Digital Commons Network^™

Mineral Matter Behavior During The Combustion Of Biomass And Coal Blends And Its Effect On Particulate Matter Emission, Ash Deposition, And Sulfur Dioxide Emission, Rajarshi Roy

Theses and Dissertations

Combustion of coal is one of the primary sources of electricity generation worldwide today. Coal contains different chemicals that cause particulate matter(PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. These are health hazards and are responsible for deteriorating the ambient air quality. Particulate matter also forms ash deposits inside the coal combustor, which in turn decreases the energy efficiency of the power plants. Using biomass as a fuel in these utility boilers can potentially reduce the problems of particulate matter emissions and ash deposition, and can significantly reduce the SO2 emissions. However, biomass needs to be pretreated to make its properties similar …

Incorporating Safety Excellence Into Urban Air Mobility (Uam): Insights From Commercial Aviation, Rotorcraft, And Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas), Seyoung "Evie" Jang

Senior Honors Theses

This paper focused on safety considerations in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) through a cross-industry examination of commercial aviation, rotorcraft, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Although UAM promises transformative benefits, there are safety concerns remaining. Based on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Concept of Operations (ConOps), the literature review explained the fundamental concepts of UAM. In commercial aviation, regulatory framework, pilot training and certification, vehicle design and maintenance, and emergency response planning are emphasized. For rotorcraft, safety requirements for vertical flight, collision avoidance systems, heliport standards, and weather adaptability are crucial. Leveraging UAS advancements, the study suggested autonomous systems, sense-and-avoid technology, …

Laboratory Evaluation Of Early-Age Concrete Comprising Type Il Cement And Natural Pozzolans, Battsagaan Ilch

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this laboratory research was to investigate the effects of a higher water-cementitious materials ratio on selected properties of concrete mixtures comprising natural pozzolans. The scope of work included testing of six concrete mixtures, including one for each of three natural pozzolans at two water-cementitious materials ratios of 0.44 and 0.48 and one concrete mixture without pozzolan at a water-cementitious materials ratio of 0.44, which was treated as a baseline in this research. The stiffness and strength of each concrete mixture were measured at 1, 3, and 7 days using concrete specimens that were cast immediately after mixing. …

User-Centered Design Of Compliant Mechanism And Origami-Based Products, Bethany Maria Parkinson

Theses and Dissertations

In user-centered design, the way users feel when interacting with products is taken under consideration in the design process. In this research, the user-centered design of compliant mechanism and origami-based products is explored. Examples of user-centered compliant mechanism and origami-based design projects are presented: first, for novel furniture designs, in which the safety, comfort, and visual aesthetics are important; and second, for compliant handheld dart launchers, where the feel of blaster actuation is taken into consideration. The feel of a product and a person's emotional response to it are important to products meant to be interacted with, but especially in …

Development And Evaluation Of Full Performance-Based Procedures For The Estimation Of Liquefaction-Induced Building Settlement In A Non-Free-Field Condition Using Cumulative Absolute Velocity, Dallin Nathan Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Liquefaction induced settlement is an earthquake hazard engineers face when developing infrastructure. Current methods for estimating liquefaction induced settlement are done in a free field condition. This assumption is not an accurate way to describe the soil because in most cases the soil will bear some kind of infrastructure. Evaluation of liquefaction induced settlement in a non-free-field condition is a more appropriate way. Using the Bullock et al. CAV model, Bullock et al liquefaction induced settlement model, and probabilistic seismic hazard software from the USGS, a full performance-based procedure for the estimation of liquefaction-induced building settlement in the non-free-field condition …

Developing A Sql Injection Exploitation Tool With Natural Language Generation, Kate Isabelle Boekweg

Theses and Dissertations

Websites are a popular tool in our modern world, used daily by many companies and individuals. However, they are also rife with vulnerabilities, including SQL injection (SQLI) vulnerabilities. SQLI attacks can lead to significant damage to the data stored within web applications and their databases. Due to the dangers posed by these attacks, many countermeasures have been researched and implemented to protect websites against this threat. Various tools have been developed to enhance the process of detecting SQLI vulnerabilities and active SQLI attacks. Many of these tools have integrated machine learning technologies, aiming to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Penetration …

