The Peter Kiewit Institute Omaha, NE · Presentation Tracks, Track Leaders, and Judges Conference Tracks Capstone 2013 6 Undergraduate Information Science & Technology Research Track

2013 STUDENT CAPSTONE CONFERENCE

p r o c e e d i n g s

Engineering Information Science and Technology

April 26, 2013 The Peter Kiewit Institute Omaha, NE


Keynote Speaker Mr. Stephen Boyer Conference General Chairperson Leah Ellis Host Organization The Peter Kiewit Institute Primary Sponsors Northrop Grumman Corporation Union Pacific Railroad Johnson Controls ACI Worldwide Kiewit Building Group URS Corporation

http://pki.nebraska.edu/new/student-experience/student-capstone-conference.php

Responsibility for the accuracy of all statements in each paper rests solely with the author(s). Statements are not necessarily representative of, nor endorsed by, The Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI). Permission is granted to photocopy portions of this proceeding for student use providing the source is cited giving credit to the 2013 PKI Student Capstone Conference. Permission is not granted to any other type of reproduction.

The Peter Kiewit Institute 1110 S. 67th Street Omaha, Nebraska 68182

Engineering Information Science and Technology Table of

Overview Keynote Speaker Judges Conference Tracks Student Winners Conference Abstracts Conference Attendees Sponsors

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Contents

An Overview Engineering and Information Science and Technology Capstone Conference

On behalf of the University of Nebraska, The Peter Kiewit Institute welcomes you to the second annual

Peter Kiewit Institute Student Capstone Conference in

Engineering, Information Science & Technology The Peter Kiewit Institute in partnership with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering and the University of Nebraska-Omaha College of Information Science & Technology is proud to host a student focused conference which features presentations of research and projects from students based at PKI, across the University of Nebraska and from other universities and colleges. The tracks align with the academic programs based at the Institute that are central to engineering, information science and technology as well as other research areas with emerging national significance. Assessment of student presentations at the conference will be made by independent, outside judges. The Institute welcomes attendance by faculty, students, industry partners and government representatives. The Institute expresses its grateful appreciation to the judges, faculty, staff and students who volunteered their time to make this conference an outstanding event. PKI is also profoundly appreciative of industry companies and government agencies that generously sponsored the presentation tracks and special events of the conference. Without the support of these individuals, companies and organizations the conference would not be possible. This handbook is designed to give all conference attendees and supporters with an overview of all events and responsibilities. Within this handbook are descriptions of student presentations, submissions, track leader duties and criteria for judging presentations. A full understanding and appreciation of the conference’s purpose will help all those working in collaboration make the PKI Student Capstone Conference a successful event. Thank you for joining us!

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K E Y N O T E s p e a k e r Stephen Boyer BitSight Technologies

Prior to founding BitSight, Stephen was President and Cofounder of Saperix, a company spun out of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory focused on vulnerability and network topology risk analysis. Saperix was sold to FireMon in 2011. While at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Stephen was a member of the Cyber Systems and Technology Group, where he led R&D efforts solving large-scale national cyber security problems. His work at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory included research, development, and evaluation of next generation intrusion detection correlation architectures and methodologies, attack graph vulnerability analysis, large-scale cyber situational awareness, security risk measurement, and application automation for cyber simulation and testing. Prior to joining the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Stephen designed, developed, and tested products at one of the earliest Linux-based startup companies, Caldera Systems. At Caldera, Stephen led the JCK compliance efforts that delivered the first Linux distribution with a JCK-compliant Java Virtual Machine. Stephen holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from Brigham Young University and Master of Science in Engineering and Management from MIT. Founded in 2011, BitSight is backed by Flybridge BitSight Technologies is an early stage company in the security risk management space. BitSight’s service enables organizations to proactively manage third party risk. Capital Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and the National Science Foundation are based in Cambridge, MA.

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J U D G E S

Mayi Arora Union Pacific

Bryan Bartels United States Air Force

Richard Cox Johnson Controls

Pat Cuddigan Kiewit Building Group

CAPT Peter Faulk United States Navy

Yogesh Harsh ACI Worldwide

Alan Hoss ACI Worldwide

Julie Huff Northrop Grumman Corporation

Kishore Illa ACI Worldwide

Jeff LaMontagne URS Corporation

Maj Jennifer Leavitt Nebraska Air National Guard

Doug Massey Northrop Grumman Corporation

Richard Oliphant ACI Worldwide

Jeff Schomberg Johnson Controls Inc.

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Presentation Tracks, Track Leaders, and Judges

Conference Tracks Undergraduate Engineering Research

Track Leads: Dr. Terri Norton, UNL Dr. Dale Tiller, UNL Track Judges: Mr. Richard Cox, Johnson Controls Inc. Mr. Jeff Schomberg, Johnson Controls Inc.

Graduate Engineering Research

Track Lead: Mr. Jim Taylor, PKI Track Judges: Mr. Jeff LaMontagne, URS Corporation Mr. Doug Massey, Northrup Grumman Corporation

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Conference Tracks

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Undergraduate Information Science & Technology Research Track Leads: Dr. Abhishek Parakh, UNO Dr. Robin Gandhi, UNO Track Judges: Ms. Mayi Arora, Union Pacific Mr. Alan Hoss, ACI Worldwide

Graduate Information Science & Technology Research Track Lead: Dr. Doug Derrick, UNO Track Judges: Ms. Julie Huff, Northrup Grumman Corporation Mr. Richard Oliphant, ACI Worldwide


Conference Tracks Doctoral Research – Engineering

Track Leads: Mr. Herb Detloff, UNL Dr. John Stansbury, UNL Track Judges: Mr. Pat Cuddigan, Kiewit Building Group Mr. Yogesh Harsh, ACI Worldwide Maj Jennifer Leavitt, Nebraska Air National Guard Mr. Eric Zeece, Innovation Accelerator

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Doctoral Research – Information Science and Technology

Track Leads: Ms. Maggie Findall Track Judges: Mr. Bryan Bartels, United States Air Force Mr. Kishore Illa, ACI Worldwide

Undergraduate Engineering Research

Property Monitoring System

Felix Islas, Aaron Daberkow, Mathew Tew, Ian Pfeffer

Computer and Electronics Engineering, UNL

RFID Digital Wallet System

Josh Curtis, Austin Speidel, Erran Holtz, Steven Flegle


Sleep Activity Monitor

Heather Dworak, Brayden Kelly, Phil Kahnk, Donald Tryon



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W I N N E R S s t u d e n t

1st

2nd

3rd

Passive Stormwater Samplers for Sampling Highway Runoff

from BMPs: Feasibility Studies

Mitch Klein

Civil Engineering, UNL

Development of a Rapid-Filtration Method for Testing Total

Suspended Solids

Jessica Branigan


Fate and Transport of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Soil

and Runoff After Land Applications of Swine Manure

Stacey Joy


1st

2nd

3rd

Moo Maker – Cattle Management Software

Jay Newstrom, Rachel Ostrander, Ryan Peters

IT Innovation, PKI

Procedural Generation of World terrain and

Environments

Chris Molini

Computer Science, PKI

Annie Database Analyzer

Sara Shinn, Danielle Tyler


Undergraduate Information Science & Technology Research

Graduate Information Science & Technology Research

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Detecting Stable Communities in Large Scale Data Set

