Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Fatigue-Induced Grain Coarsening In Nanocrystalline Platinum Films, Roi A. Meirom, Daan Hein Alsem, Amber L. Romasco, Trevor Clark, Ronald G. Polcawich, Jeffrey S. Pulskamp, Madan Dubey, Robert O. Ritchie, Christopher L. Muhlstein

United States Army: Publications

Mechanisms to explain the unique mechanical behavior of nanograined metals focus primarily on grain and grain boundary mobility. In most nanograined metal materials systems (both pure and alloyed) it has not been possible to decouple these time- and cycle-dependent contributions. In contrast, the 460 nm thick, (1 1 1) textured, nanograined platinum thin films evaluated in this work have robust grain morphologies that allow us to uniquely identify the fatigue damage accumulation processes. Unlike other reports of face-centered cubic metal behavior, the platinum films exhibited a particularly limited range of fatigue crack growth (<3 MPa √m) with extremely large (~10.5) power law exponents typically associated with fatigue of structural ceramics and ordered intermetallics. Transmission electron microscopy and fatigue crack growth data suggest that the crack growth mechanism appears to be intrinsic in origin and dislocation mediated.

Thermoreversible And Remendable Glass–Polymer Interface For Fiber-Reinforced Composites, Amy M. Peterson, Robert E. Jensen, Giuseppe R. Palmese

United States Army: Publications

Adhesion of the reinforcement to the polymer matrix is essential for load transfer from the polymer matrix to the reinforcement material in fiber-reinforced composites. The reversible Diels–Alder reaction between a furan-functionalized epoxy-amine thermosetting matrix with a maleimide-functionalized glass fiber was used to impart remendability at the polymer–glass interface for potential application in glass fiber-reinforced composites. At room temperature the Diels–Alder adduct is formed spontaneously and above 90 °C the adduct breaks apart to reform the original furan and maleimide moieties. Healing of the interface was investigated with single fiber microdroplet pull-out testing. Following complete failure of this interface, significant healing …

Micro-Cracks Informed Damage Models For Brittle Solids, Xiaodan Ren, Jiun-Shyan Chen, Jie Li, T. R. Slawson, M. J. Roth

United States Army: Publications

A class of micro-cracks informed damage models for describing the softening behavior of brittle solids is proposed, in which damage evolution is treated as a consequence of micro-crack propagation. The homogenized stress–strain relation in the cracked microscopic cell defines the degradation tensor, which can be obtained by the equivalence between the averaged strain energy of the microscopic cell and the strain energy density of the homogenized material. This energy equivalence relationship serves as an energy bridging vehicle between the damaged continuum and the cracked microstructure. Several damage evolution equations are obtained by this energy bridging method. The size effect of …

Antimicrobial Decapeptide Ksl-W Attenuates Candida Albicans Virulence By Modulating Its Effects On Toll-Like Receptor, Human Β-Defensin, And Cytokine Expression By Engineered Human Oral Mucosa, A. Semlali, K. P. Leung, S. Curt, M. Rouabhia

United States Army: Publications

We investigated the toxicity of synthetic antimicrobial decapeptide KSL-W on normal human gingival epithelial cell cultures, its effect on Candida albicans adhesion and growth, and the activation of epithelial cell innate immunity. Our results indicate that KSL-W had no toxic effect on cell adhesion or growth, suggesting its safe use with human cells. Pre-treating C. albicans with KSL-W attenuated the yeast’s virulence as demonstrated by its reduced adhesion and growth on engineered human oral mucosa epithelium and the subsequent decreased expression of some innate defense molecules by targeted epithelial cells. Indeed, the expression of Toll-like receptors and human β-defensins was …

Protective Efficacy Of Catalytic Bioscavenger, Paraoxonase 1 Against Sarin And Soman Exposure In Guinea Pigs, Manojkumar Valiyaveettil, Yonas Alamneh, Peter Rezk, Lionel Biggemann, Michael W. Perkins, Alfred M. Sciuto, Bhupendra P. Doctor, Madhusoodana P. Nambiar

