Engineering Commons^™

Resolving Intravoxel White Matter Structures In The Human Brain Using Regularized Regression And Clustering, Andrea Hart, Brianna Smith, Sean Smith, Elijah Sales, Jacqueline Hernandez-Camargo, Yarlin Mayor Garcia, Felix Zhan, Lori Griswold, Brian Dunkelberger, Michael R. Schwob, Sharang Chaudhry, Justin Zhan, Laxmi Gewali, Paul Oh

Computer Science Faculty Research

The human brain is a complex system of neural tissue that varies significantly between individuals. Although the technology that delineates these neural pathways does not currently exist, medical imaging modalities, such as diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI), can be leveraged for mathematical identification. The purpose of this work is to develop a novel method employing machine learning techniques to determine intravoxel nerve number and direction from dMRI data. The method was tested on multiple synthetic datasets and showed promising estimation accuracy and robustness for multi-nerve systems under a variety of conditions, including highly noisy data and imprecision in parameter assumptions.

Community Involvement And Leadership In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Rural Poll Research Report 19-1, Rebecca Vogt, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Tim Meyer, Jason L. Weigle

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

Community leadership and involvement are important parts of community development. Rural communities rely on volunteers for many community development activities as well as local leadership positions. In smaller communities in particular, community members often take on multiple roles. Given these challenges, how involved are rural Nebraskans in community and political activities? How do they feel about the leadership in their community? How often do they have social interactions with others during a typical month? This paper provides a detailed analysis of these questions. This report details 1,776 responses to the 2019 Nebraska Rural Poll, the 24th annual effort to understand …

Sustainability Assessment Of U.S. Beef Processing And Its Antimicrobial Systems, Shaobin Li

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With the increasing meat demand and awareness of sustainability, concerns have been raised regarding the sustainability of beef production and processing. However, scarce data and inadequate sustainability assessment frameworks for the U.S. beef processing industry limit the ability to develop new technologies and policies comprehensively without shifting sustainability burdens. To fill those gaps, various assessments of the U.S. beef processing industry were conducted from multiple perspectives regarding the environmental, economic, microbial effectiveness of its antimicrobial systems, and human health impacts from foodborne illness, occupational hazards, and environmental pollution.

First, process-level water and energy usage at a typical large-size beef processing …

Ranking And Clustering Of Drosophila Olfactory Receptors Using Mathematical Morphology, Jayanta Kumar Das, Pabitra Pal Choudhury, Neelambuj Chaturvedi, Mohd Tayyab, Sk Sarif Hassan

Journal Articles

This article introduces an alignment-free clustering method in order to cluster all the 66 DORs sequentially diverse protein sequences. Two different methods are discussed: one is utilizing twenty standard amino acids (without grouping) and another one is using chemical grouping of amino acids (with grouping). Two grayscale images (representing two protein sequences by order pair frequency matrices) are compared to find the similarity index using morphology technique. We could achieve the correlation coefficients of 0.9734 and 0.9403 for without and with grouping methods respectively with the ClustalW result in the ND5 dataset, which are much better than some of the …

Bioprinting With Human Stem Cell-Laden Alginate-Gelatin Bioink And Bioactive Glass For Tissue Engineering, Krishna C. R. Kolan, Julie A. Semon, Bradley Bromet, D. E. Day, Ming-Chuan Leu

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technologies have shown great potential in the fabrication of 3D models for different human tissues. Stem cells are an attractive cell source in tissue engineering as they can be directed by material and environmental cues to differentiate into multiple cell types for tissue repair and regeneration. In this study, we investigate the viability of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) in alginate-gelatin (Alg-Gel) hydrogel bioprinted with or without bioactive glass. Highly angiogenic borate bioactive glass (13-93B3) in 50 wt% is added to polycaprolactone (PCL) to fabricate scaffolds using a solvent-based extrusion 3D bioprinting technique. The fabricated scaffolds …

Biomethane Production From Distillery Wastewater, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distillery wastewater treatment is a great ecological problem, for example, India produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol that results in 40 billion liters of wastewater. However, this material can be seen as a resource since 11 million cubic meters of biogas at 60% methane could be produced in addition to cleaning the water. The distillery has two options of what to do with the biogas. The first is to use the biogas to fuel the distillery making the production plant more energy efficient and removing some of the need to buy natural gas. The other is to upgrade the biogas …

