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Effects Of Ball Milling Duration And Sintering Temperature On Mechanical Alloying Fe3si, Varistha Chobpattana, Chakansin Phoomkong, Peerawat Nutnual, Kritsada Thaengthong, Wanchai Pijitrojana

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Fe3Si is under interest as a ferromagnetic electrode of magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs). Its crystalline structure is important for achieving high device efficiency. This work focuses on mechanical alloying of 3:1 ratio of 99% pure Fe and Si powder mixtures by ball milling and sintering. The mixtures were ball-milled for various durations up to 20 h. Then, they were sintered from 400°C  to 800°C for 4 h in Ar.  SEM images and particle size analysis show significant reduction in average particle size of the mixtures after ball milling for 20 h. The longer duration of ball milling process promotes powder …

Simulation-Based Assessment Of Operational And Retrofit Solutions For Effluent Compliance Of A Capacity-Limited Oxidation Ditch Wwtp, Ahmed Sameh Harash

Theses and Dissertations

Oxidation-ditch wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) across Egypt's Nile Delta are increasingly carrying hydraulic and organic loads beyond what they were designed for. This work can be considered pioneering as this work compared operational and structural retrofit alternatives for such a plant within a single verified simulation framework. The present study fills that gap by building a digital twin of the Qaha WWTP, a dual-train Carrousel oxidation ditch in Qalyubia Governorate, calibrated to a baseline flow of 7,420 m³/day in the SUMO24 platform (a third-generation, open-source wastewater treatment process simulation software) using the SUMO2c biokinetic model (a simplified variant of Activated …

Sustainable – Low-Cost - Upgrade Of Activated Sludge Process For Nitrogen And Phosphorus (N&P) Removal From Wastewater, Abanoub N. Basta

Theses and Dissertations

Many municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in developing countries were designed primarily for organic matter and suspended solids removal and therefore face increasing difficulty in meeting modern nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) discharge requirements. Conventional biological nutrient removal upgrades commonly require additional reactor volume, recirculation systems, aeration energy, and capital investment. Accordingly, sustainable retrofit strategies that improve nutrient removal within existing treatment footprints are increasingly needed, particularly in water-scarce and land-constrained regions.

This study investigated the integration of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) into the aeration stage of an activated sludge process as a hybrid nature-based enhancement for nitrogen and phosphorus …

Deep Brain Stimulation In Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review Of Neuropsychological Outcomes, Nora Huey

Doctoral Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline, memory impairment, and disruption of neural networks involved in cognitive functioning. Although existing treatments may provide symptomatic benefit, there remains a need for interventions capable of slowing or stabilizing disease progression. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a potential neuromodulatory intervention for early-stage AD through stimulation of memory- and cognition-related neural circuitry. This dissertation employed a systematic review research methodology to examine teh neuropsychological and neurobiological outcomes associated with DBS targeting the fornix (DBS-f) and nucleus basalis of Meynert (DBS-NBM) in individuals with early-stage AD over 12–24 …

Enhancing Shipboard Safety Management Under The Ism Code: An Innovative Risk Assessment Framework With A Stern Tube Case Study, Pi-Yen Lin

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

The shipboard safety management system (SMS) is designed to enhance safe operations, risk management, and emergency response to improve overall ship safety and efficiency. This paper demonstrates the use of an engine room simulator (ERS) for collecting failure modes and applies it to a comprehensive failure analysis of the stern tube lubricating oil system. A new risk closeness coefficient method was developed, integrating expert background knowledge and weighted risk assessments. The analysis, based on multiple expert evaluations, covered five subsystems, eight main components, 23 failure modes, and 112 failure causes. This study presents 26 recommendations for maritime practitioners and onboard …