Sriram Srinivasan


Performance and Simulation Analysis of Sensor Area

Coverage

Ali Razaeian

Informatics, PKI

Cluster Analysis in Identifying Omaha’s Safety

Mohammed Dwaikat

Informatics, PKI

1st

2nd

3rd

1st

2nd

3rd

1st

2nd

3rd

Design Diagrams for Dynamic Response of Railway Bridge

Superstructures Under High-Speed Train Loads

Mohammed Lashgari


Sorption Capacity of Agricultural Hormones to Different Particle Size

Fraction of Natural Aquatic Sediment

Jodi Sangster


Evaluation of Extraction Methods of the Characterization of Potential

Antibiotic Uptake by Lettuce

Jonathan Sallach


Doctoral Research - Engineering

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A Base Composition Analysis of Natural patterns for the Processing

of Metagenome Sequences

Oliver Bonham-Carter

Informatics, PKI

Modeling of Next Generation Sequencing Reads

Julia Warnke

Informatics, PKI

Cross Country and State Level Analysis of e-Commerce Adoption

Between Small Businesses in China and the United States

Jie Xiong

Management of Information Systems, PKI

Doctoral Research – Information Science & Technology Research

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1st

2nd

3rd

Performance Simulation Analysis of Sensor Coverage

Ali Rezaeian

CENG, UNL

Sensor Area Coverage Analysis and Experimentation

Ali Rezaeian

CENG, UNL

Concept to Commit: A Pattern Designed to Trace Code from User

Requests to Change Implementation by Analyzing Mailing Lists and

Code Repositories

Kiran Bastola, Scott McGrath, Harvey Siy

Informatics, UNO

Best Papers

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1st

2nd

3rd

a b s t r a c t s Undergraduate Engineering Research

Dynamic Performance of Wall Panels Composed of Recycled Materials Megan Kurmel Abstract: Understanding the response of civil structures to dynamic forces is important in the fields of structural engineering and structural dynamics. Recent natural disasters like the 2010 Haiti Earthquake and the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami have shown how destructive dynamic loads can be to the built environment. These events left an overwhelming amount of construction/demolition debris behind, requiring the need to find ways of effectively disposing or reusing. It is proposed that a sustainable approach would be to recycle and reuse the disaster debris for the construction of temporary shelters. This project will investigate the effects of dynamics loads (i.e. seismic, blast or impact) on the wall panel of temporary structures, composed of recycled materials. The recycled materials that will be considered in this investigation are crumb rubber and steel shavings

Selection and Experimental Design of Batch tests for Passive Samplers for use to Monitor Highway Runoff from BMPs Jason Dayton Abstract: Growing environmental concerns have spurred increasingly strict regulations pertaining to storm-water runoff. Many transportation agencies have been incorporating Best Management Practices (BMPs) to treat the first half inch of rainwater runoff. The current method of monitoring BMPs for effectiveness or management purposes includes either the use of auto-samplers or sending technicians to collect composite samples during storm events. Both of these methods are expensive and oftentimes not feasible. Passive samplers acquire a discrete representative sample, as opposed to instantaneous, without active media transport. This sampler method will be applied to storm-water, and the results will determine if passive storm-water samplers are reliable for measuring pollutant runoff concentrations.

This sampler method will be applied to storm-water, and the results will determine if passive storm-water samplers are reliable for measuring pollutant runoff concentrations. The entire project hopes to obtain a method to calculate the actual concentrations of organic pollutants and heavy metals within highway runoff. Also, the feasibility of using these samplers for BMP storm-water sampling will be evaluated. This presentation details the selection of a field-deployable passive sampler through uptake tests and preliminary flow tests. The uptake tests were done using two literature selected samplers in a lab setting and analyzing for uptake of heavy metals. The literature selected samplers were a regenerated cellulose diffusion bag, and an ion exchange resin filled mesh bag. The heavy metals used for uptake ability were copper (II), lead (II), and zinc (II). The uptake results were used to select a sampler which has lead to further testing for uptake under different flow conditions. This research hopes to provide a cost-effective alternative to measuring BMP effectiveness.

Effects of Physiochemical Properties of Natural Aquatic Sediments on the Partitioning of Agricultural Hormones Hugues Oke Abstract: There is increasing evidence that steroidogenic compounds may contaminate surface waters and groundwater in close proximity to wastewater treatment plants and animal agricultural operations. This is of special concern in Nebraska where animal agriculture is prevalent and animals are routinely administered steroids as growth promotants. Several studies have detected agricultural steroids such as estradiol, estrone, progesterone, and testosterone in runoff, groundwater, and surface waters near animal operations and in agricultural fields amended with animal waste. This is of concern as exposure to steroidogenic compounds have been shown to cause negative reproductive outcomes in fish and other aquatic organisms. In humans, exposure to steroidogenic compounds may cause increased risk of cancer, reduced sperm counts and reduced cognitive development.

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2013 Engineering Information Science and Technology

While several studies have explored the final result and transport of stereoidogenic compounds in agricultural systems, little is known about the effects and participation of sediment or sediment particles sizes on steroid fate in the environment. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the effects of physiochemical properties of two natural aquatic sediments on the partitioning of estradiol, estrone, progesterone, and testosterone. Results indicate that all hormones exhibit significantly higher sorption capacity in the clay and colloid fractions when compared to the sand and silt fractions within natural sediment. This may be partially attributed to an increased surface area within smaller particle fractions. Therefore, compounds associated with these particles are more likely to travel greater distances. Additionally, aquatic organisms may have more contact through ingestion or respiration across gills, with smaller particles.

8086 Based Microprocessor Design Ian Dikeman

Abstract: Embedded systems are becoming more common every day, showing themselves in everything from GPS locators to toothbrushes. While many such systems can use preexisting micro-controllers, this is not always the case. Often times it is necessary to design a custom system to fit specific needs, so an understanding of microprocessor design is important. This presentation will focus on the design process for a microprocessor system, specifically the CEEN 4330 design project. For this project students were asked to design, build, and program a working 8086 based computer system, including external LCD, LED, and keypad peripherals. Despite having similar goals, students were given a lot of freedom to design their individual systems, resulting in a variety of design choices. Such choices come with their own unique engineering tradeoffs, an important element of system design that will also be discussed in this presentation.

AI Robot Stephen Dodds, Aris Garcia, Seth Lienemann, Bradley Woosley Abstract: Team 3 has developed an artificial intelligence learning platform robot. The purpose of this project is to provide the Artificial Intelligence Courses in the Computer Science Department with an inexpensive learning tool that would further enforce the lectures in labs. Currently, there are robots that would fulfill the needs to accomplish this problem. However, the capabilities of those robots are beyond the needs for these courses and are far too expensive. The requirements the Computer Science Department need is to be inexpensive, have a wide horizontal vision, be able to have mid sensing range, be able to communicate wirelessly to other robots, have a quick learning curve to program experiments, and to be able to expand its hardware via Phidget Board.

Property Monitoring System Aaron Daberkow, Felix Islas, Ian Pfeffer, Mathew Tew Abstract: The Property Monitoring System (PMS) is a unit developed to monitor the conditions of an unoccupied property and report these conditions to an end user in an effective manner. Commonly used methods of monitoring vacant homes have problems in regards to the time, cost, and inconvenience associated with them. The Property Monitoring System is designed specifically to eliminate these problems. It accomplishes these goals through the use of a modular sensor network that is connected to a central control unit used to compile sensor information and transmit it to the end user via an SMS text message on the GSM network. The system monitors up to four temperatures, a garage door, and the power status at the property in real time in order to update the user of any alarm conditions. All of the alarms as well as the time of daily updates can be programmed using a simple, easy to use touchscreen display. The central control unit is housed in a small, table-top enclosure that includes modular ports for temperature sensors and a battery backup. The Property Monitoring System is the solution to a user’s need to ensure the safety of their vacant property and provides peace-of-mind not found in traditional monitoring methods.

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SEER Robert Boulter, Marc McCaslin, Sara Shinn, Timothy Struebel-Lar Abstract: The SEER team designed a project which creates a simultaneous viewing device allowing multiple people to view singular sources on a shared television. The purpose of such a device is to meet the demands of an ever-expanding and developing media age. It has applications, such as allowing users with a single television the ability to watch more than one video at a time, and allowing users the ability to view multiple security cameras with full-screen resolution by synchronizing to the correct input. Design theory and concepts led Team SEER to use video interleaving, which takes a video frame from source one, then from source two repeatedly and outputs a single video stream. The video appears blurry, like viewing a 3D movie without the glasses, until the users wear the active-shutter glasses. The two sets of shutter lens glasses will take turns darkening to allow each viewer to watch their respective video. Sound from the video sources is transmitted wirelessly to the users wearing the shutter lens glasses. The SEER project uses existing technology to create the system to meet the requirements set forth by the College of Engineering and the project specific design constraints developed in the conceptual stage. With the successful completion of the project the team has demonstrated a functional prototype and has learned invaluable skills from the design and implementation of the thesis project.

