Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Purification Of A Recombinant Heavy Chain Fragment C Vaccine Candidate Against Botulinum Serotype C Neurotoxin [Rbontc(HC)] Expressed In Pichia Pastoris, Michael P. Dux, Jicai Huang, Rick Barent, Mehmet Inan, S. Todd Swanson, Jayanta Sinha, John T. Ross, Leonard A. Smith, Theresa J. Smith, Ian Henderson, Michael M. Meagher

United States Army: Publications

A purification process for the manufacture of a recombinant C-terminus heavy chain fragment from botulinum neurotoxin serotype C [rBoNTC(H_c)], a potential vaccine candidate, has been defined and successfully scaled-up. The rBoNTC(H_c) was produced intracellularly in Pichia pastoris X-33 using a three step fermentation process, i.e., glycerol batch phase, a glycerol fed-batch phase to achieve high cell densities, followed by a methanol induction phase. The rBoNTC(H_c) was captured from the soluble protein fraction of cell lysate using hydrophobic charge induction chromatography (HCIC; MEP HyperCel™), and then further purified using a CM 650M ion exchange chromatography …

The Role Of Conflict Management On Virtual Team Performance And Satisfaction, Pilar Pazos, Anil Ustun, Rolando Delaguila

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The role that input factors from project planning processes play on conflict emergence and conflict resolution in virtual teams is not well understood. Of particular interest for this paper is the role that factors during planning stages play in preventing interpersonal conflict, supporting conflict resolution and ultimately enhancing team outcomes in virtual team settings. This study examines the relationships among commitment to team goals, conflict management and team outcomes in virtual teams. First we provide an in depth review of relevant empirical findings. Next, we describe a study examining the relationships between three sets of variables: 1) goal commitment, 2) …

Adaptive Reconfiguration Of Complex System Architecture, Khaled Haris, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, an approach for adaptive reconfiguration of architecture of a complex system using computational intelligence techniques is proposed. This paper establishes that the simulated change in the relative importance of rules reflecting the significance of customer's key performance attributes could be used to affect architectural evolution. the proposed approach was demonstrated on a sample system. It was also extended to a general system. the evolving system architecture gave the system an adaptive feature in the sense that it accepted alternative components based on the simulated changes in the environment. Architecture alternatives were generated through genetic algorithms (GA), while …

Sysml Profiling For Handling Army Base Camp Planning, Dustin Nottage, Steven Corns

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Army base camp planning is a complicated process involving many variables and optional facilities. the facilities can also vary in size and resource utilization depending on permanency of the base, local resources, and population on the base. Each level of facility is modeled and placed into a library database. All of these facilities must be distinguishable for planners to come in and export the correct facility based on the mission. the first method involves separating the different levels into packages so just the package could be exported. the issue is not all facilities will fit correctly. the second method is …

Approximate Policy Iteration For Semi-Markov Control Revisited, Abhijit Gosavi

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The semi-Markov decision process can be solved via reinforcement learning without generating its transition model. We briefly review the existing algorithms based on approximate policy iteration (API) for solving this problem for discounted and average reward under the infinite horizon. API techniques have attracted significant interest in the literature recently. We first present and analyze an extension of an existing API algorithm for discounted reward that can handle continuous reward rates. Then, we also consider its average reward counterpart, which requires an updating based on the stochastic shortest path (SSP). We study the convergence properties of the algorithm that does …

Cognition Evolutionary Computation For System-Of-Systems Architecture Development, Feng Yang, Cihan Dagli, Weiping Wang

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The evolving nature of system-of-systems requirements and corresponding architecture, and the complex causal relationship between the architecture of system-of-systems and its emergent behavior make the problem of system-of-systems architecture development a great challenge. as a tentative effort in meeting this special challenge, a new evolutionary computation paradigm- named Cognition Evolutionary Computation(CEC) is proposed, which models the creative cognition process of divergent and convergent thinking, adaptation and innovation, that drives the co-evolution of problem space, knowledge space and solution space. the optimization algorithm for CEC uses causal probabilistic network as the knowledge representation mechanism. a theoretical framework for CEC based system-of-system …

