TTU Published Journals @ Volpe Library
Not a member yet
971 research outputs found
Sort by
Exploring Eating, Lifestyle And Sleeping Patterns That Affects College Athletes
No full textThis review of literature explored eating, lifestyle, and sleeping patterns that may positively or negatively impact long term health in college athletes. The authors of this review of literature demand that having adequate sleep of at least eight to nine hours is essential to recovery but can be difficult due to the athlete’s schedule. Although athletes are provided with food, it may not be enough due to being so active and not having enough time to make healthy choices. Due to busy schedules, having a healthy lifestyle pattern can be difficult especially with school and other external factors to balance. The authors of the reviewed research noted that athletes need strong organizational and time management skills and the ability to make informed and mindful choices. The articles used in this review of literature provided tips that are practical, easy, and effective. In summary, the authors note that an athlete’s long term health is influenced by the decisions they make, as well as their desire to be healthy
Identifying Transmission and Risk Factors for COVID-19
Get PDFOver the past few months, the rise of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has taken the world by storm. The virus has spread rapidly throughout many world communities, leading to its current classification as a pandemic. Many researchers have already published insights and observations on the disease to shed light on this new adversary, while additional research is still ongoing. The US government and medical professionals recently called on the data science community to reveal insights into this virus through the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), a massive collection of coronavirus-related research. Contained within CORD-19 are insights into risk factors and transmission behavior for COVID-19.
This work assembles sections of CORD-19 data into an easily-readable format and uses this output to answer specific questions about the disease, such as environmental factors that correlate with increased transmission and other factors of risk that may contribute towards an individual patient contracting the virus. Additionally, the findings unveiled by this approach are further validated using machine learning algorithms on auxiliary datasets gathered from a few countries impacted by the virus
Investigation of mechanical, thermal and structural properties of continuous fiber-reinforced additively manufactured thermoplastic polymer composites
No full textContinuous Fiber Reinforced Additively Manufactured (CFRAM) nylon composites were manufactured and their properties were investigated. Due to the high performance, lightweight, and easy-process, these materials are good candidates to replace metals and conventional composites for a wide range of applications. The wide range of applications of these novel materials justifies the need to study their properties. In this study, fiber-reinforced composite specimens were printed and their mechanical, thermal and structural properties were investigated. Nylon and onyx were used as the matrix and Carbon fiber, fiberglass, and Kevlar were used as reinforcing agents. The mechanical and thermal analyses including tensile analysis, creep analysis, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis, Thermogravimetric analysis, thermal conductivity, heat capacity, and heat diffusion were investigated. Microstructural analysis was also conducted to investigate the fracture mechanism, internal morphology, interlayer adhesion, and the printing quality of the specimens. The thermo-mechanical properties of printed parts were compared with metals and conventional polymer composites to further investigate the applicability of printed parts. The results clearly show that CFRAM parts have much lighter weight compared with metals and their performance is high enough for engineering applications. In addition, the manufacturing process of these materials is much easier than metals and conventional composites. Finally, the applicability of CFRAM components for fabricating automotive parts was examined. For this aim, ease of design and manufacturing, final price, and production time as three main manufacturing factors were considered. The car parts were printed and their properties were compared with metal parts produced with traditional methods
*WINNER* Unsaturated soil model effects on the propagation of the saturated zone in levees during flooding
No full textDesign of waterside slopes for rapid drawdown typically assumes an initial state of steady seepage prior to drawdown. However, levees built from low permeability soils are unlikely to reach this state during a flood, and a method has been developed to evaluate the degree of seepage propagation based on a linear approximation of the phreatic surface at end of flooding. For impervious foundation conditions, the degree of seepage propagation can be related to a time factor that is a function of the flood hydrograph, the soil coefficient of compressibility, and levee geometry. In addition, the post-flood saturated zone in levees depends on the soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) and hydraulic conductivity function (HCF), which are quite uncertain for unsaturated soils. This study parametrically compares results obtained using the Slide v. 8.0 Simple model to the Fredlund and Xing, and van Genuchten models for SWCC and HCF for levees with different flood, geometric and soil properties. The results show that the type of SWCC and HCF model selected has a significant effect on the predicted degree of seepage propagation, or the start-of-drawdown phreatic surface. For the same set of levee scenarios, the Simple model predicts significantly larger saturated zones within levees compared to those predicted using the Fredlund and Xing, and van Genuchten models. For more realistic assessment of levee seepage, van Genuchten is recommended. However, for cases where unsaturated soil properties are unknown or very uncertain, the Simple model may be appropriate
*WINNER* Wind farm yaw control: Why positive yaw angles can enhance the production, while negative angles lead to an overall loss of power?
