Digital Commons Network^™

Localized Strain And Associated Failure Of Structural Materials, Hayden N. Hermes, Andrea Nicolas, Michael Sangid, Noelle C. Easter, James T. Burns

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Aircraft are made primarily out of strong and lightweight aluminum alloys, which are relatively low cost, easy to produce, and have allowed for several innovations in the airplane industry. Even though these alloys are highly corrosion resistant, they are susceptible to failure since airplanes experience some of the harshest fatigue and corrosion conditions. Predicting the location of crack initiation on these corroded materials could lead to preventative safety of aluminum components on an aircraft. To study the mechanisms leading to cracking, precorroded AA7050 samples were fatigue loaded to failure, virtually reconstructed form post-mortem characterizations, and modeled accordingly to obtain the …

Mechanical Properties Of Interlocking Assemblies On A Rhombille Tiling, Kristoffer G. Sjolund, Andrew Williams, Thomas Siegmund

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The use of glue-less assembly methods has permitted the construction of rigid structures for centuries. Japanese interlocking wood joints and stereotomic structures by repetitious stacking of unit blocks are classical examples. The implementation of interlocking structures occurs when materials such as mortar and nails are unavailable or undesired. There has been a recent revival of interest in these construction methods as modern manufacturing tools enable new form and function. As humanity continues to innovate, materials possessing mechanical properties such as heightened flexibility without compromising strength or increased resistance to fracture will be needed. As one such example, this work examines …

Understanding Suspend/Resume Path Of Linux Device Drivers, Yi Qiao, Xiaozhu Felix Lin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Suspend/Resume (S/R), stands for putting mobile devices into sleep mode and wakes them up. Such a S/R process is heavily used in mobile devices today. While controlling by the operating system (OS), S/R process consumes a dominating portion of energy. In order to minimize the power consumption, we have to understand what happens on the S/R Path of modern device drivers so that further solutions reducing the overhead in that process can be found. In a modern OS, device drivers can make up over 70% of the source code, while still heavily dependent on the rest of the OS. Such …

Lead In Residential Water Heaters: An Analysis Of Lead Dissolution Kinetics In Non-Ideal Aquatic Environments, Kelsey Vought, Inez Hua, Amisha D. Shah, Nadezhda N. Zyaykina, Mackenzie Davies

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Lead dioxide, a lead corrosion product, is an important contributor to residential drinking water contamination. A neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor, lead poses serious human health concerns. Despite previous research on water distribution pipes, lead in water heating and softening systems is unexplored. Standard tank water heaters and water softeners have significantly different aquatic environments compared to distribution pipes, due to increased temperature and ion concentration levels. This research verifies the iodometric method for lead dioxide detection and quantifies total lead and dissolved lead(IV) ions over time in simulated water heater and softener environments. Initial experiments confirmed the iodometric method for …

Method Validation Of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging And Electrophysiological Recording To Investigate Mechanisms Of Vagus Nerve, Christina L. Hendren, Jiayue Cao, Zhongming Liu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is used clinically to treat epilepsy and depression, but its mechanism of action is unknown. Useful techniques to study this are functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the local field potential (LFP). fMRI relies on oxygen use in the brain to show areas where neurons are active. The LFP is an electrical signal created by neuron action potentials and other current moving across cell membranes. The most information can be gained when the two methods are used simultaneously, however, this is difficult to do. This study seeks to validate the technique of fMRI-LFP as applied to …

The Exciton Spectra Simulator Of Photosynthetic Protein-Pigment Complex, Qifeng Chen, Yongbin Kim, Danil Kaliakin, Lyudmila Slipchenko

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The solar energy is one of the most successful alternative energy sources because of its unlimited availability and environmental friendliness. However, the energy transfer rate in artificial solar devices is significantly lower than the energy transfer rate in plants and bacteria. The key factor that governs efficient energy transfer is the electronic couplings between photosynthetic pigments within living organisms. We are applying quantum mechanical / molecular mechanical (QM/MM), quantum mechanical / effective fragment potential (QM/EFP) and fragment molecular orbital (fmo) methods to elucidate the energy transfer pathway in Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex through computing the site energies of bacteriochlorophylls and the …

