Engineering Commons^™

Microbial Ecology Of Urban Sewers, Emily Lou Lamartina

Theses and Dissertations

Municipal sewage provides a glimpse into the health and activities of a human society. For more than a century, sewage exploration has helped expose the sources of disease outbreaks and track disease progression over time. Recent advancements in wastewater surveillance born from the COVID-19 pandemic have potential to enhance mitigation efforts against the decades-long global health crisis of microbial antibiotic resistance. However, critical knowledge gaps exist in wastewater surveillance, stemming from a lack of understanding in sewer microbial ecology. Ecology reveals trends in how communities respond and adapt to change, which has far-reaching implications for identifying effective strategies for disease …

Deciphering The Firing Patterns Of Hippocampal Neurons During Sharp-Wave Ripples, Kourosh Maboudi Ashmankamachali

Theses and Dissertations

The hippocampus is essential for learning and memory. Neurons in the rat hippocampus selectively fire when the animal is at specific locations - place fields - within an environment. Place fields corresponding to such place cells tile the entire environment, forming a stable spatial map supporting navigation and planning. Remarkably, the same place cells reactivate together outside of their place fields and in coincidence with sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) - dominant electrical field oscillations (150-250 Hz) in the hippocampus. These offline SWR events frequently occur during quiet wake periods in the middle of exploration and the follow-up slow-wave sleep and are …

Towards Environmental Sustainability Of Nanotechnology Through Improved Evaluations Of Impact And Risk To Aquatic Species: Cross-Species Comparisons From The Laboratory And Environmentally Realistic Exposure Scenarios In The Field, Becky J. Curtis

Theses and Dissertations

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are utilized in a wide variety of applications and products, including everything from toothpaste and personal care products to industries such as aerospace, defense, medicine, electronics, and agriculture. Depending on the application, release of ENMs to the environment may occur through both unintentional and deliberate routes. High surface-area-to-volume ratios make ENMs more volatile than bulk counterparts, and their small size allows translocation within biological systems that would not be possible with larger materials. These and other characteristics make ENM-biological system interactions unpredictable, creating uncertainty about their potential risks to environmental health. The purpose of this research is …

Full-Body Biomechanical Characterization Of Children With Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome During Gait And Activities Of Daily Living, Anahita Alahmoradiqashqai

Theses and Dissertations

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is an inherited connective tissue disorder, often under-diagnosed, and presenting with frequent chronic pain and severe musculoskeletal symptoms that can drastically reduce the quality of life during one’s life span. While there are limited quantitative approaches in the literature on adult movements, the biomechanics of movements during activities of daily living (ADLs) in children have not been investigated comprehensively. Therefore, the primary purpose of this dissertation was to characterize the biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system and investigate the biomechanics of hEDS by quantifying joint dynamics and muscle activations during ADLs and gait in the pediatric population. …

Effects Of Seat And Axle Position On Pain, Pathology, And Independence In Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Users With Spinal Cord Injury, Hannah Frank

Theses and Dissertations

Manual wheelchair (MWC) users with spinal cord injury (SCI) rely heavily on their upperextremities to complete daily occupations. Due to repetitive shoulder use during wheelchair mobility and propulsion, MWC users are at greater risk of shoulder pain and shoulder pathology, and thus decreased independence, and lower quality of life. The relative fit of the wheelchair and its parameters are critical and can further impact the user’s propulsion biomechanics. Parameters such as seat angle and axle position may put the user in detrimental shoulder positions for longer periods of time, impacting health outcomes even more. Although the effects of wheelchair setup …

Investigating Mechanisms Of Nanotoxicity Of A Next-Generation Lithium Cobalt Oxide Nanomaterial, Nicholas Joseph Niemuth

