Engineering Commons^™

Rational Design Of Peptide-Based Materials Informed By Multiscale Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Dhwanit Rahul Dave

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The challenge of establishing a sustainable and circular economy for materials in medicine and technology necessitates bioinspired design. Nature's intricate machinery, forged through evolution, relies on a finite set of biomolecular building blocks with through-bond and through-space interactions. Repurposing these molecular building blocks requires a seamless integration of computational modeling, design, and experimental validation. The tools and concepts developed in this thesis pioneer new directions in peptide-materials design, grounded in fundamental principles of physical chemistry. We present a synergistic approach that integrates experimental designs and computational methods, specifically molecular dynamics simulations, to gain in-depth molecular insights crucial for advancing the …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Uncertainties In Retrieval Of Remote Sensing Reflectance From Ocean Color Satellite Observations, Eder I. Herrera Estrella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ocean Color radiometry uses remote sensing to interpret ocean dynamics by retrieving remote sensing reflectance (𝑅𝑟𝑠) from satellite imagery at different scales and over different time periods. 𝑅𝑟𝑠 spectrum characterizes the ocean color that we observe, and from which we can discern concentrations of chlorophyll, organic and inorganic particles, and carbon fluxes in the ocean and atmosphere. 𝑅𝑟𝑠 is derived from the total radiance at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). However, it only represents up to ten percent of the total signal. Hence, the retrieval of 𝑅𝑟𝑠 from the total radiance at TOA involves the application of atmospheric correction …

Quantifying Temperature-, Pressure-, And Nuclear Quantum Effects On Hydrophobic And Hydrophilic Water-Mediated Interactions, Justin T. Engstler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Water-mediated interactions (WMIs) are responsible for diverse processes in aqueous solutions, including protein folding and nanoparticle aggregation. WMI may be affected by changes in temperature and pressure, and hence, they can alter chemical/physical processes that occur in aqueous environments. Traditionally, attention has been focused on hydrophobic interactions while, in comparison, the role of hydrophilic and hybrid (hydrophobic–hydrophilic) interactions have been mostly overlooked. Here, we study the role of T and P on the WMI between nanoscale (i) hydrophobic–hydrophobic, (ii) hydrophilic–hydrophilic, and (iii) hydrophilic–hydrophobic pairs of (hydroxylated/non-hydroxylated) graphene-based surfaces. We find that hydrophobic, hydrophilic, and hybrid interactions are all sensitive to …

Tunable Linear And Nonlinear Metasurfaces Based On Hybrid Gold-Graphene Plasmons, Matthew Feinstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Optical Metasurfaces are planar structures that are patterned with subwavelength structures and are very thin compared to the wavelength of light. Despite their thinness, these structured materials can strongly interact with incident light to effect the functionalities of conventional optical components, such as rotation of the polarization state, beam steering, lensing, spectral filtering, and holography, to name a few. Metasurfaces can also facilitate nonlinear optical effects, such as the mixing of beams at different frequencies to generate a beam at a new frequency.

The ability to alter the behavior of a metasurface during operation is highly desired for applications such …

Construction And Performance Optimization Of Bioconjugated Nanosensors For Early Detection Of Breast Cancer And Pro-Inflammatory Diseases, Pooja Gaikwad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, nanosensors have emerged as a tool with strong potential in medical diagnostics. Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based optical nanosensors have notably garnered interest due to the unique characteristics of their near-infrared fluorescence emission, including tissue transparency, photostability, and various chiralities with discrete absorption and fluorescence emission bands. Additionally, the optoelectronic properties of SWCNT are sensitive to the surrounding environment, which makes them suitable for in vitro and in vivo biosensing. Single-stranded (ss) DNA-wrapped SWCNTs have been reported as optical nanosensors for cancers and metabolic diseases. Breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases are the most common causes of death …

Scientists And Activists Work To Save The Planet, Myriam G. Vidal Valero

Capstones

Climate change and human intervention in nature are affecting people, ecosystems and ways of living all over the world. This portfolio of environmental pieces showcases the dire consequences of not addressing these issues, how solutions can be reached and the challenges facing those who try to change things.