Scaling Relationships Across Chemically Related Adsorbates For Fast Screening Of Alloy Catalysts For Propane Dehydrogenation, Anne Esther Serban, Ranga Rohit Seemakurthi, Brandon C. Bukowski, Jeffrey Greeley

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

A catalyst is a material which speeds up the rate of a specific reaction. A reaction that is of significant importance to the chemical industry is the selective transformations of light alkanes (ethane, propane), which are largely available in shale gas, to olefins. These olefins can then be converted into higher-value chemicals, materials, and fuels. However, there are several undesired reactions that take place alongside the main dehydrogenation reaction, so a catalyst of high selectivity is desired. Apart from the industrially used PtSn catalyst, work by our experimental collaborators has shown that various other Pt and Pd alloys (In, Zn) …

A Pytorch Framework For Automatic Modulation Classification Using Deep Neural Networks, Shengtai Ju, Sharan Ramjee, Diyu Yang, Aly El Gamal

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Automatic modulation classification of wireless signals is an important feature for both military and civilian applications as it contributes to the intelligence capabilities of a wireless signal receiver. Signals that travel in space are usually modulated using different methods. It is important for a receiver or a demodulator of a system to be able to recognize the modulation type of the signal accurately and efficiently. The goal of our research is to use deep learning for the task of automatic modulation classification and fine tune the model parameters to achieve faster run-time. Different deep learning architectures were investigated in previous …

Quantitative Models Of Protein Dynamics In Synaptic Plasticity: Analysis Of Spatial And Stochastic Effects, Christopher Rust, Tamara L. Kinzer-Ursem, Matthew C. Pharris, Neal M. Patel

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Memory formation within neurons depends on complex protein signaling networks, which become dysregulated in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. To characterize therapeutic strategies for these disorders, we require a better understanding of the how the protein interactions are regulated. Conventionally, protein interactions are studied by experimental techniques and complemented by computational models. However, most models are deterministic, limiting their biophysical accuracy. First, deterministic models exclude the stochastic effects necessitated by the small protein concentrations often observed within neurons. Second, deterministic models exclude the effects of spatial localizations on neuronal protein binding and activation. Third, many different models exclude an …

Processing And Characterization Of Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Compatibilized Cellulose Nanocrystals/Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol Copolymer Nanocomposites, Kayli Decocker, Md Nuruddin, Jeffrey Youngblood, John Howarter

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymer films are commonly used in food packaging due to their excellent oxygen barrier properties and melt processability. A drawback to EVOH is the lower water barrier properties, which could degrade food quality, so EVOH is often combined with other layers of polymers. The addition of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) has been reported to improve the gas barrier and mechanical properties for other polymers. This study will focus on using CNC to improve the water barrier properties of EVOH. Since CNC is water dispersible, but EVOH is not soluble in water, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was used as …

Bringing Particle Scale Properties Into Descriptions Of Powder Behavior Through The Enhanced Centrifuge Method, Andrew R. Roginski, Caralyn A. Coultas-Mckenney, Contessa G. Norris, Stephen P. Beaudoin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Inconsistent powder behavior introduces problems such as agglomeration, poor flowability, dust hazards, and segregation that decrease efficiency in powder processing environments. Understanding how a powder interacts with a surface at the particle scale provides insight into how to accommodate individual particle properties and avoid process deficiencies. This project uses an enhanced centrifuge technique to evaluate the adhesion between a stainless-steel surface and a powder comprised of fluorescent particles. Particles are deposited onto stainless steel plates which are rotated in a centrifuge. The adhesion properties are monitored by tracking the rotational speed at which particles of a known size are removed …