Local Linear Regression For Soft-Sensor Design With Application To An Industrial Deethanizer, Zhanxing Zhu, Francesco Corona, Amaury Lendasse, Roberto Baratti, Jose A. Romagnoli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Soft-Sensors for Estimating in Real-Time Important Quality Variables Are a Key Technology in Modern Process Industry. the Successful Development of a Soft-Sensor Whose Performance Does Not Deteriorate with Time and Changing Process Characteristics is Troublesome and Only Seldom Achieved in Real-World Setups. the Design of Soft-Sensors based on Local Regression Models is Becoming Popular. Simplicity of Calibration, Ability to Handle Nonlinearities And, Most Importantly, Reduced Maintenance Costs While Retaining the Requested Accuracy Are the Major Assets. in This Paper, We Introduce Several Approaches for Defining an Appropriate Locality Neighborhood and We Propose a Recursive Version of Local Linear Regression for …

Process Modeling System For Press Cure, Closed-Cavity Tooled Thick Composites, Arven H. Saunders

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Thick structural composite parts often use press curing with closed-cavity tooling for achieving dimensional tolerances. A commonly encountered defect for these parts is fiber waviness, whick limits its structural strength. The yield for such parts often suffers due to trial and error methods used to develop successful cure processes. In addition, yield for these parts suffers due to material variation. The objectives of this research were to: develop and validate a simplified yet practical cure process model for press cured thick composite parts, utilize the model in order to seek time-efficient optimized cure processes, investigate the effects of material variation …

Design Of The Layout Of A Manufacturing Facility With A Closed Loop Conveyor With Shortcuts Using Queueing Theory And Genetic Algorithms, Vernet Michael Lasrado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the ongoing technology battles and price wars in today's competitive economy, every company is looking for an advantage over its peers. A particular choice of facility layout can have a significant impact on the ability of a company to maintain lower operational expenses under uncertain economic conditions. It is known that systems with less congestion have lower operational costs. Traditionally, manufacturing facility layout problem methods aim at minimizing the total distance traveled, the material handling cost, or the time in the system (based on distance traveled at a specific speed). The proposed methodology solves the looped layout design problem …

A Model To Integrate Sustainability Into The User-Centered Design Process, Adrienne Shevonne Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With concerns for the environment becoming more prevalent in business and the government, it is increasingly important to re-evaluate and update processes to include sustainability considerations early in the design process. In response to this charge, this research effort was designed to integrate sustainability factors into the usercentered design process. The results of this research highlight the benefits of sustainability requirement planning, as well as those derived from integrating sustainability into the current user-centered design model

A Framework For Quantifying Sustainability Of Lean Implementation In Healthcare Organizations, Haitham Ahmed Bahaitham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to the remarkable positive effect of lean adoption in various firms in the manufacturing sector, it has been adopted by several organizations within the healthcare industry. Although the rate of adopting lean by hospitals in the developed countries is slower than it should be, it proved to be effective in helping healthcare organizations maintain or even improve their quality of care while containing their related costs. However, such adoption did not take place until the beginning of the new millennium. And with such adoption, it has been accompanied with major challenges related to proper lean implementation, sustainability of achieved …

Dynamic Routing On Stochastic Time-Dependent Networks Using Real-Time Information, Ali R. Guner

Wayne State University Dissertations

In just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing environments, on-time delivery is one of the key performance measures for dispatching and routing of freight vehicles. Both the travel time delay and its variability impact the efficiency of JIT logistics operations, that are becoming more and more common in many industries, and in particular, the automotive industry. In this dissertation, we first propose a framework for dynamic routing of a single vehicle on a stochastic time dependent transportation network using real-time information from Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Then, we consider milk-run deliveries with several pickup and delivery destinations subject to time windows under same network …