Modulation Of Biological Responses To 2 Ns Electrical Stimuli By Field Reversal, Esin B. Sözer, P. Thomas Vernier

Bioelectrics Publications

Nanosecond bipolar pulse cancellation, a recently discovered Phenomenon, is modulation of the effects of a unipolar electric pulse exposure by a second pulse of opposite polarity. This attenuation of biological response by reversal of the electric field direction has been reported with pulse durations from 60 ns to 900 ns for a wide range of endpoints, and it is not observed with conventional electroporation pulses of much longer duration (> 100 mu s) where pulses are additive regardless of polarity. The most plausible proposed mechanisms involve the field-driven migration of ions to and from the membrane interface (accelerated membrane discharge). …

Rapid Profiling Of Soybean Aromatic Compounds Using Electronic Nose, Ramasamy Ravi, Ali Taheri, Durga Khandekar, Reneth Millas

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Soybean (Glycine max (L.)) is the world’s most important seed legume, which contributes to 25% of global edible oil, and about two-thirds of the world’s protein concentrate for livestock feeding. One of the factors that limit soybean’s utilization as a major source of protein for humans is its characteristic soy flavor. This off-flavor can be attributed to the presence of various chemicals such as phenols, aldehydes, ketones, furans, alcohols, and amines. In addition, these flavor compounds interact with protein and cause the formation of new off-flavors. Hence, studying the chemical profile of soybean seeds is an important step in understanding …

Introduction To Sorghum Paper Production, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sorghum is a tall grass used for many commercial products such as fodder and syrup. The 10 to 15 feet stalk of the plant has lower lignin than wood and provides a fiber length of 2.31 mm in the outer covering and 1.38 mm for the leaf. Sorghum fiber makes a high quality, strong paper suitable for printing, packaging and paperboard.

Development Of A Sonically Powered Biodegradable Nanogenerator For Bone Regeneration, Avi S. Patel

University Scholar Projects

Background: Reconstruction of bone fractures and defects remains a big challenge in orthopedic surgery. While regenerative engineering has advanced the field greatly using a combination of biomaterial scaffolds and stem cells, one matter of difficulty is inducing osteogenesis in these cells. Recent works have shown electricity’s ability to promote osteogenesis in stem cell lines when seeded in bone scaffolds; however, typical electrical stimulators are either (a) externally housed and require overcomplex percutaneous wires be connected to the implanted scaffold or (b) implanted non-degradable devices which contain toxic batteries and require invasive removal surgeries.

Objective: Here, we establish a biodegradable, piezoelectric …

Development Of A Sonically Powered Biodegradable Nanogenerator For Bone Regeneration, Avi Patel

Honors Scholar Theses

Background: Reconstruction of bone fractures and defects remains a big challenge in orthopedic surgery. While regenerative engineering has advanced the field greatly using a combination of biomaterial scaffolds and stem cells, one matter of difficulty is inducing osteogenesis in these cells. Recent works have shown electricity’s ability to promote osteogenesis in stem cell lines when seeded in bone scaffolds; however, typical electrical stimulators are either (a) externally housed and require overcomplex percutaneous wires be connected to the implanted scaffold or (b) implanted non-degradable devices which contain toxic batteries and require invasive removal surgeries.

Objective: Here, we establish a biodegradable, piezoelectric …

16th Annual Symposium Of The School Of Science, Engineering And Health, Messiah College

School of Science, Engineering & Health (SEH) Symposium

In this 16th Annual Symposium of the School of Science, Engineering, and Health, our faculty, staff and students continue the strong tradition of showcasing student and faculty innovation, creativity, and productivity in our academic departments. Basic and applied research in science and health fields stem from curiosity, acquired skill, and a desire to test and improve processes from foundational principles. The outcomes of scientific research expand intellectual understanding and have tremendous impact on quality of life, environmental health, and human flourishing.

Angela C. Hare, Ph.D.