Flow Chamber For Confocal Tracking Of Particles In Bone, Brennan Flannery, Russell Main, Xiaoyu Xu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Interstitial fluid flow in the lacunar-canalicular system (LCS) of bone is recognized as a potential regulator of bone remodeling. Movement of fluid across bone cells called osteocytes regulates gene expression that leads to either bone formation or resorption. Interstitial fluid moves in response to bone loading during daily activity, and bone growth occurs to compensate for these loads, affecting bone shape and strength. While interstitial fluid flow is thoroughly studied using computational models, there is a critical need to study flow in real bone samples with imaging techniques. Flow velocities determined from imaging will be more accurate than computational models …

Muscle Activity Correlation With Surgeons’ Self-Reported Workload And Performance In Robotic Training, Xiayu Cai, Jackie Cha, Denny Yu, Hamed Asadi, Jay Sulek, Chandru Sundaram

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Studies have shown that muscle activity levels reflect work demands of operators performing physically and mentally tasks. Identifying work demands during the robotic surgery training is essential to ensure usability of teleoperation equipment and prevent surgeon musculoskeletal injuries and fatigue. The purpose of this project is to use physiological muscle activity sensors (electromyography (EMG)) to measure surgeons’ work demands during robotic training and to quantify the relationship of these metrics. Eight surface EMG sensors were used to collect upper body muscle activity. Signals from eight participants (all right-hand dominant) during multiple training sessions were collected while performing simulated robotic assisted …

Selecting Trusted Nodes For Resilient Distributed State Estimation Of Linear Time Invariant Systems, Xingchen Wang, Shreyas Sundaram, Aritra Mitra

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

We study estimation of the state of a dynamical system via a network of nodes (or sensors). Such networks are vulnerable to malicious adversaries that compromise some of the nodes and cause them to deviate from the estimation algorithm. It is thus vital to increase the robustness of the system against such attacks. We consider the problem of allocating enough budget to make a small fraction of the nodes attack-immune, thereby making them “trusted”. These nodes must be chosen carefully so that the entire network is capable of reliably estimating the state of the system. We prove that this problem …

Assessing Potential Winter Weather Response To Climate Change And Implications For Tourism In The U.S. Great Lakes And Midwest, Natalie Chin, Kyuhun Byun, Alan F. Hamlet, Keith A. Cherkauer

School of Agricultural & Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Study Region: Eight U.S. states bordering the North American Laurentian Great Lakes.

Study Focus: Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model simulations, based on data from an en- semble of atmospheric-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) used for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC's) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), were used to quantify potential climate change impacts on winter weather and hydrology in the study re- gion and understand implications for its tourism sector.

New Hydrologic Insights for the Region: By the 2080s, climate change could result in winters that are shorter by over a month, reductions of over a month in days …

Portrait Of The L2 Writer As A Writing Center Visitor, Vicki Kennell, Molly Rentscher

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

This presentation shares results of IRB-approved, cross-institutional survey research studying the role of writing centers in L2 writers' development as writers. Data showed that writers share some similarities across institutions (such as in their understanding of tutor and writer roles), but they also differ (such as in the number of appointments made in one year). Results are discussed in the context of helping writing centers use data like this to think about how they work with L2 writers and how assumptions can contribute to tutoring difficulties.

Zooming Into A Tinkering Project: The Progression Of Learning Through Transitional Objects, Priyanka Parekh, Elisabeth R. Gee

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

The Maker Movement has been received by the field of K–12 education with great enthusiasm as a way of teaching STEM content to children. We call attention to and identify learning opportunities in children’s projects created in a playful, informal environment with easily available materials. In keeping with research in the field of maker education and learning sciences, we describe tinkering as a constructionist learning activity in which meaning making is captured through transitional objects (Bamberger, 1995). First, we examine one specific tinkering project and identify transitional objects within the project. Next, we discuss the process of meaning making as …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Oxidizer Temperature On The Stability Of A Gas-Centered Swirl Coaxial Injector, William Zach Hallum

