TTU Published Journals @ Volpe Library
Not a member yet
971 research outputs found
Sort by
*WINNER* Industries of Vice: Alcohol, Tobacco, and COVID in Germany
No full textAlcohol and tobacco consumption, while unhealthy, are considered a major social aspect in German Culture. Due to Covid restricting social interactions, one might expect these vice industries to naturally see a significant drop in demand and profit; however, while other markets struggled, these industries' numbers steadily increased. This project will explore how alcohol and tobacco companies have reacted and why the increase in their numbers occurred during the recent global pandemic
*WINNER* Optimizing Lattice Infill Structures to Reduce Mass & Power Consumption for Popular 3D Printing Technologies
No full textWith Additive Manufacturing (AM) being heavily utilized in many industries and applications, several studies are done to evaluate different process parameters of the different AM methods. This work investigates the use of lattice infill structures to reduce mass and power consumption in two of the most common AM methods, Stereolithography (SLA) and Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). Previous studies done in this lab explored the power consumption and surface finish of these different technologies. The results of these studies lead to SLA being the superior AM method when it comes to power consumption and surface finish, while FFF takes much less time. With prior experimental results, optimum printing parameters are used to compare to lattice infill structures. Three different test specimens are used to perform this study; a bolt, a steering knuckle, and a knee joint. Shelling the objects and creating lattice infill structures is done using ANSYS SpaceClaim. For the two different AM methods, build time, mass, power consumption, and surface finish results are documented. Results indicate SLA responds exceptionally well with lattice infill structures. For lattice infill in FFF, advanced printing parameters are altered to optimize the use of such infill
Investigation of Advanced Non-Circular Slip Surfaces for Slopes
Get PDFAs technology has advanced over the past years, the slip surfaces analyzed during the design of slopes have become more advanced compared to the basic circular surfaces used in earlier years. While this has been happening, the slopes that were designed with the simpler circular methods and then re-evaluated with these new more complex non-circular methods are shown to have a lower factor of safety during re-evaluation. This then incites the question of what does this mean for engineering design? If we can prove that the more complex non-circular slip surface methods are more accurate, then a possible shift to a lower design factor of safety may be required. This would not mean that the slope is less stable, but that the methods to analyze these slopes have become more accurate; therefore, a higher factor of safety in design is not required. In order to investigate this and be able to verify results, the use of case studies is being implemented. These case studies give us soil information and design information, which can be remodeled in software and then analyzed using the different non-circular slip surface method. These can then be compared to the equivalent results of common circular methods. This research is still ongoing, but during early stages, there have been "critical" inputs that must be acknowledged, as they will drastically affect the calculated factor of safety for the slope being analyzed
Graph Neural Network for Human Trajectory Forecasting
No full textPredicting human travel trajectories in complex dynamic environments play a critical role in various fields such as autonomous vehicles, intelligent robots, intelligent transportation systems, and also for wireless communication networks. In wireless communication, an accurate user trajectory forecast is crucial for resource allocation, energy efficiency, and quality of service improvement. Due to the high nonlinearity and the complexity of the user's walking behavior, traditional methods cannot satisfy the requirements of mid-and-long term prediction and often ignore spatial and temporal dependencies of each position. In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning framework approach based on Graph Neural networks and long short-term memory, to tackle the prediction problem in realistic human movement. Instead of applying regular convolutional and recurrent units, we formulate the problem on graphs and build the model with complete convolutional structures, which enable faster training with fewer parameters. Specifically, we are interested in predicting the future positions of the user motion given a history of the position for a collection of users trajectories. To train our model we are using the Edinburgh Informatics Forum Pedestrian Database (EIFPD). We apply data mining preprocessing techniques to achieve results that demonstrate where our approach outperforms previous work and show that our model effectively captures comprehensive spatio-temporal correlations
Synthesis and NMR Characterization of Mixed Oxime Thiosemicarbazones and their Metal Complexes
No full textThiosemicarbazones are a class of organic compounds that function extremely well as ligands that bind to transition metals to form metal complexes with interesting biological properties. This presentations focuses on synthesis and characterization of a new series of monoxime thiosemicarbazone. Two new compounds, namely a-isonitrosacetophenone ethyl thiosemicarbazone (INAP-ETSC) and a-isonitrosacetophenone tert-butyl thiosemicarbazone (INAP-tButyl), are synthesized and characterized by Nuclear Magentic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR). The synthesized compounds were further used to create metal-ligand complexes that will be tested for their anticancer properties by studying the inhibition of topoisomerase IIa
