Digital Commons Network^™

Molecular Dynamics Of Interfacial Phenomena At Air/Ice, Air/Water, And Air/Salt Water Interfaces, Thilanga Prabhash Liyana Arachchi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to investigate the adsorption of organic contaminants, namely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and green leaf volatiles (GLVs), as well as their interactions with reactive oxygen species (ROSs) on atmospheric air/water and air/ice interfaces. In another series of projects, we studied several intermediate and semi-volatile organic compounds from oil (IVOCs and SVOCs, e.g., alkanes with 17-31 carbon atoms), surfactants and dispersants at air/salt water interfaces. These simulations are relevant to understand the fate of these compounds during the recent 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The adsorption of gas-phase aromatics (benzene, naphthalene and phenanthrene), ROSs …

Walking, Running, And Resting Under Time, Distance And Average Speed Constraints: Optimality Of Walk-Run-Rest Mixtures, Leroy L. Long Iii, Manoj Srinivasan

Publications

On a treadmill, humans switch from walking to running beyond a characteristic transition speed. Here, we study human choice between walking and running in a more ecological (non-treadmill) setting. We asked subjects to travel a given distance overground in a given allowed time duration. During this task, the subjects carried, and could look at, a stop-watch that counted down to zero. As expected, if the total time available were large, humans walk the whole distance. If the time available were small, humans mostly run. For an intermediate total time, humans often use a mixture of walking at a slow speed …

Academic And Social Barriers To Black And Latino Male Collegians' Success In Engineering And Related Stem Fields, Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, Leroy L. Long Iii, Joseph Allen Kitchen, Michael Steven Williams, Meg E. Stenz

Publications

Historically underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities (i.e. African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans) have experienced barriers to their success in engineering and related STEM fields. These student populations have had lower degree attainment rates, switch to non-STEM majors more frequently, and experience unique social challenges when compared to White and Asian Pacific Islander counterparts. To examine these findings, nearly 50 interviews were conducted and analyzed in the present study to better understand the academic and social experiences of African American and Latino American men in these fields. Interviews revealed that these students tend to (1) feel alone and invisible, (2) lack same …

Characterizing Hypoxia And Its Behavioral Effects In 3-Dimensional Cell Aggregates, Matthew Lorincz Skiles

Theses and Dissertations

Cell transplantation can be considered a regenerative therapy, an intervention which attempts to replace or restore the function of compromised tissue by harnessing innate properties of cells that cannot be replicated artificially. For such therapies to succeed, it will be necessary to understand and closely match the physiological conditions that govern cell behaviors in vivo. One important factor is low oxygen tension, termed hypoxia, which is often overlooked in vitro. Because oxygen insufficiency can lead to cell death, hypoxia has traditionally been viewed as a negative condition. However, hypoxia can also serve as a potent regulator of crucial cell behaviors …

Impact Of Physical Activity In The Prevention Of Colorectal Cancer, Sarah Ashley Barnes

Theses and Dissertations

This review evaluates the current understanding of research on the impact of physical activity in the prevention of colorectal cancer. Current biological mechanisms implicated in physical activity and colorectal cancer risk reduction are blood glucose regulation, insulin sensitivity, leptin and adiponectin profiles, inflammation as well as secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC), an exercise induced myokine. Recent literature indicates that 30-60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day is effective against colorectal cancer development, and there is convincing evidence of aerobic exercise as differently beneficial in recruiting mechanisms identified as preventative against colorectal cancer. This article provides …

Role Of Microrna-155 In A Mouse Model Of Colon Cancer., Claire Mitchell Midyette

Theses and Dissertations

Colorectal cancer remains the third most common malignancy and the fourth most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Dysregulated miRNA levels are associated with several types of malignancies and may serve as important biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets in colorectal cancer. We examined the role of miRNA-155 on tumorigenesis and associated symptoms using a well-characterized mouse model of colorectal cancer. C57BL/6 wild-type mice and miRNA-155-/- mice (n=7-13 group) were given a single injection of AOM (10mg/Kg) followed by 3 cycles of DSS (2% in the water for 1 week followed by 2 weeks of plain water). A C57BL/6 wild-type group that …

