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Title: SEMANTIC ONTOLOGIES FOR THE PUBLICATION OF SPECTRUM MEASUREMENT PROVENANCE
Creator: Faurie, Eric A.
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: Measurement-based spectrum research isn’t new, but there is a renewed interest in understanding how the spectrum is being utilized. With the...
Show moreMeasurement-based spectrum research isn’t new, but there is a renewed interest in understanding how the spectrum is being utilized. With the modern prevalence of connected devices and our increasing reliance on wireless technologies, there is increasing demand for additional spectrum. The question of how to meet this demand largely depends on how the spectrum is being used today and thus a need for advanced measurement-based research has emerged. Spectrum measurement and analysis is complicated; the data is multi-dimensional and dynamic in time, space, and frequency. Signal behavior is governed by complex mathematics and its use is regulated by government agencies across the world. Data collection relies on a complex system of expensive hardware where the physical attributes of antennas, analyzers, and deployment locations all impact the data that’s collected. These variables and concerns must all be considered while deploying a Spectrum measurement system. This paper presents the Semantic Spectrum Ontology (SSO), a model which aids researchers in designing and deploying Spectrum Measurement systems and publishing their data as community resources. The SSO exists within the paradigm of the Semantic Web and links into the wider Semantic graph by extending the W3C’s Semantic Sensor Network Ontology (SSN). The Semantic Spectrum Ontology also presents two new Semantic Constructs. The Scientific Provenance Model allows researchers to publish in-depth metadata concerning the measurements and the conditions under which they were collected, and the Scientific Property Model creates a framework for encoding knowledge from various sources including domain experts and machine learning statistics. These two models were constructed specifically for the SSO but were generalized to allow for their application within any ontology representing any scientific field.
M.S. in Computer Science, May 2016
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Title: NETWORK-LEVEL VEHICLE CRASH PREDICTIONS INCORPORATING TIME-DEPENDENT EFFECTS INTO CONSIDERATIONS
Creator: Dao, Hoang
Date: 2016, 2016-07
Description: Maintaining highway safety is viewed as the over-arching goal of mananging transportation systems at all levels. According to the National...
Show moreMaintaining highway safety is viewed as the over-arching goal of mananging transportation systems at all levels. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over 37,000 people got killed and 2.35 million are injured in road crashes annually. The equivalent economic and societal losses are on the order of over $231 billion, or an average of $820 per person. Thus, developing vehicle crash models that can accurately predict crash occurrences becomes essential. The study begins with literature review of models for predicting vehicle crash frequencies and crash severity levels on highway segments and at highway intersections. The findings of literature review indicate that some models lack prediction accuracy owing to exclusion of many crashing contributing factors. Consequently, a new methodology for improved vehicle crash predictability is proposed to include as many crash contributing factors as possible. In addition, the proposed methodology aims to conduct crash predictions targeting a highway network. Two computational experiments are performed for methodology application, including one on highway segment-related crash predictions using data on Highway Safety Information System for Illinois from 2001 to 2010, and another one on intersection-related crash predictions using crash data on more than one thousand intersections for period 2004 to 2010 provided by city of Chicago. Cross comparisons are made on the results obtained by applying the proposed methodology, method documented in Highway Safety Manual (AASHTO, 2010), and Empirical Bayesian (EB) before-after method for validation. The proposed methodology is found to have out-performed the other two methods. Future research directions are provided for continuing refinements of the proposed methodology.
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, July 2016
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Title: TEMPERAMENT AND PARENTING: DO THEY INFLUENCE EACH OTHER AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE?
Creator: Strickland, Jennifer Pierce Munson
Date: 2012-04-19, 2012-05
Description: The aim of this study was to examine the reciprocal relationship between parenting behaviors (support, hostility, and scaffolding) and child...