Port And Vessel Communication Traffic Intrusion Detection: A Variational Autoencoder‑Enhanced Multilayer Perceptron Approach, Chien-Lin Chiang, Hsien-Cheng Chou, Ming-Yuan Peng, Yi-Yuan Chiang, Yu-Shun Liu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Port and vessel networks increasingly operate on IP/Ethernet backbones with high‑noise, high‑dimensional traffic. We present a lightweight hybrid intrusion‑detection model that couples a variational autoencoder (VAE) with a multilayer perceptron (MLP) and augments training with a boundary‑oriented latent‑space mixup strategy. The VAE models the distribution of normal traffic and identifies anomalies through reconstruction errors. Subsequently, it generates robust latent vectors, enabling the MLP to perform highly accurate supervised classification. On the UNSW‑NB15 dataset, the proposed pipeline attains ≥97% accuracy and an outstanding recall of 99.56% in binary intrusion detection, and visualization of the latent space (PCA) together with reconstruction‑error analyses …

Sar Ship Detection Based On Shallow Feature Guidance, Chenxu Xia, Peng Chen, Ya Zhang, Ying Li

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Maritime ship detection is of great significance for both military security and civilian applications. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), with its all-weather and all-day imaging capability, plays a vital role in maritime surveillance. Nevertheless, SAR ship targets typically appear small in scale, embedded in complex backgrounds, blurred at boundaries, and easily confused with near-shore features, which pose substantial challenges for accurate detection. To address these issues, we propose a SAR ship detection network that integrates dual enhancements of small-object representation and edge information. The network introduces two key components: the Small Target Refine Pyramid (STRP) to strengthen shallow feature representation for …

Evaluating The Impact Of Research Equipment Availability On Scientific Rigor, Reproducibility, And Innovation Across Stem Disciplines, Lyndi G. Hraban

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Research infrastructure plays a central role in shaping the quality and innovative capacity of scientific research. This study evaluates how the availability of research equipment influences scientific rigor, reproducibility, and innovation across STEM disciplines. Drawing on literature from science-to-science research, policy studies, and discipline-specific analyses, this project synthesizes existing scholarship to explore the relationship between access to infrastructure and key research outcomes. Findings across the literature indicate that access to advanced and well-maintained equipment can strengthen scientific rigor by enabling more precise measurements, improved experimental control, and the implementation of standardized research protocols. Shared and centralized facilities are also associated …

Comparative Performance Of Physiological Vital-Sign Forecasting Under Random And Patient-Wise Splitting Using Deep Learning, Lavanya Vasavi Chittem Reddy

Theses and Dissertations

Physiological vital-sign forecasting estimates future measurements based on recent temporal patterns and can support analysis of continuously recorded monitoring data. This study comparatively evaluated deep feedforward, recurrent, bidirectional recurrent, long short-term memory, and bidirectional long short-term memory architectures for one-step-ahead forecasting of peripheral oxygen saturation, heart rate, and pulse rate. Each model received consecutive observations of peripheral oxygen saturation, heart rate, pulse rate, respiratory rate, and age, while separate single-output models predicted the next value of the selected target.

Random and patient-wise data splitting were compared using identical input definitions, preprocessing procedures, model architectures, and training hyperparameters. The strongest architecture …

Diffusion-Enhanced Gflownet For Solving Vehicle Routing Problems, Ni Zhang, Zhiqin Zhang, Ling Pan, Hoong Chuin Lau, Zhiguang Cao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traditional neural solvers for solving vehicle routing problems (VRPs) often suffer from limited solution diversity, motivating the development of Generative Flow Network (GFlowNet)–based models. However, the effectiveness of these models is frequently constrained by insufficient flow expansion in high-reward regions, limiting their ability to distribute probability across promising solution routes. The deeper exploration could yield superior results. Diffusion models, in contrast, provide stronger structural guidance for exploration. These two paradigms are naturally complementary: GFlowNet can supply edge-level signals for diffusion to embed, while diffusion can guide broader exploration. Leveraging this synergy, we propose Diffusion-Enhanced GFlowNet (DEG), a novel framework that …

