Process-structure-property relationships in material extrusion additive manufacturing (MEAM) are complex, non-linear, and poorly understood. Without proper characterization of the effects of each processing parameter, products produced through fused filament fabrication (FFF) and other MEAM processes may not successfully reach the material properties required of the usage environment. The two aims of this thesis were to first use an informatics approach to design a workflow that would ensure the collection of high pedigree data from each stage of the printing process; second, to apply the workflow, in conjunction with a design of experiments (DOE), to investigate FFF processing parameters. Environmental, material, and print conditions that may impact performance were monitored to ensure that relevant data was collected in a consistent manner. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filament was used to print ASTM D638 Type V tensile bars. MakerBot Replicator 2X, Ultimaker 3, and Zortrax M200 were used to fabricate the tensile bars. Data was analyzed using multivariate statistical techniques, including principal component analysis (PCA). The magnitude of effect of layer thickness, extrusion temperature, print speed, and print bed temperature on the tensile properties of the final print were determined. Other characterization techniques used in this thesis included: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that printer selection is incredibly important and changes the effects of print parameters; moreover, further investigation is needed to determine the sources of these differences.

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For my senior thesis, I am planning to blend my mathematical studies with my second field of study, psychology. In particular, to develop and test various scoring methods for a multidimensional, psychometric measure of social skills/competence. I would work with the Social Skills Inventory (see below) and an existing data set, using statistical modelling to design a more representative total score measure. The current total score measure does not appear to take into account balances and value weights of the six inventory items.

