Digital Commons Network^™

Encapsulation Of Probiotic Microorganisms In Food-Grade Hydrogel Microbeads For Improving Long-Term Storage And Oral Delivery, Timothy W. Yeung

Masters Theses

Probiotics die over time during processing, storage and digestion, resulting in reduced health benefits to the consumer. Microencapsulation of microorganisms is an effective way to improve probiotic viability by restricting cell exposure to extreme conditions through the gastrointestinal tract until release in the colon. In this work, appearance and survival of encapsulated probiotic species from two genera was explored. Lactococcus lactis and Bifidobacterium longum were suspended in calcium alginate microbeads by spraying droplets of alginate-probiotic mixture into calcium chloride solution. This produced uniformly shaped transparent microbeads with high encapsulation yield. Encapsulating Lactococcus lactis extended viability during dry room temperature storage. …

Carmen(Es) Y Lola. El Continuo Generacional De La Educación De La Mujer Desde La Novela Y El Monólogo Teatral De Cinco Horas Con Mario Hasta La Película Función De Noche, Elisabet Pallàs

Masters Theses

Taking as a point of reference the voice and figure of Carmen Sotillo, the present study analyzes Miguel Delibes’ Cinco horas con Mario (1966), the theatrical adaptation with the same name directed by Josefina Molina, and the film Función de noche (1981), directed also by Molina. The study addresses, on the one hand, the analysis of the mentioned works, establishing a cause-consequence relationship between Carmen’s speech and the educational paradigms of the Francoist regime in regard to women. On the other hand, the study is interested, from a general perspective, in the ideological state apparatuses and the mechanisms destined to …

Examining Two Sides Of Food System Challenges: A Case Study Of The Potential Impacts Of The Food Safety Modernization Act On U.S. Produce Growers And A Descriptive Analysis Of The International Food Certification Industry, Kathryn E. Lynch

Masters Theses

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) represents a major change to U.S. food policy. Because several FSMA rules require that covered businesses comply with standards by 2019 at the latest, the legislation is expected to have considerable effects on the U.S. food system in the near future. This research examines potential challenges associated with two different FSMA rules. The first essay uses farm-level data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture to estimate the number of farms and acres covered by the FSMA Final Rule on Produce Safety in the California, the Northeast, and the entire U.S. Industry information and interviews …

Investigate The Interactions Between Silver Nanoparticles And Spinach Leaf By Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Mapping, Zhiyun Zhang

Masters Theses

Owing to their increasing application and potential toxicity, engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have been considered as a potential agricultural contaminant that may pose unknown risk to human beings. However, many techniques require invasive and complicated sample preparation procedures to detect and characterize engineered nanomaterials in complex matrices. In the first part of this thesis, we present a non-destructive and label-free approach based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) mapping technique to qualitatively detect and characterize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), on and in spinach leaves in situ. We were able to detect the clearly enhanced signals from AuNPs at 15 to 125 nm …

Live Load Distribution Factors For Horizontally Curved Concrete Box Girder Bridges, Mohammed Zaki

Masters Theses

Live load distribution factors are used to determine the live-load moment for bridge girder design when a two dimensional analysis is conducted. A simple, analysis of bridge superstructures are considered to determine live-load factors that can be used to analyze different types of bridges. The distribution of the live load factors distributes the effect of loads transversely across the width of the bridge superstructure by proportioning the design lanes to individual girders through the distribution factors.