Dean of the School of Science, Engineering and Health

Bamorc: A Software Package For Accurate And Robust 13C Reference Correction Of Protein Nmr Spectra, Xi Chen, Andrey Smelter, Hunter N. B. Moseley

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We describe Bayesian Model Optimized Reference Correction (BaMORC), a software package that performs ¹³C chemical shifts reference correction for either assigned or unassigned peak lists derived from protein NMR spectra. BaMORC provides an intuitive command line interface that allows non-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experts to detect and correct ¹³C chemical shift referencing errors of unassigned peak lists at the very beginning of NMR data analysis, further lowering the bar of expertise required for effective protein NMR analysis. Furthermore, BaMORC provides an application programming interface for integration into sophisticated protein NMR data analysis pipelines, both before and after the …

A Data-Driven Approach For Detecting Stress In Plants Using Hyperspectral Imagery, Suraj Gampa

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A phenotype is an observable characteristic of an individual and is a function of its genotype and its growth environment. Individuals with different genotypes are impacted differently by exposure to the same environment. Therefore, phenotypes are often used to understand morphological and physiological changes in plants as a function of genotype and biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Phenotypes that measure the level of stress can help mitigate the adverse impacts on the growth cycle of the plant. Image-based plant phenotyping has the potential for early stress detection by means of computing responsive phenotypes in a non-intrusive manner. A large number …

Application Of Remote Sensing Technology In Water Resources Management, Mahesh Pun

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The primary goal of this dissertation was to leverage the capabilities of remote sensing technology for capturing detailed spatial information at different spatial resolutions to monitor agricultural crops and generate accurate input datasets for water resources models. This dissertation is divided into three different research studies. In the first study, a remote sensing classification method was developed for classifying irrigated and non-irrigated fields that integrates Vegetation indices with surface energy balance fluxes. The method was applied in the COHYST2010 hydrological model region with wide climate variation and to multiple growing seasons with results that were 92.1% accurate and explained 97% …

Applications Of Optimization Modeling In Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Research, Anton F. Astner, Ekramul Haque Ehite, Yang Li, Colin Sasthav

Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science Publications and Other Works

Optimization modeling is the process of selection of the best solution to a design problem using predetermined constraints from a set of prospective solutions. Increased computing power has made optimization solvers readily available for business/research needs. For example, Microsoft Excel has a simple, but robust solver. Such solvers can model linear, nonlinear, and integer programming problems that are limited in size. This study shows the use of the optimization model solvers in various research contexts.

Discrete-Position Solar Tracking For Photovoltaic System, Shengnan Hong, Zheng Fu, Richard E. Stamper

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Research Publications

The purpose of this research is to design a new tracking system for solar panels using the idea of discrete-position tracking. Compared with the traditional fixed solar panel, discrete-position trackers have a higher gain of harvesting solar radiation with smaller misalignment angles. Also, since we are trying to design the a passive tracker with solely mechanical structure to do the kinetics, a discrete-position tracker can decrease the cost of the maintenance to a huge extent in contrast to both one-axis and two-axis continuous tracking systems. The majority of the cost of maintaining a continuous tracker is the motor or hydraulic …

Surface-Controlled Dissolution Rates: A Case Study Of Nanoceria In Carboxylic Acid Solutions, Eric A. Grulke, Matthew J. Beck, Robert A. Yokel, Jason M. Unrine, Uschi M. Graham, Matthew L. Hancock

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Nanoparticle dissolution in local milieu can affect their ecotoxicity and therapeutic applications. For example, carboxylic acid release from plant roots can solubilize nanoceria in the rhizosphere, affecting cerium uptake in plants. Nanoparticle dispersions were dialyzed against ten carboxylic acid solutions for up to 30 weeks; the membrane passed cerium-ligand complexes but not nanoceria. Dispersion and solution samples were analyzed for cerium by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Particle size and shape distributions were measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Nanoceria dissolved in all carboxylic acid solutions, leading to cascades of progressively smaller nanoparticles and producing soluble products. The dissolution …

Novel Calibrated Short Tr Recovery (Castrr) Method For Brain-Blood Partition Coefficient Correction Enhances Gray-White Matter Contrast In Blood Flow Measurements In Mice, Scott W. Thalman, David K. Powell, Ai-Ling Lin

