Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

A Set Union Based Formulation For Course Scheduling And Timetabling, Jesse Paul Bukenberger

Master's Theses

The Course Timetabling Problem is a widely studied optimization problem where a number of sections are scheduled in concert with the assignment of students to sections in order to maximize the desirability of the resulting schedule for all stakeholders. This problem is commonly solved as a linear program with variables for each student or group of students with identical schedules. In this paper we explore an alternative formulation that aggregates binary student variables into integer variables denoting the number of students enrolled in a course. Our solution method assumes decomposition of the general schedule into time blocks, and applies a …

Analysis Of Environmentally Friendly Marking Ink For Military Equipment And Electronics, Liang Li

Master's Theses

Recent advancements in corrosion-resistance coating technology has reduce the use of environmentally harmful compounds such as Hexavalent Chromium by replacing Hexavalent Chromium in primers and topcoat. However, marking inks were neglected in the process. Products such as Enthone 50 series are still widely used, which contain compounds such as lead, hexavalent chromium, bisphenol A (BPA), Cadmium Sulfide, and more. Excluding catalyst compositions in Enthone, the chemicals in the ink alone contained three reproductive toxicant and numerous carcinogens. Therefore, it was essential to search and validate the performance of potential marking ink that would meet the standards in military applications.

Eleven …

Robust Two-Stage Stochastic Linear Programs With Moment Constraints, Sarah Yini Gao, Lingchen Kong, Jie Sun

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We consider the two-stage stochastic linear programming model, in which the recourse function is a worst case expected value over a set of probabilistic distributions. These distributions share the same first- and second-order moments. By using duality of semi-infinite programming and assuming knowledge on extreme points of the dual polyhedron of the constraints, we show that a deterministic equivalence of the two-stage problem is a second-order cone optimization problem. Numerical examples are presented to show non-conservativeness and computational advantage of this approach.

Revisiting Risk-Sensitive Mdps: New Algorithms And Results, Ping Hou, William Yeoh, Pradeep Reddy Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) have been shown to be effective models for planning under uncertainty, theobjective to minimize the expected cumulative cost is inappropriate for high-stake planning problems. As such, Yu, Lin, and Yan (1998) introduced the Risk-Sensitive MDP (RSMDP) model, where the objective is to find a policy that maximizes the probability that the cumulative cost is within some user-defined cost threshold. In this paper, we revisit this problem and introduce new algorithms that are based on classical techniques, such as depth-first search and dynamic programming, and a recently introduced technique called Topological Value Iteration (TVI). We demonstrate …

A Practical Guide To An Fmri Experiment, Nasser H. Kashou

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has been around for two decades and research in this field has been exponentially rising. Much of this research has been dominated by basic science. Recent trends have brought the clinical realm into play in which valuable contributions can still be made. Helping the clinician understand the basic concepts behind an fMRI experiment is crucial to further developing and evaluating functional paradigms and research. Critical to designing an fMRI experiment is understanding the related physics and how fine tuning scanning parameters affects the image quality, which in turn affect the findings of an fMRI study. …

Automated Localization And Segmentation Of Pelvic Floor Structures On Mri To Predict Pelvic Organ Prolapse, Sinan Onal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a major health problem that affects women. POP is a herniation of the female pelvic floor organs (bladder, uterus, small bowel, and rectum) into the vagina. This condition can cause significant problems such as urinary and fecal incontinence, bothersome vaginal bulge, incomplete bowel and bladder emptying, and pain/discomfort. POP is normally diagnosed through clinical examination since there are few associated symptoms. However, clinical examination has been found to be inadequate and in disagreement with surgical findings. This makes POP a common but poorly understood condition. Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the pelvic floor has …

A Multivariable Statistical Approach To Managing United States Coast Guard Small Boats, Brian D. Fitzpatrick

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Coast Guard has developed several systems to measure the performance of its engineering and logistics organizations. The development of these measures is based upon the need to show where and how the organization meets the American taxpayer’s needs. The use of multivariable regressions and determining the statistical distributions of the variables will show the adequacy of the measures and processes currently used. They will also determine a better way to measure the performance of the Coast Guard Small Boat Fleet. This research will analyze the 47 Motor Life Boat and 25 Response Boat-Small data from fiscal year 2011 to …

Leveraging High Resolution Signalized Intersection Data To Characterize Discharge Headway Distributions And Saturation Flow Rate Reliability, Stephen M. Remias, Alexander M. Hainen, Gannon Grimmer, Alexander D. Davis, Christopher M. Day, Thomas M. Brennan Jr, James R. Sturdevant, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Other Publications and Reports

