Engineering Commons^™

Enhancing Urban Water Quality Through Biological-Chemical Treatment: Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Community And Temporal Chlorophyll-A Response, Matthew Chaffee

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With a growing human population, urbanization is impeding a plethora of natural waterways. Of these, urban ponds play a vital role in nutrient sequestration, flood prevention, and habitat sanctuaries. However, nutrient loading can reduce habitat effectiveness and promote harmful algae blooms. To reduce internal nutrient loads, a biological-chemical treatment strategy consisting of floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) and lanthanum were applied to two urban retention ponds, Densmore and Wilderness Ridge Ponds. To measure effectiveness, chlorophyll-a samples were collected and correlated with Sentinel-2. A novel band algorithm termed 3BR1 produced a strong correlation (R² = 0.72) to physical chlorophyll-a …

Characterization Of Interlayer Laser Shock Peening During Fused Filament Fabrication Of Polylactic Acid (Pla), Fabien Denise

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The field of additive manufacturing (AM) has gained a significant amount of popularity due to the increasing need for more sustainable manufacturing techniques and the adaptive development of complex product geometries. The problem is that AM parts routinely exhibit flaws or weaknesses that affect functionality or performance. Over the years, surface treatments have been developed to compensate certain flaws or weaknesses in manufactured products. Combining surface treatments with the modularity of additive manufacturing could lead to more adaptable and creative improvements of product functions in the future. The current work evaluates the feasibility of pursuing a new research axis in …

Hydroxyapatite-Based Coatings On Silicon Wafers And Printed Zirconia, Antoine Chauvin

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Dental surgery needs a naturally attract implant design that can ensure both osseointegration and soft tissue integration. Hydroxyapatite (HAp), the main mineral constituent of dentine and tooth enamel, is commonly used as a coating component, notably for overlaying titanium– or ceramics–based implants. This thesis aims to investigate the behavior of a HAp-based coating, specifically designed to be compatible with a porous substrate. Coating layers are made by sol–gel dip coating by immersion of porous substrates made by additive manufacturing into solutions of HAp, having been mixed with polyethyleneimine (PEI), to improve the adhesion of HAp on the substrate. First, the …

Science Club, Danielle Gibson, Krista Andersen

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

Honors After School program for elementary age children to engage with scientific principles. Students performed hands-on experiments to explore various STEM fields. Each weekly lesson consisted of a different concept to be learned or explored by early elementary aged students.

Chatgpt As Metamorphosis Designer For The Future Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai): A Conceptual Investigation, Amarjit Kumar Singh (Library Assistant), Dr. Pankaj Mathur (Deputy Librarian)

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to explore ChatGPT’s potential as an innovative designer tool for the future development of artificial intelligence. Specifically, this conceptual investigation aims to analyze ChatGPT’s capabilities as a tool for designing and developing near about human intelligent systems for futuristic used and developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Also with the helps of this paper, researchers are analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT as a tool, and identify possible areas for improvement in its development and implementation. This investigation focused on the various features and functions of ChatGPT that …

Bibliometric Analysis Of Named Entity Recognition For Chemoinformatics And Biomedical Information Extraction Of Ovarian Cancer, Vijayshri Khedkar, Charlotte Fernandes, Devshi Desai, Mansi R, Gurunath Chavan Dr, Sonali Tidke Dr., M. Karthikeyan Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

With the massive amount of data that has been generated in the form of unstructured text documents, Biomedical Named Entity Recognition (BioNER) is becoming increasingly important in the field of biomedical research. Since currently there does not exist any automatic archiving of the obtained results, a lot of this information remains hidden in the textual details and is not easily accessible for further analysis. Hence, text mining methods and natural language processing techniques are used for the extraction of information from such publications.Named entity recognition, is a subtask that comes under information extraction that focuses on finding and categorizing specific …

Computational Studies Of Thermal Properties And Desalination Performance Of Low-Dimensional Materials, Yang Hong

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

During the last 30 years, microelectronic devices have been continuously designed and developed with smaller size and yet more functionalities. Today, hundreds of millions of transistors and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor cells can be designed and integrated on a single microchip through 3D packaging and chip stacking technology. A large amount of heat will be generated in a limited space during the operation of microchips. Moreover, there is a high possibility of hot spots due to non-uniform integrated circuit design patterns as some core parts of a microchip work harder than other memory parts. This issue becomes acute as stacked microchips get …

