Digital Commons Network^™

Carbon And Nutrient Balances In Microalgal Bioenergy System, Eunyoung Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated life cycle environmental impacts and benefits of an integrated microalgae system with wastewater treatment system using an integrated process modeling approach combined with experimentation. The overall goal of this research is to understand energy, carbon and nutrient balances in the integrated system and to evaluate the environmental impacts and benefits of the integrated system from a carbon, nutrient, and energy perspective. In this study, four major research tasks were designed to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the environmental and economic sustainability of the integrated system, which included development of an integrated co-limitation kinetic model for microalgae …

Establishment Of Innovative Shared Departments To Advance Interdisciplinary Education, Ronald S. Harichandran, Brian Kench, Summer Mcgee, Michael A. Collura, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Charles David Skipton

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

More and more universities are pursuing interdisciplinary academic activities that span across department and college boundaries. Administrative structures to facilitate such programs are difficult to establish within traditional university frameworks consisting of disciplinary departments and colleges. Often interdisciplinary programs are housed in a traditional disciplinary department or college, or in a standalone center reporting to a college dean or the provost. The difficulty of these structures is obtaining broad buy-in from faculty across departments and having disciplinary degree programs include interdisciplinary coursework.

To overcome the difficulties described above, an innovative shared department structure that fosters collaborations to advance interdisciplinary education …

Smart And Sustainable Aquaponics, Ryan Toal, Kevin Claggett, Justin Goh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

As the global population increases, new ways of sustainable and efficient food production need to be explored in order to meet the growing demand from society. In this paper we explore the methods and functionality of an off-grid, semi-autonomous aquaponics system. This system will serve as a proof of concept for a large scale aquaponics system which can be modelled in other parts of the world where arable land is scarce. It was found that though the initial startup costs are high, it will be able to reduce the cost of food in the long run. The system implements a …

Biofabrication Using Recombinant Spider Silk Proteins As A Biomaterial, Tamara B. Aigner, Elise K. Desimone, Thomas Scheibel

Biofabrication for Hierarchical in Vitro Tissue Models

Biofabrication for applications in regenerative medicine is a rapidly expanding field. Remarkable about this approach compared to traditional approaches is its feasibility for larger scale production at high quality and reproducibility. However, there is a lack of process-compatible materials for biofabrication due to the need for mild, aqueous processing conditions. More specifically, the solvents used must have neutral pH, and salts in proper osmolality, temperatures used cannot be too high or low, and so forth. The recombinant spider-silk protein eADF4(C16) (engineered Araneus diadematus fibroin 4) is biocompatible, biodegradable and hypoallergenic and can be provided in large quantities with consistent material …

Kettle Cooling And Sustainability Project, Nico Degiorgio

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

A particular frozen food processing facility uses a once-through cooling process to bring their kettle-cooked product’s temperature down from nearly boiling temperatures to the eighty degree Fahrenheit range. This process is water intensive and facility managers are seeking to reduce their potable water consumption. Sales engineers from Air Treatment Corporation, an HVAC&R manufacturers’ rep, initiated a number of meetings to propose heat rejection solutions and illustrate their associated payback potentials.

This report contains methods of analyzing a food production process, the technical sales process, thermodynamic principles, refrigeration technologies, and the application of technical knowledge to provide a long-term, system solution. …

A Meta-Analysis Of Energy Savings From Lighting Programs In Michigan, Teryila Ephraim Amough

Dissertations

In order to fill the gap in aggregates savings, the challenges faced by electric utilities for the demand of lighting energy are addressed by lighting efficiency programs. The shrinking capacity and electrical grid reliability call for improved ways to evaluate energy saving programs with evaluation methods that are robust in determining the impact of lighting programs. This study employed meta-analysis as an evaluation method to determine energy savings, impact, emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), pollutants, and health effects from lighting programs in Michigan. The findings of the study showed the programs impact in Hedges’ g of 0.36 for the overall …

Cal Poly Compost Chomper, David Anthony Jungquist, Cory James Parmenter, Joseph Mark Mcgill

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this final design report is to detail the design, manufacturing, and testing of a bicycle powered compost cutter for use by the Captain Raymond Collin’s Elementary school. Students in the garden program are tired of manually chopping up garden waste into small enough pieces to be composted effectively. Project Sponsor and Master Gardener, Susan Deogracias had the idea to create a pedal powered compost cutter which would save time and improve moral for the aspiring gardeners.

