Engineering Commons^™

Structure And Property Of Polymers And Biopolymers From Molecular Dynamic Simulations, Xiaoquan Sun

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural and synthetic polymers and biopolymers have been studied for a variety of applications in food emulsion, biopharmaceutical purification, tissue engineering, and biosensor. The structure and property of polymers and biopolymers are critically important to determine their functions. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have a unique advantage to explore the structure and property of polymers and biopolymers from the molecular level. In the dissertation, MD simulations were conducted to study the mechanisms of various biological and chemical processes controlled by polymers and biopolymers based on real-world experimental results.

Seven heptapeptides have been screened from a peptide library in our earlier study …

Novel Methodology For Emboli Analog Production And In-Vitro Simulation Of Acute Ischemic Stroke, Anne Preut

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stroke is the leading cause of disability and a primary cause of mortality, resulting in an estimated $33 billion dollars spent on healthcare, rehabilitation and lost productivity in the United States each year. The most prevalent cause of stroke incidents are acute ischemic events, manifested as blood clots in the vasculature supplying the brain. Current gold standard treatments have improved since 2006 with the introduction of mechanical stent retrievers; however, several issues with the current treatments to acute ischemic stroke remain. Thrombolysis of the clot with a tissue plasminogen activator may lead to weakening the vessel wall and consequently, hemorrhaging. …

State Dependent Function And Dynamics In Cerebral Cortical Networks, Leila Fakhraei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cerebral cortex exhibits vigorous ongoing, internal neural activity even with no sensory input is present or the animal is minimally engaged in a task or behavior. This internal ongoing activity is not static; the ‘cortical state’ varies ranging from synchronous and highly correlated activity to asynchronous and weakly correlated neural activity. The main goal of the work presented here is to understand how changes in cortical states effect several aspects of cortical function and dynamics.

To meet this goal, we did three separate projects. First, we compared the predictability of neuronal network dynamics across cortical states in somatosensory cortex of …

Utilizing Analytics In American Football To Improve Decision Making On Fourth Down, Daniel David Reid Ferguson

Graduate Theses - Engineering Management

The purpose of this paper was to investigate what advantages, if any, an analytical approach using historical data could have in guiding critical game decisions in order to maximize a team’s chances of winning. The analytical approach described in this paper involves using expected point values that correspond to an offensive team’s location on the field and historical first down conversion rates. From this information a decision is made that chooses the fourth-down option that yields the highest amount of expected points. Using historical, data a fourth-down Strategy Sheet was developed based upon expected point values. The Strategy Sheet was …

Modeling And Control Of A 6-Dof Multi-Rotorcraft: Air-Ball, Jerry Ja Wang

Theses and Dissertations

The Air-Ball project seeks to develop an omnidirectional, unmanned aerial vehicle with six degrees of freedom. The Air-Ball vehicle uses six propellers powered by six independent electric motors for propulsion and control. Each motor is attached to a hollow shaft that can rotate ±360° actuated by electric servos. Four of these propulsion shafts are configured in an orientation resembling a quad-copter, where the shafts are 90° apart. The other two propulsion shafts extrude perpendicular from each side of the plane of the quadcopter configuration. Under this unique configuration, Air-Ball is capable of decoupling the motion in the translational and rotational …

Cfd Analysis Of Resistance For Stepless And Stepped Planing Hulls, Bhanu Prakash Valtheru

Theses and Dissertations

It is the endeavour of naval architects to design hull forms with the least amount of power consumption. In this respect, Naval Architects have been obsessed with the design of various hull forms optimized for a particular service requiring the lowest amount of fuel consumption keeping in mind effects on the climate change and sustainability. Regardless of the way that a considerable measure of research has been done around this area, there remains a level of uncertainty in the reasonably accurate resistance prediction of stepped hull forms in the early design stage. Model tests and full-scale tests are still the …

Experimental And Numerical Comparison Of Wort Cooling Methods During The Homebrewing Process, Zachary Hammond

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Homebrewing, the process of making beer for personal consumption, has been legal in the United States since 1978 and allowed beer enthusiasts to experiment with new beer styles at a low cost. Although the procedure is relatively straightforward, it can be very timeconsuming without expensive equipment. The longest step in brewing is wort cooling, where the non-alcoholic beer, or wort, is cooled from boiling temperatures to near room temperature for fermentation. Improper or slow cooling can not only be monotonous but result in contamination or haze in the final product. Wort chillers, which generally cost anywhere from $50 to $500, …

A Survey Of Three-Dimensional Sound And Its Applications, Andrew Topping

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research project seeks to develop a foundation of knowledge about three-dimensional sound (3-D sound) and its utilization across various media. Topics covered include the techniques by which 3-D sound is accomplished, its departures from the standard paradigm of stereophonic audio, the range of creative and engineering considerations within 3-D contexts and examinations of existing 3-D audio applications.

