Digital Commons Network^™

Simulations Of Electro-Optically Sampled Arbitrarily Shaped Electron Bunches For Wakefield Acceleratiors, Spencer Joseph Kelham

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The measurement and recording of terahertz (THz) electric fields is of specialinterest to particle-accelerator science, as the electric fields of temporally short rela- tivistic electron bunches have frequency components that extend into the THz range. A single-shot, non-destructive measurement of such fields can be made using THz time-domain spectroscopy and electro-optic sampling. At the Argonne Wakefield Ac- celerator, arbitrary electron-bunch shapes are being explored to enhance the efficiency of advanced wakefield-accelerator schemes. In this report, we develop a framework for numerically modeling an implementation of electro-optical sampling – dubbed phase-diversity electro-optic sampling [1] – and apply the model to understand …

Concept Connectivity: An Educational And Research Framework For Scientific Learning In Optics, Photonics, And Electronic Education, Benjamin Dingel, John Gabriel C. Rivera, Francesca De Guzman Palabrica, Clint Dominic Bennett

Physics Faculty Publications

We present a novel framework referred to as Concept Connectivity that aids in educating and engaging students by presenting the topic of the Special Theory of Relativity (STR) in a coherent and unified manner. It uses different analogue implementations of the STR coming from seemingly distinct fields of study such as (i) Optics, (ii) Photonics, and (iii) Electronics to connect not only to the concepts of the STR but to the various concepts from these different fields. In these analogue implementations, the fundamental characteristics of the different STR phenomena can be mimicked in many different ways. Concept Connectivity has two …

Smartphone-Based Approach To Demonstrating Relativistic Aberration Of Light Using Electronic Circuit Analogues For Undergraduates In The Philippines, Samuel Martirez, June Capin, Shayne Venancio, Perine Bianzon, John Gabriel Rivera, Benjamin Dingel, Clint Dominic Bennett

Physics Faculty Publications

Previously, we demonstrated an electronic circuit analogue of one of Special Relativity's (SR) phenomena called the Relativistic Aberration of Light (RAL) (European Journal of Physics, 42, 015605, 2021), which describes the change in the angle an observer sees a light source relative to their direction of motion at relativistic speeds. It used typical bulky laboratory equipment such as (i) function generators, (ii) oscilloscopes, and (iii) power supplies together with our all-pass filter (APF)-based electronic circuit analogue to perform experiments. In this paper, we present a novel smartphone-based experimental set-up performing the same experiment, but we replace the bulky and expensive …

The Employees’ Perspective: Situational Leadership Style Flexibility And Effectiveness And Employee Performance In A Technological Organization, Merari Cortes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Poor employee performance can have adverse effects on business outcomes. Business leaders are concerned with poor performance, which can minimize profitability and negatively impact business sustainability. Grounded in the Situational Leadership II® model, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between situational leadership style flexibility, effectiveness, and employee performance as perceived by employees, controlling for employee gender, job location, and tenure. A random sample of 99 technology company employees completed the Leader Behavior Analysis II®– Other and the Employee Job Performance measurement tools. Using hierarchical multilinear regression, employee gender, job location, and tenure were entered …

Strong Homotopy Lie Algebras And Hypergraphs, Samuel J. Bevins, Marco Aldi

UROP Posters

We study hypergraphs by attaching a nilpotent strong homotopy Lie algebra. We especially focus on hypergraph theoretic information that is encoded in the cohomology of the resulting strong homotopy Lie algebra.

Design Of An Internal Osculating Waverider Intake, Mark E. Noftz, Andrew J. Shuck, Joseph S. Jewell, Jonathan Poggie, Andrew N. Bustard, Thomas J. Juliano, Nicholas J. Bisek

Publications

The design of an inward-turning, high-speed, three-dimensional streamline traced intake is presented from osculating axisymmetric theory. To satisfy the osculating intake design criteria, a stitched Busemann diffuser and Internal Conical Flow-A solution is used as the basic isentropic compressive streamline. This new contour provides efficient compression, high flow uniformity, and straight leading edge shocks of equal strength. Additionally, a novel method for constructing the inlet cowl is presented. The combined process leads to a new method of high-speed intake design. A generic shape-transitioned intake is constructed and named the Indiana Inlet for the Indiana universities that contributed to the project. …