Remotely Controlled Animatronic Arm Patrick Brennan, Erik Hagerup, Jacob Stoetling Abstract: Current bomb disposal techniques are limited in their dexterity and/or effectiveness. The inadequacies of current methods are an issue for agencies involved in explosive ordnance disposal. Often the agencies resort to detonating the explosive rather than defusing it. The Remotely Controlled Animatronic Arm (RCAA) solves these issues for the explosives ordnance disposal agencies. The RCAA tracks a user’s arm and hand, recording the movements and then mimics the motions with a remote mechanical arm, allowing for increased dexterity and methods for ordnance removal.

a b s t r a c t s RF Onions Jordan Anthony, Elliot Kruger, Prasun Pradhan Abstract: RF Onions is a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system that discretely identifies industrial goods, in our case bundles of different starter onions. It is designed for improving quality control in the order fulfillment line. The project gives a detailed engineering solution based on a RFID system to Mr. Bruce Fraiser’s problem in agriculture. The project shows the advantage of implementing RFID technologies over bar code readers in the order fulfillment line. For example to read a RFID tag does not require line of sight as compared to the bar code technology. The project shows how the RFID system communicates with passive RFID tags to acquire unique identification numbers in response to a signal from the RFID module. These unique identification numbers are then associated with specific onions that are then displayed on the monitor using a computer program. The type and count of each onion variety are displayed on the monitor to verify the order is fulfilled properly.

RFID Digital Wallet System Josh Curtis, Steven Flegle, Erran Holtz, Austin Speidel Abstract: The RFID Digital Wallet System will provide customers of Defy Gravity with an accurate and efficient way to store purchased credits on a reusable, silicon RFID bracelet. Four systems will be deployed as part of the RFID Digital Wallet System: Front-End Programming Units, Mobile Auditing Units, Locker System Integration, and Laser Maze System Integration. All four systems work together to ensure that customer credits are properly monitored and maintained throughout their visit to Defy Gravity. The RFID Digital Wallet System will replace the current barcode wristband system currently being used at Defy Gravity. The Front-End Programming Unit will program customer purchases to RFID bracelets and verify that the correct data has been written to them. The Mobile Auditing Unit will be used by employees to ensure customers have sufficient credits to use the facilities. The Locker System Integration will allow or deny customers access to a single locker housed in one of the locker banks. Finally, The Laser Maze System Integration will allow or deny customers entrance to the laser maze based on the credits present on their RFID bracelet. Capstone 2013 15


This process is accomplished by integrating three separate components: the measuring device, the central processing unit, and the mechanical arm. The RCAA uses readily available technology to achieve its purpose. Inertial measuring units (IMUs) are used to track the movement of the user. The IEEE Standard 802.11 is used to transmit the required data. A Raspberry Pi is used for data collection and transmission. Finally, servos and 3D printed parts comprise the mechanical arm. The RCAA has been tested and shown to improve current methods of explosive disposal. It improves dexterity and allows the explosive ordnance agencies to disuse the explosive rather than detonate it. The current iteration of the RCAA is a prototype and could be improved given more time and an increased budget. However, the current implementation of the RCAA accomplishes its defined success criteria and provides a solid framework for future development and advancement of ordnance disposal.

Sleep Activity Monitor (SAM) Heather Dworak, Phil Kahnk, Brayden Kelly, Donald Tryon Abstract: The purpose of this report is to identify that the Sleep Activity Monitor, or SAM, allows doctors, researchers, patients, and general consumers to record movement data in an at-home environment. The movement is captured by the use of two separate technologies: motion detectors and accelerometers. The information is stored in a memory device, as well as transmitted wirelessly to a personal computer. The data can then be analyzed for sleep quality. The SAM system will replace existing sleep monitoring products that are positioned directly on the user. User-determined settings allow the user to set the hours recording will occur, and preview said data. There is a possibility for the use of three motion detectors and a maximum of three accelerometers. The data is stored in the central control unit by the use of an SD card. Data can also be transmitted wirelessly to a personal computer through the use of XBee technology. SAM allows for an accessible, efficient, portable and reliable sleep activity monitor.

Passive Stormwater Samplers for Sampling Highway Runoff from BMPs: Feasibility Studies Mitch Klein Abstract: Growing environmental concerns have spurred increasingly strict regulations pertaining to storm water runoff. Many Transportation agencies have been incorporating Best Management Practices (BMPs) to treat the first half inch of runoff. The current method of monitoring BMPs for effectiveness or management purposes includes either the use of auto-samplers or sending technicians to collect grab or composite samples during storm events. Both of these methods are expensive and often infeasible (hundreds of BMPs throughout the state for multiple storms per year.) Passive samplers acquire a representative sample (as opposed to instantaneous) discretely and without active media transport. They are currently used to determine a variety of pollutant levels within groundwater, rivers/streams, and air. These technologies will be applied to storm water and the results will determine if passive storm water samplers are reliable for measuring pollutant concentrations. The entire project hopes to obtain a method to calculate the actual concentrations of organic pollutants and heavy metals within highway runoff. Also, the feasibility of using these samplers for BMP storm water sampling will be evaluated. This presentation details the selection of passive samplers for storm water application, the results of batch calibration tests and the experimental design for further feasibility tests. This research hopes to provide a cost-effective alternative to measuring BMP effectiveness.

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a b s t r a c t s Development of a Rapid-Filtration Method for Testing Total Suspended Solids Jessica Branigan Abstract: Total suspended solids (TSS) are all particles in water that will not pass through a standard glass fiber filter, including sediments, algae, nutrients, and metals. It is an important water quality parameter because of its adverse effects on aquatic species and wildlife. The EPA has not established any regulations on TSS so far; they did propose a regulation for turbidity, but it has been stayed pending further testing. TSS is, however, regulated through the NPDES in many states. Projects with TSS regulations send samples to a laboratory for analysis, which can be very time-consuming. The goal of this project is to develop a rapid, cost-effective, and consistent method for direct measurement of TSS in the field. Theoretical analysis of three initial designs showed that in order to obtain a significant enough amount of soil to measure in the field, too much water would be needed for each sample to be feasible. The rapid filtration system design was modified to a larger system that was finalized and constructed. This system was improved as problems were found and addressed during testing. Results show consistency within a 10% error when the vacuum pump pressure is consistent between results. Significant difference in results with differing TSS concentrations is yet to be determined. Currently, the reason for the inconsistent pressure is being analyzed. Three different TSS concentrations will be tested. Correlations between the lab test and the field test will be developed if possible for three different soil types.

Fate and Transport of Antimicrobials and Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Soil Runoff After Land Applications of Swine Manure Stacey Joy Abstract: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is considered one of the world’s most pressing public health issues. One source of antimicrobials in the environment is animal agriculture.

Antimicrobials are used for growth promotion, prophylaxis, and for disease treatment within concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs). Antimicrobials may allow resistant bacteria to proliferate in manure applied as fertilizer, and therefore antimicrobials and AMR genes may contaminate surface and ground water. The fate and transport of antimicrobials, AMR genes in soil and surface runoff is quantified in this study after land applications of surface applied and injected swine manure. Rainfall simulations were conducted after manure containing chlortetracycline was applied by broadcast, incorporation, or injection methods. Soil and runoff samples were collected and analyzed for antimicrobials in the liquid phase through high pressure liquid chromatograph or liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, respectively. Published qPCR protocols were followed to determine the concentration of AMR genes in manure, soil, and runoff for tetQ and tetX. Significant vertical transport of AMR genes was not detected in the soil samples. Antimicrobials and AMR genes decreased in runoff throughout the three day experiment. The transport of antimicrobials is affected by manure application methods, and the timing of rainfall, as lower antimicrobial concentrations were observed in runoff after the third runoff event.

Implementation of 0.7 in. Diameter Prestressing Strands at 2.0 in. Spacing in Bridge Girders Shaddi Assad, Afshin Hatami Abstract: For several years, 0.7 in. diameter strands have been successfully used in cable bridges and for mining applications. Using these large diameter strands in pretensioned concrete girders results in approximately 35% increase in the prestressing force compared to the same number of 0.6 in. diameter strands and 92% increase compared to 0.5 in. diameter strands. When used at 2 in. by 2 in. spacing, in pre-tensioned concrete applications, the compressive prestressing force would allow for about 135% tensile external load compared to 0.6 in. diameter strands.

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Our proposed framework is tested against three different advanced steganography techniques to validate the successful removal of embedded hidden information. Our experimental results demonstrate that after applying our method to various types of images, the Steganography Bit Error Rate (SBER) is above 40% on average, indicating complete destruction of the hidden information. Simultaneously, the experimental results also illustrate that the PSNR of our processed images remains above 32 dB, which proves that the quality of the images is unaffected.

