10368 research outputs found
Sort by
The Effect of tCNSL Base Coating With Dispersed Nano-TiO₂ Particles Against Settlement of Barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite
No full textSince ancient times, people have fought against unwanted organisms growing on ships and other marine infrastructures. This struggle led to the use of dangerous substances such as arsenic and tributyltin. More recently, in the past 50 years, efforts have been made to stop the use of these biocides because of the damaging effect they have on the environment. Since then, less damaging paints and coatings characterized by being soluble and not persistent in the environment are used, such as mixtures with copper. In this way, the coatings are still biocidal, but do not cause nearly as much harm to the environment because they will not persist in the ecosystem or cause significant harm to organisms other than the fouling ones. In the present study, a mixture was created with technical Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (tCNSL) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles, with the aim of creating an anti-fouling coating capable of preventing the growth of a fouling organism, Amphibalanus amphitrite on a substrate. The coating was prepared and two Amphibalanus amphitrite in their cyprid stage were dispensed into each well, and set at room temperature. The barnacles were monitored in order to see if the coating prevented them from settling. Adhesion was not observed, even in the control sample, so no significant data was collected
Drag Fins On Model Rockets
No full textOur project involves developing altitude management systems such as drag fins and tube fins to reach a predetermined altitude in a specific time frame. We will then transfer over to a larger scaled rocket which will be used to compete in qualification flights for The American Rocketry Challenge on the 3rd of April 2023. We started creating our rocket by using openrocket to simulate the effects of potential altitude management systems on a rocket. Once we had identified potential designs that would achieve 250 ft we began to model a prototype in onshape. We then assembled our rocket using Estes model rocket parts and laser-cutting our elliptical fins using our balsa wood. We then began to test our prototype on a nearby field. For our prototype, our main altitude system was drag fins. Our drag fins consist of using side-mounted applicable fins and drag fins with nylon screws and nuts attached to them to make them adjustable. The adjustable fin would be tie wrapped to the elliptical fin. When we flare out the drag fins to X amount of turns, X amount of altitude change would happen. We conducted a total of 13 test flights and found a positive correlation between altitude and the incline of the drag fins. We plan to test placing those fins in different orientations and test what effects they would have
The Effect of the HTTP Flood Method on Three Video Games and the Effect on One Player
No full textThough computers and video games are well known in society today, very little is known about what goes into how these games are run and how they are kept up. The purpose of this study was to inform individuals about how they can enjoy a smooth gaming experience and even a smooth online browsing experience without having to face the troublesome and potentially harmful effects of a distributed denial of service attack (DDOS). It was hypothesized that older and lower quality games will have a higher increase in latency when attacked by the HTTP method compared to newer and higher quality video games. For the games, Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSGO), Valorant, and Phantom Forces, there were 30, 30 second trials run using the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) on each video game to calculate the average increase in ping when attacked with the HTTP method. Phantom Forces experienced the greatest increase in latency in milliseconds compared to the other two games. Because Phantom Forces is the lowest quality game, this supports the hypothesis. To conclude, this experiment proves that video games that run on lower quality servers are seen to be more bound to be negatively affected by DDOS attacks
Expanding Upon the Single-Use Paper Battery Prototype Using a Biodegradable Encasing With a Pull-Tab Activation Technique for Simplified Use
No full textPoulin et al. (2022) have developed a water-activated paper battery model which uses a paper substrate with conductive inks consisting of a zinc-based anode, graphite-based cathode, and carbon-based current collector, activating on contact with water (2022). Increases in electronic waste show it is crucial to transition to clean energy. As such, the paper battery is entirely biodegradable, with an infinite shelf life until contact with water. The research aimed to improve the model for practicality and ease of use. The original design depicts the paper substrate with the conductive inks applied, with an external water source for activation. The method of improvement was to develop a biodegradable casing with a pull-tab that would separate the paper substrate from an internal water source, allowing for simple activation. It was hypothesized that these improvements would result in a similarly efficient battery that is better developed for practical applications. Two paper batteries were constructed according to the methods described in the original study (Poulin et al., 2022), and the biodegradable casing was 3D printed using algae-based filament. Both batteries were tested for current potential (V), and a two-tailed, paired z-test was performed. It was determined that the improved battery had a significantly lower potential, with a 5.7% decrease compared to the original battery. Conductive inks were not stencil printed, leading to variability in output measurements based on contact position of the measurement nodes used for measurement. Results indicate that while effective, the improved model will have to be produced through additive manufacturing in order to maximize efficiency
