Digital Commons Network^™

Application Of Biochar For Antibiotic-Free Nutrient Recovery From Source-Separated Human Urine, Sayeda Ummeh Masrura

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In recent years, the application of biochar as a soil amendment has gained attention as a potential solution for nutrient management and environmental remediation. Biochar, a carbon-rich material produced through the pyrolysis of biomass under oxygen-limited conditions, exhibits unique physicochemical properties making it an effective sorbent for nutrients and contaminants. Its high surface area, porosity, and stability provide an ideal matrix for nutrient retention and release, as well as the immobilization of pollutants. One area of particular interest is the application of biochar for nutrient recovery from source-separated human urine. Source separation of urine has gained momentum as a sustainable …

Characterization Of Human Mobility From Cellular Data, Zaid Matloub

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates human mobility patterns using crowd-sourced cellular network data from different Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States, spanning the Houston, New York-Newark, NJ City, and 13 other significant MSAs. By focusing on prominent spatial mobility parameters highlighted in existing literature, the study unveils consistent findings regarding the predictability of human mobility across diverse time scales and geographic regions. The research underscores the significance of selecting appropriate sampling thresholds based on the mobility parameters being examined, the size of the dataset, and available computational resources. Through a meticulous analysis, it emerges that while values such as mean …

Drinking-Water Fluoridation As An Example Of The Nurse + Engineer Fostering Informed Decisions And Actions, Daniel B. Oerther, Sarah Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Intelligent Healthcare: Evaluation Potential Implications Of Metaverse In Healthcare Based On Mathematical Decision-Making Framework, Ibrahim Elhenawy, Sara Fawaz Al-Baker, Mona Mohamed

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

The Metaverse has the ability to restructure and change the manner in which individuals connect with one another as well as the activities that they carry out on a daily basis. One definition of a Metaverse describes it as "a virtual, digital, and three-dimensional universe formed by the integration of various cutting-edge technologies and virtual places." In this piece, we will explore the potential applications of the Metaverse in the medical field. Our conversations on the notion of the Metaverse and the primary technologies that make it possible are both thought-provoking and in-depth. In this article, we study and analyze …

Improving Cellphone-Based Bio-Imaging Technique For Fluorescence Detection, Erteza T. Efaz

LSU Master's Theses

The research presented in this thesis focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of a fluorescence detection system. The system is implemented primarily as an Android application, Auto Camera, which leverages smartphone cameras to capture and analyze fluorescent images. The application provides a user-friendly interface with some configurable features like exposure time, ISO speed, and storage limit; as well as defining detection thresholds and setting acquisition intervals. This study begins with the architectural framework of the Android application, which is written in Java using Android Studio. The API compatibility is set to version 33, and users are prompted to grant …

National Space Forum 2007: Towards A Theory Of Spacepower, Charles D. Lutes

Space and Defense

Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies Colorado Springs, Colorado, January 2007

The Spacepower Theory Project seeks to gain insight into human behavior in outer space. The project’s overall objective is to develop a theoretical framework that helps to define, categorize, explain and anticipate ways in which “spacepower” may be pursued, how the various facets of spacepower connect to each other, and how they relate to the other instrumentalities of power that state and non-state actors may seek to achieve or retain.

Integrated Flood Risk Assessment Of Properties And Associated Population At County Scale For Nebraska, Usa, Shivendra Srivastava, Tirthankar Roy

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Risk assessment of properties and associated population was conducted for the state of Nebraska, leveraging only open-source datasets. The flood risk framework consisted of interactions among drivers, i.e. hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and response, to assess the risks related to properties and associated populations. To quantify hazard on a county scale, we considered properties at risk of flooding based on a flood score (a higher score represents a greater chance of flooding). Exposure was quantified by considering population density at the county level. We quantified vulnerability under four categories: social, ecological, economic, and health. Response, a relatively newer component in flood …

Integrated Flood Risk Assessment Of Properties And Associated Population At County Scale For Nebraska, Usa, Shivendra Srivastava, Tirthankar Roy

