Design of FerroElectric MEMS energy harvesting devices

Waste heat is a widely available but little used source of power. Converting a thermal gradient into electricity is conventionally done using the Seebeck effect, but devices that use this effect are naturally inefficient. An alternate approach uses microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to generate movement and time-varying temperature from a constant temperature gradient. Ferroelectric materials can harvest electricity from moving structures and temperature variations. This concept was realized using traditional silicon microprocessing techniques. A silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer was backside Deep Reactive Ion Etched (DRIE) to form a one mm2 by 7 micron thick silicon/silicon dioxide membrane. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) was deposited on the membrane and acts as a ferroelectric material. Heating the bulk of the SOI substrate causes an increase in stress and upward deflection of the membrane. The membrane then enters into contact with a cold sink fixed above the substrate. Cooling of the membrane from contact with the cold sink causes actuation downwards of the membrane. The alternating heating and cooling of the PZT layer generates electricity from the pyroelectric effect. The actuation of the membrane generates stress on the PZT layer resulting in electricity from the piezoelectric effect

Deconstructing the Wall: The Analysis and Implications of the 2004 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Use of Border Walls

This research project looks at the various jurisprudences surrounding the 2004 ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Israeli Barrier and analyzes the arguments both in support and in opposition to the Court’s decision. It then looks at the conditions for the illegality of the Israeli Barrier that were established by the Court, analyzes them, and synthesizes a list of characteristics that can be applied to other barriers in order to determine their legality. This checklist, if you will, is then applied to other border walls in order to make a tentative conclusion about their legality and if a suit could be adequately argued in front of the ICJ. Suggestions for further research into other barriers are then made

Survey of the Boletes from Fish River Nature Preserve

Boletes are a special kind of mushroom inside of the Kingdom Fungi that are distinguished from other mushrooms by their uniquely pored hymenium, as opposed to gills. Many boletes are ectomycorrhizal, meaning they are mutualists with vascular plants, and thus beneficial to the overall health of the terrestrial ecosystem. Some are well-known for their edibility and are of economic importance. In the United States 59 genus-level clades comprising 290 operational taxonomic units have been reported. The southeastern US and Gulf Coast regions however are less researched and recorded for their mushroom ecology. In Alabama, only 56 bolete species have been reported so far. Specimens in this project were collected from Baldwin and Mobile Counties, AL, with the majority of specimens collected at The Fish River Nature Preserve. The Fish River Nature Preserve (FRNP) is located south of Fairhope in Baldwin County, and was recently purchased by the South Alabama Land Trust Conservation group. This property includes an upper level section with a tract dominated by oaks and another by pines, which is fire-controlled, and one near the river dominated by palmetto palms. Upon collection, all collected specimens were brought from the field to the South Alabama campus lab for technical descriptions, imaging, freezing of a small tissue sample, dehydration preservation of the fruiting body, and storage of the specimen. Microscopic work followed that and included the measurement of basidiospores. A primary list of the suspected species of each specimen was created based on morphological descriptions, and spore measurements. The frozen tissue sample then underwent DNA extraction via Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification. Specimens that yielded DNA products were then uploaded into GenBan via Blasting to find matches of named sequences that are already in the GenBank database. A total of 26 specimens were collected at the FRNP and Mobile County. 19 of the 26 specimens\u27 identities were confirmed via DNA blasting from which 2 were confirmed to the genus level and the other 17 the the species level. Those remaining 7 that did not yield a DNA confirmed identity were identified morphologically. Together with morphological descriptions and DNA confirmation, a total of 17 species were identified, and they include: A. russellii (NTN-16); B. alutaceus (NTN-09); B. vermiculosoides (NTN-21); E. floridanus (NTN-14); G. castaneus (NTN-01; NTN-03, NTN-06, NTN-12, NTN-17, NTN-22); H. rubellus (NTN-10, NTN-13); L. albellum (NTN-04, NTN-18); P. bellus (NTN-02); P. rhodoxanthus (NTN-15); S. floccopus (NTN-05); S. decipiens (NTN-23); T. balloui (NTN-11); T. rhoadsiae (NTN-08); T. rubrobrunneus (NTN-20, NTN-26); X.affine (NTN-24, NTN-25); X. intermedius (NTN-07); X. subtomentosus (NTN-19). One species, B. alutaceus (NTN-09) commonly known as the “Leather Colored Bolete” is a species native to New England that was identified on the FRNP with no previously reported collections in Southern Alabama.https://jagworks.southalabama.edu/honors_college_posters/1022/thumbnail.jp

