Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Technology Roadmap For Standards Of Healthcare Data Cyber Security: Influence Of Public Policy On Consumer Healthcare Cyber Security Protections, Alison Nalven, Courtney Wright, Jennifer Lynn Zeitouni, Nolan Thompson, Sara Ferdousi, Saumya Saxena

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

From the dot com boom to now the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning era, the evolving digital world that people live in has brought new challenges for protecting personal data and information. IoT devices, smart phones, numerous apps, and more, constantly collect personal health data with many positive intentions. However, the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade by the United States Supreme Court has generated concerns in particular on who and how personal health data can be used by both governments and private companies with unintended consequences for users. Cyber security and regulations for protecting personal health data …

Beyond The High Ground: A Taxonomy For Earth-Moon System Operations, Adam P. Wilmer, Robert A. Bettinger

Faculty Publications

Situational and space domain awareness in the space domain can no longer be confined to that which is found in geosynchronous orbit. International activities—commercial and military—and threats to the planet itself exist and are increasing across the entire Earth-Moon system. This reality requires a new taxonomy to accurately classify space domain awareness missions and better apply resources to and development of the same. This work presents such a taxonomy for the classification of space domain awareness regions.

Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning For Traffic Signal Control Through Universal Communication Method, Qize Jiang, Minhao Qin, Shengmin Shi, Weiwei Sun Sun, Baihua Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

How to coordinate the communication among intersections effectively in real complex traffic scenarios with multi-intersection is challenging. Existing approaches only enable the communication in a heuristic manner without considering the content/importance of information to be shared. In this paper, we propose a universal communication form UniComm between intersections. UniComm embeds massive observations collected at one agent into crucial predictions of their impact on its neighbors, which improves the communication efficiency and is universal across existing methods. We also propose a concise network UniLight to make full use of communications enabled by UniComm. Experimental results on real datasets demonstrate that UniComm …

Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm Based On Rbf Network For Solving The Stochastic Vehicle Routing Problem, Yunyun Niu, Jie Shao, Jianhua Xiao, Wen Song, Zhiguang Cao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Solving the multi-objective vehicle routing problem with stochastic demand (MO-VRPSD) is challenging due to its non-deterministic property and conflicting objectives. Most multi -objective evolutionary algorithm dealing with this problem update current population without any guidance from previous searching experience. In this paper, a multi -objective evolutionary algorithm based on artificial neural networks is proposed to tackle the MO-VRPSD. Particularly, during the evolutionary process, a radial basis function net-work (RBFN) is exploited to learn the potential knowledge of individuals, generate hypoth-esis and instantiate hypothesis. The RBFN evaluates individuals with different scores and generates new individuals with higher quality while taking into …

Time Dependent Orienteering Problem With Time Windows And Service Time Dependent Profits, M. Khodadadian, A. Divsalar, C. Verbeeck, Aldy Gunawan, P. Vansteenwegen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper addresses the time dependent orienteering problem with time windows and service time dependent profits (TDOPTW-STP). In the TDOPTW-STP, each vertex is assigned a minimum and a maximum service time and the profit collected at each vertex increases linearly with the service time. The goal is to maximize the total collected profit by determining a subset of vertices to be visited and assigning appropriate service time to each vertex, considering a given time budget and time windows. Moreover, travel times are dependent of the departure times. To solve this problem, a mixed integer linear model is formulated and a …

Development Of Software Tools For Efficient And Sustainable Process Development And Improvement, Jake P. Stengel

Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructure is a key component in the well-being of our society that leads to its growth, development, and productive operations. A well-built infrastructure allows the community to be more competitive and promotes economic advancement. In 2021, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) ranked the American infrastructure as substandard, with an overall grade of C-. The overall ranking suffers when key infrastructure categories are not maintained according to the needs of the population. Therefore, there is a need to consider alternative methods to improve our infrastructure and make it more sustainable to enhance the overall grade. One of the challenges …

