Interfacial phenomena are prevalent in various natural and engineered systems. A thorough understanding of these phenomena is essential for a complete understanding of processes such as phase transitions and interaction of liquid droplets with different surfaces. The insights gained from understanding interfacial behavior are pivotal in fields such as pharmaceuticals, microfluidics, material sciences, and environmental engineering. This dissertation aims to advance our understanding of interfacial behaviors, thereby facilitating the development of innovative technologies for applications in health, defrosting, and omniphobic surfaces. In Chapters 1 and 2, relevant background information and goals are provided to contextualize the research being presented in this dissertation. Chapter 3 introduces a novel metal-free alternative to conventional antiperspirants (containing aluminum salts and zirconium salts). We leverage the composition of human sweat (97% water and 3% minerals) and employ a hygroscopic substance near the outlet of an artificial sweat duct rig. This leads to complete diffusion and dehydration of sweat, forming a natural mineral plug within the artificial sweat duct that halts the flow. Chapter 4 examines the behavior of room temperature water droplets spreading on a flat icy substrate. The use of flat ice, as opposed to cold substrates, eliminates the nucleation energy barrier, enabling freeze front initiation as soon as the bulk temperature of the spreading drop reaches 0 C. Through scaling analysis, we identify distinct thermo-hydrodynamic regimes with varying Weber numbers. Chapter 5 presents a novel construct for lubricant-impregnated surfaces (LIS). To date, most of the investigations characterizing the wettability of LIS have focused on droplet mobility. We pioneer a lubricant-impregnated fiber (LIF) which exhibits unique droplet dynamics due to simultaneous exploitation of both, high mobility and high adhesion. Chapter 6 proposes an innovative approach for defrosting by exploiting the polarizability and natural thermo-voltage of frost sheets. By placing an actively charged electrode near the frost sheet, we observe that frost dendrites migrate towards the electrode. This technique, termed Electrostatic Defrosting (EDF), effectively removes up to 75% of the frost mass for superhydrophobic surfaces and 50% of the frost mass for untreated surfaces in less than 100 s. / Doctor of Philosophy / Raindrops falling on surfaces, pesticides being sprayed on crops, and frost forming on windshields—these seemingly unrelated phenomena all stem from fundamental water-structure interactions and phase change processes. We encounter these occurrences throughout nature, with some being enchanting, like water dancing on lotus leaves or morning dew sparkling on glass, while others can pose risks, such as condensation impairing visibility while driving. This dissertation aims to enhance our understanding of water-structure interactions by utilizing the phase changes of water (transitioning between vapor and ice). Through this exploration, we seek to develop innovative technologies for health, de-icing, and fog harvesting, highlighting the practical applications of such water-structure interactions. Through four distinct projects, we aim to unlock innovative solutions that enhance everyday life and address pressing environmental challenges. In the first project, we introduce a novel antiperspirant construct that utilizes sweat's own minerals to clog sweat ducts by vaporizing water with a hygroscopic material. The second project investigates droplet dynamics on ice, focusing on how freezing initiates at the contact line when droplets make contact. In the third project, we develop a new design for oil-impregnated surfaces by embedding fibers, characterizing droplet behavior on these curved surfaces. We envision these fibers being utilized in industrial fog harvesting systems, where water can be effectively collected through dropwise condensation. Finally, we present an innovative defrosting method that exploits naturally occurring thermovoltage in frost, using a positively charged electrode to facilitate the removal of frost sheets. Together, these projects illustrate the impact of water-structure interactions on technology and the environment.

No / Objective Establish normative values for knee valgus angle during drop jump and step landings. Design Observational. Setting University biomechanics laboratory. Participants 100 physically active asymptomatic individuals (50 male, 50 female) aged 18–28 years old. Main outcome measures Knee valgus angle during drop jump and step landings. Results There were no differences between genders during the step landing task (p < 0.12) but there were differences during the drop jump landing task (p < 0.048). Both males and females showed no significant differences between sides for either of the tasks (p > 0.05) or between the valgus angle generated for either of the tasks (p > 0.05). Conclusion It would appear in order to be regarded as an average “normal” performance during a drop jump landing task knee valgus angle should be symmetrical and in the range of 7–13° for females and 3–8° for males. For a unilateral step landing task knee valgus angle should be symmetrical and in the range of 5–12° for females and 1–9° for males.

