Engineering Commons^™

Depressurization Characteristics Of Steam-Based Reciprocating Vacuum Pump, Hongling Deng

Dissertations

This dissertation introduces a novel vacuum technology that leverages low-pressure saturated steam and cooling-controlled condensation, offering an efficient way to utilize low-grade thermal energy sources like waste heat, steam, or solar energy. At the heart of this technology is a unique duo-chamber vacuum pump system, featuring a reciprocating piston and a heat-conductive wall, designed to generate a vacuum through steam-condensation and cooling processes.

The core of this research lies in developing and validating mechanistic models for the steam-condensation depressurization process, a complex phenomenon involving phase change and transport mechanisms. Prior to this work, these mechanisms were not sufficiently modeled or …

5g New Radio Access And Core Network Slicing For Next-Generation Network Services And Management, Abdullah Ridwan Hossain

Dissertations

In recent years, fifth-generation New Radio (5G NR) has attracted much attention owing to its potential in enhancing mobile access networks and enabling better support for heterogeneous services and applications. Network slicing has garnered substantial focus as it promises to offer a higher degree of isolation between subscribers with diverse quality-of-service requirements. Integrating 5G NR technologies, specifically the mmWave waveform and numerology schemes, with network slicing can unlock unparalleled performance so crucial to meeting the demands of high throughput and sub-millisecond latency constraints.

While conceding that optimizing next-generation access network performance is extremely important, it needs to be acknowledged that …

Assessing The Feasibility And Mechanism Of Destructive Removal Of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) From Water, Kaushik Vinaykumar Londhe

Dissertations

One of the most pertinent challenges faced by the drinking water community is the widespread contamination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These anthropogenic chemicals have been ubiquitously used in everyday products such as carpets, stain repellents, dyes, shampoos, non-stick cookware as well as in aqueous firefighting foams. PFAS are linked with adverse health effects in humans such as thyroid disease, obesity, immunological and reproductive disorders and linked to cancer in adults and low birth weight and developmental defects in infants.

Conventional water treatment technologies have proven to be largely ineffective in PFAS remediation, due to their extreme stability and …

Gen-Acceleration: Pioneering Work For Hardware Accelerator Generation Using Large Language Models, Durga Lakshmi Venkata Deepak Vungarala

Theses

Optimizing computational power is critical in the age of data-intensive applications and Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML). While facing challenging bottlenecks, conventional Von-Neumann architecture with implementing such huge tasks looks seemingly impossible. Hardware Accelerators are critical in efficiently deploying these technologies and have been vastly explored in edge devices. This study explores a state-of-the-art hardware accelerator; Gemmini is studied; we leveraged the open-sourced tool. Furthermore, we developed a Hardware Accelerator in the study we compared with the Non-Von-Neumann architecture. Gemmini is renowned for efficient matrix multiplication, but configuring it for specific tasks requires manual effort and expertise. We propose implementing …

The Effects Of Blue Light From Digital Displays On Visual Fatigue, Victor Taboadela

Theses

With the ever-increasing viewing time of digital displays, the potential effects of blue light emitted from these displays on eye health and eye fatigue are a real concern. This study presents a literature review of six laboratory studies conducted between 2014 and 2022 on the effect of using filters to attenuate the harmful effects of blue light. The review delves into smartphone and computer screen effects, recent literature reviews on blue light, and potential hazards associated with short-wavelength light. Although the majority of the studies recommended blue light filters, only three of the six laboratory studies (Shi et al. 2021, …

Journal Of Roleplaying Studies And Steam (Jrpssteam) Vol. 2 [2023], (Issue 2)., Ricardo Morales-Carbajal, Cristo Leon, Sarah Lynne Bowman, Ligia-Estefania Estefania Canul-Noh, Vania C. Tovilla, Laura I. Quiroz, Elektra Diakolambrianou

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

Editorial

Sangre, sudor, lágrimas y burocracia

Estamos muy contentos con la edición de este tercer número del Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM, en primer lugar porque ¡ya contamos con ISSN!, suena a un logro menor pero debemos considerar los vericuetos burocráticos por los que hemos pasado semana tras semana para lograrlo. En segundo lugar, ¡por fin tenemos un artículo en inglés!, lo cual es motivo de celebración porque además es para nosotros un honor que sea de Elektra Diakolambrianou y Sarah Lynne Bowman, quienes en una gran muestra de confianza enviaron para dictamen su artículo denominado Dual Consciousness: What …

De Las 7 Bolas De Dragón A Los 7 Reinos De Poniente: Viajando Por La Ficción Para Transformar La Realidad, Vania C. Tovilla

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

resumen

El libro es una muestra de la experiencia y dedicación que tiene Issac Pérez López, quien con más de veinte años de práctica en la creación de entornos lúdicos nos sumerge en una suerte de juego donde al leer sus páginas a través de un lenguaje coloquial y cercano. . a la realidad de los docentes del “Cole” nos ejemplifica y ayuda a comprender un poco más los conceptos y pasos que involucran el término “gamificación”.

