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Public Services Annual Report 2023-2024
Get PDFAnnual report of the Public Services Department at the University of Rhode Island Libraries
ATP Seal Automated Testing Device
Get PDFThe project worked by this team this semester involves automating a pre-existing system to test ATP seals for Eaton Corporation that will be used in a GE T901 engine. There are problems with the pre-existing system including a lack of operator safety, accurate measurements, and high consumption of employee time, that have potential to be solved by automating the system through this project.
The team learned several important and valuable skills necessary to complete this project throughout the semester. The team completed various assignments throughout the first semester to help in design of the project and performed significant design, build, and testing work in the second semester to ensure the project was thoroughly examined and complete. The team had weekly meetings with the sponsor from Eaton to get guidance and discuss technical information. There are several requirements imposed on the system design and given to the team by General Electric and Eaton Corporation. The team developed a list of design specifications based on customer and engineering requirements that the design must meet. The team created and presented two separate proof of concept prototypes mid-year, to prove that the requirements could be met, and the design would be achievable.
The final design is still has been designed, built, and tested since proof-of-concept. The final design addresses some of the most important problems with the pre-existing system such as clamping force, automation, and safety. The team was able to complete the design and build, achieving their goals, of the system prior to the end of the year. There are some adjustments Eaton will need to make from the system as it currently exists to use higher pressures and a larger pipe diameter, but the system is functional and performs the required tasks, indicating a successful project
Advanced Thermal Lunar Atomic System (ATLAS)
Get PDFThis senior capstone project regards the design and development of a fission based atomic reactor to be used to power a small lunar colony. This reactor must provide sufficient power for several systems including life support, materials mining and processing, and rover charging. It must also be robust, reliable, modular in respect to the base’s power grid (i.e. can be integrated or removed with ease) and must also require little to no maintenance. Research regarding NASA’s plans for such a lunar outpost, review of nuclear reactor literature, and estimated power consumption for sub-systems led to the following design requirements: 100--150-kilowatt electrical power output 20-year lifespan without refueling Weight of less than 50 metric tons Combined setup and startup time of less than 48 hours Redundant systems resistant to environmental hazards Negative thermal coefficient of reactivity
Literature and patent searches were then completed in October, providing pertinent concepts and equations to be used in the design of the system. After the generation of concepts and the selection of the best aspects of each in November, it was decided that the reactor would use UO2 as the primary fuel in a series of rods cooled by heat pipes with a sodium working fluid. Control is to be actuated with six drum-type rotating cylinders, coated in Boron-10, as well as a single control rod for redundancy. Cooling will be through heat pipes that will transfer heat out of the core to a series of radiator panels. A 3D model of the final system has been completed in Autodesk Inventor. This model has been verified through a series of simulations run by Inventor, COMSOL, and OpenMC
Cross-cutting studies of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in Arctic wildlife and humans
Get PDFThis cross-cutting review focuses on the presence and impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the Arctic. Several PFAS undergo long-range transport via atmospheric (volatile polyfluorinated compounds) and oceanic pathways (perfluorinated alkyl acids, PFAAs), causing widespread contamination of the Arctic. Beyond targeting a few well-known PFAS, applying sum parameters, suspect and non-targeted screening are promising approaches to elucidate predominant sources, transport, and pathways of PFAS in the Arctic environment, wildlife, and humans, and establish their time-trends. Across wildlife species, concentrations were dominated by perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), followed by perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA); highest concentrations were present in mammalian livers and bird eggs. Time trends were similar for East Greenland ringed seals (Pusa hispida) and polar bears (Ursus maritimus). In polar bears, PFOS concentrations increased from the 1980s to 2006, with a secondary peak in 2014–2021, while PFNA increased regularly in the Canadian and Greenlandic ringed seals and polar bear livers. Human time trends vary regionally (though lacking for the Russian Arctic), and to the extent local Arctic human populations rely on traditional wildlife diets, such as marine mammals. Arctic human cohort studies implied that several PFAAs are immunotoxic, carcinogenic or contribute to carcinogenicity, and affect the reproductive, endocrine and cardiometabolic systems. Physiological, endocrine, and reproductive effects linked to PFAS exposure were largely similar among humans, polar bears, and Arctic seabirds. For most polar bear subpopulations across the Arctic, modeled serum concentrations exceeded PFOS levels in human populations, several of which already exceeded the established immunotoxic thresholds for the most severe risk category. Data is typically limited to the western Arctic region and populations. Monitoring of legacy and novel PFAS across the entire Arctic region, combined with proactive community engagement and international restrictions on PFAS production remain critical to mitigate PFAS exposure and its health impacts in the Arctic
