Photocatalysts Based On Titanium Dioxide And Zinc Phthalocyanine Composites For Photodegradation Of Methylene Blue, Albert R. Koldarov, Mastura Kh. Aripova, Odilzhon E. Abdurakhmonov, Zuhra Ch. Kadirova, Abror O. Tashpulatov

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

The aim of this work is to analyze the photocatalytic degradation of a model methylene blue solution using titanium dioxide composites with zinc phthalocyanine as the sensitizing photocatalyst under sunlight. The objects of the study are TiO₂-based photocatalysts derived from the spent catalyst of the Shurtan GCC after heat treatment at 650°C (T-650), as well as a composite containing zinc phthalocyanine (T-650/PcZn). It has been established that the photodegradation reaction follows a pseudo-first-order model, while the rate constant for the TiO₂/PcZn composite is significantly higher than that of pure TiO₂, indicating greater efficiency. The …

Synthesis And Infrared-Spectroscopic Study Of Complexes Of Selected 3d-Metals With 2-(2-Pyridyl)-Benzimidazole, Farangiz A. Khujayeva, Hakima A. Alikulova, Shahzoda G. Allamurodova, Mushtariybonu M. Sunnatillayeva, Shahlo Sh. Daminova

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

The aim of this study was to synthesize and systematically investigate the coordination compounds of several 3d metals with 2-(2-pyridyl)benzimidazole (2-PBI) using infrared (IR) spectroscopy. Complexes of copper(II), nickel(II), and cobalt(II) with the general formula [M(2-PBI)3](ClO₄)₂were successfully synthesized. Based on the analysis of the IR spectra, it was established that the 2-PBI ligand coordinates to the metal ion in a bidentate manner through the nitrogen atoms of the benzimidazole and pyridyl rings. The shifts of the ν(C=N) and ν(C–N) stretching vibration bands, as well as the appearance of new bands in the 623–485 cm⁻№ region corresponding to ν(M–N) and vibrations, …

Production Of Organo-Mineral Fertilizing Ameliorants Based On Phosphogypsum, Central Kyzylkum Phosphorites And Biohumus, Temur A. Ospanov, Axmed M. Reymov, Rashid K. Kurbaniyazov, Jaxanger M. Bisenbaev

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Phosphogypsum, a large-scale industrial by-product generated during phosphoric acid production, poses significant environmental challenges due to its accumulation and potential ecological impact. This study investigates the utilization of phosphogypsum as a raw material for producing fertilizing ameliorants in combination with Central Kyzylkum phosphorites and biohumus. Composite mixtures were prepared and granulated using a 30% ammonium sulfate solution as a binding agent. The chemical composition, phase structure (XRD), and microstructure (SEM–EDS) of the obtained materials were analyzed. The results demonstrate the formation of calcium phosphate and sulfate phases, including CaHPO4·2H2O, β-Ca3(PO4)2, and CaSO4·2H2O, which contribute to both fast- and slow-release nutrient …

Processing Of Wc–Co Waste With Selective Extraction Of Co3o4 By Oxidative Fusion In Nano3 Melt, Ilyos A. Bozorov, Aziz B. Ibragimov, Odiljon E. Abdurakhmonov, Mastura Kh. Aripova, Sherzod E. Abdurakhmonov

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

The aim of this study was to develop and experimentally validate a selective method for producing high-purity cobalt oxide from WC–Co hard alloy waste using oxidative fusion in a sodium nitrate (NaNO₃) melt, followed by combined aqueous and acidic purification of the solid residue. Cemented carbide scrap and waste containing 6–12 wt.% Co were used as feedstock, without prior grinding. It was found that, during heat treatment in the range of 650–900 °C, tungsten predominantly converts into soluble sodium tungstates, while cobalt concentrates in the solid residue as an oxide phase. Optimal process conditions, such as 850°C and …

Temperature-Dependent Electrocatalytic Activity Of Mxene For Hydrogen Evolution Reaction., Javlonbek I. Mamanazirov, Shavkat I. Mamatkulov

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

This study represents the synthesis technology of MXene catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and investigates the temperature-dependent electrocatalytic activity of MXene-based catalysts in alkaline media. Using a three-electrode configuration in 1M KOH, the electrochemical performance was systematically evaluated across a temperature range of 25 °C to 40 °C. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) results demonstrate a significant enhancement in catalytic efficiency at elevated temperatures, evidenced by a consistent shift in polarization curves toward lower potentials. Specifically, the overpotential required to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cmІ decreased from 257 mV at 25 °C to 203 mV at 40°C, marking …