Podría ser considerado un libro de autoayuda potenciado (en el buen sentido) para los docentes que se están integrando al mundo de los …

Editorial - Sangre, Sudor, Lágrimas Y Burocracia, Mauricio Rangel

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

Estamos muy contentos con la edición de este tercer número del Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM, en primer lugar porque ¡ya contamos con ISSN!, suena a un logro menor pero debemos considerar los vericuetos burocráticos por los que hemos pasado semana tras semana para lograrlo.

Aprendizaje Situado En Mundos Virtuales, Una Experiencia De Participación A Través De Juegos De Rol., Vania C. Tovilla Mgtr.

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

En tiempos actuales el uso de las tecnologías y la comunicación masiva se hace cada vez más frecuente, ya sea por medio de Internet, los teléfonos inteligentes y otros instrumentos que quizás resignifican el modo en el que los jóvenes en la actualidad conciben términos como virtualidad, aprendiendo y sobre toda la realidad, relacionándose con otros alrededor de todo el mundo. Es quizás por este auge de tecnologías que surgió en el año 2003, la herramienta virtual Second Life ; concebida como un mundo complejo y completamente virtual que permite a los usuarios aprender y vivir en otra realidad como …

Exploring Topological Phonons In Different Length Scales: Microtubules And Acoustic Metamaterials, Ssu-Ying Chen

Dissertations

The topological concepts of electronic states have been extended to phononic systems, leading to the prediction of topological phonons in a variety of materials. These phonons play a crucial role in determining material properties such as thermal conductivity, thermoelectricity, superconductivity, and specific heat. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the role of topological phonons at different length scales.

Firstly, the acoustic resonator properties of tubulin proteins, which form microtubules, will be explored The microtubule has been proposed as an analog of a topological phononic insulator due to its unique properties. One key characteristic of topological materials is the …

Quantifying Balance: Computational And Learning Frameworks For The Characterization Of Balance In Bipedal Systems, Kubra Akbas

Dissertations

In clinical practice and general healthcare settings, the lack of reliable and objective balance and stability assessment metrics hinders the tracking of patient performance progression during rehabilitation; the assessment of bipedal balance plays a crucial role in understanding stability and falls in humans and other bipeds, while providing clinicians important information regarding rehabilitation outcomes. Bipedal balance has often been examined through kinematic or kinetic quantities, such as the Zero Moment Point and Center of Pressure; however, analyzing balance specifically through the body's Center of Mass (COM) state offers a holistic and easily comprehensible view of balance and stability.

Building upon …

Advanced Traffic Video Analytics For Robust Traffic Accident Detection, Hadi Ghahremannezhad

Dissertations

Automatic traffic accident detection is an important task in traffic video analysis due to its key applications in developing intelligent transportation systems. Reducing the time delay between the occurrence of an accident and the dispatch of the first responders to the scene may help lower the mortality rate and save lives. Since 1980, many approaches have been presented for the automatic detection of incidents in traffic videos. In this dissertation, some challenging problems for accident detection in traffic videos are discussed and a new framework is presented in order to automatically detect single-vehicle and intersection traffic accidents in real-time.

First, …

Bacterial Motion And Spread In Porous Environments, Yasser Almoteri

Dissertations

Micro-swimmers are ubiquitous in nature from soil and water to mammalian bodies and even many technological processes. Common known examples are microbes such as bacteria, micro-algae and micro-plankton, cells such as spermatozoa and organisms such as nematodes. These swimmers live and have evolved in multiplex environments and complex flows in the presence of other swimmers and types, inert particles and fibers, interfaces and non-trivial confinements and more. Understanding the locomotion and interactions of these individual micro-swimmers in such impure viscous fluids is crucial to understanding the emergent dynamics of such complex systems, and to further enabling us to control and …

Boundary Integral Equation Methods For Superhydrophobic Flow And Integrated Photonics, Kosuke Sugita

Dissertations

This dissertation presents fast integral equation methods (FIEMs) for solving two important problems encountered in practical engineering applications.

The first problem involves the mixed boundary value problem in two-dimensional Stokes flow, which appears commonly in computational fluid mechanics. This problem is particularly relevant to the design of microfluidic devices, especially those involving superhydrophobic (SH) flows over surfaces made of composite solid materials with alternating solid portions, grooves, or air pockets, leading to enhanced slip.