Show moreThe aim of this study was to examine the reciprocal relationship between parenting behaviors (support, hostility, and scaffolding) and child temperament (effortful control, EC, and negative affect, NA) in children during the transition from kindergarten to first grade. Another aim was to examine direct and indirect effects of parenting and child temperament on children’s social competence. Participants included a diverse, community sample of 580 children and their primary caregivers. Parent support and hostility were assessed with the Parent Behavior Inventory. Scaffolding was assessed with observer ratings based on the NICHD ECCRN 3-Boxes Task. Child NA and EC were measured by parent-report using the Child Behavior Questionnaire, and social competence was assessed with the Social Skills Rating System. All measures were administered at both ages. Results indicated that the model that included cross-paths between the parenting and child factors provided the best fit to the data. The path coefficients indicated that child EC had significant effects on parenting behaviors (support, hostility and scaffolding). Contrary to expectation, however, there were no significant paths from parenting to child temperament. Both child EC and parenting support had significant direct and indirect effects on child social competence. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Ph.D. in Psychology, May 2012
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Title: SOLUTION TO STOKES FLOW DUE TO MOTION OF AN IMMERSED PARTICLE
Creator: Cao, Yu
Date: 2012-04-25, 2012-05
Description: For finding the solution to Stokes flow due to motion of an immersed particle, we introduce two different methods based on boundary integral...
Show moreFor finding the solution to Stokes flow due to motion of an immersed particle, we introduce two different methods based on boundary integral equations (BIE). For the first method, which is based on the first kind BIE, we prove the compactness of the integral operator of which the kernel is the Stokeslet, which implies that the BIE of the first kind in this method are ill-posed problems. For the second method, which is based on the second kind BIE which are well-posed problems, it is shown that the kernel functions in the BIE are generally not smooth. Finally, using the known numerical schemes, we compare the computational cost of these two method for finding the velocity of a given point in the domain in terms of the number of numerical integrations over triangles. It is show that theses two schemes are of same order while the computational cost of the second method is more expensive than that of the first one.
M.S. in Applied Mathematics, May 2012
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Title: AUDITORY PROCESSING AND THE EXTRACTION OF SOCIAL EMOTIONAL CUES IN AUTISM
Creator: Demopoulos, Carly
Date: 2013, 2013-07
Description: There is increasing evidence that there are deficits in vocal affect recognition abilities in some individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum...
Show moreThere is increasing evidence that there are deficits in vocal affect recognition abilities in some individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) and that sensory deficits are also common in these individuals. Little research, however, has focused on the relation between atypical auditory processing and vocal affect recognition abilities. The aim of this study was to examine if there was an association between cortical auditory processing and vocal affect recognition ability, and, in turn, to determine if vocal affect recognition ability was related to parent report of social and leadership skills. First, peripheral auditory processing was examined in a sample of 28 5-18 yearold (mean = 11.48) children and adolescents with an ASD. Vocal affect recognition was assessed by the paralanguage subtests of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to evaluate cortical electrophysiological processing in relation to auditory stimuli. Parent-report was used to assess social skills and leadership with these subtests on the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children-2. Correlational analyses indicated that there were no significant relations between peripheral auditory processing and DANVA scores. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for age, language ability, and IQ, the measures of cortical auditory processing contributed a significant additional 19% of the variance in DANVA-2 scores. Specifically, left hemisphere response latency and right hemisphere rapid auditory processing were related to vocal affect recognition. They also indicated that DANVA-2 scores contributed a significant additional 30% of the variance in parent-rated social skills after controlling for language ability and IQ. However, DANVA-2 scores did not contribute significantly to leadership skills. xi This was the first study to use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to assess auditory evoked fields in relation to vocal affect recognition and to show that there is an association between specific features of cortical auditory processing and vocal affect recognition. These results suggest that the ability to respond to and efficiently process rapidly presented auditory information may be important in extracting affective cues from speech, and for individuals on the autism spectrum, impairment in these abilities may contribute to difficulty in vocal affect recognition.
PH.D in Psychology, July 2013
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Title: MAPPING THE IDENTITY OF TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION THROUGH AUTHOR AND KEYWORD NETWORKS
Creator: Angderson, Charise
Date: 2012-04-22, 2012-05
Description: The identity of the interdisciplinary field of technical communication continues to be debated. For the last decade of so scholars have argued...