Features Of Formation Of The Structure And Properties Nonfritted Glazes For Sanitary Ceramic Products, Ivan A. Levitskii, Mihail V. Dyadenko, Valery G. Luhin

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

The results of research on the formation of nonfritted glass-ceramic coatings for sanitary ceramic products are presented. The synthesis was carried out in a multicomponent raw material mixture including pegmatite, chalk, quartz sand with a constant content of zirconium silicate, talc, wollastonite, zinc whitewash, refractory clay and kaolin. Glazes were obtained by single firing at a temperature of 1200±5 °C for a duration of 20 hours. Samples of coatings were obtained, the processes of glaze formation were studied, the fusibility of glazes was assessed, and their physico-chemical properties were studied in relation to the features of the formation of the …

Fiber-Optic Products Based On Borosilicate Glasses, Mihail V. Dyadenko

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

The research results of the development of glass compositions for a light-guiding core, reflective and protective coats of optical fiber using a stack method are presented. The optimal ratio of glass-forming oxides and modifications in their compositions has been determined, which ensures the resistance of glasses to crystallization during the manufacture of optical fiber, its thermomechanical strength, the required geometry of optical fibers and the light transmission of fiber-optic products, amounting to 60–75%.

The influence of the chemical composition of the glasses of the light-guiding core and the light-reflecting coats on their refractive index, which determines the magnitude of the …

Synthesis Of Nanostructured Yttrium Oxide Luminescent Powders Activated By Terbium Ions, Eygeniy N. Poddenezhny, Andrei A. Boiko, Olga S. Nevzorova, Ekaterina E. Trusova, Vladimir S. Urbanovich

CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

The aim of this work is to synthesize nanostructured luminescent powders of yttrium oxide doped with terbium ions. Y₂О₃:Tb³⁺ powders were obtained by thermochemical synthesis (combustion). The sources for the synthesis were nitric acid salts of yttrium and terbium. Organic acids, citric acid and acetic acid, were used as reducing agents and combustible components. It has been established that large porous aggregates with sizes up to 200 microns are formed with citric acid during combustion, and nanostructured finely dispersed powders consisting of nanocrystalline particles with sizes of 39±5 nm are formed with …

Engineering Evaluation Of Post-Stroke Gait Using A Wearable G-Walk Sensor Under Different Ankle-Foot Orthosis Conditions: A Longitudinal Case Study, Mohamed Sattar Jabbar, Ammar Issam Kubba

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

The gait profile of post-stroke patients is typically one of reduced speed, asymmetry and decreased functional mobility. Ankle–foot orthoses (AFOs) are commonly prescribed to enhance gait stability and promote safer ambulation; however, within-person longitudinal gait changes across multiple orthotic conditions have not yet been quantitatively characterized using wearable motion analysis systems. The objective of this study was to perform a longitudinal assessment of spatiotemporal gait parameters through a wearable G-Walk inertial measurement unit (IMU) with three walking conditions: without orthosis, Conventional custom-made ankle foot orthosis AFO and Prefabricated posterior leaf spring AFO. Two functional tasks, normal walking and Timed Up …

Efficient Performance Recovery Of Pruned Llms For End Devices, Paul Vardhan Bethapudi

Master’s Dissertations

Large Language Models have shown strong performance across reasoning, language understanding, and generation tasks, but their computational and memory requirements make deployment on low resource devices difficult. This dissertation studies efficient performance recovery of pruned LLMs, focusing on whether a pruned model can regain useful task performance through parameter-efficient fine-tuning while preserving the benefits of compression. The work uses Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct as the dense reference model and applies activationaware Wanda pruning at multiple sparsity levels(20%, 30% and 50%). The pruned models are evaluated on language modeling and reasoning tasks using WikiText-2 perplexity and GSM8K (Grade School Math 8000 problems) accuracy. Adaptation …

Investigation Of The Lower Block Rows In The King’S Chamber Of The Great Pyramid Using Ultrasonic Testing With Shear Wave Arrays, Benedikt Maier, Amr G. Hamza, Alejandro Ramirez-Pinero, Khaled Taie, Thomas Schumacher, Olga Popovych, Mohamed Elkarmoty, Mehdi Tayoubi, Hany Helal, Christian U. Grosse