Phosphorus Soprtion Experiments: Impacts On Water Column Phosphate Concentrations In Utah Lake, Rebecca Layne Butters

Theses and Dissertations

Utah Lake, located in north-central Utah, USA, is a freshwater lake with a large surface area, shallow depth, and phosphorus-rich sediment with significant water-sediment interaction. These factors cause unique phosphorus behavior relative to other lake ecosystems, governed by sediment-water interactions. We hypothesize that benthic sediments and suspended solids act, by sorption processes, to maintain water column P concentrations that are largely insensitive to P inflows. We conducted a Phosphorus Addition Experiment to characterize sorbed P fluxes in the lake. Our experimental procedure included bench-scale laboratory experiments testing Utah Lake water and sediment with dilute and augmented P levels, as well …

Transferable User-Friendly Machine Learning For Normal Boiling Point Prediction, Frank Tafadzwa Mtetwa

Theses and Dissertations

The estimation of thermophysical properties of chemical compounds holds considerable importance across a multitude of fields, ranging from material science to process design. Among these properties, the normal boiling point (NBP) stands out as a pivotal parameter in scientific and engineering contexts, as it elucidates the state of a substance under standard conditions commonly encountered in nature. Additionally, NBP is extensively documented in various reference materials and databases. Given its paramount importance and widespread availability, prediction methodologies for other properties such as critical temperature, liquid density, vapor pressure, surface tension, liquid viscosity, liquid thermal conductivity, and flash point often rely …

Development Of A Molten Salt Reactor Design And Design Framework For Overall Reactor Performance Prediction And Optimization, Andrew William Larsen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation introduces a novel approach to nuclear reactor design, emphasizing molten salt reactors (MSRs) to address the global need for safer, more efficient, and sustainable energy sources. It confronts the inherent challenges of nuclear fission reactors--proliferation risks, cost efficiency, waste management, and passive accident prevention--by developing an innovative MSR model and a machine learning (ML)-based optimization framework. The molten salt microreactor (MSMR), devised by researchers at Brigham Young University, utilizes thermally conductive plates for efficient heat dissipation during operational anomalies, ensuring safety within operational limits. This design was rigorously tested using STARCCM+ for fluid dynamics modeling and RELAP5-3D for …

Barriers To Contract Negotiation In Construction Projects And Strategies To Foster Trust, Luke Thomas Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the impact of contract negotiation within construction projects by utilizing a modified Delphi approach, which integrates interviews alongside the traditional Delphi surveys. This methodology combines the structured feedback loop of Delphi surveys with the qualitative depth provided by interviews. This offers a more comprehensive understanding of contract negotiation dynamics in construction projects. It identifies systemic challenges as primary barriers to negotiation, highlighting the need for a cultural shift towards prioritizing negotiation and flexibility within the industry. The study reveals that time and cost considerations are relatively minor compared to interpersonal skills and trust-building. It cautions against damaging …

Low Impedance, Durable, Self-Adhesive Hydrogel Epidermal Electrodes For Electrophysiology Recording, Naiyan Wu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Traditional electrodes used for electrophysiology recording, characterized by their hard, dry, and inanimate nature, are fundamentally mismatched with the soft, moist, and bioactive characteristics of biological tissues, leading to suboptimal skin-electrode interfaces. Hydrogel materials, mirroring the high water content and biocompatibility of biological tissues, emerge as promising candidates for epidermal electronic materials due to their adjustable physicochemical properties. However, challenges such as inadequate electrical conductivity, elevated skin impedance, unreliable adhesion in moist conditions, and performance decline from dehydration have significantly restricted the efficacy and applicability of hydrogel-based electrodes. In this thesis, we report a high-performance hydrogel epidermal electrode patch for …

Data Engineering: Building Software Efficiency In Medium To Large Organizations, Alessandro De La Torre

Whittier Scholars Program

The introduction of PoetHQ, a mobile application, offers an economical strategy for colleges, potentially ushering in significant cost savings. These savings could be redirected towards enhancing academic programs and services, enriching the educational landscape for students. PoetHQ aims to democratize access to crucial software, effectively removing financial barriers and facilitating a richer educational experience. By providing an efficient software solution that reduces organizational overhead while maximizing accessibility for students, the project highlights the essential role of equitable education and resource optimization within academic institutions.