This report details the ideation process the team went through in defining the compost cutting system. Engineering methods are documented for …

Women’S Aquaculture Cooperative Program: A Humanitarian Project Through Journeyman International, Dalton Crump

Construction Management

The Women's Aquaculture Cooperative Program (WACP) is a partnership between the humanitarian platform Journeyman International (JI) and the African energy company Afritech Energy, who aims to provide sustainable, affordable energy to the most remote regions of Africa. The WACP is in the Bihongora region of Rwanda, which currently has no electricity or infrastructure. Afritech plans to build the 5,000 kW Bihongora Hydroelectric Power Plant and create Lake Bihongora in order to power and operate the aquaculture. The project will provide women in the region with the education needed to fully run, operate, and profit from the aquaculture "micro-business." The project …

Kinked Tensile Behavior Of Cold Worked Nitinol, Grant R. Caraway, Samuel J. Canovas

Materials Engineering

To characterize the decrease in ductility caused by an induced stress concentration as a function of various levels of cold work and heat treatment, Nitinol medical guide wires with a .004″ diameter were tested using both a standard, straight tensile test and a modified, bent tensile test. The ratio of the two break loads (bent:straight) for identically processed samples was used as a proxy for measuring the ductility of the guide wires: the higher the ratio, the more ductile the sample. The average break load ratio as a function of increased cold work, decreased from 1.27 to 0.91 for the …

Effects Of Vegetation On Slope Stability: A Review, Roberto José Marín Sánchez, Juan Pablo Osorio

Articles

Slope stability is usually affected by factors that reduce soil strength and increase driving forces acting on the slope material, sometimes generating mass movements. Among these factors, vegetation has an important role related to hydrological (e.g. evapotranspiration and infiltration) and mechanical (e.g. tree surcharge and root reinforcement provided by trees) mechanisms. In this review, vegetation influences associated to slope stability are identified, describing the mechanisms involved in the occurrence of mass movements. Finally, the way these factors affect slope stability is explained according to soil properties, climatic conditions and environmental characteristics.

Improving Distribution And Absorption Of Light In Microalgal Photobioreactors Through Plasmon Enhancement, Entrapped Cultivation And Controlled Motion, Bendy Estime

Dissertations - ALL

Microalgae represent a promising source of renewable biomass for the production of biofuels and valuable chemicals. However, the development of high throughput microalgal cultivation methods and energy efficient biomass harvesting technology is necessary to improve the economic viability of large scale microalgal biomass production.

The issue of poor distribution and absorption of light is one of the hurdle that can be addressed to improve the productivity in microalgal cultivation systems. As it happens, microalgal photosynthetic activities have shown great dependence on the irradiance to which the microalgal cells are exposed. Quantitatively, microalgal growth increases with increasing light intensity until a …

Insulin, Glucose, And Β-Cell Diffusion Analysis, Matthew Usevitch, Alonzo Cook

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this project is to further understand the function of extruded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) membranes in the pursuit of creating an implantable, removable pancreas device. This device would be filled with pancreas cells and automatically regulate blood sugar for patients with diabetes. Dr. Alonzo Cook’s lab is currently pursuing understanding the process of taking a patient’s own cells, reprogramming them into stem cells, and then differentiating them into pancreas cells. The device that is the end goal of this project is the main foreseen use of these differentiated pancreas cells. This project focuses on studying how essential nutrients diffuse …

