An overview of a flight simulation system is presented with a discussion of the system components and the interaction between functional units. The functions of each unit in the visual system are described. Specifically, the projectile subsystem portion of the visual system is presented in detail. A projectile subsystem executive structure is presented with capability of controlling projectile activation and deletion. Mathematical models for missiles with linear projected impact and proportional guidance are discussed. Ballistic projectile models with and without wind and drag considerations are developed. The mathematical equations for position and attitude calculations are given. Design considerations and implementation of algorithms are also presented with other system design trade-offs.

A long aspect ratio synthetic jet is produced through an axial slit along part of the length of a cylinder. The jet is excited acoustically by a pair of loudspeakers mounted at the cylinder terminations. The study compares between the performance of two different slits with aspect ratios of 273 and 773. The comparison is based on the spanwise distribution of the mean jet velocity and phase between the jet velocity fluctuations and the excitation signal. Three different frequencies and amplitudes are used to excite the speakers covering the range of frequencies used in the control application. For both cases studied the mean centerline velocity of the jet increases with increasing the amplitude of the exciting signal, but decreases with increasing its frequency. Moreover, velocity deficits of up to 30% are evident as the midspan of the cylinder is approached from either end. Similar trends are also observed for the centerline phase distributions of the velocity fluctuations, with deficits of up to 130°. However, it is observed that for the long slit case the deficits in both the velocity and phase distributions are much larger than those for the short one. The synthetic jet is then mounted in the upstream cylinder of a tandem cylinder arrangement to be used as a control actuator for controlling the vibrations of the downstream cylinder. A simple feedback control mechanism is used at a Reynolds number of about 6.3x104. This Reynolds number corresponds to the case' where the downstream cylinder’s response is dominated with two frequency components, one at the resonance frequency of the cylinder, which is excited by broadband turbulence in the flow, and the other at the vortex shedding frequency. Both slits studied for the characterization experiments are used to compare their performance as control actuators. Both jets produce comparable reductions in the vibration of the downstream cylinder. A reduction of about 20% in the total RMS amplitude of the vibrations signal is achieved. This amounts to a reduction of about 50% in the resonant peak and an average value of about 40% in the vortex shedding peak. The optimal values of gain and time lag of the controller are then used to investigate the effect of the jet on the flow. It is found that the short slit jet produced an effect that was traced up to 1.875 diameters downstream, while the effect of the long slit jet dropped dramatically very close to the upstream cylinder. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Synthetic biology is an emerging interdisciplinary research field, which leverages the maturation of DNA synthesis technologies. By introducing engineering principles to synthetic biological systems design, synthetic biology shows great potential to shed new lights on biology and benefit human beings. Computer assisted design (CAD) tools will play an important role in the rational design of synthetic genetic systems. This dissertation presents the first CAD tool for synthetic biology — GenoCAD, a linguistic-based web application. By viewing DNA sequences as a language, we developed the first syntactic model to design and verify synthetic genetic constructs. Then we conducted a careful curation of the terminal set in the grammar - the first comprehensive analysis of the Registry of standard biological parts. The implementation and major features of GenoCAD are discussed, and in particular we showed how to develop a domain-specific grammar for BioBrick-based construct design and make GenoCAD a useful tool for the iGEM students. Finally, we went beyond the syntactic level to explore the semantics of synthetic DNA sequences: by associating attributes with biological parts and coupling semantic actions with grammar rules, we developed the first semantic models to relate the genotype to the phenotype of synthetic genetic constructs. The theories and techniques presented in this dissertation, along with the informative results presented, will serve as a foundation for the future developments of GenoCAD. / Ph. D.

