41530 research outputs found
Sort by
Community Multipurpose Center
Get PDFThis report is an analysis of fire protection and life safety features required for a Community Multipurpose Center (CMC).
Governing the construction of the building was the International Building Code (IBC). Throughout this report there are justifications for a call to redesign the CMC conceptual drawing.
The fire and life safety features were organized into five areas, otherwise known as the FPE core areas.
The first four core areas consist of (1) Structural Fire Protection, (2) Water-Based Fire Control and Suppression Systems, (3) Detection, Alarm and Notification Systems, and (4) Means of Egress System. These come straight out of codes – technically known as the Prescriptive analysis.
The uses for all enclosures, rooms or spaces within the CMC were categorized as (1) Business: Offices, professional or service-type transactions that include storage of records and accounts, barber and beauty shops, and electronic data processing; (2) Educational: Day care facility used for more than five children older than 2 years and 6 months of age to receive educational, supervision or personal care services for fewer than 24 hours per day; (3) Assembly Group A-3: uses can be Community halls, Dance halls (not including food or drink consumption), Exhibition halls, Indoor Field without spectator seating, a Gymnasium without spectator seating and Lecture halls; and (4) Assembly Group A-2: an occupancy intended for food and drink consumption limited to a cafeteria, the associated commercial kitchen, and a restaurant-like dining area.
There are storage rooms, however they are accessory to the occupancies within the CMC. Accessory storage uses include both S-1 and S-2 classifications. Uses (5) S-1 are hazards other than low such as bags, cardboard, boxes, furniture, and clothing; (6) S-2 are electrical coils, frozen foods, food products, fresh fruits in non-plastic containers, transformers, stoves, washers, and driers.
A total of 42 assumptions were used to complete this analysis. The first major assumption was a preference for construction type II-A. Another major assumption was the installation of a water-based fire protection system and designed using the CMDA method.
The size and complexity of the CMC requires that it be equipped with a combined voice and alarm communication system.
Another finding was that the floor plan evaluated is not compliant with many life safety requirements. Specifically, the means of egress requires an overhaul. It needs attention in the following areas: number of exits, exterior exits, capacity of exits, remoteness, exit passageways, dead-ends, and door swings opposite to direction of egress. These redesign needs imply adjustments to markings and sign locations.
Significant redesign needs, in the means of egress system, affects all other prescriptive core areas such as Structural Fire Protection (SFP), Fire Control and Suppression Systems (FCSS), and Detection, Alarm and Notification (DAN) Systems.
The need to overhaul the Means of Egress System will trigger addition or modification of walls, or any additional separation of space or occupancy to enclose Exit Passageways. These reconfigurations, most likely, will impact construction elements. Any impact to construction elements, as well as changes in ceiling heights, separations and draft curtains are considered under Structural Fire Protection. Moderate changes to structural elements should be expected.
Detection, Alarm and Notification Systems require a moderate redesign effort. It is likely that to accommodate some of the modifications necessary for the Means of Egress system, there will be adjustments to the Signal Line Circuits, Notification Appliance Circuits, and to the Emergency Voice and Alarm Evacuation System’s battery calculations.
The Fire Control and Suppression system is likely to be impacted on a minor scale due to room elimination and size adjustments. For example, the changes expected for the water-based systems are likely to be for the number of heads projected to be used due to room count or dimension changes. But the redesign should not impact the hazard classifications nor the water demand.
Performance-based analysis (PBA) is the fifth core area. It has been addressed by a simulation of a transformer fire inside a small room that endangers occupants in a larger room. A major PBA assumption was that the door of an electrical room is fully open at the time of a transformer fire within the room.
Computational models were used to support the occupant evacuation conclusions. Combining all the safe evacuation factors, the time needed to accomplish the life safety goal is suggested to be 114 seconds.
The available evacuation time was established at the smoke tenability limit for life safety – at the first indication of smoke at a level lower that 6 feet above the floor. Tenability is suggested to be reached at 169 seconds.
