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(281 - 300 of 5,848)
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- Title
- Nanoparticle Based Thermal History Indicators
- Creator
- Perez-luna, Victor Hugo, Betala, Pravin Ajitkumar
- Date
- 2012-03-30, 2011-10-11
- Description
-
An indicator composition for determining a thermal or chronological history during shipping or storage of a product. The composition includes...
Show moreAn indicator composition for determining a thermal or chronological history during shipping or storage of a product. The composition includes a plurality of nanoparticles dispersed throughout a matrix. The nanoparticles turn color while dispersed in the matrix as a function at least one of time and temperature.
Sponsorship: Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent
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- Title
- CORROSION-RESISTANT ELECTRO-CATALYSTS AND SUPPORTS FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL ENERGY CONVERSION
- Creator
- Wang, Guanxiong
- Date
- 2016, 2016-12
- Description
-
Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) convert chemical energy of fuels (eg. Hydrogen) directly to electrical energy with excellent power...
Show morePolymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) convert chemical energy of fuels (eg. Hydrogen) directly to electrical energy with excellent power density, high efficiency, and zero emissions. Several challenges have delayed the commercialization of fuel cells with one being the high cost and durability of the carbon-supported-platinum-based (Pt/C) electrocatalysts. The lifetime/durability issue is critical as insufficient durability/reliability of the catalysts affects the lifetime and economical viability of these devices. Carbon support corrosion is a major durability issue since the corrosion reaction is thermodynamically favorable but kinetically sluggish under normal operating conditions. The potential transients that occur during start and stop in automotive applications can lead to electrode potential excursions of up to 1.5 V and contribute to carbon corrosion. The best way to mitigate support corrosion in PEFCs is to replace the carbon supports with alternatives having high electronic conductivity, surface area and porosity. This dissertation investigates the following carbon alternatives: (i) tin doped indium oxide (ITO) and (ii) 1:1 mixed oxides of ruthenia and silica (RSO). Microstructure characterization and electrochemical evaluations, including accelerated stress tests (start-up/shut-down and load cycling protocols) were performed to evaluate ORR activity, fuel cell performance, and electrochemical stability under PEFC operating conditions. The ITO support and 40%Pt/ITO catalysts demonstrated exceptional electrochemical stability (and reasonable ORR activity) in rotating disk electrode (RDE) experiments under accelerated potential cycling that mimicked automotive drive cycles. However, Pt/ITO exhibited poor performance and stability during MEA evaluation in a PEFC. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to reveal the degradation modes of Pt/ITO during PEFC operation and it was found that the increase in the surface hydroxide concentration generates a passivating In(OH)3 layer that increases electrode resistance and undermines PEFC performance. The influence of the catalyst support on PEM degradation during PEFC operation was also studied. Rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) experiments were employed to estimate the fraction of H2O2 generated during the ORR on the supports (C and RSO) and catalysts (benchmark Pt/C and Pt/RSO). The percentage of H2O2 generated on C and Pt/C was 50% higher than that on RSO and Pt/RSO thus explaining the observed oxidative degradation resistance of the PEM with the latter supports/catalysts.
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, December 2016
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- Title
- A modular simulation package for fed-batch fermentation: penicillin production
- Creator
- Birol, G., Undey, C., Cinar, A.
- Date
- 2002-11-15
- Publisher
- PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
- Description
-
Simulation software based on a detailed unstructured model for penicillin production in a fed-batch fermentor has been developed. The model...
Show moreSimulation software based on a detailed unstructured model for penicillin production in a fed-batch fermentor has been developed. The model extends the mechanistic model of Bajpai and Reuss by adding input variables such as pH, temperature, aeration rate, agitation power, and feed flow rate of substrate and introducing the CO2 evolution term. The simulation package was then used for monitoring and fault diagnosis of a typical penicillin fermentation process. The simulator developed may be used for both research and educational purposes and is available at the web site: http://www.chee.iit.edu/ similar to control/software.html.
Endnote format citation
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- Title
- AUTOMATIC SUMMARIZATION OF CLINICAL ABSTRACTS FOR EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE
- Creator
- Summerscales, Rodney L.