Theses and Dissertations

Commercial use of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs; materials in the range of 1-100 nm) has grown dramatically since the discovery of the means to observe, characterize, and controllably synthesize these materials at the end of the 20th century. Today, ENMs represent a global market valued in the trillions of dollars, incorporated into products because of the unique properties they confer, including increased strength, catalytic activity, and interactions with light. In this time, ENMs have also grown from relatively simple first-generation materials, such as Au, Ag, and carbon ENMs, to complex next-generation materials incorporating numerous elements into materials with complex secondary structures, …

Deterministic Model Of The Voltage Dependent Anion Channel (Vdac) Kinetics, Viren Shah

Theses and Dissertations

The voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) is a voltage gated channel residing on the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM) that facilitates the flow of metabolites between the cytosol and mitochondria. The channel is regulated through conformational changes driven by electrostatic effects along with numerous regulatory mechanisms. The aim of this study is to mechanistically model kinetics of substrate flow through VDAC and incorporate them into existing mechanistic computational models of mitochondrial function. The resulting model is used in two ways: 1) to establish mitochondrial bioenergetics (conductance, permeability, and current/flux) under physiological conditions, and 2) to conduct perturbations simulating the effect of altered …

The Effect Of Kinesiology Tape Application Duration On Endurance Of Knee During An Isotonic Fatiguing Flexion/Extension Exercise, En Yi Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Kinesiology Tape (KT) is an elastic athletic tape and is popular among athletes as it was claimed that it can to be worn for several days and is capable of preventing injuries, improving rehabilitation processes, improving muscle oxygenation levels, and enhancing muscle performance. The goal of this study was to determine if there was any potential enhancing effect of KT on joint endurance in healthy subjects, in particular with respect to time to fatigue (TTF), muscle oxygenation, and muscle activity in fatiguing knee flexion/extension exercise across sessions.

Fourteen healthy male subjects with no previous history of knee injury participated in …

Quantitative Optical Imaging Of Metabolic And Structural Biomarkers In Rodent Injury Models, Shima Mehrvar

Theses and Dissertations

The assessment of organ metabolic function using optical imaging techniques is an overgrowing field of disease diagnosis. The broad research objective of my PhD thesis is to detect quantitative biomarkers by developing and applying optical imaging and image processing tools to animal models of human diseases. To achieve this goal, I have designed and implemented an optical imaging instrument called in vivo fluorescence imager to study wound healing progress. I have also developed a 3-dimensional (3D) vascular segmentation technique that uses intrinsic fluorescence images of whole organs.

Intrinsic fluorophores (autofluorescence signals) provide information about the status of cellular bioenergetics in …

Multi-Tap Extended Kalman Filter For A Periodic Waveform With Uncertain Frequency And Waveform Shape, And Data Dropouts, Justin Saboury

Theses and Dissertations

Gait analysis presents the challenge of detecting a periodic waveform in the presence of time varying frequency, amplitude, DC offset, and waveform shape, with acquisition gaps from partial occlusions. The combination of all of these components presents a formidable challenge. The Extended Kalman Filter for this system model has six states, which makes it weakly identifiable within the standard Extended Kalman Filter network. In this work, a novel robust Extended Kalman Filter-based approach is presented and evaluated for clinical use in gait analysis. The novel aspect of the proposed method is that at each sample, the present and several past …

Novel Non-Invasive Technology For The Detection Of Thin Biofilm In Piping Systems (Phase - 1), Sachin Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Biofilms are formed when a group of cells of microorganisms stick to each other and often on a surface. The development of biofilm has been a major issue in many fields (medical field, food, chemical, and water industry are a few such fields). In the medical field alone, biofilm infections have reportedly cost over five billion USD in additional healthcare expenses. The food industry usually halts the operation of its plant eight hours, every day to ensure that their equipment and transportation channels are clean and free from any biofilm presence. Similarly, the water and chemical industry need to ensure …

Quantitative Evaluation Of Geared Manual Wheelchair Mobility In Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury: An Integrative Approach, Omid Jahanian