Representation Learning For Chemical Activity Predictions, Mohamed S. Ayed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Computational prediction of a phenotypic response upon the chemical perturbation on a biological system plays an important role in drug discovery and many other applications. Chemical fingerprints derived from chemical structures are a widely used feature to build machine learning models. However, the fingerprints ignore the biological context, thus, they suffer from several problems such as the activity cliff and curse of dimensionality. Fundamentally, the chemical modulation of biological activities is a multi-scale process. It is the genome-wide chemical-target interactions that modulate chemical phenotypic responses. Thus, the genome-scale chemical-target interaction profile will more directly correlate with in vitro and in …

Towards Simulation Of Complex Ocean Flows: Analysis And Algorithm For Computation Of Coupled Partial Differential Equations, Wenbin Dong

Dissertations and Theses

The hybrid CFD models which usually consist of 2 sub-models, develop our capability to simulate many emerging problems with multiphysics and multiscale flows, especially for the coastal ocean flows interacted with local phenomena of interest. For most cases, the sub-models are connected with direct interpolation which is easy and workable. It becomes urgently needed to investigate the inner mechanism of such model integration as this simple method does not work well if the two sub-models are different in governing equations, numerical methods, and computational grids. Also, it can not treat complex flow structures as well as the balance in mass …

Evaluation Of Snow And Streamflow In The National Water Model With Analysis Using Machine Learning, Engela Sthapit

Dissertations and Theses

Snow has great influence on land-atmosphere interactions and snowmelt from the mountains is a vital water source for downstream communities dependent on snow fed lakes, rivers and streams. This study explored the snow and streamflow prediction capabilities of process-based numerical prediction and data-driven machine learning models.

The overall goal of this study was to understand the deficiencies in the NOAA’s National Water Model (NWM) to represent snow, subsequently streamflow, and recognize the areas where it could be improved for future model developments. The goal was also to evaluate if the recent advancements in machine learning techniques is useful for predicting …

Data Fusion And Synergy Of Active And Passive Remote Sensing; An Application For Freeze Thaw Detections, Zahra Sharifnezhadazizi

Dissertations and Theses

There has been a recent evolvement in the field of remote sensing after increase of number satellites and sensors data which could be fused to produce new data and products. These efforts are mainly focused on using of simultaneous observations from different platforms with different spatial and temporal resolutions. The research dissertation aims to enhance the synergy use of active and passive microwave observations and examine the results in detection land freeze and thaw (FT) predictions. Freeze thaw cycles particularly in high-latitude regions have a crucial role in many applications such as agriculture, biogeochemical transitions, hydrology and ecosystem studies. The …

Understanding The Relationship Between Urban Areas And The Boundary Layer Using Remote Sensing Methods, Gabriel A. Rios

Dissertations and Theses

The atmospheric boundary layer is crucial to the exchange in energy between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. Within this layer, the majority of human activities are carried out, which makes understanding the boundary layer especially important for many of our interests. A key component of this energy exchange is found at the surface, was surface properties are the interface through which momentum, heat, moisture, and other fluxes are transferred between media. Not only does the surface act as an interface, but as an actor that influences the exchange efficiency and rates. This concept is the crux of atmospheric boundary …

Nonlinear Light - Matter Interactions Of Ultrafast High Intensity Laser Pulses, Henry Meyer

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis focuses on the key nonlinear optical effects that arise from the interactions of intense ultrafast laser pulses with various states of matter. These interactions involve electronic and molecular states and yield new information on the underlying fundamental processes that govern the molecular world. Modern day lasers offer ultrashort pulses, high intensities, and complex polarizations and wavefronts. These extreme conditions have profound effect on the optical properties and behaviors of electronic and molecular states within a material. The changes in these mechanisms effect generation of nonlinear optics, such supercontinuum (SC), stimulated Raman (SRS), self-focusing and filamentation, conical emission (CE), …