Investigations Into The Electronic And Magnetic Properties Of (Crps4)N Layers, Alexandria R. Alcantara

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

2D magnetic semiconductors have become of interest due to their magneto-optical effects in lower dimensionality. More specifically, CrPS4 has gained renewed attention due to its A-type AFM order and air stability prompting analysis and stability studies in its layered forms for use in scalable technology such as spintronic and optoelectronic devices. In this study, we benchmark our approach using the SCAN meta-GGA functional used without U-parameterization on bulk CrPS4 to demonstrate the accuracy of our methodology to use as tools to go beyond current CrPS4 theoretical studies. We examine the 2D electronic nature and optical spectrum for use in experimental …

Exploring Mottness And Electronic Order In Strongly Correlated Vanadate Thin Films, Nathan Bairen

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mott insulators provide a window into some of the most intensely investigated phenomena in physics. Recent discoveries—including the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity in doped Mott insulators not from the cuprate family of superconductors—have inspired investigation into systems with strong electron-electron interactions. One of these systems is La_1-xSr_xVO₃, in which one end-member, LaVO₃, is a Mott insulator and the other, SrVO_3, is a strongly correlated metal.

Herein, we detail two studies regarding this system. In our oxidation study, we optimized the growth parameters for LaVO_3, finding that the ultra-high vacuum technique …

Fermion Encodings And Algorithms For Quantum Simulation, Riley W. Chien

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The study of the properties of quantum mechanical systems of many particles occupies a central role in condensed matter physics, high-energy physics, and quantum chemistry. In recent decades, developments in quantum information theory have suggested that quantum computers could become an especially useful tool for studying such quantum systems.

In this thesis, we address the additional challenges for quantum simulations posed by particles which are fermionic in nature, namely those caused by the nonlocal fermionic statistics. In particular, we study the encodings of fermionic degrees of freedom into the qubits of a quantum computer. We focus on finding a scheme …

Numerical Simulations Of Radiation Reaction Using Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac Formalism, E. Rogers, B. Terzic, E. Breen, E. Johnson, G. Krafft

Physics Faculty Publications

An accelerating charged particle emits electromagnetic radiation. The motion of the particle is further damped via self-interaction with its own radiation. For relativistic particles, the subsequent motion is described via a correction to the Lorentz force, known as the Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac force. The aim of this research is to use the Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac force to computationally simulate the radiation damping that occurs during nonlinear inverse Compton scattering. We build on our previous work and the code which simulates single-emission inverse Compton scattering to incorporate the effect of multiple emissions, thereby modeling the radiation reaction.

Exclusive 𝝅⁻ Electroproduction Off The Neutron In Deuterium In The Resonance Region, Y. Tian, R. W. Gothe, V. I. Mokeev, G. Hollis, M. J. Amaryan, W. R. Armstrong, H. Atac, H. Avakian, L. Barion, M. Battaglieri, I. Bedlinskiy, B. Benkel, F. Benmokhtar, A. Bianconi, L. Biondo, A. Biselli, F. Bossù, S. Boiarinov, M. Bondì, J. Zhang, Et Al., The Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

New results for the exclusive and quasifree cross sections off neutrons bound in deuterium 𝛾_vn(p) → pπ− (p) are presented over a wide final state hadron angle range with a kinematic coverage of the invariant mass (W) up to 1.825 GeV and the four-momentum transfer squared (Q²) from 0.4 to 1.0 GeV². The exclusive structure functions were extracted and their Legendre moments were obtained. Final-state-interaction contributions have been kinematically separated from the extracted quasifree cross sections off bound neutrons solely based on the analysis of the experimental data. These new results will serve as …

Scattered Spectra From Inverse Compton Sources Operating At High Laser Fields And High Electron Energies, Geoffrey A. Krafft, Balša Terzić, Erik Johnson, G. Wilson

Physics Faculty Publications

As Compton x-ray and gamma-ray sources become more prevalent, to understand their performance in a precise way, it becomes important to be able to compute the distribution of scattered photons precisely. For example, codes have been developed at Old Dominion University which were used to understand the performance of the Dresden Compton Source in detail. An ideal model would (i) include the full Compton effect frequency relations between incident and scattered photons, (ii) allow the field strength to be large enough that nonlinear effects are captured, and (iii) allow the effects of electron beam emittance to be introduced and studied. …