10-Year Progress Assessment Of Made In China Strategy—Perspective Based On U.S. Publications, Wen Wang, Yujing Shen

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Manufacturing is the foundation and pillar of the national economy, and a key support for achieving high-quality development. Advancing the transformation, upgrading, and innovation-driven development of the manufacturing industry is of utmost importance. At present, China has already completed the first phase of its national strategy to become a manufacturing powerhouse ahead of schedule and is steadily advancing toward that long-term goal. However, the road ahead is likely to be shaped by a complex and volatile international environment and intense strategic competition from the United States. This study evaluates China's strategy to become a manufacturing powerhouse from the perspective of …

The Impact Of Using Standard Quality Measures Such As Iso 9001:2015 On Emerging Software Companies Created With Agile Methodologies., Elisa Orillac

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This qualitative research aimed to analyze the impact of applying quality measure standards, specifically ISO 9001:2015, in emerging software companies that have decided to manage their projects through Agile methodologies. While Agile methodologies are well known for their continuous delivery of software, the quality that results from these projects is not always guaranteed. This research aimed to evaluate what benefits in terms of cost, timely delivery of working software, and production have companies who already applied QMS had. Or, if applying the QMS had a negative result, why was this the case? The hypothesis for the research was that those …

League Of Learning: Deep Learning For Soccer Action Video Classification, Musfikur Rahaman

ATU Scholars Symposium

The field of sports video analysis using deep learning is rapidly advancing. Proper classification and analysis of sports videos are essential to manage the growing sports media content. It offers numerous benefits for the media, advertising, analytics, and education sectors. Soccer, also known as football, worldwide, is among the most popular sports. This research study used a deep learning-based approach for soccer action detection. Deep learning has become a popular machine learning technique, especially for image and video classification. We have used the SoccerAct dataset, which consists of ten soccer actions like corner, foul, freekick, goal kick, long pass, on …

Methods For Finding Best Coset Codes For Physical-Layer Security, Andrew Glenn Swain

Theses and Dissertations

Finding best coset codes for secrecy over the binary erasure wiretap channel remains a difficult problem. Greater understanding of the structure of coset codes is necessary to reduce the problem space in which we search for these best codes. This dissertation presents new necessary conditions for a code to be best, including a condition that states that a code must maximize the minimum distance of both itself and its dual. It introduces and evaluates the accuracy of new heuristics to approximate the code's equivocation based on a code's weight enumerator polynomial. We also present a new tool for visualizing the …

Predicted Strength And Ductility Of Roof Truss Diaphragms With Tension-Only Rod Bracing And Hillside Washer Rod Connections, Emma Jean Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Metal buildings with roof truss diaphragms and tension-only rod bracing are a common structural system for single story industrial and commercial buildings. Despite the widespread use of metal building diaphragms in modern construction, there is limited knowledge on their strength and ductility under seismic loads. In this study, finite element models of diaphragm subassemblies and a full-size diaphragm were created to determine the strength and ductility of metal building diaphragms with tension-only rod bracing using hillside washer rod connections. Finite element models of two-tier diaphragm specimens that had been previously tested in the laboratory were created. Girders and purlins were …

High-Performance Concrete Comprising Silica Fume: Evaluation Of The Decommissioned Salt Lake City Airport Parking Structure, Trevor William Pratt

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research was to quantify the benefits of silica fume through a detailed investigation of the concrete decks within the now-demolished Salt Lake City International Airport parking structure, which was constructed in 1991, after it had been in service for almost 30 years. Several tests were performed to evaluate each of five areas within the parking structure. The results of field testing included data obtained from visual inspection, chain dragging, Schmidt hammer testing, and cover meter readings, while the results of laboratory testing included data obtained from chloride concentration, modulus of elasticity, electrical impedance, rapid chloride permeability, …