Show moreThe identity of the interdisciplinary field of technical communication continues to be debated. For the last decade of so scholars have argued for the need to emphasize new and emerging technologies to be integrated in technical communication curricula and research. This thesis examines how journals in technical communication have responded to these calls for a change in focus through the use of affiliation and keyword network analyses. Through the author-journal affiliation networks, I found technical communication journals mirror power laws as exhibited in other fields; there is a small group of authors and institutions that produce the majority of works. The author’s institutional affiliations, both in terms of employment and graduate degree, follow this same pattern. Authors also tended to have degrees in technical communication or some iteration of it. Through the keyword network, I found that articles on technical communication are mainly discussing topics concerning rhetoric and composition, followed by research in and discussions on the field technical communication as well as information technology.
M.S. in Communication and Information Design, May 2012
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Title: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITIVE ABILITY, SELF-AWARENESS, AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN ADULTS WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE
Creator: Feigon, Maia S.
Date: 2014, 2014-07
Description: Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects one in 365 African-Americans in the United States. Yet little is known about the effects of SCD on either...
Show moreSickle cell disease (SCD) affects one in 365 African-Americans in the United States. Yet little is known about the effects of SCD on either cognitive ability or quality of life (QOL). Sickle cell related complications are believed to effect level of depressive symptoms, activities of daily living, education, and employability. These variables in combination with a suspected lack of self-awareness likely have a significant contribution to the QOL of adults with SCD (Goverover, Chiaravalloti, & DeLuca, 2005; Goverover, Chiaravalloti, Gaudino-Goering, Moore, & DeLuca, 2009). To date there is no comprehensive model to explain the relationship between cognitive ability, selfawareness, and psychosocial variables unique to the SCD population. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting overall QOL in adults with SCD and to examine the effect of cognitive ability, activities of daily living, and self-awareness as variables related to QOL. These variables were explored together and individually in a sample of 76 African-American participants with SCD and between the ages of 18 and 65, to determine the relationship of these variables to QOL. Educational variables and depressive symptoms were also examined. Only depressive symptoms were significantly related to QOL. No other variables were associated with QOL nor were other statistically significant relationships found. Additional research on this population is needed to better determine the relationship between cognitive ability, depressive symptoms, and QOL and to better understand how and when to best intervene to improve QOL in adults with SCD.
Ph.D. in Psychology, July 2014
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Title: SAFETY IMPACTS OF SIGNAL TIMING OPTIMIZATION ON URBAN INTERSECTIONS WITH RED LIGHT RUNNING PHOTO ENFORCEMENT
Creator: Feng, Siyang
Date: 2015, 2015-12
Description: The traffic safety issue especially in urban areas is getting increasingly severe due to the ever-growing travel demand which closely related...
Show moreThe traffic safety issue especially in urban areas is getting increasingly severe due to the ever-growing travel demand which closely related to people’s basic necessities. As a part of the urban traffic network, the safety of the intersections in the urban area also reflects the efficiency and quality of the integrated urbanization level. Red light running at intersections has been a major safety concern in the United States. Because the red light running at intersection often results in a disproportionally higher percentage of injuries. From this point of view, the safety improvement of the urban intersections is imperative. The red light running photo enforcement has been designed to increase safety on streets by reducing the head-on, rear-end, and sideswipe crashes at intersections. Meanwhile, methods for intersection signal timing optimization in urban areas have been developed to reduce intersection delays. As a result of delay reductions, it is also important to analyze changes in vehicle crashes in order to gain a holistic understanding of traffic mobility and safety impacts. This study introduces an Empirical Bayesian (EB) before and after analysis method to evaluate the safety impacts of signal timing optimization on urban intersections with some intersections involved with red light running photo enforcement. Data on 842 signalized intersections are collected to calibrate the safety performance functions and to quantify the crash reduction effects before and after the signal timing optimization. Base on the EB method application, it is reviewed that a certain extent of safety enhancements is achieved as measured by crash type and severity level after intersection signal timing optimization and red light photo enforcement treatments.