A Systematic Review Of Alkali-Treated Polylactic Acid Biocomposites Relevant To Pineapple Leaf And Water Hyacinth Hybrid Design, Muhammad Rizky Adrianto Subandi, Tri Hartutuk Ningsih, Hanna Zakiyya

Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)

The increasing demand for sustainable materials has accelerated the development of biodegradable polymer composites. Polylactic acid (PLA)-based natural fiber composites have attracted significant attention due to their renewable characteristics; however, their performance remains limited by weak fiber–matrix compatibility, moisture sensitivity, and inconsistent interfacial behavior. Alkali treatment has been widely applied to modify lignocellulosic fibers by removing non-cellulosic components and improving surface characteristics, although its effectiveness remains dependent on treatment conditions and fiber properties. This systematic review evaluates the influence of alkali treatment on PLA-based natural fiber composites and assesses the available evidence supporting future pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) and water …

Lithium Titanate-Functionalized Mixed Matrix Polymer Membrane For High-Performance Osmotic Energy Conversion, Rockson Kwesi Tonnah, Yasaman Boroumand, Milad Razbin, Mostafa Vahdani, Amir Razmjou, Mohsen Asadnia

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Reverse electrodialysis (RED) offers a promising route to harvest osmotic energy from salinity gradients, yet practical implementation is hindered by the lack of scalable, high-performance ion-selective membranes that combine efficient ion transport with mechanical robustness and environmental sustainability. Here, we report a mixed matrix membrane composed of polyethersulfone (PES), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and lithium titanium oxide (Li₂TiO₃, LTO) that addresses these challenges through biomimetic ion transport channels. The strategic integration of LTO nanoparticles introduces ion-exchange sites and oxygen-rich PES ether linkages to create preferential cation transport pathways that mimic biological ion channels. This mixed matrix design delivers over three-fold cation conduction, …

The Mechanical Actor: Meyerhold’S Biomechanics And The Birth Of The Analyzable Body, Margaret R. Davisson

Caroliniana Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper analyzes Vsevolod Meyerhold’s system of biomechanics, an actor-training system, as a theatrical framework that participated in the broader cultural consolidation of an analytical conception of human movement also taking place within modern scientific biomechanics. Situating Meyerhold’s work within the industrial and ideological context of early twentieth-century Soviet modernity, the study examines how theatrical training methods operationalized emerging assumptions about the mechanization, decomposition, and optimization of human movement. Through comparative analysis of Meyerholdian performance theory and scientific biomechanics, the paper demonstrates a structural correspondence between theatrical movement segmentation and biomechanical concepts such as kinematics, force distribution, and mechanical equilibrium. …

Friction Coefficients Characteristic Of Biodegradable Lubricants Based On Coconut Oil With The Addition Of Beeswax, Munirul Islam Dwi Suwari, Aminnudin Aminnudin, Ahmad Atif Fikri

Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)

Coconut oil-based lubricants are currently commonly used as an alternative to environmentally friendly lubricants because they are biodegradable and have a low environmental pollution impact. However, coconut oil has less than optimal lubrication capabilities compared to mineral lubricants, so the addition of beeswax additives is needed to improve its tribological characteristics. This study specifically aims to analyze the direct effect of adding varying amounts of beeswax on the performance and efficiency of coconut oil lubricants. The friction coefficient tested using pin on disc methods according to ASM G99 with the pin-on-disc tribological testing were 7075 aluminium pins with a standard …

Thermal Performance Analysis And Heat Transfer Characteristics Of A Solar Powered Paddy Dryer Using A Flat Plate Solar Collector, Peter Sahupala, Daniel Parenden

Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)

Freshly harvested paddy holds much water (23.00% wet basis in this study) and spoils quickly without prompt drying. Open sun drying depends on the weather and heats the grain unevenly. This study tested an indirect solar paddy dryer with a 0.60 m² flat plate collector, a 10 kg capacity, and natural convection airflow in Merauke, South Papua. Six thermocouples (collector, drying chamber, and chimney), a pyranometer, and a moisture meter recorded data every 15 minutes at drying temperatures of 40°C, 50°C, and 60°C. The data gave useful heat energy, collector thermal efficiency, and drying rate. Useful heat energy ranged from …