This research study consists of the determination of live load distribution factors (LLDFs) in both interior and exterior girders for horizontally curved concrete box …

Genuineness And Love: A Study Of Feng Menglong's Collection Of Mountain Songs (Shan'ge 山歌), Yujia Ye

Masters Theses

Shan’ge 山歌 is a collection of popular songs in Wu dialect by the late Ming scholar Feng Menglong 冯梦龙 (1574-1646). Due to a lack of detailed literary analysis of the songs, and a lack of appreciation of these songs from the perspective of rhetorical aesthetics, I aim to provide a close reading of the siqing (私情) songs in Shan’ge. With the intention to offer a fresh perspective into the depiction of emotions and sentimental feelings, as well as the various ways of presenting the people’s perception of love and sexual desire in these songs, I endeavor to both enrich …

Modifications Of Myofilament Structure And Function During Global Myocardial Ischemia, Mike K. Woodward

Masters Theses

Cardiac arrest is a prevalent condition with a poor prognosis, attributable in part to persistent myocardial dysfunction following resuscitation. The molecular basis of this dysfunction remains unclear. We induced cardiac arrest in a porcine model of acute sudden death and assessed the impact of ischemia and reperfusion on the molecular function of isolated cardiac contractile proteins. Cardiac arrest was electrically induced, left untreated for 12 min, and followed by a resuscitation protocol. With successful resuscitations, the heart was reperfused for 2 h (IR2) and the muscle harvested. In failed resuscitations, tissue samples were taken following the failed efforts (IDNR). Actin …

Variation Aware Placement For Efficient Key Generation Using Physically Unclonable Functions In Reconfigurable Systems, Shrikant S. Vyas

Masters Theses

With the importance of data security at its peak today, many reconfigurable systems are used to provide security. This protection is often provided by FPGA-based encrypt/decrypt cores secured with secret keys. Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) use random manufacturing variations to generate outputs that can be used in keys. These outputs are specific to a chip and can be used to create device-tied secret keys. Due to reliability issues with PUFs, key generation with PUFs typically requires error correction techniques. This can result in substantial hardware costs. Thus, the total cost of a $n$-bit key far exceeds just the cost of …

Utilizing Nutritive Sweeteners To Control Lipid Oxidation In Low Moisture Baked Goods, Samantha Vieira

Masters Theses

In this study, we determined the effect of nutritive sweeteners at 0 to 0.50 moles/kg on lipid oxidation in a model cookie system. Confocal microscopy using Bodipy 493 as a fat soluble dye showed that the fat formed a continuous phase surrounding the starch granules regardless of sugar type. The impact of glucose concentration on lipid oxidation was monitored by lipid hydroperoxides and headspace hexanal during storage at 55°C. Low concentrations of glucose (0.09) were strong inhibitors. At equal molar concentrations, reducing sugars (glucose and fructose) inhibited lipid oxidation, greater than a two months increase in lag phase compared to …

Specific Phosphate Sorption Mechanisms Of Unaltered And Altered Biochar, Kathryn D. Szerlag

Masters Theses

Biochar has been shown to act as an effective sorbent for many organic and inorganic contaminants (including phosphate) and can help to improve the quality of our fresh water resources by preventing eutrophication. Most of the high efficiency biochar phosphate-adsorbent feedstocks are modified with chemical pretreatment, phytoremediation or anaerobic digestion to accumulate desired elements. The main objectives of this project were to first engineer magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) altered biochar by chemical pretreatment followed by pyrolysis at either 350 or 550°C and evaluate their phosphate adsorption rate and potential as compared to their unaltered counterparts. Determination of surface physiochemical …

Fault Interaction Within Restraining Bend Fault Systems, Aviel Rachel Stern

Masters Theses

Numerical simulations of a 15° restraining bend analog claybox experiment include considering the fault geometry, rheology, and boundary conditions. The numerical models show that a growing fault from an analog experiment propagates at depth rather than at the surface and is exposed in later stages of the experiment, and that the wet kaolin clay from the analog experiment is partially decoupled from the steel plate. The numerical models provide the stresses to predict accurate fault growth from the analog experiment and provide the evolution of external work within the fault system. The external work from the numerical models decrease as …

Probiotics As A Treatment For Increased Nighttime Activity In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta) Displaying Self-Injurious Behavior, Lauren L. Stanwicks