PyMOL Plugin to Build Protein Structures Based on Natural TERM Overlaps

This project is a continuation of the Grigoryan Lab\u27s exploration of TERMs. A TERM is a tertiary structural motif, which is a fragment of a protein that includes the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary environments around a certain residue. As displayed in past publications discussing TERMs, they are a useful way of decomposing proteins into smaller components that help in understanding design and prediction of protein structures. The Grigoryan Lab developed a database that keeps track of naturally occurring overlaps between TERMs, which gives a user the information they would need to put these TERMs together into complex structures. These events led to the development of this project: The Protein Builder. The Protein Builder is a plugin for the molecular visualization software PyMOL that allows a user to build protein structures out of TERMs based on the database of overlaps. The Protein Builder is a Python program that implements a PyQt UI. Using the program\u27s menu and PyMOL\u27s interactive display of atomic structures, users can build structures from scratch, or save/load structures to build off of. The PyMOL client communicates with a server that contains the database, manages the state of a user\u27s project session, and provides recommendations of TERMs to continue building with. The program is very useful to users with research needs, such as users wishing to use TERMs to learn more about protein structure & design or users that wish to design proteins that include certain residues or certain functionality

Where Does the Church Stand in Today’s Mental Health Landscape?

Religious involvement in care for those living with mental illness has been going on for centuries, and perspectives on it have changed throughout the years. This literature review evaluates the place of religious groups, mainly Christian churches, in today\u27s mental health situation by considering past and present involvement. It incorporates sources regarding different eras of mental hospital reform, modern perspectives of mental health clinicians and clergy, and the current gaps in mental health support among a variety of groups, including veterans, African Americans, and people in developing countries. This review then considers potential future involvement, especially considering how these gaps have been widened by the COVID-19 pandemic. In utilizing these sources, this review finds that effective collaborations are culturally rooted and driven by mutual respect. The results of these are collaborations that not only consider the holistic health of an individual, but also reach a population who may not otherwise receive care for their psychological needs.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/honors_isp/1018/thumbnail.jp

Coping with Forest Fragmentation: A Comparison of Colobus angolensis palliatus dietary diversity and behavioral plasticity in the East Sagara Forest, Tanzania.

Habitat destruction and forest fragmentation are perhaps the largest threats to primate species around the world. While national parks, games reserves, and primate sanctuaries are instrumental in primate conservation, research suggests that some non-governmentally protected forest fragments may also serve as viable habitats for primates. Of course not all primates respond to fragmentation in the same way, but a species’ ability to survive in a fragment relates to 1) home range size 2) degree of frugivory 3) dietary flexibility and behavioral plasticity and 4) ability to utilize matrix habitats. Here I describe these variables in relation to black and white colobus monkeys while focusing on dietary and behavioral plasticity. In general, black and white colobus monkeys seem well adapted to cope with forest fragmentation compared to other primate species because of their small home ranges, predominantly folivorous diets, and dietary and behavioral flexibility. For 15 days during October and November 2009, I observed two troops of Colobus angolensis palliatus in a small encroached forest fragment in the Western Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania. Utilizing past studies from Preston (2002), Fox (2004), Heinen (2006), and Olsen (2007), this study monitors behavioral changes in terms of activity budgets and feeding effort to analyze stress levels associated with fragmentation. Furthermore, this study explores black and white colobus monkey dietary diversity in terms of tree species and selection ratios. This study suggests Colobus angolensis palliatus exhibit remarkable dietary diversity and may be altering their behavior to cope with increasing food scarcity over time. These characteristics likely contribute to primates’ ability to persist in this forest fragment