The second problem addresses waveguide devices in two dimensions, governed by the Helmholtz equation with Dirichlet conditions imposed on the boundary. This problem serves as a …

Toward Smart And Efficient Scientific Data Management, Jinzhen Wang

Dissertations

Scientific research generates vast amounts of data, and the scale of data has significantly increased with advancements in scientific applications. To manage this data effectively, lossy data compression techniques are necessary to reduce storage and transmission costs. Nevertheless, the use of lossy compression introduces uncertainties related to its performance. This dissertation aims to answer key questions surrounding lossy data compression, such as how the performance changes, how much reduction can be achieved, and how to optimize these techniques for modern scientific data management workflows.

One of the major challenges in adopting lossy compression techniques is the trade-off between data accuracy …

Colloidal Behavior Of Nanobubbles And Their Application In Enhancing Plant Growth: Mechanisms Of Nanobubble Interactions With Microbial And Soil Species, Shan Xue

Dissertations

Climate change has resulted in increasing uncertainties of water resources and disturbance on agricultural activities. For example, the shortage of water resources, land erosion and pollution from runoff significantly affect agricultural sustainability. This dissertation research focuses on the fundamental studies of nanobubble (NB) water and explores the benefits for irrigation to enhance plant germination and growth. Unlike bulk bubbles, NBs exhibit prolonged stability in water and possess large surface areas that facilitate efficient mass transfer and potential tailored reactions (e.g., disinfection). However, the enhancement mechanisms for NBs on seed germination and plant growth remain elusive.

This research first evaluated the …

Data-Driven 2d Materials Discovery For Next-Generation Electronics, Zeyu Zhang

Dissertations

The development of material discovery and design has lasted centuries in human history. After the concept of modern chemistry and material science was established, the strategy of material discovery relies on the experiments. Such a strategy becomes expensive and time-consuming with the increasing number of materials nowadays. Therefore, a novel strategy that is faster and more comprehensive is urgently needed. In this dissertation, an experiment-guided material discovery strategy is developed and explained using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as instances. The advent of 7r-stacked layered MOFs, which offer electrical conductivity on top of permanent porosity and high surface area, opened up new …

An Animated Introduction To Digital Logic Design, John D. Carpinelli

Open and Affordable Textbooks

This book is designed for use in an introductory course on digital logic design, typically offered in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and other related programs. Such a course is usually offered at the sophomore level. This book makes extensive use of animation to illustrate the flow of data within a digital system and to step through some of the procedures used to design and optimize digital circuits.

All of the animations for this book can be found here: https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/dld-animations/

Investigating The Rheological Behavior Of A Simple Yield Stress Fluid Under Shear Flows, Francesco Accetta

Theses

Many soft materials display unique and complex rheological behavior characterized by a transition from a solid-like to a fluid-like state upon the application of a force that exceeds the threshold to flow, known as the yield stress. Yield stress fluids are found in a wide range of commonly encountered materials including microgels, emulsions, and foams, and have been widely studied by rheologists over the last several decades. Carbopol is a popular polymeric microgel system as it displays simple, non-thixotropic rheological behavior and is typically seen as an ideal yield stress fluid. Previous research has demonstrated the reproducible behavior of shear …

Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games As Social Worlds By Gary Alan Fine (2002) [Reseña], Cristo Leon

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

This classic study still provides one of the most acute descriptions available of an often misunderstood subculture: that of fantasy role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Alan Fine immerses himself in several different gaming systems, offering insightful details on the nature of the games and the patterns of interaction among players—as well as their reasons for playing.

Este estudio clásico todavía proporciona una de las descripciones más agudas disponibles de una subcultura a menudo incomprendida: la de los juegos de rol de fantasía como Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Alan Fine se sumerge en varios sistemas de juego diferentes …

Editorial - Un Paso A La Vez, Mauricio Rangel

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

Editorial - Un paso a la vez

Journal Of Roleplaying Studies And Steam (Jrpssteam) Vol. 2 [2023], Issue 1., Cristo Leon, Felipe Ignacio García-Soriano, Francisca Faret Moreno, Daniel S. González Cohens, Daniel Serrano Robles, Daniel Romero Benguigui, Ruben Darío Hernández Mendo

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM (JRPSSTEAM) Vol. 2 [2023], Issue 1.