Open Access Dissertations

Rocket engines achieve extraordinary high energy densities within the chamber in the form of high pressure turbulent combustion. Successful design of these engines requires sustained, stable operation of a combustor exposed to extreme thermal loads. Slight deviations in operating conditions can then incur consequences ranging from reduced performance up to catastrophic failure in the face of excess heat loading. Sustained periodic oscillations, termed combustion instabilities, are often encountered during development, as fluctuations produced by combustion noise couple with heat release modes by way of modulation of the feed system, injector hydrodynamics, chemical kinetics, and mixing and atomization process. Successful development …

Enhancing User Experience: A Multifaceted Approach To Designing Better User Experiences Using Compassionate Design Thinking, Socially Conscious Design And Psychophysiological Measures, Priya Seshadri

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of this research is to help in creation of better user experience (UX) by enabling engineers and designers to get a deeper understanding of the users by focusing on the users’ needs, emotions, experiences and social issues. The main research question that guides this work is: How can engineers and designers better understand their users to create designs that aim at enhancing user experiences? Understanding the users and UX has many facets and dimensions. The users make decisions based on emotions and experiences, which also determine the value they associate with a design. Experiences are related to the …

System Architecture, Calibration, And Control For Lidar Systems Onboard Unmanned Vehicles, Tamer Shamseldin

Open Access Dissertations

The development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as a mobile platform for deploying portable systems has benefited several applications in the civilian and military fields in the past few decades. Also, the parallel advances in peripheral technology such as the enhancement of GNSS/INS modules have resulted in a remarkable development of both UAVs as well as UAVs applications. Such development leads to the establishment of a system architecture for UAV design that will be the basis of all discussion in this dissertation. Centrally, this dissertation introduces a generic framework for UAVs equipped with a GNSS/INS positioning and orientation module as …

Exploring The Cognitive Tasks Surrounding Professional Horse Judging Practices In Stock- Type Halter Classes, Paige Marie Arehart

Open Access Theses

A standardized procedure for how and why professional equine judges approach their practice in a specific way has yet to be documented. Learning the background, approach, processes, and procedures taken by professional horse judges when engaged in stock-type halter classes is important for establishing a training protocol that can be used in coaching and/or training situations.

This study applies cognitive task analysis to the concepts, processes, and principles of professional horse judges in stock-type halter classes to develop a teaching and learning resource for novice and trainee judges of various ages. Specifically, an action and decision chart that details the …

Optimization Of Zein Based Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Biosensor For The Detection Of Gliadin As A Marker For Celiac Disease, Emma A. Barber

Open Access Theses

Biosensors are a growingly popular alternative to chemical sensors. With their fast detection time and portability, biosensors have the ability to be applicable in a number of different industries. The current methods for allergen and toxin detection in the food industry often require highly trained personnel and can be very time consuming. These disadvantages plus the growing desire for the consumer to make more informed choices about what they eat, shows a need for an easy to use, rapid, and specific method of detection for analytes of interest to the food industry (Alocilja and Radke 2003). In this thesis, a …

Priming Sentence Comprehension In Older Adults, Emily Hosokawa

Open Access Theses

Syntactic priming is thought to reflect ongoing language learning processes throughout the life span. However, little is known on if and how the mechanisms of syntactic priming change in aging. This study examined whether syntactic priming influences sentence comprehension in healthy older adults and whether such effects occur independently of, or in conjunction with, lexically specific (verb) information. We further examined if older adults show persisting priming effects. Twenty older adults completed a written sentence-picture matching task involving the interpretation of prepositional phrases (the chef is poking the solider with an umbrella) that were ambiguous between high and low attachment …

Conceptual Framework For Implementing Integrated Project Delivery For Infrastructure Projects In Peru., Sulyn Cossett Gomez Villanueva

Open Access Theses

Integrated project delivery (IPD) implies a transformational change of project participants’ behaviors and current practices. This change aims to break down the traditional silos of construction and improve collaboration, communication, and alignment between the different stakeholders in a project. Diverse implications of integration have been developed and applied in the project management literature. Therefore, there is a need to structure the industry’s approach towards integration and identify common characteristics among these diverse approaches. In this study, the author explored the blueprints of integration in the project management literature and identified common patterns across the theoretical foundations and case studies that …

