This thesis covers the use of a quarter car model to select damping rates for aFormula Student (FS) car, focusing on minimizing vertical tire force variation to improvegrip. A 2 degree of freedom (DOF) quarter car model is cycled over the road frequenciesof interest and the results compared with the...
Exposure to arsenic early in life has been associated with increased risk of several chronic diseases and is believed to alter epigenetic programming in utero. In the present study, we evaluate the epigenome-wide association of arsenic exposure in utero and DNA methylation in placenta (n=37), umbilical artery (n=45) and human...
There are two problems with current cylindrical projections for world maps. First, existing cylindrical map projections have a static height-to-width aspect ratio and do not automatically adjust their aspect ratio in order to optimally use available canvas space. Second, many of the commonly used cylindrical compromise projections show areas and...
The sensations of taste and smell are integral to our perception of food. Because the olfactory and gustatory systems are physiologically separate, scientists were once uncertain of whether information from these two systems interacted at the perceptual level. Recent studies suggest that taste and smell do indeed interact. Two interaction...
The intent of this research is to explore the entire design space of mechanism topologies by using a graph grammar synthesis approach. A new graph representation of planer mechanism has been developed to represent the planar mechanism with revolute (R), prismatic (P), and pin-in-slot (RP) joints. Following Gruebler's equation, the...
Secure multi-party computation (MPC) is a conceptual framework in cryptography. It allows distrusting parties engage in a protocol to perform a computational task while still maintain some secure properties. Most existing approaches are required to interpret functions as a boolean circuit. With the recent state-of-art circuit garbling scheme, the performance...
The development and some applications of holographic optical tweezers (HOT) are presented. Our HOT system uses a spatial light modulator (SLM) to control the location and properties of the optical trap. We have developed a method for optimizing the diffraction efficiency of a SLM that can be applied in situ...
Micro air vehicles (MAV's) and small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAV) are remotely piloted or autonomous aircraft with a take-off mass range between 50 g and few kilograms. These vehicles, as well as natural fliers such as bats and insects, utilize a variety of elastic wing structures including thin membranes. Over...
The chlamydiae are a family of obligate intracellular bacteria that have a unique bi-phasic developmental cycle, unique cellular properties, and a unique set of challenges to studying its biology. While genetic manipulation is becoming routine in Chlamydia, there are significant challenges to working with this intracellular parasite. The body of...
WLBU2 is an engineered cationic amphiphilic peptide that targets Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and envelopes endotoxin while avoiding other cell types. The exact mechanism of how WLBU2 targets, binds, and disrupts bacterial cell membranes is still not completely known. Thus, the overall goal of this investigation is to determine the...