M.S. in Civil Engineering, December 2015
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Title: THE LENGTH-TENSION CURVE OF AND LATTICE SPACING CHANGES IN SKINNED FLIGHT MUSCLE IN MANDUCA SEXTA
Creator: Shaoshuai, Chen
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: The synchronous indirect flight muscle (DLM1) of the Hawk moth, Manduca Sexta, has similarities to cardiac striated muscle in its...
Show moreThe synchronous indirect flight muscle (DLM1) of the Hawk moth, Manduca Sexta, has similarities to cardiac striated muscle in its physiological properties. In particular, both operate in vivo on the so-called ascending limb of the length-tension curve. The length-tension curve is a classical experiment to study the physiological properties of muscle. The length tension curve of DLM1 of Manduca sexta has previously been reported with a descending limb that is steeper than what would be expected given likely dimensions for the thick and thin filaments. Excessive rundown of the muscle preparations is a likely cause of these observations. Factors caused muscle rundown are many, such as the time allowed for the muscle to relax, the time for muscle spends contracting or the time spent on sarcomere length adjusting. Insights into the factors mentioned above were obtained by conducting a series of experiments designed to systematically explore the causes of rundown. These included Constant Sarcomere Length Experiments, Reciprocating Stretch Experiments and Back to SL 3.25 μm Experiment. Then a modified protocol for carrying out the length-tension experiment was developed based on these findings. A new length-tension curve was plotted and shows a shape closer to what might be expected theoretically. The force went to zero at about SL 5.7μm. This result is constant with other measurements of the length of the myofilaments. Finally, the lattice spacing experiment was carried out to figure out how the interfilament lattice spacing changes across the SL growing. Result shows that the lattice spacing did not change much over the plateau region of the length-tension curve (SL 2.9- 3.1) but increased substantially as SL decreases further in the ascending limb of the length tension curve.
M.S. in Biology, May 2016
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Title: INACTIVATION OF MURINE NOROVIRUS ON STRAWBERRIES USING PULSED LIGHT
Creator: Chen, Dongjie
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: Norovirus have become the predominant viral causes of foodborne illnesses worldwide, the foodborne happened mainly in schools and childcare...
Show moreNorovirus have become the predominant viral causes of foodborne illnesses worldwide, the foodborne happened mainly in schools and childcare facilities, strawberries were identified as the most likely vehicle according to the analytical epidemiological studies. So this study evaluated the efficacy of pulsed light (PL) treatments to inactivate murine norovirus (MNV-1), a human norovirus surrogate, inoculated onto strawberries. Two different PL treatments were evaluated - 3 Hz and 100 Hz PL treatments. PL treatments inactivated 1.5-3 log PFU/g MNV-1 on strawberry in a time-dependent manner of 30-120 s at both 3 and 100 Hz. The inactivation efficacy of PL is dependent on the pulsed frequency received with both PL treatment parameters. It can achieve 1.7 log PFU/g reduction after 120 s 3 Hz PL treatment at the distance of 8.3 cm from the quartz window, on the other hand, MNV-1 was inactivated by 3.2 log PFU/g after 120 s exposure to 100 Hz PL treatment at the distance of 8.3 cm from the quartz window. These results demonstrated that higher inactivation effect of MNV-1 on strawberry was associated with higher frequency of PL treatment. Therefore, this technology could be used to improve the microbial safety of fresh strawberries.
M.S. in Food Process Engineering, December 2016
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Title: Elastic Proteins in the Flight Muscle of Manduca Sexta
Creator: Yuan, Chen-ching
Date: 2012-05-01, 2012-05
Description: Unlike the asynchronous flight muscles of Lethocerus or Drosophila, the flight muscles (DLM1) of the Hawkmoth Manduca sexta are synchronous,...