The Effect of Sound Wave Frequency on Electrical Production in Piezoelectric Transducers
No full textWith the steady decrease in natural resources there is a high demand to find a reliable method of energy harvesting. While it is unorthodox, piezoelectric materials have potential to generate small amounts of electricity from wasted mechanical energy. The purpose of this experiment was to find a change in electrical output of piezoelectric transducers in reaction to different sound frequencies. It was hypothesized that the increase of frequency of sound waves would result in the increase of electrical output in piezoelectric transducers. A piezoelectric transducer was placed on an electric keyboard and wired to a digital multimeter. Each group represented a different frequency, group one was the control group at 0 Hz, group two’s sound was 65.4 Hz, group three was 261.6.5 Hz, and group four was 1046.5 Hz. There were 30 trials conducted for each of the four frequency levels. Each frequency was played and the electrical output was measured in 200 mṼ on the multimeter. After analyzing the data it was found that the frequency 65.4 Hz had the highest mean out of the groups at 3.171. A One-Way ANOVA was conducted and found that there was a statistical difference between the groups. F(3,120)=81.290 and p\u3c.001. The results did not support the hypothesis since the lowest frequency produced the highest electrical output. Now that it is known that lower frequencies produce a higher electrical output than higher frequencies, future application of piezoelectric transducers can be improved
The Effect of Cannabidiol on the Growth of Saprolegnia ferax
No full textSaprolegniasis is an epidermal disease caused by a genus of water molds called Saprolegnia. It impacts freshwater fish and eggs. Oomycetes are filamentous, unicellular protists, very similar to fungi. However, they are not true fungi because they have cellulose instead of chitin in their cell wall (McGowan & Fitzpatrick, 2020). The oomycetes that microbes in the genus of Saprolegnia grow from are ever present in freshwater environments (Costa & Lopes, 2022). Saprolegniasis reduces fish farming profit by 10% annually (Berg et al., 2013). The most effective and inexpensive solution is a highly carcinogenic and toxic dye called malachite green. MG has been banned in the food industry in many countries but is still used in aquaculture as it is very inexpensive and effective. Cannabidiol is highly antimicrobial and in this study, it was tested as a fungicide against Saprolegnia ferax. The tested concentrations were 108 μg/mL, 216 μg/mL, and 324 μg/mL. Qualitative data regarding the presence of fungal growth was observed. The minimum inhibitory concentration of CBD against Saprolegnia ferax was 324 after a 24 hr time period. A chi-square test was conducted for each experimental concentration comparing it to its corresponding control group with a p-value of .05
Using Computer Vision Systems to Train an Autonomous Drone to Follow Railroad Tracks for Inspection
No full textUtilizing unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) can make the inspection of many structures much more efficient. However, when it comes to the inspection of railroad tracks, a problem that arises is the lack of a good GPS signal for the UAV to navigate the tracks for inspection. This is because many railroads pass through rural areas and tunnels that may not have good connection. The goal of this project was to develop a program that allows a UAV to autonomously follow railway tracks without the need for GPS. The approach taken was to use the UAV’s camera to collect frames of video that could be processed to find the location of the rails for the drone to follow. The images would be processed using a trained U-Net convolutional neural network, Canny Edge Detection, a Probabilistic Hough Transform, and a custom pixel-by-pixel rail tracing algorithm. This program was tested by passing in images of railroad tracks taken from drones to simulate frames of a UAV’s live video feed being passed into the program. The current results of this project are that the rails can be correctly identified and highlighted in some images, however the program still needs to be optimized to work on a wider variety of images. In conclusion, this project was able to create a program to recognize railroad tracks using computer vision that can be utilized by a drone to navigate railroads for inspection without the need for GPS, making UAVs much more viable for the inspection of tracks
Proofs of Two Fibonacci Identities
No full textFibonacci numbers are a recursive sequence that were originally used to model the breeding of rabbits under ideal circumstances. Fibonacci numbers are also connected to other topics of number theory like: binomial coefficients and Pascal\u27s triangle. We present solutions for two open problems from The Fibonacci Quarterly. Using known identities and knowledge of Fibonacci, we solved problems B-1301 and B-1305