Portable Food & Water Sanitation By Means Of Energetic Photons, Jordan Argyle, Matthew Memmott

Journal of Undergraduate Research

At least 1 in 10 people across the globe do not have access to clean water.¹ The World Health Organization considers food and drink contamination to be “the most widespread health problem in the contemporary world.”² An estimated 600 million people fall ill from eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water every year, of which nearly half a million die. Most of those illnesses are caused by pathogens rather than chemical contamination.³

3-D Printing Open-Source Click-Muac Bands For Identification Of Malnutrition, Ross Michaels, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Desorption Electrospray Ionization (Desi) Mass Spectrometric Imaging Of Spatially Regulated In Vivo Metabolic Rates, Charlotte R. Lewis, Richard H. Carson, Mercede N. Erikson, Anna P. Zagieboylo, Bradley C. Naylor, Kelvin W. Li, John C. Price, Paul B. Farnsworth

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) is an ambient ionization technique used for mass spectrometric imaging of biological samples. When coupled with isotopic ratio measurements of deuterium-labeled tissues, DESI provides a means of measuring metabolic rates on a spatially resolved basis. In vivo metabolic rates are desired to better understand diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s and to study the impact of space travel on muscle tissue growth and wasting. Although DESI has been used to image lipids and metabolites of a variety of tissues and other imaging techniques, such as NIMS, have been used to study kinetic turnover rates, DESI …

A Liver-Kidney Biosubsystem, Brian J. Budnik

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Each year many patients die waiting for a transplant organ to become available. Increasing the available number of transplant organs would save lives. The donor pool could be expanded if organs which are considered to be of uncertain viability could be utilized for transplantation. Currently, when there is any doubt about the viability of the organ, it is discarded. This occurs because there has been no way to confirm its viability other than to transplant it and risk the life of the recipient. Thus, many organs that are in fact good are wasted. Some might not be fully viable but …

Manufacturing And Characterization Of A 3d-Printable, Antibacterial, Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles Reinforced Abs Filament, Saket Thapliyal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

This research work consists of two phases. In phase one it is intended to manufacture an antibacterial 3D printable filament by extruding a solid state mixture of (MgO) nanoparticles (NPs) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) pellets. A single screw extruder was used to extrude ABS pellets containing 0, 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 wt. % MgO NP. This phase deals with manufacturing and testing the filament for mechanical properties, antibacterial properties and 3D printability. On one hand tensile strength, ductility and 3D-printabiliy were observed to decrease with increasing concentrations of MgO NP in ABS matrix, on the other hand the …

Evaluation And Modeling Of The Different Material Properties Of The Captive And Wild Diets Of Carnivores, Jill Den Outer, Bethany Janos, Elizabeth Mccourt, William Molair

Senior Theses

Specific to captive BFFs, the most significant changes in cranial morphology are related to an increase in zygomatic arch width. The zygomatic arch region is the area along which the masseter muscle (a critical muscle of mastication for carnivores) is stretched3 . Mechanical stability of muscular tissues has been shown to be closely related to the structural integrity of the surrounding bones. In mice, mechanical unloading of the hind legs has been shown to induce muscular atrophy, which led to increased porosity and fragmentation in the femur and tibia4. As less force is required for a captive ferret to fully …

Optical Imaging Of Metabolic Adaptability As A Biomarker For Metastatic Potential In Breast Cancer Cells, Mason G. Harper

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breast cancer metastasis is the main cause for mortality in breast cancer patients. However, knowledge of metastatic recurrence is limited, and there is a need to understand metastatic recurrence in order to treat breast cancer patients more effectively. Highly invasive metastatic breast cancer has shown to exhibit metabolic adaptability, transitioning from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation in the presence of microenvironmental stress. NADH and FAD are naturally occurring cofactor products during glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, respectively, and they are of particular importance during these metabolic processes due to their endogenous fluorescence. Measuring the ratio of fluorescence intensities of these cofactors through …