A Citizen-Science Approach For Urban Flood Risk Analysis Using Data Science And Machine Learning, Candace Agonafir

Dissertations and Theses

Street flooding is problematic in urban areas, where impervious surfaces, such as concrete, brick, and asphalt prevail, impeding the infiltration of water into the ground. During rain events, water ponds and rise to levels that cause considerable economic damage and physical harm. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop novel approaches toward the comprehension of urban flood risk using data science techniques on crowd-sourced data. This is accomplished by developing a series of data-driven models to identify flood factors of significance and localized areas of flood vulnerability in New York City (NYC). First, the infrastructural (catch basin clogs, …

Tools And Strategies For The Patterning Of Bioactive Molecules And Macromolecules, Daniel J. Valles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Hypersurface Photolithography (HP) is a printing method for fabricating structures and patterns composed of soft materials bound to solid surfaces and with ~1 micrometer resolution in the x, y, and z dimensions. This platform leverages benign, low intensity light to perform photochemical surface reactions with spatial and temporal control of irradiation, and, as a result, is particularly useful for patterning delicate organic and biological material. In particular, surface- initiated controlled radical polymerizations can be leveraged to create arbitrary polymer and block- copolymer brush patterns. Chapter 1 will review the advances in instrumentation architectures from our group that have made these …

Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Self-Assemblies In Nature And Nanotechnology, Phu Khanh Tang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nature usually divides complex systems into smaller building blocks specializing in a few tasks since one entity cannot achieve everything. Therefore, self-assembly is a robust tool exploited by Nature to build hierarchical systems that accomplish unique functions. The cell membrane distinguishes itself as an example of Nature’s self-assembly, defining and protecting the cell. By mimicking Nature’s designs using synthetically designed self-assemblies, researchers with advanced nanotechnological comprehension can manipulate these synthetic self-assemblies to improve many aspects of modern medicine and materials science. Understanding the competing underlying molecular interactions in self-assembly is always of interest to the academic scientific community and industry. …

Investigating The Effect Of Electrolyte Concentration And Charging Protocol On Materials Utilization In Rechargeable Zinc Manganese Dioxide Batteries, Snehal H. Kolhekar

Dissertations and Theses

Achieving a highly cyclable, high energy density battery with MnO₂ cathodes encounters many obstacles. Chief among these is the inability of the widely-used γ-MnO₂ polymorph to retain its structural integrity when cycled to near full one-electron discharge capacity, which is about 280mAh/g for commercially available electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD). In this one-electron range, discharge occurs by proton insertion producing Mn⁺³ which then reverts to γ-MnO₂ on charging. In the first part of the thesis, we investigate the root cause of failure of MnO₂ cathodes under deep cycling in the one-electron discharge range and establish a …

A New Mathematical Theory For The Dynamics Of Large Tumor Populations, A Potential Mechanism For Cancer Dormancy & Recurrence And Experimental Observation Of Melanoma Progression In Zebrafish, Adeyinka A. Lesi

Dissertations and Theses

Cancer, a family of over a hundred disease varieties, results in 600,000 deaths in the U.S. alone. Yet, improvements in imaging technology to detect disease earlier, pharmaceutical developments to shrink or eliminate tumors, and modeling of biological interactions to guide treatment have prevented millions of deaths. Cancer patients with initially similar disease can experience vastly different outcomes, including sustained recovery, refractory disease or, remarkably, recurrence years after apparently successful treatment. The current understanding of such recurrences is that they depend on the random occurrence of critical mutations. Clearly, these biological changes appear to be sufficient for recurrence, but are they …

Understanding The Effect Of Climate And Hydrometeorological Extremes On Natural And Human-Induced Hydrosystems, Jeongwoo Hwang

