Investigating the Feasibility of 5G in a Lunar Environment

The goal of this project is to examine the feasibility of implementing a 5G wireless network in a lunar environment. In order to do so, the ideas and technologies behind 5G should be explored, as well as how it relates to previous wireless technologies in terms of speed, coverage, latency, and other important factors for a successful lunar network. A simplified representation of the lunar network was created to observe how the system would function. Two Arduino Uno boards were used alongside a wifi shield to simulate a lunar rover taking in data through sensors, compiling the data, sending it through a 5G network to a station or satellite, and then the data being transmitted back to a terrestrial command station. We hoped to show with the design of our network that a lunar network utilizing 5G would be a feasible and worthwhile option for communication on and with the moon. Our group expected to see some limitations including range and coverage limitations for the different levels of 5G data transfer and potentially other limitations due to the conventions of AT commands for telephone communication. The study, testing, and implementation of a 5G lunar network would have far-reaching effects in the space exploration field. Once active, the network would allow for a base of operations to be built and communicated with effectively. This could open up the possibility of easier access to Mars and other planets in the future

Safety Concerns, Fear and Precautionary Behavior among College Women: An Exploratory Examination of Two Measures of Residency

This study examines the impact of two distinct measures of residency on college women\u27s perceptions of safety, fear of crime and precautionary behaviors within both on-campus and off-campus areas. A student\u27s current residency either on- or off-campus and a student\u27s prior residency in a metropolitan, micropolitan or rural county prior to college are compared across these three aspects of campus safety. Current residency is found to be significantly related to a student\u27s perceptions of safety in off-campus areas around campus, as well as the likelihood of engaging in precautionary behaviors such as avoiding specific locations on campus or carrying or keeping something (for example, weapons) for protection. Prior residency, on the other hand, was not found to impact perceptions of safety, fear of crime or precautionary behaviors

Fear of Acquaintance Versus Stranger Rape as a Master Status : Towards Refinement of the Shadow of Sexual Assault

Using a sample of 1,010 women from a southeastern state university, we explore whether associations between fear of sexual assault and other crime-specific fears vary based on presumed victim-offender relationship. More specifically, we assess the extent to which fear of stranger- and acquaintance-perpetrated sexual assaults differ in the extent to which they are correlated with fear of other crime victimizations. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that both fear of stranger-perpetrated sexual assault and fear of acquaintance- perpetrated sexual assault were positively associated with nearly all other crimespecific fears under examination. However, associations were particularly strong between fear of sexual assault by a stranger and fear of other stranger-perpetrated crimes. Findings have significant implications for how academic institutions should comprehensively address direct and indirect negative influences of violence against college women

AMGEN DRUM HANDLER: LIFTING & TILTING MECHANISM

Team Pick It Up & Put It Down was challenged to design the lifting and tilting portion of a device that will transport chemical-filled plastic barrels from a pallet located on the dirty” side of Amgen’s facilities airlock to another pallet located across a demarcation on the clean” side of the same airlock. This device must also allow for the required 10-minute cleaning process to occur. The device must be reliable, safe, and work in a timely manner to eliminate the current labor-intensive process of manually manipulating these barrels, which can weigh up to 250 pounds. Operation of this device must comply with the particulate standards for an ISO-8 class clean room environment. To meet the design requirements, the team completed thorough market research and review of the 2016-2017 design, assessing the best approach to solving Amgen’s problem. The team used market research and input from Amgen to identify design specifications necessary to develop an effective, quality product. Using brainstorming activities in tandem with patent and literature searches, 120 unique concepts were generated and judged based on their feasibility and effectiveness in solving the given challenge. After careful consideration with the assistance of engineering and concept analysis, it was determined that use of electronics, by means of an electric linear actuator is the most effective concept in eliminating human labor input and abiding by the cleanliness standards. The team worked closely with the University of Rhode Island’s Mechanical Engineering Capstone Team 8, who was challenged to develop the overall device design. Detailed engineering analysis along with side by side development, integrated the lifting and tilting mechanism into a viable concept that functions with the overall design. The team spent the duration of the spring semester building, testing, and redesigning the prototype. At this point in time, the team has effectively developed a product that reduces the physical human manipulation of cleaning the barrels. The clamping and bottom prong system successfully secures barrels during the tilting process when the barrel is correctly placed in contact with the prongs and upper clamp. The team accomplished building an integrated device that improves the safety of day-to-day drum handling and the efficiency of the physical drum positioning for cleaning