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigates the internal geometry of the granite block rows in the King’s Chamber (KC) of the Great Pyramid of Giza using Non-destructive testing (NDT) with ultrasonic testing (UST) using shear wave echo arrays. As part of the ScanPyramids (SP) project measurement campaigns in 2022, the lower two block rows of all four walls were examined using ultrasonic shear-wave echo arrays (PD8000, Screening Eagle Technologies). The measurement strategy initially included rapid overview acquisitions using an 8-channel UST device to identify potential areas of interest. High-resolution, detailed measurements were then performed at these locations, particularly along the north wall (NW) …

Exploring Gene Regulatory Neural Network Biocomputing Of Bacteria, Adrian Merle Ratwatte

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved from brain-inspired algorithms into a discipline that increasingly integrates with biological systems. While silicon-based platforms have advanced machine learning, they remain limited in energy efficiency and operation in environments beyond silicon. This motivates biological computing as an alternative, enabling efficient, resource-aware, and reconfigurable computing within living systems. This dissertation addresses these limitations by introducing a bacterial computing framework that models Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) as Gene Regulatory Neural Networks (GRNNs). The GRNN mirrors the structure and function of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) through gene-gene interactions across trans-omic layers, enabling natural, self-regulating information processing within living …

Magnetic Cellulose Nanocrystal Composites: Synthesis, Properties, Applications, And Opportunities, Mohammad Jahid Hasan, Kishore Chand, Esteban E. Ureña-Benavides, Erick S. Vasquez-Guardado

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

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Magnetic Cellulose Nanocrystal Composites: Synthesis, Properties, Applications, and Opportunities

Ion Irradiation Of Microelectromechanical Resonators, Hengky Chandrahalim, David D. Lynes

AFIT Patents

A method of enhancing an electromechanical coupling coefficient of a microelectromechanical (“MEMS”) device. The method includes applying, to a fully fabricated MEMS device, heavy particle ion radiation to the MEMS device at a fluence of at least 1×10¹⁴ cm.⁻². According to other embodiments of the present invention are directed to a bandpass filter comprising a plurality of MEMS devices fabricated in accordance with the methods provided. The MEMS of the plurality are electronically or mechanically coupled.

Improved Method Of Evaluating Gas-Phase Air Cleaners Considering Adsorption And Desorption Mechanisms To And From Internal Test Chamber Surfaces, Casey Douglas Coffland

Dissertations and Theses

Portable air cleaners are playing an increasingly important role in managing indoor air quality in response to pressing issues like wildfire smoke events. Smoke is a complex mixture of gases and particulate matter; while established test methods exist for particulate matter, the dynamic behavior of gaseous pollutants is not well accounted for in current test methods. This is because prevailing air cleaner testing methods typically treat background losses as irreversible, whereas gases can engage in partitioning to and from test chamber surfaces. Ignoring these sorption interactions causes inaccurate estimation of an air cleaner's impact.

A new approach has been developed …

Visionarium, June 2026, Full Issue

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

No abstract provided.

Toward A Metric For Disciplinary Learning In The Age Of Ai: The Unblooms™ Metacognitive Awareness Scale And Discernment Rate In Ai-Mediated Learning, Tina R. Austin

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

Telling students to “reflect on their own thinking” has become insufficient in AI-mediated learning environments. When students are rewarded for polished outputs, cognitive offloading to AI tools becomes rational, and traditional snapshot assessments (single-moment evaluations of task completion) produce false signals about whether durable learning has occurred. This problem is sharpened by the broader shift in AI learning tools toward Socratic tutors, study modes, Khan Academy's Khanmigo, and agentic systems that can shape the learner’s process over time. Lodge and Loble (2026) distinguish beneficial cognitive offloading, which frees working memory for intrinsic learning, from detrimental outsourcing, which bypasses the cognitive …

Metacognition As Disciplinary Infrastructure In Ai-Mediated Learning, Tina R. Austin, Jason Gulya, Nick Potkalitsky

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

Metacognition is often presented as a response to generative AI’s disruption of teaching and learning, yet the term has become too generalized to guide practice. In AI-mediated environments, asking students merely to “reflect on your thinking” is insufficient. Because AI tools can redistribute cognitive labor, their educational value depends on how students use them and whether that use supports disciplinary forms of reasoning. This essay argues that metacognition must be understood as disciplinary infrastructure: students cannot effectively monitor their thinking without understanding the epistemological and ontological demands of the field in which they are working. Classrooms therefore become sites where …

Optimizing Human Capital In Ai-Enabled Architectures: A Systems Constraint And Capability Analysis, Jeremy A. Schlegel, Jennifer Daffinee