United States Army: Publications

Human paraoxonase 1 (PON1) has been portrayed as a catalytic bioscavenger which can hydrolyze large amounts of chemical warfare nerve agents (CWNAs) and organophosphate (OP) pesticides compared to the stoichiometric bioscavengers such as butyrylcholinesterase. We evaluated the protective efficacy of purified human and rabbit serum PON1 against nerve agents sarin and soman in guinea pigs. Catalytically active PON1 purified from human and rabbit serum was intravenously injected to guinea pigs, which were 30 min later exposed to 1.2 × LCt₅₀ sarin or soman using a microinstillation inhalation exposure technology. Pre-treatment with 5 units of purified human and rabbit serum …

Development Of A New Evolutionary Algorithm Based On Adaptive Echolocation Applied To A Multi Objective Version Of The Redundancy Allocation Problem, Karla Rocio Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The intention of this research is to develop a new algorithm that it is mainly focus in the principle of echolocation or also called biosonar. This principle is active in many animals such as: birds, shrews, dolphins and bats, these last ones are going to be a fundamental part of our study. These animals use it as radar in order to find food, obstacles or just to locate objects.

These animals use ultrasound beams with a certain degree of angle and multiple receivers; such as the two ears that are located slightly apart, so at the time of the returning …

Perspectives On Quality Coordination And Assurance In Global Supply Chains, Ling Li, John N. Warfield

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The 2007 recall of Berko Electric Toe-Space Heaters made in the US, the recall of backpack blowers made in Japan, the recalls of toys and pet food produced in China have exposed the potential of global supply chain disruptions. This product recall storm leads to the issue of quality assurance in global supply chain management. Product recalls indicate that manufacturing companies are particularly vulnerable to ensure quality when they source via a global supply chain with poor visibility. Obviously, a supply chain cannot afford this kind of sourcing and supply structure that threatens the supply-chain integrity. This special issue on …

The Development Of A Human Centered Methodology For The Identification Of Communication Needs And The Assessment Of Hand-Held Communication Devices Used To Support Communication Flow In High Consequence Emergency Management, Mohammad Imraan Jeelani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Communication has been identified as a critical component in the outcome of emergency response. Post-mortems of “what went wrong” in disaster responses often point toward breakdown in communication between first responders, those directing rescue efforts, and the general population as one of the primary impediments to rendering timely aid and communicating adequate safety and weather information. Due to the high resilience, relatively low costs, and advanced features of modern hand-held communication devices, these devices are in a position to drastically improve communication flow during emergency management situations. Due to the lack of official implementation of these devices and the lack …

Modeling And Characterization Of Acute Stress Under Dynamic Task Conditions, Angel M. Millan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stress can be defined as the mental, physical, and emotional response of humans to stressors encountered in their personal or professional environment. Stressors are introduced in various activities, especially those found in dynamic task conditions when multiple task requirements must be performed. Stress and stressors have been described as activators and inhibitors of human performance. The ability to manage high levels of acute stress is an important determinant of successful performance in any occupation. In situations where performance is critical, personnel must be prepared to operate successfully under hostile or extreme stress conditions; therefore training programs and engineered systems must …

Emerging M&S Application In Risk Management, C. Ariel Pinto, Andreas Tolk, Michael Mcshane

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

There has been compelling signs of the great potential of building further synergy with academics, researchers, and industry practitioners from the areas of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) managing risk events. This paper provides an introduction to risk management and how M&S has permeated the risk management process. The trend has been to harness the advantages of M&S tools and techniques in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in managing risks. However, the more important contribution of M&S may be in how it provides a way for specialists in various disciplines or industries interact to manage risks that require multi-disciplinary approach. This …

Management Of Wind Power Generation With The Attachment Of Wind Tunnel, Ulan Dakeev