Nanomaterials As Stationary Phases And Supports In Liquid Chromatography: A Review, Sandya Beeram, Elliott Rodriguez, Suresh Doddavenkatanna, Zhao Li, Allegra Pekarek, Darin Peev, Kathryn Goerl, Gianfranco Trovato, Tino Hofmann, David S. Hage

David Hage Publications

The development of various nanomaterials over the last few decades has led to many applications for these materials in liquid chromatography (LC). This review will look at the types of nanomaterials that have been incorporated into LC systems and the applications that have been explored for such systems. A number of carbon-based nanomaterials and inorganic nanomaterials have been considered for use in LC, ranging from carbon nanotubes, fullerenes and nanodiamonds to metal nanoparticles and nanostructures based on silica, alumina, zirconia and titanium dioxide. Many ways have been described for incorporating these nanomaterials into LC systems. These methods have included covalent …

In Situ Electron Microscopy Of Plasmon-Mediated Nanocrystal Synthesis, Peter Sutter, Ying Li, Christos Argyropoulos, Eli A. Sutter

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Chemical processes driven by nonthermal energy (e.g., visible light) are attractive for future approaches to energy conversion, synthesis, photocatalysis, and so forth. The growth of anisotropic metal nanostructures mediated by excitation of a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is a prototype example of such a reaction. Important aspects, notably the growth mechanism and a possible role of plasmonic “hot spots” within the metal nanostructures, remain poorly understood. Here, we use in situ electron microscopy to stimulate and image the plasmon-mediated growth of triangular Ag nanoprisms in solution. The quantification of the time-dependent evolution of the lateral size and thickness of …

Carbon Nanotubes Affect The Toxicity Of Cuo Nanoparticles To Denitrification In Marine Sediments By Altering Cellular Internalization Of Nanoparticle, Xiong Zheng, Yinglong Su, Yinguang Chen, Rui Wan, Mu Li, Haining Huang, Xu Li

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Denitrification is an important pathway for nitrate transformation in marine sediments, and this process has been observed to be negatively affected by engineered nanomaterials. However, previous studies only focused on the potential effect of a certain type of nanomaterial on microbial denitrification. Here we show that the toxicity of CuO nanoparticles (NPs) to denitrification in marine sediments is highly affected by the presence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). It was found that the removal efficiency of total NO_X⁻-N (NO₃⁻-N and NO₂⁻-N) in the presence of CuO NPs was only 62.3%, but it …

Optimizing Chemical & Rheological Properties Of Rejuvenated Bitumen, Dominic Nguyen, Hamzeh Haghshenas Fatmehsari, Santosh Kommidi, Yong-Rak Kim

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bitumen has long been a material used in the construction of roadways, yet new pavement only consists of low fractions of recycled materials due to poor compatibility of aged bitumen and new materials. Thus, rejuvenators, chemical additives, have been used in an attempt to re-balance the chemical composition and restore the physical properties of aged bitumen back to its virgin state. A fundamental understanding of how one particular rejuvenator, soybean oil, revitalizes bitumen was investigated using a multi-scale approach.

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to determine the changes in chemical properties of pure and rejuvenated virgin and aged samples. …

Three-Dimensional Scaffolds Of Graphene, Carbon Nanotubes And Transition-Metal Oxides For Applications In Electronics, Sensors And Energy Storage, Gilbert N. Mbah

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Electronics, sensors and energy storage devices are the new waves behind economic development, security and communication¹. Engineering small sizes of electronic, sensors and energy storage devices is the hurdle limiting efficient, portable and vast applications of Nano-devices for economic, security and communication advancement². Silicon the major material used in transistors has approached its limit to fabricated Nano-devices³. The discovery of free standing, one atomic layer thick and two-dimensional graphene sheets with high conductivity, inert, high specific surface area, stable and high tensile strength material in 2004 has shown capabilities to replaced silicon in electronics, …

Large-Scale Solution Synthesis Of Narrow Graphene Nanoribbons, Timothy H. Vo, Mikhail Shekhirev, Donna A. Kunkel, Martha D. Morton, Eric Berglund, Lingmei Kong, Peter M. Wilson, Peter A. Dowben, Axel Enders, Alexander Sinitskii

Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience: Faculty Publications

According to theoretical studies, narrow graphene nanoribbons with atomically precise armchair edges and widths of(1.1 eV), which makes them potentially promising for logic applications. Different top–down fabrication approaches typically yield ribbons with width >10nm and have limited control over their edge structure. Here we demonstrate a novel bottom–up approach that yields gram quantities of high-aspect-ratio graphene nanoribbons, which are only ~1 nm wide and have atomically smooth armchair edges. These ribbons are shown to have a large electronic bandgap of ~1.3 eV, which is significantly higher than any value reported so far in experimental studies of graphene nanoribbons prepared by …

Improving The Sweeping Efficiency Of Permanganate Into Low Permeable Zones To Treat Tce: Experimental Results And Model Development, Chanat Chokejaroenrat, Negin Kananizadeh, Chainarong Sakulthaew, Steve D. Comfort, Yusong Li

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The residual buildup and treatment of dissolved contaminants in low permeable zones (LPZs) is a particularly challenging issue for injection-based remedial treatments. Our objective was to improve the sweeping efficiency of permanganate into LPZs to treat dissolved-phase TCE. This was accomplished by conducting transport experiments that quantified the ability of xanthan-MnO₄⁻ solutions to penetrate and cover (i.e., sweep) an LPZ that was surrounded by transmissive sands. By incorporating the non-Newtonian fluid xanthan with MnO₄⁻, penetration of MnO₄⁻ into the LPZ improved dramatically and sweeping efficiency reached 100% in fewer pore volumes. To quantify …

Using Slow-Release Permanganate Candles To Remove Tce From A Low Permeable Aquifer At A Former Landfill, Mark D. Christenson, Ann Kambhu, Steve D. Comfort

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Past disposal of industrial solvents into unregulated landfills is a significant source of groundwater contamination. In 2009, we began investigating a former unregulated landfill with known trichloroethene (TCE) contamination. Our objective was to pinpoint the location of the plume and treat the TCE using in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO). We accomplished this by using electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) to survey the landfill and map the subsurface lithology. We then used the ERI survey maps to guide direct push groundwater sampling. A TCE plume (100-600 µg L^-1) was identified in a low permeable silty-clay aquifer (K_h = 0.5 …

Data Mining Of Protein Databases, Christopher Assi

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Data mining of protein databases poses special challenges because many protein databases are non-relational whereas most data mining and machine learning algorithms assume the input data to be a relational database. Protein databases are non-relational mainly because they often contain set data types. We developed new data mining algorithms that can restructure non-relational protein databases so that they become relational and amenable for various data mining and machine learning tools. We applied the new restructuring algorithms to a pancreatic protein database. After the restructuring, we also applied two classification methods, such as decision tree and SVM classifiers and compared their …

Oligo(Vinylidene Fluoride) Langmuir-Blodgett Films Studied By Spectroscopic, Rafal Korlacki, J. Travis Johnston, Jihee Kim, Stephen Ducharme, Daniel W. Thompson, Vladimir M. Fridkin, Zhongxin Ge, James M. Takacs

Stephen Ducharme Publications

Thin films of amphiphilic vinylidene fluoride oligomers prepared by Langmuir–Blodgett deposition on silicone substrates were investigated by comparing experimental and theoretical mid-infrared (IR) spectra. The experimental spectra were obtained using infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry. Theoretical spectra were calculated using density functional theory. Excellent correspondence of major IR bands in both data sets shows that the molecular backbone is oriented with the long axis normal to the substrate plane. This is in contrast to poly vinylidene fluoride[1] LB films, in which the polymer chains are parallel to the substrate.

Freestone County, Texas [Water Quality Survey Of Wells And Springs With Test Hole Data, 1936], Samuel F. Turner

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Introduction

The purpose of this survey was to obtain information concerning existing wells and springs and the quantity and quality of water they yield, and to put down test holes where additional information was needed.

This project was part of a statewide Works Progress Administration project known as a "Statewide Inventory of Water Wells," sponsored by the [Texas] State Board of Water Engineers. The Division of Ground Water of the United States Geological Survey cooperated in the technical direction of the project and the Bureau of Industrial Chemistry of the University of Texas furnished laboratory space and equipment and supervised …

Comparative Observations On The Evolution Of Gas From The Cathode In Helium And Argon, Clarence A. Skinner

Papers from the University Studies series (University of Nebraska)

No abstract provided.