The "Snake" Effect: Investigation Of A Novel Haptic Illusion, Frederico Marcolino Quintao Severgnini

Open Access Theses

This study was based on tactual illusions produced by vibrotactile units. A novel haptic effect based on amplitude modulation was developed, called here the ”snake effect”, which consists on a continuous motion that is smooth, wavy and creepy. Two studies were conducted in order to parameterize this novel haptic effect aiming to: (1) find the fundamental parameters that allow the snake effect to happen in a straight line, (2) assess if the parameters can be implemented for curved trajectories after being combined with funneling, as seen for apparent motion in literature. Study 1 used a 2x6 haptic display in the …

Oxygen Consumption By Grain Storage Pests In Relation To Hermetic Storage Systems And An Evaluation Of Postharvest Management Practices By Smallholder Farmers In Haiti, Hannah E. Quellhorst

Open Access Theses

Food security is a serious issue throughout the world. An estimated 700 million people in developing countries currently lack the food necessary for an active and healthy lifestyle (World Bank, 1999). Competition with insect pests for food has always been a challenge. An estimated 20-30% of the grain can be lost postharvest due to insect pests alone (Tefera et al., 2011). To reduce postharvest losses and improve food security, alternative storage solutions are needed to replace the traditional, and often-ineffective storage methods employed by smallholder farmers. Hermetic grain storage is an airtight technology that provides a cost effective and insecticide …

The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Fruit And Vegetable Intake In Overweight And Obese Adolescents, Kendra Wilder

Open Access Theses

Adolescents have the poorest diet quality of any age group, characterized by a low consumption of fruits and vegetables. In order to target behavior change, it is necessary to determine factors that predict fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents. Numerous studies have assessed the relationship between self-efficacy and fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents, but these studies have produced mixed results. Our study is unique in that it allowed participants to use technology to create a mobile food record, which is a more objective measurement of diet. In addition, we targeted prediabetic adolescents who are overweight and obese for a …

A Comparative Study Of Three Interfering Women In Western And Chinese Tales, Luyang Wang

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes similar female characters from the medieval English Arthurian story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the German opera Parsifal, and the Chinese supernatural tale “Nie Xiaoqian.” Although Morgan le Fay, Kundry, and Xiaoqian are products of different times and cultures, each of their stories offers a glimpse into a similar type of controversial woman often at variance with the expectations of a particular culture. These fictional characters are independent and influential women who drive the development of the entire plot and profoundly affect the protagonist’s destiny. Whether in England, Germany, or China, their status as aliens implies …

Comparing The Effectiveness Of Rain Barrels And Detention Ponds On Peak Flow Reduction In A Semi-Urban Watershed, Zhenglyu Lyu

Open Access Theses

Rain barrels are useful for stormwater management where conditions of on-site space are limited for retrofitting techniques. This paper aims at determining the scope of the effectiveness of rain barrels on reduction of direct runoff peak flow and volume. The Sugar Creek Watershed in the northwest of Illinois is simulated with a historical storm and design storms of 2-, 10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-year return periods for three different scenarios: only rain barrels, only detention ponds, and the combination of these two. For a storm with the return period less than 3 years, harvesting all rainfall volume received by rooftops, …

Understanding The Relation Between Sexual Objectification And Ostracism, Maayan Dvir

Open Access Dissertations

Ostracism – being ignored and excluded – and sexual objectification – when an individual is regarded only as an object that exists for the use and pleasure of others – are conceptually related, yet the connections between the two phenomena have yet to be examined empirically. Both involve aspects of the self being ignored by others. Sexual objectification involves attention that focuses on one’s appearance while other characteristics of the individuals are ignored. This fits within the parameters of the definition of “partial ostracism” – in which the individual is acknowledged and included in some ways (or times), but not …