Engineering Commons^™

Monitoring Pm2.5 Pollution In The North End Of Hartford, Ct, Jocelyn Phung, Kristina Wagstrom

Honors Scholar Theses

Particulate matter (PM) or particle pollution is one of the six criteria air pollutants that can cause harm to human health and the environment; yet, there is a lack of data in many areas of the United States. Particulate matter is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in the air (EPA). Exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. People who live in urban areas are more likely to be exposed to particulate matter as many urban areas are known to have poor air quality. Our goal is to determine how particulate matter levels …

Household Income And Air Pollution At Public Schools In The United States, Katyland Facas, Kristina Wagstrom

Honors Scholar Theses

Poor air quality at schools may negatively impact students’ academic performance.1 2 3 In this study we look at the relationship between ambient, outdoor air quality and student socioeconomic status at United States public schools. We used free and reduced lunch eligibility, as part of the USDA’s National School Lunch Program, as an indicator of household income. We focus on nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). We used ambient pollutant concentration estimates at census block group resolution (Kim et al.) as the outdoor air pollution concentration at each school.4 We found a positive …

Use Of Food Waste Activated Carbons For Wastewater Treatment, Abigale Monasterial

Honors Scholar Theses

Activated carbons are often used to remove phenol from wastewater. However, they are usually derived from expendable resources, such as coal and have high regeneration costs. In this work, the adsorption of phenol on activated carbon derived from food waste was studied to understand its kinetics, determine its maximum adsorption capacity, and compare it to commercial activated carbons. Adsorption experiments were performed at 298 K for 48 hours at various pHs and initial phenol concentrations. The adsorption data was then fit to the pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intraparticle diffusion models to understand the kinetics and to the Langmuir and …

Theoretical Foundation Of Solution Dehydration In Porous Media: Effect Of Microstructure And Solute Interactions, Fernanda Sulantay Vargas

Honors Scholar Theses

Retention and evaporation of water have important implications in many natural and industrial settings. Here we focus on the effect of solute components (salts) as well as system geometry on evaporation rate of water. The study of multicomponent solutions with phase changes is challenging topic because of the complex and inter-connected physical phenomena that govern its dynamics. In the present work we review the theory of water evaporation and simulate evaporation of water as a function of composition and geometry for both droplets and bulk-scale (slit-like) systems. For droplets, we studied levitated droplets and droplets over hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. …

Quantifying Air Pollution At The Stamford Transportation Center, Brianna Mancuso, Kristina Wagstrom

Honors Scholar Theses

There is a need to analyze particulate matter concentrations at the Stamford Transportation Center according to the Western Connecticut Coalition of Governments. Stamford has recently undergone rapid urbanization and large scale construction resulting in traffic congestion. Congested traffic areas in urban centers are key contributors to poor air quality. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the pollution concentrations at the bus stops near the station. Every day, hundreds of shuttles and cars idle around the Transportation Center. Thousands of passengers wait at nearby bus stops every day and can potentially be exposed to high amounts of vehicle produced pollution …

Modeling Of Vapor Sorption In Nanoparticle Chemiresistors, Alexandra Oliveira

Honors Scholar Theses

Chemical vapor sensors possess a number of uses in a variety of fields, from environmental and health monitoring to food safety and national security concerns, such as the detection of improvised explosive devices. Many sensors currently in the market have the ability to detect the presence of a select few compounds and measure the concentration at which the species is present. However, these types of sensors require that the vapor to be investigated is known beforehand; they cannot be used for identification except on a case by case basis. In response to this issue, one branch of vapor sensor research …

Distribution And Localization Of Novel Iodine Nanoparticles In The Human Glioma 1242 Growing In The Brains Of Mice, Benjamin Billings

Honors Scholar Theses

Observing and designing the in vivo distribution and localization of therapeutic nanoparticles is an essential aspect of developing and understanding novel nanoparticle- based medical treatments. This study investigates novel PEGylated Iodine-based nanoparticles (INPs), an alternate composition to the more widely researched gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which may help avoid adverse effects associated with AuNPs, such as potential toxicity and skin discoloration, when used in similar applications. Determining the localization of the novel INPs within murine brains containing human glioma U-1242MG cells is critical in assisting the development of radiation dose enhancement therapy for this aggressive cancer. Radiation dose enhancement utilizes the …

Stretchable Methyl Ammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells For Photovoltaic And Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, William Tait

University Scholar Projects

The goal of this work was to fabricate an inverse planar perovskite solar cell (PSC) that was stretchable in one dimension and completely solution-processible. Perovskites are a material that have attracted much attention in recent years due to their appealing characteristics, such as being photovoltaic and piezoelectric. PSCs have been the focus of many studies in the solar cell area, as they are solution-processible and have shown high efficiencies relative to the amount of time they have been studied. Fabricating a PSC on a stretchable substrate would be beneficial, as a bendable, stretchable PSC would likely have more applications than …