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study presents a new approach in which a wind tunnel apparatus is used to identify the efficiency of power output by a wind turbine with a 400W rating. Moreover, the study addresses a significant issue concerning the turbulence formed by a natural wind which can be eliminated or reduced with the use of the proposed wind tunnel. Wind power characteristics that indicate power output versus wind velocity are obtained by performing a number of case studies. The case studies include normal operation of the experimental wind turbine at variable wind velocity values with and without proposed wind tunnel. A …

Quality Costing Knowledge, Attitudes, And Perceptions In A Small Manufacturing Company, Adam M. Benner

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this research was to identify and assess employee knowledge, attitude, and perception of quality costing in a manufacturing company. The company selected for this research was a small manufacturer of agricultural processing equipment with an undeveloped quality management program. A quality costs questionnaire was discovered from a review of the literature and was slightly modified to gather data from a sample of company employees. The following information was collected from employees: knowledge of common quality costing terminology, attitude towards quality and non-quality concepts, and perception of departments associated with quality costs and the scale of quality costs …

An Occupational Analysis Of Prepress In The Des Moines And Eastern Iowa Regions, Lee John Geisinger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

It is important that educators use a relevant, up-to-date curriculum when educating on a specific occupation. Job task analysis is an effective way for educators to understand an occupation and provide students with valuable information. This study analyzed prepress technicians' duties and tasks.

This research used the occupational analysis method called the DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process. The DACUM process uses an expert worker panel to identify the duties and tasks of an occupation. This study found that there are 9 duties and 55 tasks for a prepress technician. After identifying the duties and tasks, the study confirmed those duties …

Proving Sustainability: The International Development Monitoring Initiative, Evan A. Thomas, Zdenek Zumr

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nearly a billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, two billion have inadequate sanitation facilities, three billion use biomass for their daily energy needs and nearly half the world's population live in rural isolation, lacking access to the most basic human services. Combined, these limitations are a leading cause of the perpetuating cycle of poverty and political insecurity. Meanwhile, the majority of international development agencies are responsible for self-reporting project outcomes. At best, expert spot-checks are conducted in the field occasionally. These results tend to show individual project success, while meta- surveys indicate on-going challenges in …

Delayed-Bang Approach Towards More Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Risk Management, C. Ariel Pinto, Michael K. Mcshane, Abhishek S. Pathak

Finance Faculty Publications

This article describes the Delayed Bang Approach for determining the value of risk management alternatives in critical infrastructure security. The discussion includes (1) the need for sustainable risk management (2) the importance of time valuation in evaluating competing loss prevention and loss reduction alternatives, (3) the convergence of deterministic engineering economics, survivability analysis, and probabilistic analysis, and (4) hypothetical examples of the Delayed-Bang Approach and significance towards more sustainable risk management.

Estimating Industrial Building Energy Savings Using Inverse Simulation, Franc Server, J. Kelly Kissock, Dan Brown, Steve Mulqueen

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Estimating energy savings from retrofitting existing building systems is traditionally a time intensive process, accomplished by developing a detailed building simulation model, running the model with actual weather data, calibrating the model to actual energy use data, modifying the model to include the proposed changes, then running the base and proposed models with typical weather data to estimate typical energy savings. This paper describes a less time-intensive method of estimating energy savings in industrial buildings using actual monthly energy consumption and weather data. The method begins by developing a multivariate three-parameter changepoint regression model of facility energy use. Next, the …

Design And Analysis Of A Speed-Aware Routing Protocol For Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Kirthana Akunuri

Masters Theses

"The flexibility of movement for the wireless ad hoc devices, referred to as node mobility, introduces challenges such as dynamic topological changes, increased frequency of route disconnections and high packet loss rate in Mobile Ad hoc Wireless Network (MANET) routing. This research proposes a novel on-demand routing protocol, Speed-Aware Routing Protocol (SARP) to mitigate the effects of high node mobility by reducing the frequency of route disconnections in a MANET. SARP identifies a highly mobile node which forms an unstable link by predicting the link expiration time (LET) for a transmitter and receiver pair. When the nodes have high relative …