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This will, consequently, allow for longer spans, shallower structural depth, and/or wider girder spacing in bridge construction. In this paper, the application of 0.7 in. diameter strands at 2 in. by 2 in. spacing to the Oxford South Bridge in Nebraska is presented. Twenty-six-strand specimens were tested to evaluate the ultimate strength, yield strength, and modulus of elasticity of 0.7 in. diameter strands. Test results on individual strands indicated that the strands meet the requirements of the ASTM A416-07. Also, transfer length measurements were taken on three prestressed concrete girders at release and after 14 days using DEMEC gauges. Measurements indicated that the transfer length of 0.7 in. diameter strands can be accurately predicted using the 60-strand diameter rule specified in the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. All fabricated girders were monitored for end zone cracking and camber growth and were found in compliance with current production tolerances, as specified by PCI and the Nebraska Department of Roads.

A Reliable and Quality-Preserving Framework for Removing Hidden Information from Digital Images Fahimeh Rezaei Abstract: Steganography refers to the art of hiding information within multimedia documents. While having been around for millennia, it saw significant growth in popularity and usage in the digital age. Especially in our always-online society, modern steganography provides vast opportunities for the embedding of malicious information within benign multimedia content and subsequent distribution via the Internet and through online social networks. Numerous techniques have been proposed in research literature for embedding hidden information within images, video and audio files without impact on their quality, which ensures both secrecy and robustness, with only the intended receiver being aware of the presence of the hidden information. We present our efforts in the development of a framework that prevents the distribution of secret data by systematically removing any hidden information embedded into images while preserving their quality without prior knowledge of the employed steganography approach.

a b s t r a c t s Procedural Generation of World Terrain and Environments Chris Molina Abstract: In the fields of game programming, artificial intelligence, and simulation it is often useful to generate an environment for agents or players to interact with. Such an environment can be utilized to increase the complexity and value of the program, or can even be the main focus of the program's efforts. A good example of this would be the video game Minecraft, where players are placed into an entirely random world that they then interact with in order to survive, or in the program Terragen, where fractal algorithms generate earth-like terrain for simulations or computer graphics rendering. This research presents an algorithm that procedurally generates a world map, intelligently divided into landmasses and oceans, and calculates environment properties – such as heat and moisture – accordingly. This presentation follows the step-by-step process of generating realistic terrain while simultaneously building meta information that enhances the usefulness of the resulting environment. The presentation will also focus on how the environment could be utilized by a hypothetical game, giving an example of the algorithm's use in a real-world scenario, and how the algorithm could be extended in the future.

Annie Database Analyzer Sara Shinn, Danielle Tyler Abstract: Since the creation of relational database management systems (DBMS) in the 1970s, they have become a staple in modern day computing. The purpose of a DBMS is to organize large amounts of data and make it easier to access. However, without proper management and use of constraints, a DBMS can become disorganized and difficult to maintain. There are several different DBMS implementations, each with their own variation on syntax.

The purpose of this project is to provide a suite of tools to assist a database owner in the process of cleaning up and restoring the integrity of a disorderly database, regardless of the type of database they are using. At the inception of this project, research showed that no tool was currently in existence to clean and analyze multiple types of databases. Four issues were identified and associated with disorderly databases. These issues are: old data, orphaned tables, missing constraints, and orphaned data. The Annie Database Analyzer provides database owners a way to check databases for these issues. The database owner is then provided reports that offer valuable information about the database and recommend clean-up options. The result is a more organized and functional database management system.

Fedora 17 Security Spin: An Analysis of the Open Source, Security-based Operating System and its Applications Angela Gillepsie Abstract: Information as an asset is constantly threatened because of its immense value to both authorized and unauthorized users, giving us an inherent need for well-educated and well-equipped security professionals. As the demand for computer security grows alongside the ubiquity of technology, we see a push to keep up with the risks associated with information and how to mitigate these risks-- most of the time, through security software. While many excellent commercial software tools are available for purchase, it is possible for the aspiring professional to build a collection of tools without breaking the bank. An example of a free and open source operating system distribution that meets this criterion is Fedora 17 Security Spin. The Fedora Security Spin, the OS’s main feature, creates the perfect sandbox to test out tools and applications. The spin’s Security Lab includes a variety of categories of information security tools including the areas of Code Analysis, Forensics, Intrusion Detection, Password Tools, Reconnaissance, Web Application Testing, and Wireless. A few tools from within these areas were selected based on the criteria that, together, they would provide a universal representation of the functionality of the OS as a whole, to be defined and discussed in this paper.

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Undergraduate Information Science & Technology Research


These tools include pscan and splint (source code analysis), ddrescue (data recovery), sectool (system command presence and integrity), John the Ripper (fast password cracker), wavemon (wireless network monitoring), EtherApe (network monitoring), chkrootkit (scan for rootkits), ELF Examiner (binary data disassembler), and Rough Auditing Tool for Security (high-level scan of system).

Guarding Paw Mobile Application Colleen Phillips Abstract: Guarding Paw is a pet tracking system for pet owners who want to know where their pets are and know they are safe. Pets can be unpredictable which can cause unknown problems for their owners. My solution is to provide a service that will track the pet so the owner will know that the pet is safe and be notified otherwise. Combining GPS, geo-fencing, and scanning technologies will help to support this service and create a new product.

Crateful: Helping DJs to Collect and Organize a Virtual Mountain of Music Mike Santo Abstract: It is truly a great time to be a DJ. Mainstream acceptance of electronic dance music in the United States has broadened the market for DJing acts considerably. The advent of the Internet has given everyone the power to make and publish new music, as well as the power to collect a gigantic array of tunes to use in DJ sets. Herein lies a problem, however. There’s just way too much music out there. The channels for finding new music are numerous and constantly overflowing with good tunes and DJ's hard drives are stuffed to the brim with quality music. With so much music to choose from, it's difficult for a DJ to even remember all of the songs they have in their collection, let alone instantly recall which songs mix together the best. Enter Crateful: the world’s first audio library management and musical recommendation system for DJs. Crateful uses powerful audio analysis technology to provide DJs with tools to make sure they always have the freshest tracks so they can keep packing dance floors around the world.

Moo Maker: Cattle Management Software Jay Newstrom, Rachel Ostrander, Ryan Peters Abstract: Moo Maker builds high-quality, user friendly, agricultural software primarily for ranches. Our product enables ranchers to manage their cattle using a tablet or smartphones running iOS or Android operating systems. Primary functions of our software include record keeping, artificial insemination, heifer entry to the herd, and weaning of calves. The record keeping side of the application allows a rancher to make a file containing a picture and pertinent information of each cow, including the bull to which she is to be bred. The artificial insemination side of the application allows a rancher to scan the electronic ID tag of each cow and returns the name of the bull to which she is to be bred so the breeder can load the proper semen as she walks into the barn. The heifer entry side of the application allows a rancher to assign an electronic ID to each heifer, which is a year old female calf, and make a file for her in the application as a cow, which is defined as a mature female of cattle. The last side of the application allows a rancher to record each calf number as they leave the ranch and automatically receives the weight of each calf as they walk along the scale. These functions are designed to increase accuracy of herd records and save ranchers time.

Information Technology in Mergers and Acquisitions Peter Raun Abstract: This report provides a brief introduction to the role of information technology in mergers and acquisitions. In the 21st century, IT continues to play an integral role in most business functions. When two businesses choose to merge, or when one company is acquired by another, there are several IT risks that must be accounted for throughout the merger and acquisition process. These risks can be generally categorized into one of three areas: Technical Level Risks, Application-User Level Risks, and Business Level Risks (Khazanchi, 2012, p. 15). Each of these risks will present themselves in different ways and at different severities, depending upon the companies involved in the merging process. However, the need to plan for these risks and develop comprehensive controls to maintain the integrity of the business and of the IT function is universal across all firms.

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Army / Marine Corps Integration Cadet Eric Park, Cadet Richard Spellerberg Abstract: Modern military operations are increasingly complex, rapidly changing, and are conducted simultaneously across land, sea, and air. This necessitates an unprecedented level of cooperation among the Department of Defense's various component services--The United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps (USMC). Our work looks holistically at Army-USMC command and control integration from the perspective of both services in order to identify, analyze, and prioritize operational requirements. We propose a systems architecture for modeling how the two services communicate, and examine and test proposed solutions using the architecture. The contributions of our research include recommendations how the Army and USMC can fully achieve integration in tactical mission command.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Network Centrality in the Context of Shakespeare’s Plays Vikas Thotakuri Abstract: Networks are popular models for representing interactions between entities in systems, such as in sociology, bioinformatics and epidemiology. The entities in the networks are represented as vertices and their pair-wise interactions are represented as edges. Many network metrics such as degree centrality (number of connections of an entity) and betweenness centrality (number of shortest paths passing through the entity) have been developed to rank the entities according to their importance. In this presentation, we study the effectiveness of these metrics in closed-form social interactions—particularly in the context of Shakespeare’s dramas. In plays the dialogues amongst characters are very precise to express the gist of their interactions in a short time frame. We are interested in understanding how this sort of interaction differs in a qualitative sense from the interactions seen in social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Our observations show that the popular network metrics are not always successful in correctly identifying the lead characters of the play and in the presentation we discuss some of the new metrics that we have developed to address this issue.