Acoustothermal Transfection For Cell Therapy, Xiufang Liu, Ning Rong, Zhenhua Tian, Joseph Rich, Lili Niu, Pengqi Li, Laixin Huang, Yandai Dong, Wei Zhou, Pengfei Zhang, Yizhao Chen, Congzhi Wang, Long Meng, Tony Jun Huang, Hairong Zheng

Faculty Publications

Transfected stem cells and T cells are promising in personalized cell therapy and immunotherapy against various diseases. However, existing transfection techniques face a fundamental trade-off between transfection efficiency and cell viability; achieving both simultaneously remains a substantial challenge. This study presents an acoustothermal transfection method that leverages acoustic and thermal effects on cells to enhance the permeability of both the cell membrane and nuclear envelope to achieve safe, efficient, and high-throughput transfection of primary T cells and stem cells. With this method, two types of plasmids were simultaneously delivered into the nuclei of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with efficiencies of …

Nanozyme-Based Sensing Of Dopamine Using Cobalt-Doped Hydroxyapatite Nanocomposite From Waste Bones, Umar Nishan, Nighat Jabeen, Amir Badshah, Nawshad Muhammad, Mohibullah Shah, Irfan Ullah, Saifullah Afridi, Jibran Iqbal, Muhammad Asad, Riaz Ullah, Essam A. Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed, Suvash Chandra Ojha

All Works

Dopamine is one of the most important neurotransmitters and plays a crucial role in various neurological, renal, and cardiovascular systems. However, the abnormal levels of dopamine mainly point to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular diseases, etc. Hydroxyapatite (HAp), owing to its catalytic nature, nanoporous structure, easy synthesis, and biocompatibility, is a promising matrix material. These characteristics make HAp a material of choice for doping metals such as cobalt. The synthesized cobalt-doped hydroxyapatite (Co-HAp) was used as a colorimetric sensing platform for dopamine. The successful synthesis of the platform was confirmed by characterization with FTIR, SEM, EDX, XRD, TGA, etc. The platform demonstrated …

A Hybrid Communication System Using 5g Cellular And Ads-B For Uavs In High-Density Airspaces, Coulton Lee Karch

Theses and Dissertations

Robust communication is required to provide a safe airspace for the large numbers of unmanned aerial systems that are coming to the National Airspace System (NAS). This thesis explores methods for providing robust communication to large numbers of vehicles in the NAS. Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ASD-B) is a transmission system that can transmit to and is currently required on all manned aircraft. Unfortunately, ADS-B suffers connectivity problems when supporting large numbers of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The 5G Cellular protocol can support large numbers of UAS, but connectivity suffers with an increase in distance and interference. Using a 5G cellular …

Improving Wifi Sensor Network Security Through Unassociated Device Communication Using Wireless Latency Shift Keying, Jacob Edward Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) only has two modes of trust--complete trust or complete untrust. The lack of nuance leaves no room for sensors that a user does not fully trust, but wants to connect to their network, such as a WiFi sensor. Solutions exist, but they require advanced knowledge of network administration. We solve this problem by introducing a new way of modulating data in the latency of the network, called Latency Shift Keying. We use specific characteristics of the WiFi protocol to carefully control the latency of just one device on the network. We build a transmitter, receiver, and modulation …

Gps-Denied Localization Of Landing Evtol Aircraft, Aaron C. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a dedicated GPS-denied landing system designed for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The system employs active fiducial light pattern localization (AFLPL), which provides highly accurate and reliable navigation during critical landing phases. AFLPL utilizes images of a constellation comprised of modulating infrared lights strategically positioned on the landing site, to determine the aircraft pose through the use of a perspective-n-point (PnP) solver. The AFLPL system underwent thorough development, enhancement, and implementation to address and demonstrate its potential in navigation and its inherent limitations. A proposed method addresses the limitations of AFLPL by using an extended …

