Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

A Macro-Level Sustainability Assessment Framework For Optimal Distribution Of Alternative Passenger Vehicles, Nuri Onat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although there are many studies focusing on the environmental impacts of alternative vehicle options, social and economic dimensions and trade-off relationships among all of these impacts were not investigated sufficiently. Moreover, most economic analyses are limited to life cycle cost analyses and do not consider macro-level economic impacts. Therefore, this thesis aims to advance the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment literature and electric vehicle sustainability research by presenting a novel combined application of Multi Criteria Decision Making techniques with Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for decision analysis. With this motivation in mind, this research will construct a compromise-programming model (multi-objective optimization method) …

An Agile Roadmap For Live, Virtual And Constructive-Integrating Training Architecture (Lvc-Ita): A Case Study Using A Component Based Integrated Simulation Engine, Tae Woong Park

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conducting seamless Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) simulation remains the most challenging issue of Modeling and Simulation (M&S). There is a lack of interoperability, limited reuse and loose integration between the Live, Virtual and/or Constructive assets across multiple Standard Simulation Architectures (SSAs). There have been various theoretical research endeavors about solving these problems but their solutions resulted in complex and inflexible integration, long user-usage time and high cost for LVC simulation. The goal of this research is to provide an Agile Roadmap for the Live Virtual Constructive-Integrating Training Architecture (LVC-ITA) that will address the above problems and introduce interoperable LVC simulation. …

Propagation Of Unit Location Uncertainty In Dense Storage Environments, Patrick Reilly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Effective space utilization is an important consideration in logistics systems and is especially important in dense storage environments. Dense storage systems provide high-space utilization; however, because not all items are immediately accessible, storage and retrieval operations often require shifting of other stored items in order to access the desired item, which results in item location uncertainty when asset tracking is insufficient. Given an initial certainty in item location, we use Markovian principles to quantify the growth of uncertainty as a function of retrieval requests and discover that the steady state probability distribution for any communicating class of storage locations approaches …

A Framework For Safety Training Using Virtual Reality Software, Rana Riad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Safety training is a vital component to the well-being of individuals in all industries. With technology advancing at the current pace, conventional training methods are no longer the most effective way to communicate information. There is a strong need for safety training that incorporates new methods and forms of communication to obtain higher levels of comprehension. Virtual reality systems offer a highly customizable and interactive form of delivering information to users. This research addresses major gaps in the field of safety training using virtual reality systems and provides a design framework for creating a virtual safety-training system. A model for …

Forecasting Oled Tv Technology Using Bibliometrics And Fisher-Pry Diffusion Model, Yonghee Cho, Tugrul Unsal Daim, Paul Sklar

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The market of flat panel displays is experiencing rapid growth with the advancement of digital technologies in broadcasting service. The next challenge of LCD is OLED in TV market. The study attempts to investigate the trends in advanced or emerging technologies by determining their technology diffusion rates due to the lack of experiential data. With the development of information and communication technology, one of the recent methods to assist in technology forecasting is data mining in bibliometric or textual data from various sources such as patents, journals, and research awards. The information extracted from diverse sources can be employed in …

Opening The Door To Breakthroughs That Address Strategic Organizational Needs: Applying Technology Roadmapping Tools And Techniques At An Electric Utility, James V. Hillegas-Elting, Terry Oliver, Joshua Binus, Tugrul Unsal Daim, Judith Estep, Jisun Kim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the course of a decade, the Bonneville Power Administration's Technology Innovation Office has developed a roadmapping approach that captures business challenges and opportunities critical to the agency, links these with barriers to success, and connects these with technical solutions and research questions. Senior leaders from across the agency establish strategic goals and objectives, and international technical subject matter experts are convened to articulate technology-associated paths to achieve these. Each roadmap captures insights from diverse experts in highly collaborative environments and focuses them on critically important topics. These roadmaps are an important element in the Bonneville Power Administration's strategic approach …

Wind Farm Optimization Using Evolutionary Algorithms, Carlos Marco Ituarte-Villarreal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, the wind power industry has focused its efforts on solving the Wind Farm Layout Optimization (WFLO) problem. Wind resource assessment is a pivotal step in optimizing the wind-farm design and siting and, in determining whether a project is economically feasible or not. In the present work, three (3) different optimization methods are proposed for the solution of the WFLO: (i) A modified Viral System Algorithm applied to the optimization of the proper location of the components in a wind-farm to maximize the energy output given a stated wind environment of the site. The optimization problem is formulated …