Masters Theses

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is a behavioral pathology seen in a small percentage of humans and non-human primates. In one previous study, macaques with SIB had more sleep disruption than controls, but observations were limited. Two studies were conducted: a baseline study to investigate nighttime activity in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) displaying SIB and controls, and a probiotic study to assess probiotic Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 for high nighttime activity. Subjects were 13 rhesus macaques, 5 with SIB (3 females; 1 SIB). Videocapture of Nighttime Activity (VNRA) was developed to record in complete darkness. IR-receptive webcams were connected to a …

Re-Envisioning A Discipline: Martin Wickramasinghe’S Contribution To Comparative Literature, Chamila Somirathna

Masters Theses

This thesis, “Re-visioning a Discipline: Martin Wickramasinghe’s Contribution to Comparative Literature,” explores the comparative approach of Martin Wickramasinghe, the pioneering twentieth-century Sri Lankan novelist, literary-cultural critic, and journalist. Wickramasinghe drew on Sinhala folk and classical, Pali, Sanskrit, and Western literary traditions, especially those of England, and Russia. His comparative approach had two main principles: First, literary concepts do not belong to any literary culture on the basis of their origin. Second, any concept that exists in a given literary culture can be “remoulded” and incorporated by another culture. The rejection of the notion of origin-based ownership of literary concepts and …

Numerical Simulation Of High Velocity Impact Of A Single Polymer Particle During Cold Spray Deposition, Sagar P. Shah

Masters Theses

Abstract

The cold spray process is an additive manufacturing technology primarily suited for ductile metals, and mainly utilized in coating surfaces, manufacturing of freeform parts and repair of damaged components. The process involves acceleration of solid micro-particles in a supersonic gas flow and coating build-up by bonding upon high velocity impact onto a substrate. Coating deposition relies on the kinetic energy of the particles. The main objective of this study was to investigate the mechanics of polymer cold spray process and deformation behavior of polymers to improve technological implementation of the process.

A finite element model was created to simulate …

A Study On The Mutual Replacements Of Three Des In Chinese Blogs, Hui Sha

Masters Theses

Three des, as structural particles in Chinese, are phonologically the same, but written differently. Through analyzing the written forms of these three homophonous particles, the research has come to some valuable conclusions that cannot be obtained by only observing the speaking language of Chinese. This paper studies the relationships among three “des” (de1 as “的”; de2 as “地”; de3 as “得”), which function as structural particles in the written language of Chinese, by examining their mutual replacements in blogs. The research regards every living language as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) with continuing changes. So this study’s perspective not only …

Songs Of Ishq, Freedom And Rebellion: Selected Kafis Of Bulleh Shah In Translation, Zainab Sattar

Masters Theses

Abdullah Shah (1680-1757) was the birth name of the boy who would later become one of the most eminent Sufi poets of South Asia, and the master of Sufi lyrics in Punjabi—Bulleh Shah. Living during times of strife and major conflict between the Sikhs and the crumbling Mughal Empire, Bulleh Shah wrote poetry with an underlying humanist and tolerant philosophy that challenged the turmoil of his times. Blind to the bounds of religion and caste in an increasingly divided India, Bullah’s spiritual philosophy and his message of equality found voice in his kafis—a genre of poetry indigenous to the …

In Theory, There's Hope: Queer Co-(M)Motions Of Science And Subjectivity, Cordelia Sand

Masters Theses

Given the state of the planet at present —specifically, the linked global ecological and economic crises that conjure dark imaginings and nihilistic actualities of increasing resource depletion, poisonings, and wide-scale sufferings and extinctions—I ask What might we hope now? What points of intervention offer possibility for transformation? At best, the response can only be partial. The approach this thesis takes initiates from specific pre-discursive assumptions. The first understands current conditions as having been produced, and continuing to be so, through practices that enact and sustain neoliberal relations. Secondly, these practices are expressive of a subjectivity tied to a Cartesian worldview, …

Trypanosoma Brucei Mitochondrial Dna Polib Cell Cycle Localization And Effect On Polic When Polib Is Depleted, Sylvia L. Rivera

