Digital Commons Network^™

Rotor Position And Vibration Control For Aerospace Flywheel Energy Storage Devices And Other Vibration Based Devices, B. X. S. Alexander

ETD Archive

Flywheel energy storage has distinct advantages over conventional energy storage methods such as electrochemical batteries. Because the energy density of a flywheel rotor increases quadratically with its speed, the foremost goal in flywheel design is to achieve sustainable high speeds of the rotor. Many issues exist with the flywheel rotor operation at high and varying speeds. A prominent problem is synchronous rotor vibration, which can drastically limit the sustainable rotor speed. In a set of projects, the novel Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) is applied to various problems of flywheel rotor operation. These applications include rotor levitation, steady state rotation …

Assembly And Function Of Myosin Ii On Ultraviolet/Ozone Patterned Trimethylchlorosilane Substrates, Madhukar B. Kolli

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The exploration of biomolecular motors in nanotechnological applications has generated much interest in the scientific community. Although the recent progress has been very promising, several requirements have yet to be fulfilled in order for motor proteins to be useful in nanotechnological applications. Here, we present a simple method for patterning myosin II on a microstructured surface. Our findings indicate that UV/ozone treatment can be used to alter the hydrophobicity of trimethyl-chloro-silane (TMCS) coated glass surfaces, to alter protein binding, and effectively produce localized motor activity. Taken together, these data suggest that photoreactive patterning may be useful for the selective localization …

Generation Of Recombinant Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Lines And Theirapplication For In Vivo Bioluminiscence Imaging In The Heart, Ramana Kammili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in the United States, with 80 million people suffering from some form of heart disease each year. One major limitation is the inability of the heart to repair the damaged tissue. Stem cell therapy holds enormous promise to repair and regenerate the damaged myocardium, but there are many technical difficulties that must first be overcome. One such difficulty is the present lack of ability to track and assess transplanted stem cells over time in vivo. The central hypothesis of this thesis is that in vivo bioluminescence imaging is a safe and useful …

A Synthesised Knowledge Mapping Framework To Embed A Km Strategy Using Topic Maps And Wikis: The Tao Of Wiki, Colman A.J. Mcmahon

Dissertations

Just getting started with knowledge management can be difficult enough for many organisations, however the real challenge is actually how to embed the new practices. The expression "Success is a journey, not a destination" is particularly apt for KM. This research presents findings from stakeholder analyses carried out in an Irish government agency. The agency has been on its KM journey for nearly four years and has attempted to implement a comprehensive and full-scale strategy. The findings indicate that KM practices have not yet become fully embedded in the organisation. This research uncovers some of the reasons why not. In …

Performance Evaluation Of Vip Latrines In The Upper West Region Of Ghana , James W. Dumpert

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The prevalence of Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrines in Ghana suggests that the design must have a high user acceptance. The two key factors attributed to user acceptance of a VIP latrine over an alternative latrine design, such as the basic pit latrine, are its ability to remove foul odors and maintain low fly populations; both of which are a direct result of an adequate ventilation flow rate.

Adequate ventilation for odorless conditions in a VIP latrine has been defined by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank, as an air flow rate equivalent to 6 air …

Extensible Simulation Of Planets And Comets, Natalie Anne Wiser-Orozco

Theses Digitization Project

The aim of this research was to create an extensible simulator that will not only calculate the trajectories of planets and comets using a numerical method, but be able to graphically simulate them. The significance of this project is its ability to be a useful tool to computer scientists, astronomers, and physicists by determining how an arbitrary set of celestial bodies interact with one another. It allows definition of bodies that belong to a system, and creates a graphical simulation of them based on their specific properties. Ideas are then easily conveyed not only to colleagues, but to the public …

Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infection Of The Auricular Cartilage Caused By “High Ear Piercing”: A Case Report And Review Of The Literature, Henry H. Rowshan, Karen Keith, Dale Baur, Peter Skidmore

