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Layer-wise control of post condensation for additive manufacturing
No full textThe disclosed subject matter relates to method for increasing the molecular weight of a polymer material during an additive manufacturing process. The method can comprise disposing a first layer of the polymer material at a target surface; exposing the first layer of the polymer material to an energy source for a sufficient period of time to sinter or melt and undergo a condensation reaction at least at a portion of the polymer material; controlling the condensation reaction to allow a desired increased number average molecular weight of the polymer material; and repeating the method steps to form an object in a layerwise fashion. Controlling the condensation reaction can comprise controlling and/or adjusting an energy 10 source-related parameter, a polymer-related parameter, a temperature related parameter, a vacuum related parameter, a process duration, a processing gas, an air flow volume and/or speed, or a combination thereof
Chromatic devices comprising a salt-based electrolyte
No full textIn one embodiment, a chromatic device includes a transparent conductive substrate, an active layer provided on the conductive substrate, the active layer comprising a conducting polymer, an electrolyte layer in contact with the conductive substrate and the active layer, the electrolyte comprising an oxidant and a salt but not comprising an acid, and a metal element configured to be selectively placed in and out of direct electrical contact with the conductive substrate or the active layer, wherein the active layer has a color that blocks light when the metal element is not in electrical contact with the conductive substrate but changes to a translucent color that transmits light when the metal element is placed in electrical contact with the conductive substrate or the active layer, wherein the active layer changes color without applying external energy to the active layer
Distributed process state and input estimation for heterogeneous active/passive sensor networks
No full textSystems and methods are described for estimating a state of a process and an input to the process using a sensor network. Each sensor node in the sensor network is directly to one or more adjacent sensor nodes and indirectly coupled to the remaining sensor nodes through the one or more adjacent sensor nodes. Each sensor node iteratively calculates a new estimated state based on estimations of the state and the input to the process calculated by the sensor node in a previous iteration. The new estimated state is then adjusted based on a difference between a predicted and actual output of a sensor and is further adjusted based on differences between a previous estimated state calculated by the sensor node and estimated states calculated by adjacent sensor nodes
Encapsulation of thermal energy storage media
No full textIn one embodiment, a metal-plated polymer object includes a polymer surface, a first metal layer that has been applied to the polymer surface to render it electrically conductive, and a second metal layer that has been deposited on the first metal layer
Non-contact system and method for detecting defects in an additive manufacturing process
No full textA Pulsed Thermography (PT) system and method is provided utilizing a long duration pulse in combination with a radiant heat shield as a non-destructive testing method for quantitatively measuring defect depths within a 3D printed part and for characterizing layer-by-layer surface defects in the 3D printed part
System and method for robust, modular, product sensitive monitoring and encoding of quality and safety along the perishable supply chain
No full textA system and method for assessing a supply chain for a perishable product. In various embodiments, the present invention provides a quality code for a perishable product which encodes a plurality of the most important performance metrics of the cold chain for the perishable product, including food quality oriented measures such as cut-to-cool time, transportation quality and accumulated shelf-life loss, and food safety oriented measures such as most probable number range for microorganism growth into a compact, modular and simple to read format
Race and ethnicity in hospitality management: A review of five major journals
No full textGiven the large representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the hospitality industry, it is important to understand how race and ethnicity are studied in major hospitality journals, especially due to their influence in informing research fundamental to scientific progress in the hospitality field. Informed by critical theory, this study systematically reviews the evolution of research on race and ethnicity in the top hospitality journals to highlight the possibility of hospitality management research taking a more critical turn to expose potent racial and ethnic counternarratives to the traditional broad scope of diversity management. Three themes emerged from the analysis covering issues on race and discrimination, managing diversity and perceiving authenticity. The review indicates that there is a greater need for theory development and studies focusing on deep-rooted systematic issues in hospitality academia and industry. Accordingly, theoretical and managerial implications along with suggestions for future research are discussed
Adaptive Control for Nonlinear Uncertain Systems with Actuator Amplitude and Rate Saturation Constraints
No full textA direct adaptive nonlinear tracking control framework for multivariable nonlinear uncertain systems with actuator amplitude and rate saturation constraints is developed. To guarantee asymptotic stability of the closed-loop tracking error dynamics in the face of amplitude and rate saturation constraints, the adaptive control signal to a given reference (governor or supervisor) system is modified to effectively ro- bustify the error dynamics to the saturation constraints. An illustrative numerical example is provided to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach
Rescued - Version 2 [Transcript]
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.usf.edu/rescued/1002/thumbnail.jp
Travel and Migration Behaviors of Migrants from Puerto Rico During Disasters
No full textCOVID-19 and Hurricane Maria were both unprecedented disasters in Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria caused of billions of dollars in damage and took thousands of lives in 2017, while COVID-19 challenged Puerto Rico’s already crippled healthcare infrastructure in 2020. In the literature, there were few studies that explored how compound disasters affect island nations, let alone in a hypothetical worst-case scenario of a major hurricane during a novel (pre-vaccine) pandemic. In this dissertation, I studied how such a compound disaster would impact travel behaviors of migrants from Puerto Rico to the US in three distinct studies. The first study analyzed the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Puerto Rico-US migrants, finding that some socioeconomically disadvantaged populations were traveling more in the holiday months of 2020 than they were the year prior. The most surprising finding was that the elderly, although more at risk for COVID-19 complications and death, were traveling more during the pandemic than in the same months the year prior. The second study analyzed the impact of Hurricane Maria on destination decisions of Puerto Rico-US migrants, finding stronger preference for New York as opposed to the most common destination choices of Florida or Texas. The third study combined elements of the first two studies to determine how a hypothetical scenario of Hurricane Maria superimposed into 2020 during the pre-vaccine period of COVID-19 would affect destination decisions of migrants from Puerto Rico to the US. I found that destination state decisions would either become more widespread or narrow in this hypothetical scenario depending on the demographics of migrants, implying the need for integrated origin-destination and multi-sector approaches to disaster resilience. Overall, the dissertation provides insights on the identification of potential impacts of the hypothetical compounding disaster of Hurricane Maria happening during novel COVID-19 in Puerto Rico, ultimately leading to the safeguarding of vulnerable communities and the mitigation of the adverse consequences of these compounding hazards