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Xylitol as a Phase Change Material: Exploring the Replacement of Erythritol by Xylitol As A Phase Change Material
Get PDFTo circumvent the cost and environmental damage associated with batteries, phase change materials have been employed in solar cookpots to enable cooking in unfavorable weather conditions. Researchers at Cal Poly have traditionally employed the sugar alcohol erythritol as a PCM due to its high latent heat and a fusion point above the boiling point of water, but have discovered issues with the polyol’s degradation over extended periods of cycling. This paper explores the viability of erythritol’s sister-compound xylitol as a PCM in insulated solar-electric cookers, or ISECs. An ISEC was constructed with a xylitol PCM, and the data collected from thermocouples on the pot was analyzed. Differential scanning calorimetry was employed on pure and degraded samples of both erythritol and xylitol to determine the extent of degradation and the impact of supercooling on the release of latent heat. After a short period of cycling, the onset temperature of fusion of erythritol was shown to decrease by 10 ºC. Xylitol experimentally displayed a ΔHfus of 224 J/g, whereas erythritol was found to have a ΔHfus of 372.5 J/g, which are both in agreement with literature values. It is determined that xylitol’s supercooling properties and lower ΔHfus make it incapable of cooking foods that require boiling water, which is a significant drawback compared to its erythritol predecessor. Past literature on inducing recrystallization or introducing nucleation sites is discussed
Charting Their Own Course: Individualized Contract Grading as a Practice of Freedom
Get PDFStudents move through college along different curricular and personal pathways. Feminist scholars have explored multiple ways of inviting students to bring their diverse experiences into the classroom. However, it can be challenging to invite diversity while requiring each student to navigate a standardized curriculum. I propose unilateral grading contracts as one tool to enable students to move through a course while leveraging their strengths, helping them grow, and sharing their experiences to enrich the broader class community and achieve the course learning outcomes
The Dance Between Music & Mental Illness: Two Modern Composers and Their Experiences with Mental Health
No full textMore than 73% of independent musicians suffer from mental illness. Musicians are three times more susceptible to depression than the average person. This concept that musicians are prone to mental illness is not new. It has been hypothesized that many historically well-known composers and musicians struggled with their mental health, such as Anton Bruckner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy, Antonín Dvořák, George Gershwin, Edvard Grieg, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Rachmaninov, Maurice Ravel, Robert Schumann, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Anton von Webern. Contemporary musicians are becoming more and more open about their struggles with mental illness. Two of these composers are Sarah Kirkland Snider and Dale Trumbore.
This paper will dive into who Snider and Trumbore are, and how their mental illness is reflected in their music. I will start the formal analysis with two songs from Snider’s song cycle Unremembered (2015): Number 3, The Barn, and Number 8, The Witch. Both of these songs depict anxious moments, dark thoughts, and haunting visuals. Then, I will analyze Trumbore’s piece Fearless Canyon (2019) and discuss how her anxiety plays a role in this composition. This wind band piece is full of changing meters and tempos as well as a swirling “anxious motive” that creates a sense of intense restlessness and tension. Both pieces intentionally portray anxiety and all the symptoms that come with it. In sharing these experiences, the audience and performers are given the opportunity to either relate, or begin to understand what it is like to struggle with a mental illness.