El principal objectiu d'aquest treball es avaluar els efectes d'un additiu comercial XT (5% carvacrol, 3% cinamaldehide, 2% oleoresina d capsicum) sobre els rendiments productius i diferents paràmetres de la fisiologia digestiva del garrí deslletat precoçment. Un altre objectiu d'aquest treball es avaluar les possibles interaccions del XT amb altres ingredients, nutrients i additius de la dieta. Aquest treball s'ha d'entendre com a part d'un ampli pla de recerca multicentric organitzat per la companyia Pancosma. En concret hem avaluat i) l'efecte del XT als paràmetres mencionats depenent del nivell i font de proteïna, ii) la possible interacció entre l'XT i l'àcid fòrmic, i la comparació de l'efecte del XT amb l'acció de l'avilamicina i el butirat sòdic. Finalment, després de tres anys de col·laboració i donat l'interès de la companyia en desenvolupar nous productes basats en extractes de plantes, hem desenvolupat un mètode in vitro per testar el poder antimicrobià d'un ampli ventall de substàncies derivades de plantes. Al treball in vitro, el nostre objectiu ha sigut desenvolupar un mètode molt simple però realista, utilitzant el contingut de diferent trams del tracte intestinal, obtingut dels porcs sense cap modificació, i incubant-lo curts períodes de temps.Resultats productiusEls resultats productius són molt variables entre experiments. Aquestes variacions són degudes probablement a l'ús de diferent instal·lacions, edats i estats de salut dels animals i la diferent composició de les dietes bassals.Mesures fisiològiques i físiquesLa digestibilitat ileal i rectal i el pH en les diferents part del tracte gastrointestinal s'han estudiat de manera sistemàtica a les tres proves in vivo però no s'han obtingut resultats consistents. Tanmateix, la inclusió de extractes de plantes a la segona prova va provocar un alentiment del buidament gàstric realcionat amb un augment del pH de l'estomac.Poblacions microbianes El resultat més consistent de tots els obtinguts es l'augment de lactobacillus amb la inclusió del XT a les dietes. Malauradament, la rellevància d'aquest augment no està gens clara perquè no va tenir relació directa amb cap benefici productiu. La inclusió del XT ha afectat també altres paràmetres microbians: la concentració de bases púriques i els perfils d'àcids grassos volàtils. Aquest resultats no són molt consistents i de vegades contraris.Paràmetres epitelialsS'han estudiat els efectes del XT a l'estructura epitelial però una vegada més els resultats són molt variables depenent de la prova. De totes maneres queda clar que l'XT exerceix una gran influencia sobre certs paràmetres immunes del epiteli, i s'han de continuar investigant amb tècniques més especifiques.Estudis in vitroEl mètode in vitro s'ha utilitzat amb èxit pe compara diferents additius. Les variacions de fermentació in vitro no només depenen del additiu utilitzat, sinó també de l'edat de l'animal i de la part del tracte gastrointestinal utilitzada d'on s'obté l'inocul. Aquestes variacions s'han d'analitzar amb deteniment.D'aquests estudis podem concloure que les dosis comercials de XT no presenten efectes antimicrobians directes sobre les poblacions microbianes estudiades (lactobacillus i enterobacterias). Utilitzant el contingut de jejú com inocul, es necessiten dosis properes a 10000 ppm per obtenir efectes antimicrobians. D'altre banda, amb dosis més baixes de les substàncies pures s'aconsegueixen efectes similars. Aquestes dosis varien entre 500 i 3000 ppm de carvacrol i cinamaldehid, depenent de la part del tracte gastrointestinal estudiada. Amb tots els productes, la dosis mínima necessària per inhibir la fermentació es sempre menor amb el contingut del jejú. / The main objective of this PhD dissertation is to evaluate the effects of the commercial additive XT (5% carvacrol, 3% cinnamaldehyde, 2% capsicum oleoresin) on productive performance and on different parameters of normal digestive physiology of the early weaned pig: digestibility, pH, epithelial structure, bacterial populations and metabolic activity. It is also an objective of this work to evaluate possible interactions of XT with other ingredients, nutrients and additives included in the diet. This work must be understood in a broader multi-centric research plan organized by the company Pancosma. In particular, the experiments here presented evaluate i) the effects of XT on the above mentioned parameters depending on the CP level and source, ii) the possible interaction between XT and formic acid, and finally the comparison of the effects of XT with the action of avylamycin and butyrate. After three years of collaboration and given the interest of the company in developing new products based on plant extracts, we developed an in vitro methodology to test the antimicrobial effects of a wide range of plant derived substances. Concerning the in vitro method, our objective was to develop a very simple but realistic method able to obtain significant results, using crude intestinal content obtained from the pigs and incubating it for short periods.Productive performanceThe performance results were very variable among the experiments. These variations were probably due to the use of different facilities, age and health status of the animals and the different composition of the basal diets.Physiologic and physical parametersIleal and whole tract digestibility and pH measurements in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract were systematically studied in the three in vivo trials but no consistent effects of including plant extracts were found. However, plant extracts inclusion in the diet in the second trial resulted in a decrease of gastric emptying rate and an increase of pH. Microbial populations The most consistent result in the three experiments was an increase in lactobacilli counts with the inclusion of XT in the diets. However, the relevance of this higher intestinal lactobacilli content is not clear, since there was no direct relation with productive benefits. XT inclusion also had an effect on other microbial parameters: purine bases concentration and VFA profile. However, those results were not very consistent and often were highly controversial.Epithelial parameters The effects of XT on the epithelial structure were studied and, once more, the results were very variable depending on the trial. However, a high influence of XT was found on some immune parameters measured in the epithelium and in the lamina propia, results that encourage continuing investigating these effects with more specific techniques.In vitro studies The in vitro method was successfully used to compare different additives. Variations in in vitro fermentation were found not only depending on the additive used but on the age of the animal and on the gastrointestinal tract part used as source of the inoculum. These variations should be studied in more detail in the future.From these studies, we can conclude that the recommended commercial dose of XT presents no direct antimicrobial effect on the studied populations (lactobacilli and enterobacteria). Doses of near to 10000 ppm are needed to obtain antimicrobial effects in jejunum content. However, lower doses were needed when the pure substances instead of the XT mixture were used. These doses were between 500 and 3000 ppm for carvacrol and cinnamaldehyde, depending on the gastrointestinal tract part studied. The minimum dose of all studied substances to produce antimicrobial effects was always lower for the jejunum than for stomach or cecum content.

For any finite set B and a subset A⊆B, we define the density of A in B to be the value α=|A|/|B|. Roth's famous theorem, proven in 1953, states that there is a constant C>0, such that if A⊆{1,...,N} for a positive integer N and A has density α in {1,...,N} with α>C/loglog N, then A contains a non-trivial arithmetic progression of length three (3AP). The proof of this relies on the following dichotomy: either 1) A looks like a random set and the number of 3APs in A is close to the probabilistic expected value, or 2) A is more structured and consequently, there is a progression P of about length α√N on which A∩P has α(1+cα) for some c>0. If 1) occurs, then we are done. If 2) occurs, then we identify P with {1,...,|P|} and repeat the above argument, whereby the density increases at each iteration of the dichotomy. Due to the density increase in case 2), an argument of this type is called a density increment argument. The density increment is obtained by studying the Fourier transforms of the characterstic function of A and extracting a structure out of A. Improving the lower bound for α is still an active area of research and all improvements so far employ a density increment. Two of the most recent results are α>C(loglog N/log N)^{1/2} by Bourgain in 1999 and α>C(loglog N)^5/log N by Sanders in 2010. This thesis is a survey of progresses in Roth's theorem, with a focus on these last two results. Attention was given to unifying the language in which the results are discussed and simplifying the presentation.

