An Innovative Take on Filtering Carbon Dioxide Through CryoCapture

Overview (Air Mover): Carbon dioxide plays an important role in the earth's ecosystem; the lives of many organisms are based on the balancing of this gas. Plants and animals need it for survival however, an excess of carbon dioxide can also end the organism’s life. The production of the gas mostly comes from the combustion of fossil fuel, power plants, big industries, vehicles, and processes involving natural gasses. One of the most known issues of carbon dioxide pollution is global warming. The greenhouse gas essentially traps heat in the atmosphere, increasing the global temperature. The methodology provided is an innovative solution towards the creation of an environmentally friendly carbon dioxide filter. Current air filtration systems are restricted to industrial environments limiting the ability to filter the air. Due to the large noise and low range of operation of axial fans the filtration systems need controlled environments for longevity. The paper presents a versatile air mover that can be mounted onto multiple surfaces due to its low profile and bracket mounts. Furthermore, the usage of a diagonal fan inside of a PVC pipe allows for a durable system that can operate at high efficiency and low noise. The main challenge in designing the air mover was figuring out how to quantify the scalability of the device and what parameters could be changed in order to make the device more viable. The designs most prominent feature are the inclusion of a modular enclosure that can be adapted to multiple areas and environments while withstanding harsh conditions due to the PVC piping that can be coated with a diagonal fan for high volumetric flow rates and pressure differential for versatility in environments the device is placed in as well as efficiency. Overview (Carbon Storer): The Civil and Environmental Engineering team is responsible for finding a cost effective and sustainable way to transport, store and recycle the carbon caught in the air from the Carbon Catcher designed by the other engineering teams. In the team’s design, the Carbon Catcher will reduce the harmful emissions in the air by capturing CO2, store it and then utilize it in another industry which will reduce the need to mine for more raw materials which would thus further reduce the pollution emitted into the environment. Our plan is to recycle the carbon emitted from a factory and utilize it in CO2 dry ice. It's the Civil and Environmental Engineers’ job to find a way to connect a sustainable solution with a solution that improves the public’s quality of life. There are many industries that pollute immense amounts from the mining of raw material or the emission of pollutants. The team wants to show industries that the economic solution can also be the sustainable solution. Overview (Membrane) The team’s solution focuses on the use of cryogenic carbon capture, a method in which the selective freezing points of the gaseous components of air are used to separate out carbon dioxide. For this process, the team will be utilizing a 4 step filtration process. First, the flue gas will be run through a particulate filter to catch all macroscopic particles that may be present within the air. Afterwards, the gas is then passed through a dehumidifier where a majority of water content will be extracted. Following this, The gas was then run through a long pipe and progressively cool it down to the freezing point of carbon dioxide. Finally, the filtered gas is extracted, and a bubbler is used to separate the solid carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is then compressed and recycled around the feed pipe to help in the cooling process. Along the process of this design, the team encountered problems finding the optimum materials for temperatures this low. As well, coming up with a way to eliminate heat transfer from the outside posed a huge problem. Through the experience, the team was able to gain a greater view of what benefits and drawbacks must be balanced, along with the economic interest that comes with designing an efficient process. Unlike how most designs are focused, It was understood that using a membrane only provided so much creativity when it came to filtration. As a result, the team researched other successful methods and arrived at utilizing cryogenics to filter. Goal Research to provide a single solution to remove levels of carbon dioxide in the immediate atmosphere, transport it to a storage mechanism, and find a way to recycle it. Powerful research is required to ensure effective methodologies, material usage, and flexible scalability of the overall device. This particular team seeks to find an alternative separation process to membrane filtration, the efficacy of which has not been demonstrated beyond the scale of a laboratory