- Date
- 2013, 2013-12
- Description
-
The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) encourages health professionals to make informed treatment decisions based on a careful analysis...
Show moreThe practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) encourages health professionals to make informed treatment decisions based on a careful analysis of current research. However, after caring for their patients, medical practitioners have little time to spend reading even a small fraction of the rapidly growing body of medical research literature. As a result, physicians must often rely on potentially outdated knowledge acquired in medical school. Systematic reviews of the literature exist for speci c clinical questions, but these must be manually created and updated as new research is published. Abstracts from well-written clinical research papers contain key information regarding the design and results of clinical trials. Unfortunately, the free text nature of abstracts makes it di cult for computer systems to use and time consuming for humans to read. I present a software system that reads abstracts from randomized controlled trials, extracts key clinical entities, computes the e ectiveness of the proposed interventions and compiles this information into machine readable and human readable summaries. This system uses machine learning and natural language processing techniques to extract the key clinical information describing the trial and its results. It extracts the names and sizes of treatment groups, population demographics, outcome measured in the trial and outcome results for each treatment group. Using the extracted outcome measurements, the system calculates key summary measures used by physicians when evaluating the e ectiveness of treatments. It computes absolute risk reduction (ARR) and number needed to treat (NNT) values complete with con dence intervals. The extracted information and computed statistics are automatically compiled into XML and HTML summaries that describe the details and results of the trial. xiii Extracting the necessary information needed to calculate these measures is not trivial. While there have been various approaches to generating summaries of medical research, this work has mostly focused on extracting trial characteristics (e.g. population demographics, intervention/outcome information). No one has attempted to extract all of the information needed, nor has anyone attempted to solve many of the tasks needed to reliably calculate the summary statistics.
PH.D in Computer Science, December 2013
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- Title
- SUSTAINABLE NEW CITY VAN, TURKEY
- Creator
- Dursun, Kevser Pinar
- Date
- 2013, 2013-07
- Description
-
While the negative effects of rapid urbanization is threatening cities and the environment, being more conscientious about the current...
Show moreWhile the negative effects of rapid urbanization is threatening cities and the environment, being more conscientious about the current problems and future expansions of the cities and developing new visions and strategies for new cities is crucial. In this proposal, the aim is to develop a prototype of a sustainable new city in Turkey. Design area is called Carpanak, at the east shore of Lake Van. It is in the north of Van, the biggest city in the Eastern Anatolia district of Turkey. Eastern Anatolia is a mountainous district with a severe climate. The region is less developed than the other regions in every aspect. Severe climate and lack of job opportunities caused outmigration from this region to big cities or onshore regions with more developed industries. A city with sufficient infrastructure, efficient energy solutions, green areas, well-designed transportation, economic viability, and open social structure will help reverse the migration and rescue Eastern Anatolia from being abandoned. It is hoped that the design decisions, ideas, and the research can be applied as an outline to other underdeveloped areas in Turkey.
M.S. in Architecture, July 2013
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- Title
- Titanium Base Alloy
- Creator
- Crossley, Frank A., Rausch, John J.
- Date
- 1957-07-09
- Description
-
Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent
- Title
- Center for Civil Disobedience: 20120423_Final_Post_Rast
- Creator
- Pantazis, Steven
- Date
- 2012-05-02, 2012-05
- Description
-
An Architecture to formalize the process of civil disobedience. It raises awareness of the implications of the privatization of public space
- Title
- Automatic Insulin Pumps Using Recursive Multivariable Models and Adaptive Control Algorithms
- Creator
- Cinar, Ali, Oruklu, Meriyan
- Date
- 2014-04-09, 2014-04-08
- Description
-
A method and device for monitoring or treating patient glucose levels. The device includes a glucose sensor for measuring a glucose level of a...