The Effects Of Transportation Distribution On Dry Ice Insulated Containers' Thermal Performance, Edmund Tang

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

This study builds upon methodologies established in a 2024 investigation of the combined effects of physical distribution stresses and thermal environments on cold chain packaging performance. Prior results showed that moisture-resistant gel packs generally maintained a vaccine storage range of +2°C to +8°C. However, when exposed to extreme combined stresses, thermal performance degradation of up to 13.5% was observed. The present work applies a similar experimental framework to transportation systems that rely on dry ice as the primary cooling medium, addressing the distinct challenges associated with ultra-cold distribution.

Pharmaceutical products requiring dry ice are highly temperature-sensitive and vulnerable to performance …

Project Information Standard - Asset Register Building, Robert Moore

Tools

This Build Digital Asset Register for Buildings provides a practical starting point for public sector clients developing asset information requirements for conventional building projects.

Based on a simplified selection of COBie information fields, the Excel workbook supports the identification, organisation and collection of asset information for building operation and maintenance. It can assist clients in defining information requirements and communicating these to project delivery teams.

The workbook is particularly suited to organisations beginning their digital asset management journey. It is intended as an adaptable guidance resource rather than a comprehensive asset management solution. More complex buildings and critical infrastructure may …

A Philosophical Introduction To Elements And Relations: Aspects Of A Scientific Metaphysics, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

My book, Elements and Relations*, amplifies Bunge’s characterization of the systems project as the construction an “exact and scientific metaphysics” (ESM) different from and broader than the reductionist and physicalist ontology of conventional science. This paper discusses the scientific theories constituting this project and the central notion of “system” as a structure-function dyad, where “structure” is the system’s internal order and “function” is its participation in the external order of its environment. The paper also discusses the book’s proposal of ontology and ethics as a structure-function dyad for the systems field, an ontology of problems that exemplifies the ESM idea.

A Performance-Based Indicator Framework For Assessing Innovative Materials In Modular Emergency Shelters, Riham Nady Faragallah, M. S. Refaey, Naglaa M. Yussuf, Riham S. Hassan

HBRC Journal

In recent years, the increasing intensity of disasters, conflicts and mass displacement has amplified the need for emergency shelters that are rapidly deployable, structurally safe, and thermally comfortable, particularly when delivered through prefabricated modular systems. The recent development of innovative materials—including smart, recycled, bio-based, and 3D-printed composites—has demonstrated considerable potential for improving emergency shelter performance. However, existing studies primarily evaluate these materials individually, with limited efforts to integrate them into a comprehensive performance-based decision framework for modular emergency shelters. This research aims to develop a performance-based indicator framework for evaluating and selecting innovative materials to enhance the safety, comfort, durability, …

Education Before Electricity: Ai-Facilitated Capability Formation As A Pre-Condition For Productive Energy Use In Off-Grid Communities, Kevin Hallinan, Lu Hao, Bennywhite Davidson, Divinegift Morris, Confidence Onuahu, Silas Clergy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Working Papers

Solar microgrids in sub-Saharan Africa routinely fail to generate the productive demand needed to service their investment, because the capability to convert electricity into economic activity does not exist at electrification. We report a 15-month deployment in Oloibiri, Nigeria, a community whose productive base was displaced by oil extraction, testing whether AI-facilitated learning can build that capability at a cost compatible with microgrid investment.