United States Army: Publications

Piercing of various parts of the body has gained tremendous popularity among adolescent and adult populations in recent years. There are no exact statistical reports on the number of body piercings being performed in the United States. One study among 481 college students in New York revealed that 42% of men and 60% of women had body piercing. In the past, the majority of complications of ear piercing were associated with the lobule. Torn ear lobes, localized infection, hypertrophic scars, allergic contact dermatitis, and keloid formations were among the most common, with no significant morbidity. However, “high ear piercing,” defined …

Metadata Visualisation Techniques For Emotional Speech Corpora, Charlie Cullen, Brian Vaughan, Spyros Kousidis

Conference papers

Our research in emotional speech analysis has led to the construction of dedicated high quality, online corpora of natural emotional speech assets. Once obtained, the annotation and analysis of these assets was necessary in order to develop a database of both analysis data and metadata relating to each speech act. With annotation complete, the means by which this data may be presented to the user online for analysis, retrieval and organization is the current focus of our investigations. Building on an initial web interface developed in Ruby on Rails, we are now working towards a visually driven GUI built on …

Photoelectric Charging By Ultraviolet Light Of A Lunar Dust Simulant In A Microgravity Environment, Microgravity Research Team 2008

Reports and Proposals

No abstract provided.

Join The Mission, Design A Patch, Nathan Mentzer, Fay Mentzer, Krista Jones

Publications

The article presents a classroom activity designed for third grade and up that requires students to design their own mission patch. The activity references the patches developed and designed by the U.S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration. Moreover, the article discusses the design of the activity, the available resources, the evaluation process and interdisciplinary connections.

The Phylogeny Of The Four Pan-American Mtdna Haplogroups: Implications For Evolutionary And Disease Studies, Alessandro Achilli, Ugo A. Perego, Claudio M. Bravi, Michael D. Coble, Qing-Peng Kong, Scott R. Woodward, Antonio Salas, Antonio Torroni, Hans-Jürgen Bandelt

United States Army: Publications

Only a limited number of complete mitochondrial genome sequences belonging to Native American haplogroups were available until recently, which left America as the continent with the least amount of information about sequence variation of entire mitochondrial DNAs. In this study, a comprehensive overview of all available complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes of the four pan-American haplogroups A2, B2, C1, and D1 is provided by revising the information scattered throughout GenBank and the literature, and adding 14 novel mtDNA sequences. The phylogenies of haplogroups A2, B2, C1, and D1 reveal a large number of sub-haplogroups but suggest that the ancestral Beringian …

Detecting Curved Objects Against Cluttered Backgrounds, Jan Prokaj

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Detecting curved objects against cluttered backgrounds is a hard problem in computer vision. We present new low-level and mid-level features to function in these environments. The low-level features are fast to compute, because they employ an integral image approach, which makes them especially useful in real-time applications. The mid-level features are built from low-level features, and are optimized for curved object detection. The usefulness of these features is tested by designing an object detection algorithm using these features. Object detection is accomplished by transforming the mid-level features into weak classifiers, which then produce a strong classifier using AdaBoost. The resulting …

Characterization Of Changes In Hyaluronan Following Epidermal Barrier Injury In An Organotypic Model, Gati Ajani

ETD Archive

The stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the epidermis of skin, provides a functional permeability barrier that is essential for our survival and must be rapidly repaired after injury. Of interest to us, a ubiquitous matrix molecule called hyaluronan (HA) has come to the forefront in wound healing research because it is induced after epidermal injury and may be crucial for barrier repair. This thesis examines the role of HA during recovery from the most fundamental form of skin injury, i.e. selective damage to the stratum corneum. The overall question is whether this form of stratum corneum injury can lead …

A Hybrid Reconfigurable Solar And Wind Energy System, Sagar A. Gadkari

ETD Archive

We study the feasibility of a novel hybrid solar-wind hybrid system that shares most of its infrastructure and components. During periods of clear sunny days the system will generate electricity from the sun using a parabolic concentrator. The concentrator is formed by individual mirror elements and focuses the light onto high intensity vertical multi-junction (VMJ) cells. During periods of high wind speeds and at night, the same concentrator setup will be reconfigured to channel the wind into a wind turbine which will be used to harness wind energy. In this study we report on the feasibility of this type of …