Investigation Of Start Domain Proteins In Human Luteinized Cells And Cos-1 Cells, Bo Shi

Theses and Dissertations

After the luteinizing hormone surge of the menstrual cycle, the ovarian follicular granulosa and theca cells terminally differentiate to form the luteal cells of the corpus luteum. During this process known as luteinization, granulosa cells begin to synthesize large quantities of progesterone, a hormone essential for pregnancy. The rate limiting step for the de novo synthesis of pregnenolone (the precursor to progesterone) is the transport of cholesterol from the outer to the inner mitochondrial membrane, a process mediated by STARD1. STARD1 contains a C-terminal lipid binding domain holding one molecule of cholesterol, and an N-terminal domain targeting STARD1 to the …

Effect Of Matrix Modulus On Cancer Stem Cells And Tumorsphere Formation In Three-Dimensional-Engineered Matrix, Samaneh Kamali Sarvestani

Theses and Dissertations

Maintenance of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is regulated by their microenvironment. As cancer cells are affected by many factors in their microenvironment, a major challenge is to isolate the effect of a specific factor on cancer stem cells (CSCs) while keeping other factors unchanged. We have developed a synthetic inert 3D polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) gel culture system as a unique tool to study the effect of microenvironmental factors on CSCs response. Synthetic hydrogels provide the flexibility to design three-dimensional (3D) matrices to isolate and study individual factors in the tumor microenvironment.

The objective of this work was to investigate …

Wireless Pressure Sensor System For Medical Applications, Xuehe Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Telemedicine in the modern era is a rapidly developing industry. In a telemedicine system, sensor is the key elements and play important role in any telemedicine applications, especially implantable sensors. Unlike traditional in vitro sensors, there are some special requirements for them like battery-less, compact, and bio-friendly. Therefore, many researchers in institutes as well as in industry are continually developing implantable sensor and sensor system to fulfill the requirements of medical applications.Nine in one thousand people in the United States are born with congenital heart defects and sixty percent die before one year old. As a result, it will be …

Modeling Ultrasonic Field Emanating From Scanning Acoustic Microscope For Reliable Characterization Of Pathogens (Biological Materials), Rowshan Ara Rima

Theses and Dissertations

Acoustic microscopy provides extraordinary advantages over state-of-the-art invasive imaging techniques to determine the mechanical properties of living colonies of pathogens and micro-organisms. It is possible to obtain the morphomechanical parameters of the pathogenic colonies e.g. variation of thickness, stiffness and the coefficients of attenuation, using scanning acoustic microscope (SAM). However, the process requires an expert with extensive understanding of SAM and ultrasonic signals which is very time consuming and expensive for complex form of analysis. Due to lack of a suitable computational tool, presently the ultrasonic wave scattering, reflection and transmission through the biological specimens cannot be properly visualized. Without …

Toward Directing Cell Fate: Carbon Nanotubes As Modulators Of Extracellular And Transporters Of Intracellular Cues, Qingsu Cheng

Theses and Dissertations

The unique properties of CNTs lead CNTs attractive in biological engineering applications. It is expected to use CNT based biomaterials for clinic use in the near future. CNTs can be used to tune cellular fate through bother extracellular pathway and intracellular pathway. CNT based biomaterials has been applied into bone, nerves, and cardiovascular system. There has also been progress in the use of CNTs in controlling cellular alignment, to enhance tissue regeneration, growth factor delivery and gene delivery.

Pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) offer a promising tool in tissue engineering strategies, as their differentiated derivatives can be used to reconstruct most …

Experimental Study On Piping Failure Of Earthen Levee And Dams, Yusuf Ahmed Sharif

Theses and Dissertations

Piping in an earthen levee, one of the main causes of failure, is a complex phenomenon. Most of the available research on piping failure has been on non-cohesive sandy soils. Jet Erosion Test and Hole Erosion Test have been conducted to study piping failure in an indirect manner. However, no general purpose formula is presently available to describe the erosion process due to complex erosion characteristics of cohesive soils in earthen levees.

Experimental investigations in a flume to understand the piping erosion process in an earthen levee are conducted in this research. One of the sidewalls and the bottom of …

Assessing Appropriate Technology Handwashing Stations In Mali, West Africa, Colleen Claire Naughton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proper hand hygiene is the most effective and efficient method to prevent over 1.3 million deaths annually from diarrheal disease and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs). Hand hygiene is also indispensable in achieving the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the childhood mortality rate by 2/3rds between 1990 and 2015. Handwashing has been found in a systematic review of studies to reduce diarrhea by 47%#37; and is, thus, capable of preventing a million deaths (Curtis et. al., 2003). Despite this evidence, hand washing rates remain seriously low in the developing world (Scott et al., 2008).

This study developed and implemented …

Evaluation Of A Pilot Land-Based Marine Integrated Aquaculture System, Suzanne Boxman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) produce aquaculture products on land with minimal discharge of waste products and minimal water loss. High costs associated with waste treatment for RAS have triggered the growth of integrated aquaculture systems (IAS) which incorporate macrophytes (aquatic plants) into the treatment train. The objective of this research was to examine a pilot scale inland marine IAS with three different methods for solids treatment: a sand filter followed by a plant bed, only a plant bed, and geotextile bags. Florida Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) were grown along with Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), Black Needle Rush …

Assessment Of A Modified Double Agar Layer Method To Detect Bacteriophage For Assessing The Potential Of Wastewater Reuse In Rural Bolivia, Sakira N. Hadley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water scarcity is a global concern that impacts many developing countries, forcing people to depend on unclean water sources for domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs. Wastewater is an alternative water source that contains nutrients needed for crop growth. Wastewater reuse for agriculture can cause public health problems because of human exposure to pathogens. Pathogen monitoring is essential to evaluate the compliance of wastewater with established World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wastewater reuse guidelines. Indicator organisms are commonly used to detect pathogens in water and wastewater because they are quick and easy to measure, non-pathogenic, and …

A Matlab Primer In Four Hours With Practical Examples, Jerome Casey

Instructional Guides

No abstract provided.

Degradable Plastics And Solid Waste Management Systems, David J. Tonjes, Krista L. Thyberg

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Plastics, which are woven into the fabric of modern life, have consequential impacts on the environment. Many of these are associated with end-of-lifetime processes, and include chemical contamination of the environment and effects from litter. Plastics also complicate waste management processes, causing contamination in composting operations, and having poor recovery rates through recycling. Plastics that are not as biologically recalcitrant, that decompose when use is done, have been perceived as solutions to at least some of these problems. The first generation of degradable plastics did not meet marketing claims; some of the more recent formulations, partly as a consequence of …

Municipal Waste Management: Suffolk County Municipal Systems, Services And Infrastructure, Krista L. Greene, Susan Lienau, David J. Tonjes

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

This report describes the municipal waste management systems used by local governments to manage solid waste in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. There are ten Towns that serve as the primary planners for waste systems in Suffolk County. Many of the 33 villages in Suffolk County have established their own waste management programs and policies. All programs tend to follow the same general plan of the approaches used by their respective Towns, however. All programs provide some degree of recycling services, although the scope of the services varies tremendously.

Women In Science 2013, Clark Science Center's Summer Research Fellows Program

SURF Abstracts (Women in Science)

“Women in Science” summarizes research done by Smith College’s Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) Program participants. Ever since its 1967 start, SURF has been a cornerstone of Smith’s science education. In 2013, 167 students participated in SURF, supervised by 57 faculty mentor-advisors drawn from the Clark Science Center’s fourteen science, mathematics, and engineering departments and programs, and associated centers and units. At summer’s end, SURF participants were asked to summarize their research experiences for this publication.