Modeling And Surveillance Of Pandemic Influenza Outbreaks, Diana Prieto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pandemic outbreaks are unpredictable as to their virus strain, transmissibility, and impact on our quality of life. Hence, the decision support models for mitigation of pandemic outbreaks must be user-friendly and operational, and also incorporate valid estimates of disease transmissibility and severity. This dissertation research is aimed at 1) reviewing the existing pandemic simulation models to identify their implementation gaps with regard to usability and operability, and suggesting research remedies, 2) increasing operability of simulation models by calibrating them via an epidemiological model that estimates infection probabilities using viral shedding profiles of concurrent pandemic and seasonal influenza, and 3) developing …

Cap-And-Trade Modeling And Analysis For Electric Power Generation Systems, Patricio Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cap-and-trade is the most discussed CO₂ emissions control scheme in the U.S. It is a market-based mechanism that has been used previously to successfully reduce the levels of SO₂ and NO_x emitted by power generators. Since electricity generators are responsible for about 40% of the CO₂ emissions in the U.S., the implementation of CO₂ cap-and-trade will have a significant impact on electric power generation systems. In particular, cap-and-trade will influence the investment decisions made by power generators. These decisions in turn, will affect electricity prices and demand. If the allowances (or emission permits) created by …

Development Of Risk Uncertainty Factors From Historical Nasa Projects, Tahani R. Amer

EMSE Doctoral Projects

NASA is a good investment of federal funds and strives to provide the best value to the nation. NASA has consistently budgeted to unrealistic cost estimates, which are evident in the cost growth in many of its programs. In this investigation, NASA has been using available uncertainty factors from the Aerospace Corporation, Air Force, and Booz Allen Hamilton to develop projects' risk posture. NASA has no insight into the developmental of these factors and, as demonstrated here, this can lead to unrealistic risks in many NASA Programs and projects (P/p). The primary contribution of this project is the development of …

Mixed Integer Programming Models For Selecting Ground-Level Ozone Control Strategies, Wei-Che Hsu

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Under the Clean Air Act (CAA) in 1990, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was required to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six common air pollutants that are considered harmful to public health and the environment. Ground–level ozone was one of the six criteria pollutants monitored by the EPA and considered the most widespread health threat. Two precursors of ground level ozone are nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) and the common sources of these two precursors include on–road vehicles, non–road engines, area sources, point sources, and biogenic and miscellaneous sources. An area …

Acuta Enews January 2011 Vol. 40, No. 1

ACUTA Newsletters

In this issue.....

Board approves slate of nominees

From ACUTA headquaters: rebalancing IT for the future.......... Jeri A. Semer, CAE, Executive Dir.

Nominate now for ACUTA Ruth A. Michalecki Leadership Award

Tech Talk: doing more with less, but in a good way........ Kevin Tanzillo, Dux PR

Washington Update Newsletter

Video Surveillance Technology........ Ron Walczak, RCDD, Walczak Techology Consultants

Forensic Tools: keeping up with the bad guys.......... Gary Audin, Delphi, Inc.

Board Report.............. George Denbow, Univ. of Texas, Austin

Thanks to Event Sponsors for 2010

ACUTA 2011 Event Calender

Info links......... Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern Iowa

Welcome New Members

Check …

Integrated Computational Intelligence And Japanese Candlestick Method For Short-Term Financial Forecasting, Takenori Kamo

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research presents a study of intelligent stock price forecasting systems using interval type-2 fuzzy logic for analyzing Japanese candlestick techniques. Many intelligent financial forecasting models have been developed to predict stock prices, but many of them do not perform well under unstable market conditions. One reason for poor performance is that stock price forecasting is very complex, and many factors are involved in stock price movement. In this environment, two kinds of information exist, including quantitative data, such as actual stock prices, and qualitative data, such as stock traders' opinions and expertise. Japanese candlestick techniques have been proven to …