Impact of the JumpStart Service—Learning Experience on Leadership Skills Among University Student Ameri-Corp Volunteers
Get PDFThis study aimed to explore the motivation for university students to become JumpStart AmeriCorps members (volunteers) and to examine the relationship between volunteers’ participation in the program and their leadership skills development. A total of 46 participants were surveyed to identify their two main reasons for becoming a JumpStart AmeriCorps volunteer. The results showed that most of the participants were motivated by the opportunity to gain field experience with children and to fulfill their passion of working with children. Furthermore, the program was found to provide a valuable platform for college students to engage in community service and volunteerism and to develop leadership skills in early childhood education. These findings highlight the importance of providing practical opportunities for college students to gain experience in the field and to contribute to their communities
Frugal Consumer Behavior
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to bring renewed attention to frugality and advance the discussion of frugal consumer behavior. It makes an initial attempt to explore the dimensions of frugality and provides a contextual map of frugal consumer behavior that can be empirically tested and used for future predictions
Vulnerability profiles and educational demands of Spanish university students in the face of fake news
Get PDFThis study is part of the Surfing the Waves of Fake News (SURFake) project, involving 543 Spanish university students. Its purpose is to understand the variables related to potentially risky practices students engage in on social media and their educational shortcomings. An opinion questionnaire was used to establish levels of vulnerability to fake news. The results show that the most vulnerable are the youngest and those who spend more time exposed to social media, limit themselves to consuming content, read their news superficially, and lack specific education or training. Respondents who are aware of their limitations request training to recognize reliable sources of information, identify news creators\u27 hidden agendas, and activate their critical thinking. Lastly, the study emphasizes the need to design interventions that help students analyze and cross-reference information, as well as participate responsibly in the digital sphere
Sowing Seeds for Success: Equitable Grading in the Information Literacy Classroom
Get PDFWhat impact does your grading and assessment have on student success and retention? Research has shown that traditional grading can have a negative impact on student learning by placing students who come to the classroom with less knowledge or experience with class content at a disadvantage. This session will introduce the practice of ungrading, an umbrella term that encompasses a wide range of equitable grading strategies and practices like specifications and contract grading. Together, attendees will question how library and LIS educators can rethink their grading on a spectrum that ranges from redesigning a single assignment to overhauling an entire course to better support student learning
Dissident Gut: Technologies of Regularity, Politics of Revolt
No full textDraws on theories of Marxism, feminism and the biopolitics of affect to investigate the psycho-dynamic properties of the modern peristaltic system Brings Marxist environmental theory in conversation with sociological study of faecal habitus Intervenes in discussions of biopolitics and “bare life” to emphasize metabolic aspects of citizenship Interrogates the relation between feminized labour of waste management and women’s bodily habitus Brings together diverse disciplinary approaches to the question of metabolic living in the early 20c Western world Brings to light suffragettes’ influence on Gandhi’s concept of “satyagraha” Opens and closes with present day instances of metabolic and faecal biopolitics in detention centres at U.S./Mexico border, in rural and urban India where open defecation is practiced, and in the U.S. rural south, where “flush and forget” faecal habitus is impossible for many
Explores the biopolitics of modern metabolism, of how humans manage the world through their peristaltic systems, as they ingest food and produce waste. Set against a backdrop of Marx’s theory of how we “mediate, regulate, and control” our metabolic relation to nature, of the rise of a bourgeois faecal habitus, of the relegation of domestic waste management to female “meta-industrial” workers, of depleted agricultural fields and polluted urban centres, Dissident Gut performs three in-depth case studies of early twentieth-century English and European women whose wayward intestinal systems intervene in larger social, affective, and political networks, and who assert a peristaltic grammar of desire and resistance. Intervenes in theoretical discussions around the gut-brain axis, biopolitics and biopower, materialist feminism, psychoanalysis and hysteria, bodily habitus, and waste management