Dissertations and Theses

The contemporary hydrosystems of the United States involve a complex combination of natural and modified basins in the presence of changing climate and anthropogenic impacts. An enhanced understanding of the interdependence between climate forcings, human-induced interventions, and water balance in both natural and modified basins are essential for developing reliable and resilient hydrosystems and for better water resources management. In response, this dissertation focuses on investigating the hydroclimatology of natural and modified basins across the contiguous United States. It has three research objectives: (1) to explain flow alterations due to anthropogenic activities, especially dam operations, in modified basins and understand …

On The Improvements Of Boundary-Layer Representation For High Resolution Weather Forecasting In Costal-Urban Environments, David Melecio-Vazquez

Dissertations and Theses

As large urban centers around the world become more densely populated, the global conversion from natural to man-made land surfaces will only increase. These land-use changes affect the urban surface energy budget which in turn changes the structure of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) above. With current high-performance computing systems, meteorological and built environment information can be better utilized to quantify the anthropogenic effects of these modifications. Although these systems have improved forecasting near-surface weather conditions, a comprehensive approach to represent urban impacts on the PBL is still limited. Improved PBL representation can lead to better weather and climate forecasts, …

Adsorption Kinetics And Phase Behavior Of Particles Adsorbed At An Interface, Shaghayegh Darjani

Dissertations and Theses

The ability to predict the adsorption dynamic, phase behavior, and surface pressure of a monolayer of adsorbed particles in two-dimensional systems are key aspects of many current research areas. Examples include phase transitions in amphiphilic monolayers, emulsion stability due to particle adsorption at interfaces, and melting at an interface.

In this thesis, a new approach for deriving the equation of state for a two-dimensional lattice gas is proposed, based on arguments similar to those used in the derivation of the Langmuir-Szyszkowski equation of state for localized adsorption. This work aims to predict the adsorption kinetics and phase behavior of a …

Ii-Vi Type-Ii Quantum Dot Superlattices For Novel Applications, Vasilios Deligiannakis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, we discuss the growth procedure and the characterization results obtained for epitaxially grown submonolayer type-II quantum dot superlattices made of II-VI semiconductors. We have investigated the spin dynamics of ZnSe layers with embedded type-II ZnTe quantum dots and the use of (Zn)CdTe/ZnCdSe QDs for intermediate band solar cell (IBSC). Samples with a higher quantum dot density exhibit longer electron spin lifetimes, up to ~1 ns at low temperatures. Tellurium isoelectronic centers, which form in the ZnSe spacer regions as a result of the growth conditions, were also probed. A new growth sequence for type-II (Zn)CdTe/ZnCdSe (QDs) was …

Adapting To Extreme Heat: Social, Atmospheric, And Infrastructure Impacts Of Air Conditioning In Megacities - The Case Of New York City, Harold Gamarro

Dissertations and Theses

Extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and intense in most large cities. Built-up surfaces also limit cooling mechanisms, leading to warmer conditions in cities, a phenomenon called the Urban Heat Island (UHI). This presents major challenges to reduce adverse health effects of hot weather, particularly in vulnerable populations like the elderly and low-income communities. Here we explore the overall impacts of increasing air conditioning (AC) system adoption in residences as an adaptive measure to reduce human health risks under heat waves, with New York City (NYC) as a case study. This study uses AC adoption data from the 2017 …

Macro - And Microstructure Evaluation And Field Applications Of Concrete With Recycled Glass Pozzolan, Marija Krstic

Dissertations and Theses

Concrete is the most used material in the world, second only to water. Conventional concrete is produced with Portland cement (PC). The production of cement is an energy intensive operation that has raised significant environmental concerns, since one ton of cement generates an equal ton of CO₂. In the USA about 90 million tons of cement are used annually, with 3 million tons used in New York. Most contemporary concrete applications for buildings and infrastructure use high-performance concrete (HPC) mixtures which are produced by replacing a percentage of cement with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), consisting mainly of fly-ash …

Toward Closing The Urban Surface Energy Balance Using Satellite Remote Sensing, Joshua Hrisko