The combination of some safety factors and other assumptions indicates a Margin of Safety of 48.5 % between the safe and the available evacuation times
Hitch Cart “Landing Gear”
Get PDFThis report aims to allow our sponsor, to review our design process of the Hitch Cart Landing Gear Prototype. In the design overview section of this report, we discuss the primary design modifications we made to the wheel mechanism of the existing hitch cart prototype, including the addition of the ACME screws and the folding brackets. This allows our sponsor to see the intended improvements made to the past prototype and understand the primary goal of our project. Then, in the implementation section, we cover the entire manufacturing process to allow our sponsor to understand what manufacturing steps must be done to mass-produce our hitch cart. It allows our sponsor to consider how they could improve and improve the manufacturing process. The design verification section includes the specifications that the hitch cart was intended to satisfy and the results from testing all of them. It allows our sponsor to understand how well our final prototype was developed and met their needs while also allowing them to see what needs further improvements. Finally, the discussion and recommendations section allow our sponsor to see our recommendations to improve our current prototype to satisfy their needs and ultimately allow hitch cart customers a better user experience. The ultimate goal of this report is to discuss what we have done throughout the entire process to improve and build the prior hitch cart prototype and what should be done to continue the development of its design and manufacturing
Menstrual Cup Design with Tension-Based Removal
No full textThe following paragraphs illuminate the important engineering and innovative steps that were taken to improve the quality of life for the millions of people who experience a menstrual cycle through the development of a new menstrual cup and applicator. The global feminine hygiene products market is a growing industry currently worth $40 billion. There is demand for improvement to the devices currently on the market. Millions of people could be positively impacted through redefining and creating of new menstrual products that are more comfortable, convenient, and sanitary. Our focus was on developing a novel menstrual cup and applicator that addressed key customer needs and a gap in the market for beginner friendly menstrual cups. This process involved collaboration with other engineers, a study of background literature, a patent search, user interviews, and competitor analysis, to understand the challenges faced by individuals using existing menstrual products. Based on this research, we generated multiple design concepts emphasizing comfort, leak resistance, ease of use, and sustainability. Rapid prototyping and testing were critical stages where we iterated on design features such as material selection, design components, and manufacturing methods to create a functional prototype that would closely match the response of medical grade silicone and be able to be mass manufactured. Our final qualitative tests of the cup prototype demonstrated a tendency of the rim to deform at the site of the tension mechanism attachment, indicating strong potential for success in later quantitative tests when a medical-grade prototype is completed
Stress Effects on the Growth Physiology of Pacific Rockfishes (Sebastes spp.): Negative Impacts of Cortisol and Elevated Temperature Exposure
Get PDFFish experiencing stressful conditions increase production of the glucocorticoid hormone cortisol, which alters energy intake and allocation to help recover physiological homeostasis. Fish experiencing prolonged elevations of cortisol, however, often exhibit reduced somatic growth. While it has been shown previously in fish that cortisol inhibits anabolic growth processes in part via changes in endocrine growth hormone (Gh)/insulin- like growth factor-1 (Igf1) signaling, it is not fully understood which components of Gh/Igf1 pathways are modulated by cortisol. Here, we explored how cortisol influences the Gh/Igf1 system in blue rockfish (Sebastes mystinus) by administering exogenous cortisol and examining effects on Igf1 pathways. Cortisol-treated rockfish had higher plasma cortisol both 5 h and 24 h after injection compared to fish treated with vehicle solution only. Cortisol-treated rockfish also had lower plasma Igf1, even though relative expression of igf1 mRNAs in the liver was unaffected by cortisol. Rockfish treated with cortisol did, however, exhibit higher liver mRNA levels of Igf binding proteins (Igfbps) igfbp1a and igfbp1b, which encode Igfbps with proposed inhibitory influences on Igf1 stimulation of somatic growth. Cortisol-treated fish also expressed reduced liver mRNA levels of igfbp2a, an Igfbp thought to facilitate Igf1 transport in fish, as well as reduced mRNAs in skeletal muscle for myoblast determination protein 2 (myod2), a transcriptional activator for other genes promoting myocyte differentiation during myogenesis. Taken together, these findings point to cortisol-related changes in liver Igfbp expression as a mechanism for shifting Igf1 regulation of growth in fish experiencing elevated glucocorticoid secretion.