Engineering A Fluorescent Protease Sensor For In Vivo Protein Detection, Thomas C. Kinard

Honors Scholar Theses

This report details the results of an ongoing project to engineer a mutant form of Red Fluorescent Protein (RFP) variant mCherry that acts as a real-time in vivo protease sensor. The sought-after mutant only becomes fluorescent when exposed to Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV) Protease, this system’s model protease. This will be accomplished via the insertion of the TEV Protease Recognition Site (TEV-PRS) in such a position that, before cleavage, will prevent the protein from folding to fluorescent conformation, but upon cleavage, will allow for fluorescent conformation to occur. The cylindrical structure of the protein, composed of beta-pleated sheets, contains “loops” …

Microstructure And Rheology Of Carbon Nanotubes At Air-Water Interfaces, Charles D. Young

Honors Scholar Theses

This work characterizes the material properties of carbon nanotubes at air-water interfaces for potential use in creating stable emulsions. Properties such as length, aspect ratio, contact angle, microstructural ordering, surface pressure, compression and shear elastic moduli, stresses, surface viscosities and non-linearity are explored. Challenges such as deviation from a classical analysis of monolayers are encountered in the form of aggregation, mechanical contributions, and interface relaxation. These factors are taken into account to explain experimental measurements and trends. Ultimately, existing models for more homogeneous systems are resolved with observations to offer insight and areas of promise moving forward.

Effective Antisense Design Using An Ensemble Of Energetically Sub-Optimal Secondary Mrna Structures, Andrea M. Divenere

University Scholar Projects

There is a current deficit of effective therapies against bacterial infection. Many strategies seek using small molecules to target the infectious pathogen. One approach involves direct manipulation of the pathogen at the RNA level. Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a genetic transcript that encodes the fundamental instruction for protein production. Inhibiting mRNA translation effectively prevents protein synthesis.

The therapeutic agent must physically access mRNA to effectively block its message from being read. A technique has arisen where a complementary nucleic acid binding strand, called antisense, is generated to impede protein synthesis. An issue in creating effective antisense is finding mRNA target …

Mechanism Of Insulin Aggregation: Applied To Alzheimer's Disease, Milos Atz

Honors Scholar Theses

Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative illness, is caused by the irreversible aggregation of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain. In Alzheimer’s brains, the protein can become disfigured, causing it to aggregate into long, insoluble fibers that deposit on brain tissue. Studying the aggregation mechanisms of amyloid proteins can lead to a deeper understanding of the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and possibly point towards a potential cure or treatment for the disease. Heat induced aggregation of insulin provides a model system to study the aggregation of amyloidogenic proteins. This study investigates the early stages of heat induced insulin aggregation using dynamic light …

Greenscreen: Software To Improve Campus Water And Energy Use, Andrew T. Silva

University Scholar Projects

Water and energy are intrinsically linked together. Energy is required to produce clean water and water is used heavily to generate energy. These two resources are constantly held in check, as they are vital to the sustained operation of towns, cities, and campuses. At the University of Connecticut (UConn), the consumption of water and energy is reduced by an efficient power plant and a brand new water reclamation facility. To reach beyond these accolades, it is essential that a deeper understanding of campus water usage is developed. Linking this knowledge with information about the energy consumption of UConn facilities will …

Membrane Compatibility With Switchable Polarity Draw Solutions For Use In Forward Osmosis Applications, Benjamin Joseph Coscia

Honors Scholar Theses

Water scarcity is problem being faced worldwide and present in every continent. Close to one-fifth of the world’s population has difficulty acquiring safe water, and the problem is worsening as populations continue to grow in poorer countries. As the availability of unimpaired freshwater sources dwindle, water sources, such as the oceans and saline ground waters, must be tapped. However, desalination technologies are very expensive due to a high energy requirement. Forward osmosis (FO) is a process which may be able to replace or become integrated with existing desalination technologies like reverse osmosis. FO relies on an osmotic agent, or draw …

Optimizing Polymer Fluorescence For Explosives Detection, Rose K. Cersonsky

Honors Scholar Theses

Pyrene is commonly used for explosives detection, as when mixed with polystyrene, the fluorescence intensity of the resulting film can be used as an indicator of the presence of nitro-aromatic, nitro-ether, or nitro-amine explosives. Previous studieshave tested a three-component system including pyrene, polystyrene, and a salt, tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAHP). From these previous studies, it has been seen that vapor pressure of the preparation area is a governing factor in the formation of excimers, which are instrumental in achieving and maintaining fluorescence intensity. In this study, three parameters – solution concentration, film thickness, and molecular weight of polystyrene are examined to …