Masters Theses

Trypanosoma brucei is the causative agent of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as African sleeping sickness. T. brucei is unique in several ways that distinguish this organism from other eukaryotes. One of the unique features of T. brucei is the organism’s mitochondrial DNA, which is organized in a complex structure called kinetoplast DNA (kDNA). Since kDNA is unique to the kinetoplastids, kDNA may serve as a good drug target against T. brucei. Previews studies have shown that kDNA has 4 different family A mitochondrial DNA polymerases. Three of these mitochondrial DNA polymerases (POLIB, POLIC, and POLID) are essential …

Characterizing The Inhibition Of Katanin Using Tubulin Carboxy-Terminal Tail Constructs, Corey E. Reed

Masters Theses

Understanding how the cellular cytoskeleton is maintained and regulated is important to elucidate the functions of many structures such as the mitotic spindle, cilia and flagella. Katanin p60, microtubule-severing enzymes from the ATPase associated with cellular activities (AAA+) family, has previously been shown in our lab to be inhibited by free tubulin as well as α- and β-tubulin carboxy-terminal tail (CTT) constructs. Here we investigate the inhibition ability of several different tubulin CTT sequences. We quantify the effect of the addition of these constructs on the severing and binding activity of katanin. We find that some constructs inhibit katanin better …

A Soft Multiple-Degree Of Freedom Load Cell Based On The Hall Effect, Qiandong Nie

Masters Theses

The goal of this thesis is to develop a soft multiple-degree-of-freedom (multi-DOF) load cell that is robust and light weight for use in robotics applications to sense three axes of force and a single axis of torque. The displacement of the magnet within the elastomer changes the magnetic flux density which is sensed by two 3-axis Hall effect sensors. Experimental measurements of magnetic flux density within the area of interest were used to formulate analytic expressions that relate magnet field strength to the position of the magnet. The displacement and orientation measurement and the material properties of the elastomer are …

Intent Recognition Of Rotation Versus Translation Movements In Human-Robot Collaborative Manipulation Tasks, Vinh Q. Nguyen

Masters Theses

The goal of this thesis is to enable a robot to actively collaborate with a person to move an object in an efficient, smooth and robust manner. For a robot to actively assist a person it is key that the robot recognizes the actions or phases of a collaborative tasks. This requires the robot to have the ability to estimate a person’s movement intent. A hurdle in collaboratively moving an object is determining whether the partner is trying to rotate or translate the object (the rotation versus translation problem). In this thesis, Hidden Markov Models (HMM) are used to recognize …

Japanese Pronoun Adventure: A Japanese Language Learner's Exploration Of His Japanese Gender Pronoun, Takumi Nakano

Masters Theses

In Japanese, there are various kinds of first-person pronouns, and some of them express the referent’s gender identity. Gender-neutral pronouns are made in English- speaking world day by day, but there is not any common first-person pronoun which indicates the gender identity that positions the referent’s gender somewhere between masculine and feminine. The present paper conducted a life story research on the “Japanese life” of an advanced learner of Japanese at a university in the United States who has been exploring his gender identity by coining and using a new Japanese first- person pronoun 㛪 ore, which indicates “in the …

Modulation Of Notch In An Animal Model Of Multiple Sclerosis, Manit Nikhil Munshi

Masters Theses

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative autoimmune disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Although the exact cause of MS is unknown, it is clear that CD4+ T helper cells play a significant role, namely T helper 1 (Th1) and T helper 17 (Th17) cells. The Notch family of proteins plays a role in the development and differentiation of T helper cells. Previous data has shown that inhibition of Notch impairs the ability of T helper cell differentiation. Additionally specific inhibition of certain Notch members inhibits specific T helper cell differentiation, for example the inhibition of Notch 1 inhibits Th1 …

Thinking In Circles: A Systems Theory Approach To Public Participation In Planning, Stephen Meno