As highway systems become more congested, it becomes increasingly important to understand the reliability with which we can estimate important performance measures such as volume to capacity ratios, particularly as we move toward leveraging field infrastructure to obtain real-time performance measures. In 1947, Greenshields wrote a paper that characterized “green time consumed” by “car-in-line-number” that ultimately was called headway. Average headway is one of principles used by the highway capacity manual to estimate saturation flow rate at signalized intersections. However, the current analytical techniques calculate a deterministic value for saturation flow rate that does not consider the stochastic variation of …

Design Of A Custom Software Application To Monitor And Communicate Cnc Machining Process Information To Aid In Chatter Identification, Valerie Pezzullo

All Theses

In any manufacturing environment, it is important to be able to monitor the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining process so that high quality parts can be produced in the least amount of time in order to be profitable. This involves acquiring the proper parameters needed from the machine's controller, which can prove to be difficult with proprietary machine tools that tend to limit access to the internal data collected by the controller. This closed approach to controller design also means that many technological advances that have recently become prevalent in society are not being adopted in the manufacturing industry, preventing …

Rssi And Lqi Data Clustering Techniques To Determine The Number Of Nodes In Wireless Sensor Networks, Yanwen Wang, Ivan G. Guardiola, Xiaoling Wu

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the rapid proliferation of wireless sensor networks, different network topologies are likely to exist in the same geographical region, each of which is able to perform its own functions individually. However, these networks are prone to cause interference to neighbor networks, such as data duplication or interception. How to detect, determine, and locate the unknown wireless topologies in a given geographical area has become a significant issue in the wireless industry. This problem is especially acute in military use, such as spy-nodes detection and communication orientation systems. In this paper, three different clustering methods are applied to classify the …

After Sales Supply Chain Risk Management., Steffen Luksch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lean supply chains with cost optimized production and logistics processes in the automotive industry have become a benchmark for other industries. Short delivery times, low inventories and high availability are parameters which assume a robust supply chain. In industrial practice we see, however, that in the After Sales business particularly related to the supply of automotive spare parts, that there are always unforeseen delays in delivery. In order to avoid service level losses on the focal firm level due to missing parts it is necessary to understand the risk structure on the supplier side. For this reason, a risk model …

Pavement Deterioration Modeling And Design Of A Composite Pavement Distress Index For Kentucky Interstate Highways And Parkways., Chenglong Luo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pavement deterioration is one of the most important driver for prioritizing pavement management and preservation (PMP) projects. The primary goal of this thesis is to provide reasonable predictive functions from multiple linear regression (MLR) models and artificial neural networks (ANN) that can be adopted by Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). Furthermore, we use analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to design a composite pavement distress index in order to help Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) prioritizing PMP projects based on 11 different distress indices. Numerical results show that the MLR models provide relatively high R square values of approximately 0.8. Both MLR and ANN …

Two-Stage Network Design In Humanitarian Logistics., Seyed Soroush Moeini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes can cause multiple deaths, injuries, and severe damage to properties. In order to minimize the impact of such disasters, emergency response plans should be developed well in advance of such events. Moreover, because different organizations such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments, and militaries are involved in emergency response, the development of a coordination scheme is necessary to efficiently organize all the activities and minimize the impact of disasters. The logistics network design component of emergency management includes determining where to store emergency relief materials, the corresponding quantities and distribution to the affected areas …

A Novel Numerical Framework For Simulation Of Multiscale Spatio-Temporally Non-Linear Systems In Additive Manufacturing Processes., Nachiket Patil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

New computationally efficient numerical techniques have been formulated for multi-scale analysis in order to bridge mesoscopic and macroscopic scales of thermal and mechanical responses of a material. These numerical techniques will reduce computational efforts required to simulate metal based Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes. Considering the availability of physics based constitutive models for response at mesoscopic scales, these techniques will help in the evaluation of the thermal response and mechanical properties during layer-by-layer processing in AM. Two classes of numerical techniques have been explored. The first class of numerical techniques has been developed for evaluating the periodic spatiotemporal thermal response involving …