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to quantify the effects of using geared wheelchair wheels on upper extremity biomechanics and energy expenditure during functional mobility tasks in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). The effects of using geared wheels on hand-rim biomechanics, glenohumeral joint dynamics, and shoulder muscle activity were investigated during manual wheelchair propulsion over tiled and carpeted level-floors and up a ramp in low gear (1.5:1) and standard gear (1:1) conditions. The results for the hand-rim biomechanics indicated that regardless of the terrain, using the geared wheels in the low gear condition significantly decreased the propulsion speed, stroke …

Novel Non-Invasive Technology For The Detection Of Thin Biofilm In Piping Systems (Phase - 1), Sachin Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Biofilms are formed when a group of cells of microorganisms stick to each other and often on a surface. The development of biofilm has been a major issue in many fields (medical field, food, chemical, and water industry are a few such fields). In the medical field alone, biofilm infections have reportedly cost over five billion USD in additional healthcare expenses. The food industry usually halts the operation of its plant eight hours, every day to ensure that their equipment and transportation channels are clean and free from any biofilm presence. Similarly, the water and chemical industry need to ensure …

A Discrete-Event Simulation Approach For Modeling Human Body Glucose Metabolism, Buket Aydas

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes CarbMetSim (Carbohydrate Metabolism Simulator), a discrete-event simulator that tracks the blood glucose level of a person in response to a timed sequence of diet and exercise activities. CarbMetSim implements broader aspects of carbohydrate metabolism in human beings with the objective of capturing the average impact of various diet/exercise activities on the blood glucose level. Key organs (stomach, intestine, portal vein, liver, kidney, muscles, adipose tissue, brain and heart) are implemented to the extent necessary to capture their impact on the production and consumption of glucose. Key metabolic pathways (glucose oxidation, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis) are accounted for by …

Cultivating Ecosystems: Microbial Communities In Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, Ryan Bartelme

Theses and Dissertations

Intensive cultivation of fish is necessary to meet future global market demands. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) enable dense growth of fish, while occupying less space than traditional aquaculture farms. However, RAS often experience complications and high fish mortalities due to disease and improper waste management. In properly functioning systems, the microorganisms associated with fish (gut, scales) as well as those found in the system environment (water, component surfaces) remove waste and maintain fish health by discouraging growth of opportunistic pathogens. Previous RAS microbiome studies are small in scope, utilize coarse methods, and contain limited long-term spatial or temporal data. With …

Novel Algorithms For Merging Computational Fluid Dynamics And 4d Flow Mri, Ali Bakhshinejad

Theses and Dissertations

Time-resolved three-dimensional spatial encoding combined with three-directional velocity-encoded phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging (termed as 4D flow MRI), can provide valuable information for diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of vascular diseases. The accuracy of this technique, however, is limited by errors in flow estimation due to acquisition noise as well as systematic errors. Furthermore, available spatial resolution is limited to 1.5mm - 3mm and temporal resolution is limited to 30-40ms. This is often grossly inadequate to resolve flow details in small arteries, such as those in cerebral circulation. Recently, there have been efforts to address the limitations of the spatial and …

An Array Of Circular Dielectrophoresis Traps To Separate And Charaterize Individual Microparticles From Population, Hwangjae Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Dielectrophoretic traps have been broadly studied in light of their many advantages of high controllability, ease of operation, and high efficiency. In the previous studies, however, it was challenging to count captured particles or required work to capture particles. In the thesis, an array of circular dielectrophoresis (DEP) traps was developed and tested to manipulate population of microparticles in single particle level. The circular DEP traps enable more precise control of the force field than conventionally used interdigitated electrodes due to its omnidirectional and symmetric properties. The location of the captured microparticle inside the trap was confirmed by both of …

Mhealth Technology: Towards A New Persuasive Mobile Application For Caregivers That Addresses Motivation And Usability, Suboh M. Alkhushayni

Theses and Dissertations

With the increasing use of mobile technologies and smartphones, new methods of promoting personal health have been developed. For example, there is now software for recording and tracking one's exercise activity or blood pressure. Even though there are already many of these services, the mobile health field still presents many opportunities for new research.