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

Artificial intelligence (AI) comprises not only models, but full socio-technical systems involving data pipelines, instrumentation, human-machine interfaces, deployment architectures, and organizational processes for design, monitoring, and evaluation. Using a systems-oriented analytical framework, this paper argues that despite accelerating advances in AI capabilities, human capital remains the enduring and dominant system constraint. Human interfaces define throughput limits in areas such as prompt engineering, data-stream curation, adjudication of model outputs, and the orchestration of hybrid automation workflows including robotics, scraping, and digitization. Synthesizing emerging research across human-AI interaction, machine-learning lifecycle management, organizational adoption, and adult learning theory, we present a socio-technical evaluation …

Law Or Flaw: A Double – Blind Study Comparing Student Comprehension Of Real And Ai Generated Legal Case Briefs, Grant Shostak, Nick Wintz, Melissa A. Petkovsek

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

In recent years, the U.S. legal system has seen an increase of legal filings using fictitious court cases or legal propositions generated by artificial intelligence (AI) (Stokel-Walker, 2026). Rules of professional responsibility require that lawyers review filings in which AI was used to ensure their accuracy (Missouri Bar, Office of Legal Ethics Counsel, 2024, Opinion No. 2024‑11) Despite this mandate, filings with fictitious cases and incorrect statements of law are being filed. Besides posing a threat to the parties to an action, such filings may set an unwarranted precedent for future cases. They also tie up court resources searching for …

A Smart Contract Framework For Project Financing In Gold Mining Operations: Implications For Improved Financial Forecasting, Silvia Lydia Priskilla, Mohammed Ali Berawi, Mustika Sari Dr.

Smart City

Gold mining projects are characterized by high capital intensity and significant operational variability, making financial forecasting particularly sensitive to the quality and timing of cash-flow data. In practice, conventional financing systems rely on multi-stage administrative processes that create delays between work completion and payment realization, reducing the reliability of financial records used for investment evaluation.

This study aims to develop a smart contract-based financing framework to improve the accuracy of profitability projections in gold mining projects. A case study approach is employed using operational and financial data from a mining project in Sumatra over the period 2023–2026. The analysis combines …

Micromechanical Behavior Of Copper Tailings And Sulfide-Bearing Ore, Odai Gifty, Sai Sandeep Chitta

Michigan Tech Publications

The mechanical performance of mining-derived granular materials is increasingly important for their reuse in geotechnical and transportation infrastructure, including the stability of tailings dams, yet their micromechanical crushing and frictional behaviors remains poorly understood. This study investigates single-particle uniaxial strength, failure mechanisms, and inter-particle loading behavior of copper tailings (CT) and an iron-sulfide-rich Ni–Cu-bearing material (FB), alongside a monomineralic quartz sand reference. Single-particle crushing tests at multiple loading rates were used to quantify strength distributions and failure mode frequencies, revealing that splitting governed most failures, particularly for FB, whereas quartz exhibited a broader spectrum of failure modes, including explosive and …

Rf-Derived Viscoelastic Modeling For Blood Clot Occlusion Sensing, Abdulrahman Mohammed Aldosari

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

Early and reliable detection of vascular thrombus remains a critical challenge for portable and non-invasive diagnostic systems. This work presents an RF-based sensing methodology for blood clot occlusion sensing through the extraction of viscoelastic clot characteristics derived from microwave reflection coefficient (S₁₁) measurements. A compact single-port coaxial probe is employed to interrogate the vessel–tissue system over a wide frequency range (1–25 GHz), where the measured RF response is used to derive equivalent viscoelastic and electrical model parameters associated with clot formation and progression. Both lumped-element RLC and distributed transmission-line representations are utilized to establish the relationship between the measured dielectric …

Integrasi Metodologi Hazop Dalam Pengendalian Risiko Dan Keberlanjutan Operasional Pada Unit Pemulihan Urea: Studi Kasus Pada Industri Pupuk, Riny Yolandha Parapat, Arin Nur'aini Putri, Aryasatya Ramadhan Sukresno

National Journal of Occupational Health and Safety

The fertilizer industry is one of the chemical sectors with high-risk potential due to its operational processes involving hazardous materials as well as extreme pressure and temperature conditions. This study aims to identify and analyze hazards in the urea recovery unit using the Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP) method, while also formulating effective risk control strategies to support the operational sustainability of the plant. The study was conducted directly at a commercial fertilizer plant in West Java using a semi-quantitative approach, which included field observations, review of technical documents such as Process Flow Diagrams (PFD), Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID), …