Predictions Of Nox Emissions In Pulverized Coal Combustion., Niko Hachenberg 1981-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research work was to develop a transferable mathematically simple model which gives the possibility to make fast and easy predictions regarding the NOx emission behavior of a broad–spectrum of coals within a certain combustion environment. In this context, this thesis is a further step of a common ongoing investigation focused on predicting NOx emissions from self–sustaining, pulverized coal combustion in dry bottom firing systems. A comprehensive literature research focused on already published NOx prediction approaches from scientific publications based on fundamental quantitative relationships or empirical algorithms and statistical relationships was also carried out in this context. …

Early Detection And Control Of Potential Pandemics., Shengpeng Jin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the centuries, human beings have been inflicted with a variety of contagious diseases, resulting in tens of millions of respiratory illnesses and deaths worldwide. Early detection of disease spread facilitates timely responses that can greatly reduce its impact on a population. Therefore, this early information is a major public health objective and is crucial for policy makers and public health officials responsible for protecting the public from the spread of contagious diseases. Current indicators of the spread of contagious outbreaks lag behind its actual spread, leaving no time for a planned response. The studies of Christakis et al. in …

Implications Of Additive Manufacturing On Complexity Management Within Supply Chains In A Production Environment., Andre Kieviet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on developing a generic framework for using additive manufacturing as an appropriate production method to address the management of complexity in supply chains. While several drivers such as changing customer demand patterns and intensifying global competition increase product complexity, the available number of product variants and related processes within the supply chain itself increase costs and dilute scale effects. Several concepts and tools like mass customization, modularization, and product platforms have been developed in the past decades, but most of them focus on the product structure. Currently, there is no comprehensive tool set developed in the field …

A Heuristic Algorithm For Determining The Part Set In A Powder-Bed Additive Manufacturing Machine., Sonja Dieder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to develop a procedure for the placement of a priority part into a planned build in a powder-bed additive manufacturing machine. Toward that goal, a heuristic procedure was developed that seeks to maximize the revenue in a scheduled build, subject to due-date constraints; i.e., all parts with the closest due date will not only be included in the build, but will be placed near the bottom of the build. Likewise, any part in the scheduled build that does not have an immediate due date is a candidate for removal in order to accommodate a …

Simulation Model For Optimization Of A Landside Harbor Logistic Chain Of Container Terminals., Klaus Striegel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The world wide transportation of all kind of goods with containers is a fast growing business. The challenge is to transport in the shortest time to the lowest cost. The vessels therefore become bigger and bigger. The biggest vessel with 16000 TEU is since December 2012 in service. But the next generation with 18000-22000 TEU is already being built. This raises questions in acceleration of loading and unloading process, the handling in the yards of the harbors and the transportation of the containers to Hinterland. The most common way is still to transport the container from the yard by truck, …

Monitoring Hospital Safety Climate Using Control Charts Of Non-Harm Events In Reporting Systems, Susan Robinson

All Theses

The primary aim of this thesis is to design an approach and demonstrate a methodology to supplement safety culture assessment efforts. The framework affords an enhanced understanding of hospital safety climate, specifically reporting culture, through the use of control charts to monitor non-harm patient safety events documented in reporting systems. Assessing safety culture and climate remains difficult. One of the most common methods to assess safety culture is a self-report survey administered annually. Surveys assess safety climate, because they are a snapshot of the management's and front-line staff's perceptions of safety within their settings. One component of safety culture is …

Lateral Dynamics Of Multiple Trailer Trucks In Windy Environments, David Wafer

All Theses

The lateral response of three-trailer commercial vehicles has been assessed using the simulation package TruckSim^TM. Aerodynamic and mechanical characterizations for the vehicle were developed for this investigation. Simulations were carried out with various aerodynamic and load configurations with several different arbitrarily defined crosswinds. The aerodynamic configurations were tested in constant and random crosswinds. The load configurations were tested only in random crosswinds. Each aerodynamic configuration differed by the aerodynamic side-force coefficient for the trailers. Each load configuration consisted of reducing the payload in a single trailer. The tractor was identically defined for each load and aerodynamic configuration. Increasing …

Acuta Enews May 2014 Vol. 43, No. 5

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In this Issue...

State of the ResNef Report

Stream Annual Conference 2014

Annual Dues Invoices Mailed

What's Next for Net Neutrality?