Dissertations and Theses

The energy exchanges at the Earth’s surface are responsible for many of the processes that govern weather, climate, human health, and energy use. This exchange, commonly known as the surface energy balance (SEB), determines the near-surface thermodynamic state by partitioning the available energy into surface fluxes. The net all-wave radiation is often the primary energy source, while the heat storage and sensible and latent heat fluxes account for the majority of energy distributed elsewhere. While the SEB of various natural environments(trees, crops, soils) has been well-observed and modeled, the urban surface energy balance remains elusive. This is due to the …

V-Slam And Sensor Fusion For Ground Robots, Ejup Hoxha

Dissertations and Theses

In underground, underwater and indoor environments, a robot has to rely solely on its on-board sensors to sense and understand its surroundings. This is the main reason why SLAM gained the popularity it has today. In recent years, we have seen excellent improvement on accuracy of localization using cameras and combinations of different sensors, especially camera-IMU (VIO) fusion. Incorporating more sensors leads to improvement of accuracy,but also robustness of SLAM. However, while testing SLAM in our ground robots, we have seen a decrease in performance quality when using the same algorithms on flying vehicles.We have an additional sensor for ground …

The Water/Energy Nexus: Climate, Consumption And Ecosystem Services, Hildegaard D. Link

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Water and energy are drivers of living systems. This work provides an assessment of the Water Energy Nexus in the United States, comparing the well-watered north-east and the arid west. Electric grid systems are most stressed on hot summer afternoons. Grid stress can lead to cascading failures of electricity, water and wastewater treatment systems. (Zimmerman, 2017) Water for power generation and/or water supply depend on ecosystem services. The ecosystem services and resource trade-offs embedded in provision of a watt of power and an ounce of potable water, however, have yet to be comprehensively enumerated nor have the cost relationships been …

Minimalistic Peptide-Based Supramolecular Systems Relevant To The Chemical Origin Of Life, Daniela Kroiss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

All forms of life are based on biopolymers, which are made up of a selection of simple building blocks, such as amino acids, nucleotides, fatty acids and sugars. Their individual properties govern their interactions, giving rise to complex supramolecular structures with highly specialized functionality, including ligand recognition, catalysis and compartmentalization. In this thesis, we aim to answer the question whether short peptides could have acted as precursors of modern proteins during prebiotic evolution. Using a combination of experimental and computational techniques, we screened a large molecular search space for peptide sequences that are capable of forming supramolecular complexes with adenosine …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Dielectric And Multiferroic Nanocrystalline Transition Metal Oxide Materials And Nanocomposites, Frederick A. Pearsall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nanocrystalline transition metal oxides with unique chemical, physical, magnetic and dielectric properties have very broad applications, ranging from photocatalysis, capacitor energy storage and 4-state memory. Frequency stable, high permittivity nanocomposite capacitors produced under mild processing conditions offer an attractive replacement to MLCCs derived from conventional ceramic firing. In one project reported herein, 0-3 nanocomposites were prepared using BaTiO₃ (barium titanate, BTO) nanocrystals, suspended in a poly(furfuryl alcohol) matrix, resulting in a stable, high effective permittivity, low and stable loss dielectric. Effective medium approximations were used to compare this with similar nanocomposite systems. The use of synthesized BTO nanocrystal photocatalysts …

Microfluidic Study Of Gravity-Driven Drainage And Coalescence Of Aqueous Two Dimensional Foams, Justin D. Heftel

Dissertations and Theses

Foams, a two-phase dispersion, are staples of the cosmetic, personal care, petroleum, pharmaceutical, and other industries. Central to these applications is the stability of the dispersion against separation. Foams break down by two mechanisms: the first is bubble coalescence, which is driven by the gravity drainage of the continuous phase. The drainage acts to push the bubbles against each other, and leads to the formation of thin lamellae, which break and cause the coalescence. The second is the mass transfer of the dispersed phase through the continuous phase, which is caused by the difference in pressures between the bubbles and …