Genetically Engineered Organisms: Progress Or Poison, Melina Sansi

Senior Theses

Genetically engineered organisms are a part of almost everything we put into our bodies. More than any other time in history, humans are manipulating plants and organisms on an advanced level. Scientists are able to genetically alter food so that it precisely fills a specific dietary need, or increase crop yields to feed the growing global population expected to reach 9 billion people by the year 2050. Currently 250 million acres worldwide are used to grow genetically modified organisms. Many consumers don’t fully understand the use and impact of genetically engineered organisms for lack of accessible and straightforward information. Federal …

Development Of A One Pass Microwave Heating Technology For Rice Drying And Decontamination, Deandrae Lynette Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An industrial microwave (MW) system operating at 915 MHz frequency was used to dry high moisture content (MC) (23% to 24% wet basis) medium-grain rough rice samples (cv. Jupiter). The rice beds were contained in a modified tray that accommodated up to 9 kg of rice separated by thin fiberglass mesh in 3 kg increments. Each layer of rice was fitted with fiber optic sensors connected to a real time data logger during MW treatments. It was determined that drying rice to a MC of 14% to 16% was feasible with the application of MW specific energy at 600 kJ/kg-grain …

The Issues And Complexities Surrounding The Future Of Long Duration Spaceflight, Solomon Miiro

Graduate Student Works

The Comprehensive Exam put forward by this proposal is intended to address the learning objectives covered by the Master of Aeronautical Science Degree with specializations in Aviation Aerospace Safety Systems and some limited aspects in Human Factors in Aviation Systems. This will be accomplished by researching the following topics: effects of long duration spaceflight on crew performance and functioning and the steps that should be taken to enable long term spaceflight mission crews in lieu of accomplishing important missions; a human factor analysis should current human-machine design interfaces be enhanced to make manual rendezvous and docking in space easier to …

A High Density Micro-Electrocorticography Device For A Rodent Model, Mukhesh Kumar Koripalli

Theses and Dissertations

Electrocorticography (ECoG) is a methodology for stable mapping of the brain surface using local field potentials (LFPs) with a wide cortical region, high signal fidelity, and minimal invasiveness to brain tissue. To compare surface ECoG signals with inter-cortical neuronal activity, we fabricated a flexible handcrafted ECoG electrode made with economically available materials. This research is on a Lewis rat implanted with a handcrafted 256-channel, non-penetrative ECoG electrode covering an area of 7mm x 7mm on the cortical surface. This device was placed on the motor and somatosensory cortex of the brain to record signals with an active animal. The recordings …

Pegda Pouches To Prevent Adhesions With In Vivo Bioreactor- Based Vascular Graft Strategies, Kranthi Vuppuluri

Theses and Dissertations

Different strategies have been investigated for the fabrication of vascular grafts. Using the peritoneal cavity of the patient as an “in vivo bioreactor” to recruit autologous cells to the implanted vascular conduit is one of the promising options. One of the main drawbacks with this strategy is the potential to form adhesions in the peritoneal cavity. In this project we are trying to address this potential side-effect by using polyethylene (glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) to produce a hydrogel pouch into which the electrospun conduits are placed, with the goal of reducing the potential to form peritoneal adhesion after implantation. PEG is …

Algae-Based Biofilm Productivity And Treatment Of Dairy Wastewater: Effects Of Temperature And Organic Carbon Concentration, Zachary T. Fica

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Production of dairy and associated products is a source of millions of gallons of wastewater every year. Water used in cleaning feeding stalls as well as the liquid component of the animal waste are two of the major volumetric components of this wastewater. This water is nutrient rich, often limiting the viability as a land applied fertilizer. However, these same nutrients could be used as an inexpensive feedstock for the cultivation of algae, which can then be used to produce downstream products including animal feed and aquaculture.

