TTU Published Journals @ Volpe Library
Not a member yet
971 research outputs found
Sort by
Reaction optimization using Design of Experiment (DOE) at the NMR scale
No full textScientists in the chemical industry are interested in ways to produce substances with the highest possible efficiency. Significant developments have been achieved in the past twenty years, in particular with a technique known as Design of Experiment (DOE), which differs from the traditional â??One Variable at a Timeâ? approach to optimization. The DOE approach determines what experimental factors are most influential on the yield of the reaction, then optimizes those factors. This project attempts to develop a cheap and simple way to optimize reactions. This can be achieved at microscale to reduce costs, make the method easily deployable, and simple for a large number of samples. This project uses Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to observe reactions at this scale. Using NMR allows the reactions to be closely monitored as they proceed. The process can be applied to organic chemistry labs as a way to demonstrate DOE, as well as applied to other more practical synthetic challenges
*WINNER* Association between a Healthy and Balanced Nutritional Intake in Relation to Self-Care and Depression
No full textDepression is a mental illness that can negatively impact one’s overall quality of life. As of 2017, more than 300 million people across the globe and 17.3 million adults in the United States experienced symptoms of depression. The purpose of this review of literature is to explore the association between a healthy and balanced nutritional intake with self-care and depression. A deficiency in antioxidants, a shift in oxidative stress markers, and inflammatory markers in the body act as modifiable risk factors for depression. The Mediterranean diet is rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects; obesity, smoking, sleep deprivation, and poor diet choices are lifestyle and psychological stressors that can be combated by the anti-inflammatory effects of this diet. The adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN), identified to have a direct influence on cognitive abilities and mood, can be regulated to prevent decreased AHN, which coincides with depressive behaviors. Also, nutritional psychiatry is a new field of research that could lead to influential dietary approaches for disease prevention and exploration of therapeutic goals for mental illnesses, such as depression. Increased awareness is needed and socially normalizing depression and mental illnesses should be advocated for and promoted by policy makers, health care providers, family members, and educator figures in order for further research to be conducted to explore in what ways nutrition can affect self-care when diagnosed with depression
*WINNER* Adaptive Step Size Incremental Conductance Based Maximum Power Point Tracking
No full textExtracting maximum power available from a photovoltaic array requires operating at maximum power point (MPP), which changes with multiple environmental factors, mainly temperature and irradiance. Because any practical PV system would be under a condition in which these factors change, the operating point of a PV array needs to be constantly updated to a new MPP. The process to identify the new MPP is called maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Traditionally, incremental conductance MPPT algorithm with fixed step size is used. This algorithm, however, suffers from a trade-off between convergence speed and accuracy. I propose an incremental conductance MPPT algorithm with variable step size, which adaptively changes step size after each iteration based on how far away the current operating point is from a new MPP. This is done by updating step size to a product of derivative of power with respect voltage and an exponential decaying function, which effectively increases step size as the operating point gets further from the MPP, and decreases step size as the operating point approaches the MPP. With this algorithm, the aforementioned trade-off can be dramatically mitigated as faster convergence speed can be achieved with little to no power loss. A series of simulations involving variation of temperature and irradiance were performed using MATLAB, and convergence speed and accuracy were compared with the traditional fixed step size algorithm
Design and Implementation of an Autonomous Wheelchair for Physically Challenged People
Get PDF"Many people struggle on a daily basis with the issue of mobility. For most, the struggle of mobility is due to a physical handicap that is prohibiting their movement. Wheelchairs were invented to help provide a remedy for these situations. However, standard wheelchairs still seem to prove ineffective for a large percentage of users. This includes people with weak muscle, the blind, paraplegics, or those who were born with congenital amputation. With the advancement of technology, it is possible to make wheelchairs, “smart” and “safe” to allow people with disabilities to use such chair by simply communicating with them.This research aims to deliver an automated, safe and convenient solution for assistive technologies/advanced smart assistance which will enable elderly and handicapped people with locomotive disabilities to travel around alone with no assistance. The command of the person in the form of voice, written information, or hand gesture, is captured by the wheel chair artificial brain and convert it to a control command, which tells the wheelchair where to go. In order for the artificial brain to perform properly, it must know the environment it is operating in and the coordinates of the different possible spots the chair is likely to go.The research project is broken down into four stages, namely: a) Mapping of the environment b) Localization of the Wheelchair in the environment c) Autonomous Navigation and d) Human command Interpretation. In this phase of the research, the human voice is used to provide the locations to go to
*WINNER* Making the Way to Marriage: Language and Love in Shakespeare's Plays
