Engineering Commons^™

An Economic Evaluation Of A Biofuel Supply Chain Utilizing Multiple Feedstocks, Huaqi Zhang

Masters Theses

Biomass is considered as one potential feedstock for biofuel production. However, the high cost of biomass-to-biofuel supply chain, attributed to biomass’s low bulk density and resulting harvest, storage, and transportation challenges, has been a major hindrance to the success of biomass-based biofuel industry. In addition, the issue of dry matter losses during storage for a feedstock has affected biomass quantity and quality if the feedstock is stored for several months after a single harvest in a year. One potential way to improve the economics of biomass supply chain is to reduce storage need and enhance the utilization of harvest equipment …

Fluorochlorozirconate Glass Ceramics For Computed Radiography, Adam Wesley Evans

Masters Theses

Heat treating fluorochlorozirconate (FCZ) glasses nucleates nanocrystals in the glass matrix, resulting in a glass ceramic that has optical properties suitable for use as a medical imaging plate. As the temperature of heat treatment rises, the resulting FCZ glass-ceramic becomes increasingly more opaque as the size of the orthorhombic phase BaCl­₂[barium chloride] nanocrystals grow within the glass matrix. This opaqueness negatively affects imaging. The effect of adding Fe³⁺[iron] on the valence state of zirconium and overall glass quality was investigated.

Samples were synthesized and characterized with differential scanning calorimetry to determine the temperature of the orthorhombic …

A Feasibility Study Of Just-In-Time Asthma Self-Management Intervention, Phillip Charles Scruggs

Masters Theses

Quality asthma care requires not only an initial diagnosis, but long term follow up care and education on long term control. Preventable symptoms continue to reduce the quality of life for chronic asthma sufferers and place an unnecessary burden on emergency services and the health care system at large. A mobile health (mHealth) solution is proposed to effectively improve outcomes for patients while ultimately reducing the overall burden of mismanagement on the healthcare system as a whole. The Just-in-Time Asthma Self- Management and Intervention (JASMIN) system provides a way for a patient or user to track, self-manage, and interact with …

Magnetism Of Magnetite Nanoparticles As Determined By Mössbauer Spectroscopy, Hien-Yoong Hah

Masters Theses

Fe₃O₄ [Magnetite] nanoparticles have magnetism that differs greatly from their bulk counterparts. Whereas bulk Fe₃O₄ is a ferrimagnet, single-domain Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles have been found to be superparamagnetic. This allows for increased magnetization of the nanoparticles compared to the bulk when in a magnetic field. For most paramagnets, magnetization requires applied fields of a few Tesla at low temperatures. This is achievable through the application of superconducting magnets. In superparamagnets, the high susceptibility of the particles allows magnetization through a Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet at room temperature. This is caused by an increased …