Trait Approach To Leadership In Campus Organizations: The Hogan Personality Inventory As A Predictor, Christyn Nicolle Collum

Masters Theses

"The trait approach to leadership has been researched extensively and applied to several fields. This study examined whether or not student leadership in registered student organizations is related to personality traits on the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus from spring semesters 2008, 2009, and 2010. It also explored whether or not traits are related to students joining organizations, during these same semesters. The students' personalities were evaluated using the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPJ), which entering freshmen voluntarily completed. The seven scales of the HPJ are Adjustment, Ambition, Sociability, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Prudence, Inquisitiveness, and Learning Approach. Personality results were …

Risk-Sensitive Preventive Maintenance Policies Using Semivariance, Venkata Manojramam Tirumalasetty

Masters Theses

"Preventive maintenance is an important tool that increases the reliability of the production system by reducing downtime due to failures. In the literature, maintenance and replacement policies for productions systems have been widely studied and modeled. Traditionally preventive maintenance has focused only on minimizing expected costs without considering variability in costs. Cost variability is also commonly known as risk. In a 2003 paper, Chen and Jin used variance of costs as a measure of risk for formulating preventive maintenance policies. The variance criterion that they used ignored the probability of costs exceeding monthly or yearly budgets provided to managers. The …

Managing A Solar Sensor Array Project: Analyzing Insolation & Motivation, Beth A. Yount

Masters Theses

"The renewable power industry is rapidly growing today and is in need of much data to augment the advancement of the field. Photovoltaic technology, while making substantial improvement over the last 60 years, still has some significant hurdles to overcome. When shading, dust, or damaged cells reduce the power output of one panel, the traditional series-parallel configurations make it so every panel in series with that lower current panel, will also have its current lowered; this lowers the overall power output of the array significantly. Advancements in configurations and converters could change this phenomenon and dramatically increase a solar array's …

Quantifying The Carbon Footprint Of Lean Waste, Kristen Donovan Balinski

Masters Theses

"The objective of this paper is to provide a method of quantifying lean wastes in terms of carbon dioxide emissions by using value stream mapping. Lean manufacturing, a process based on waste identification and reduction, is a growing trend in industry and a proven method of lowering costs. The environmental impact of these wastes can be quantified by identifying the metrics associated with them, and using existing reports to convert those metrics into measurements of carbon dioxide. Growing environmental concerns are prompting federal government regulation of greenhouse gas or carbon dioxide emissions, as seen in the American Clean Energy and …

Integration Of Model-Based Systems Engineering And Virtual Engineering Tools For Detailed Design, Akshay Kande

Masters Theses

"Design and development of a system can be viewed as a process of transferring and transforming data using a set of tools that form the system's development environment. Conversion of the systems engineering data into useful information is one of the prime objectives of the tools used in the process. With complex systems, the objective is further augmented with a need to represent the information in an accessible and comprehensible manner. The importance of representation is easily understood in light of the fact that the stakeholder's ability to make prompt and appropriate decisions is directly related to his understanding of …

Creating A Sustainable Transportation Workforce: Identifying Skills, Abilities And Knowledge For Future Transportation Workforce, Sandhya Gopalakrishnan

Masters Theses

"The recruitment and retention of a transportation workforce capable of adapting to the requirements of emerging sustainable technologies is an important concern for engineering managers in transportation. Although there is an increasing demand for transportation professionals to fill positions stemming from retirement or created by innovations in sustainable transportation systems, the supply is decreasing. The objective of this research was to fill the gap between the supply and demand of skilled workforce by presenting a life-cycle framework for recruiting and retaining the transportation workforce as part of succession planning efforts funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Transportation Education Development …

Economic Evaluation Of Sustainable Strategies For The Transportation Sector, Yaqin Lin