This thesis studies multi-phase flows within two different types of porous nature-inspired material systems: multi-layered feathers and synthetic trees. (1) How multilayered feathers enhance underwater superhydrophobicity. Inspired by ducks, here we demonstrate that air pockets can withstand up to five times more hydrostatic pressure when using stacked layers of synthetic feathers instead of a single layer. The mechanism for the multi-layered enhancement is the more tortuous pathway required for water impalement, which serves to pressurize the air pockets enclosed in the pores. We study this air compression effect using a probabilistic model, in which we quantify the tortuous pathway in stacked feather layers in terms of filled volume fraction of the pores. Our findings suggest that multi-layered coatings could enable robust underwater superhydrophobicity. (2) Oil-Water separation using synthetic trees. In the world's tallest trees, water evaporating from leaves generates enough suction to lift water over 100 m high. Transpiration can similarly be attained in synthetic trees by coupling nanoporous leaves" with conduits mimicking xylem capillaries. Here, we demonstrate that by adding filters to the free ends of the xylem conduits, the hydraulic load generated by transpiration can be used for oil-water separation. The working principle is illustrated using the pressure balance equation for the synthetic tree. / Master of Science / Nature abounds in complex systems and fascinating phenomena that have inspired us, from the way we live to the things we create. The engineering profession is no exception to being inspired by nature. In fact, engineers have created revolutinary robots inspired by animals. The work in this theis draws inspiration from the water-repellant property (superhydrophobicity) of duck feathers and the transpiration process in plants. In the first study, we created 'synthetic feathers' to study how layers of duck feathers are able to sustain superhydrophobicity under water. We discovered the 'layer-effect' that explains enhanced underwater superhydrophobicity. Surfaces covered in such multi-layered feather-like porous structures are potentially useful for reducing drag in underwater applications. In the second study, we develop a 'synthetic tree' that captures the main attributes of the transpiration mechanism in plants. We show that the 'pull' generated by transpiration can be used for oil-water separation. This macroscopic synthetic tree can be useful in cleaning oil spills.

Origin-Destination (O-D) matrices are required in order to model traffic routing behavior in networks. Direct techniques for collecting O-D information from home and roadside interviews have historically been utilized to estimate O-D tables. However, these techniques are not only very costly, labor intensive, and disruptive to trip makers, but traditionally also do not capture traffic peaking behavior, which is often required for traffic operational purposes. Consequently, more cost-effective indirect or synthetic O-D estimation techniques have been developed, and continue to be developed. They utilize readily available traffic volume counts to estimate the most likely O-D tables that may have generated the observed link counts. This thesis describes the basic formulations that have been proposed to formulate and solve the static O-D problem synthetically using link flow observations based on Maximum Entropy techniques. As is the case with many mathematical solutions to engineering problems, a number of simplifying assumptions have been made in order to solve the synthetic O-D problem. Unfortunately, the descriptions of these simplifying assumptions are often not fully described in the literature, and in some cases, these assumptions are not mentioned at all. Furthermore, the literature fails to systematically demonstrate what impact these assumptions have on the final O-D table estimate. Therefore, this thesis utilizes simple hypothetical networks to; 1. Demonstrate and compare the two main types of synthetic O-D formulations, namely the trip and volume based formulations. 2. Track the O-D estimation procedure from its initial formulation to its final formulation, demonstrating all significant assumptions that have been made and the implications of these assumptions on the final solution. 3. Demonstrate to what extent the final O-D estimation formulation remains valid when these assumptions are invoked. 4. Test the applicability of some packages which implement the various formulations and solution techniques that are available. / Master of Science

6-Carboethoxybicyclo [3.3.0] oct-6-en-2-one has been prepared by the intramolecular [4+1] cyclopentene annulation method. This compound and its precursor, 6-vinyl-6-carboethoxybicyclo[3.1.0]hexan-2-one were attained as the necessary standards for the investigation of the course of intramolecular Michael addition-alkylation sequence of l-phenylsulfonyl-6-carboethoxyocta-5,7-dien-2-one. / M.S.