Modelling Monthly Rainfall Of Calabar, Nigeria Using Box-Jenkins (Arima) Method, Francis Ogbozige

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Rainfall has both positive and negative effects on human activities hence, correct prediction of the period of occurrence is very essential. However, the traditional method of predicting months of heavy rainfall is gradually fading out as irregular rainfall pattern is been experienced in most regions of the world. The rainfall pattern in Calabar city in Southern Nigeria has been reported in past literatures of being irregular. Hence, this research applied the Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) also known as Box-Jenkins method to model the rainfall pattern of Calabar. This was achieved by subjecting 50years monthly rainfall (1971 – 2020) to …

Assessment Of Energy Efficiency In Beverage Industry, Mahamudu H. Mtebwa

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The brewery industry has a significant contribution to the national income. However, it is also associated with energy intensive processes and pollution. In this work, the energy efficiency assessment of the largest brewery in Tanzania i.e., Tanzania Breweries Limited has been conducted. Energy consumption analysis was conducted according to IEEE SA 739 1995. Important parameters used to assess brewery energy efficiency were boiler efficiency and losses, equipment energy productivity as well as load factor. It was found that the main energy consumers are packaging (54.63%), brewing (29.30%) and utilities (15.17%). More importantly, it was found that about 68% of the …

In-Situ Observation Of Retained Austenite And Residual Stress Evolutions During Tempering Of Carbonitrided Din 1.6587 Alloy Steel, Richard J Katemi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

This paper investigates the evolution of retained austenite and residual stresses during and after tempering of carbonitrided 18CrNiMo7-6 low alloy steel carried out using in-situ X-ray diffraction technique. In this case, two carbonitriding treatments with different surface the retained austenite contents of 20 and 54 mass.-% are investigated. The tempering is carried out in a continuous heating mode to 650°C as well as in isothermal mode at holding temperature of 170, 240, and 300°C for 2 hours. During continuous heating at a heating rate of 10°C/min, the retained austenite started to decompose at 290°C. On isothermal holding at 170°C for …

A Model For Sustainable Adoption Of Solar Photovoltaic Technology In Tanzania, Joseph Kihedu

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The aim of the study was to develop a sustainable model for enhancement of the solar PV technology adoption in Tanzania. The model was developed based on the identified barriers that hinder the adoption of solar PV technology and adopted the best strategies from successful projects. Further, the drivers and activities were developed based on selected best strategies from successful projects. The identified barriers to the adoption of solar PV technology, which are grouped into five associated categories and their significances, are lack of access to finance (32%), non-enforcement of policy and regulation (31%), technical (18%), lack of awareness (9%) …

Impacts Of Land Cover Change Caused By Urbanization On The Flood Regime Of Msimbazi Catchment In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Chrisogonous Kibugu, Subira Munishi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The hydrological processes of a catchment are the function of climate, land use and land cover. Changes in either climate or land use or land cover can result in alteration of the catchment’s hydrological processes. In the recent past, Msimbazi catchment in Dar es Salaam has undergone drastic land cover changes mainly due to urbanisation. These land cover changes caused changes in the behaviour of river flow resulting in frequent floods. Therefore, this study analyses the impacts of the changes in land cover due to urbanisation specifically with the changes in river flow, surface run-off and base-flows. Previously generated land …

Effect Of Temperature, Catalyst Concentration And Time, On Polylactic Acid Production From Sisal Boles Juice By Ring Open Polymerization, Neema O. Msuya

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a biodegradable and renewable alternative to non-biodegradable petrochemical-based polymers that is environmentally friendly and green. PLA can be made from a variety of agricultural wastes that contain sugars, such as sisal boles. This study aimed at analysing the possibility of producing PLA from lactic acid (LA) produced from sisal bole. A 2n factorial design was used to analyse the effects of temperature (160-180ºC), time (1-2 hrs) and tin octoate catalyst concentration (0.025-0.05%) on the PLA yield during polymerization. Minitab Version 20.2.0 was used to design the experiment and analyse the effects on the responses through ANOVA. …