Neural Correlates Of Post-Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi) Attention Deficits In Children, Meng Cao

Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children is a major public health concern worldwide. Attention deficits are among the most common neurocognitive and behavioral consequences in children post-TBI which have significant negative impacts on their educational and social outcomes and compromise the quality of their lives. However, there is a paucity of evidence to guide the optimal treatment strategies of attention deficit related symptoms in children post-TBI due to the lack of understanding regarding its neurobiological substrate. Thus, it is critical to understand the neural mechanisms associated with TBI-induced attention deficits in children so that more refined and tailored strategies can …

Motion-Resistant Pulse Oximetry, Ludvik Alkhoury

Dissertations

The measurement of vital signs ? such as peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and heart rate (HR) levels ? by a pulse oximeter is studied. The pulse oximeter is a non-invasive device that measures photoplethysmography (PPG) signals and extracts vital signs from them. However, the quality of the PPG signal measured by oximetry sensors is known to deteriorate in the presence of substantial human and sensor movements contributing to the measurement noise. Methods to suppress such noise from PPG signals measured by an oximeter and to calculate the associated vital signs with high accuracy even when the wearer …

Biomechanical And Psychophysical Underpinnings Of Balance Dysfunction In Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury, Naphtaly Ehrenberg

Dissertations

Falls are a major burden on healthcare infrastructure, especially in older adults and even more so in older individuals that are living in institutions. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 2010 to 2020, unintentional falls were the leading cause of nonfatal emergency department visits for all age groups except among individuals from 15-24 years of age, where unintentional falls ranked a very close second to being unintentionally struck by or against. Among older individuals living in the community, approximately 30-35% fall at least once in a given year, and around three times as …

Sparse Methods For Blind Source Separation Of Frequency Hopping Rf Sources, Anushreya Ghosh

Dissertations

Blind source separation (BSS) is performed on frequency hopping (FH) sources. These radio frequency (RF) signals are observed by a uniform linear array (ULA) over a Spatial Channel Model (SCM) in four different propagation environments: (i) line-of-sight (LOS), (ii) single-cluster, (iii) multiple-cluster, and (iv) LOS with interference. The sources are spatially sparse, and their activity is intermittent and assumed to follow a hidden Markov model (HMM). BSS is achieved by utilizing direction of arrival (DOA) of the sources and clusters. A sparse detection framework is applied to obtain estimates of the sources' FH and DOA patterns. The solutions are binned …

Cu/Bnx Catalysts For Electrocatalytic Reduction Of Nitrogen And Nitrate Waste, Siming Huo

Dissertations

Ammonia (NH₃) is one of the most important chemicals to the whole human society. The invention of the Haber-Bosch process enabled the industrial production of NH₃. However, owing to the high capital costs of the centralized plant and the equipment and the negative environmental impact, it is no longer suitable for today's needs of human development. As a result, there is an urgent need to investigate sustainable approaches for ammonia production. Among those reported studies, nitrogen reduction (NRR) and nitrate reduction reaction (NO₃RR) are considered applicable in the future. However, after decades of studying …

Importance Of Vegetation In Tsunami Mitigation: Evidence From Large Eddy Simulations With Fluid-Structure Interactions, Abhishek Mukherjee

Dissertations

Communities worldwide are increasingly interested in nature-based solutions like coastal forests for the mitigation of coastal risks. Still, it remains unclear how much protective benefit vegetation provides, particularly in the limit of highly energetic flows after tsunami impact. The present thesis, using a three-dimensional incompressible computational fluid dynamics model with a fluid-structure interaction approach, aims to quantify how energy reflection and dissipation vary with different degrees of rigidity and vegetation density of a coastal forest.

In this study, tree trunks are represented as cylinders, and the elastic modulus of hardwood trees such as pine or oak is used to characterize …

Influence Of Material Properties On Granules Prepared By Dry Co-Rotating Twin Screw Extrusion And Counterrotating Batch Mixing, Afstathios Steve Pafiakis

Dissertations

Recently, the pharmaceutical industry has shown interest in continuous granulating technology because of the flexibility it offers as an option that bypasses the costly scale-up process associated with batch manufacturing. However, the granulation mechanism(s) using twin screw co-rotating hot melt extrusion (HME) has not been fully explored, and it is not yet well understood. This leads to costly experiments during development and process reliability problem in commercial manufacturing. The main objective of this dissertation is to increase the mechanistic understanding of the twin screw granulation process of systems containing an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and a polymer excipient. This is …

Pbm And Dem Simulations Of Large-Scale Closed-Circuit Continuous Ball Mill Of Cement Clinker, Nontawat Muanpaopong

Dissertations

Cement milling is known to be inefficient and energy-intensive. Thus, even small improvements in cement milling's performance could significantly reduce operation costs. This dissertation aims to develop a simulation tool for dry milling and generate a fundamental process understanding, which enables process optimization. To this end, a true unsteady-state simulator (TUSSIM) for continuous dry milling is developed and applied to model various processes: (a) open circuit continuous mills, (b) closed-circuit continuous mills, and (c) vertical roller mills. TUSSIM is based on the solution of the cell-based population balance model (PBM) for continuous milling, which consists of a set of differential …