Architecture Value Mapping: Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps As A Reasoning Mechanism For Multi-Criteria Conceptual Design Evaluation, Atmika Singh

Doctoral Dissertations

"The conceptual design phase is the most critical phase in the systems engineering life cycle. The design concept chosen during this phase determines the structure and behavior of the system, and consequently, its ability to fulfill its intended function. A good conceptual design is the first step in the development of a successful artifact. However, decision-making during conceptual design is inherently challenging and often unreliable. The conceptual design phase is marked by an ambiguous and imprecise set of requirements, and ill-defined system boundaries. A lack of usable data for design evaluation makes the problem worse. In order to assess a …

Workforce Planning Models For Semiconductor Manufacturing: Assembly-Test Operations, Shrikant Jarugumilli

Doctoral Dissertations

"We present a framework that integrates strategic and operational workforce planning models. Since these models provide decisions for planning horizons with different lengths, the formulation and solution strategy should ensure that the flow of information between these models is both appropriate and consistent.

The single-shift workforce planning problem is formulated as a two-phase goal program. In the first phase, the model allocates the workers to machine groups and identifies the shortage of workers (referred to as gap) followed by the second phase, in which certain constraints are relaxed and the workers are reallocated to the machine groups in order to …

Arguing Security Of Generic Avionic Mission Control Computer System (Mcc) Using Assurance Cases, Bhanuchander Reddy Poreddy, Steven Corns

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An assurance case is a body of evidence organized into an argument demonstrating that some claim about a system holds, i.e., is assured. Assurance cases are used to comment about system safety, and it serves as a mean to show that the systems acceptably satisfy their safety properties. Assurance cases perform rigorous security analysis on safety-critical complex systems. in this paper, the analysis done is an approach to documenting an assurance case for system security, i.e., a security assurance case. the paper deals with the Assurance cases for Generic Avionic Mission Control Computer system, by constructing tangible claims and investigating …

Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline Based Framework For Statistically Parsimonious Adaptive Dynamic Programming, Subrat Sahu

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Central to Dynamic Programming (DP) is the `cost-to-go' or `future value' function, which is obtained via actually solving the Bellman's equation and central to Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) is the use of an approximation of the future value function. The exact DP algorithm seeks to compute and store a table consisting of one cost-to-go value for each point in the state space and its usefulness is limited by the curse of dimensionality, which renders the methodology computationally intractable in the face of real life problems with high dimensional state space and in the face of continuous state variables. ADP methodology …

The Effects Of Anti-Price Gouging Legislation On Supply Chain Dynamics, Jason Edward Maynard

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to model the effects of anti-price gouging (APG) legislation on the costs to businesses during the recovery period of a disaster. A system dynamics model of a business’s replenishment procedures is used to simulate the effects of APG legislation on business performance. Economists have published expansive research on the effects of price ceilings on supply and demand, but there is little research evidence on the operational consequences of price ceiling legislation on business costs. APG legislation increases consumer’s forward buying and shortage gaming after a disaster by removing price incentives to be frugal. Forward …

Toward A Technology Management Core: Defining What The Technology Manager Needs To Know, Mark Doggett, Pam Mcgee, Sophia Scott

SEAS Faculty Publications

With the increasing demands on organizations to do “more with less,” and produce acceptable market results, productivity and performance standards continually raise the expectations on competitive success. To meet these expectations, organizations should create learning opportunities that combine the application of technical management skills along with the softer skills involved in people management. Technical managers with little training or past experience with nontechnical skills often perform poorly in technical management positions (Kroecker, 2007). Because this generation lives in a highly technical environment, managers need to be proficient in dealing with knowledge workers and systems; therefore, there is a growing emphasis …

Enterprise Transformation Through A Zachman-Bayesian Framework To Improve Efficiency & Productivity, Ramakanth Gona