Show moreUnlike the asynchronous flight muscles of Lethocerus or Drosophila, the flight muscles (DLM1) of the Hawkmoth Manduca sexta are synchronous, requiring a neural spike for each contraction. While the asynchronous muscles can only extend a few percent, Manduca flight muscle can reversibly extend 50% in vitro and 9% in vivo. Furthermore, the dorsal and ventral regions of the DLM1 have different power output presumably due to the temperature gradient across from the cooler dorsal to the warmer ventral subunits. Together with the observation that length-tension curves of Manduca flight muscles resemble mammalian cardiac muscle, these observations suggest that Manduca muscle might be a useful model system to study some aspects of cardiac muscle contractility. The detailed protein composition of Manduca flight muscle is not known. Here we aimed to identify proteins which might be responsible for the unique properties of Manduca muscle. We used 1% vertical SDS-agarose gel electrophoresis (VAGE) to separate the high molecular weight proteins in Manduca, Lethocerus, and Drosophila flight muscle and bovine left ventricular myocardium. The Manduca samples showed two bands around 2MDa and 1.6MDa, smaller than the two titin isoforms in bovine cardiac muscle, but larger than the largest Lethocerus proteins. Projectin and Kettin are elastic proteins found in Lethocerus and Drosophila with sequence homologies to vertebrate titin. Using western blots, the Manduca sample showed two bands cross-reacting with projectin antibodies at ~800 kDa and ~1030 kDa. Ventral (warmer) DLM1 subunits expressed higher level of both projectin isoform. The 1030 kDa projectin is the predominant expressed isoform in both dorsal and ventral subunits. Kettin antibodies cross-reacted to bands at the same position in both Lethocerus and Manduca. We also used western blots from 4-15% PAGE gels to detect a flightin –cross reacting band at around 23kDa in Lethocerus and 30 kDa in Manduca. Flightin is a thick filament associated protein that presumably helps filament assembly and stability. However, toponin I and T antibodies did not cross-react with similar molecular weight proteins from Manduca flight muscle. Thus, Manduca flight muscle has not only proteins homologous to Lethocerus projectin, kettin, flightin, but also several unknown high molecular weight proteins which might play a role in stabilizing sarcomere structure and give the muscle its unique mechanical properties.
M.S. in Biology, May 2012
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Title: Construction Management of Power Plants
Creator: Demirci, Ferhat Suleyman
Date: 2011-04-28, 2011-05
Description: Construction Management (CM), in general, has on objective of achieving greater benefits in terms of cost and time for owners of a...
Show moreConstruction Management (CM), in general, has on objective of achieving greater benefits in terms of cost and time for owners of a construction project. Professional management services are also the responsibilities of a construction manager. CM includes not only the management services but also the interdisciplinary information and data sharing. So the CM can use these presented information of a proposed project before and during power plant construction from the technical point of view. However, there is still ambiguity about the compatibility of the CM duties and responsibilities. This study determines whether there is a need for updating the duties and responsibilities of the CM for power plant construction, presents the fundamentals of power plant construction management profession, introduces CCGT (combined cycle gas turbine) power plant technologies, evaluates previous and existing datas on power plant construction regarding their usage in CM practice in terms of cost, and presents the updated duties and responsibilities of the CM. A case study is also conducted to identify the costs of a current power plant. Based on the collected information’s and case study, it is determined that the CM is highly needed in power plant industry that runs even in the recession periods. On the other hand, the management functions of the power plant industry are still deficient. This study does not include a specific chapter that defines deficiencies and solutions to those in terms of proposed duties and responsibilities. However, new approaches and practical application results are presented from the very beginning of this thesis till the end of the study.
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, May 2011
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Title: DESIGN CHALLENGES AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR WIRELESS ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING
Creator: Bloom, Matthew Aaron
Date: 2012-06-05, 2012-07
Description: As plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) become more popular and common place, there has been a considerable demand for hassle-free charging, in the...
Show moreAs plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) become more popular and common place, there has been a considerable demand for hassle-free charging, in the form of wireless technologies. The goal of this research was to investigate the design challenges associated with the design of a high-efficiency, wireless, Level-2 PHEV charger. This work analyzes the challenges presented by the magnetic coupling factor, AC resistance and Q-factor, coil radius, and power electronics, as well as their impact on the overall efficiency and output power level. In this work, the design specifications were centered on the Chevy Volt, and the wireless technology used for power transfer was the WiTricity™ system. In order to regulate the load current/voltage, a “current chopper” circuit is presented, which acts as similarly to a modified boost converter. To validate the ideas presented in this thesis, a 3.3 kW charging system was designed and simulated. To accurately model the WiTricity™ system in simulation, an electromagnetic/circuit-level co-simulation was performed using MATLAB Simulink and Infolytica MagNet. Waveforms from simulation are presented and analyzed in this work. The current chopper circuit was found to accomplish both voltage regulation for resistive loads, as well as constant-current and constant-voltage mode charging for Li-ion battery applications. Because of the switching nature of the current chopper, direct efficiency calculations were not possible; however, at full load, the wall-to-load efficiency was calculated to be 80%.