Show moreA method and device for monitoring or treating patient glucose levels. The device includes a glucose sensor for measuring a glucose level of a patient, a physiological status monitoring system for measuring at least one physical or metabolic variable of the patient, and an automatic controller in communication with the glucose sensor and the physiological status monitoring system. The controller includes a prediction module for automatically predicting a future glucose level using data measured by the glucose sensor and the physiological sensor.
Sponsorship: Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent
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- Title
- OIL RECOVERY IN SINGLE CAPILLARIES AND POROUS MEDIA USING WETTING NANOFLUIDS
- Creator
- Zhang, Hua
- Date
- 2016, 2016-05
- Description
-
Recent experiments and modeling conducted in our laboratory have demonstrated that the spreading of nanofluids, liquid suspensions of...
Show moreRecent experiments and modeling conducted in our laboratory have demonstrated that the spreading of nanofluids, liquid suspensions of nanosized particles, on solids are enhanced due to self-structuring of nanoparticles in the confined three-phase oil-nanofluid-solid contact region. Nanofluids have recently been proposed as agents for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Despite recently widely conducted research using nanofluids for EOR, the underlying operating mechanism is not well understood. In this thesis, we attempt to understand the mechanism of nanofluid based EOR and evaluate its performance from reservoir core samples and model systems (glass capillary and sintered bead-pack). To visualize how oil displacement in the rock pores by nanofluid, we conducted model study using hexadecane and single glass capillary and showed the oil film dynamics in air and nanofluid after oil was displaced in the capillary. Based on the understanding of the role of nanofluid on oil displacement in capillaries, we conducted imbibition tests using Berea sandstones and flooding experiments in sintered glass-beads. X-ray microtomography was used to visualize and analyze fluid distribution and to see the effect of nanofluid in EOR. We finally considered fractured media by fabricating such structures. The dynamics of a cylindrical hexadecane layer deposited inside glass capillaries after the oil/air displacement was studied experimentally and by modeling. The oil layer subject to surface perturbation becomes unstable forming uniform, regularly-spaced double concave menisci across the capillary that are bridged with dimples (collars). In order to reveal the phenomena of the film thinning and stability between the double concave meniscus and the dimple, we monitored an air bubble approaching a flat glass surface in hexadecane. We found that the oil film thinning in a cylindrical glass capillary and on a flat glass substrate were similar; We adapted the model proposed by Gauglitz and Radke for our system (oil-air displacement) and solved it numerically. The numerical result shows a stable film between the liquid bridge and the dimple, which is consistent with our experimental observations. We also estimated the meniscus-film-dimple thickness profile and found it was in fair agreement with the model prediction. The dynamics of cylindrical hexadecane film after displacement by a nanofluid in a glass capillary was studied. We found the thick hexadecane film is unstable, and over time it breaks and forms a thin film. Once the thick film ruptures, it retracts and forms an annular rim (liquid ridge) that collects liquid. As the volume of the annular rim increases over time, it forms a double concave meniscus across the capillary and dewetting stops. The thin film on the right side of the double concave meniscus then breaks and the contact angle increases. The process repeats until droplets build along the capillary wall. Finally, the droplets are displaced from the capillary wall by the nanofluid and spherical droplets appear inside the capillary. This is a novel phenomenon not observed during dewetting by a solution without nanoparticles. The theoretical model based on the lubrication approximation using the capillary pressure gradient was developed to estimate the annular rim dewetting velocity. The predicted dewetting velocity is found to be in fair agreement with the experimental value. We conducted imbibition tests using a reservoir crude oil and a reservoir brine solution with a high salinity and a suitable nanofluid that displaces crude oil from Berea sandstone and single glass capillaries. We present visual evidence of the underlying mechanism based on the structural disjoining pressure for the crude oil displacement using a polymeric nanofluid (our definition of such a fluid means a suspension of polymeric particles in an aqueous substrate) in high salinity brine. The polymeric