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Risk assessment of properties and associated population was conducted for the state of Nebraska, leveraging only open-source datasets. The flood risk framework consisted of interactions among drivers, i.e. hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and response, to assess the risks related to properties and associated populations. To quantify hazard on a county scale, we considered properties at risk of flooding based on a flood score (a higher score represents a greater chance of flooding). Exposure was quantified by considering population density at the county level. We quantified vulnerability under four categories: social, ecological, economic, and health. Response, a relatively newer component in flood …

Multicellular And Multiscale Models Of Microbes And Host Systems, Elebeoba May

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

A Fairness Assessment Of Mobility-Based Covid-19 Case Prediction Models, Abdolmajid Erfani, Vanessa Frias-Martinez

Michigan Tech Publications

In light of the outbreak of COVID-19, analyzing and measuring human mobility has become increasingly important. A wide range of studies have explored spatiotemporal trends over time, examined associations with other variables, evaluated non-pharmacologic interventions (NPIs), and predicted or simulated COVID-19 spread using mobility data. Despite the benefits of publicly available mobility data, a key question remains unanswered: are models using mobility data performing equitably across demographic groups? We hypothesize that bias in the mobility data used to train the predictive models might lead to unfairly less accurate predictions for certain demographic groups. To test our hypothesis, we applied two …

Nurturing Community: Using Community-Based Service Learning In Biopharmaceutical Engineering Education., Miriam I Jiménez-Pérez, Yocanxóchitl Perfecto-Avalos., Mariana C Orellana- Haro

Research Papers

This project evaluates the use of CBSL as a strategy for teaching clinical investigation in the development of biopharmaceutical products based on the nutritional needs of children of a low-income community. To achieve this purpose, our students formulated various functional foods that provided the necessary nutrients for the children in the target community. Afterwards, they drafted the corresponding clinical protocols for each formulation, considering possible ethical implications. The academic evaluation was based on the comparison of courses with and without CBSL. The study found that students showed a slight improvement in academic performance with CBSL. This suggests that CBSL can …

Metabolomic Insights Into Tuberculosis: Machine Learning Approaches For Biomarker Identification, Miftahul Khair Akbar, Arief Aulia Rahman

Indonesian Journal of Medical Chemistry and Bioinformatics

The lung parenchyma is largely impacted by the infectious condition known as pulmonary tuberculosis (pulmonary TB) when the immune system creates a wall around the germs in the lungs, a tiny, hard bulge known as a tubercle develops, earning the disease the name tuberculosis. Although the majority of TB germs target the lungs, they can also harm other bodily organs. The identification of TB biomarkers, which are crucial for diagnosis, treatment monitoring, risk analysis, and prognosis, has been the subject of extensive research. Differences in metabolites between normal cells and tuberculosis are considered to be able to support the diagnosis …

Hybrid Machine Learning Model To Predict Chronic Kidney Diseases Using Handcrafted Features For Early Health Rehabilitation, Amjad Rehman, Tanzila Saba, Haider Ali, Narmine Elhakim, Noor Ayesha

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Chronic kidney diseases proliferate due to hypertension, diabetes, anemia, obesity, smoking etc. Patients with such conditions are sometimes unaware of first symptoms, complicating disease diagnosis. This paper presents chronic kidney disease (CKD) prediction model to classify CKD patients from NCKD (Non-CKD). The proposed study has two main stages. First, we found the odds ratio through logistic regression and comparison test to identify early risk factors from kidneys? MRI and differentiate CKD from NCKD subjects. In stage 2, LR, LDA, MLP classifiers were applied to predict CKD and NCKD by extracting features from MRI. The odds ratio of blood glucose random …

Covid-19 Detection Using Machine Learning, Amira M. Dawaba, Hanan M. Amer, Ahmed I. Saleh, M.A. Abo-Elsoud