Masters Theses

"Sustainable strategies are drawing growing attention as global environmental challenges increase concerns over energy consumption. As one of the most intensive consumers of energy, the transportation sector has a particular need to go green. Implementing alternative energy sources and applying advanced energy efficient technologies are two major approaches to achieve sustainability. Much work thus far used cost-effectiveness as an important criterion for assessing the practicability of sustainable strategies. However, few studies have evaluated such strategies systematically. This thesis has developed a framework of cost-effectiveness analysis to assess sustainability strategies. The framework summarizes the various effects of five representative alternative energy …

Life Expectancy Evaluation And Replacement Schedule Development For Led Traffic Indicators, Casey Robert Noll

Masters Theses

"LED (light-emitting diode) technology is being widely adopted for use in sustainable traffic signal management. However, the useful life and luminosity characteristics have not been sufficiently studied in the field to provide departments of transportation with cost-effective replacement strategies based on the realities for LED indicators. LED indicators fail when their luminous intensity (LI) falls below a pre-specified threshold, posing a danger to traffic. This research details a field study of LED indicators in Missouri and develops a replacement schedule based on key findings. Rates of degradation and subsequently the useful life of each type of LED indicator were calculated …

The Equivalence And Generalization Of Optimization Criteria, Surachai Charoensri

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In this dissertation we first show that existing optimization criteria are equivalent to the maximization of a real-valued function in a one-dimensional Euclidean space. The criteria are said to be scalar equivalent. All solutions and only solutions to an optimization problem involving the original criterion can be obtained by scalarization without the typical convexity or concavity assumptions on the original objective functions and feasible region. Examples include Pareto (including the scalar case), satisficing, maximin, and cone-ordered optimization, as well as the more general notion of set-valued optimization in abstract spaces. Moreover, equivalences between various different optimization criteria are also established …

Presentation: Proving Sustainability: The International Development Monitoring Initiative, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presentation detailing the activities and products of the Sustainable Water, Energy and Environmental Technologies Laboratory at Portland State University (SWEETLab). The lab also works to develop standards to help evaluate and compare projects and outcomes around the world. Water treatment and sanitation practices, as well as newly designed cookstoves, are highlighted.

Indentifying And Understanding User Preferences In Generic Planning Tools, Grisel Ventura

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Planning is an important cognitive work activity. To support this complex task, the development of planning tools is important to support people during decision-making and problem-solving tasks. Nowadays, a large number of manual and electronic tools support this complex activity; manual and electronic planning tools aid people in creating strategies for effective work performance. However, there is limited information on the design of generic planning tools people use for their activities, and why people choose to use the planning tool they do. Some examples of generic tools for planning are calendars, checklists, agendas, etc.

To answer this question, this research …

Virtual Ed: Utilisation Of A Discrete Event Simulation-Based Framework In Identifying "Real-Time’ Strategies To Improve Patient Experience Times In An Emergency Department, Waleed Abo Hamad, John Mcinerney, Amr Arisha

Articles

Objectives and Backgrounds Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding and associated excessive Patient Experience Times (PETs) have proven deleterious impacts on patient mortality, morbidity and overall length of hospital stay. Health systems constantly seek cost-effective organisational strategies to reduce ED crowding and improve patient outcomes, but complex change implementation is constrained by the necessity of maintaining concurrent safe patient-care. Computer modelling in a “virtual reality” has been successfully utilised in industries outside medicine, in providing innovative “real-time” solutions to outdated practices. Therefore a bespoke “Virtual ED” computer model, based on a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) -Based Framework was constructed to determine the …

Cognitive Cyber Weapon Selection Tool Empirical Evaluation, Preethi Vinayak Ponangi

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Keeping in pace with the latest technological innovations in the cyber world, the misuse of this powerful infrastructure has also increased proportionally. Although a lot of recent attacks have been documented in the mainstream media, counter measures for cyber defense mechanism have only received some attention in the recent research literature. Most of the global attacks in the cyber space have proved to be carefully planned premeditated attacks. Considering that most of these attacks are co-coordinated by humans, a new area of psychological weaponry is being investigated by the research community. This study aims to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of …