Tree Climbing Limb Saw

This document is the comprehensive report for the Tree Climbing Limb Saw Senior Project. The purpose of the Tree Climbing Limb Saw project, completed by mechanical engineers Andrew Bray, Aimee Chiem, Drew Robles, and Parker Tenney, is to remove low-hanging branches (\u3c15 \u3eft) to prevent forest fires from travelling up into the canopy, where wind can carry embers for miles. An RC car was heavily modified to create a solution for this problem. A chainsaw was also mounted to deal with the cutting part of the problem. Creating a project which aims to solve this problem is a great step towards innovation reaching the wildfire sector. With increased innovation in the field, wildfires may become easier to control. This comprehensive report includes the initial Scope of Work report of this project, followed by the Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, and Final Design Review Report

An interpretable deep learning method for bearing fault diagnosis

Deep learning (DL) has gained popularity in recent years as an effective tool for classifying the current health and predicting the future of industrial equipment. However, most DL models have black-box components with an underlying structure that is too complex to be interpreted and explained to human users. This presents significant challenges when deploying these models for safety-critical maintenance tasks, where non-technical personnel often need to have complete trust in the recommendations these models give. To address these challenges, we utilize a convolutional neural network (CNN) with Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) activation map visualizations to form an interpretable DL method for classifying bearing faults. After the model training process, we apply Grad-CAM to identify a training sample's feature importance and to form a library of diagnosis knowledge (or health library) containing training samples with annotated feature maps. During the model evaluation process, the proposed approach retrieves prediction basis samples from the health library according to the similarity of the feature importance. The proposed method can be easily applied to any CNN model without modifying the model architecture, and our experimental results show that this method can select prediction basis samples that are intuitively and physically meaningful, improving the model's trustworthiness for human users

Mechanism of Vanadium Leaching during Surface Weathering of Basic Oxygen Furnace Steel Slag Blocks: A Microfocus X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Electron Microscopy Study

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking slag is enriched in potentially toxic V which may become mobilized in high pH leachate during weathering. BOF slag was weathered under aerated and air-excluded conditions for 6 months prior to SEM/EDS and μXANES analysis to determine V host phases and speciation in both primary and secondary phases. Leached blocks show development of an altered region in which free lime and dicalcium silicate phases were absent and Ca-Si-H was precipitated (CaCO 3 was also present under aerated conditions). μXANES analyses show that V was released to solution as V(V) during dicalcium silicate dissolution and some V was incorporated into neo-formed Ca-Si-H. Higher V concentrations were observed in leachate under aerated conditions than in the air-excluded leaching experiment. Aqueous V concentrations were controlled by Ca 3 (VO 4 ) 2 solubility, which demonstrate an inverse relationship between Ca and V concentrations. Under air-excluded conditions Ca concentrations were controlled by dicalcium silicate dissolution and Ca-Si-H precipitation, leading to relatively high Ca and correspondingly low V concentrations. Formation of CaCO 3 under aerated conditions provided a sink for aqueous Ca, allowing higher V concentrations limited by kinetic dissolution rates of dicalcium silicate. Thus, V release may be slowed by the precipitation of secondary phases in the altered region, improving the prospects for slag reuse

Integrin-dependent control of translation: engagement of integrin alphaIIbbeta3 regulates synthesis of proteins in activated human platelets.

Integrins are widely expressed plasma membrane adhesion molecules that tether cells to matrix proteins and to one another in cell-cell interactions. Integrins also transmit outside-in signals that regulate functional responses of cells, and are known to influence gene expression by regulating transcription. In previous studies we found that platelets, which are naturally occurring anucleate cytoplasts, translate preformed mRNA transcripts when they are activated by outside-in signals. Using strategies that interrupt engagement of integrin alphaIIbbeta3 by fibrinogen and platelets deficient in this integrin, we found that alphaIIbbeta3 regulates the synthesis of B cell lymphoma 3 (Bcl-3) when platelet aggregation is induced by thrombin. We also found that synthesis of Bcl-3, which occurs via a specialized translation control pathway regulated by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), is induced when platelets adhere to immobilized fibrinogen in the absence of thrombin and when integrin alphaIIbbeta3 is engaged by a conformation-altering antibody against integrin alphaIIbbeta3. Thus, outside-in signals delivered by integrin alphaIIbbeta3 are required for translation of Bcl-3 in thrombin-stimulated aggregated platelets and are sufficient to induce translation of this marker protein in the absence of thrombin. Engagement of integrin alpha2beta1 by collagen also triggered synthesis of Bcl-3. Thus, control of translation may be a general mechanism by which surface adhesion molecules regulate gene expression

Atmospheric carbon capture performance of legacy iron and steel waste

Legacy iron (Fe) and steel wastes have been identified as a significant source of silicate minerals, which can undergo carbonation reactions and thus sequester carbon dioxide (CO2). In reactor experiments, i.e., at elevated temperatures, pressures, or CO2 concentrations, these wastes have high silicate to carbonate conversion rates. However, what is less understood is whether a more “passive” approach to carbonation can work, i.e., whether a traditional slag emplacement method (heaped and then buried) promotes or hinders CO2 sequestration. In this paper, the results of characterization of material retrieved from a first of its kind drilling program on a historical blast furnace slag heap at Consett, U.K., are reported. The mineralogy of the slag material was near uniform, consisting mainly of melilite group minerals with only minor amounts of carbonate minerals detected. Further analysis established that total carbon levels were on average only 0.4% while average calcium (Ca) levels exceeded 30%. It was calculated that only ∼3% of the CO2 sequestration potential of the >30 Mt slag heap has been utilized. It is suggested that limited water and gas interaction and the mineralogy and particle size of the slag are the main factors that have hindered carbonation reactions in the slag heap

Comparison of Electron-Atom Collision Parameters for S to P Transitions under Reversal of Energy Transfer

Inelastic and superelastic electron scattering from the optically prepared 32P3/2 state of sodium has enabled atomic collision parameters to be deduced for the 4S-3P deexcitation and the 3S-3P excitation processes. These data are compared with convergent close coupling and second order distorted wave Born calculations. For excitation, both theories agree with experiment, whereas for deexcitation the close coupling theory is in better agreement. A long-standing proposal relating to the sign of the transferred angular momentum is not supported

Comparison of Electron-Atom Collision Parameters for S to P Transitions under Reversal of Energy Transfer

Inelastic and superelastic electron scattering from the optically prepared 32P3/2 state of sodium has enabled atomic collision parameters to be deduced for the 4S-3P deexcitation and the 3S-3P excitation processes. These data are compared with convergent close coupling and second order distorted wave Born calculations. For excitation, both theories agree with experiment, whereas for deexcitation the close coupling theory is in better agreement. A long-standing proposal relating to the sign of the transferred angular momentum is not supported

Anisotropic Coarsening: Grain Shapes and Nonuniversal Persistence

We solve a coarsening system with small but arbitrary anisotropic surface tension and interface mobility. The resulting size-dependent growth shapes are significantly different from equilibrium microcrystallites, and have a distribution of grain sizes different from isotropic theories. As an application of our results, we show that the persistence decay exponent depends on anisotropy and hence is nonuniversal.Comment: 4 pages (revtex), 2 eps figure

IL-15 and PIM kinases direct the metabolic programming of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes

Intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) respond to IL-15 complexed with IL-15Ra but how this intrinsically affects IEL is unclear. Here the authors use proteomics analyses of the main mouse IEL subsets and identify PIM kinases as essential for IEL proliferation, metabolism and effector function downstream of IL-15