Being in the music industry can be incredibly difficult because of “occupational hazards…financial and job insecurity, lack of adequate industry regulation, unhealthy work hours, [and] working in isolation.” Musicians also have to deal with an immense pressure to please. These factors do not set musicians up for success; therefore, it is important to talk openly about mental illness, advocate for those who struggle with it, and educate the world on mental wellness. Discussing, advocating, and educating lessens the stigma and creates a safe and respectful space for those struggling. It is evident that Snider and Trumbore are tackling all three. While both composers are affected by their mental illnesses, they struggle in different ways, as many of us do. By their own account, both Snider and Trumbore have struggled with anxiety. Snider has also struggled with depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Both composers have reflected these struggles in numerous works, purposefully and unintentionally. Their interviews with myself, and with Julia Adolphe, shed light on their experiences, coping mechanisms, and advice for others who deal with mental illness
Exploring the Mass to Light Ratio of Massive Galaxies with the Rubin DP0 Preview Dataset
Get PDFThe Vera C. Rubin Observatory will perform the 10-year long Legacy Survey of Space and Time expected to begin in 2024. LSST will cover the Southern Hemisphere, collecting over two million images with an 8.4-meter telescope and 3200-pixel camera. In collaboration with the scientific community and based on the Outer Rim Simulation \citep{heit19}, the Rubin Observatory released a simulated dataset (DP0) of the data that is expected to be in hand at the 5-year mark. Using this simulated dataset, I have explored the number and luminosity of the most massive local galaxies. Using a sample of the brightest, closest galaxies in a simulated universe, this project creates a model for indirect dark matter detection by searching for strong lenses when the telescope begins to take data
The Human Factor: Managing Chaos and Change in Times of Uncertainty
Get PDFThe unrelenting, unabating organizational, political, and human resource stressors library managers faced pushed the boundaries of their capacity to keep pace with the longer-term demands of this catastrophic time; however, their dedication and resilience, bolstered by wisdom from the models and theories discussed here, hold promise for a positive future
Book Review: A women’s place: U.S. Counterterrorism since 9/11
Get PDFCook, J. in her book named A women’s place: U.S. Counterterrorism since 9/11 identifies shortcomings in the accessibility of gendered security studies and tries to bridge the gap between the academic world and government actions regarding security and its relation to women\u27s position. Accordingly, Cook provides a framework to organize and assess how women can be brought into all security aspects, particularly countering terrorism (p. 2). This review will highlight different aspects of the above-mentioned agencies\u27 work concerning women, and I will mostly reference examples of Afghanistan from the book
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS): A Survey Of What It Is, What It Does, Where It Faulters, And Where To Go With It
Get PDFThe world of technology continues to find itself incorporated into an ever-expanding number of fields with a rapidly increasing number of applications. One of these is transportation, under the umbrella of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The intention of this application at a macro scale is to increase the surface transport safety, efficiency, and convenience. As technological improvements continue to be made, ITS grows in popularity and implementation, and is now found in many cities across the United States. Correct implementation of ITS could have huge benefits in the transportation sector, but without thinking about its implications now, there is a risk of worsening already existing issues. Much of the information regarding ITS is scattered through various research publications making it difficult to understand what it is and what effects it has on the places it is implemented in. The purpose of this paper is to provide an easily accessible reference document that gives a general overview of these factors, allowing decision makers to gain a quick understanding of the topic and thus make better informed choices. Some directions for further research are also given to illustrate what is currently unknown about ITS and where potential improvements could be made
Jazz Arranging in the Public Domain
No full textThis senior project consists of four vocal jazz arrangements completed by Kelley Fredrickson. The origin of each song and the process in which it was arranged is discussed
Wave Energy Converter for Marine Vessels and Isolated Communities
Get PDFCalifornia Polytechnic State University’s 2023 Marine Energy Collegiate Competition team, Surf Supply, has developed a floating dock that transduces wave energy into electricity. The following report aligns with MECC requirements, and our design changes since CDR are present in the User Manual in Appendix F. Our primary market research of the Blue Economy identified electric marine vessel charging and isolated communities as early adopters that could benefit most from the first generation of our wave energy converter (WEC). Surf Supply’s design concept provides a reliable, affordable, and renewable energy source that reduces dependency on conventional fossil fuels, allowing blue economy industries to have increased energy independence.
Our design uses a winch mechanism to generate rotational mechanical power from swells, that, when coupled with a generator, produces electricity. The electrical energy is stored in an on-board battery, so power can be supplied to end users on demand. A key advantage of Surf Supply’s WEC is its small, modular design, which allows for operation in low-energy sea states and ease of scalability. Further, the design maximizes use of commercial, off-the-shelf parts, minimizing the costs associated with custom manufacturing. Through our participation in the Build and Test challenge, we were able to test the mechanical and electrical system designs and identify areas for improvement. With continued development, a commercial-ready product promises to increase Surf Supply’s early adopter market share, eventually expanding into adjacent markets such as desalination. We feel confident that Surf Supply’s wave energy concept could prove to be competitive in the market and experience sustained growth as the demand for clean, independent energy rises
Rapid Composter
Get PDFThis project was created with the intent of automatically composting equine bio waste to be reused as plant fertilizer. The system consists of four subsystems: power generation and storage, automatic controls, aeration, and structure. Each subsystem may be manufactured independently, then put together. This system will not have access to power outlets, so it was designed to be solar-powered