Mansoura Engineering Journal

At the end of the year 2019, the world was hit by a drastic pandemic known as COVID-19. The lack of treatment has prompted research in all sectors to address it. Contributions in Computer Science mainly include the development of methods for the diagnostic testing, recognition, and assessment of COVID-19 cases. The most widely used techniques in this field are data science and machine learning (ML). This paper provides a new framework for Computer Aided Diagnosis System for Covid-19 (CADS-Covid-19) using the collected blood test data from patients. CADS consists of two main stages, which are: (I) the features selection …

Characterization Of Influenza-Specific Antibodies, Xinping Ran

ENGS 86 Independent Projects (AB Students)

Influenza viruses cause respiratory illness that affects 8% of the U.S. population annually. However, current influenza vaccines have a limited efficacy of only 40-60%. This highlights the need for a universal vaccine design that can generate broadly neutralizing antibodies against influenza surface protein hemagglutinin (HA). Previous work by our group identified HA-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from serum samples through high-throughput antibody profiling. In this study, three of the identified mAbs were generated using mammalian cell expression and their binding affinity against three HA antigens was characterized via Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA). The ELISA results demonstrated specific binding affinity towards B/Yamagata/18/1998 …

Wright State University's Celebration Of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities From Thursday, October 26, 2023, Wright State University

Celebration of Undergraduate & Graduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Abstract Books

The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students' oral and poster presentations at Wright State University's Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities on October 26, 2023.

Virus Control Aboard A Commuter Bus, Hamid Rahai, Jeremy Bonifacio

Mineta Transportation Institute

A major health concern for public transit users is exposure to viruses from other passengers. This numerical study examines virus containment aboard a public bus with changes to the bus ventilation system. The virus was modeled as a 2.5 µm round solid particle released from the mouth of the infectious passenger at a rate of 21 particles per second at a mouth velocity of 0.278 m/sec. The air delivery to the cabin was two linear ceiling slots spanning the length of the bus delivering 59.38 m3/min (2,097 CFM) of air at a mean velocity of 1 m/sec. Two different axial …

Effect Of Room Size, Shape, Ac Placement, And Air Leakage On Indoor Airborne Viral Transmission, K. Choudhary, K. A. Krishnaprasad, ‪Nadim Zgheib, M. Y. Ha, S. Balachandar

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Highlights

• Statistical overloading is used to obtain spatio-temporal pathogen concentration.

• Symmetrically placed AC limits pathogen propagation over long distances.

• Well-mixed model captures room-averaged concentration for any shape and AC location.

• The pathogens level of mixing is reduced when AC is symmetrically positioned.

• Air leakage has insignificant impact on indoor pathogen distribution.

Abstract

We conducted Euler–Lagrange Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes simulations with statistical overloading to investigate the effect of room shape, air-condition (AC) location, and the presence of an open window on indoor airborne viral transmission, particularly as it relates to the spatio-temporal distribution of viral-laden droplet nuclei. Two room geometries were …

Influencing Air Force Logisticians' Information Seeking During The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role Of Organizational Meetings In An Expanded Prism Framework, Matthew D. Roberts, Christopher T. Price, Seong-Jong Joo

Faculty Publications

Purpose: This research aims to understand how organizational workplace meetings surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic impacted logistics Airmen across the United States Air Force and how these meetings impacted their risk seeking behavior on social media.

Design/methodology/approach: This survey research tested an extended Planned Risk Information Risk Seeking Model (PRISM) with organizational meetings as an antecedent to determine if current meetings influenced an Airman's perceived behavioral control, attitude toward seeking, subjective norms, knowledge sufficiency and intention to seek information regarding COVID-19.