A Novel Cardiac Pacing Paradigm For Atrial Fibrillation And Heart Failure Patients, George Emanuel Yanulis

ETD Archive

It has been estimated that 4.6 million persons have heart failure, and 400,000 to 700,000 new cases develop each year and the U.S. Hospital discharges for HF rose from 399,000 in 1979 to 1,099,000 in 2004 according to the National Hospital Discharge Survey. Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in the United States. Recent studies have demonstrated that ventricular rate control is a viable treatment strategy for patients in atrial fibrillation. In a number of cases, despite the electrical resynchronization of the ventricles using biventricular pacing (cardiac resynchronization therapy), heart failure patients in sinus rhythm do not …

Biocompatibility Of Osteoblast Cells On Titanium Implants, Dilip Ayyala Somayajula

ETD Archive

Adhesion and proliferation of UMR 106-01 osteoblast cells were studied on various surface modified titanium materials such as polished, sandblasted, anodized and alkaline treated. Anodization of polished surface in Hydrofluoric acid developed nano-tubes, while NaOH treatment produced spongy microporous morphology. Test samples were coated with non-adhesive protein bovine serum albumin and compared with fibronectin coated specimens. The adhesion study lasted for 4 hrs, where osteoblast cells were cultured in serum free medium. Polished titanium, anodized titanium and NaOH titanium have shown similar percentages of cell adherence. The proliferation study lasted for 48 hrs, where cells were initially allowed to adhere …

A Wrapper-Based Approach To Sustained Time Synchronization In Wireless Sensor Networks, Dheeraj Reddy Bheemidi

ETD Archive

Time synchronization is an important service for wireless sensor network applications. Nodes in the network stay synchronized by exchanging periodic messages that carry local timestamps. Several algorithms have been proposed in the literature that are suited to different kinds of application scenarios. A common problem across these time synchronization algorithms is that the energy cost of message exchange is high. In fact, the cost of radio communication far outstrips the cost of performing local operations on the processor. If the message exchanges were stopped, nodes will fall out of sync, and may no longer be able to meet application requirements. …

Effect Of Adding A Regenerator To Kornhauser's Mit "Two-Space" Test Rig, Praveen Gidugu

ETD Archive

A 3-space solution domain (gas spring + heat exchanger + regenerator) is adapted from the 2-space solution domain (gas spring + heat exchanger) in Kornhauser MIT test rig [25] by modifying the heat exchanger space to include a porous regenerator system. A thermal non-equilibrium porous-media model is employed for the regenerator. Extensive numerical simulations of the fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena under conditions of oscillating pressure and oscillating fluid flow inside the 3-space solution domain were performed using 1-D Sage and 2-D Fluent numerical codes. 3-space results of temperature, pressure and surface heat transfer variations, pressure-volume diagrams, energy conservation …

Experimental Testing And Performance Analysis Of "Room Air Cleaners", Pavan Kumar Mudiya

ETD Archive

HMI industries are the manufacture of the air cleaners and vacuum cleaners, in which a solution is adapted for the current model of the volute to the new design of the volute in order to calculate the "Clean Air Delivery rate" and qualify for the "Energy Star requirements". For the above model to be employed as a Energy Star certificate, a test rig was made in which "air velocity" and "flow rate" was calculated for the three different air cleaners in two cases i.e. (i) three different air cleaners with different filters and different rpm's (ii) three different air cleaners …

Moderate Zinc Restriction Affects Intestinal Health And Immune Function In Lipopolysaccharide-Challenged Mice, Daniel G. Peterson, Angus G. Scrimgeour, James P. Mcclung, Elizabeth A. Koutsos