No full textThe aerodynamic interactions of wind turbines within a wind farm cause major energy losses. While these unavoidable interactions are minimized via layout optimizations prior to the construction of the wind farm, some active treatments can be carried out to further tackle this issue during the operation of the plant. Among all, yaw control has appeared to be the most promising strategy. Studying the impact of intentional yaw misalignment on the wake characteristics and the performance of wind farms has led to the conclusion that proper positive yaw misalignment can lead to an overall increase in the annual energy production of a wind farm, while any negative misalignment always reduces the energy production. Two unverified reasons are proposed for this: (i) clockwise rotation of the turbine blades and (ii) the Coriolis effect. This paper investigates these two potential explanations by conducting six large-eddy simulations of flow through a wind farm of 10 turbines. Results indicate that the Coriolis force and the direction of rotation of the blades both contribute to the significant inconsistency between the impact of positive and negative yaws on the net power production. The Coriolis force, however, was found to be more influential at the studied hub height. For the studied case, the difference between applying a positive and a negative yaw angle to the front-row turbine was found to be approximately 17%. This difference was reduced to almost 7% when the Coriolis force was relaxed, and to approximately 11% when the turbines were set to rotate counterclockwise
Investigation of Raman Spectrometry in Molecules Associated with Human Decomposition
No full textThe determination of the time since death occurred, or post-mortem interval (PMI), is an important step in death investigations. Currently, the most common approach for determining PMI has been the application of different types of mass spectrometry. Mass spectrometry requires the sample to be dissolved or derivatized, resulting in sample destruction. Raman spectroscopy is a non-destructive technique that is capable of measuring analytes in samples that are in solid, liquid, or gas phases, making it particularly useful in forensic investigations. For this project, three molecules associated with human decomposition and PMI, hypoxanthine, indole, and 3-methylindole, were measured with both normal Raman and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Normal Raman was performed for the detection of solid analytes in soil. SERS was performed for the detection of dissolved samples in agarose, layered with soil. All analytes were detected in solid-state mixed with soil as well as in the compounds incubated in agarose and layered in soil. SERS will also be carried out in the blood of pigs, an animal more closely related to humans than other animal models. Determination of the concentrations of these analytes in bodily systems of animals will help to establish the means for a limit of detection study (LOD) and narrow down which research animals have the analytes present in their systems for longer-term decomposition studies
Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
No full textIn my research project, I aim to show the challenges Jewish fighters faced during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. My research will highlight the actions perpetrated by the Nazis that motivated some Jews to resist them. It will also highlight the initial lack of resources and support from people outside the ghetto and from other residents as neither groups believed the resistance stood a chance. From there, it will follow the efforts by the resistance to gather weapons and other resources to resist the Nazis, such as purchasing weapons from the black market or resistance groups outside the ghetto. Eventually, I will cover the initial battles between the resistance and the Nazis and how well they held out. Along with the battle, I will also draw attention to how noncombatants in the ghetto reacted and how some tried to escape. In the conclusion of the research, I will show the actions the Nazis took to eventually crush the resistance, though small groups of Jewish fighters held out
Comparing the Period-Luminosity Relationship to Distance for the RR Lyrae Star EZ Lyr
No full textRR Lyrae stars are periodic variable stars often used as standard candles to measure intergalactic distances. Our group calculated the period-luminosity and distance-luminosity relationships for RR Lyrae star EZ Lyr for comparison with previously established results from the GAIA satellite. In collaboration with the Our Solar Siblings program, we requested images of EZ Lyr from the Las Cumbres Observatory’s (LCO) 0.4 meter SBIG telescopes on a set cadence until adequate data was acquired. EZ Lyr’s luminosity was determined by analyzing subsequent light curves from the LCO images. Using this observed luminosity in the relationship described in Caceres & Catelan 2008, distance was calculated. For the star EZ Lyr, the PL distance was consistent with GAIA observations
*WINNER* Ovipositional Preference of Silverleaf Whitefly on Benchmark Acylsugar Tomato Breeding Lines
No full textThe silverleaf whitefly (SLW), Bemisia tabaci B biotype is an invasive hemipteran insect which can cause severe losses in tomatoes. Acylsugar (AS)-mediated insect resistance bred from the wild tomato, Solanum pennelli (SP) has been demonstrated to control a variety insect pests. Using SP LA716, the tomato breeding program at Cornell University produced new AS lines. The program recently transferred the CU071026, the first benchmark line, SP genomic regions controlling AS to a new background (CU17NBL) with superior horticultural traits. The goal of this project is to compare the SLW ovipositional preference between young seedlings of CU17NBL and CU071026, to insure that CU17NBL has at least the same resistance as CU071026. These lines were evaluated at the four true leaf stage in choice tests replicated in small greenhouse cage assays. Cages were infested with ~100 SLW and allowed to oviposit for two weeks. Four replicate assays were performed. Insect counts were recorded weekly at leaf positions one and four. Data was analyzed with a mixed model ANOVA. The week two counts revealed a significant ovipositional preference (P<0.0001) for the CU071026 line as it accumulated more than ten times the number of eggs as the CU17NBL. Similar trends were seen for the 1st/2nd instar (P<0.01) and 3rd/4th instars (P=0.004). The findings of this study indicate that the transfer of the SP introgressions from CU071026 into CU17NBL have reduced the SLW preference compared to CU071026. Further characterization will be needed to understand these results
Testing the Febrile Response of Snakes Inoculated With Ophidiomyces Ophiodiicola (O.o), the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease
No full textSnake Fungal Disease (SFD) is a fungal pathogen of wild snakes populations, predominantly in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. SFD is characterized by heterophilic granulomas that can form around the mouth and eyes with severe cases causing weight loss, impaired vision and eventual death. Researchers, making field observations, have noted early season basking from severely infected snakes. This may suggest that snakes are attempting to raise their body temperature, inducing a febrile response, to combat the mycosis. This study tested the hypothesis that the causative agent of snake fungal disease (Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola) induces a febrile and behavioral response of seeking differential basking temperature to regulate body temperature. Eastern ribbon snakes (Thamnophis sauritus, n=30) were sham or O. o inoculated. Seven days after inoculation, snakes were tested on a thermal gradient that ranged from 40°C to 18°C. The internal body temperature of each snake was measured every 30 minutes for eight hours with a thermal probe inserted into the cloaca of each snake. Additionally, substrate temperatures, where the snake was basking, were measured every 30 minutes, using a laser temperature gun. Snakes inoculated with O. o exhibited significantly higher internal body temperatures and preferred significantly higher temperatures substrate temperatures