Development Of The Codebase For Ece Design: Smartwatch Device And App For Continuous Glucose Monitoring, Keelin J. Becker-Wheeler

Honors Scholar Theses

This honors thesis describes the development of the codebase for the 2018 University of Connecticut ECE Senior Design project titled "Smartwatch Device and App for Continuous Glucose Monitoring''. The goal for the senior design project is to remove the dependencies imposed by a previously-designed prototype of a glucose-monitoring smartwatch, by creating a new custom device without those dependencies. Development of the new codebase involves splitting the tasks of an Arduino codebase into a number of logical components that are then implemented in C. This new codebase makes substantial improvements to the overall program structure and organization, as well as numerous …

Security Analysis Of The Uconn Husky One Card, Trevor Phillips

Honors Scholar Theses

The “Husky One Card” is the name given to student IDs at the University of Connecticut. It can identify students, faculty, and staff in a variety of situations. The One Card is used for meal plans, Husky Bucks (an equivalent of money, but valid only in the Storrs area), residence hall/ university facility access, and student health services. The current Husky One Card consists of a picture identification on the front and a standard 1-dimensional barcode and 3-track magnetic strip on the back.

The goal of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility of cloning Husky One Cards, the ease …

Stochastic Finite Element Thermal Analysis Of A Ball Grid Array Package, Rahul Upreti

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

This study provides an insight into the factors which have a major impact on the probability of failure of a Ball Grid Array package. A stochastic finite element analysis was done on the package using First-order reliability method (FORM). The effects of uncertainty in material thermal conductivities, heat source, heat transfer coefficient and ambient temperature were studied. The average temperature at the die-junction interface was selected as failure criterion because the excess temperature at the junction is often a cause of failure. The performance of Finite Difference Method(FDM) and Semi-Analytic Complex Variable Method(SACVM) in computing sensitivities are compared. Results show …

Air Flow Pattern And Path Flow Simulation Of Airborne Particulate Contaminants In A Cold-Aisle Containment High-Density Data Center Utilizing Airside Economization, Gautham Thirunavakkarasu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The energy used by Information Technology Equipment (ITE) and the supporting data center equipment keeps rising as data center expansion continues worldwide. To contain the rising operation costs, data center administrators are resorting to cost cutting measures by not adhering to the ambient data center environment standards. In many cases, free cooling techniques are adopted to partially or completely relieve the usage of refrigeration units, which adds to huge cost savings but also allows for the increased risk of particulate and gaseous contaminations. The ASHRAE TC9.9 subcommittee, on Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces, and Electronic Equipment, has provided …

The Performance Of Quadrilateral Element With Rotational Degrees Of Freedom In Statics And Dynamics Analysis And Optimization, Xingzhi Wang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Finite Element Method (FEM) is widely used in structural analysis, and the standard approach to increase the accuracy of analysis is increasing the total degrees of freedom (DOFs), namely, refine the mesh. By introducing the rotational DOFs, better accuracy can be achieved without change the mesh. The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of elements with rotational DOFs in statics and dynamics analysis and applying these elements to optimization. The implementation of three representative elements with rotational DOFs for statics analysis is reproduced. Also, this work implements these elements to dynamics analysis and optimization. The results show …

Computational Study Of Form Factor Of 3rd Generation Open Compute Servers Using Different Dielectric Fluids For Single-Phase Immersion Cooling, Pranavi Rachamreddy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Computer system dependency has been increased in the modern world and that has encouraged the rapid growth of data centers in leading business units like banking, education, transportation, social media and many more. Data center is a facility that incorporates an organisation’s IT operations and equipment, as well as where it stores, processes, and manages the data. To fulfil the demands of data storage and data processing, corresponding increase in power density of servers are needed. The data center energy efficiency largely depends on the thermal management of servers. Currently, air cooling is the most widely used thermal management technique …

New Broadband Common-Mode Filtering Structures Embedded In Differential Coplanar Waveguides For Dc To 40 Ghz Signal Transmission, Yujie He

Graduate Theses - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Coplanar waveguides (CPWs) provide effective transmission with low dispersion into the millimeter-wave frequencies. For high-speed signaling, differential transmission lines display an enhanced immunity to outside interference and are less likely to interfere with other signals, when compared to single-ended transmission lines. Common-mode (CM) conversion from the differential-mode (DM) signal energy can produce unintentional radiation as well as degraded board-level electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and signal integrity SI environments. Due to the negative effects of CM signals, filtering structures are often used to suppress the propagation of these signals. The filtering structures introduced in this project all implement the same CM filter …

Executive Summary_Feasibility Of Harbor-Wide Barrier Systems: Preliminary Analysis For Boston Harbor, Paul Kirshen