Microrobotics is an emerging discipline with the potential to radically affect fields ranging from medicine to environmental stewardship. Already, there have been remarkable breakthroughs; small scale robots have been made that can selectively traverse the gastrointestinal tract, and others have been built that can fly in a manner inspired from bees. However, there are still significant challenges in microrobotics, and it remains difficult to engineer reliable power sources, actuators, and sensors to create robust, modular designs at the microscale. The miniaturization of the robotic system makes design and efficiency of these components particularly difficult. However, biological systems demonstrate the key features of robotics " sensing, actuation, processing" and are remarkably complex at the microscale. As such, many researchers have turned to biology for inspiration and living robotic components. In our laboratory we have engineered an Escherichia coli (E. coli) capable of producing surface display proteins to either anchor the cells, bind to functionalized nanoparticles, or capture small molecules from the environment, all complex actuation features. Additionally, we have created a processing unit that can create signals based on biological components, yet is non-living. This thesis focuses on the characterization of the surface display E. Coli system and the creation of programmable microparticle scaffolds that may be controlled by biological circuitry. In particular, by leveraging the strong interaction between biotin and streptavidin, I have created programmable microparticle scaffolds capable of attenuating the intensity of a fluorescent response in response to perturbations in the local environmental conditions. We believe this is an excellent enabling technology to facilitate the creation of complex behaviors at the microscale and can be used as a processing unit for simple decision making on microrobots. We foresee this technology impacting disciplines from medical microrobotics to environmental sensing and remediation. / Master of Science / Robots have integrated into industries ranging from car manufacturing to in-hospital transportation. However, recently there has become a new desire for robotics at a smaller scale, for use in fields ranging from medicine to agriculture. For example, how awesome would it be if we had small robots traveling through our bloodstream giving therapeutic drugs as needed or selectively killing tumor cells? This is the dream and goal of many research labs currently. However, when we try to design these tiny robots, we find that we are unable to use many of the normal components that are seen when looking at conventional electronics, AAA batteries as power sources for example. To build upon the example, how would a tiny robot in the body power itself or know when it has reached a cancerous tumor? We propose that the problem of decreased space can be solved by using biological components, like bacteria cells which already live at a microscopic scale, to power these robots and help them sense their surroundings. The work discussed in this thesis involves the design of biological sensors and processing units. We have proven that by engineering the DNA of bacteria cells, using the tools of synthetic biology, we are able to use the outside of the cell (cell’s surface) to sense components in the environment. We hope that the findings discussed in this thesis will serve as the ground work for integrating living cells and robotics for future applications ranging from medicine to environmental remediation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some of the properties of convex sets in the plane through synthetic geometry.

Synthetic data has been proposed as a method to potentially mitigate a number of issues with existing models and datasets for abusive language detection online, such as negative psychological impact on annotators, privacy issues, dataset obsolescence and representation bias. However, previous work on the topic has mostly focused on downstream task performance of models, without paying much attention to the evaluation of other aspects. In this thesis, we carry out a series of experiments and analyses on synthetic data for abusive language detection going beyond performance, with the goal of assessing both the potential and the pitfalls of synthetic data from a qualitative point of view. More specifically, we study synthetic data for abusive language detection in English focusing on four aspects: robustness, examining the ability of models trained on synthetic data to generalize to out-of-distribution scenarios; fairness, with an exploration of the representation of identity groups; privacy, exploring the use of entirely synthetic datasets to avoid sharing user-generated data; and finally we consider the quality of the synthetic data, through a manual annotation and analysis of how realistic and representative of real data synthetic data can be with regards to abusive language.

The field of synthetic biology has leveraged engineering tools such as molecular cloning to create new biological components, networks, and processes. While many of these components and networks have been deployed in the cytosol, there is a shortage of systems that utilize the surface of the cell. In order to address this shortcoming, we have created a synthetic, surface-displayed substrate anchor for bacteria. This approach allows us to engineer surface-based synthetic biological systems as a complement to existing intracellular approaches. We leveraged the tools of synthetic biology to display a catalytically active enzyme that covalently bonds itself to benzylguanine (BG) groups. We created a fusion protein allowing us to place human O6-alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferase (hAGT), also known as SNAP, on the surface of a bacterial cell. Initially, we used this synthetic component as a tool for spatially segregating orthogonal synthetic gene outputs by visualizing an extracellular synthetic green fluorescent reporter, SNAP-Cell® 505-Star, simultaneously with an intracellular red fluorescent protein, mCherry. Moreover, we have shown that our construct enables cells to selectively bond to BG-conjugated magnetic beads. As a result, we have demonstrated that surface displayed SNAP facilitates engineering a direct channel between intracellular gene expression and extracellular material capture. In the near future, we believe this magnetic capture can be expanded as a sortable reporter for synthetic biology as a direct extension of this work. Moreover, our work serves as an enabling technology, paving the way for extracellular synthetic biological systems that may coexist orthogonally to intracellular processes. / Master of Science