Key lssues for Compliance with FCC Signal Booster Rules

Big Data: A Tool, Not an Answer

ACUTA Seeking Presenters for Fall Seminar in Boston

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Check It Out

Models For Incorporating Block Scheduling In Blood Drive Staffing Problems, Yulong Su

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to develop decision support models that can be used by the American Red Cross (ARC) to schedule blood drives with improved shifts for the phlebotomists that staff them. Currently, phlebotomists work inconsistent hours and the ARC believes this is a leading cause of high turnover rates they are experiencing. For example, phlebotomists sometimes staff a blood drive until 11 PM one night and will have to work another at 8 AM the next morning. Assigning phlebotomists more consistent shifts in blocks of time will definitely improve their work schedule. Before switching to block scheduling, …

Uncertainty In Relief Supply Distribution, Christopher A. Bayles

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the aftermath of a natural disaster the efficient planning of humanitarian relief efforts, e.g., delivering supplies to locations in need, can often mean the difference between lives being saved and lives being lost. In this paper we focus on two things: (1) appropriate objectives for routing problems in the context of delivery of relief supplies, and (2) how to handle the uncertainty associated with delivery of relief supplies after a disaster. Through applying uncertainty to parameters such as travel time between locations, we seek to examine if/how optimal routes change as a result of different objectives and the presence …

Robust System For Infection Control: An Industrial Systems Engineering Approach, Sundaravel Vinay Swarup Achudhan

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Health care delivery in the United States needs improvement. Each year about 98,000 people die as a result of medical errors and the United States is outranked by a number of developed countries in life expectancy, mortality and comorbidity. Healthcare quality is determined based on the quality of the service provided to the patient during their visit. Apart from the traditional problem solving design and development tools used to improve healthcare quality, The National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine recommend systems engineering principle and systems engineering tools to be used in health care to improve the industry. …

Improved Mixed-Integer Models Of A Two-Dimensional Cutting Stock Problem, William Lassiter

All Theses

This paper is concerned with a family of two-dimensional cutting stock problems that seeks to cut rectangular regions from a finite collection of sheets in such a manner that the minimum number of sheets is used. A fixed number of rectangles are to be cut, with each rectangle having a known length and width. All sheets are rectangular, and have the same dimension. We review two known mixed-integer mathematical formulations, and then provide new representations that both economize on the number of discrete variables and tighten the continuous relaxations. A key consideration that arises repeatedly in all models is the …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Decision Process In Social Groups Using Human Trajectories, Truc Viet Le, Siyuan Liu, Hoong Chuin Lau, Ramayya Krishnan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A group's collective action is an outcome of the group's decision-making process, which may be reached by either averaging of the individual preferences or following the choices of certain members in the group. Our problem here is to decide which decision process the group has adopted given the data of the collective actions. We propose a generic statistical framework to infer the group's decision process from the spatio-temporal data of group trajectories, where each "trajectory" is a sequence of group actions. This is achieved by systematically comparing each agent type's influence on the group actions based on an array of …

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing For Healthcare Provider Supply Chain Processes, Martha Isaura Gonzalez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a time when healthcare costs continue to rise, nearly a third of hospital operating expenses are related to supplies, and the healthcare supply chain is complex, it is pertinent for healthcare providers to have a clear understanding of their healthcare supply chain process costs. Having a clear picture into how these costs are driven and where opportunities for cost reductions exist can support supply chain efficiencies. In this research, we develop a Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) supply chain cost management tool for healthcare providers. A TDABC management system can provide healthcare providers with valuable product and process supply chain …

Poisson Distributed Individuals Control Charts With Optimal Limits, Negin Enayaty Ahangar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The conventional method used in attribute control charts is the Shewhart three sigma limits. The implicit assumption of the Normal distribution in this approach is not appropriate for skewed distributions such as Poisson, Geometric and Negative Binomial. Normal approximations perform poorly in the tail area of the these distributions. In this research, a type of attribute control chart is introduced to monitor the processes that provide count data. The economic objective of this chart is to minimize the cost of its errors which is determined by the designer. This objective is a linear function of type I and II errors. …

Starch-Pectin Matrices For Encapsulation Of Ascorbic Acid, Yiwei Liu

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Starch and pectin are two food-grade carbohydrates widely utilized in the food industry. Starch and pectin polymers have been investigated in encapsulating functional food ingredients and in pharmaceutical applications. Resistance to enzyme hydrolysis, differential solubilities, depending on the pH, and the ability to ‘protect’ unstable molecules are considered some of the beneficial properties of starch and pectin polymers, for encapsulation applications. Food ingredients could be delivered in a controlled manner to a specific target by encapsulating in micro-scale particles, i. e., microencapsulation. Two studies were conducted to investigate the ability of selected starch-pectin blends in microencapsulating ascorbic acid (vitamin C) …