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The Effects Of Chronic Hypoxia And Substance P On The Chemosensitive Response Of Individual Nucleus Tractus Solitarius (Nts) Neurons From Adult Rats, Nicole L. Nichols

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The chemosensitive responses of individual nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) neurons from neonatal rats have been extensively studied, but few studies have examined the chemosensitive responses of NTS neurons from adult rats. In addition, environmental conditions have been used to mimic respiratory diseases/disorders in rats to study how the cellular responses of individual neurons change to regulate breathing during pathological conditions. Lastly, it has been shown that substance P release increases in response to hypoxia from peripheral afferents that primarily terminate in the caudal NTS. We studied the effect of chronic hypoxia (CHx) and substance P on the response to hypercapnia …

Phase-Shifting Haar Wavelets For Image-Based Rendering Applications, Mais Alnasser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we establish the underlying research background necessary for tackling the problem of phase-shifting in the wavelet transform domain. Solving this problem is the key to reducing the redundancy and huge storage requirement in Image-Based Rendering (IBR) applications, which utilize wavelets. Image-based methods for rendering of dynamic glossy objects do not truly scale to all possible frequencies and high sampling rates without trading storage, glossiness, or computational time, while varying both lighting and viewpoint. This is due to the fact that current approaches are limited to precomputed radiance transfer (PRT), which is prohibitively expensive in terms of memory …

Cs 205-08: Introduction To Computers And Office Productivity Software, Kim Gros

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Focus on learning MS Office software applications including word processing (intermediate), spreadsheets, database and presentation graphics using a case study approach where critical thinking and problem solving skills are required. Computer concepts are integrated throughout the course to provide an understanding of the basics of computing, the latest technological advances and how they are used in industry. Ethics and issues encountered in business are discussed to challenge students on societal impact of technology.

Meshless Hemodynamics Modeling And Evolutionary Shape Optimization Of Bypass Grafts Anastomoses, Zaher El Zahab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The main objective of the current dissertation is to establish a formal shape optimization procedure for a given bypass grafts end-to-side distal anastomosis (ETSDA). The motivation behind this dissertation is that most of the previous ETSDA shape optimization research activities cited in the literature relied on direct optimization approaches that do not guaranty accurate optimization results. Three different ETSDA models are considered herein: The conventional, the Miller cuff, and the hood models. Materials and Methods: The ETSDA shape optimization is driven by three computational objects: a localized collocation meshless method (LCMM) solver, an automated geometry pre-processor, and a genetic-algorithm-based …

The Acute Toxicity Of Ground Recycled Automobile Tires On Aquatic Life With Model Species P. Promelas, Trillian Baldassari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Used tires have the potential for becoming popular in pollution control media used in stormwater applications including pervious pavement sub bases, green roof growth media, and upflow filters. Using tire crumb to decrease nutrients can minimize impacts on ecology while reducing the human footprint left by used tires. However, if tire crumb is not examined for toxicity, the ecological balance could unknowingly be disrupted. This research tested the acute toxicity of tire crumb in aquatic systems by finding the Lethal Concentration for 50% kill (LC50). Using an extreme tire crumb load, P. promelas (fathead minnow) were exposed to leachates created …

The Calibration And Verification Of Simulation Models For Toll Plazas, Christopher Russo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A great deal of research has been conducted on Central Florida toll roads to better understand the characteristics of the tolling operation. In this thesis, the development and calibration of a toll plaza simulation models will be analyzed using two simulation programs varying mostly in their modeling theory. The two models utilized are, SHAKER, a deterministic queuing model for vehicles utilizing toll collection facilities, and VISSIM, a globally popular stochastic simulation software. The benefits of simulation models leads to the purpose of this thesis, which is to examine the effectiveness of two toll modeling programs that are similar in purpose …

Reducing Effluent Phosphorus And Nitrogen Concentrations From A Stormwater Detention Pond Using A Chamber Upflow Filter And Skim, Patrick Ryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater runoff is a known pollutant source capable of causing surface water degradation, especially in highly populated areas such as Central Florida. Wet detention ponds manage this stormwater, but most of the ponds do not remove enough nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, to meet TMDL regulations. This research provides a possible addition to a detention pond in Seminole County, Florida using a Chamber Upflow Filter and Skimmer (CUFS), which can increase the removal of phosphorus and nitrogen by the system. Water enters the system through the skimmer, which floats on the surface of the detention pond. It travels from the …