Non-Singlet Quark Helicity Pdfs Of The Nucleon From Pseudo-Distributions, Robert Edwards, Colin Egerer, Joseph Karpie, Nikhil Karthik, Christopher Monahan, Wayne Morris, Kostas Orginos, Anatoly Radyushkin, David Richards, Eloy Romero, Raza Sabbir Sufian, Savvas Zafeiropoulos, On Behalf Of The Hadstruc Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

The non-singlet helicity quark parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the nucleon are determined from lattice QCD, by jointly leveraging pseudo-distributions and the distillation spatial smearing paradigm. A Lorentz decomposition of appropriately isolated space-like matrix elements reveals pseudo-distributions that contain information on the leading-twist helicity PDFs, as well as an invariant amplitude that induces an additional z² contamination of the leading-twist signal. An analysis of the short-distance behavior of the space-like matrix elements using matching coefficients computed to next-to-leading order (NLO) exposes the desired PDF up to this additional z² contamination. Due to the non-conservation of the axial current, …

Basics Of Factorization In A Scalar Yukawa Field Theory, F. Aslan, L. Gamberg, J.O. Gonzalez-Hernandez, T. Rainaldi, T. C. Rogers

Physics Faculty Publications

The factorization theorems of QCD apply equally well to most simple quantum field theories that require renormalization but where direct calculations are much more straightforward. Working with these simpler theories is convenient for stress testing the limits of the factorization program and for examining general properties of the parton density functions or other correlation functions that might be necessary for a factorized description of a process. With this view in mind, we review the steps of factorization in a real scalar Yukawa field theory for both deep inelastic scattering and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering cross sections. In the case of …

First Clas12 Measurement Of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering Beam-Spin Asymmetries In The Extended Valence Region, G. Christiaens, M. Defurne, D. Sokhan, P. Achenbach, Z. Akbar, M. J. Amaryan, H. Atac, H. Avakian, C. Ayerbe Gayoso, L. Baashen, N. A. Baltzell, L. Barion, M. Bashkanov, M. Battaglieri, I. Bedlinskiy, B. Benkel, F. Benmokhtar, A. Bianconi, A. S. Biselli, M. Zurek, Et Al., Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

Deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) allows one to probe generalized parton distributions describing the 3D structure of the nucleon. We report the first measurement of the DVCS beam-spin asymmetry using the CLAS12 spectrometer with a 10.2 and 10.6 GeV electron beam scattering from unpolarized protons. The results greatly extend the Q² and Bjorken-x phase space beyond the existing data in the valence region and provide 1600 new data points measured with unprecedented statistical uncertainty, setting new, tight constraints for future phenomenological studies.

Observation Of Large Missing-Momentum (E, E' P) Cross-Section Scaling And The Onset Of Correlated-Pair Dominance In Nuclei, I. Korover, A. W. Denniston, A. Kiral, A. Schmidt, A. Lovato, N. Rocco, A. Nikolakopoulos, L. B. Weinstein, E. Piasetzky, O. Hen, M. J. Amaryan, Giovanni Angelini, H. Atac, N. A. Baltzell, L. Barion, M. Battaglieri, I. Bedlinskiy, Fatiha Benmokhtar, A. Bianconi, Z. W. Zhao, Et Al., Clas Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

We report the measurement of 𝒙_B scaling in (e,e′p) cross-section ratios off nuclei relative to deuterium at large missing momentum of 350 ≤ _Pmiss ≤ 600 MeV/c. The observed scaling extends over a kinematic range of 0.7 ≤ 𝒙_B ≤ 1.8, which is significantly wider than 1.4 ≤ 𝒙_B ≤ 1.8 previously observed for inclusive (e,e′) cross-section ratios. The 𝒙_B-integrated cross-section ratios become constant (i.e., scale) beginning at p_miss ≈ kF, the nuclear Fermi momentum. Comparing with theoretical calculations we find good agreement with generalized contact formalism calculations for high missing …

Fabrication And Testing Of A Prototype Rf-Dipole Crabbing Cavity, S. U. De Silva, J. R. Delayen, H. Park

Physics Faculty Publications

Crabbing cavities are essential in particle colliders to compensate the luminosity degradation due to beam collision at a crossing angle. The 952.6 MHz 2-cell rf-dipole crabbing cavity system was proposed for the Jefferson Lab Electron-Ion Collider to restore the head-on collisions of electron and proton bunches at the interaction point. A prototype cavity was designed and developed to demonstrate the performance of multi-cell rf-dipole structures. This paper presents the fabrication process and cold test results of the first 2-cell rf-dipole prototype cavity.