Discrete Fracture Network Application To Rock Slope Stability In An Open Pit Mine, Elvis Karikari Mensah, Erzah Ackah, Reginald Hammah, Hani Mitri

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The stability of rock slopes in open pit mines is crucial for the safety and efficiency of the mining operation. Conventional stability analysis methods, such as kinematic and limit equilibrium analyses, primarily focus on identifying structural failure mechanisms and evaluating their factors of safety. Although insightful, these approaches do not accurately estimate failure volumes and block locations due to their limited consideration of joint frequency and persistence, which are key parameters in understanding block geometries. Discrete fracture network (DFN) modelling addresses these limitations by explicitly simulating rock mass discontinuities in 3D, which automatically incorporates joint spacing and persistence.

This paper …

A Storm-Ai Primer With An Operationally Representative Example, Shiu-Kai Chin, Matthew Clark, Garrett Katz, Jae C. Oh, William Young

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

A STORM-AI Primer with an Operationally Representative Example presents the Systems-Theoretic Technical and Operational Risk Management with Artificial Intelligence (STORM-AI) methodology, a transdisciplinary framework for establishing the trustworthiness of mission systems that may incorporate AI components. The core value proposition of STORM-AI is mission assurance—ensuring that mission systems behave with the predictability and proportionality required by senior leadership and demanded by international humanitarian law. STORM-AI achieves this by faithfully preserving commander's intent from high-level mission descriptions down to hardware-level behavioral specifications through a structured sequence of four formally grounded models: a Mission Model, a Protection (Loss Control) Model, a Security …

Toward Passwordless Document Encryption, Isaac Henry Teuscher

Theses and Dissertations

Document files with sensitive information are used across nearly every industry. In recent years, cyberattacks targeting cloud-based file transfer applications have resulted in millions of sensitive documents being exposed. Although document encryption methods exist, they are often limited in usability, security, or deployability. Password-based encryption, the most widely available option, remains vulnerable to brute-force attacks, unauthorized sharing, and human error. We address these gaps in three phases. First, we present a structured comparative framework adapted from the usability-deployability-security model to evaluate nine document encryption methods across 15 design properties, identifying the benefits and limitations of current approaches. Second, we design …

Hierarchical Parcel Swapping: A Novel Model In Turbulence, Masoomeh Behrang

Theses and Dissertations

Turbulent mixing plays a central role in a wide range of engineering and natural systems, particularly in reactive flows where turbulence--chemistry interactions strongly influence reaction rates, flame structure, and emissions. Accurately modeling these interactions remains a major challenge due to the multiscale and stochastic nature of turbulence, as well as the nonlinear coupling between transport and chemical kinetics. This dissertation develops and evaluates the Hierarchical Parcel Swapping (HiPS) model, a fully stochastic framework designed to represent turbulence-driven transport and scalar mixing without relying on traditional gradient-based closures. HiPS is investigated both as a standalone turbulence model and as a subgrid …

Calibration And Validation Of An Ogden Material Model For Thermoplastic Polyurethane In 3d-Printed Tensegrity Structures, Caleb C. Swain

Theses and Dissertations

This work is motivated by ongoing efforts within the Smart Materials, Adaptronics, and Shock Laboratory (SMASH Lab) at Brigham Young University (BYU) to develop variable-stiffness, external fixators using 3D-printed tensegrity structures. In the process of designing and evaluating these systems, the need arose to accurately model the nonlinear mechanical behavior of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), the primary material used in prototype fabrication. This thesis investigates how accurately a calibrated Ogden material model can predict the nonlinear mechanical response of TPU in 3D-printed tensegrity structures. Experimental data were used to calibrate the parameters of the hyperelastic constitutive model through nonlinear optimization. An …

An Access-Control Logic In Hol (Trindemossen 2), Shiu-Kai Chin

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - All Scholarship

This manual documents the embedding of an access-control logic (ACL) — as presented in the textbook Access Control, Security, and Trust: A Logical Approach (Chin and Older, 2011) — within the Cambridge Higher-Order Logic theorem prover HOL-4. The logic is a multi-agent modal logic with Kripke semantics. Its purpose is to reason about authentication, authorization, integrity, security, and trust. The inference rules of the ACL are proved to be sound. The inference rules are a command-and-control (C2) calculus. The value of the ACL is its support for rigorous, verified, and trustworthy policies for complete mediation, i.e., where all actions are …