Development of Field Test for Identification of Cocaine with TLC
No full textCurrently used as a presumptive field test for identifying cocaine, the Scott's test has been shown to bring false positives as heavily relied on evidence. While some precautions have been taken, there are still too many variables that affect the outcome, including presence of similar drugs, diluents and mass sensitivity. This project's approach looks at the same stain reagent in a different form, a thin layer chromatography (TLC) kit, rather than a presumptive test kit like that sold by NIK. Even though more complex, design has focused on the ability to carry out the test in the field by law enforcement. The optional use of a heat source for enhanced color development has also been included in this study. Preliminary studies have focused on silica TLC plates, cobalt (II) thiocyanate stain, and a mobile phase with a 8:1:1 ratio of ethanol, methanol, and ammonia
Molecular Modeling of Gas Hydrates
No full textTrapping of gas molecules is the essential step in surface chemistry. Interactions of molecules with ice surfaces are specially interesting for atmospheric chemistry. Experiments have suggested that different gas, like carbon monoxide, carbon-di-oxide, methane, nitrogen oxide, and ideal gasses like helium, xenon, krypton, etc, can penetrate ice and form a gas hydrate compound. This compound is defined as a gas molecule entrapped in a hydrogen-bonded water cage. Gas hydrates are abundant in deep water ocean sediments, near seafloor, in permafrost regions, and in interstellar mediums. In the current study we will consider different size water clusters (H2O)12-30 and entrapment of different gas molecules inside these clusters. We will investigate the structural deformation/reorganization of the water molecules in the water clusters by entrapment of different gas molecules. Matlab for coding, Gaussian for calculations and Avogadro for visualization will be used. Several different level of theory for calculation such as, MP2 and DFT (BLYP and/or B3LYP) and Pople type basis set such as, 6-31g** , 6-311++g** and/or Dunning basis sets, like cc-pVDZ, aug-cc-pVDZ etc will be considered for this research project
A Novel Interaction between Apoptosis Signal-Regulating Kinase 1 (ASK1) and c-Jun N-Terminal Kinase (JNK)
No full textMitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are a family of intracellular serine/threonine protein kinases that transmit extracellular stimuli to the machinery that controls fundamental cellular processes like growth, gene expression, differentiation, and apoptosis. MAPKs function sequentially in a three-tiered kinase module in which an upstream MAPK kinase kinase (MAPKKK) activates a MAPK kinase (MAPKK), which in turn activates the downstream MAPK. We recently discovered a previously unknown interaction between ASK1, the MAPK kinase kinase (MAPKKK) in the JNK cascade, and JNK3, the downstream MAPK. These novel interactions (ASK1 and JNKs) were studied using biochemical assays such as pull-down, kinase assay and western blotting. Our findings confirm the interactions between ASK1 and the JNK subfamilies (JNK1,2 and 3), with JNK3 isoforms binding ASK1 more strongly than the other two subfamilies. This resulted in the identification of a major ASK1 binding site in JNK3. The findings of this study will contribute to a better understanding of the assembly and function of multi-component MAPK complexes
Derivatization Methods for Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) by Gas Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Get PDFThe perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are environmentally persistent, non-degradable, bioaccumulative, and potentially harmful. These "forever chemicals" are widely distributed across the globe, and methods are needed for the rapid and routine analysis in a variety of matrices. Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is commonly used for the analysis of water samples, but PFAS compounds pose special problems in sample pretreatment, separation, and detection. Here, we present our work towards a sensitive, simple, and reliable analytical technique for the determination of perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) by GC/MS after amidation with 2,4- difluoroaniline (DFA). We report the optimized conditions for the synthesis of the derivatized analytes, as well as their GC retention properties and characteristic mass spectrometric fragments. The overall instrument detection limit is determined from a calibration curve study, and found to be acceptable for the analysis of surface water samples following appropriate solid-phase extraction and derivatization
*WINNER* Metal Ion Removal from Aqueous Solutions using NQSA SC and TSC Chelating Resins
No full textWith the change of environmental impacts and pollutants, the amount of heavy metal ions found in water bodies have increased. These heavy metal ions pose risk to both the environment and humans because they can bioaccumulate in the environment. In order to remediate waters contaminated with heavy metals, a safe and effective removal process must be found. Napthoquinone sulfonic acid (NQSA) semicarbozone (SC) and thiosemicarbozone (TSC) ligands are attached to anion exchange resin beads to create chelating resins. The removal of two heavy metal ions will be studied using the chelating resins to determine their effectiveness at removing the ions from solution at two environmentally relevant pH values. A dry weight distribution, Dw, value is calculated to measure the amount of metal removed from the solution. It is anticiapted NQSA-SC and TSC resins will provide an effective means of remediating metal ions from aqueous sources