United States Army: Publications

Zinc (Zn) is an essential nutrient that affects immune function, especially within the digestive system, although the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This study examined the effects of short-term moderate Zn restriction on intestinal health and immune function in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged mice through plasma cytokine profiling and histological evaluation of intestinal tissue sections. Adult male mice were fed with a Zn-adequate (40 ppm) or a Zn-marginal (4 ppm) diet for 4 weeks, and then a bacterial challenge was simulated by intraperitoneal injection of LPS (10 μg/g body weight [BW]) or saline (control). BW was recorded weekly, and feed intake …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 31: Ecosystem Effects Workgroup Report, John Fournie, Elizabeth Hilborn, Geoffrey Codd, Michael Coveney, Juli Dyble, Karl Havens, Bas Ibelings, Jan Landsberg, Wayne Litaker

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms represent one of the most serious ecological stressors in lakes, rivers, estuaries and marine environments. When there are persistent or frequent blooms with high biomass of cyanobacterial cells, colonies or filaments in the water, a wide range of impacts on the ecosystem may occur. These are well established in the scientific literature and are summarized in Paerl et al. (2001). Blooms may shade the water and thereby inhibit growth of other primary producers including phytoplankton, benthic algae and vascular plants and may elevate pH, particularly in poorly buffered waters. High population densities of large cyanobacteria interfere with …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 1: An Overview Of The Interagency, International Symposium On Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (Isoc-Hab): Advancing The Scientific Understanding Of Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms, H. Kenneth Hudnell, Quay Dortch, Harold Zenick

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

There is growing evidence that the spatial and temporal incidence of harmful algal blooms is increasing, posing potential risks to human health and ecosystem sustainability. Currently there are no US Federal guidelines, Water Quality Criteria and Standards, or regulations concerning the management of harmful algal blooms. Algal blooms in freshwater are predominantly cyanobacteria, some of which produce highly potent cyanotoxins. The US Congress mandated a Scientific Assessment of Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms in the 2004 reauthorization of the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Act. To further the scientific understanding of freshwater harmful algal blooms, the US Environmental …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 35: Risk Assessment Workgroup Report, Joyce Donohue, Jennifer Orme–Zavaleta, Michael Burch, Daniel Dietrich, Belinda Hawkins, Tony Lloyd, Wayne Munns, Jeffery Steevens, Dennis Steffensen, Dave Stone, Peter Tango

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Risk assessment is a four–stage process used in evaluating the impact of contaminants on the well being of individuals, populations and/or the physical environment. As defined by the National Academy of Sciences (1983), the four components are as follows: hazard identification, dose– response assessment, exposure assessment and risk characterization.
The goal of a risk assessment is to utilize existing information coupled with site specific data to quantitatively characterize the potential risk of a stressor to an identified receptor(s). Quantitative, risk–based estimates of dose–response relationships integrated with exposure scenarios and information on environmental conditions often become the basis for regulatory measures …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 26: Human Health Effects Workgroup Report, Sandra Azevedo, Neil Chernoff, Ian Falconer, Michael Gage, Elizabeth Hilborn, Michelle Hooth, Karl Jensen, Robert Macphail, Ellen Rogers, Glen Shaw, Ian Stewart

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Two types of approaches may be used to evaluate the toxicity of environmental agents:

• Observational population studies may be used to investigate humans or animals in contact with the agent of interest, either prospectively or retrospectively.
• Experimental studies may be performed under controlled conditions on animals, living tissues or cells. These results may be extrapolated to human and animal populations.

Observational epidemiological studies of human and animal populations have the advantage of investigating the effects of environmentally relevant exposures to naturally–occurring mixtures of toxins. Health effects may be identified in the target species of concern. These studies are …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 38: Integrating Human And Ecological Risk Assessment: Application To The Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Bloom Problem, Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, Wayne Munns, Jr.