nanofluid is specially formulated to survive in a high salinity environment and is found to result in an increased efficiency of 50% for Berea sandstone compared to 17% using the brine alone at a reservoir temperature of 55 oC. These results aid our understanding of the role of the nanofluid in displacing crude oil from the rock especially in a high salinity environment containing Ca++ and Mg++ ions. Results are also reported using Berea sandstone and a nanofluid containing silica nanoparticles. We conducted a series of flooding experiments at different capillary numbers to quantify the performance of a polymeric nanofluid compared to brine using the sintered glass-beads. A high resolution X-ray microtomography (microCT) was used to visualize oil and brine distribution in a sintered bead-pack before and after nanofluid flooding. The results of flooding experiments showed that an additional oil recovery of approximately 15% is possible with nanofluids compared to brine at low capillary numbers, and is as effective as high capillary number brine flooding. Nanofluid induced additional oil recovery decreases as we increase the capillary number and the total oil recovered shows a marginal decrease. At first glance, these results are opposite of what one expects in the conventional EOR, where oil recovery is known to increase progressively with increasing capillary number. These results cannot be explained based on mobilization theories due to the reduced capillarity. Our results however are consistent with the mechanism of wettability alteration caused by structural disjoining pressure leading to the formation of the wetting nanofluid film between oil and substrate.We presented experimental studies of nanofluid flooding in fractured porous media formed with sintered glass-beads. The nanofluid injection is conducted at a rate where structural disjoining pressure driven recovery is operational. We found an additional 23.8% oil can be displaced using nanofluid after brine injection with an overall displacement efficiency of 90.4% provided the matrix was in its native wettability state. In summary, nanofluids are excellent EOR agents and their economic viability needs to be examined.
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, May 2016
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- Title
- Flame Spraying Process
- Creator
- Rechter, Harold L., Eisenberg, Marvin
- Date
- 1958-08-19
- Description
-
Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent
- Title
- High-rise mix-use
- Creator
- Mei, Chuan
- Date
- 2012-05-02, 2012-05
- Title
- WIDESPAN: 2030-board 1
- Creator
- Ninan, Janice
- Date
- 2011-05, 2010-12
- Description
-
Widespan design.Investigating the integration of windmills into longspan structure and investigating the axial forces of tension to span...
Show moreWidespan design.Investigating the integration of windmills into longspan structure and investigating the axial forces of tension to span grater spans using virtual depth concepts with slender lightweight design.
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- Title
- Incubator for Small Business Manufacturing
- Creator
- Victor, Jimeniz
- Date
- 2010-07-29
- Title
- Automated Dry Deposition Sampler
- Creator
- Holsen, Thomas M., Noll, Kenneth E.
- Date
- 2009-05-11, 1995-08-22
- Description
-
A dry deposition sampling apparatus having at least one thin dry deposition plate with sample collection film is maintained on a support...
Show moreA dry deposition sampling apparatus having at least one thin dry deposition plate with sample collection film is maintained on a support structure which is rotatable about a vertical axis and has a vane to maintain the sharp leading edge of the dry deposition plate(s) headed into the wind. Covers are positioned over the sample collection films automatically upon commencement of precipitation and are automatically moved to a position exposing the sample collection films to the atmosphere upon cessation of precipitation. The duration of exposure of the collection films to the atmosphere is timed, thus providing a dry deposition sampling apparatus which may be left unattended for long periods of time.
Sponsorship: Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent
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- Title
- The thermal conductivity of various forms of tile and their value as fireproofing materials
- Creator
- Anderson, S. W., Chamberlin, J. F.
- Date
- 2009, 1915
- Publisher
- Armour Institute of Technology
- Description
-
http://www.archive.org/details/thermalconductiv00ande
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology
- Title
- COVERAGE AND CONNECTIVITY IN WIRELESS NETWORKS
- Creator
- Xu, Xiaohua
- Date
- 2012-04-25, 2012-05
- Description
-
The limited energy resources, instability, and lacking central control in wireless networks motivates the study of connected dominating set ...
