Mechanical Design and Optimization of an Interactive Animatronic Bald Eagle

Animatronics is a specialized sub-category of mechatronics, a fusion of mechanical and electrical engineering. The field has grown from small, individual projects into a major industry. As animatronics progress, mechanical engineers are pushed to design internal structures which occupy ever-decreasing spaces and to ensure designs can undergo maintenance and modifications smoothly. This research investigates methods of reducing space required for mechanisms and several other beneficial methods of development as well as varying satisfactions for audiences when exposed to actor-controlled systems rather than pre-scripted functions. The mechanical systems are designed using CAD software available at Georgia Southern. On-campus, resources are used to prototype and develop final materials. The research involves selection of electronics and drive systems that are interfaced with mechanical components for automated operations. Upon research completion, it will be determined if the additional time required to implement actor control is advantageous in regards to anticipated, higher results of satisfaction

LATE HOLOCENE SLIP HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL GARLOCK FAULT, MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA

This study investigates the late Holocene slip history of the central Garlock Fault, using measurements of left-lateral offsets of alluvial features from airborne and hand-held LiDAR imagery, drone photogrammetry, and field measurements. IRSL dating of the offset late Holocene alluvial deposits was compared to published paleoseismic records to estimate the number of earthquakes that contributed to the offsets. Focus was given to geomorphic features offset in the past 1-4 earthquakes. Results indicate the average slip per earthquake was about 5.75 m (range: 4.75 to 6.25 m) in the past four events in the El Paso Mountains (EPM) and was 4.3-7.3 m in the past three events in Pilot Knob Valley (PKV). Left-lateral slip in the most recent earthquakes in PKV was most likely 4.4 - 6.5 m, with some variation along strike. Slip in the most recent earthquake at EPM may have been ~ 6.5 m, and preferred estimates of the cumulative slip in the past two, three and four earthquakes at EPM are ~ 12 m, ~ 18 m and ~ 23 m. The slip rate over the four most recent earthquake cycles in EPM was 12.5 mm/yr (range: 10.3 - 13.6 mm/yr) and is comparable to a previously published slip rate at Christmas Canyon West over the same period. The slip rate in PKV over the past three complete earthquake cycles is slower, about 4.2 - 7.7 mm/yr. The faster slip rate at EPM and Christmas Canyon West than in PKV may result from extension that is occurring in Searles Valley

Molecular profiling of resident and infiltrating mononuclear phagocytes during rapid adult retinal degeneration using single-cell RNA sequencing.

Neuroinflammation commonly accompanies neurodegeneration, but the specific roles of resident and infiltrating immune cells during degeneration remains controversial. Much of the difficulty in assessing myeloid cell-specific functions during disease progression arises from the inability to clearly distinguish between activated microglia and bone marrow-derived monocytes and macrophages in various stages of differentiation and activation within the central nervous system. Using an inducible model of photoreceptor cell death, we investigated the prevalence of infiltrating monocytes and macrophage subpopulations after the initiation of degeneration in the mouse retina. In vivo retinal imaging revealed infiltration of CCR2+ leukocytes across retinal vessels and into the parenchyma within 48 hours of photoreceptor degeneration. Immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry confirmed and characterized these leukocytes as CD11b+CD45+ cells. Single-cell mRNA sequencing of the entire CD11b+CD45+ population revealed the presence of resting microglia, activated microglia, monocytes, and macrophages as well as 12 distinct subpopulations within these four major cell classes. Our results demonstrate a previously immeasurable degree of molecular heterogeneity in the innate immune response to cell-autonomous degeneration within the central nervous system and highlight the necessity of unbiased high-throughput and high-dimensional molecular techniques like scRNAseq to understand the complex and changing landscape of immune responders during disease progression

In vivo imaging reveals transient microglia recruitment and functional recovery of photoreceptor signaling after injury.

Microglia respond to damage and microenvironmental changes within the central nervous system by morphologically transforming and migrating to the lesion, but the real-time behavior of populations of these resident immune cells and the neurons they support have seldom been observed simultaneously. Here, we have used in vivo high-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) and scanning laser ophthalmoscopy with and without adaptive optics to quantify the 3D distribution and dynamics of microglia in the living retina before and after local damage to photoreceptors. Following photoreceptor injury, microglia migrated both laterally and vertically through the retina over many hours, forming a tight cluster within the area of visible damage that resolved over 2 wk. In vivo OCT optophysiological assessment revealed that the photoreceptors occupying the damaged region lost all light-driven signaling during the period of microglia recruitment. Remarkably, photoreceptors recovered function to near-baseline levels after the microglia had departed the injury locus. These results demonstrate the spatiotemporal dynamics of microglia engagement and restoration of neuronal function during tissue remodeling and highlight the need for mechanistic studies that consider the temporal and structural dynamics of neuron-microglia interactions in vivo

On classification of modular categories by rank

The feasibility of a classification-by-rank program for modular categories follows from the Rank-Finiteness Theorem. We develop arithmetic, representation theoretic and algebraic methods for classifying modular categories by rank. As an application, we determine all possible fusion rules for all rank=$5$ modular categories and describe the corresponding monoidal equivalence classes.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1310.705