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Graduate Information Science & Technology Research


Story Builder Using Twitter Mohammad Dwaikat Abstract: With the overwhelming amount of data available on the internet, social media has added an extra overhead for one to understand the flow of events for a specific topic. Search engines, such as Google, have made searching for information on the Internet, based on keywords, a relatively easy task. However, there is very little support available to follow a story and to find the cause and effect of events. In our research, we will support the claim that a meaningful knowledge can be extracted in a form of a story or a flow of events from the communications among Twitter users. Twitter users tend to use a simple form of the language in communications with informal vocabulary. We are employing natural language techniques in analyzing informal, poorly worded and short sentences and trying to connect the dots between the tweets. We are considering tweets as a flow of events, which, if connected as cause and effect relations, will form a logical, coherent story. Much research has been done in the area of connecting the dots between articles (news, events, etc.) which mainly focused on applying natural language understanding techniques on well-written news articles that are easily organized and ordered chronologically. Additionally, techniques to determine the causal relations were dependent on the structure of the sentences that contains linking words, whereas in our research we deal with informal language and short sentences.

Sensor Area Coverage Analysis and Experimentation Ali Rezaeian Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been employed in numerous military and civilian applications. Some application areas are in battlefield, surveillance, biological detection, and environmental monitoring. A major challenge to such applications is the sensor area-coverage, which refers to the placement of sensors and their coordination in a mission space (field), so that the application coverage requirements are achieved.

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Detecting Stable Communities in Large Scale Data Set Sriram Srinivasan Abstract: Identifying communities, that is groups of densely connected vertices, is one of the most important objectives in network analysis. However, for most community detection algorithms, the assignment of these vertices to communities can significantly vary if the order in which vertices are processed is changed. We present a scalable algorithm for identifying constant communities, that is, groups of vertices that are always assigned to the same community regardless of the vertex ordering. Constant communities represent invariant regions of the network. In addition to scalability results, we will also demonstrate how combining constant communities as a pre-processing step improves the community detection results.

Semantic Extraction of Twitter Feeds Kurt Hungerford Abstract: Twitter has become one of the most popular social networking services, allowing millions of people to share their thoughts and opinions about pretty much anything, with pretty much anybody who’s interested. This generates a vast amount of data on a continuous basis. A significant challenge with this is that it is very disorganized, making it somewhat problematic for automated systems to handle this data. Compounding this is that Twitter tweets are extremely brief and they are written in highly informal language. The goal of this project is to implement a tweet classifier that will be able to organize input tweets into different categories of interest. A significant part of this research will be to develop several different means of accomplishing this classification and evaluate which technique, or combination of techniques is most effective at doing this. This will incorporate both simple keyword analysis and also some more advanced natural language processing techniques.

Cluster Analysis in Identifying Omaha’s Safety Mohammad Dwaikat Abstract: Our application employs cluster analysis techniques on a dataset which represents crime incidents in Omaha area (53441 records “rows”, with 39 attributes “columns”). The dataset was huge and included many errors and so we cleaned and refined the dataset to make it ready for clustering. Using clustering we were able to highlight areas where incidents took place, we modified the clustering process in a way to integrate a weighting factor with the clustering results. The weighting factor is necessary in representing the level of safety for the clustered areas. The application produces the results in both textual and visual outputs (i.e. tabular report and heating maps). The maps highlight clustered risky areas with different colors according to the level of crimes’ seriousness that took place in that area. Those results will encourage authorities to provide surveillance in such risky areas. For future work, the application could be integrated with GPS functionality and real time updates of new incidents whenever applicable. Also adding the time dimension to our application will help in identifying safe places in specific times.

BioPerl: The Fastest Draw in the West? Evaluating Developer Responsiveness of Three Open Source Bioinformatics Programming Languages Scott McGrath Abstract: BioPerl is an open source programing language designed to aid in biological research. Biological data sets have grown exponentially over the past several years. BioPerl‘s tools allow scientists to manage and effectively analyze these data sets. Previous work here at UNO has documented that BioPerl remains the most popular bioinformatics language. Looking to expand on this, we wished to evaluate the responsiveness of BioPerl to the needs of its community. To accomplish this, we identified major revisions in the source code and then set about data mining the official mailing list.

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Some parameters of coverage quality include the relationship between the mission space points and number of sensor nodes , the coverage rate, and the resiliency of field coverage in case of sensor failures. This thesis 1) develops a software package that simulates various coverage algorithms and their enhancements to maintain certain quality of service, and to compare the simulation results against the analytical results of those algorithms; 2) takes advantage of one potential WSN application, e.g. the detection and tracking, to develop a prototype of the object-detection-and-tracking application. The prototype will be able to communicate with the simulation software that visually tracks the object movement.

Fault Tolerance and Security Analysis of Sensor Area Coverage Ali Rezaeian Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been employed in numerous military and civilian applications. Some application areas are in battlefield, surveillance, biological detection, and environmental monitoring. A major challenge to such applications is the sensor area-coverage (SAC), which refers to the techniques and mechanisms of placing sensors and their coordination in a mission space (field) to monitor the physical environment in such a way to achieve the application coverage objectives. This study develops a sensor area coverage package (SACPac) that simulates some selected coverage algorithms on fault tolerance and security and their enhancements, and analyzes their performance parameters under various scenarios. The performance parameters considered include coverage ratio, resiliency of the field coverage against sensor failures. SACPac provides the foundation for further enhancements and future research. It can also be used as an educational tool for those interested in the SAC problem.

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Capstone 2013 24

This mailing list serves as the principal interface for communication about BioPerl. A metric could be devised to compare the responsiveness of two languages if we could isolate revision discussion timelines. Our initial results found that BioPerl’s mailing lists are too broad in scope to effectively isolate out these conversation threads. We then tested our mining model by evaluating the next two most popular languages: BioJava and BioPython. The major difference between these two languages and BioPerl is that they have a separate developer mailing list. Using the developer mailing list, we were able to identify the lines of communication leading to large source code changes. This led us to conclude that our method could be effective in modeling responsiveness of developers, given a separate developer channel. More study would be needed to see if the addition of a developer’s channel for BioPerl would an enhancement or not for its community. Development of Simulation Software for Sensor Area Coverage Ali Rezaeian Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been employed in numerous military and civilian applications. Some application areas are in battlefield, surveillance, biological detection, and environmental monitoring. A major challenge to such applications is the sensor area-coverage (SAC), which refers to the techniques and mechanisms of placing sensors and their coordination in a mission space (field) to monitor the physical environment. In this study we developed a software product that simulates the distribution of sensors in a field according to some algorithms and analyzing the Sensor Area Coverage (SAC) problem of the distribution under various conditions. The simulation software developed for this purpose is called Sensor Area Coverage Package (SACPac). We also developed a prototype of communication for sending the position of an object via a mobile device to the server on which SACPac runs, so that the object trajectory can be displayed. To the best of our knowledge, such a product does not exist or such simulators are limited in performance, ease of use, or scalability. Although, the complete development of such a product is open-ended, SACPac provides the framework and development of basic components for the further enhancements and research.

In this study, the potential uptake of four antibiotics originating in irrigation water was evaluated. The recovery of four antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole, oxytetracycline, lincomycin, and ciprofloxacin) was optimized by comparing four extraction techniques: freeze and thaw, mechanical maceration, ultrasonication, and microwave assisted solvent extraction (MASE). To evaluate the extraction techniques, lettuce samples were spiked with a known quantity of each antibiotic and corresponding internal standards. Extracts were analyzed by electrospray ionization LC-MS/MS and method detection limits (MDL) and percent recoveries were determined. Initial results show MASE having the least efficient extraction, perhaps resulting from increased temperatures. Ultrasonication resulted in the lowest MDLs and highest percent recovery for the target antibiotics, followed by the freeze and thaw method. After development of the extraction approach, the presence of antibiotics in lettuce grown in a potting soil was monitored after subirrigation for 6 weeks with a simulated wastewater containing 1 mg/L of ciprofloxacin, lincomycin, oxytetracycline, and sulfamethoxazole. Initial results indicate that antibiotics from recycled wastewater can be transferred to plant tissue. Preliminary results indicate potential antibiotic uptake on the order of 10-102 ng/g of plant material.