Estimation Of Storage Tank Capacities For Different Roofing Areas For Rainwater Harvesting In Dodoma Urban, Tanzania, Ombeni J. Mdee

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

This study uses a mass balance model and economic analysis technique to present an estimation of roofing areas and storage tank capacity for Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) system. The water-saved benefits were estimated using the monthly rainfall of over 39 years from 1981 to 2020 and five roofing areas. The proposed roof-storage-ratio method presents the minimum requirement of roof area and storage tank size when the ratio value is closer to 1. The benefit-cost ratio and percentage of reliability indicated the optimal roofing areas ranging between 200 and 300 m2 for storage tank capacity between 20 and 25 m3, with a …

Production Of Paper Pulp Using Sisal Fiber Waste From Sisal Spinning Processes, Ekael Mbise

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Disposal of large volumes of textile waste is an escalating problem for textile industries. Sisal spinning industry is the one of the textile industries releasing large volumes of textile waste in the landfills. The rising costs, and reduction of available space together with increasing stringent environmental measures are making burying and land filling of textile waste, a declining option. This study therefore explores recycling options where the potential of using sisal fiber waste produced during sisal spinning processes as raw materials for the production of paper pulp was investigated. Sampling was done at 21stCentury Holdings Limited allocated at Chang’ombe industrial …

Viability Analysis Of Ubungo Ii Gas Power Plant Efficiency Improvement Using Co-Generation System, Aviti Thadei Mushi

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The power utility, Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) is faced with challenges of supplying adequate power to the ever-increasing demand. To this end, this paper explores the installed Ubungo Gas Power Plant (UGP II) located in Dar es Salaam to find means of utilizing it in co-generation method. The study embarked on detailed modelling of the system and run simulations which indicated that the co-generation can result to power generation efficiency increase between 10.42 to 50.92%. It is recommended to change the UGP II to exploit this co-generation method. Further, the study could be improved by including more parameters …

The Effective Strategies For Mitigation The Impact Of Covid-19 On Construction Projects In Egypt, Nora Magdy Essa, Ibrahim Mahdi, Hassan Mohamed Ibrahim

Future Engineering Journal

From the time when the first narrated infections in Wuhan China, in late 2019, COVID-19 has had a substantial peal on human life and health. By the early of 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the eruption of COVID-19, a public health crisis of international concern. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization officially announced COVID-19 a pandemic. The first case was infected in Egypt of covid-19 on Feb 14, 2020 (Gilbert et al., 2020). On 16 March 2020, the Egyptian Government began issuing decisions as preventative courses as part of the country's inclusive plan to cope with …

Estimating The Weights Of Latticed Power Transmission Towers Using Genetic Programming, Ahmed M. Ebid Dr.

Future Engineering Journal

The recent booming in the power network industry inspired a lot of researchers to develop models to estimate the optimum cost of transmission towers. Unlike previous researches which depended on design the tower from scratch, this research depends on collecting actual database from several projects around the globe and applying the well-known (GP) technique to develop a model to predict the tower weight. The accuracy of the developed formula was about 84%. The developed model could be used in early tender stage or to check design economy.

Effectiveness Of Mesoporous Bioglass In Drug Delivery, Sheila Galbreath, Bailey Krueger, Taylor Frazier, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Since the invention of bioactive glass 50 years ago, it has become a versatile material used in healthcare in a variety of applications and compositions. Bioactive glass has shown superior capabilities of drug delivery compared to traditional carriers. For example, time-released medications are less likely to reach toxic levels, while delivering a specific, therapeutic dose to a localized area. The objective of this paper is to investigate the properties and effectiveness of mesoporous bioglass (MBG) as a drug delivery carrier. A literature review of various polymer coated 45S5 Bioglass^® loaded with vancomycin was analyzed to determine their drug release …

