Self-Smoothing Functional Estimation

Analysis of measured data is often required when there is no deep understanding of the mathematics that accurately describes the process being measured. Additionally, realistic estimation of the derivative of measured data is often useful. Current techniques of accomplishing this type of data analysis are labor intensive, prone to significant error, and highly dependent on the expertise of the engineer performing the analysis. The ?Self-Smoothing Functional Estimation? (SSFE) algorithm was developed to automate the analysis of measured data and to provide a reliable basis for the extraction of derivative information. In addition to the mathematical development of the SSFE algorithm, an example is included in Chapter III that illustrates several of the innovative features of the SSFE and associated algorithms. Conclusions are drawn about the usefulness of the algorithm from an engineering perspective and additional possible uses are mentioned

A Profusion of Parallel Tracks: Why Mongolian Roads of Dirt and Gravel Branch, Multiply, and Fuse Endlessly

A Profusion of Parallel Tracks: Why Mongolian Roads of Dirt and Gravel Branch, Multiply, and Fuse Endlessl

Feasibility of Anionic Waxy Maze Starch as a Coating Cobinder

This project will demonstrate the potential of incorporating a 100% waxy maze, anionic starch into a paper coating. This has been done in the past using oxidized starches as a primary binder, and has been met with a great deal of success with respect to rheological improvements as well as improved runnability in coating operations. The primary drawback to the use of oxidized starches in coatings was the negative impact that they had when introduced to the wet end of the paper machine as broke. The anionic properties of the starch decreased retention of fines and fillers on the fourdrinier wire. The negative charge also carried through to wastewater treatment, causing increased turbidity of clarified effluent. This thesis considered a different starch chemistry (sultanate and carboxylate versus high carboxylate for oxidized starches) as well as a different starch functionality. This study focused on using anionic starch as a cobinder. A cobinder is generally considered as an additive or rheology modifier. By using the starch as a cobinder, less anionic charge would be introduced to the sheet, thereby minimizing the deleterious effects in paper machine wet end chemistry as well as wastewater clarification processes. Anionic waxy maze starch was evaluated by comparing its performance to a nonionic waxy maze starch. Rheological properties were assessed as well as coated sheet properties. Rheological benefits were defined as an improvement, in other words, lower shear stress at a given shear rate. Rheologically, the anionic starch did not show any benefits relative to the nonionic starch when used at addition rates of 0.2, and 1.0 pph in conjunction with 10.0 pph of DOW 620 latex. When the starches were used at 4.0 pph without latex, the anionic starch actually had a deleterious effect on rheology. Very little distinction could be made between the anionic and nonionic starches with respect to brightness, opacity, scattering coefficient, absorption coefficient, coefficient of static friction, coefficient of kinetic friction, and IGT pick. Parker print surf was consistently lower for the anionic starch, which may suggest better printability. Overall, it was decided that the anionic starch did not demonstrate enough advantages over the nonionic starch to become a suitable coating additive alternative. It is assumed that this is due to a chemical incompatibility associated with the sultanate chemistry of RediBOND 3030

Academic and Psychological Factors Associated with Academic Burnout in Emerging Adults

Academic burnout has a significant impact on psychological distress in students (e.g. anxiety, depression; Koutsimani et al., 2019). Loneliness and parental expectations have also been found to increase burnout among students (Luo et al., 2016; Stoliker & Lafreniere, 2015). Additionally, there is an inverse relationship between impostorism (i.e., feeling like a fraud; Leary et al., 2000) and self-efficacy (Clance & Imes, 1978), but this has not been studied in an academic context in a global sample. This study aimed to investigate academic burnout in emerging adults with a focus on related academic and psychological factors. We predicted that: a) academic self-efficacy would moderate the relationship between parental expectations and academic burnout, b) parental expectations would moderate the relationship between impostorism and academic self-efficacy, and c) burnout would predict anxiety and depression via loneliness as a mediator. Emerging adult college students (N = 85) filled out a survey on Qualtrics that measured demographics, parental expectations, impostorism, academic self-efficacy, loneliness, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and academic burnout. Results indicated that parental expectations and academic self-efficacy did not significantly interact to predict academic burnout, b = -0.01, SE = 0.01, t(81) = -0.08, p = .937, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.02], sr2 \u3c .001. Similarly, there was not a significant interaction between impostorism and parental expectations to predict academic self-efficacy, b = -0.01, SE = .01, t(81) = -1.17, p = .246, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.004], sr2 = .01, and the indirect effect of academic burnout on anxiety via loneliness was not significant, b = 0.86, boot SE = 0.77, 95% bootstrap CI [-0.63, 2.50]. However, the indirect effect of academic burnout on depression via loneliness was found to be significant, b = 1.41, boot SE = 0.62, 95% bootstrap CI [0.11, 2.58]. Burnout predicted higher loneliness, which then predicted higher levels of depression. Results pinpoint the need to mitigate the negative impact of academic burnout

Frequency-modulated continuous-wave synthetic-aperture radar: improvements in signal processing

With the advance of solid state devices, frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) designs have recently been used in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) to decrease cost, size, weight and power consumption, making it deployable on smaller mobile plat-forms, including small (< 25 kg) unmanned aerial vehicle(s) (UAV). To foster its mobile uses, several SAR capabilities were studied: moving target indication (MTI) for increased situational awareness, bistatic operation, e.g. in UAV formation flights, for increased range, and signal processing algorithms for faster real-time performance. Most off-the-shelf SAR systems for small mobile platforms are commercial proprie-tary and/or military (ITAR, International Trades in Arms Regulations) restricted. As such, it necessitated the design and build of a prototype FMCW SAR system at the early stage to serve as a research tool. This enabled unrestricted hardware and software modifica-tions and experimentation. A model to analyze the triangularly modulated (TM) linear frequency modulated (LFM) waveform as one signal was established and used to develop a MTI algorithm which is effective for slow moving targets detection. Experimental field data collected by the prototyped FMCW SAR was then used to validate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MTI method. A bistatic FMCW SAR model was next introduced: Bistatic configuration is a poten-tial technique to overcome the power leakage problem in monostatic FMCW SAR. By mounting the transmitter and receiver on spatially separate mobile (UAV) platforms in formation deployment, the operation range of a bistatic FMCW SAR can be significantly improved. The proposed approximation algorithm established a signal model for bistatic FMCW SAR by using the Fresnel approximation. This model allows the existing signal processing algorithms to be used in bistatic FMCW SAR image generation without sig-nificant modification simplifying bistatic FMCW SAR signal processing. The proposed range migration algorithm is a versatile and efficient FMCW SAR sig-nal processing algorithm which requires less memory and computational load than the traditional RMA. This imaging algorithm can be employed for real-time image genera-tion by the FMCW SAR system on mobile platforms. Simulation results verified the pro-posed spectral model and experimental data demonstrated the effectiveness of the modi-fied RMA