One apparent area of need would be software to support the efforts of caregivers for the elderly, especially those who suffer from multiple chronic conditions, such as cognitive impairment, chronic heart failure or diabetes. Very few mobile applications (apps) have been created that target caregivers of …

Brain Mechanism For Enhanced Hand Function With Remote Sensory Stimulation, Kishor Lakshminarayanan

Theses and Dissertations

The neurological bases for remote vibration enhanced sensory feedback and motor function are yet poorly understood. The purpose of this dissertation was to identify and examine the effect of vibration on finger tactile sensation in healthy adults and how imperceptible random vibration applied to the wrist changes cortical activity for fingertip sensation and precision grip. In a series of studies on healthy adults, white-noise vibration was applied to one of four locations (dorsum hand by the second knuckle, thenar and hypothenar areas, and volar wrist) at one of four intensities (zero, 60%, 80%, and 120% of the sensory threshold for …

A Study Of The Hydrostatic And Hydrodynamic Properties Of Aeoliscus Straigatus, Jeremy J. Keifenheim

Theses and Dissertations

Aeoliscus strigatus is a highly maneuverable fish found in the Indo-Pacific region. It boasts a unique head down posture and employs median paired fin propulsion to perform precise movements. The need for highly maneuverable underwater AUVs for exploration and testing drove the examination of the hydrostatics and hydrodynamics influencing Aeoliscus. To determine the stability of Aeoliscus the center of gravity and buoyancy were found. Center of gravity was experimentally located using the three plumb line method while center of buoyancy was located using two separate methods. The first method utilized the measured buoyant force, a rigidly mounted fish and a …

Adaptation Of Moiré Phase Tracking To A Mobile Device For Field 3d Data Collections, Amar Nikhanj

Theses and Dissertations

The accelerating technologies of mobiles devices such as tablets and phones provide an ability to

perform high intensity calculations all while obtaining precise data with increasingly more accurate

sensors. Image metrology and 3D motion tracking can take advantage of these improvements as

they require both significant processing power and camera controls not seen in mobile devices until

very recently. This thesis discusses the development of 3D motion tracking using Google Nexus

tablets and applying the technology to the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) to demonstrate

the technology’s application to field measurements. RULA analysis determines the stress placed on

a human …

Classification Of Adequate Impact Protection For Hands, Patrick Dylan Loshek

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

CLASSIFICATION OF ADEQUATE

IMPACT PROTECTION FOR HANDS

by

Patrick D. Loshek

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Naira Campbell-Kyureghyan

Historically, hand injuries have been a large burden for the manufacturing, construction, mining, oil and gas industries. Specially designed gloves are commonly used in industry today to protect hands from impacts. These gloves are designed to reduce hand injuries by absorbing the impact forces workers may encounter due to objects striking the hand. However, to date, there is no standard for the testing of these gloves and quantifying the force reduction a user would experience when …

Individual, Occupational And Biomechanical Factors That Affect Slip And Fall Risk From Fixed Ladders, Erika Mae Pliner

Theses and Dissertations

Injuries from ladder falls are prevalent and severe. Previous research has examined certain elements of ladder falls such as the ladder base slipping, but few studies have examined the factors that contribute to climbers falling from the ladder, particularly for permanent/fixed ladders. In addition, the biomechanical response to a ladder slip/misstep during ladder climbing and the factors that affect a fall from a ladder are not well understood. This thesis is a two part study that simulated ladder slips and missteps in order to find factors 1) associated with ladder slip risk and 2) that decrease fall severity from a …

Scattering Correction Methods Of Infrared Spectra Using Graphics Processing Units, Asher Imtiaz