Analytic Continuation Of The Relativistic Three-Particle Scattering Amplitudes, Sebastian M. Dawid, Md Habib E. Islam, Raúl A. Briceño

Physics Faculty Publications

We investigate the relativistic scattering of three identical scalar bosons interacting via pair-wise interactions. Extending techniques from the nonrelativistic three-body scattering theory, we provide a detailed and general prescription for solving and analytically continuing integral equations describing the three-body reactions. We use these techniques to study a system with zero angular momenta described by a single scattering length leading to a bound state in a two-body subchannel. We obtain bound-state-particle and three-particle amplitudes in the previously unexplored kinematical regime; in particular, for real energies below elastic thresholds and complex energies in the physical and unphysical Riemann sheets. We extract positions …

Development And Performance Of Rfd Crab Cavity Prototypes For Hl-Lhc Aup, L. Listori, P. Berrutti, M. Narduzzi, A. Castilla, S. U. De Silva, J. R. Delayen, N. A. Huque, Z. Li, A. Ratti

Physics Faculty Publications

The US will be contributing to the HL-LHC upgrade at CERN with the fabrication and qualification of RFD crabbing cavities in the framework of the HL-LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project (AUP) managed by Fermilab. AUP received Critical Decision 3 (CD-3) approval by DOE in December 2020 launching the project into the production phase. The electro-magnetic design of the cavity was inherited from the LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP) but needed to be revised to meet new project requirements and to prevent issues encountered during beam tests performed at CERN in the R&D phase. Two prototype cavities were manufactured in industry and …

Quantum Computations Of The O(3) Model Using Qumodes, R. Jha, Felix Ringer, G. Siopsis, Shane Thompson

Physics Faculty Publications

We express the discrete 1+1-dimensional O(3) non-linear sigma model (NLσM) in a form well-suited for the continuous variable approach to quantum computing. Within the Schwinger boson formulation, we need two qumodes (quantum-mechanical oscillators) at each lattice site. We envision that it might be possible to reach the scaling regime of this model and observe asymptotic freedom on near-term photonic quantum devices in the coming decade.

Measurements Of The Binding Energies Of Ions On Plastic Surfaces In Liquid Nitrogen, Ashok Timsina

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

To improve the present limit of the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) from 1.8*10^-26 e. cm to ~ 3*10^-28 e. cm, the nEDM@SNS experiment plans to increase neutron density by storing ultracold neutrons in superfluid helium-4. In this experiment, the central part of the apparatus consists of two deuterated tetraphenyl butadiene (dTPB) coated poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) cells, which are sandwiched between grounded and high-voltage electrodes. To achieve such precision, the externally applied electric field has to be stable at the 1% level over a time period of about 1000 s. Several sources of ambient ionizing radiation generate charged …

Mechanical And Morphological Characterization Of Energy Materials By Nanoindentation And Scanning Probe Microscopy, Jacob Hempel

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

The demand for robust materials in energy-based applications such as solid electrolytes for batteries, piezoelectric composites for mechanical energy harvesting, or new polymer materials for polymer binders in composite electrodes is on the rise. Mechanical degradation is the most common way for devices to fail in operation, thus a thorough understanding of a material’s mechanical properties is essential for application purposes.