Review Of Us And Eu Initiatives Toward Development, Demonstration, And Commercialization Of Lignocellulosic Biofuels, Venkatesh Balan, David Chiaramonti, Sandeep Kumar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Advanced biofuels produced from lignocellulosic biomass offer an exciting opportunity to produce renewable liquid transportation fuels, biochemicals, and electricity from locally available agriculture and forest residues. The growing interest in biofuels from lignocellulosic feedstock in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) can provide a path forward toward replacing petroleum-based fuels with sustainable biofuels which have the potential to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The selection of biomass conversion technologies along with feedstock development plays a crucial role in the commercialization of next-generation biofuels. There has been synergy and, even with similar basic process routes, diversity in the …

A Review Of Pharmaceuticals And Endocrine-Disrupting Compounds: Sources, Effects, Removal, And Detections, Jimoh O. Tijani, Ojo O. Fatoba, Leslie F. Petrik

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

There are growing concerns about the increasing trends of emerging micropollutants in the environment due to their potential negative impacts on natural ecosystems and humans. This has attracted attention from both governmental and non-governmental organizations worldwide. Pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and endocrine disruptors are continuously being released consciously or unconsciously into water sources due to poor regulatory frameworks especially in the developing countries. The effects of these contaminants are poorly known. They are not easily biodegradable and have become an environmental nuisance and public health issue. This has heightened the risk of exposure to their deleterious effects in such countries …

Antenna Designs For Wireless Medical Implants., Conor P. Conran

Masters

Active medical implants are devices that are surgically implanted inside the body. They have been developed to treat a wide range of ailments and many require some form of communications link with the outside world for maintenance and for remote medical diagnostics. Radio links promise a wide range of benefits over the traditional low frequency inductive coupling method.

Body tissue is a challenging environment, both for the device and for the radio signal that it transmits. Innovation in medical technology is creating a demand for high bandwidth links, and this in turn is driving the development of implantable antennas.

Many …

An Evaluation Of Seawater Pumped Hydro Storage For Regulating The Export Of Wind Energy To The National Grid, Eoin D. Mclean

Dissertations

Hydroelectric power generation has been in use for a very long time. From the earliest watermills to the current large scale Hydro power plants, this is a technology that is proven to be reliable and commercially viable. The use of wind energy to provide mechanical power for the purpose of turning a rotor is also not a new concept.Four years ago TCD Professor of Applied Physics Igor Shvets conceived the idea of solving Ireland’s energy crisis by taking these two proven renewable technologies and combining them. (McGreevey, 2012) The spirit of Ireland initiative seeks to resolve the biggest issues facing …

Chapter Green Nanotechnology: Development Of Nanomaterials For Environmental And Energy Applications, Rachel Fagan, Changseok Han, Joel Andersen, Suresh Pillai, Polycarpos Falaras, Anthony Byrne, Patrick S.M. Dunlop, Hyeok Choi, Wenjun Jiang, Kevin O’Shea, Dionysios D. Dionysiou

Books/Book Chapters

This book chapter discusses the syntheses of various nanomaterials, for green nanotechnology applications in detail. Special attention is given to the development of emerging areas, such as environmental as well as energy materials. Various approaches for preparing nanostructured photocatalysts, such as titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, iron oxide, and metal sulfides, different conventional methods and novel methods, including sol-gel methods, hydrothermal methods, microwave-assisted methods and sonochemical methods are introduced. The use of nanomaterials as photocatalysts, supporting materials for solar cells, and disinfectants is reported for environmental remediation and energy applications. Advanced applications of nanomaterials for water detoxification, air purification, and the …