Sustainable Solutions Lab

This report presents a preliminary feasibility assessment of harbor-wide barrier systems designed to protect Boston Harbor from coastal flooding caused by sea level rise (SLR) and storm surges. Conducted by the Sustainable Solutions Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston and supported by the Boston Green Ribbon Commission, the study evaluates two primary configurations: an Outer Harbor Barrier (OHB) and an Inner Harbor Barrier (IHB). Using hydrodynamic modeling, economic cost-benefit analysis, and social vulnerability assessments, the study finds that while both barrier systems may reduce risk from extreme storm events, they do not mitigate regular tidal flooding without frequent gate …

The Effect Of Elastin Degradation On The Biomechanical Properties Of Porcine Aortic Tissue, Caleb Nissen

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is currently the 13^th leading cause of death in the United States [1]. AAA is characterized, in part, by an increase in presence of proteolytic enzymes which degrade the structural proteins collagen and elastin [6]. The goal of this study was to examine the effect that elastin degradation has on the biomechanical properties of aortic tissue. For this experiment, porcine aortic tissue was cut in the circumferential and longitudinal directions. These specimens were exposed to an elastase solution for varying time-intervals and then underwent uniaxial tensile testing. Elastase-treated tissue tested in the …

In-Vitro Simulation Of Acute Ischemic Stroke, Paolo Garcia

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a condition that involves the occlusion of a blood vessel within the brain, effectively preventing the passage of oxygen and nutrients. AIS is highly prevalent in the United States, where nearly 795,000 strokes happen per year and 87% of those are ischemic. From a medical standpoint, the obstructing clot can be removed with the use of a stroke retrieval device. However, a need arises for testing the aforementioned devices on a patient’s specific vascular geometries in order to increase the likelihood of a successful procedure. Outlined is a process for developing a physical simulation of …

Nanopore Biosensors For Molecular Detection And Analysis, Muhammad Usman Raza

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Nanoscale fabrication techniques have led the march towards a new class of biosensors that were not possible to build in the past due to technological limitations. These molecular nanosensors can have biochemical, electromagnetic, acoustic, optical or electrophoretic detection modalities. One of these nanosensors, is solid state nanopores which use resistive pulse sensing in nanometer apertures in thin dielectric membranes. Solid state nanopores have been fabricated using cutting edge fabrication techniques to detect and analyze nanoscale biomolecules such as DNA, proteins, miRNA, viruses etc. These biosensors can be used as electronic sensors for biomarkers of certain diseases such as cancer and …

A New Adaptive Multiscale Approach For The Dynamic Modeling And Simulation Of Biomolecular Systems, Ashley Chase Guy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation presents three developments in the simulation of sub-micron dynamical systems. First, a new thermostat formulation is shown to strictly enforce the constant temperature constraint necessary in many thermodynamic ensembles. This formulation also allows the system to quickly evolve to a low-potential state. Next, this new thermostat formulation is leveraged to extend a continuum-regime multiscale formulation to the atomistic regime allowing for equivalent time histories to be generated in significantly less computation time. Finally, an adaptive multiscale formulation allows for potential forces with time varying magnitudes to contribute to the overall dynamics similarly resulting in equivalent time histories in …

A Nanoindentation Study Of The Fatigue Properties Of Al/A-Si Core-Shell Nanostructures, Jason Steck

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nanostructure-textured surfaces can reduce friction and increase the reliability of micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS). For MEMS incorporating moving parts, the fatigue properties of nanostructures pose a challenge to their reliability in long-term applications. In this study, the fatigue behavior of hemispherical Al/a-Si core-shell nanostructures (CSNs), bare hemispherical Al nanodots, and a flat Al/a-Si layered thin film have been studied using nanoindentation and nano-scale dynamic mechanical analysis (nano-DMA) techniques. Fatigue testing with nano-DMA shows that the deformation resistance of CSNs persists through 5.0 × 10⁴ loading cycles at estimated contact pressures greater than 15 GPa. When the a-Si shell …

Development Of An In Vitro Platform For The Exploration Of Skeletal Muscle Cell Mechanobiology, Sydney Spradlin

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Muscles have the natural ability to regenerate when damaged. This works to keep the body functioning, unless this ability is overwhelmed. Volumetric muscle loss (VML) occurs when a substantial amount of a muscles mass is lost. This leads to the development of scar tissue, and often a loss of function. In order to find a solution for this condition, in vitro models are needed to explore the mechanobiology of skeletal muscle cells. Two platforms were developed in this study, to explore 3 factors: orientation, strain, and supporting structure. One platform used fibronectin stamped lanes on PDMS to encourage cell growth …