Hollow Fiber Module For Continuous Ethanol Fermentation, Leia M. Dwyer

Honors Scholar Theses

Continuous processes have several advantages over their batch counterparts and are prevalent across the chemical engineering industry today. The process of brewing beer, however, remains a batch process. Transforming the brewing process into a continuous process could have many advantages including lowered process down-time, increased profits, and higher product homogeneity. This project looked into several aspects of the brewing process to gain insight into the potential for continuous ethanol fermentation. First, a kinetic model was developed for the enzymatic breakdown of starch to simple sugars in the production of wort from malted barley. Next, the growth kinetics of brewer’s yeast, …

Point Of Use Water Treatment With Forward Osmosis For Emergency And Population Migration Relief, Ethan L. Butler

Honors Scholar Theses

According to the World Health Organization, 780 million people do not have access to an improved water source. Many of these people are victims of emergencies and/or forced population migration, and suffer from malnutrition and diarrheal illness as well. One promising solution is Hydration Technology Innovation’s (HTI’s) forward osmosis (FO) systems: the HydroWell and Village System. These systems produce clean drink from almost any source water. A systematic evaluation of HTI’s systems was performed. Bench-top testing showed that HTI’s membrane can remove significant concentrations of inorganic contaminants that have been found to be problematic in disaster-prone regions. A cost model …

Development Of A Phase Separation Model For A Biodiesel Reactor, Lu Han

Honors Scholar Theses

The goal of this work is to establish a phase separation model for a biodiesel system, for the purpose of modeling a continuous flow multiphase biodiesel reactor. The Cahn-Hilliard theory is applied for a ternary system of two immiscible components and a third partially miscible component. The results of this work shows that phase field theory can be applied in phase modeling of a biodiesel system, and further investigations are required to develop a comprehensive biodiesel reactor model.

The Impact Of Thermal Coupling On Catalyst Behavior In Wall-Coated Heat-Exchanger Microreactors, Gregory S. Honda

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis presents a numerical study of reaction and diffusion phenomena in wall-coated heat-exchanger microreactors. Specifically, the interactions between an endothermic and exothermic catalyst layer separated by an impermeable wall is studied to understand the inherent behavior of the system. Two modeling approaches are presented, the first under the assumption of a constant thermal gradient and neglecting heat of reaction and the second considering both catalyst layers and reaction heat. Both studies found that thicker, more thermally insulating catalyst layers increase the effectiveness of the exothermic reaction by allowing for accumulation of reaction heat while thinner catalyst layers for the …

The Effects Of Physical And Chemical Modulating Agents On The Induction Of Vaccine-Induced Immune Responses, Andrea Nicole Ryan

Honors Scholar Theses

After the development of the viral-based prostate cancer vaccine, Ad5-PSA, much research has been orientated to help enhance the induced immune response by combining the vaccine with physical and chemical modulating agents, more specifically the polymers polyethylenimine (PEI), chitosan, and chitosan coated with CD3 complex antibodies; all previously shown to stimulate an immune response as isolated gene carriers. To compare the vaccine-induced immune responses between the naked vaccine and the polymer-vaccine combinations, a mouse model using the ovalbumin- specific Ad-OVA vaccine was tested using intracellular cytokine staining (ICS), tetramer staining, and cytotoxic T-cell lymphocyte assays to measure the activation of …

Mathematical Modeling Of Oral Cavity Mucositis, Jason White

Honors Scholar Theses

Oral Mucositis is a condition seen in post-treatment mouth cancer patients and is a condition of which the pathobiology is not entirely known. It is a condition that shares many common pathways with other alimentary tract injuries such as inflammatory bowel disease. Mathematical modeling of the system can help to identify gaps in the current knowledge base as well as assist in generating new hypotheses and predicting clinical outcomes of conditions. A detailed mathematical model would assist researchers in determining which drug targets are worthwhile investigating. Deterministic modeling and Virtual Cell&#; software were used to assign rate constants to each …

Optimizing Performance Of Conductive Nanoparticle-Filled Membranes, Alison Chen

Honors Scholar Theses

Conductive membranes were prepared by magnetic alignment of graphite-coated iron nanoparticles (GCINs) in a polyisobutylene (PIB) matrix, which was cast onto an interdigitated surface electrode. Toluene and tetrahydrofuran (THF) were used as solvents for the casting solution. Different molecular weights of PIB and solutions with concentrations ranging from 0.05- to 50-wt% were explored to optimize the mechanical and physical properties of the membrane. The amount of GCINs used in the membranes ranged from 0.1- to 2.5-wt%, and a sonicator was used to disperse the particles in the membrane. Sedimentation and surfactant studies were conducted to investigate the dispersion of GCINs …