Recent work on many problems in additive combinatorics, such as Roth's Theorem, has shown the usefulness of first studying the problem in a finite field environment. Using the techniques of Bourgain to give a result in other settings such as general abelian groups, the author gives a walk through, including proof, of Roth's theorem in both the one dimensional and two dimensional cases (it would be more accurate to refer to the two dimensional case as Shkredov's Theorem). In the one dimensional case the argument is at its base Meshulam's but the structure will be essentially Green's. Let Ϝⁿ [subscript p], p ≠ 2 be the finite field of cardinality N = pⁿ. For large N, any subset A ⊂ Ϝⁿ [subscript p] of cardinality ∣A ∣≳ N ∕ log N must contain a triple of the form {x, x + d, x + 2d} for x, d ∈ Ϝⁿ [subscript p], d ≠ 0. In the two dimensional case the argument is Lacey and McClain who made considerable refinements to this argument of Green who was bringing the argument to the finite field case from a paper of Shkredov. Let Ϝ ⁿ ₂ be the finite field of cardinality N = 2ⁿ. For all large N, any subset A⊂ Ϝⁿ ₂ × Ϝⁿ ₂ of cardinality ∣A ∣≳ N ² (log n) − [superscript epsilon], ε <, 1, must contain a corner {(x, y), (x + d, y), (x, y + d)} for x, y, d ∈ Ϝⁿ₂ and d ≠ 0.

Controlling the blend morphology is one of the ways to achieve high power conversion efficiency in organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaic device. One sample yet effective method is ¡§ additive¡¨ approach, which involves the addition of a small concentrations of additive into the blend of donor/acceptor dissolved in solution. When adding small concentrations of additives in solution, we can change the donor/acceptor of internal micro-structure and films of morphology. In this work, we performed a systematic study of the effect of nanocrystals of phenolic additives, such as the small concentrations of 4,4'-Sulfonyldiphenol(BPDT), 4,4'-Dihydroxybiphenyl(BP) and Biphenyl-4,4¡¦-dithiol(BPS), on the nanoscals phase separation of and P3HT:PCBM blends and consequently, the power conversion efficiency(PCE) of the devices. The extent of the additive-induced phase separation and crystallize of P3HT is related to the additive acidity constant (pKa) and the degree of interaction between the additive and P3HT/PCBM, as evident from X-ray diffractmeter, UV-Vis spectrometer, Raman spectrometer and current density-voltage characteristic data. Lastly, PCE as increasing as 25% and short current increasing as 15% can be achieved in an optimally phase-separated blend due to an improvement in the charge dissociation and a dcrease in bimolecular recombination and parallel resistance.

Abstract Electric contacts are the essential components of electric equipment. In the past, the silver-cadmium oxide is used as the materials contacts. However, because it generates the poison cadmium gas during the service, which causes the cancer, the silver-cadmium oxide will be prohibited in the near future. Now the silver-tin oxide is often used as the materials of the electrical contacts. To oxidize pure tin more easily,¡AIn2O3 is usually added as the auxiliary oxide agent. However, In2O3 is expensive. Hence, in this study, the other metal oxide agents are added to the silver-tin oxide to investigate the agent effect on the erosion characteristics (such as the erosion amount, the contact resistance, the arc energy, etc). This study uses the powder metallurgy to produce the electrical contacts, where the sizes of pure silver powder and tin oxide powder are 2~3£gm and 4~5£gm, respectively. The doping agents are made of 3~4£gm tungsten oxide and 3~5£gm molybdenum oxide, respectively. The powder are mixed in a suitable proportion to produce electrical contacts. The effect of metal oxide on the erosion of electrical contacts is investigated under different electric conditions. Results show that when the tin oxide powder is added to the pure sil-ver, the splashing of material can be prevented efficiently, and the erosion of electrical contacts can be reduced. Among the materials of silver-tin oxide, the contacts have the minimum erosion at the concen-tration of 5wt%. In order to reduce the cost of electrical con-tacts, the concentration of tin oxide is increased to 10wt% to investigate the influence of the doping agent. Results show that the addition of 0.3wt%WO3 has the minimum erosion. This electrical contact has lower erosion than the commercial ones. Furthermore, the regions, where the electrical contact has lower erosion than the commercial pure silver contacts and the silver-cadmium oxide, respectively, are established. These re-gions will be the best usable regions of silver tin oxide, and it will be the basis for the choice and the application of silver-tin oxide electrical contacts.