Semantic Video Retrieval Using High Level Context, Yusuf Aytar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video retrieval - searching and retrieving videos relevant to a user defined query - is one of the most popular topics in both real life applications and multimedia research. This thesis employs concepts from Natural Language Understanding in solving the video retrieval problem. Our main contribution is the utilization of the semantic word similarity measures for video retrieval through the trained concept detectors, and the visual co-occurrence relations between such concepts. We propose two methods for content-based retrieval of videos: (1) A method for retrieving a new concept (a concept which is not known to the system and no annotation …

Automatic Generation Of Supply Chain Simulation Models From Scor Based Ontologies, Dayana Cope

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's economy of global markets, supply chain networks, supplier/customer relationship management and intense competition; decision makers are faced with a need to perform decision making using tools that do not accommodate the nature of the changing market. This research focuses on developing a methodology that addresses this need. The developed methodology provides supply chain decision makers with a tool to perform efficient decision making in stochastic, dynamic and distributed supply chain environments. The integrated methodology allows for informed decision making in a fast, sharable and easy to use format. The methodology was implemented by developing a stand alone tool …

Appearance-Driven Material Design, Mark Colbert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the computer graphics production environment, artists often must tweak specific lighting and material parameters to match a mind's eye vision of the appearance of a 3D scene. However, the interaction between a material and a lighting environment is often too complex to cognitively predict without visualization. Therefore, artists operate in a design cycle, where they tweak the parameters, wait for a visualization, and repeat, seeking to obtain a desired look. We propose the use of appearance-driven material design. Here, artists directly design the appearance of reflected light for a specific view, surface point, and time. In this thesis, we …

A Comparative Analysis Of Green Roof Designs Including Depth Of Media, Drainage Layer Materials, And Pollution Control Media, Matt Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Population growth has lead to an increase in development and impervious areas in urban settings. Post-development conditions cause several problems for stormwater management such as limited space for stormwater storage systems and the conveyance of pollution picked up by runoff to near by water bodies. Green Roofs with cisterns have been shown to attenuate the peak flow of storm events and reduce the pollution load leaving a site and entering nearby water bodies. The purpose of this research is to expand the available research data on green roofs with cisterns by investigating the water quality and hydrology effects of different …

Agricultural Systems: Agroecology And Rural Innovations For Development [Book Review], Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

To welcome yet another book on sustainable development, a reviewer must look for what is unique and what adds value to the volumes already published. In Agricultural Systems, editors Sieglinde Snapp and Barry Pound have assembled a collection of chapters that goes beyond the usual praise and criticism of the green revolution and the focus on economic development. Their book provides a first-hand story by people with lengthy experiences in the field, especially in Africa, who have developed and tested grassroots, participatory development approaches. The result is a valuable set of principles, strategies and case studies that paint a new …

Elimu 2.0: Investigating The Use Of Web 2.0 For Facilitating Collaboration In Higher Education., Bajuna R. Salehe

Dissertations

The latest web innovations and technologies which has made the Web into a ‘Platform’, are become increasingly applied in the higher education arena. Tools such as Google docs, Google groups, Wikis, Blogs, RSS and Podcasting are gradually becoming more popular within higher education in teaching and learning. Yet their huge potentials have not been fully explored. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are common terms in higher education, and in the corporate world of the today’s knowledge economy. However better infrastructure and facilities that enable these important issues are yet to be set and fully utilised in higher education. In the higher …

Using Xml Topic Maps To Create A Knowledge Model Of Postgraduate Computer Science Degrees In Ireland For The Purpose Of Marketing Analysis, Catherine Mulwa

Dissertations

Marketing intelligence is a future-oriented activity that helps an organization cope in its market. It includes all ways an organization acquires and uses information. It is comprised of all kinds of information on the market and marketing research; the collection and analysis of internal data, competitive analysis; analysis and reverse engineering of competitor’s products; understanding how and where to add value for customers; and the process of synthesizing large amounts of informally gathered information about the industry and business environment. While marketing and marketing intelligence are widely used in business, they are less used in non-business organisations such as academic …

Moderately-Rapid Assessment Of Alkaline Desiccation Environmental Systems, David Alan Bates

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A moderately-rapid assessment tool was developed to analyze the waterless desiccation compost toilet investigated in a rural Mexican setting. Over 100 social factors were identified along with the applicable technical factors that influenced the low acceptability of the toilets. A 4-point rating scale was developed to increase the ability and speed of analyzing both the social and technical data. The treatment process was an alkaline-desiccation process with mean pH values of 8.2 ± sd 1.1 and water content of 18.3% ± sd 9.9, which resulted in mean fecal coliform values of 15.0 MPN/g ± sd 31.8, drastically lower than the …