Show moreThe limited energy resources, instability, and lacking central control in wireless networks motivates the study of connected dominating set (CDS) which serves as rout- ing backbone to support service discovery, and area monitoring and also broadcasting. The construction of CDS involves both coverage and connectivity. We ¯rst study sev- eral problems related to coverage. Given are a set of nodes and targets in a plane, the problem Minimum Wireless Cover (MWC) seeks the fewest nodes to cover the targets. If all nodes are associated with some positive prices, the problem Cheapest Wireless Cover (CWC) seeks a cheapest set of nodes to cover the targets. If all nodes have bounded lives, the problem Max-Life Wireless Cover (MLWC) seeks wireless coverage schedule of maximum life subject to the life constraints of individ- ual nodes. We present a polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) for MWC, and two randomized approximation algorithms for CWC and MLWC respectively. Given a node-weighted graph, the problem Minimum-Weighted Dominating Set (MWDS) is to ¯nd a minimum-weighted vertex subset such that, for any vertex, it is contained in this subset or it has a neighbor contained in this set. We will propose a (4+²)-approximation algorithm for MWDS in unit disk graphs. Meanwhile, for the connecting part, given a node-weighted connected graph and a subset of terminals, the problem Node-Weighted Steiner Tree (NWST) seeks a lightest tree connecting a given set of terminals in a node-weighted graph. We present three approximation algorithms for NWST restricted to UDGs. This dissertation also explores the applications of CDS, and develops e±cient algorithms for the applications such as real-time aggregation scheduling in wireless networks. Given a set of periodic aggregation queries, each query has its own period , and the subset of source nodes Si containing the data, we ¯rst propose a family of e±cient and e®ective real-time scheduling protocols that can answer every job of each query task within a relative delay under resource constraints by addressing the following tightly coupled tasks: routing, transmission plan constructions, node activity scheduling, and packet scheduling. Based on our protocol design, we further propose schedulability test schemes to e±ciently and e®ectively test whether, for a set of queries, each query job can be ¯nished within a ¯nite delay. We also conduct extensive simulations to validate the proposed protocol and evaluate its practical performance. The simulations corroborate our theoretical analysis.
Ph.D. in Computer Science, May 2012
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- Title
- Wellness and Education: 04.21_Mason Boards
- Creator
- Mason, Laurie
- Date
- 2012, 2012-05
- Description
-
What if the school were more like a playground; a laboratory for exploration and discovery? What if the place itself actually inspired the...
Show moreWhat if the school were more like a playground; a laboratory for exploration and discovery? What if the place itself actually inspired the students within it? My proposal for a new primary school in Chicago attempts to become such a place. With an emphasis on wellness and ecologically based practices the school becomes a teaching tool. Featuring a diverse range of flexible interior and exterior spaces, the building supports different learning environments. The school also encourages community involvement through shared resources and volunteer opportunities. The project becomes more than a school; an integral part of the neighborhood and place to experience learning.
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- Title
- Performance Addendum: Filing the Void: FINAL STUDIO BOARDS
- Creator
- Edwards, David
- Date
- 2012-04-24, 2012-05
- Description
-
This project was done as a response to the thriving public performance community at the northern side of Grant park in Chicago, IL. As a...
Show moreThis project was done as a response to the thriving public performance community at the northern side of Grant park in Chicago, IL. As a former resident of the South Loop a rift was readily perceived between the North and South ends of the park in both venues for entertainment as well as general amenities. This project looked to fill a void on the south end of the park to create both a more welcoming outdoor space for the public but also to create a performance venue that could help bring business and pedestrian traffic to the southern end of the loop.
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- Title
- Equipment for Use with Magnetic Tape Records
- Creator
- Reed, Frank J.
- Date
- 1962-04-10
- Description
-
Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent
- Title
- Video Transducing Apparatus
- Creator
- Camras, Marvin
- Date
- 2009-05-04, 1975-02-04
- Description
-
Monochrome and color television recording and playback circuitry for coupling of a video magnetic transducer head with a standard broadcast...
Show moreMonochrome and color television recording and playback circuitry for coupling of a video magnetic transducer head with a standard broadcast television receiver. The transducer head preferably includes a plurality of head units for recording respective color television signals with provision for selectively recording a monochrome signal on successive channels with the use of one only of the head units.
Sponsorship: IIT Research Institute
United States Patent
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