Time-Dependent Clear Water Scour of Circular Bridge Pier Omid Kalantari Abstract: Bridges are one of the important elements of the transportation which their failure can cause catastrophic damages. Current bridge foundation design method is based on equilibrium scour depth. This

method can lead to conservative design because peak flood periods are often too short to reach equilibrium conditions. This study presents an equation for estimation of temporal development of clear water scour depth around a circular bridge pier using a previously proposed formula for equilibrium scour depth under a constant discharge. Based on experimental data, the equation was evaluated and a comparison between experimental and computed scour depths showed that the proposed equation performs reasonably well. This model could be of interest for engineers in consulting firms as well as researchers in universities. Capstone 2013 25

Design Diagrams for Dynamic Response of Railway Bridge Superstructures Under High-Speed Train Loads Mohammad Lashgari Abstract: High-speed passenger trains can cause destructive vibrations on bridge structures. The possibility of resonance is particularly related to the bridge superstructure’s natural frequency and the frequency of moving loads, which is characterized by the train type and its speed. In this study, a multimode dynamic analysis has been performed for a variety of superstructures, span lengths, train speeds and train types. Numerical analysis has been applied to evaluate different girder support conditions such as simple, two-span continuous and three-span continuous. In addition, the train-structure interaction is included in the analytical models. The results are presented in terms of moment Dynamic Load Factors (DLFs), for a practical range of superstructure fundamental frequency, which include various superstructure types such as concrete, prestressed concrete and steel. Different high-speed trains are considered moving at various speeds to capture the configuration for highest responses. This study provides a set of diagrams for initial estimation of high-speed railroad bridge bending moment response. Proposed diagrams will help bridge designers to avoid an uneconomical bridge system in early design stage. Keywords: High-speed, train, railway bridge, superstructure, resonance.

Evaluation of Extraction Methods on the Characterization of Potential Antibiotic Uptake by Lettuce Jonathan Sallach Abstract: Global water scarcity necessitates the reuse of municipal or agricultural wastewater for irrigation. Typically, municipal and agricultural wastewater can contain low levels of antibiotics and these compounds can be introduced to plants after irrigation with recycled wastewater.

a b s t r a c t s Doctoral Research - Engineering

Comparison of Sorption and Desorption Behaviors of Five Different Pure Soil Particles on Steroid Hormone Yong Qi Abstract: Soils contain a wide range diameter size of particles. Recently, most studies focus on the total adsorption capacity of several kinds of soils, which contain different components but still cannot provide clear information for the transport of hormones in the soils. This study is trying to evaluate the effects of particles separated from HAL soils on hormones’ sorption and desorption behaviors under low initial concentration (0.1

μg/mL) based on batch reactors. Wet sieve washing, sedimentation methods were used to fractionate the soils into fine sand (0.425 mm-0.075 mm), medium silt (0.075 mm-0.045 mm), fine silt (0.045-0.002 mm), clay 1 (0.9 µm-2 µm), clay 2 (0.6-0.9 µm). Sorption and desorption kinetics were tested and compared among these particles, results indicate that clay 1 and clay 2 particles can reach equilibrium within 30 minutes, while for sand and silts particles, 4 hours is needed. For adsorption isotherm, at the initial testosterone concentration from 0.001 to 0.2 µg/mL at 4, 23, 35oC, linear, Freundlich and Langmuir model sorption coefficients were obtained for these samples, which indicate the adsorption capacity of clay is >that of silt> that of sand. And sand and silts are more fitted with Freundlich isotherm model, while clay 1 and clay 2 are more fitted with Langmuir isotherm model. The particles have higher adsorption ability for all these particles at lower temperature. Desorption test results indicate that adsorption reactions are 36~65% percent irreversible from clay 2 to sand, and most desorption process can be finished after 3 cycles.

Using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy in Breast Tumor Margin Detection Sara Mollamohammada Abstract: Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among women all over the world and the second cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer. Early diagnosis is an effective way that affects on the treatment process and gives the patients a better chance of survival before spreading the tumor to other parts of body.


Turbulent Circular Open Channel Flow Amin Mohebbi Abstract: Culverts are popular conveyance in Midwestern America and Canada to be used as a fish passage or in sewage collection and disposal systems. Their design depends on either model studies or numerical modeling via computational fluid dynamic (CFD) packages both of which are expensive and time consuming. Although fully laminar pipe flow is well established through classical Hagen-Poiseuille law, partially full pipe which most of the time is the case for culvert flow in the real world is not understood completely. In addition, extensively used manning equation in open channel flow is not capable of retrieving local velocities or modeling dip phenomenon. This paper attempts to solve Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes Equations (RANS) for steady and uniform circular open channel flow at mild slopes, resulting in a semi analytical solution for a partially full pipe velocity distribution. The model is verified with benchmark experimental data and can be used as a powerful design tool which could be of a great importance for both industry and academia.

Nebraska Permitted Landfills: A Comprehensive Review Amin Mohebbi Abstract: Landfills were studied from engineering and regulatory concerns to facilitate the reader with a simplified yet useful overview. Initially, some qualitative and quantitative information mostly from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was presented to supply the reader with some preliminary knowledge of the landfills in the U.S. Subsequently, the state of Nebraska permitted landfills including both Municipal Solid Waste and Construction and Demolition landfills, their regulation and current status according to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality were discussed. Lastly, two case studies, a closed municipal solid waste landfill (Sate Street Landfill) as well as a currently active municipal solid waste landfill (Pheasant Point Landfill) were investigated for their location, ground water samples, permits and legal documentation.

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One of the most difficult parts of breast cancer surgeries is tumor margin detection. There is no accurate technique to show the tumor margins right now and the techniques that are used are time consuming with low resolution, so, some women that do breast cancer surgery usually require to repeat it. Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique with potential to rapidly differentiate normal from tumor tissues and tumor margins. This is because the Raman provides unique information about a sample, like a finger print. This study will evaluate SERS as a practical technique to differentiate between normal and cancerous cells and breast tumor margin detection, by using mammary glands tissues as a model. Thin Excised normal and cancerous gland tissues from mouse were sliced and coated with Silver nano-particulates and then, SERS signals detected and analyzed with a Raman scanner to differentiate between normal and cancerous tissues. Then, the results of the first experiments were tested with human tissues to find the appropriate margin in a normal-cancerous tissue. Consequently, the results were confirmed by histopathology method and the correlation between SERS and histopathology were statistically validated.

Sorption Capacity of Agricultural Hormones to Different Particle size Fractions of a Natural Aquatic Sediment Jodi Sangster Abstract: Increasing evidence indicates that agricultural production constitutes a significant source of steroidogenic compounds to aquatic systems. While several studies have explored the fate and transport of steroidogenic compounds in agricultural systems, relatively little is known about the effects of soil or sediment particle sizes on steroid fate in the environment. This study explores the partitioning of agricultural hormones, estradiol (E2), estrone (E1), progesterone (Pr), and testosterone (T), to different size fractions of a natural sediment and evaluates how competition between particle size fractions effect the distribution of hormones in the sorbed phase. Experiments were performed using natural sediment fractionated using both sieve and deposition methods.

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Five fractions of the sediment were used in sorption experiments to determine the sorption capacity of the fractions for four common agricultural hormones. All hormones evaluated exhibit significantly higher sorption capacity in the clay and collloid fractions when compared to the sand and silt fractions. This may be at least partially attributed to an increased surface area within the smaller particle fractions. Hormone sorption to colloids is not significantly different from sorption capacity of the clay fraction for E2, E1, and Pr. However, in the case of T, colloids exhibited a lower sorption capacity than that of the clay fraction. These results are more pronounced when competition between particle size fractions is considered. The tendency for hormones to partition to smaller particle size fractions of an aquatic sediment may allow for greater mobility in the water column increasing contaminant transport and contact with aquatic organisms.