Flexural Performance Of Encased Pultruded Gfrp I-Beam With High Strength Concrete Under Static Loading, Enas M. Mahmood, Abbas A. Allawi, Ayman El-Zohairy

Faculty Publications

There is an interesting potential for the use of GFRP-pultruded profiles in hybrid GFRP concrete structural elements, either for new constructions or for the rehabilitation of existing structures. This paper provides experimental and numerical investigations on the flexural performance of reinforced concrete (RC) specimens composite with encased pultruded GFRP I-sections. Five simply supported composite beams were tested in this experimental program to investigate the static flexural behavior of encased GFRP beams with high-strength concrete. Besides, the effect of using shear studs to improve the composite interaction between the GFRP beam and concrete as well as the effect of web stiffeners …

Degradation Performance Modeling And Optimal Maintenance Planning Of Deteriorating Critical Infrastructures, Hung Q. Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Serving as the backbone of the nation’s economy, a large and growing number of deteriorating critical infrastructures, such as transportation and water infrastructures, are underperforming, aging, becoming structurally deficient, and must be repaired or replaced. Due to the influence of a variety of factors (e.g., material structure, design, operation, and environmental conditions) at different phases of lifecycle and the costly data acquisition process, field degradation of deteriorating infrastructures is highly uncertain with limited degradation data. The co-location and spatial proximity between many infrastructures, such as road and water infrastructures, further makes them physically and operationally interdependent. The sheer deterioration of …

Computational Methods For Solving The Combinatorial Optimization Problems In Transportation, Xufei Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discusses three transportation problems. The first problem is a bi-level optimization problem that simultaneously optimizes facility locations and network design in hazardous materials transportation. In the upper level, the leader intends to reduce the facility setup cost and the hazmat exposure risk, by choosing facility locations and road segments to close for hazmat transportation. When making such decisions, the leader anticipates the response of the followers who want to minimize the transportation costs. A robust optimization approach with multiplicative uncertain parameters and polyhedral uncertainty sets is applied to deal with the uncertain risk and demand.

The second problem …

Environmental Impact On The Behavior Of Cfrp Sheet Attached To Concrete, Ayssar Al-Khafaji, Ayman El-Zohairy, Mirnes Mustafic, Hani Salim

Faculty Publications

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) has many advantages as a construction/structural strengthening material. However, there are still concerns regarding the long-term performance of these materials when used with reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Environmental conditions have an adverse effect on the behavior of CFRP and the bond between these sheets and concrete. Therefore, the durability of CFRP used for strengthening RC beams was evaluated under different environmental scenarios, including subjection to immersion in deicing agents, tap water, and saltwater, freeze-and thaw cycles, and outdoor environmental changes. Laboratory tests were performed to examine the influence of these environmental scenarios on the bonding behavior …

Design And Finite Element Analysis Of Patient-Specific Total Temporomandibular Joint Implants, Shirish M. Ingawale, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

In this manuscript, we discuss our approach to developing novel patient-specific total TMJ prostheses. Our unique patient-fitted designs based on medical images of the patient’s TMJ offer accurate anatomical fit, and better fixation to host bone. Special features of the prostheses have potential to offer improved osseo-integration and durability of the devices. The design process is based on surgeon’s requirements, feedback, and pre-surgical planning to ensure anatomically accurate and clinically viable device design. We use the validated methodology of FE modeling and analysis to evaluate the device design by investigating stress and strain profiles under functional/normal and para-functional/worst-case TMJ loading …

Integration Of Solar + Storage Installation Upstream In Modular Construction, Ondrej Labik

LSU Master's Theses

High initial costs, mainly due to inefficient construction processes, remains the greatest barrier for residential adoption of solar+storage (SPS) system. Modular construction, having a factory-controlled environment and control over the home design, is well suited to address these issues (e.g., efficiencies, waste, inventory control, quality). Furthermore, these areas have great potential in modular construction to address the high initial cost issue. This study focuses on the integration of SPS installation upstream in modular housing. Although moving the SPS installation process into the factory has many barriers (e.g., including change of scope of work at some workstations without affecting the whole …