Incidence and predictors of premature ventricular complexes following catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, and previous studies have focused on the epidemiology, mechanisms and risk factors for this global disease (Ryder and Benjamin 1999). Various studies have examined the mechanism, epidemiology, and risk factors for AF. One of the most common triggers for AF is believed to be premature atrial contractions (PACs) usually arising from the pulmonary veins of the left atrium, but the relationship between AF and premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) is not well understood. Studies investigating the triggers of premature beats in both the atria and ventricles are similar, so it is possible that treatment for one arrhythmia may affect the incidence of another. It is hypothesized that due to commonly shared mechanisms of triggered activity or automaticity between PACs and PVCs, and shared risk factors, that patients with AF undergoing treatment with catheter ablation may be prone to develop PVCs. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of clinically detected PVCs among patients undergoing catheter ablation for AF, and clinical predictors of PVC development in this cohort of patients. We also aim to evaluate if incident PVC detection is associated with recurrent AF following AF ablation in a cohort of 317 patients receiving treatment at a single academic medical center. METHODS: A total of 375 patients undergoing AF ablation from 2009-2012 were reviewed, and patients that underwent repeat ablations were excluded, yielding 317 patients for analysis. T-tests and Chi-squared analyses were used in univariate analyses to test for significance between characteristics of AF patients who did and did not develop PVCs. Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox proportional hazards models were used for univariate and multivariate survival analyses, respectively, to assess the risks of incident PVC development. RESULTS: Of 317 patients with AF undergoing pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) ablation, 36.3% developed clinically detectable PVCs following ablation. A history of clinically evident PVC prior to catheter ablation for AF was associated with an 80% increase in risk of incident PVC development (HR=1.83, 95% CI 1.02-3.26, p=0.041). Additionally, a history of prior angioplasty, stent, or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was associated with a 73% decreased risk of incident PVCs (HR=0.27, 95% CI 0.08-0.88, p=0.03). In patients with a history of PVC prior to ablation, or who developed PVCs after ablation, there was no significant difference in the risk of AF recurrence (HR=1.01, 95% CI 0.70-1.46, p=0.96; and HR=1.09, 95% CI 0.78-1.53, p=0.60, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Over 1 in 3 patients develop clinically detected PVCs following catheter ablation. Predictors of incident PVC development include a history of PVC, whereas a history of angioplasty, stent, or PCI was associated with less incident PVC development. Furthermore, there was no significant association between both a history of PVC or incident PVC and risk of recurrent AF following ablation

Automated Test Cell for Compressed Gas

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisThis report details the components, decisions, and functionality to modify a manual system designed to gather data to create equations that correlate pressure and ultrasonic dB to flow. Our modifications turn the entirely manual system into a system that will automatically gather data from each sensor and write them to an Excel file. The data collected can then be used to create the equations.Electrical Engineering Technolog

R-from-T as a common mechanism of arrhythmia initiation in long QT syndromes

Background: Long QT syndromes (LQTS) arise from many genetic and nongenetic causes with certain characteristic ECG features preceding polymorphic ventricular tachyarrhythmias (PVTs). However, how the many molecular causes result in these characteristic ECG patterns and how these patterns are mechanistically linked to the spontaneous initiation of PVT remain poorly understood. Methods: Anatomic human ventricle and simplified tissue models were used to investigate the mechanisms of spontaneous initiation of PVT in LQTS. Results: Spontaneous initiation of PVT was elicited by gradually ramping up I-Ca,I-L to simulate the initial phase of a sympathetic surge or by changing the heart rate, reproducing the different genotype-dependent clinical ECG features. In LQTS type 2 (LQT2) and LQTS type 3 (LQT3), T-wave alternans was observed followed by premature ventricular complexes (PVCs). Compensatory pauses occurred resulting in short-long-short sequences. As I-Ca,I-L increased further, PVT episodes occurred, always preceded by a short-long-short sequence. However, in LQTS type 1 (LQT1), once a PVC occurred, it always immediately led to an episode of PVT. Arrhythmias in LQT2 and LQT3 were bradycardia dependent, whereas those in LQT1 were not. In all 3 genotypes, PVCs always originated spontaneously from the steep repolarization gradient region and manifested on ECG as R-on-T. We call this mechanism R-from-T, to distinguish it from the classic explanation of R-on-T arrhythmogenesis in which an exogenous PVC coincidentally encounters a repolarizing region. In R-from-T, the PVC and the T wave are causally related, where steep repolarization gradients combined with enhanced I-Ca,I-L lead to PVCs emerging from the T wave. Since enhanced I-Ca,I-L was required for R-from-T to occur, suppressing window I-Ca,I-L effectively prevented arrhythmias in all 3 genotypes. Conclusions: Despite the complex molecular causes, these results suggest that R-from-T is likely a common mechanism for PVT initiation in LQTS. Targeting I-Ca,I-L properties, such as suppressing window I-Ca,I-L or preventing excessive I-Ca,I-L increase, could be an effective unified therapy for arrhythmia prevention in LQTS

