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Testing of Recycled Polypropylene as a Viable Structural Material (Quarter 2)
Get PDF5.25 trillion plastic particles have been found in the oceans each year, 3 million water bottles are consumed each hour, and one million plastic bags are used each minute in the United States of America (Williams). The vast majority of conventional plastics such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and more, are non-biodegradable (Tokiwa). To make matters worse, 70% of this non-biodegradable plastic is discarded into landfills and inevitably makes its way into the environment (Williams,). Plastic products have become vital to the United States economy due to their many uses in the construction, packaging, transportation, and health care industries. However, this dependence on plastic requires an all-time high of plastic production, which severely impacts our environment throughout the entire life cycle; extraction and conversion, transport, production, distribution, use, and disposal (Williams). These negative impacts solidify the importance of finding sustainable uses for the increase in plastic production and therefore disposal into the environment.
In response to this call to action, this project investigated the viability of recycled No. 5 Polypropylene Plastic (PP) as a construction material. The process involved collecting and shredding recycled PP, which was then fed into an extruder heated to about 230 to 265 degrees Celsius. The molten PP was subsequently poured into a professionally fabricated CMU block mold to form either a block or a slab. To evaluate the potential of Polypropylene as a viable building material, a series of rigorous tests were conducted, including Compression, Tensile, UV, and Flame tests. To further explore the practicality of recycled PP as a building material, we applied lime plaster to the samples and subjected it to UV testing. All of which yielded promising results
The Effect Of Temperature Acclimation On The Stress Protein Sirtuin 5 In Intertidal And Subtidal Mussels (Mytilus Californianus) Using A Tide Simulator
No full textThe ability to acclimate to changing temperature has consequences for the biogeographic range of a species and their potential for surviving ocean warming. Using a tide simulator, which recreates tidal conditions by controlling water levels, water and air temperatures, light levels, and food availability, we explored how temperature and tidal zone (i.e. intertidal and subtidal) influences the abundance of sirtuin 5 (SIRT5) protein in a California native mussel (Mytilus californianus). We compared how gill tissue abundance of SIRT5, a key regulator of the cellular stress response and energy metabolism responded in M. californianus exposed to different temperature conditions (13, 16, 19 and 22°C) over a period of four weeks. Two SIRT5 isoforms, one a putative cytosolic form and the other a mitochondrial form were found to be expressed in mussel gill tissue. The mitochondrial isoform increased during acclimation to warm temperatures. This finding is the first to show how SIRT5 protein abundance changes with temperature acclimation. Surprisingly, we did not identify any differences in gill SIRT5 abundance between mussels from intertidal and subtidal locations. Our results suggest that characterizing the responses of SIRT isoforms may lead to a better understanding of the physiological diversity of sirtuins
Finite Element Analysis of the Bearing Component of Total Ankle Replacement Implants during the Stance Phase of the Gait Cycle
Get PDFTotal ankle arthroplasty (TAA) is a motion-preserving treatment for end-stage ankle arthritis. An effective tool for analyzing these implants’ mechanical performance and longevity in silico is finite element analysis (FEA). An FEA in ABAQUS was used to statically analyze the mechanical behavior of the ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) bearing component at varying dorsiflexion/plantarflexion ankle angles and axial loading conditions during the stance phase of the gait cycle for a single cycle. The von Mises stress and contact pressure were examined on the articulating surface of the bearing component in two newly installed fixed-bearing TAA implants (Wright Medical INBONE II and Exactech Vantage). Six different FEA models of variable ankle compressive load levels and ankle angle positions, for the varying subphases of the stance phase of the gait cycle, were created. The components in these models were constrained to be conducive to the bone–implant interface, where implant loosening occurs. Our results showed that the von Mises stress and contact pressure distributions increased as the compressive load increased. The highest stress was noted at dorsiflexion angles \u3e 15◦, in areas where the UHMWPE liner was thinnest, at the edges of the talar and UHMWPE components, and during the terminal stance phase of the gait cycle. This static structural analysis highlighted these failure regions are susceptible to yielding and wear and indicated stress magnitudes that are in agreement (within 25%) with those in previous static structural TAA FEAs. The mechanical wear of the UHMWPE bearing component in TAA can lead to aseptic loosening and peri-implant cyst formation over time, requiring surgical revision. This study provides ankle replacement manufacturers and orthopedic surgeons with a better understanding of the stress response and contact pressure sustained by TAA implants, which is critical to optimizing implant longevity and improving patient care
Barriers to Implementation of California Vegetation Treatment Program Projects