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of the study was to develop a novel, rapid Calibrated Short TR Recovery (CaSTRR) method to measure the brain-blood partition coefficient (BBPC) in mice. The BBPC is necessary for quantifying cerebral blood flow (CBF) using tracer-based techniques like arterial spin labeling (ASL), but previous techniques required prohibitively long acquisition times so a constant BBPC equal to 0.9 mL/g is typically used regardless of studied species, condition, or disease. An accelerated method of BBPC correction could improve regional specificity in CBF maps particularly in white matter. Male C57Bl/6N mice (n = 8) were scanned at 7T using CaSTRR …

The Effects Of Organic And Inorganic Nanoparticles On Bacterial Deactivation, Lauren Cooper

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Antibacterial resistance is one of the greatest problems in modern medicine, as healthcare professionals are experiencing more and more difficulty in providing effective care. As such, alternative methods of treatment are needed in order to overcome this issue. One recently proposed method of alternative treatment is photodynamic therapy. Photodynamic therapy is a light-based method of treatment that utilizes (1) a photosensitizing agent, (2) light, (3) produced oxygen species. When the photosensitizing agent is injected into an infected region of interest and then irradiated with a certain wavelength of light, the agent is photoactivated and begins to produce harmful forms of …

Geometric Effects Of Open Hollow Hydroxyapatite Microspheres Influence Bone Repair And Regeneration In Sprague Dawley Rats, Youqu Shen, M. N. Rahaman, Yongxian Liu, Yue-Wern Huang

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Effective regeneration of bone defects caused by trauma or chronic diseases is a significant clinical challenge. Bone deficiency is overcome using treatments that rely on bone regeneration and augmentation. While various treatments have been investigated with encouraging results, complete and predictable bone reconstruction is often difficult [1]. Synthetic bone grafts have advantages such as consistent quality, safety, and good tissue tolerance. They usually function as inert or osteoconductive implants. Encouraging results from synthetic grafts have been reported. For instance, hollow hydroxyapatite (HA) microspheres showed the ability to facilitate bone repair in rats with non-healing calvarial defects [2,3]. However, new bone …

Primitive Palms: A Density Study On The Impacts Of Harvesting Natural Materials For Construction Purposes On Sumak Allpa Of The Amazon Rainforest, Zachary Bull

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In an effort to better understand how rural construction techniques affect a surrounding environment, this study combines a density test of the natural building materials used in the construction of a school on Sumak Allpa island of the Orellana Province in the Amazon basin of Ecuador. The focus of the study measures the density of the bamboo species Guadua angustifolia and the Panama hat plant Carludovica palmata on the island while noting a comprehensive compilation of the techniques and materials used in the building process. Using a mix of plots and transects, a comparison of harvested material to remaining material …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 5.0, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Julie Cassidy, Kathleen Offenholley, Carolyn Stallard, Deborah Sturm, Anders A. Wallace

Publications and Research

The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning. The CUNY Games Conference distills its best cutting-edge interactive presentations into a two-day event to promote and discuss game-based pedagogies in higher education, focusing particularly on non-digital learning activities that faculty can use in the classroom every day. The conference will include workshops lead by CUNY Games Organizers on …

Photocatalytic Degradation Of Profenofos And Triazophos Residues In The Chinese Cabbage, Brassica Chinensis, Using Ce-Doped Tio2, Xiangying Liu, You Zhan, Zhongqin Zhang, Lang Pan, Lifeng Hui, Kailin Liu, Xuguo Zhou, Lianyang Bai

Entomology Faculty Publications

Pesticides have revolutionized the modern day of agriculture and substantially reduced crop losses. Synthetic pesticides pose a potential risk to the ecosystem and to the non-target organisms due to their persistency and bioaccumulation in the environment. In recent years, a light-mediated advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) has been adopted to resolve pesticide residue issues in the field. Among the current available semiconductors, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is one of the most promising photocatalysts. In this study, we investigated the photocatalytic degradation of profenofos and triazophos residues in Chinese cabbage, Brassica chinensis, using a Cerium-doped nano semiconductor TiO₂ (TiO …

Improving The Distribution And Use Of Biogas By Conversion To Methanol, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this technology review, the process of turning an average biogas into methanol will be presented. The purpose is to find a better method of transporting the energy contained within biogas so that it may be used in industry as a value added product. The first step is removal of hydrogen sulfide, a corrosive chemical that can breakdown mechanical parts. The second step is carbon capture and conversion of the biogas into hydrogen. The final step is the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide into methanol using a copper catalyst and an alcohol co-catalyst.