Microfouling of Manganese-oxidizing microorganisms in Rameswaram Coastal Waters.

Manganese oxidizing marine microorganisms was studied from the coupons of PVC, Titanium, Brass, Copper and Stainless Steel were immersed one meter below water surface, using wooden rafts. The metal coupons, Brass, Titanium and Brass were exposed for a period of six months (October 2005 to March 2006). The PVC and SS were suspended in the sea for two months (February and March 2006). Sea water samples were also collected from the study area using water sampler to estimate the physiochemical and nutrients were analyzed. The population of HB and MHB on PVC was registered as 3.62 x 107 CFU/cm2 and 2.87 x 107 CFU/cm2, respectively while on Stainless Steel the population density of HB and MHB was recorded as 3.79 x 105 CFU/cm2 and 1.34 x 105 CFU/cm2. The PVC and titanium coupons were recorded relatively higher values comparing with other coupons, and it may be due to the non-toxic nature of the substratum. Brass also recorded higher bacterial population density compared to copper. The least population density observed in copper coupons could be due to it toxic nature. The generic composition of heterotrophic bacterial strains isolated from biofilm samples, both Gram-positive and Gram-negative groups were noted on all the materials studied. The notable thing was that Gram-positive group was fond to be dominant. The genera identified under Gram-positive were Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus sp. and Micrococcus sp. and the Gram-negative strains identified as Pseudomonas sp., Salmonella sp., Vibrio sp. and Proteus sp. Among the five types of coupons tested PVC exhibited highest Mn value of 5543 mg/g. Bacterial slim samples generated on the exposed coupons were scrapped and characterized by Bergey’s method.

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Agenator: An open source computer-controlled dry aging system for beef

Dry aging of beef is a process where beef is exposed to a controlled environment with the ultimate goal of drying the beef to improve its quality and value. Comprehensive investigations into the effects of various environmental conditions on dry aging are crucial for understanding and optimizing the process, but the lack of affordable equipment focused on data collection makes it difficult to do so. The Agenator was thus developed as an open source system with a suite of features for investigating dry aging such as: measuring and recording relative humidity, temperature, mass, air velocity, and fan rotational speed; precise control within 1% for relative humidity and 50 rpm for fan rotational speed; robust signal integrity preservation and data recovery features; modular design for easy addition and removal of individual chamber units; and non-permanent fixtures to allow easy adaptation of the system for other applications such as investigating dehydration of food products. The open source system comes with user-friendly computer software for interfacing with the system and creating sophisticated environmental control programs. The Agenator is available to the public at https://osf.io/87nck/

Evaluation of MEMS-based In-place Inclinometers in Cold Regions

INE/AUTC 12.3

John Brown University disaster shelter competition

John Brown University hosted the 6th annual Disaster Shelter Relief Competition in April 2017 for which the team built a prototype shelter and proposed a camp plan. Both the shelter and the camp plan were designed to house refugees coming into Greece from the Middle East. The shelter would accommodate a family of four and the camp plan was designed to hold 1250 shelters, or 5000 people. The shelter was built on site at John Brown University and was required to take less than two hours to fully construct. This report summarizes the work the team did for the competition, including a review of existing shelter designs currently in use, a description of the method of design of the prototype, validation that the prototype meets the criteria, a discussion of the cultural appropriateness of the shelter to the scenario, suggested modifications and improvements that can be made, photos and drawings of the prototype, and the camp plan