Get PDFTo better defend wild lands within California\u27s state responsibility areas against wildfire, progress toward efficient fuels management is vital. Created in effort to increase pace and scale of forest fuels reduction, the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) serves as method to expedite fire fuel reduction, fuel break development, and ecological restoration projects by streamlining environmental regulatory approval. To better assess the progress of fuels management projects across the state, this professional project aims to look at barriers faced by project proponents when using the CalVTP. A questionnaire was emailed to the project proponents behind the 81 unique CalVTP projects in-progress. By separating projects into those conducted by CalFIRE as well as non CalFIRE entities, differing needs could be assessed. It was found that CalFIRE lead projects struggled most with weather constraints, lack of personnel, and ensuring wildlife protection. Non- CalFIRE entities\u27 most prominent barriers were natural disasters, lack or loss of project funding, as well as issues accessing their project site. These results suggest that to increase the pace and scale of CalVTP projects, increases in available project funding as well as CalFIRE personnel would be beneficial
Inside the Adventure: A Case Study on the Immersive Engagement Practices at Universal Studios Hollywood
Get PDFThe success of theme parks relies heavily on immersion and identification of the elements that create such immersion to further enhance it. Universal Studios Hollywood utilizes many engagement tactics to immerse their guests in the worlds of their park. The purpose of this study was to analyze guest engagement through themed, immersive experiences and touchpoints at Universal Studios Hollywood. A case study was conducted on Universal Studios Hollywood to analyze what immersive engagement tactics were utilized as well as their effectiveness. The results of this study determined that the park very effectively engages guests through themed experiences with its newer attractions and lacks some key immersive engagement strategies in its older attractions. The researcher recommends that Universal Studios should work to update older attractions to raise them to the caliber of their top-tier attractions, focusing on storytelling and reduction of negative cues
Artificial Intelligence For Mitigation Against Array Perturbations In Direction Of Arrival Estimation
Get PDFDirection of Arrival (DOA) estimation with digital arrays under unknown Gaussian distributed element location perturbation has detrimental effects to the performance of traditional DOA estimation techniques. This work proposes an artificial intelligence (AI) approach as a solution to this problem. A Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) is proposed and experimentation into network parameters, classification networks, and how the DCNN is applied to the DOA problem are studied. It is shown that this AI based approach is successful in estimating the DOA with perturbed arrays where traditional approaches fail
Development of Python Library for Spacecraft Modeling
No full textThis project involved developing a python library to be used in modeling spacecraft attitude dynamics and contro
Advanced Grasping Sensor Technologies for Autonomous Robotic Apple Harvesting Using Tactile Data and CNNs
Get PDFThis research investigates how to achieve an optimal grasp of an apple using a four-finger soft robotic grasper equipped with force-resistive sensors. Specifically, we sought to determine whether a convolutional neural network (CNN) could accurately classify the grasper\u27s state and recommend adjustments ( in, out, or good grasp) based on tactile data from the sensors. Spatiotemporal tactile images were developed from the sensors and fed into our CNN, achieving near 100% accuracy on unseen test data. This work suggests that CNN-based processing of tactile images can be a powerful tool for real-time control of soft robotic grippers
Using Digital Twins to Assess the Impact of Manufacturing Nearshoring
No full textAssess the impact of U.S. manufacturing nearshoring on supply chain resilience and sustainability using digital twins by simulating and optimizing reshoring scenarios with anyLogistix providing insights into the economic, environmental, and operational benefits, guiding policymakers in the era of Industrial 5.0
Hardware Control Unit For Trusted Program Verification System
Get PDFTrust in the underlying hardware is the foundational step towards trusting the correctness and integrity of a software application. However, verifying that today\u27s extremely complex processors work exactly as intended has not been feasible, as evidenced by several recent hardware bugs. Trustworthy, formally verified processors currently forego intricate performance enhancements such as out-of-order execution, hampering them substantially versus their less secure counterparts.
The Containment Architecture with Verified Output (CAVO) system solves this problem by isolating the host system and requiring the result of each instruction to be validated by a small, trusted hardware module called the Sentry. Any transmissions to the outside world must be performed through the Sentry, which ensures all prior instructions have been computed correctly. The first version of CAVO was centered around a customized host CPU with hardware modifications to manage the Sentry with minimal overhead, while the second used compiler tooling and a software version of the Sentry controller, incurring a significant performance penalty on checked programs. This paper proposes a novel hardware-based Sentry control system that serves as a first step toward fast checking of native programs while greatly reducing modifications to the host, all without expanding the root of trust. We implement a proof-of-concept hardware design and verify its correctness using two SPECINT2006 benchmarks, demonstrating steady-state performance of 1 instruction per clock and an average overhead of 45 clocks per cache miss