Air Quality Modelling For Ireland, Aoife Donnelly, Bruce Misstear, Brian Broderick

Reports

Air pollution is the primary environmental cause of premature death in the EU (European Commission, 2013) and the most problematic pollutants across Europe have consistently been oxides of nitrogen (e.g. nitrogen dioxide (NO₂)), particulate matter (e.g. PM₁₀, PM_2.5) and ozone (O₃). While measurements form an important aspect of air quality assessment, on their own they are unlikely to be sufficient to provide an accurate spatial and temporal description of the pollutant concentrations for exposure assessment and moreover they cannot provide information regarding future air quality. Annex XVI of 2008/50/EC requires member states …

Advanced Selection Methodologies For Dnazymes In Sensing And Healthcare Applications, Sandeep Kumar, Shikha Jain, Neeraj Dilbaghi, Amrik Singh Ahluwalia, Ashraf Aly Hassan, Ki-Hyun Kim

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

DNAzymes have been widely explored owing to their excellent catalytic activity in a broad range of applications, notably in sensing and biomedical devices. These newly discovered applications have built high hopes for designing novel catalytic DNAzymes. However, the selection of efficient DNAzymes is a challenging process but one that is of crucial importance. Initially, systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) was a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, but recent advances have accelerated the automated generation of DNAzyme molecules. This review summarizes recent advances in SELEX that improve the affinity and specificity of DNAzymes. The thriving generation of new DNAzymes …

A Theoretical Model Of Underground Dipole Antennas For Communications In Internet Of Underground Things, Abdul Salam, Mehmet C. Vuran, Xin Dong, Christos Argyropoulos, Suat Irmak

Faculty Publications

The realization of Internet of Underground Things (IOUT) relies on the establishment of reliable communication links, where the antenna becomes a major design component due to the significant impacts of soil. In this paper, a theoretical model is developed to capture the impacts of change of soil moisture on the return loss, resonant frequency, and bandwidth of a buried dipole antenna. Experiments are conducted in silty clay loam, sandy, and silt loam soil, to characterize the effects of soil, in an indoor testbed and field testbeds. It is shown that at subsurface burial depths (0.1-0.4m), change in soil moisture impacts …

The Effect Of Proteome And Lipidome On The Behavior Of Membrane Bound Systems In Thermally-Assisted Acoustophoresis, Elnaz Mirtaheri

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Changes in the biomechanical properties of cells accompanying the development of various pathological conditions have been increasingly reported as biomarkers for various diseases, including cancers. In cancer cells, the membrane properties have been altered compared to their healthy counterparts primarily due to proteomic and lipidomic dysregulations conferred by the underlying pathology. The separation and selective recovery of these cells or extracellular vesicles secreted from such cells is of high diagnostic and prognostic value.

In this dissertation, the research builds on thermally-assisted acoustophoresis technique which was developed in our laboratory for the separation of vesicles of the same size, charge and …

Long-Term, Super-Resolution Imaging Of Amyloid Structures Using Transient Amyloid Binding Microscopy, Tianben Ding, Kevin Spehar, Jan Bieschke, Matthew D. Lew

Electrical & Systems Engineering Publications and Presentations

Amyloid fibrils and tangles are signatures of Alzheimer disease, but nanometer-sized aggregation intermediates are hypothesized to be the structures most toxic to neurons. The structures of these oligomers are too small to be resolved by conventional light microscopy. We have developed a simple and versatile method, called transient amyloid binding (TAB), to image amyloid structures with nanoscale resolution using amyloidophilic dyes, such as Thioflavin T, without the need for covalent labeling or immunostaining of the amyloid protein. Transient binding of ThT molecules to amyloid structures over time generates photon bursts that are used to localize single fluorophores with nanometer precision. …