Single And Multiple Objective Biomass-To-Biofuel Supply Chain Optimization Considering Environmental Impacts, Claudia Evangelina Valles Sosa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bioenergy has become an important alternative source of energy to alleviate the reliance on petroleum energy. Bioenergy offers diminishing climate change by reducing Green House Gas Emissions, as well as providing energy security and enhancing rural development. The Energy Independence and Security Act mandate the use of 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels including 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels by the year 2022. It is clear that Biomass can make a substantial contribution to supply future energy demand in a sustainable way. However, the supply of sustainable energy is one of the main challenges that mankind will face over …

A Framework And System For A Multi-Model Decision Aid For Sustainable Farming Practices, Kasi Bharath Vegesana

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Decision support systems (DSS) for farmers address the need for modeling multiple processes and scenarios that affect farmer decision making. Existing DSS have various drawbacks that stop them from being deployed as decision support tools. This research proposes a multi-model simulation framework that can be used to analyze farm management practices at the crop level, individual farm level and at the community level to show the impact and alternatives for smallholder farming practices. A generic crop growth model is proposed, based on existing equations. We run sensitivity analysis on the model to identify important variables. The outputs from the crop …

Safety Culture Monitoring: A Management Approach For Assessing Nuclear Safety Culture Health Performance Utilizing Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis, James Harold Warren Jr.

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Nuclear power plants are among the most technologically complex of all energy facilities. This complexity reflects the precision needed in design, maintenance and operations to harness the energy of the atom safely, reliably and economically. Nuclear energy thus requires consistent, high levels of organizational performance by the highly skilled professionals who operate and maintain nuclear power plants (Nuclear Energy Institute [NEI], 2014, p. 1).

A key element for achieving consistent, high levels of performance in a nuclear organization is its safety culture. Nuclear safety culture is for an organization what character and personality is for an individual: a feature that …

Preliminary Investigation Into The Cause Of Pinhole Porosity In Aluminum Metal Castings From Serpentine Impurities In Olivine Sand, Brodie J. Biersner

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The problem addressed in this study is how contaminates in the foundry molding aggregate olivine, affect aluminum castings during the casting process. This research will concentrate on hydrated contaminates, specifically the mineral serpentine. The purpose of this research is to better understand how hydrated minerals contribute to the generation of pinhole porosity defects during the casting process. Understanding how impurities in foundry aggregates affect the casting process would aid in the reduction of scrap caused by core and molding sands, ultimately providing savings to the casting manufacturer.

A foundry grade olivine was compared to a new source of olivine to …

Multilevel Ant Colony Optimization To Solve Constrained Forest Transportation Planning Problems, Pengpeng Lin

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

In this dissertation, we focus on solving forest transportation planning related problems, including constraints that consider negative environmental impacts and multi-objective optimizations that provide forest managers and road planers alternatives for making informed decisions. Along this line of study, several multilevel techniques and mataheuristic algorithms have been developed and investigated. The forest transportation planning problem is a fixed-charge problem and known to be NP-hard. The general idea of utilizing multilevel approach is to solve the original problem of which the computational cost maybe prohibitive by using a set of increasingly smaller problems of which the computational cost is cheaper.

The …

Rote-Lcs Learning Classifier System For Classification And Prediction, Benjamin Daniels

Masters Theses

"Machine Learning (ML) involves the use of computer algorithms to solve for approximate solutions to problems with large, complex search spaces. Such problems have no known solution method, and search spaces too large to allow brute force search to be feasible. Evolutionary algorithms (EA) are a subset of machine learning algorithms which simulate fundamental concepts of evolution. EAs do not guarantee a perfect solution, but rather facilitate convergence to a solution of which the accuracy depends on a given EA's learning architecture and the dynamics of the problem.