Lithophane is a translucent image created by varying the plate thickness; the image is observed using a back lit light source. Software Bmp2CnC linearly converts the black and white image grayscale into the thickness, thus generates CAD file and lithophane is fabricated by additive manufacturing machines. Additive manufacturing makes highly complex lithophane fabrication possible. It is a convenient, rapid, green, design-driven, and high precision way to make lithophanes, and no post processing is needed. Optical properties of laser sintered polyamide 12 translucent additive manufactured parts were analyzed in this dissertation. First, selected optical properties of laser sintered polyamide 12 blank plates under different monochromatic light and white light were investigated and applied in production of laser sintered lithophanes to achieve better performance. A spectrophotometer was used to measure the transmittance of visible light through laser sintered polyamide 12 plates as a function of plate thickness. The transmittance decreased with increasing plate thickness according to a modified Beer-Lambert Law, and it varied significantly depending on the monochromatic wavelength. Monochromatic LEDs were used to assess the wavelength dependence on the transmission and contrast. Highest transmission was observed with green light (540 nm), and poorest transmission was measured for yellow light (560 nm). Second, several parameters affecting lithophane manufacturing performance were analyzed including lithophane orientation with respect to light source, brightness and contrast versus plate thickness and grayscale level, quantized plate thickness correction, surface finish quality, and manufacturing orientation. It was found that brightness was relative to the plate thickness. The contrast was defined by the lithophane grayscale level, which was influenced by sintering layer thickness, plate thickness, and sintering orientation. Thinner sintering layers resulted in more grayscale levels of the image and smaller difference between the theoretical thickness and actual thickness. Relatively larger plate thickness defined greater contrast; however, the plate thickness was limited due to the light transmission. Lithophane quality was largely improved by changing the manufacturing orientation from the XY plane orientation to the ZX/ZY plane orientation. The grayscale level changed continuously when parts were constructed in the z orientation. Third, other thermoplastic semi-crystalline materials were analyzed for LS optically translucent part production. Last, plates and lithophanes were built using a different AM platform: stereolithography (SL) with Somos® ProtoGen[Trademark] O- XT 18420 white resin. Different optical properties and lithophane performance were found and compared with PA 12 parts. In conclusion, laser sintered polyamide 12 optical properties varied with light wavelength and reached the maximum under green light. When building in the XY plane, thinner layer thickness (0.07 mm) and relative thicker maximum plate thickness (3.81 mm) leaded to higher contrast and greyscale level. Lithophane quality was largely improved when fabricated in the ZX/ZY plane orientation. Lithophanes made from stereolithography were analyzed but showed lower contrast due to the optical property difference of the white resin. Laser sintered lithophanes serve as an interesting and complex LS industrial application. Optical properties, manufacturing aspects, and other related issues were analyzed and discussed in this dissertation. Future work may include the use of nanocomposites for optimal lithophane performance, and more precise manufacturing processing to improve the lithophane resolution. / text

The effect of using a boric acid based additive in lubricants and fuel enhancers was investigated in this study. Experiments were performed in a reciprocating and a continuous sliding ball-on-disk test equipment. Different oil types and temperatures were used. The aim of the experiments was to provide information about how these boron containing lubricants work in terms of chemistry and tribology. The surfaces after tribological contact were analyzed with Light Optical Microscopy (LOM), Vertical Scanning Interferometry (VSI), Scanning Electron Spectroscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS). The boric acid based additive and the temperature used affected both the friction and wear. A higher oil temperature resulted in wider wear tracks. Oil with boron additive seemed to lower the friction coefficient at temperatures above 50 °C, compared to the same oil without boric acid; the reference oil. The tests also indicated that friction coefficients as low as 0.05 can be achieved by using a boron additive layer on the disk surface together with PAO-oil. Tribofilms containing Zn, P, S, Mg and O were formed in the wear tracks at high temperatures for both the reference oil and oil with boron additive. Oxidized regions were found in the tracks created from tests at 25 °C. Tests with oil containing boron additive resulted in lower Zn concentrations in the tracks, which is an indication that the boric acid based additive hinders the formation of these Zn rich tribofilms. To summarize, both oils and fuel enhancers with boric acid can obtain lower friction coefficients compared to those without this additive. The role of boric acid in the tests performed, both regarding the tribology and chemistry, is not yet fully understood and more chemical investigations are needed.