Catalytic Synthesis Of Ethanol From Biomass-Derived Syngas, Adefemi Adelanwa Egbebi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Syngas produced by gasification of biomass or coal can be converted directly to ethanol and higher alcohols by processes based on heterogeneous catalysts. Ethanol can be used as a neat fuel or fuel additive or as a hydrogen carrier. Rhodium-based catalysts have been found to be most selective for the formation of C₂ oxygenates from the hydrogenation of CO when suitably promoted. Here, we explore the effects of Mn, Fe, and Li promoters on Rh/TiO₂. Rh-TiO₂, Rh-Li/TiO₂, Rh-Mn/TiO₂, Rh-Mn-Li/TiO₂ and Rh-Mn-Li-Fe/TiO₂ catalysts were tested for the hydrogenation of CO …

Optimization Of Treatment Of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compound Mixtures In Constructed Wetlands: Vegetation And Substrate Effects, Stephen Emmanuel Mbuligwe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Microcosm and mesocosm scale experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of vegetation and substrates on the performance of engineered wetland systems (EWSs) meant to treat mixtures of volatile organic compounds (cVOCs). The experiments were conducted with a view to optimizing contributions of these wetland components. Phragmites communis and Typha latifolia, the commonest wetland plant species, were compared in mesocosm scale EWSs. Eight common wetland plant species were compared using microcosm experiments based on the potential of their rootmatter to enhance treatment of cVOC mixtures. Twelve common wetland plants were similarly compared but on the basis of their aboveground …

Performance Evaluation Of Ieee 802.15.4 For Mobile Sensor Network, Kartinah Zen, Daryoush Habibi, Alexander Rassau, Iftekhar Ahmad

Research outputs pre 2011

The IEEE 802.15.4 standard medium access control (MAC) protocol for low rate wireless personal area networks (LRWPAN) is design mainly for static sensor networks and its capability to support mobile sensor networks has not yet been established. To the best knowledge of authors, this is the first paper that evaluates the suitability of IEEE 802.15.4 MAC in mobile sensor networks environment. We evaluate the performance based on node's speed and beacon order, and observe the effect on energy usage, packet delivery ratio and time required to associate with its coordinator. From the experiment we observe that the moving nodes experienced …

Attribution Of Global Warming, Jun-Ki Choi, Bhavik R. Bakshi

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change helps readers learn about the astonishingly intricate processes that make ours the only planet known to be habitable. These three volumes include more than 750 articles that explore major topics related to global warming and climate change—ranging geographically from the North Pole to the South Pole, and thematically from social effects to scientific causes.

Individual-Based Artificial Ecosystems For Design And Optimization, Shivakar Vulli

Masters Theses

"Individual-based modeling has gained popularity over the last decade, mainly due to the paradigm's proven ability to address a variety of problems seen in many disciplines, including modeling complex systems from bottom-up, providing relationship between component level and system level parameters, and discovering the emergence of system-level behaviors from simple component level interactions. Availability of computational power to run simulation models with thousands to millions of agents is another driving force in the widespread adoption of individual-based modeling. This thesis proposes an individual-based modeling approach for solving engineering design and optimization problems using artificial ecosystems"--Abstract, page iii.

Aflp Fingerprint Analysis Of Hybrid Salamanders In The Missouri Caverns Section Of Onondaga Cave, Maria Louise Potter

Masters Theses

"Two species and one subspecies of salamander in the genus Eurycea, two species of Plethodon and one species of Typhlotriton (recently considered to be Eurycea) salamander currently reside in an area of Onondaga Cave known as the Missouri Caverns section. Due to the presence of two known interbreeding subspecies of salamanders, Eurycea Longicauda (Long-tailed salamander) and Eurycea longicauda melanopleura (Dark-sided salamander), the possibility may exist for interbreeding of one or all of these taxa. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the two species of Eurycea longicauda may interbreed with Eurycea lucifuga (Cave salamander). through visual assessment and phenotypic analysis, …

An Approach For Human Swarm Interaction, Shishir Bashyal

Masters Theses

"This study shows that appropriate human interaction can benefit a swarm of robots to reach to goal more efficiently. The common belief in swarm robotics that user intervention adversely affects intelligence of the swarm is studied carefully to show that the traditional human-robot interaction approaches are not suitable for human swarm interaction. A set of desirable features for human swarm interaction is identified and an interaction architecture is proposed that has all of the desirable features. A swarm simulation environment is then created that allows simulating a swarm behavior in an indoor environment. Three different applications of the swarm are …

Development Of A Direct Evaporation Bismuth Hall Thruster, Dean Richard Massey

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

Hall thrusters have been under active development around the world since the 1960’s. Thrusters using traditional propellants such as xenon have been flown on a variety of satellite orbit raising and maintenance missions with an excellent record. To expand the mission envelope, it is necessary to lower the specific impulse of the thrusters but xenon and krypton are poor performers at specific impulses below 1,200 seconds.