Findings: Results of the CFA showed that the expanded PRISM model had good model fit. Additionally, using …

Optimal Control Analysis Of The Dynamics Of Covid-19 With Application To Ethiopian Data, Temesgen Duresa Keno, Fekadu Mosisa Legesse, Ebisa Olana Bajira

Applied Mathematics & Information Sciences

In this paper, we proposed an optimal control of the COVID-19 transmission dynamics. First, we investigated system features such as solution boundedness, positivity, disease-free and endemic equilibrium, and the local and global stability of equilibrium points. Besides, a disease-free equilibrium point is globally asymptotically stable if the basic reproduction number is less than one, and an endemic equilibrium point exists otherwise. Secondly, we have shown the sensitivity analysis of the basic reproduction number. Also the model is then fitted using COVID-19 infected reported in Ethiopia from February 1,2023 to March 2,2023. The values of model parameters are then estimated from …

Construction And Performance Optimization Of Bioconjugated Nanosensors For Early Detection Of Breast Cancer And Pro-Inflammatory Diseases, Pooja Gaikwad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, nanosensors have emerged as a tool with strong potential in medical diagnostics. Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based optical nanosensors have notably garnered interest due to the unique characteristics of their near-infrared fluorescence emission, including tissue transparency, photostability, and various chiralities with discrete absorption and fluorescence emission bands. Additionally, the optoelectronic properties of SWCNT are sensitive to the surrounding environment, which makes them suitable for in vitro and in vivo biosensing. Single-stranded (ss) DNA-wrapped SWCNTs have been reported as optical nanosensors for cancers and metabolic diseases. Breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases are the most common causes of death …

Bacterial Motion And Spread In Porous Environments, Yasser Almoteri

Dissertations

Micro-swimmers are ubiquitous in nature from soil and water to mammalian bodies and even many technological processes. Common known examples are microbes such as bacteria, micro-algae and micro-plankton, cells such as spermatozoa and organisms such as nematodes. These swimmers live and have evolved in multiplex environments and complex flows in the presence of other swimmers and types, inert particles and fibers, interfaces and non-trivial confinements and more. Understanding the locomotion and interactions of these individual micro-swimmers in such impure viscous fluids is crucial to understanding the emergent dynamics of such complex systems, and to further enabling us to control and …

Improving Basic Cadet Training For Changing Environment: Case Study At The Korea Air Force Academy, Yoojin Kwon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Increasing uncertainty, such as Covid-19 and weather changes, threatens BCT (Basic Cadet Training) at ROKAFA (Republic of Korea Air Force Academy). In preparation for the changing and adverse environment, this study carried out the following steps to propose a system improvement utilizing LVC (Live, Virtual, Constructive) in BCT system at ROKAFA; 1) Researching the examples of BCT and LVC by advanced countries, 2) Analyzing BCT (ROKAFA) through systems approach (document analysis, survey of 140 cadets and officers, written interviews with military experts), 3) Applying LVC to BCT. BCT is a vital step in the transition from civilian to military status …

Analyzing Pseudomonas Aeruginosa With Bacteriophage Tags Using Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry, Jennifer C. Schinke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The number of daily bacterial infections is climbing and the CDC explains that this is due to the antibiotic-resistant threat in the United States. Finding a faster way of bacterial identification is necessary as it currently takes 1-4 days for a medical lab to culture and identify bacteria. Photoacoustic flow cytometry (PAFC) can be used as an alternative method resulting in swift identification within an hour (Edgar, 2019). Pseudomonas aeruginosa, cell line PA01, will be coated in up to a few hundred red dyed phages making it detectible by the photoacoustic flow cytometry system. Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that …

Polyethylene Glycol-Mediated Directional Conjugation Of Biological Molecules For Enhanced Immunoassays At The Point-Of-Care, Dheerendranath Battalapalli, Purbali Chakraborty, Disha Jain, Umut A. Gurkan, Robert A. Bonomo, Mohamed S. Draz

Faculty Scholarship

Rapid and reliable point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests can have a significant impact on global health. One of the most common approaches for developing POC systems is the use of target-specific biomolecules. However, the conjugation of biomolecules can result in decreased activity, which may compromise the analytical performance and accuracy of the developed systems. To overcome this challenge, we present a polymer-based cross-linking protocol for controlled and directed conjugation of biological molecules. Our protocol utilizes a bifunctional thiol-polyethylene glycol (PEG)-hydrazide polymer to enable site-directed conjugation of IgG antibodies to the surface of screen-printed metal electrodes. The metal surface of the electrodes …