Low Bitrate IP Address Covert Channel for Unmodified Wireless Devices James M. Taylor Jr. Abstract: Network security professionals invest a tremendous amount of resources in an effort to secure data contained information systems. Despite the extensive use of IP packet filters and “dirty word” search engines, these security enhancements can be bypassed to allow the transfer of information through the establishment of covert channels. The Department of Defense’s Trusted Computing System Evaluation Criteria defines a covert channel as “any communication channel that can be exploited by a process to transfer information in a manner that violates the system's security policy. It is the potential misuse of these covert channels that concerns network security professionals charged with safeguarding the data and resources on the network. To attempt to close some of the channels, research into detecting and disrupting covert channels has been conducted in recent years.

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Some proposed countermeasures include developing packet signatures for certain covert channels, performing traffic analysis to detect suspicious traffic through the firewall, and installing web and DNS proxies for outbound traffic to normalize queries. This IP Address Covert Channel described in this paper demonstrates the ease of establishing a low bitrate wireless covert channel and how it can be used to illicitly pass information beyond the security perimeter designed to prevent such leaks.

Evaluation of R/C Frame Structures Under Various Lateral Load Patterns by Using Pushover Analysis Ramin Taghinezhad Abstract: In this study nonlinear static , pushover, analyses were performed on low, mid and high-rise reinforced concrete resisting frames using various invariant lateral load patterns utilized in current engineering practice to study the effects of lateral load patterns on story displacements, drifts and hinge locations. The Uniform, Elastic First Mode, FEMA-356, Multi-Modal (or SRSS) are selected as lateral load pattern in pushover analysis. SAP2000 software is used for nonlinear static and dynamic analysis in this study. The accurate estimation of story displacement, drifts and hinge locations and its distribution along the height of the structure is very critical for seismic performance evaluation purposes since the structural damage is directly related to these parameters at the considered deformation level. Pushover predictions were compared with the 'exact' values of structure responses obtained from a nonlinear time history analyses using scaled ground motion records corresponding to the considered deformation levels. In this research, none of the lateral load patterns capture the exact behavior of structures under nonlinear time history analysis, even the 'Multi-Modal' lateral load pattern which considers elastic higher modes. The predictions of triangular lateral load patterns were observed to be better than 'Uniform' loading predictions and the difference between responses for this load pattern under pushover analysis and nonlinear time history analysis was in an acceptable rang. Keywords: story displacements, lateral load patterns, pushover analysis, nonlinear time history analyses, R/C frame . Capstone 2013 28

Curved Pre-cast Pre-stressed Concrete Girder Bridges Musa Alawneh Abstract: Precast concrete girders in curved bridges can be a better alternative to traditional curved steel girders and cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete girders. This relatively new technology has already been implemented in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Colorado and is being considered in Florida, Texas and other locations. Despite the fact that it has been shown to be competitive with conventional curved bridge superstructures, the authors believe that significant simplification can still be achieved. The proposed system consists of straight segments that are kinked at the joints to create the required curvature alignment. It will be shown that a maximum segment length of 40 feet would be needed to create the visual impression of a truly curved bridge. The forms can be used repeatedly and thus cost-effectively. A full span is assembled on the ground, the joint concrete placed in a second casting in the precast plant and the full span length is post-tensioned, handled, shipped and erected in a similar fashion to current practice with straight girders. In this presentation, it will be demonstrated how to form, produce, ship and erect the girders of the new system. Standard sections such as, I-beams, tubs and boxes are shown to be utilized. Detailed design and construction steps are outlined and supplemented with a design example. The example will include how stability during the various stages, through final in-service conditions, will be illustrated.

Comparative Study of High-Performance Base-Isolated Buildings Using a Damage-Based Response Index Mohammad Lashgari Abstract: Base-isolated structures are designed with a higher level of safety than the conventional structures under current codes. The effect of base isolation in reducing base shear demand was calculated in 4 different multi-story buildings in various ductility amounts. A cost-based response index (RI) was applied to evaluate and compare the performance of the models.

The suggested index was capable of estimating the probable losses in structural components, non-structural components and building contents based on a future generation of the performance-based design methodology. Nonlinear time history analysis was performed and the response indices were determined under various suites of motions with different hazard levels. Different isolation characteristics, period shift and characteristic strength, were also examined and the results were discussed. When having identical base shear demand, isolation substantially improved the response over the low-rise fixed-base corresponding models while delivering only a slight performance upgrade in higher models. The introduced methodology and response index can also be used for the comparison of different structural systems toward the selection of most economical design alternative.

Shape Optimization of Concrete Gravity dam Using Ant Colony Optimization Amin Mohebbi Abstract: Dams are massive structures utilized to raise water elevation in a stream in order to produce power and store water for drought seasons. Among various types of these dams, concrete gravity dams, due to simplicity in design and construction, are favored the most. Huge amount of concrete used in their construction could be one of their drawbacks. Recent developments in computer science enable us to take advantage of new optimization packages in civil engineering field. These new optimization methods so called Heuristic methods, being categorized as sub division of artificial intelligence are robust tools to obtain optimum solution within a reasonable time frame. This paper presents a novel method in concrete gravity dam design incorporating optimization algorithms from well developed ant colony optimization which can be used to design more economic structures. The method was applied to real word case studies in order to assess the efficiency and performance of the algorithm. Even considering the worst design scenario, the package was able to reduce the concrete volume between 5 to 10% compared to the original structure.

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Second Generation Pre-cast Deck Panel (NUDECK) System Afshin Hatami Abstract: The majority of today’s bridge decks are built using cast-in-place concrete construction. This is due to the perceived low initial cost and constructor familiarity with the system. This research project describes the design, details, and construction of an innovative full-depth precast concrete bridge deck system – the Second Generation NUDECK (Nebraska University Deck). The quality of this system is far superior to cast-in-place construction. Cast-in-place concrete bridge decks experience cracking shortly after construction due to differential creep and shrinkage with the supporting beams. This leads to bridge deck deterioration; a problem that is not experienced with the virtually crack free prestressed NUDECK made from high performance concrete. Rapid construction and minimizing the impact to drivers are two major demands toward our transportation industry. Precast bridge deck panels remove the construction operation from the job site and replace it with bridge deck installation. This eliminates the time spent on forming, concrete placing, and concrete curing. In addition, it increases worker and driver safety.

Life-Cycle Assessment of Nebraska Bridges Afshin Hatami Abstract: Deciding on the priorities for carrying out the activities for the maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) of bridges is the most challenging task in bridge management. The cost of MR&R consumes most of the available funding for bridge improvements. Therefore, the budget for these activities should be carefully allocated, particularly when the life cycle cost (LCC) is considered. Setting priorities for MR&R activities is a multi-attribute decision-making problem which requires simultaneous evaluation at both the network level (i.e., which bridge to repair), and the project level (i.e., which repair strategy for a given bridge). Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a necessary component in bridge management systems (BMSs) for assessing investment decisions and identifying the most cost-effective improvement alternatives.

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The LCCA analytical process helps to identify the lowest cost alternative that accomplishes the project objectives by providing critical information for the overall decision-making process. The main objective of this project is to perform LCCA for different maintenance strategies using the developed deterioration models and updated cost data. Deterministic and probabilistic LCCA using RealCost software for deck overlay decisions, expansion joint replacement decision, and deck widening versus deck replacement are considered. For deck overlay decision, silica fume overlay on bare deck at condition 5 and 6 are compared with bare deck. Also, epoxy polymer overlay and polyester overlay are compared with silica fume overlay and bare deck. In expansion joint replacement decision, two alternatives are compared: relocating abutment expansion joints at the grade beam; and replacing abutment expansion joints at the same place. Deck widening is compared with deck replacement in five bridges.

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Exploring Network Structure and Information Diffusion Pattern of Twitter- The Jan Lokpal Movement Case Nargess Tahmasbi Abstract: Online social media has become an indispensable part of internet users’ day to day activities. Online social media such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. empower the common people to share their opinions with others. In recent past, Twitter helped to facilitate spreading of social movements like Egypt revolution (2011), Jan Lokpal movement in India and so on. The Jan Lokpal Bill, is an anti-corruption bill initiated by the social activists of India to appoint an independent body – Jan Lokpal, aims to form effective anti-corruption and grievance redressal system so that effective restraint can be formed against corruption and to provide effective protection to whistleblowers. These social movements stem from the fact that when an incident is getting public attention or a topic is becoming a trend in a social network like twitter, users start to share information from other users and connect to other users and gradually form an information sharing network. The network may expand and reshape overtime. The structure of the network and the pattern it follows is associated with the users’ behavior of sharing information and connecting to each other. We analyze the content and structure of Twitter network shaped for spreading news about the Jan Lokpal movement in India. This study helps us to explore the particular structural and contextual characteristics of the information sharing network which facilitates the information diffusion in the Jan Lokpal movement Twitter network.