Lessons Learned During The Early Phases Of A Modular Project: A Case Study Of Unlv's Solar Decathlon 2020 Project, Jin Ouk Choi, Seungtaek Lee, Eric Weber

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

The U.S. Department of Energy conducts the Solar Decathlon competition as a student-based achievement that encourages sustainable design with energy efficiency and solar energy technologies. In the 2020 competition, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) team designed, fabricated, and constructed a net-zero modular house that applies innovative and highly efficient building technologies. This paper focused on the lessons learned during the early phases of this ongoing modular project. The research methodology included obtaining feedback from key project participants using a well-structured questionnaire. The results showed that the major items/challenges in the project’s planning phase included selecting the modular size, …

Image Center Layout Optimization Method Based On Improved Genetic Algorithm, Zhijie Li, Haoqi Shi, Changhua Li, Jie Zhang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Aiming at the layout optimization methods of image center being influenced by the subjective factors and low level of automation, a method of combining systematic layout planning(SLP) with the improved genetic algorithm is proposed. The layout scheme generated by SLP improves the initial population of the genetic algorithm and increases the diversity of the initial population. In order to improve the efficiency of optimization, the improved algorithm updates the crossover probability and mutation probability adaptively according to the evolution stages and the fitness value of the individuals. On the basis of the layout area model and multi-objective optimization mathematical …

An Unsupervised Deep Neural Network For Image Fusion, Peipei Zhou, Xinglin Hou

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Due to the low dynamic range of camera, can not be expressed in the different region of the high dynamic scene a single-exposure image. An unsupervised depth neural network is constructed to fuse the multi-exposure images into a high dynamic image. Based on the VGG-Net, encoding and decoding sub-networks are designed. Guided by the structural similarity of the images before and after fusion, a loss function suitable for image fusion is designed by introducing the weight factors based on the local image information, and the valid information of the different input images is given consideration. Compared with the …

Research And Simulation Of Internet Of Vehicles Task Offloading Based On Mobile Edge Computing, Peng Cheng, Wenzhu Zhang, Shuhan Xie, Zixuan Yang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In order to use the computing resources of edge devices to provide high-quality services, a joint resource allocation and task offloading mechanism is designed for the Internet of Vehicles architecture based on mobile edge computing. In the mechanism, the original problem is decomposed into two sub-problems of resource allocation and offloading decision. The original problem is simplified into the resource allocation of maximizing system capacity, and the initial offloading set is obtained through the proportional resource allocation algorithm; the above problem is solved by the joint offloading decision-making and resource allocation mechanism. The stable experimental results are obtained …

Design Of Interactive Simulated Water Gun Fire Fighting Training System Based On Steam Vr, Cheng Lu, Xuesheng Jin

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In order to save the fire fighting training resources and increase the immersion and experience of VR training, an interactive simulated water gun fire fighting training system based on Steam VR is designed. By using the Hall sensors and signal conversion circuit boards to collect and transmit the signal of the simulated water gun, and by using the Unity3D engine combined with the VIVE head-mounted display to build and present VR fire scene. The gun is controlled through C# programming to complete the interaction with the virtual fire scene. The system is evaluated by a post-questionnaire survey …

Design And Realization Of 6-Dof Parachuting Simulation Training System, Xiaoguang Zhou, Peng Zhu, Yuanyuan Zhang, Huan Lu, Yuan Zhou

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Aiming at restoring the 6-DOF motion process of each stage during parachuting, a 6-DOF parachuting simulation training system is designed and implemented. The architecture of the simulator is designed, and the realization of the sub-systems such as the motion calculation, 6-DOF motion platform, control loading system, virtual reality scene, somatosensory system and management console is explained. Compared with the same type of parachute simulator, this system has introduced a 6-DOF motion platform which can drive the trainees to simulate the various postures of parachuting. It can also help the trainees master the control methods of parachute and enhance the …