To enhance low specific impulse performance, this dissertation examines the development of a Hall-effect thruster which uses bismuth as a propellant. Bismuth, the heaviest non-radioactive element, holds many advantages over noble gas propellants from …

Determination Of Superior Surface Strains And Stresses, And Vocal Fold Contact Pressure In A Synthetic Larynx Model Using Digital Image Correlation, Mychal Spencer, Thomas Siegmund, Luc Mongeau

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Il-21 Limits Peripheral Lymphocyte Numbers Through T Cell Homeostatic Mechanisms., Shrimati Datta, Nora E. Sarvetnick

Journal Articles: Regenerative Medicine

BACKGROUND: IL-21, a member of the common gamma-chain utilizing family of cytokines, participates in immune and inflammatory processes. In addition, the cytokine has been linked to autoimmunity in humans and rodents.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To investigate the mechanism whereby IL-21 affects the immune system, we investigated its role in T cell homeostasis and autoimmunity in both non-autoimmune C57BL/6 and autoimmune NOD mice. Our data indicate that IL-21R knockout C57BL/6 and NOD mice show increased size of their lymphocyte population and decreased homeostatic proliferation. In addition, our experimental results demonstrate that IL-21 inhibits T cell survival. These data suggest that IL-21 acts …

Modeling Training Effects On Task Performance Using A Human Performance Taxonomy, Douglas P. Meador

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There is little argument that modern military systems are very complex, both in terms of the resources in time and money to develop them and the infrastructure that is required to produce trained operators. To properly execute human systems integration during the acquisition process, systems built to train operators must be developed that optimize training. Consequently, the training system community would benefit from simulation models that provide the ability to make accurate predictions of training processes, and allow the decision maker to specify an optimum combination of operator performance after training and the cost of that training. The goal of …

Implementation Of Simulation For Network Service Delivery Point Capacity Analysis, Tiffany Jill Harper

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As businesses consolidate and modernize their operations, the impact on their network and computing infrastructure is a major consideration. In this thesis, discrete event simulation is used to show how implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can impact network performance and ultimately affect end-users. More specifically, the model simulates the flow of data packets across a network, through a Service Delivery Point (SDP), which is comprised of routers, switches, and firewalls that connect a Local Area Network to a Wide Area Network.

The model was used to run to determine the affect of more network traffic and additional …

Energy Efficient Image Video Sensor Networks, Paul Anthony Bender

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Image Video Sensor Networks are emerging applications for sensor network technologies. The relatively large size of the data collected by image video sensors presents new challenges for the sensor network in terms of energy consumption and channel capacity. We address each of these issues through the use of a high density network deployment utilizing some nodes as dedicated relay nodes.

A high density network allows network nodes to reduce their transmission power. This reduction in transmission power allows each node to conserve power and simultaneously increases the potential for spatially concurrent transmissions within the network, resulting in improved network throughputs. …

Dynamic Characterization Of A Pneumatic Muscle Actuator And Its Application To A Resistive Training Device, Jennifer L. Serres

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Research described in this dissertation expands the use of a biomechanical phenomenological model to a commercially available pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA). Due to the nonlinearities of the device, achieving accurate control is challenging. Experiments have been conducted that define boundaries of operation where linear approximations can be used to describe the dynamics of the PMA. Empirical data presented in this dissertation show that nonlinearities exist more prevalently at higher loads (on average >70% contractile force value). When the PMA is under high loads, low displacement occurs. Therefore, these regions are of less interest to design engineers. Once conditions of nonlinearities …

Motion-Control System Of Bench-Top Ct Scanner, Tarpit Kaushikbhai Patel

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Computed Tomography (CT) imaging has found applications in many areas such as diagnostic visualization, quantitative estimation, and therapeutic verification. In this wide range of applications, a CT scanner that can provide the data collection schemes of both second- and third-generation data-collection geometries will be an asset for laboratory research. In this thesis project, we developed a mechanical design and constructed a dual-generation CT scanner that provides flexibility in accommodating a wide range of object sizes with minimum scan time. Using 3-D graphical design software, models of the current second-generation CT scanner and possible solutions for modification were simulated. Based on …