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Scalable Graph Modeling of Next Generation Sequencing Reads Julia Warnke Abstract: Next generation sequencing has revolutionized nearly all areas of biomedical research. Current sequencing technologies are capable of producing several hundreds of thousands to several millions of short sequence reads in a single run. However, current methods for managing, storing, and processing the produced reads have remained simple and lack the complexity needed to model the produced reads efficiently and assemble them correctly. We present an overlap graph coarsening scheme for modeling reads and their overlap relationships. Our approach differs from previous read analysis methods that use a single graph to model read overlap relationships. Instead, we use a series of graphs with different granularities of information to represent the complex read overlap relationships. We present a new graph coarsening algorithm for clustering a simulated metagenomics dataset. We also use the proposed graph coarsening scheme along with graph traversal algorithms to find a labeling of the overlap graph that allows for the efficient organization of nodes within the graph data structure. We conduct a study to determine the scalability of our algorithm on a large Illumina metagenomics dataset. The obtained results show that our algorithm was able to substantially reduce the overlap graph size and is scalable for large datasets. Our overlap graph theoretic algorithm is able to model next generation sequencing reads at various levels of granularity through the process of graph coarsening. Additionally, our model allows for efficient representation of the read overlap relationships and is scalable for large datasets.

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Doctoral Research - Information Science & Technology

Visual Analytics for Software Weaknesses Nargess Tahmasbi Abstract: This presentation will discuss a visual analytics framework to study software weaknesses compiled in the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) document. A software weakness is a type of mistake in software that, in proper conditions, could be exploited as vulnerability. The CWE is a comprehensive list of software weaknesses with complex interdependencies. The content of CWE is continuously evolving through community efforts. Because of the complex interdependencies among software weaknesses, it is not easy to study them by navigating hyperlinks on a webpage. The current representation of the CWE does not support for advanced search and browsing tasks such as navigating hierarchical and non-hierarchical relationships among weaknesses, discovering the connection between two weaknesses to understand their causal relationships, or understanding changes between CWE releases. We propose three analytical tasks to support these tasks: contextual visualization of identifier or keyword-based search query results, finding and navigating the possible paths between two given weaknesses, and visualization of network differences around a given weakness in two different CWE versions. In this study, a 3D visual analytics framework will be introduced and the implementation of the analytical tasks in a .NET web application is described. Also, the suitability of specific features of the application in supporting the tasks would be discussed.

Cross-Country and State Level Analysis of e-Commerce Adoption Between Small Businesses in China and the United States Jie Xiong Abstract: Small businesses represent the majority of all firms in developed countries and emerging countries. As the driving force and the central ingredient behind the economic growth and development of the world including the United States and China, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) used for e-commerce have fundamentally shaped a dramatic transformation in both countries.


A Base Composition Analysis of Natural Patterns for the Pre-Processing of Metagenome Sequences Oliver Bonham-Carter Abstract: On the pretext that sequence reads and contigs often exhibit the same kinds of base usage that is also observed in the sequences from which they are derived, we offer a base composition analysis tool. Our tool uses these natural patterns to determine relatedness across sequence data. We introduce spectrum sets (sets of motifs) which are permutations of bacterial restriction sites and the base composition analysis framework to measure their proportional content in sequence data. We suggest that this framework will increase the efficiency during the pre-processing stages of metagenome sequencing and assembly projects. Our method differentiates organismal reads or contigs. The framework successfully determines the relatedness between reads or contigs by comparison of base composition. We show that two types of organismal-sequence data are fundamentally different by analyzing their spectrum set (motif) proportions. Using one of the four total spectrum sets, which encompasses all known restriction sites, we show that different sets have different abilities to distinguish sequences. In addition, we show that the selection of a spectrum set which is relevant to one organism, but not the other, greatly improves performance of differentiation, even when the read, contig or sequence fragment size is short (5000bps). Using ten trials of newly selected reads to confirm our premise, our study provides a proof of concept for a novel and computationally effective method for a preprocessing step in metagenome sequencing and assembly tasks. Furthermore, our base composition method can be used to infer evolutionary distances between organisms since related organisms often have much conserved code.

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However, the usage of ICT is still a challenge for both developing and developed countries. California and Nebraska, in the USA and two provinces, Zhejiang and Sichuan in China are selected. California and Zhejiang are famous for their information technology industries, and Nebraska and Sichuan are known for their agriculture-based businesses. The research seeks to study the relationships between e-commerce adoption and contextual factors, and examine how these relationships vary across different economic environments. The research questions being investigated are: What are the factors that affect e-commerce adoption in China and the USA? How do these vary between the two countries? What are the differences between the development of ICT in Nebraska and California? How can emerging area learn from the more developed area in the ICT area? Drawing upon a comparative case study, conducted to further understand the phenomena, a model is developed using constructs developed from the literature. Data from more than 200 small businesses in both countries are collected by phone, Internet, and face to face interview. Preliminary results suggest that there are key differences in the adoption of ICT for e-commerce in China and the USA and lead to further advances in how small business adoption of ICT’s for e-commerce can enable sustainable development to take place in their respective regions.

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s Track Leads Dr. Doug Derrick UNO Mr. Herb Detloff UNL Ms. Maggie Findall PKI Dr. Robin Gandhi UNO Dr. Terri Norton UNL Dr. Abhishek Parakh UNO Dr. Leah Pietron UNO Dr. John Stansbury UNL Mr. Jim Taylor PKI Dr. Dale Tiller UNL Dr. Quiming Zhu UNO

Speakers Stephen Boyer BitSight Technologies Judges Ms. Mayi Arora Union Pacific Mr. Bryan Bartels USAF Mr. Richard Cox Johnson Controls, Inc. Mr. Pat Cuddigan- Kiewit Building Group CAPT Peter Faulk USN Mr. Yogesh Harsh ACI Worldwide Mr. Alan Hoss ACI Worldwide Ms. Julie Huff Northrop Grumman Mr. Kishore Illa ACI Worldwide Mr. Jeff LaMontagne URS Corporation Maj. Jennifer Leavitt NEANG Mr. Doug Massey Northrop Grumman Mr. Richard Oliphant ACI Worldwide Mr. Jeff Schomberg Johnson Controls Inc.

UNO Students Oliver Bonham-Carter Jessica Branigan Mohammad Dwaikat Angela Gillespie Kurt Hungerford Scott McGrath Chris Molini Hugues Oke Rachel Ostrander Ryan Peters Colleen Phillips Peter Raun Ali Rezaeian Mike Santo Sara Shinn Sriram Srinivasan Nargess Tahmasbi James Taylor Jr. Vikas Thotakuri Danielle Tyler Jie Xiong Julia Warnke

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UNL Students Musa Alawneh Jordan Anthony Shaddi Assad Robert Boulter Patrick Brennan Josh Curtis Aaron Daberkow Jason Dayton Ian Dikeman Heather Dworak Steven Flegle Erik Hagerup Afshin Hatami Erran Holtz Felix Islas Stacey Joy Phil Kahnk Omid Kalantari Brayden Kelly Mitch Klein Elliot Kruger Meagan Kurmel Mohammad Lasghgari Marc McCaslin Amin Mohebbi Sara Mollamohammada Ian Pfeffer Prasun Pradhan Yong Qi Fahimeh Rezaei Jonathan Sallach Jodi Sangster Austin Speidel Jacob Stoelting Timothy Struebel-Lar Ramin Taghinezhad Mathew Tew Donald Tryon

United States Military Academy (West Point) Cadets Eric Park Richard Spellerberg

Conference s p o n s o r s

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PKI would like to sincerely thank the Student Capstone sponsors, Northrop Grumman and Union Pacific, for sponsorship of meals, refreshments, certificates, mementoes, and cash awards ($1,000, $500, $250, $100) presented to the students and participants.


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Documents

The Peter Kiewit Institute Omaha, NE · Presentation Tracks, Track Leaders, and Judges Conference Tracks Capstone 2013 6 Undergraduate Information Science & Technology Research Track