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, July 2012
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Title: A TIME COURSE STUDY OF FIBRONECTIN MATRIX ASSEMBLY ON SURFACES ACTIVATED WITH CELL AND FIBRONECTIN BINDING DOMAINS
Creator: Chiang, Chun-yi
Date: 2011-07, 2011-07
Description: Fibronectin mediates cell adhesion, migration and initiates extracellular matrix assembly. Therefore, it plays critical roles on wound healing...
Show moreFibronectin mediates cell adhesion, migration and initiates extracellular matrix assembly. Therefore, it plays critical roles on wound healing processes. The purpose of the study is to elucidate the effects of the combination of two functional domains, III1-2 and III9-10 subunits, on the fibronectin matrix assembly. In the present study, NIH 3T3 cells were cultured on the functionalized polyurethane (0.5 μM III9-10 and the mixture with 0.5 μM III9-10 and 0.5 μM III1-2). Functionalization enabled the formation of the covalent linkages between the coverslip polyurethane and the recombinant proteins. Surface characterization was examined by ELISA. NIH3T3 cells were plated on the functionalized coverslips and harvested after 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours culture. Total fibronectin and extracellular matrix fibronectin which is insoluble in deoxycholic acid (DOC) were analyzed through western blotting. The quantification results showed that the mixture groups tended to have higher total fibronectin than the III9-10 alone groups at most time point (3, 6, and 12 hours). Especially obvious differences of DOC-insoluble fibronectin between the mixture group and III9-10 alone group were found in the early stage (3 hour) of the fibronectin matrix assembly. Immunostaining images also showed that fiber-like FN had been generated after three hours culture in the mixture group but FN still looked faint in III9-10 group. Longer and larger FN fibrils were identified in the mixture groups than in III9-10 groups at all time points. In conclusion, III1-2 enhances fibronectin matrix assembly when present with III9-10 through increase the rate of the formation of DOC-insoluble fibronectin in 24 hours culture.
M.S. in Biology, July 2011
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Title: Value of DER to distribution networks
Creator: Nasiri, Hiva
Date: 2019
Description: Distributed energy resources (DERs) provide various values to electric power systems. One of the challenges DER introduce is to determine what...
Show moreDistributed energy resources (DERs) provide various values to electric power systems. One of the challenges DER introduce is to determine what is the value of DER contributions to various sectors in distributed power systems. Analyzing such challenges require understanding the inherent variability of DERs and the uncertainty in hourly load. The value of DER is also a function of network conditions and its adaptability for responding to DERs and loading variations.The uncertain conditions in the planning and the operation of electric power systems make the DER valuation a complicated task which requires sophisticated analytical methods. DER valuation will be a critical issue for the power market operation as we try to determine the most economical and reliable generation portfolio to maximize social welfare. In the DER valuation, there is a stage in which the DER candidates are not located or sized properly, and the utility will provide an approximated solution in order to value DERs. In this thesis, DER valuation has been addressed initially using a stochastic analysis in order to determine a range of values. Once the range is determined, we calculate the economic viability of the values within the range. If DER can reduce the upgrade cost for delivering the load in a distribution system, then the proposed size and the location of DER will have viability. In addition, with the proposed method, a utility can decide on the cost and the methodology of mitigating contingencies by DERs and allocate that cost to the amount of DER for valuation. This is considered as the second phase of this valuation method.As the final phase of this thesis, different types of financial contracts are considered as part of valuation which can introduce additional merits to the utility operation. Recently, the concept of real options has been considered in electric power system projects. The real option analyses (ROA) concept has proven to be viable because of the variability in DERs and changes in real-time load as discussed in this dissertation. The DER valuation is highly case sensitive, and many special factors may have an effect on its value. In this thesis, the factors with the highest impact have been considered, however, there could be additional factors with lower impacts which usually depend on the utility planning and operation. The essence of such factors is further discussed as part of the future work are briefly explained at the end of the thesis.