Temperature is a key regulator of metabolism and growth in teleost fishes. Fish experiencing atypically high temperatures undergo a variety of physiological changes to cope with the elevated temperature, which often includes a reduction in the rate of somatic growth. Studies examining the effects of elevated temperatures on fish growth have typically focused on longer duration increases in average temperature. However, with anomalous ‘heat wave’ events becoming more common in aquatic habitats with climate change, fishes may increasingly be exposed to shorter-term periods of extreme elevated temperature. In this study, black rockfish (Sebastes melanops) were exposed to a short-duration period of elevated temperatures resembling the effects of a heat wave event on a rocky intertidal tidepool, a habitat used by young-of-the-year juveniles of this rockfish species. Black rockfish maintained on two different food rations (1% or 9% g feed per g body mass per day) for 21 d were exposed to elevated temperatures simulating a ~6°C maximum temperature increase for a ~54 h period, after which temperatures were returned to ambient ocean conditions. Rockfish in both ration treatments showed reduced body condition and lower mass-specific growth rates (SGR) during the 3 week period following the heat event period, but then subsequently increased growth above pre- stressor growth rates during the 6 and 9 week period after the high temperature event. Plasma insulin-like growth factor 1 (Igf1) hormone concentrations were correlated with an individual rockfish’s mass-specific growth rate prior to the heating event, but then decreased in both feed treatments following the event and no longer showed that positive relationship to growth. Plasma glucose was also altered by the heating event and increased to remain higher in both feed treatments following the heat event. Plasma osmolality was initially lower in both food ration groups 20 d after the heating event, but then diverged to increase back toward pre-event osmolality values in 9% ration fish, but not 1% ration fish, 6 weeks following the heat event. These findings suggest that exposure of juvenile black rockfish to an acute temperature elevation resembling the heat wave conditions that occur in the species’ tidepool nursey habitats may have consequences for both somatic growth and osmotic balance for weeks following the heating event
“I Thought I Knew”: Teaching Graduate Students New Ways of Understanding Meanings of Diverse Social Identities
Get PDFInstructors should not assume that graduate students understand meanings of terms for various social identities. In this article, I highlight a teaching activity I created titled, “What’s in a name?” that requires graduate students to research historical and contemporary uses of various racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, and immigration terms. The assignment helps graduate students develop inclusive vocabulary and deepen their understanding of their positionality. It also supports braver classroom contexts for students and instructors. The assignment is best facilitated by instructors informed of diverse social identities, open to difficult conversations, and aware of the influence of their own social identities in the classroom space. Thus, in this article, I also explore classroom dynamics and challenges that may emerge when implementing the activity
An Ion-Sensitive Field Effect Transistor And Ion-Selective Polymer Membrane For Continuous Potassium Monitoring
No full textIon sensitive field effect transistors (ISFETs) are semiconductor sensors that have the capability to determine the selected concentration of a specific ion in a solution. Most modern ISFETs utilize their ion selective properties for glucose monitors for diabetics. However, in this thesis, the ISFET fabricated is for the selective detection of K+. The goals of this thesis are to develop a functioning ion-selective polymer membrane, manufacture a working FET device, and implement the two aspects together into a working bench-top K+ selective ISFET device. Properties of a polymer composed of 33 wt.% polyvinyl chloride (PVC) 66 wt.% dioctyl sebacate (DOS) and 1 wt.% valinomycin applied to an ion-sensitive electrode (ISE) were investigated. The membrane generated a sensitivity value of -9.864E-08 Ω/log10(CK). Though this data set was affected by both the maximum resolution of the I-V curve tracing device and the thin-membrane effect. Selectivity tests following the IUPAC two-solution method in the presence of Na+ as the interfering ion, provided selectivity values of 0.228 and 0.443 with higher ratios of primary ion to interfering ion resulting in higher selectivity coefficients. Additionally, utilizing an illumination test, dielectric constants of 17.71 and 10.88 were calculated dependent on the amount of solvent used during formulation. Fabrication of the FET device also resulted in developments in metal contact materials, nitride film processing, and physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes. With further improvements, it is possible to fabricate a biocompatible, wearable K+-selective monitor for continuously testing dialysis patients