Energy-Absorbing Helmet For Safer Football, Aidan Laudeman

Honors Theses

Football-related injuries are a common occurrence and are often detrimental to the player’s health. Force impacts frequently occur at the front, back, and sides of a player’s helmet, resulting in head injuries like concussions. The goal of this project is to reduce recurrent head injuries by designing a solution involving the use of energy-absorbing metallic materials that are inserted into a football helmet. These energy-absorbing materials are configured in target zones inside the helmet to reduce the acceleration of the head based on impact locations. The chosen materials are nitinol and spring steel, which display energy-absorbing properties. Various energy-absorbing material …

Development Of Deep Neural Architecture For Continuous Sign Language Video Generation, Natarajan B

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a deep neural network based sign language video generation framework for translating the multilingual sentences into sign videos. This thesis addresses the challenges persist with the sign language video generation such as (i) Handling longer sequences of input sentences and new words (ii) Pose estimation with higher accuracy (iii) High quality photo realistic sign gesture video generation (iv) Improving realism in sign video generation. Hence, the thesis focuses four contributions to address the above issues.

The first contribution of this thesis automates the translation of multilingual sentences into sign glosses without manual intervention by incorporating Hybrid Neural …

Tunable Dual-Phase Dual-Drug Delivery System Using A Plga Microparticle/Pva Hydrogel Composite, Timothy John Eck

Theses and Dissertations

Current drug-eluting coatings have demonstrated controlled long-term, sustained release but have only tried to mitigate short-term burst release as a negative side effect. For applications like wound healing, there is a need for a drug-eluting coating which is adjustable in both short- and long-term release, independent of each other. We present a tunable dual-phase dual-drug delivery coating composed of drug-loaded polymer microparticles and drug-loaded hydrogel which can control short term and long term release individually in this study. This coating was created using lidocaine and dexamethasone encapsulated in poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) particles combined with lidocaine- and dexamethasone-loaded poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel. Hydrogel drug …

Assessing Past Airworthiness Directives And How Safety Management Systems May Benefit Aviation Product Design And Manufacturing, Damon Lercel, Manoj Patankar, Richard Steckel

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) continues to promulgate Safety Management Systems (SMS) across aviation organizations when it recently issued SMS requirements for EASA certificated Part 145 maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) organizations and Part 21 Design & Manufacturing (D&M) organizations. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has no such rule in place for these U.S.-based organizations, which may challenge those doing business in countries where EASA policies apply. Given that a majority of the United States’ D&M and MRO population is made up of smaller organizations, it is likely a U.S. SMS regulation will require justification of the …

History’S Slowest Digital Transformation: The Long Road To Flight Data Monitoring, Michael Ott

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Flight data monitoring (FDM) began in the flight test community in 1939 and entered the airline industry in 1974. In the 48 years since, however, very few operators have chosen to adopt this practice, which has shown clear safety benefits where it has found acceptance. While technical issues have created some obstacles, cultural issues have proven the greatest hindrance to wider FDM adoption. These cultural issues originated in the traits associated with pilots’ personalities, especially distrust of the regulators and operators who would administer flight data analysis programs (FDAP) that used FDM information. U.S. regulators have relied on voluntary adoption, …

Application Of Density Altitude Climatology To General Aviation Impacts, Thomas A. Guinn, Daniel J. Halperin, Sarah Strazzo

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Density altitude (DA) plays a key role in flight safety because it helps pilots anticipate poor aircraft performance when temperatures are warmer than standard. In this study, a 30-year climatology of DA for the conterminous United States was created using the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate (ERA5) dataset was applied to four separate DA-based, aircraft-performance, rules-of-thumb for general aviation (GA) flight. The goal was to demonstrate a technique to create educational visualization tools showing the variation of operational flight impacts with both month and location. Four such parameters were chosen to show …

Training Methods Research Opportunities For A Pilot Workforce In Transition: A Literature Review, James Birdsong, Kurt L. Reesman

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Over the next 15 years, 50% of the U.S. commercial air carrier workforce will retire, making way for younger pilots from Generations Y and Z. This review identifies the emerging pilot workforce and training methods, including emerging technologies and learning methods, as well as research gaps.