Masters Theses

In the field of planning, there is widespread consensus that the mechanisms in which most planners use to engage with the public are ineffective and exclusive. Although there has been much work done on the techniques planners can adopt to reach out to underrepresented segments of the community, few municipalities have adopted them. This thesis seeks to advance the conversation on public participation beyond the mechanisms and into a discussion of why only certain communities are implementing these more progressive, efficient, effective, and equitable measures. By depicting how public participation functions as a system of interconnected paths and feedback loops, …

The Harmonious Conclusions Of Peony Pavilion & The Lute, Alexander Mccartin

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the harmonious endings of two different Chinese plays The Lute and Peony Pavilion. The harmonious conclusions reflect unique aspects of Chinese culture such as Confucian ethics and norms. The analysis of these harmonious conclusions provides a further analysis of the text throughout the plays. The happy endings do not occur without strife. The conflict found in the plays is examined to demonstrate the factors that lead to the transformation from conflict to harmony.

Reimagining And Rewriting The Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library: Translation, Ideology, And Power, Muira N. Mccammon

Masters Theses

The main argument of this thesis is that the rewriters of the story of the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library, namely journalists and filmmakers, engage differently with primary source material about the detention facility; what they omit and include in their narratives varies and depends largely on their pre-established ideologies. In the field of translation studies, this thesis contributes a new case study; it considers the problematic interplay between law, libraries, and multilingual information access in detention facilities. My research also demonstrates the challenges of examining a library that belongs to a highly controversial military system. In the first chapter I …

Ecological Consequences Of Lost Anadromous Forage Fish In Freshwater Ecosystems, Steven R. Mattocks

Masters Theses

Beginning in the early 1600s, dam construction in New England obstructed anadromous fish access to spawning grounds during migration. As a result, anadromous forage fish populations have declined, which has impacted freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems. To determine the impacts of dams on anadromous forage fish and freshwater ecosystems, I used historical and current data to estimate population changes in alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) from 1600-1900. A significant reduction in spawning habitat occurred in New England as a result of 1,642 dams constructed between 1600 and 1900, resulting in 14.8% and 16.6% lake and stream habitat remaining by 1900, …

River Herring Conservation In Freshwater: Investigating Fish Reproductive Success And The Educational Value Of Citizen Monitoring Programs, Meghna Marjadi

Masters Theses

Over the last century anadromous alewife (Alosa psuedoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), collectively called river herring, suffered drastic declines throughout their range from Newfoundland (Canada) to North Carolina (USA). A 2011 petition to include river herring in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was rejected, partly due to inadequate information towards identifying coast-wide population status. Additionally, knowledge gaps were identified with basic ecology of the river herring life cycle in freshwater, including species reproductive strategies. In Chapter 2, I investigated how body size, spawning arrival time, and sex influence river herring reproductive success. I collaborated with …

Extrinsic Effects On Heat And Electron Transport In Two-Dimensional Van-Der Waals Materials- A Boltzmann Transport Study, Arnab K. Majee

Masters Theses

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials have been a subject of intense research interest in recent years. High thermal conductivity of graphene can be utilized for many thermal management applications. In spite of possessing very high electron mobility, graphene can’t be used as transistors because of the absence of band gap; however transition metal dichalcogenides are another class of two-dimensional van der Waals materials with inherent band gap and show a great promise for future nanoelectronic applications. But in order to tailor these properties for commercial applications, we should develop a better understanding of the effect of extrinsic factors like size, …

The Phonological System Of A Xin'an Idiolect, Shuiying Lu

Masters Theses

My idiolect, a Xin’an idiolect, belongs to the Wuxi dialect, which is the northern Wu dialect. It carries most of the characteristics of the Wuxi dialect, such as the tripartite division of the manner of articulation of initial stop consonants. However, with the special geographic position, on the bounty of Wuxi dialect from the northwest area to southeast area and connected with Suzhou city, my idiolect shows its unique features, such as the condition of the retroflex. This study analyzes the phonological system of the idiolect and discusses the features. Since the dialect of the suburban area of the Wuxi …