristiane Cäsar, Michael Coen, Stacy L. Deruiter, Laurance Doyle, Shimon Edelman, Ramon Ferreri Cancho, Todd M. Freeberg, Ellen C. Garland, Morgan Gustison, Heidi E. Harley, Chloé Huetz, Melissa Hughes, Julia Hyland Bruno, Amiyaal Ilany, Dezhe Z. Jin, Michael T. Johnson, Chenghui Ju, Jeremy Karnowski, Bernard Lohr, Marta B. Manser, Brenda Mccowan, Eduardo Mercado Iii, Peter M. Narins, Alex Piel, Megan Rice, Roberta Salmi, Kazutoshi Sasahara, Laela Sayigh, Yu Shiu, Charles Taylor, Edgar E. Vallejo, Sara Waller, Veronica Zamora Gutierrez

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Animal acoustic communication often takes the form of complex sequences, made up of multiple distinct acoustic units. Apart from the well-known example of birdsong, other animals such as insects, amphibians, and mammals (including bats, rodents, primates, and cetaceans) also generate complex acoustic sequences. Occasionally, such as with birdsong, the adaptive role of these sequences seems clear (e.g. mate attraction and territorial defence). More often however, researchers have only begun to characterise – let alone understand – the significance and meaning of acoustic sequences. Hypotheses abound, but there is little agreement as to how sequences should be defined and analysed. Our …

Magnetic Switches As Active Device Replacements For Harsh Environments, Joshua A. Gilbrech

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis explores the use of the archetypical pulsed power magnetic switching devices in alternative and novel methods. The primary motivator for investigating these applications are for the purpose of simplifying electrohydraulic drill and electrocrushing designs meant for extreme environment operation, outside of the normal operating parameters of most switching technologies available to the modern electrical engineer. Since the nonlinear behavior of saturating magnetics allows a switch type action, a diode like behavior, and a delay type behavior, a number of architectures can be constructed from extremely robust and simplistic designs. A number of these designs were simulated, built, and …