Regional Integration Of Renewable Energy Systems In Ireland: The Role Of Hybrid Energy Systems For Small Communities, Craig Goodbody, Eileen Walsh, Kevin Mcdonnell, Philip Owende

Articles

Due to a lack of indigenous fossil energy resources, Ireland’s energy supply constantly teeters on the brink of political, geopolitical, and geographical unease. The potential risk to the security of the energy supply combined with the contribution of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to climate change gives a clear indication of Ireland's need to reduce dependency on imported fossil fuels as primary energy source. A feasibility analysis to investigate the available renewable energy options was conducted using HOMER software. The Net Present Cost, the Cost of Energy, and the CO2 emissions of each potential energy combination were considered in determining the …

Using Modelling And Simulation To Improve Elderly Care In Ireland: A Case Study, Mohamed Ragab, Wael Rashwan, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Amr Arisha

Articles

Health care services both globally and domestically - are encountering critical issues due to the increasing demand for services at the time of economic recession. Hospital performance is subject to many constraints, and planning is made more difficult by the complexity and uncertainty of demand. Population ageing is creating immense pressures on healthcare facilities across the world, leaving them struggling to cope with the growing demand for elderly healthcare services. Current demand-supply gaps result in prolonged waiting times for patients and substantial cost burdens for healthcare systems due to delayed discharges. This paper reports on a project that uses modelling …

Cavitation In Pharmaceutical Manufacturing And Shipping, Donn Sederstrom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Therapeutic proteins are used to successfully treat hemophilia, Crohn's Disease, diabetes, and cancer. Recent product recalls have occurred because of sub-visible particle formation resulting from the inherent instability of proteins. It has been suggested that particle formation is associated with late stage processing steps of filling, shipping, and delivery. Previous work at the University of Denver demonstrated that fluid cavitation can generate a large number of sub-visible protein particles in ultra clean formulations, but that mitigation can be achieved with fluid property manipulation. The goal of this research was to (1) assess the risk of cavitation under common pharmaceutical manufacturing …

Real-Time Temporal Stereo Matching Using Iterative Adaptive Support Weights, Jedrzej Kowalczuk, Eric T. Psota, Lance C. Pérez

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Stereo matching algorithms are nearly always designed to find matches between a single pair of images. A method is presented that was specifically designed to operate on sequences of images. This method considers the cost of matching image points in both the spatial and temporal domain. To maintain real-time operation, a temporal cost aggregation method is used to evaluate the likelihood of matches that is invariant with respect to the number of prior images being considered. This method has been implemented on massively parallel GPU hardware, and the implementation ranks as one of the fastest and most accurate real-time stereo …

Bacillus Thuringiensis: Transgenic Crops, Julie A. Peterson, John J. Obrycki, James D. Harwood

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops, genetically modified to express insecticidal toxins that target key pests of corn, cotton, rice, potato, and other crops, have been rapidly adopted and have become dominant fixtures in agroecosystems throughout the world. Due to the constitutive nature of Bt toxin expression, insecticidal proteins may be found in nearly all plant tissues, presenting multiple sources for Bt toxins to enter the environment, thus creating complex direct and indirect pathways for non-target organisms to be exposed to insecticidal proteins. The environmental impacts of Bt crops have been widely debated, although both benefits and risks do exist. Benefits of …

Hypervelocity Impact Testing Of Multiwall Targets Using Multiple Simultaneously Launched Projectiles, William P. Schonberg, Steve Evans, Michael D. Bjorkman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multiwall shield designs for spacecraft have been studied extensively in the last four decades as a means of reducing the perforation threat of the near-Earth particulate environment over equivalent single-wall structures. The performance of an impact shield is typically characterized by its ballistic limit equation, which is obtained through high-speed impact tests that typically use spherical projectiles fired in light gas guns. Traditional firings employ only one projectile per launch package. However, some facilities have taken to launching multiple projectiles of different sizes in a single launch package. In light of the significant role played by a ballistic limit equation …