As part of this study, algal biomass was cultivated on dairy wastewater from …

Design And Validation Of An In Vivo Long-Term Attachment Capsule Robot, Wanchuan Xie

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The invention of capsule endoscopy (CE) made the non-invasive monitoring of the entire small bowel possible and became the primary means for diagnosing small bowel pathology. In the last decade, capsule robots have been transformed from diagnostic devices into a widely studied biomedical platform with the potential for active locomotion, drug delivery and therapeutic capabilities. To perform accurate on-site drug release and therapy, it is necessary for a capsule robot to be able to attach to the intestinal tissue and maintain its position long-term. Design challenges derive from the task of long-term mucosal adhesion which requires firm, quick-response attachment without …

Dermal Uptake Of Phthalates From Clothing: Comparison Of Model To Human Participant Results, Glenn Morrison, C. J. Weschler, G. Bekö

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this research, we extend a model of transdermal uptake of phthalates to include a layer of clothing. When compared with experimental results, this model better estimates dermal uptake of diethyl phthalate and di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP) than a previous model. The model predictions are consistent with the observation that previously exposed clothing can increase dermal uptake over that observed in bare-skin participants for the same exposure air concentrations. The model predicts that dermal uptake from clothing of DnBP is a substantial fraction of total uptake from all sources of exposure. For compounds that have high dermal permeability coefficients, dermal uptake …

Molecular And Biochemical Technologies For Modifying Plant Cell Walls And Producing Functional Biobased Products, Ningning Zhang

Student Theses and Dissertations

There is a continuing need for new molecular and biochemical processing technologies to more sustainably utilize biomass such as sugar beet pulp for environmental and economic benefit. This research project addressed the overarching research hypothesis that innovative molecular and biochemical technologies can enable more efficient processing of plant biomass and generate renewable biobased products for food and industrial use. Specifically, this research investigated upstream processing technologies toward re-engineering the plant cell wall for improved biomass processability and downstream processing technologies for efficient cell wall-depolymerizing (CWD) enzyme production and biomass processing. There were two Specific Aims addressed in this project: 1.) …

Swosu Research And Scholarly Activity Fair 2017, Lisa Appeddu, Cj Smith

SWOSU Research and Scholarly Activity Fair Programs

Welcome to the Twenty-Fourth SWOSU Research and Scholarly Activity Fair! On display today are 158 poster presentations and 11 oral presentations, involving 314 student researchers, writers, presenters, and artists, and 47 faculty sponsors encompassing scholarly activity from the SWOSU Departments of Art, Communication, and Theatre; Biological Sciences; Business & Computer Science; Chemistry and Physics; Engineering Technology; Language & Literature; Music; Pharmaceutical Sciences; Psychology; and Social Sciences; and SWOSU School of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences. In addition, there are poster presentations from the Western Technology Center Biomedical Academy, Francis Tuttle Technology Center, El Reno Public Schools, and BlueSTEM AgriLearning …

Brain Lesions Among Orally Fed And Gastrostomy-Fed Dysphagic Preterm Infants: Can Routine Qualitative Or Volumetric Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Predict Feeding Outcomes?, Nasser H. Kashou, Irfaan Akram Dar, Mohamed A. El-Mahdy, Charles Pluto, Mark Smith, Ish K. Gulati, Warren Lo, Sudarshan R. Jadcherla

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Introduction: The usefulness of qualitative or quantitative volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in early detection of brain structural changes and prediction of adverse outcomes in neonatal illnesses warrants further investigation. Our aim was to correlate certain brain injuries and the brain volume of feeding-related cortical and subcortical regions with feeding method at discharge among preterm dysphagic infants.

Materials and methods: Using a retrospective observational study design, we examined MRI data among 43 (22 male; born at 31.5 ± 0.8 week gestation) infants who went home on oral feeding or gastrostomy feeding (G-tube). MRI scans were segmented, and volumes of brainstem, …