Learning classifier systems (LCS) are algorithms comprising a subset of EAs. The …

A Valuation Model For Two-Stage Contract Negotiations Over Multiple Interdependent Issues, Nnaemeka U. Amaeshi

Masters Theses

"Most real-world negotiation scenarios involve multiple interdependent issues over which the negotiating parties will seek an agreement. Simultaneous negotiation over multiple interdependent issues is an especially challenging problem because utility functions of negotiating agents are typically nonlinear and difficult to analyze. Also, negotiations often happen under circumstances of incomplete information, where either party has either little or inaccurate information about the preferences or utilities of the other party. Consequently, negotiations may go over multiple rounds until a mutually acceptable agreement is reached. The objective of this research is to create a quantitative model of decision-making that helps one negotiating party …

Retaining Behavioral Healthcare Employees Of The Millennial Generation, David W. Gomel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As a result of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the behavioral healthcare field is experiencing an increased demand for services. This increase is based on the availability of healthcare coverage to an estimated 13.4 million previously uninsured individuals. To meet this demand for treatment, the workforce of behavioral health therapists must grow. The largest generation entering the workforce, the Millennial Generation - those born after 1980 - is believed to lack commitment to their employers, frequently vacating their positions for the next best offer. The purpose of this case study was to determine factors that both affect retention …

Timetable Management Technique In Railway Capacity Analysis: Development Of The Hybrid Optimization Of Train Schedules (Hots) Model, Hamed Pouryousef

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

There are two general approaches to improve the capacity in a rail corridor, either by applying new capital infrastructure investment or by improving the operation of the rail services. Techniques to evaluate the railway operation include modeling and optimization through the use of commercial timetable management and rail simulation tools. However, only a few of the existing tools include complete features of timetable management techniques (e.g. timetable compression) are equipped with an optimization model for rescheduling and timetable improvement and this is especially true when it comes to the U.S. rail environment that prevalently uses unstructured operation practices.

This dissertation …

A Comparison Of Combined Overlap Block Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (Cobfcm) And Combined Overlap Block Neutrosophic Cognitive Map (Cobncm) In Finding The Hidden Patterns And Indeterminacies In Psychological Causal Models: Case Study Of Adhd, Hojjatollah Farahani, Florentin Smarandache, Lihshing Leigh Wang

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In spite of researchers’ concerns to find causalities, reviewing the literature of psychological studies one may argue that the classical statistical methods applied in order to find causalities are unable to find uncertainty and indeterminacies of the relationships between concepts.

In this paper, we introduce two methods to find effective solutions by identifying “hidden” patterns in the patients’ cognitive maps. Combined Overlap Block Fuzzy Cognitive Map (COBFCM) and Combined Overlap Block Neutrosophic Map (COBNCM) are effective when the number of concepts can be grouped and are large in numbers. In the first section, we introduce COBFCM, COBNCM, their applications, and …

A Cell Formation Algorithm For Sequential Processes With Alternative Machine Selection In The Automotive Lighting Industry, Victor Manuel Loya Garnica

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

At the present time, there are more than 12 big companies dedicated to design and produce OEM lighting systems for cars and trucks. The manufacturing processes for headlamps, tail lamps and any other exterior vehicle lighting are very common in the auto industry. Still, every automotive lamp assembly is different from brand to brand and even between the different vehicle models. Indeed, there are car headlamps with less than 30 sub-components and others with up to 300 elements. This implies creating diverse part numbers which share or hold varying manufacturing methods within a specific facility. Management of the plant resources …

Relationship Between Product Quality And Customer Satisfaction, Albert Vitales Cruz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The National Safety Council (NSC) estimated that over 35,000 people died in U.S. traffic accidents. About 3.8 million traffic crash injuries requiring medical attention occurred in 2013, and the number of deaths was about the same over the last 5 years. The NSC found that product recalls, car repairs, injuries, and deaths were due to unsafe product designs or inferior product quality. These statistics underscore the challenge of producing quality vehicles while satisfying customers. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine relationships among product (vehicle) quality, product cost, product safety, and consumer satisfaction. The hypotheses inquired the extent …

Efficient Skin Segmentation Via Neural Networks: Hp-Elm And Bd-Som, C. Swaney, A. Akusok, K. M. Björk, Y. Miche, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This Paper Presents Two Novel Methods for Skin Detection: Hp-Elm and Bd-Som. Both Som and Elm Are Fast for Large Data Sets, But Not Yet Suitable for Big Data. We Show How They Can Be Improved in Order to Fulfill the Strict Requirements for Big Data. Both New Methods Are Described and their Implementations Are Explained. a Comparison on a Large Example is Presented in the Experiment Section. We Find that Bd-Som is More Accurate but Not as Computationally Efficient as Hp-Elm. as a Result, We Show that Both Methods Work Well on a Big Data Task. the Given Task …