Bias Associated with Mining Electronic Health Records

Large-scale electronic health record research introduces biases compared to traditional manually curated retrospective research. We used data from a community-acquired pneumonia study for which we had a gold standard to illustrate such biases. The challenges include data inaccuracy, incompleteness, and complexity, and they can produce in distorted results. We found that a naïve approach approximated the gold standard, but errors on a minority of cases shifted mortality substantially. Manual review revealed errors in both selecting and characterizing the cohort, and narrowing the cohort improved the result. Nevertheless, a significantly narrowed cohort might contain its own biases that would be difficult to estimate

Observing the unfolding transition of [beta]-hairpin peptides with nonlinear infrared spectroscopy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry, 2008.In title on t.p., "[beta]" appears as the Greek letter. Vita.Includes bibliographical references.The biological function of a protein is in large measure determined by its three-dimensional structure. To date, however, the transition of the protein between the native and non-native conformations is not well-understood. Part of the difficulty is the large conformational space available to a poly-peptide chain, and a general lack of experimental probes that can access local structural information on the time scale of the transition. Single domain peptides are excellent model systems that reduce the size and complexity of the problem, while maintaining the essential physical interactions. In this thesis, P-hairpin peptides are used as model systems for studying P-sheet secondary structure. Hairpin folding has been studied for a number of years, but there is still debate in the literature about the relative importance of the cross-strand hydrogen bonds, tertiary side chain contacts, and p-turn in the folding pathway. In addition, the denatured state is very poorly understood, which complicates any attempt to describe the folding pathway. In this work, amide I vibrational spectroscopy is used to resolve the secondary structure of P-hairpin peptides during thermal denaturation. Spectroscopic modeling is presented to describe the amide I band of 0-hairpins and relate it to structural features. Three spectroscopic methods are used to probe the amide I band: Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy, and dispersed vibrational echo (DVE) spectroscopy. 2D IR and DVE spectroscopy are 3rd order-nonlinear methods that interrogate the system with a series of ultrafast (100 fs) laser pulses. 2D IR spectra reveal vibrational couplings and measure spectral dynamics on a picosecond time scale. .(cont.) The 2D IR spectra of TZ2 and PG12 are used to identify 3sheet structure during thermal denaturation and to measure the amide I homogeneous line width changes with temperature. The transient folding of TZ2 and PG12 is also probed with 2D IR and DVE spectroscopy following a 10 to 20 OC temperature jump. In order to increase the structural sensitivity of amide I spectroscopy, 13C and 180 isotope labels are incorporated into specific peptide amide groups. The isotope labels red-shift vibrational frequencies and help resolve local structure at the turn and mid-strand regions of the peptides. The transient folding at each labeled site is also measured following a temperature jump. Together, the results of this work identify folding rates for the thermal disordering transition. For PG12, the unfolding time at the mid-strand region of the peptide is 130 ns, and the turn is found to be stable throughout the transition. For TZ2, the kinetic folding rates at each of the labeled sites are found to be very similar to the global unfolding time (-1 Its). Temperature jump 2D IR spectroscopy of TZ2 reveals that the disordering mechanism is unique for different regions of the peptide. The band corresponding to the turn region decouples from the other vibrations, but does not show signs of disorder. In the mid-strand region of the peptide, the isotope-shifted band decouples from the main amide I band and also broadens significantly. Local disordering and decoupling both occur on a 1 gis time scale. The observations in this work combined with previous measurements are used to describe the folding as a hybrid zipper. TZ2 folding is initiated with the formation of the P-turn, following which the tryptophan side chains form a compact, but non-native hydrophobic core. Next, the backbone native contacts are formed and finally the tryptophan side chain packing reaches the native configuration.by Adam W. Smith.Ph.D

Identifying Barriers to Forage Innovation: Native Grasses and Producer Knowledge

Adoption of native warm-season grasses (NWSGs) in the tall fescue belt is limited despite studies documenting the potential contribution of these forages to profitable beef production. On the basis of two surveys conducted in Tennessee, a survey of beef producers and a survey of agricultural professionals, we evaluated perceptions of NWSG forages and how those perceptions could influence their adoption. Although agricultural professionals were more familiar with NWSGs than producers, both populations had limited knowledge regarding these forages, indicating that additional Extension education is needed. Our results provide useful guidance for developing NWSG forage educational programs for producers and agricultural professionals