No full textThe language in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing turns love into a game through opposing sentiments of adoration and cynicism between Romeo and Juliet and Beatrice and Benedick, while differing dictions show adverse interpretations of Elizabethan age courtship practices. This paper takes a deeper look into the plays’ language, especially the style and vocabulary of each character, to trace the success and failure of each relationship. Romeo and Juliet exemplify youthfulness and urgency while racing through societal practices, catering to their need for marriage by omitting courtship steps that are integral to communal acceptance. The focus is only on their love, shown through flowery poetry with exaggerated metaphors. Beatrice and Benedick present a contrasting attitude with cynicism that precedes secret vows, which are prompted by emotions exposed by their family and friends. Community approval permits the couple to pursue their love with less hesitation and openly commit to a courtship, but they continue to use word games that express their complicated relationship. In each play, urgency, maturity, love, and loathing contribute to an engagement, but community involvement plays the largest role in determining the success or failure of the marriage. Each couple employs various literary devices in their language to add new interpretations of words while progressing through the stages of courtship, showing their love in contrasting ways.I wrote this paper for my Shakespeare class
Improving Thiol Specific Labeling Efficiency on Sites with Low Solvent Accessibility by Solid Phase Labelling (SSL)
No full textCell signaling is crucial for cellular interactions to occur properly and expediently. Due to the body’s numerous available responses, many receptors bind to multiple ligands, resulting in receptors’ abilities to produce various responses depending on the initial ligand to which it binds. Of the numerous receptors in the body, our research focuses on arrestin3, a scaffold protein that plays an amplifying role in signal cascades for mitogen-activated protein kinases, making it a scaffold protein. Arrestin3 has the ability to bind multiple ligands on the same site, with distinct specificity, but how this multifaceted binding occurs is currently unknown. Fluorine-tagged NMR is widely used for protein conformational studies as it is robust, clear, quick, and consistent in determining shifts in a residue’s hydrophobic character. By labeling single-cysteine arrestin3 mutants with 19F in designated residues, the chemical shift can be determined before and after binding with MAPK kinases. These shifts signify key changes in arrestin3 conformation, constructing a clearer image of its overall structure. Unfortunately, previous labeling methods were only effective in labeling residues on the external environment of the protein, not sites with low solvent-accessibility, and required a three-day dialysis procedure, inhibiting expedient research. Solid-state labeling (SSL) is a quick, efficient, and non-denaturing method that provides a much higher labeling efficiency to residues with low solvent accessibility as well as reduces labeling time to approximately six hours instead of three days. This method optimization has produced high-quality NMR data for residues not formerly labeled efficiently or at all
Mechanisms of Thiosemicarbazones inhibition of Human topoisomerase IIalpha
No full textThiosemicarbazones (TSCs) have antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal and antitumor activities. Human topoisomerase IIlalpha is an essential enzyme to solve the topological problems during DNA metabolism. Thus it is a popular target for anticancer drug. Recent research found that metal TSCs have inhibition against human topoisomerase IIalpha. And it seems that the metal ion plays an important role. We are examining several metal TSCs to determine their inhibition against human topoisomerase
*WINNER* Caribbean Delphinidae Click Classifications
No full textThis research focuses on identifying animals of the Delphinidae family found in the Caribbean by analyzing acoustic signals. Delphinids produce large numbers of acoustic signals identified as echolocation clicks which provides a useful classification system. Recent studies have established that the fundamental frequency of the majority of whistles used for social communications covers the frequency range of 2–35 kHz and up to 100 kHz for the harmonic frequencies. The challenge in click classification results from recognizing patterns among many sources of variability. Our findings will be presented by figures of network relationships between clicks and a detailed exploratory analysis to highlight clusters and subsets of training and test data along with clustering algorithms
Chronically Ill Caregivers’ Perspectives on Parenting
Get PDFThis poster is an examination of different studies that relate to youth adjustment to parental illness, caregiver chronic illness, parental interventions as well as standings of parents with chronic illnesses. This poster focuses on the perspectives that caregivers with a chronic illness share about parenting and how it has affected their parenting style. For the sake of this project, chronically ill is defined as a situation whereby a person is unable to commit to regular daily tasks and is affected negatively by this illness daily. By this definition, the population of the studies reviewed for this poster face chronic illness while parenting or in some aspect of caregiving. This poster also examines relevant studies that focus on families (children, siblings, parents, etc.) dealing with chronic illness in some capacity. The research reviewed for this project is important and relevant to discover what resources work for caregivers with chronic illnesses and disabilities, not only so professionals can adapt to the needs of these individuals but to also apply the resources available to this population
*WINNER* Lake Storage Observation by Citizen and Satellite
No full textThe storage and transport of water in rivers, lakes, and wetlands are key components of the global water cycle and the primary source of water resources in much of the world. However, no repository of lake level or storage exists, except for some large lakes. Of the millions of lakes worldwide, very few are monitored. Lake science would benefit from access to more data. In this research project, we have installed 73 staff gauges in 67 lakes in USA, France, and Bangladesh. We have developed a software system that allows everyday citizen to report lake heights via text message that are stored in database. To date over 1,100 individuals have submitted over 5,062 measurements. We have computed lake area from satellite images and combined with height measurements to compute lake storage variation. Validation with high precision Levellogger shows that citizen scientists’ measurements are 99% accurate. Our investigation so far indicates that citizens can accurately measure lake stages and these measurements can be combined with satellite data. Our future work includes increasing the gauge network, effectively disseminating the collected data and the derived knowledge to scientific community and citizen, answering what processes and factors impacts lake storage variations, and expanding the functionality of the software system