Extreme Learning Machine On High Dimensional And Large Data Applications, Zhiping Lin, Jiuwen Cao, Tao Chen, Yi Jin, Zhan Li Sun, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Defensive Routines In Engineering Managers And Non-Engineering Managers -- A Case Analysis, Tyria Riley, Elizabeth A. Cudney

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

There is a perception that engineers experience challenges in areas such as communication, conflict resolution, and leadership. Defensive routines are actions implemented as a result of being in an embarrassing or threatening situation. This research uses a case study approach to measure whether defensive routines are more common in engineering managers or non-engineering managers. Twenty-seven managers created case studies based on their unique experiences as managers. These case studies were scored, and the results of this research indicate that engineering managers employ defensive routines more commonly than non-engineering managers.

Senior Design: Kong Toy Instruction-Manual Insertion, Marianna R. Smith, Rachael L. Innocenzi, Ashley N. Cuthbert

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The team’s goal is to design and test a prototype and procedure that will automate the insertion of the

Kong toy instructions into the cardboard packaging. This automation will increase the speed at which

the product is packaged and will serve as an aid to workers with limited dexterity who find the task

cumbersome.

A Framework To Improve A Nation's Competitiveness Through Quality Awards And Performance Improvement Tools, Amr Alamri

Wayne State University Dissertations

Each country, represented by its government, aims to serve its citizens better. This is achieved by better utilization of resources and higher productivity. The ability to do so will lead to a competitive nation. Recently, countries were able to compare themselves in terms of competitiveness using international indexes and references. These references gave countries a benchmark to know where they exist compared to other nations. They help governments to understand their strengths and weaknesses within the competitiveness components. However, nations differ in the actions which are to be taken in order to improve their competitiveness. Governments establish and regulate many …

Virtual Agent Interaction - Improving Cognitive Abilities And Trust For A Complex Visual Search Task, Heather H. Milecki

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: This thesis research examined a novel decision support aid ("Spatial Cue + Virtual Agent") on human performance in a simulated complex visual search task. Method: Participants in the "Control" condition did not receive support from an aid. Participants in the "Spatial Cue" condition received support from an aid in the form of a bounding box. Participants in the "Spatial Cue + Virtual Agent" condition received support from an aid in the form of a bounding box and a virtual agent. The aids' reliability was held constant at one level, 70 percent. Image difficulty was based on clutter; clutter was …

Investigation Of Cultural Bias Using Physiological Metrics: Applications To International Business, Renee Nicole Rigrish

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

In today's world, many business transactions and interactions are conducted cross-culturally. When going to a business meeting, it is essential avoid a major cultural faux pas in order to not offend your business partners. The Cultural Lens model is used to understand the origins of cultural mismatches. An individual must adjust their approach to a situation to create a cultural match. In adjusting this approach, cognitive biases are a potential result in cross-cultural scenarios. We investigate the Mirror Imaging Bias, which has been found to be a common result of a shortcut to decide how to act in a situation. …

Chemical Storage Of Wind Energy By Renewable Methanol Production: Feasibility Analysis Using A Multi-Criteria Decision Matrix, Michael J. Matzen, Mahdi H. Alhajji, Yaşar Demirel

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study is for the technoeconomic analysis of an integral facility consisting of wind energy-based electrolytic hydrogen production, bioethanol-based carbon dioxide capture and compression, and direct methanol synthesis. ASPEN Plus was used to simulate the facility producing 97.01 mt (metric tons) methanol/day using 138.37 mt CO₂/day and 18.56 mt H₂/day. A discounted cash flow diagram for the integral facility is used for the economic analysis at various hydrogen production costs and methanol selling prices. The feasibility analysis is based on a multi-criteria decision matrix consisting of economic and sustainability indicators comparing renewable and non-renewable methanol productions. …

Table Of Contents

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

No abstract provided.

From The Desk Of The Editor

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

No abstract provided.