Pressure Acquisition System For In Vitro Mitral Valve Analysis, Laura Peck

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In vitro testing of the mitral valve chordae tendineae is utilized to aid in the understanding of the stresses that occur in vivo and improve upon surgical solutions that exist for mitral valve repair. This project aimed to design the water control system for a left heart simulation chamber, as well as the pressure acquisition inside the chamber. A solenoid valve was utilized to control the water supply to the tank and was powered utilizing National Instruments software. National Instruments hardware and software was also used with the pressure transducer in order to obtain pressure readings from the chamber. The …

Comparison Of Varying Tissue Freezing Methods On Murine Colonic Tissue, James Hughes

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Histology often requires a tissue specimen to be embedded so that it may be sectioned, stained, and mounted on a microscope slide for viewing. One common method of tissue embedding for rapid histology is freezing, since freezing allows tissue to be stored without the need for fixing. Frozen tissue is often embedded in a medium such as Optimal Cutting Temperature (OCT) compound so that it can be sectioned using a cryostat. However, factors such as ice-crystal formation during the freezing process can cause damage to the tissue. As such, the protocol used to freeze the tissue can affect the quality …

Analysis Of Biological Response To Ecm Hydrogel Injection, Grady Dunlap

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

Under normal circumstances, skeletal muscle possesses the capacity to regenerate and heal via inflammatory and myogenic pathways. In cases of severe tissue loss or certain diseases, this capacity is lost, often resulting in loss of tissue function. Extracellular matrix (ECM), the protein scaffold which houses cells in physiological tissue, has been shown to have structural and chemical properties which influence cell migration and phenotype. This results in ECM’s capacity to encourage a regenerative response when implanted into severely damaged skeletal muscle. Additional advantages are apparent when an ECM scaffold is digested into a hydrogel, namely less invasive implantation via …

Robust Predictive Analytics For Determining Acclimation Parameter Of It Equipment, Premsanth Sadasivam

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Acclimation is the process in which an IT equipment adjusts to a change in its environment such as a change in temperature and humidity, allowing it to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions. In commissioning of a new cold shipped IT equipment in data centers, environmental acclimation is an important step. Proper acclimation also minimizes the risk of powering on a machine that may still be wet due to moisture condensation. An experimental study is carried out to find how the acclimation occurs and the factors influencing it. These experiments are designed with various temperature ranges and using …

Seismic Forces In Ancillary Components Supported On Piers And Wharves, Rakesh K. Goel

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This paper presents a simple procedure to estimate seismic forces in ancillary components (secondary systems) supported on marine structures such as piers, wharves, and marine oil terminals (primary systems). Since many such marine structures can be idealized as single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems, this study uses a simple linear-elastic model with two DOF, one representing the marine structure and the other representing the ancillary component. This study shows that acceleration at the base of the secondary system is approximately equal to spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the primary system. It also proposes a formula, which is an improvement over current …

An Agent Based Model To Assess Crew Temporal Variability During U.S. Navy Shipboard Operations, Kevin Muhs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the factors that affect human performance variability as well as their temporal impacts is an essential element in fully integrating and designing complex, adaptive environments. This understanding is particularly necessary for high stakes, time-critical routines such as those performed during nuclear reactor, air traffic control, and military operations. Over the last three decades significant efforts have emerged to demonstrate and apply a host of techniques to include Discrete Event Simulation, Bayesian Belief Networks, Neural Networks, and a multitude of existing software applications to provide relevant assessments of human task performance and temporal variability. The objective of this research was …

Handwritten Digit Recognition By Multi-Class Support Vector Machines, Yu Wang

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Support Vector Machine(SVM) is a widely-used tool for pattern classification problems. The main idea behind SVM is to separate two different groups with a hyperplane which makes the margin of these two groups maximized. It doesn't require any knowledge about the object we are focused on, since it can catch the features automatically. The idea of SVM can be easily generalized to nonlinear model by a mapping from the original space to a high-dimensional feature space, and they construct a max-margin linear classifier in the high dimensional feature space.

This thesis will investigate the basic idea of SVM and apply …

Magnetic Studies Of Multiferroic Heterostructures, Ahmed Rayhan Mahbub

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Multiferroic heterostructures (MHS) consisting of at least two materials with ferroic properties have been a major focus for researchers recently due to its immense potential in device applications. Almost all MHS use ferromagnetic layers making it a very important research area. In this thesis the magnetic properties of different ferromagnetic heterostructures have been investigated. Different bilayers of hard ferromagnet cobalt ferrite (CFO)-soft ferromagnet lanthanum strontium manganese oxide (LSMO) and hard ferromagnet CFO-antiferromagnet nickel oxide (NiO) were fabricated. Pulsed laser deposition technique was used to deposit the thin films on LAO and sapphire substrates. Purpose of using a hard ferromagnetic CFO …