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Title: Performance Analysis of Energy Harvesting- Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access IoT Network
Creator: Ni, Zhou
Date: 2019
Description: Internet of Things (IoT) systems in general consist of a lot of devices with massive connectivity. Those devices are usually constrained with...
Show moreInternet of Things (IoT) systems in general consist of a lot of devices with massive connectivity. Those devices are usually constrained with limited energy supply and can only operate at low power and low rate. One solution to limited energy is to use energy harvesting to provide sustainable energy. The set of technologies adopted in next-generation wireless communication systems, such as massive MIMO and Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), can provide solutions to increase the throughput of IoT systems. In this thesis, we investigate a cellular-based IoT system combined with energy harvesting and NOMA. We consider all base stations (BS) and IoT devices follow the Poisson Point Process (PPP) distribution in a given area. The unit time slot is divided into two phases, energy harvesting phase in downlink (DL) and data transmission phase in uplink (UL). That is, IoT devices will first harvest energy from all BS transmissions and then use the harvested energy to do the NOMA information transmission. We define an energy harvesting circle within which all IoT devices can harvest enough energy for NOMA transmission. The design objective is to maximize the total throughput in UL within the circle by varying the duration T of energy harvesting phase. In our work, we also consider the inter-cell interference in the throughput calculation. The analysis of Probability Mass Function (PMF) for IoT devices in the energy harvesting circle is also compared with simulation results. It is shown that the BS density needs to be carefully set so that the IoT devices in the energy harvesting circle receive relatively smaller interference and energy circles overlap only with small probability. Our simulations show that there exists an optimal T to achieve the maximum throughput. When the BSs are densely deployed consequently the total throughput will decrease because of the interference.
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Title: MICROSTRUCTURE EVOLUTION OF TWO KINDS OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE RESISTANCE FE-CR-NI ALLOYS
Creator: Pan, Weiqi
Date: 2019
Description: In this research, two different as-cast Fe-Cr-Ni alloys (35Cr-45Ni, 25Cr-35Ni) were aged at different times (1h, 10h, 100h, 1000h) and...
Show moreIn this research, two different as-cast Fe-Cr-Ni alloys (35Cr-45Ni, 25Cr-35Ni) were aged at different times (1h, 10h, 100h, 1000h) and temperature (700℃, 800℃, 900℃, 1000℃). These different aged alloys were studied by optical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffractometer, micro Vickers hardness tester. The aged sample showed a higher hardness than the as-cast one. The hardness also changed as time and temperature increased because diffusion result on phase transformation and precipitation. Both as-cast 35Cr-45Ni and 25Cr-35Ni have MC (NbC) and M7C3 (Cr7C3) phase transformation during aging. The long term high-temperature aging caused changes carbides and silicide phase. For both alloys during aging, MC carbides transformed to G-phase, and Cr7C3 transformed to Cr23C6.
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Title: SYNTHESIS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE SILICON ANODES AND SURFACE-MODIFIED NMC CATHODES FOR LI-ION BATTERIES
Creator: Ashuri, Maziar
Date: 2019
Description: Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have revolutionized the portable electronic devices and electric vehicles (EV) and because of this huge demand,...
