Development of an RFID Tracking System for Coarse Sediment Transport in a Flume Setting

Development of an RFID Tracking System for Coarse Sediment Transport in a Flume Setting Peter E. Mahoney Professor Carl Renshaw Understanding how sediment moves through a fluvial system has important implications for the study of river systems, sediment flux, and flood events. Over the past decade, RFID (radio frequency identification) technology has emerged as a useful method for tracking the movement and transport of coarse sediment clasts. This approach has been used to measure the transport of large clasts in mid-sized streams, ephemeral channels, and laboratory flume settings. However, this research utilized finite transport of sediment and focused on accurately determining clast location, instead of measuring total flux over longer, uninterrupted intervals. In this study, artificial, course grained clasts were seeded with 12 mm RFID tags in order to test the feasibility of an RFID tracking system in a continuous racetrack flume setting. Using an existing loop antenna to measure baseline results, detection success was studied while varying antenna range and orientation, bead quantity and spacing, and flow speed. These results suggested that an RFID tracking system was feasible for this flume application, with a loop antenna located 20 cm beneath the flume. Using these baseline results, a loop antenna was designed, constructed, and tested to further optimize the detection rate. Finally, a MATLAB computational model was developed to predict the impact of tag interference and entrapment on measured sediment flux and quantify the performance of the system under extended intervals. The ability to accurately measure bedload flux in this flume system allows for several potential applications for the tracking system, including testing for bedload transport variation with changing bedform type, discharge, and channel size. Furthermore, with an improved data management system, sediment flux can be tracked over extended periods with limited human oversight

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation presents results documenting advancements on the control of untethered magnetic devices, such as magnetic \microrobots" and magnetically actuated capsuleendoscopes, motivated by problems in minimally invasive medicine. This dissertationfocuses on applying rotating magnetic elds for magnetic manipulation. The contributions include advancements in the way that helical microswimmers (devices that mimicthe propulsion of bacterial agella) are controlled in the presence of gravitational forces, advancements in ways that groups of untethered magnetic devices can be dierentiated and semi-independently controlled, advancements in the way that untethered magnetic device can be controlled with a single rotating permanent magnet, and an improved understanding in the nature of the magnetic force applied to an untethered device by a rotating magnet

HTSP : a knowledge based teaching/solving tool for heat transfer

A computer program has been developed for the teaching and solving of heat transfer problems. The comprehensive Heat Transfer Simulation Program (HTSP) has been created to determine the feasibility of using computers for both teaching and design applications. The program, written in Fortran language and driven interactively by color graphics, is broken up into two modes. The first mode is called TEACH. It includes an instruction book for the investigator and example problems. The second mode, called EXPERT, is available for the fluent user in solving heat transfer applications. EXPERT includes a utility module suitable for material database extraction, unit conversion, and general plotting and a solver module (currently a conduction Finite Element Method (FEM) solver). In its current state the program will assist beginner and intermediate students in the TEACH mode. The EXPERT mode can be used by anyone despite their heat transfer background.Includes bibliographical references

Policing the Races: Attempts to Enforce Racial Purity in Virginia (1630 -1930)

This paper examines Virginia\u27s Racial Purity Laws enacted to deny equal opportunity to black men and women who could pass as whites from the early 1600s to the U. S. Supreme Court decision (Loving v. Virginia) in 1967. When physi­cal charac­teristics failed to match the legal definition of race, the state used records of vital statistics for boundary mainte­nance. Birth certificates, in particu­lar, served as internal passports to school assignments, work eligibility, and marriage, denying citizens defined as Negro life chances available to whites. It was also found that over time the definition of Negro was expanded to include citizens with smaller proportions of African or even Native American blood in their ancestry. An example is presented illustrating how racial identity was defined and enforced

Optimizing Quantum Models of Classical Channels: The Reverse Holevo Problem

Given a classical channel—a stochastic map from inputs to outputs—the input can often be transformed into an intermediate variable that is informationally smaller than the input. The new channel accurately simulates the original but at a smaller transmission rate. Here, we examine this procedure when the intermediate variable is a quantum state. We determine when and how well quantum simulations of classical channels may improve upon the minimal rates of classical simulation. This inverts Holevo’s original question of quantifying the capacity of quantum channels with classical resources: We determine the lowest-capacity quantum channel required to simulate a classical channel. We also show that this problem is equivalent to another, involving the local generation of a distribution from common entanglement

Spitzer Mission Operation System Planning for IRAC Warm-Instrument Characterization (IWIC)

This paper will describe how the Spitzer Mission Operations System planned and executed the characterization phase between Spitzer’s cryogenic mission and its warm mission. To the largest extend possible, the execution of this phase was done with existing processing and procedures. The modifications that were made were in response to the differences of the characterization phase compared to normal phases before and after. The primary two categories of difference are: unknown date of execution due to uncertainty of knowledge of the date of helium depletion, and the short cycle time for data analysis and re-planning during execution. In addition, all of the planning and design had to be done in parallel with normal operations, and we had to transition smoothly back to normal operations following the transition. This paper will also describe the re-planning we had to do following an anomaly discovered in the first days after helium depletion