Activation Of The Renin–Angiotensin–Aldosterone System Is Attenuated In Hypertensive Compared With Normotensive Pregnancy, Robin C. Shoemaker, Marko Poglitsch, Hong Huang, Katherine Vignes, Aarthi Srinivasan, Cynthia Cockerham-Morris, Aric Schadler, John Anthony Bauer, John O'Brien

UK CARES Faculty Publications

Hypertension during pregnancy increases the risk of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes, but the mechanisms of pregnancy hypertension are not precisely understood. Elevated plasma renin activity and aldosterone concentrations play an important role in the normal physiologic adaptation to pregnancy. These effectors are reduced in patients with pregnancy hypertension, creating an opportunity to define the features of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) that are characteristic of this disorder. In the current study, we used a novel LC-MS/MS-based methodology to develop comprehensive profiles of RAAS peptides and effectors over gestation in a cohort of 74 pregnant women followed prospectively for the development …

Increasing The Safety Of Bicyclists Using A Cyclist Behavior Questionnaire And A Smartphone Based Application, Anika Jannat Rimu

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

ABSTRACT: Bicycling is beneficial for health, the environment, road users’ flexibility, and personal expenses. Compared to motor vehicles, they are an active mode of transport, cause minimum pollution, are affordable, and can easily navigate through the increasing traffic all over the world. This increase in traffic, however, also increases the possibility of crashes with motor vehicles. Bicyclists, being more exposed to traffic than drivers, suffer fatal consequences from a crash. Therefore, a standard tool is required to understand bicyclist behavior on the road. This tool can provide insights into bicyclists’ behavior so that appropriate infrastructure or policy changes can be …

Healthcare Built Environment And The Covid-19 Pandemic, A Mixed-Method Study, Mohammad Saleh Nikooopayan Tak

All Theses

The outbreak of COVID-19 presented an unparalleled risk to public health, leading to urgent scientific efforts in understanding transmission mechanisms and mitigating risks, especially in healthcare settings. This mixed-methods study examines knowledge advancement regarding indoor air quality in healthcare facilities during the pandemic. A systematic literature review of 163 post-COVID studies identifies key research thrusts and 31 recommendations related to building ventilation, air filtration, surface disinfection, and monitoring. Comparison with over 200 pre-pandemic publications reveals both reliance on established infection control principles and unique contributions, such as detecting viral RNA in air and surface samples indicating potential airborne and fomite …

Heterochiral Dna Nanotechnology For Biomedical Applications, Tracy L. Mallette

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

In the past 30 years, there have been major advancements on how to treat and diagnose disease because of the improvement and increase in accessibility of sequencing technology. Nucleic acid-based therapeutics can manipulate protein expression. Likewise, pathogens can be identified and detected with single nucleotide specificity. However, the underlying oligonucleotide technology requires protection against natural defense systems that have evolved to destroy foreign nucleic acids. Many chemical modifications that can protect nucleotides also have significant cytotoxic side effects and must be carefully designed into the strands. A novel way to protect against nuclease-mediated degradation is through the use of mirror-image, …

Exploring Versatile Glycosyltransferases From Microorganisms For Natural Product Biosynthesis, Jie Ren

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation is mainly focused on exploring versatile glycosyltransferases from different microorganisms with the purpose of biosynthesizing bioactive natural product glycosides through microbial fermentation. This engineered biosynthesis approach is environmentally friendly, safe, and efficient compared with plant extraction, chemical synthesis, and enzymatic synthesis. Additionally, we applied these characterized glycosyltransferases as efficient biocatalytic tools to produce novel glycosides to expand the chemical repertoire of nature. These novel compounds showed improved water solubility and some of them exhibited enhanced stability and biological activity, which laid the foundation for the development of new therapeutic agents.

In my dissertation research, I have discovered two …