Theses and Dissertations

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy has been used for many years as a technique that provides distinctive structure-specific infrared spectra for a wide range of materials (e.g., biological (tissues, cells, bacteria, viruses), polymers, energy related, composites, minerals). The mid-infrared radiation can strongly scatter from distinct particles, with diameters ranging between 2-20 micrometer. Transmission measurements of samples (approximately 100 micrometers x 100 micrometers x 10 micrometers) with distinct particles. will be dominated by this scattering (Mie scattering). The scattering distorts the measured spectra, and the absorption spectra appear different from pure absorbance spectra. This thesis presents development and implementation of two …

Applications Of Microbial Desalination And Photocatalytic Disinfection For The Removal Of Contaminants In Drinking Water, Kristen Shirlee-Ann Brastad

Theses and Dissertations

Trends in drinking water treatment in recent years have been moving toward the use of membrane separation in order to reduce contaminants in water. There are many forms of membrane separation technology such as ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and extruded ion exchange membranes. These membranes have many different applications and may be used to remove many materials from water such as salts, viruses and bacteria, selectively remove cations or anions, or remove organics.

Microbial desalination cells (MDCs) are an emerging concept which use bioelectric potential produced from organics via microbial metabolism to accomplish desalination. MDCs consist of three compartments, …

An Optogenetic Brain-Machine Interface For Spatiotemporal Neuromodulation, Ryan Andrew Baumgartner

Theses and Dissertations

Direct neural stimulation has recently become a standard therapy for neurological disorders such as Parkinson's Disease, Essential Tremors, and Dystonia. Currently, deep brain electro-stimulation and neuro-pharmaceutical treatments are the dominant therapeutic options available to the public. As our understanding of brain function and neurological diseases improves, we are able to develop more advanced neuromodulation techniques. These methods could become viable treatment solutions for treating brain dysfunction. Optogenetics, first introduced by a research team led by Karl Deisseroth at Stanford University, has proved to be a versatile technique with remarkable potential to be used in treatments for brain disorders, dysfunction, and …

Role Of Sensation In Altered Phalanx Grip Force In Persons With Stroke, Leah R. Enders

Theses and Dissertations

Many individuals experience hand impairment after stroke leading to decreased ability to perform daily living activities. Previous research studies have investigated how stroke survivors' pinch grip control differs from healthy individuals, even though many individuals can only grasp with power grip after stroke. Furthermore, many stroke survivors experience tactile sensory deficit in their paretic limb in addition to motor deficit. It is currently unknown how stroke induced tactile sensory deficit affects power grip force directional control, which is important in terms of preventing object slippage and power grip normal force generation. Additionally it is unknown if power grip could be …

Fibrinogen-Conjugated Gold-Coated Magnetite Nanoparticles For Antiplatelet Therapy, Evan Schuerer Krystofiak

Theses and Dissertations

Ischemic stroke is the world's second leading cause of death and accounts for 2-4% of total worldwide healthcare costs. Ischemic stroke is caused by the occlusion of arteries responsible for supplying blood to the brain, which can result in disability or death. Arterial blood clots consist of aggregates of activated platelets wrapped in a mesh of fibrin. Tissue plasminogen activator, the only current FDA-approved treatment for ischemic stroke, functions by lysing fibrin in a blood clot. Unfortunately, tissue plasminogen activator significantly increases bleeding risks, which restricts its use. Alternatively, targeting and disrupting platelets within a clot could improve stroke outcome. …

An Integrative Investigation Of Sources, Fate, And Transport Of Bacteria In Milwaukee Coastal Beaches, Marcia R. Silva

Theses and Dissertations

Beach water quality criteria are determined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and water quality advisories or closings are issued based on fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) at the beaches. Understanding of sources, fate and transport of FIB at a beach environment is of economic and social interest for public users, beach managers, policy makers and scientists. This is a complex problem and it is a multidisciplinary issue by nature. Scientists have generally taken a reductionist approach to tackle complex environmental issues. However, as alluded by Gallagher and Appenzeller (1999) and adopted by Boehm (2000), many complex systems are best interpreted …