L'évolution des technologies microélectroniques voire déca-nanoélectroniques conduit simultanément à des tensions d'alimentation toujours plus faibles et à des quantités de transistors toujours plus grandes. De ce fait, les courants d'alimentation augmentent sous une tension d'alimentation qui diminue, situation qui exacerbe la sensibilité des circuits intégrés au bruit d'alimentation. Un bruit d'alimentation excessif se traduit par une augmentation du retard des portes logiques pouvant finalement produire des fautes de retard. Un bruit d'alimentation provoqué par des courants circulant dans les résistances parasites du Réseau de Distribution d'Alimentation est communément référencé sous la dénomination d'IR-Drop.Cette thèse s'intéresse à la modélisation et à la simulation de circuits logiques avec prise en compte du phénomène d'IR-Drop. Un algorithme original est tout d'abord proposé en vue d'une simulation de type ‘event-driven' du block logique sous test, en tenant compte de l'impact de l'ensemble du circuit intégré sur l'IR-Drop du block considéré. Dans ce contexte, des modèles précis et efficaces sont développés pour les courants générés par les portes en commutation, pour la propagation de ces courants au travers du réseau de distribution et pour les retards des portes logiques. D'abord, une procédure de pré-caractérisation des courants dynamiques, statiques et des retards est décrite. Ensuite, une seconde procédure est proposée pour caractériser la propagation des courants au travers du réseau de distribution. Nos modèles ont été implantés dans une première version du simulateur développé par nos collègues de Passau dans le cadre d'une collaboration. Enfin, l'impact des éléments capacitifs parasites du réseau de distribution est analysé et une procédure pour caractériser la propagation des courants est envisagée. / Scaling technology in deep-submicron has reduced the voltage supply level and increased the number of transistors in the chip, increasing the power supply noise sensitivity of the ICs. Excessive power supply noise affects the timing performance increasing the gate delay and may cause timing faults. Specifically, power supply noise induced by the currents that flow through the resistive parasitic elements of the Power Distribution Network (PDN) is called IR-Drop. This thesis deals with the modelling and simulation of logic circuits in the context of IR-drop. An original algorithm is proposed allowing to perform an event-driven delay simulation of the logic Block Under Test (BUT) while taking into account the whole chip IR-drop impact on the simulated block. To do so, we develop accurate and efficient electrical models for the currents generated by the switching gates, the propagation of the current draw through the PDN and the gate delays. First, the pre-characterization process for the dynamic currents, static currents and gate delays is described to generate a gate library. Then, another pre-characterization procedure is suggested to estimate the current distribution through the resistive PDN model. Our models are implemented in a first version of the simulator by the University of Passau in the context of a project collaboration. In addition, the impact of the parasitic capacitive elements of the PDN is analyzed and a procedure to derive the current distribution in a resistive-capacitive PDN model is proposed.

Antalet stress-relaterade diagnoser ökar i samhället samtidigt som fler personer söker hjälp för stress-relaterade symptom inom primärvården. Primärvården erbjuder olika behandlingsformer för stress-relaterad problematik, bland annat kundaliniyoga. Syftet med studien var att utforska hur kundaliniyoga utövad i en avgiftsfri och öppen grupp inom primärvården påverkade deltagarna. Studien grundades på ett bekvämlighetsurval av 5 respondenter. Respondenterna definierade sig som kvinnor mellan 25 och 85 år och hade olika erfarenheter av depression, ångest, oro och annan stress-relaterad problematik. Data om respondenternas upplevelser samlades in via halvstrukturerade intervjuer och analyserades utifrån den tematiska analysmetoden the Constant Comparative Method. Respondenterna upplevde positiva fysiska, mentala, emotionella, interpersonella samt andliga effekter. Kundaliniyogan fyllde ett flertal avgörande funktioner i respondenternas liv och hade stor betydelse för deras fysiska och mentala välmående. Upplevelsen av att ha hittat rätt träningsmetod och sammanhang samt yttre omständigheter så som kundaliniyogalärare och avgiftsfrihet visade sig vara av stor betydelse för respondenternas upplevelser. Kundaliniyogan upplevdes vara effektiv vad gäller att reducera stress-relaterade symptom och upplevdes generera positiva effekter i flera områden av respondenternas liv. / The numbers of stress-related diagnoses in society are growing while an increased number of people with stress-related symptoms look for help within primary health care. The primary health care provides different treatments for stress-related problems, amongst others kundalini yoga. Hitherto no qualitative study has been made on how practitioners experience kundalini yoga, practised in a drop-in-class, free of charge within primary health care. The study is based on an convenience sample of 5 participants. The participants defined themselves as women aged 25-85 years having different experiences of depression, angst, anxiety and other stress-related symptoms. The participants' responses were collected by the use of semi-structured interviews and analysed using the Constant Comparative Method. The participants expressed positive physical, mental, emotional, interpersonal and spiritual effects. The kundalini yoga fulfilled several crucial purposes in the lives of the participants and was of great importance for their physical and mental well-being. The sense of finding the right context and practice as well as external circumstances such as the kundalini yoga teacher and the fact that the yoga was free of charge played an important role in how the participants experienced the kundalini yoga. The participants perceived kundalini yoga as effective in reducing stress-related symptoms and in generating positive effects in a variety of areas of life.