The Davidson AI Innovation Center enrolled 104 learners (136 accounts) with zero prior computer access. They recorded 4,134 learning sessions, and 25 individuals earned 90 certifications on unscaffolded work, for just over $20,000 in cumulative investment, …

Risk Prioritization Of ``Digital Drug'' And Consumer Neurostimulation Modalities: A Reproducible Interval-Valued Fermatean Fuzzy Entropy–Topsis Framework, Rawan Emad El-Saadany, Ahmed Samy, Mohamed M. Abdelhafeez, Mahmoud M. Ismail

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Consumer audio and multisensory stimulation technologies are increasingly accessible through streaming platforms, mobile applications, and immersive media. The expression digital drug is sometimes used for binaural-beat content intended to alter subjective states, but the term is a consumer/cultural label and does not imply pharmacological equivalence. Risk prioritization in this area is difficult because evidence is heterogeneous, several relevant criteria are qualitative, and judgments may be imprecise rather than point-valued. This paper develops a transparent interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy (IVFF) group decision framework that combines interval-preserving aggregation, Shannon entropy weighting, and TOPSIS for prioritizing digital drug risk scenarios under uncertainty. The method …

A Computational Framework For Modeling Fluid And Solid Stressesin Porous Tissues With Application To The Trabeculated Embryonic Heart, Christine Buffinton, James W. Baish

Faculty Journal Articles

This study provides a framework for efficient solutions of computational fluid-solid interaction models of porous tissue, with a focus on blood flow through the developing heart wall in the critical chamber and valve formation stages, when trabeculation fills much of the ventricles. This porous, trabeculated tissue is the site of complex mechanotransduction processes, but accurately estimating solid and fluid stresses within such intricate geometries is difficult. We addressed this with three levels of modeling and verification. Images of E12.5 mouse ventricles were first obtained through confocal microscopy and 3D reconstruction. These guided creation of explicit pore-scale finite element simulations with …

A Generalized Coherence Framework For Contribution Analysis In Multi-Input Systems With Correlated Inputs, With Application To Essential Tremor, Nolan H. Howes

Theses and Dissertations

Quantifying the contribution of individual inputs to an output is a fundamental problem in the analysis of dynamic systems , with applications spanning numerous engineering disciplines. Traditional coherence-based methods provide useful tools for contribution analysis when inputs are uncorrelated; however, they generally fail when correlation exists between inputs. Because correlated inputs are common in both engineered and biological systems, this limitation restricts the usefulness of conventional coherence analysis in many practical applications. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop, apply, and validate a generalized coherence framework capable of quantifying input contributions in multi-input systems regardless of input correlation. First, …

Glutaraldehyde-Crosslinked Chitosan And Zinc Oxide Coating Reinforced With Polysulfone On Copper As A Platform For Electrochemical Formaldehyde Sensing, Anceu Murniati Anm, Rahmat Saputra Rs, Arie Hardian Ah, Manty Aldilani Ikaningsih Mai, Moh Haifan Haifan

Chimica et Natura Acta

Formaldehyde monitoring requires electrochemical platforms with stable structures and reliable interfacial responses. This study aimed to prepare and characterize a Cu|CS–GLA/ZnO–PSf composite film on a copper substrate as a platform for further formaldehyde-sensing development. The film was characterized using FTIR, SEM–EDX, XRD, and cyclic voltammetry. FTIR supported the presence of features associated with chitosan, imine, polysulfone, and Zn–O, while SEM–EDX revealed a heterogeneous polymer-rich coating with Zn- and O-containing domains distributed non-uniformly. XRD indicated a predominantly amorphous or poorly crystalline structure. Cyclic voltammetry showed scan-rate-dependent peak separations, with ΔEp increasing from 0.632 to 0.777 V in citrate buffer and from …

Engineering, Processing, And Evaluation Of Alternative Solid-Phase Carbon Media For Passive Self-Regulatory Denitrification (Psrd), Chinedu James Chiama