In this dissertation, the mechanical characterization of novel boron cluster solid electrolytes is presented. Therein, we determine the elastic modulus and hardness of these compounds using instrumented indentation. A comparison is made against other solid electrolytes. It is found …

Design Of The Highly Uniform Magnetic Field And Spin-Transport Magnetic Field Coils For The Los Alamos National Lab Neutron Electric Dipole Moment Experiment, Jared Brewington

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

Charge-Parity (CP) violation is one of Sakharov's three conditions which serve as guidelines for the generation of a matter-antimatter asymmetry in the early universe. The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics contains sources of CP violation which can be used to predict the baryon asymmetry. The observed baryon asymmetry is not predicted from SM calculations, meaning there must be additional sources of CP violation beyond the Standard Model (BSM) to generate the asymmetry. Permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs), which are inherently parity- and time reversal- violating, present a promising avenue for the discovery of new sources of CP violation to …

การพัฒนาระบบเซลล์สุริยะติดตั้งบนหลังคา เพื่อใช้งานในสายการผลิตยางคอมปาว์ด, อินทุอร ธรรมสอน

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้ได้ทำการศึกษา วิเคราะห์การใช้พลังงานของโรงงาน เพื่อออกแบบระบบเซลล์สุริยะบนหลังคา การกำหนดแผนงานติดตั้ง ศึกษาปัจจัยหลักที่ส่งผลกระทบต่อการผลิตไฟฟ้า และการประเมินประสิทธิภาพการใช้พลังงานไฟฟ้าจากเซลล์สุริยะจากการใช้งานเป็นแหล่งพลังงานสะอาดสำหรับกระบวนการผลิตยางคอมปาว์ด โดยออกแบบการใช้พลังงานไฟฟ้าให้เกิดประสิทธิภาพสูงสุดในอุตสาหกรรมผลิตยางคอมปาว์ด 2 โครงการ ระบบไฟฟ้าเซลล์สุริยะแบบออนกริดที่มีขนาดกำลังไฟฟ้าติดตั้งขนาด 865 กิโลวัตต์ และ 630 กิโลวัตต์ จากการศึกษาพบว่าทั้ง 2 โรงงานมีการใช้พลังงานไฟฟ้าในกระบวนการผลิตเป็นหลัก และความต้องการใช้พลังงานไฟฟ้าแปรผันตามยอดผลิตยางคอมปาว์ดร้อยละ 90 จากการวิเคราะห์ติดตามผลการใช้งานไฟฟ้าเซลล์สุริยะมีประสิทธิภาพต่ำกว่าร้อยละ 75 ในช่วงระยะ 5 เดือนหลัง เนื่องจากความต้องการใช้พลังงานไฟฟ้าของโรงงานลดลงและการจัดการโหลดการผลิตไม่เหมาะสมในช่วงกลางวัน และพบฝุ่นที่สะสมบนเซลล์สุริยะเป็น ผงคาร์บอน แคลเซียมคาร์บอนเนต และซิลิกาซึ่งเป็นส่วนผสมของการผลิตยางคอมปาว์ด จากการศึกษาพบว่า ฝุ่นจากกระบวนการผลิตส่งผลกระทบต่อการผลิตไฟฟ้าของเซลล์สุริยะร้อยละ 4 ดังนั้นระยะเวลาการล้างแผงเซลล์สุริยะของทั้ง 2 โครงการที่จุดสมดุลคือ ทุกๆ 3 เดือน จากการศึกษาข้อมูลการใช้ไฟฟ้าจากระบบเซลล์สุริยะนี้ชี้ให้เห็นว่า การผลิตไฟฟ้าของระบบเซลล์สุริยะแบบออนกริดนี้ มีปัจจัยหลักต่อการผลิตไฟฟ้าคือความต้องการใช้ไฟฟ้าของโรงงานเป็นหลัก เนื่องจากทั้ง 2 โรงงานมีการใช้ไฟฟ้าน้อยกว่ากำลังติดตั้งจึงทำให้เซลล์สุริยะผลิตไฟฟ้าน้อย แม้จะมีค่ารังสีดวงอาทิตย์สูงก็ตาม อย่างไรก็ตามระบบไฟฟ้าเซลล์สุริยะไม่สามารถจ่ายไฟฟ้าได้ตลอดเวลา ดังนั้นการบริหารจัดการโหลดการผลิตให้เหมาะสมจึงจำเป็นมาก เพื่อการใช้ไฟฟ้าจากเซลล์สุริยะให้มีประสิทธิภาพสูงสุด

The Design Of Primary Holding Magnet For The Lanl Neutron Electric Dipole Moment Experiment, Piya Amara Palamure

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

The measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM) plays a significant role in searching for sources of beyond standard model CP violating physics. The goal of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) nEDM experiment is to push the upper limit of the nEDM to < 3 × 10−27 e·cm (68 % CL). A highly uniform magnetic field is key to achieving this sensitivity for the nEDM measurement by reducing the systematic uncertainties associated with the magnetic field non-uniformity. The B0 coil was designed to achieve a field uniformity of < 0.3 nT·m−1 at a nominal holding field of 1 µT. This document will outline a novel technique employed in the construction of the B0 coil using printed circuit boards (PCBs) and will present preliminary field maps obtained with the B0 coil housed in a magnetically shielded room (MSR) at LANL.