Power supply noise has become a critical issue for low power and high performance circuit design in recent years. The rapid scaling of the CMOS process has pushed the limit further and further in building low-cost and increasingly complex digital VLSI systems. Continued technology scaling has contributed to significant improvements in performance, increases in transistor density, and reductions in power consumption. However, smaller feature sizes, higher operation frequencies, and supply voltage reduction make current and future VLSI systems more vulnerable to power supply noise. Therefore, there is a strong demand for strategies to prevent problems caused by power supply noise. Design challenges exist in different design phases to reduce power supply noise. In terms of physical design, careful power distribution design is required, since it directly determines the quality of power stability and the timing integrity. In addition, power management, such as switching mode of the power gating technique, is another major challenge during the circuit design phase. A bad power gating switching strategy may draw an excessive rush current and slow down other active circuitry. After the circuit is implemented, another critical design challenge is to estimate power supply noise. Designers need to be aware of the voltage drop in order to enhance the power distribution network without wasting unnecessary design resources. However, estimating power supply noise is usually difficult, especially finding the circuit activity which induces the maximum supply noise. Blind search may be very time consuming and not effective. At post-silicon test, detecting power supply noise within a chip is also challenging. The visibility of supply noise is low since there is no trivial method to measure it. However, the supply noise measurement result on silicon is critical to debug and to characterize the chip. This dissertation focuses on novel circuit designs and design methodologies to prevent problems resulted from power supply noise in different design phases. First, a supply noise estimation methodology is developed. This methodology systematically searches the circuit activity inducing the maximum voltage drop. Meanwhile, once the circuit activity is found, it is validated through instruction execution. Therefore, the estimated voltage drop is a realistic estimation close to the real phenomenon. Simulation results show that this technique is able to find the circuit activity more efficiently and effectively compared to random simulation. Second, two on-chip power supply noise detectors are designed to improve the visibility of voltage drop during test phase. The first detector facilitates insertion of numerous detectors when there is a need for additional test points, such as a fine-grained power gating design or a circuit with multiple power domains. It focuses on minimizing the area consumption of the existing detector. This detector significantly reduces the area consumption compared to the conventional approach without losing accuracy due to the area minimization. The major goal of designing the second on-chip detector is to achieve self-calibration under process and temperature variations. Simulation and silicon measurement results demonstrate the capability of self-calibration regardless these variations. Lastly, a robust power gating reactivation technique is designed. This reactivation scheme utilizes the on-chip detector presented in this dissertation to monitor power supply noise in real time. It takes a dynamic approach to control the wakeup sequence according to the ambient voltage level. Simulation results demonstrate the ability to prevent the excessive voltage drop while the ambient active circuitry induces a high voltage drop during the wakeup phase. As a result, the fixed design resource, which is used to prevent the voltage emergency, can potentially be reduced by utilizing the dynamic reactivation scheme. / text

The objective of the research was to develop fundamental understanding of the process of deposition of complex mixtures by the inkjet method. The rheological properties and DOD drop formation dynamics of carbon black pigmented inkjet inks were investigated. It was found that the suspension microstructure responses to bulk motions, leading to shear rate and time dependent shear viscosity. However, DOD drop formation dynamics of highly pigmented inkjet ink and pure Newtonian fluid is similar even though shear rate up to 105 s-1 exists during inkjet jetting process. A proposed explanation for these observations is that the shearing time during DOD drop ejection is insufficient for changing and stabilizing the microstructure of the suspension. The effects of signal amplitude and jetting frequency on DOD drop formation dynamics of pure Newtonian fluids were investigated. A transition of DOD drop formation dynamics when the inkjet nozzle is switched from idle to jetting was identified. A qualitative investigation of DOD drop impaction and post-impaction behavior on inkjet paper and textiles was carried out. Dynamics of DOD drop accumulation and spreading on the substrates and final ink distribution show drastic differences between these two substrates.