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Biological denitrification is an effective and cost-efficient approach for nitrate removal; however, conventional processes often rely on liquid carbon sources such as methanol or acetate that require precise dosing and monitoring. Solid-phase denitrification (SPD) using polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) provides a self-regulating alternative, but its high cost limits widespread application. This dissertation investigated strategies to develop lower-cost solid carbon media and simplify SPD operation for recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). PHB/cellulose (PHBC) blends containing 20–40% cellulose were first evaluated against pure PHB based on nitrate conversion, carbon release, substrate consumption, and denitrification cost. PHBC60:40 and PHBC70:30 achieved the highest apparent peak nitrate conversion …

Estimation Of Unmeasurable External Disturbances Of A Dynamic Object Based On A Robust Adaptive Kalman Filter, Bunyod Mamurjon Ugli Buronov

Technical science and innovation

This article considers the problem of directly estimating unmeasurable external disturbances acting on a dynamic object under the condition that the state vector of the object is available for measurement. In the considered case, the problem is reduced to the estimation of an unknown input of a dynamic system. It is shown that when the system state is measurable, both a direct inversion scheme based on the object’s dynamic equation and filtering methods that eliminate the need for coarse numerical differentiation can be applied. For slowly varying disturbances, a random walk model with a small process noise covariance is proposed, …

Where Do We Go Now: An Examination Of The Role Of 3d Modeling In Cancer Research, Ella Claire Gregory, Hannah Noelle Cochran

ABE 4523/6523 Biomedical Materials

The development of three-dimensional tumor models has become an important area of cancer research. By incorporating biomaterials that can mimic the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the tumor environment. 3D models can provide a more physiologically relevant environment for studying tumor growth, cell interaction, metastasis, and drug response.

Built To Fall: Ruin Value From Romanticist Ideal To Materials Design Philosophy, Vuk Uskoković

Administration and Staff Articles and Research

Ruin value is an architectural principle endorsing the use of designs and materials that would allow buildings to age beautifully and retain their aesthetics even when transformed into ruins. Here, the principle is extracted from the political context in which its proponent, Albert Speer, proposed it and discussed as a continuation of a longer Romanticist tradition of appreciation of weathering and the melancholy beauty of things in decline. Noting its reach well beyond architecture and across other artistic genres, the principle is brought here into the context of natural sciences and the following question is analyzed: Is there room for …

Automatic +1 Diffraction Order Detection In Off-Axis Digital Holographic Interferometry Using An Energy-Based Spectral Model, Nigora Alimdjanovna Akbarova, Dilnoza Ibrokhim Kizi Abdulkhayeva

Technical science and innovation

This paper presents an automatic +1 diffraction order detection algorithm for off-axis digital holographic interferometry (DHI Manual spectral filtering is widely used to find out the desired order of diffraction in the Fourier domain in conventional digital holographic reconstruction. Nevertheless, this approach is very subjective and must be subject to expert guidance, thus, the reconstruction reproducibility and stability can often deteriorate. To address these limitations, this designed scheme constructs a spectral model utilizing energy-maximization as well as adaptive DC suppression and dynamic filter radius estimates. The algorithm itself can automatically observe the distribution of energy in the hologram spectrum and …

Analysis And Optimization Of Intelligent Control Of The Drying Process Under Uncertainty, Azizbek Nodirbekovich Yusupbekov, Marufjon Kobuljonovich Shodiev, Khusniddin Mamarasul Ugli Esonov

Technical science and innovation

This section proposes a multi-criteria Pareto-optimization algorithm, integrated with Herbert Simon's four-stage decision-making scheme (Intelligence–Design–Choice–Implementation) and an ANFIS-based adaptive controller, for simultaneously optimizing the mutually conflicting quality, energy, and time criteria of the wheat-drying process. The algorithm for constructing the set of Pareto-optimal solutions and selecting the compromise solution closest to the ideal point is presented step by step. The implementation of the ANFIS controller in the MATLAB/Simulink environment is comprehensively verified through a simulation block diagram, the Rule Viewer, the Surface Viewer, the training error-function graph, the RMSE convergence graph, and a learning-curve analysis. Training was carried out on …