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Environmental and public health policy continues to evolve in response to new and complex social, economic and environmental drivers. Globalization and centralization of commerce, evolving patterns of land use (e.g., urbanization, deforestation), and technological advances in such areas as manufacturing and development of genetically modified foods have created new and complex classes of stressors and risks (e.g., climate change, emergent and opportunist disease, sprawl, genomic change). In recognition of these changes, environmental risk assessment and its use are changing from stressor-endpoint specific assessments used in command and control types of decisions to an integrated approach for application in communitybased decisions. …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 15: Cyanotoxins Workgroup Report, Rex Pegram, Andrew Humpage, Brett Neilan, Maria Runnegar, Tonya Nichols, Robert Thacker, Stephan Pflugmacher, Stacey Etheridge, Adam Love

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

The Cyanotoxins Workgroup was charged with the identification and prioritization of research needs associated with: the identification of cyanotoxins; toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of cyanotoxins; human susceptibility to the toxins; cyanobacterial genetics/omics and factors for inclusion in predictive models of toxin production; and risk reduction from an intentional or accidental release of cyanotoxins. Papers presented for the Cyanotoxins Session of the symposium on toxin types, toxicokinetics, and toxicodyamics (See Humpage this volume), cyanobacterial genetics of toxin production (See Neilan this volume), and parameters related to human risks from cyanobacterial exposure (See Love this volume) set the stage for Cyanotoxins Workgroup discussions. …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 2: A Synopsis Of Research Needs Identified At The Interagency, International Symposium On Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (Isoc-Hab), H. Kenneth Hudnell, Quay Dortch

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Evidence indicates that the incidence of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs) is increasing in spatial extent and temporal frequency worldwide. Cyanobacterial blooms produce highly potent toxins and huge, noxious biomasses in surface waters used for recreation, commerce, and as drinking water sources. The Interagency, International Symposium on Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (ISOC-HAB) characterized the state of the science and identified research needed to address the risks posed by CHABs to human health and ecosystem sustainability. This chapter provides a synopsis of CHAB research needs that were identified by workgroups that addressed charges in major topic areas. The research and infrastructure …

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms: Chapter 3: Occurrence Of Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms Workgroup Report, Anthony Fristachi, James Sinclair, Sherwood Hall, Julie Hambrook Berkman, Greg Boyer, Joann Burkholder, John Burns, Wayne Carmichael, Al Dufour, William Frazier, Steve Morton, Eric O’Brien, Steven Walker

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Freshwater cyanobacteria periodically accumulate, or bloom, in water bodies across the United States (US). These blooms, also known as cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHAB), can lead to a reduction in the number of individuals who engage in recreational activities in lakes and reservoirs, degrade aquatic habitats and potentially impact human health. In 1998, Congress passed the 1998 Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA) to address CHABs that impacted living marine resources, fish and shellfish harvests and recreational and service industries along US coastal waters. In 2004, as part of its reauthorization, HABHRCA requires federal agencies to …

Nitrogen In The Environment: Chapter 22. New Policy Directions, A.P. Manale

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Advances in linking the science of ecology with economics and the development of agri-environmental modeling systems coupled with new information technology suggest new public policy approaches that reward agricultural producers for providing ecological services. An incentive-based ecosystem approach that identifies and quantifies an array of environmental services that can be provided by agricultural land, and then facilitates the development of markets in these services can protect environmental quality while improving farm income. Sustainability can be achieved whereby economic needs of society are integrated into environmental protection. Before presenting new agricultural policy approaches for improving environmental quality and, in particular, managing …

Bridging The Gaps Between Design And Use: Developing Tools To Support Environmental Management And Policy, B. S. Mcintosh, C. Giupponi, A. A. Voinov, C. Smith, K. B. Matthews, M. Monticino, M. J. Kolkman, N. Crossman, M. Van Ittersum, D. Haase, A. Haase, J. Mysiak, J. Groot, S. Sieber, P. Verweij, N. Quinn, P. Waeger, N. Gaber, D. Hepting, H. Scholten, A. Sulis, H. Van Delden, E. Gaddis, H. Assaf

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Sound decisions in environmental policy and management usually require the examination of alternative solutions, and may require the consideration of alternative problem fornlulations prior to option assessment. Constructing and considering the consequences of alternative problems (variables and relations) and policy options (norms and standards) is fundamental for processes of policy fornlulation (Vickers, 1965).