As Ultra Cold Neutrons (UCNs) move from the source to the measurement cells, the UCNs experience a large magnetic field gradient in the region between the layers of the MSR. This large gradient would otherwise cause depolarization of the UCNs. To mitigate this, a double cos θ coil will serve as the …

Aspects Of Topology In Moiré Graphene, Ahmed Khalifa

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

Moiré materials, such as twisted bilayer graphene, have provided a rich platform for fundamental physics and potential technological applications. Superconductivity,
correlated insulators, and Chern insulators are examples of phenomena that have been found experimentally in moiré systems. The interplay of strong electron-electron interactions and topology lies at the heart of the mechanism driving these phenomena. In this work, we study the topological aspects of moiré graphene materials, such as the valley Chern and Chern insulating phases. To study the topological response of these phases, we construct models to describe the edge states which are the telltale signs of nontrivial topology. …

Symbolic Computation Of Squared Amplitudes In High Energy Physics With Machine Learning, Abdulhakim Alnuqaydan

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

The calculation of particle interaction squared amplitudes is a key step in the calculation of cross sections in high-energy physics. These complex calculations are currently performed using domain-specific symbolic algebra tools, where the computational time escalates rapidly with an increase in the number of loops and final state particles. This dissertation introduces an innovative approach: employing a transformer-based sequence-to-sequence model capable of accurately predicting squared amplitudes of Standard Model processes up to one-loop order when trained on symbolic sequence pairs. The primary objective of this work is to significantly reduce the computational time and, more importantly, develop a model that …

Investigations Of Epitaxial Heterostructures Of Layered Iridates With Resonant X-Ray Techniques, Sujan Shrestha

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

In layered 5d transition metal oxides, like Sr₂IrO₄, strong spin-orbit interaction comparable to the relevant interactions such as electron correlation and crystal field splitting provides fertile ground for emergent non-trivial phenomena. Some of these phenomena include metal-insulator transition, high-temperature superconductivity, and spin-orbit Mott insulator. The ground state is governed by the spin-orbit-entangled pseudospins J_eff =1/2, which have a significant orbital contribution. Therefore, magnetic exchange interactions and anisotropies are highly susceptible to external stimuli such as strain and heterointerface. As a result, it has a significant impact on the magnetic properties of the system. However, …

Light Water Sustainability Program: Optimizing Information Automation Using A New Method Based On System-Theoretic Process Analysis, Jeffrey Joe, Larry Hettinger, Marvin Dainoff, Patrick Murray, Yusuke Yamani

Psychology Faculty Publications

This report describes the interim progress for research supporting the design and optimization of information automation systems for nuclear power plants. Much of the domestic nuclear fleet is currently focused on modernizing technologies and processes, including transitioning toward digitalization in the control room and elsewhere throughout the plant, along with a greater use of automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies. While there are significant opportunities to apply these technologies toward greater plant safety, efficiency, and overall cost-effectiveness, optimizing their design and avoiding potential safety and performance risks depends on ensuring that human-performance-related organizational and technical design issues are …

Fabrication And Investigation Of Microfluidic Devices That Produce Non-Linear Chemical Gradients, Elijah L. Waters

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Investigation of cell chemotaxis requires controlled chemical gradients. We investigated microfluidic devices that could enhance small populations' cell assays because of their ability to generate various chemical gradients. Our five designs generate different chemical concentration landscapes that we can easily convert into tools to study cell response to growth factors. Gradient landscapes occurred by splitting and mixing two input fluid concentrations using bifurcations, trifurcations, and Y-mixing junctions in three consecutive steps. Such fluid flow manipulations resulted in nine concentration streams entering a 0.54-mm-wide gradient chamber. The first design used a 1:1 ratio Y-mixer (unbiased) when blending two concentrations, resulting in …