The Abstract The Title: Effect of Peroneal Nerve Functional Electrical Stimulation on Gait in Post-stroke Patients The Goal: The aim of this work was to compare two different ways of applying functional electrical stimulation of the peroneal nerve as to their impacts on the gait speed and performance and the spastic paresis of lower leg in adult patients suffering from chronic stages of stroke accompanied by foot drop. The Method: An open, randomized, controlled clinical pilot study combining elements of both controlled and pragmatic experiments in comparing two different clinical approaches to peroneal nerve functional electrical stimulation. With the first group of patients (group A, consisting of 14 subjects), the intervention was carried out as an outpatient, strictly controlled and intense training of gait with electrical stimulation over the period of four weeks, five times a week; the B-group patients (13 subjects) were all provided with their own stimulator which they applied continuously throughout all their daily routines at their homes and community over the equal period of time. The Results: The four-week intervention turned out to cause no statistically significant difference in our two groups in terms of its impact on any of the monitored parameters of the gait speed and performance as well as...

Over the past few years, much debate has been centered on domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence (IPV), and how it should be handled in our society and criminal justice system. In previous years, domestic violence has been seen not only as a private family matter, but a situation in which no outsiders should intrude. In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control stated that intimate partner violence is a public health problem with 27% of women and nearly 12% of men who have had some sort of experience with sexual or physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner, being stalked, or had violence impacting their lives in some way. Over the past 20 years, many policies have been enacted that attempt to not only hold offenders responsible for their actions, but also to help victims obtain the resources they so desperately need. While it may seem simple to say that police should arrest more and judges should give harsher sentences in an attempt to control domestic violence, they do need effective tools to help them achieve these results. In this paper, I analyze the satisfaction victims of intimate partner violence have with no-drop policies. These policies do not allow victims to drop charges against a perpetrator. Using data from the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), findings indicate that male victims are more likely to be satisfied with the no-drop policy than are female victims. Because victims did not want the criminal justice system response to their victimization to go beyond arrest, future research needs to focus on why victims do not support jailing or therapy for offenders.

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In this work, we develop an interface-preserving level-set method in the finite-element framework for interfacial flows with moving contact lines. In our method, the contact line is advected naturally by the flow field. Contact angle hysteresis can be easily implemented without explicit calculation of the contact angle or the contact line velocity, and meshindependent results can be obtained following a simple computational strategy. We have implemented the method in three dimensions and provide numerical studies that compare well with analytical solutions to verify our algorithm. We first develop a high-order numerical method for interface-preserving level-set reinitialization. Within the interface cells, the gradient of the level set function is determined by a weighted local projection scheme and the missing additive constant is determined such that the position of the zero level set is preserved. For the non-interface cells, we compute the gradient of the level set function by solving a Hamilton-Jacobi equation as a conservation law system using the discontinuous Galerkin method. This follows the work by Hu and Shu [SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 21 (1999) 660-690]. The missing constant for these cells is recovered using the continuity of the level set function while taking into account the characteristics. To treat highly distorted initial conditions, we develop a hybrid numerical flux that combines the Lax-Friedrichs flux and a penalty flux. Our method is accurate for non-trivial test cases and handles singularities away from the interface very well. When derivative singularities are present on the interface, a second-derivative limiter is designed to suppress the oscillations. At least (N + 1)th order accuracy in the interface cells and Nth order accuracy in the whole domain are observed for smooth solutions when Nth degree polynomials are used. Two dimensional test cases are presented to demonstrate superior properties such as accuracy, long-term stability, interface-preserving capability, and easy treatment of contact lines. We then develop a level-set method in the finite-element framework. The contact line singularity is removed by the slip boundary condition proposed by Ren and E [Phys. Fluids, vol. 19, p. 022101, 2007], which has two friction coefficients: βN that controls the slip between the bulk fluids and the solid wall and βCL that controls the deviation of the microscopic dynamic contact angle from the static one. The predicted contact line dynamics from our method matches the Cox theory very well. We further find that the same slip length in the Cox theory can be reproduced by different combinations of (βN; βCL). This combination leads to a computational strategy for mesh-independent results that can match the experiments. There is no need to impose the contact angle condition geometrically, and the dynamic contact angle automatically emerges as part of the numerical solution. With a little modification, our method can also be used to compute contact angle hysteresis, where the tendency of contact line motion is readily available from the level-set function. Different test cases, including code validation and mesh-convergence study, are provided to demonstrate the efficiency and capability of our method. Lastly, we extend our method to three-dimensional simulations, where an extension equation is solved on the wall boundary to obtain the boundary condition for level-set reinitializaiton with contact lines. Reinitialization of ellipsoidal interfaces is presented to show the accuracy and stability of our method. In addition, simulations of a drop on an inclined wall are presented that are in agreement with theoretical results. / Doctor of Philosophy / When a liquid droplet is sliding along a solid surface, a moving contact line is formed at the intersection of the three phases: liquid, air and solid. This work develops a numerical method to study problems with moving contact lines. The partial differential equations describing the problem are solved by finite element methods. Our numerical method is validated against experiments and theories. Furthermore, we have implemented our method in three-dimensional problems.