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although organizations are aware of the benefits of enterprise architectures models, organizations have difficulties determining deficiencies in their business architecture. Organizational assessment tools often do not achieve expectations as sold to management. Performance measures often fail to properly represent necessary holistic measurements. Methods for capturing deficiencies in current business models and deterring improvements to optimize business processes are rare. This thesis develops a new experimental architecture modeling approach for enterprise transformations. The approach is efficient in capturing deficiencies and finding correlations which can become targeted goals for improvements. The Zachman enterprise architecture framework provides a holistic view of organizational models …

Critical Success Factors In The Re-Engineering Of 21st Century Supply Chains, Edward Sweeney

Practitioner Journals

No abstract provided.

An Integrated Decision Support Framework For Remanufacturing In The Automotive Industry, Akhilesh Kumar

Wayne State University Dissertations

In today's global economy, firms are seeking any and every opportunity to differentiate from competitors by reducing supply chain costs and adding value to end customers. One increasingly popular option, under growing consumer awareness and increasing legislation, is to reintegrate returned products into the supply chain to achieve economic benefits as well as improve sustainability. An important class of such "reverse" goods flows has to do with remanufacturing (reman), which refers to activities that restore returned products ("cores") or their major modules to operational condition for using in place of new product or distributing through other channels (e.g., spare parts). …

Ambient- And High-Temperature Mechanical Properties Of Isochronally Aged Al–0.06sc, Al–0.06zr And Al–0.06sc–0.06zr (At.%) Alloys, Keith E. Knipling, David N. Seidman, David C. Dunand

United States Navy: Publications

Ambient- and high-temperature precipitation strengthening are investigated in Al–0.06Sc, Al–0.06Zr and Al–0.06Sc–0.06Zr (at.%) alloys. Following solidification, Sc is concentrated at the dendrite peripheries while Zr is segregated at the dendrite cores. During isochronal aging, precipitation of Al3Sc (L1₂) commences between 250 and 300 °C for Al–0.06Sc, and reaches a 429 MPa peak microhardness at 325 °C. For Al–0.06Zr, precipitation of Al3Zr (L1₂) first occurs between 400 and 425 °C and reaches a 295 MPa peak microhardness at 475 °C. A pronounced synergistic effect is observed when both Sc and Zr are present. Above 325 °C, Zr …

A Phase Field Model Of Deformation Twinning: Nonlinear Theory And Numerical Simulations, J. D. Clayton, J. Knap

United States Army: Publications

A continuum phase field theory and corresponding numerical solution methods are developed to describe deformation twinning in crystalline solids. An order parameter is associated with the magnitude of twinning shear, i.e., the lattice transformation associated with twinning. The general theory addresses the following physics: large deformations, nonlinear anisotropic elastic behavior, and anisotropic phase boundary energy. The theory is applied towards prediction of equilibrium phenomena in the athermal and non-dissipative limit, whereby equilibrium configurations of an externally stressed crystal are obtained via incremental minimization of a free energy functional. Outcomes of such calculations are elastic fields (e.g., displacement, strain, stress, and …

Investigations Of Transcript Expression In Fathead Minnow (Pimephales Promelas) Brain Tissue Reveal Toxicological Impacts Of Rdx Exposure, Kurt A. Gust, Mitchell S. Wilbanks, Xin Guan, Mehdi Pirooznia, Tanwir Habib, Leslie Yoo, Henri Wintz, Chris D. Vulpe, Edward J. Perkins

United States Army: Publications

Production, usage and disposal of the munitions constituent (MC) cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) has led to environmental releases on  military facilities. The chemical attributes of RDX are conducive for leaching to surface water which may put aquatic organisms at risk of exposure. Because RDX has been observed to cause aberrant neuromuscular effects across a wide range of animal phyla, we assessed the effects of RDX on central nervous system (CNS) functions in the representative aquatic ecotoxicological model species, fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). We developed a fathead minnow brain-tissue cDNA library enriched for transcripts differentially expressed in response to RDX and …