Show moreLithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have revolutionized the portable electronic devices and electric vehicles (EV) and because of this huge demand, it is important to meet high power, high specific energy, and long cycle life. All mentioned characteristics are directly related to the choice of anode and cathode electrodes. Currently, graphite is used as anode, while lithium cobalt oxide serves as cathode dominantly. Although graphite can deliver ~ 370 mA h g-1 capacity without significant capacity decay for several cycles, however it is not enough to fulfill the requirements for many applications. Silicon with the theoretical capacity of about 10 times higher than graphite is a promising anode. However, this material suffers from huge volume expansion during cycling in addition to its intrinsic low conductivity. From the cathode viewpoint, the need for materials with less cobalt content is necessary. The resources for cobalt element is very limited while the price of cobalt increasing. Furthermore, cobalt is known as toxic element. Therefore, substitution of cobalt with other elements such as manganese and nickel is necessary. Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) cathode family materials are introduced following this idea.Here in this thesis, two different approaches are introduced to harness the problems associated with silicon anodes. The first approach is the core/shell design and the second one is the silicon/graphite nanocomposite with tailored structure and engineered voids. Both of these designs can be synthesized easily without complicatedsynthesis steps and harmful chemicals. They have the potential of being commercialized and they do not need expensive equipment. The silicon anodes have been tested successfully in the half-cell coin cells.As for the cathode side, two different members of NMC family materials (NMC333 and NMC532) have been tested. To enhance their electrochemical properties and rate capabilities, a facile surface modification using phosphoric acid was employed. This technique resulted in the formation of thin lithium phosphate coating around the particle. The electrodes performed very well in half-cell configuration. It is expected by utilizing the proposed cathode and anode materials in full-cell set up, a high performance battery with fast charge ability is obtained.
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Title: Detection Of BAXΔ2 Reading Frame Shift Using A Dual Luciferase Reporter System
Creator: Beatty, Evan Alexander
Date: 2019
Description: While initial studies of the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2-associated X protein isoform Δ2 (BAXΔ2) identified the combination of an alternative splicing...
Show moreWhile initial studies of the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2-associated X protein isoform Δ2 (BAXΔ2) identified the combination of an alternative splicing event and a gene-level mutation as the prerequisites for biosynthesis in microsatellite unstable (MSI+) human colon cancer cells, no similar explanation existed to explain the presence of this protein in normal and normal adjacent tissues. To identify an alternative to the gene-level mutation in the absence of an MSI+ phenotype, we utilized a dual luciferase reporter assay designed to observe epigenetic recoding. Plasmid constructs containing the first two exons encoding BAXΔ2 were either transcribed and translated in vitro or transfected into BAX-negative human colon cancer cells. In both cases, assay of the protein products of the reporter genes demonstrate that a low level (2.82% in vitro, 4.43% in vivo) of all translational events which produce the protein product of an upstream reporter gene also produce the protein product of a downstream reporter gene. This occurs despite the two existing in different reading frames as a result of the BAX exons cloned between them. These results confirm that an epigenetic recoding event is able to salvage the BAX reading frame in cases where exon 2 has been excised, and further narrow down the potential mechanism involved to either transcriptional slippage or programmed ribosomal frameshifting.
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Title: MICROGRID COMMUNICATION: HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES
Creator: GONG, WENLONG
Date: 2019
Description: The Keating Nanogrid at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) was designed to be an islandable ac/dc hybrid nanogrid. The on-site rooftop...
Show moreThe Keating Nanogrid at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) was designed to be an islandable ac/dc hybrid nanogrid. The on-site rooftop solar and battery system are supporting the interconnected dc and ac subsystems. The nanogrid system at the ac bus is eventually interconnected with the IIT Microgrid. The battery storage system at Keating Nanogrid was designed to support its critical loads for about 8 hours daily. A battery management system (BMS) was employed so that it can monitor and report storage system status to the Keating Nanogrid controller for optimal decision making.The dc load including 94 fixtures controllable LED lighting system was designed to replace the original 189 fixtures ac florescent lighting system. The LEDs’ dc-dc driver was designed and built to enable the dc input provided by the rooftop solar photovoltaic system. The dc system control and communication module was designed and built to make the LED lights controllable individually by the Keating Nanogrid controller or sensor network.To enhance safety at night, 4 islandable LED streetlights were deployed on the east side of the Keating Nanogrid where grid connection was not available for lighting. The east-side streetlight is self-sustained with its own wind turbine, solar panel and battery. The real-time monitoring system was designed and built for the streetlights.The Keating Nanogrid was designed for multiple purposes including the monitoring and control of all elements via pertinent communication pathways. It exchanges the real-time information with the IIT Microgrid and together they make optimal operation decisions to enhance efficiency and reliability of the entire IIT Microgrid system.
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