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Integrated Assessment Of Anthropogenic, Climate, And Policy Induced Changes Of Phosphorus Export In The United States Laurentian Great Lakes Watersheds, Meredith Ballard Labeau

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

Anthropogenic activities have increased phosphorus (P) loading in tributaries to the Laurentian Great Lakes resulting in eutrophication in small bays to most notably, Lake Erie. Changes to surface water quality from P loading have resulted in billions of dollars in damage and threaten the health of the world’s largest freshwater resource. To understand the factors affecting P delivery with projected increasing urban lands and biofuels expansion, two spatially explicit models were coupled. The coupled models predict that the majority of the basin will experience a significant increase in urban area P sources while the agriculture intensity and forest sources of …

Electrospun Chitosan Nanofibers For Virus Removal, Bingyu Bai

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

Electrospinning uses electrostatic forces to create nanofibers that are far smaller than conventional fiber spinning process. Nanofibers made with chitosan were created and techniques to control fibers diameter and were well developed. However, the adsorption of porcine parvovirus (PPV) was low. PPV is a small, nonenveloped virus that is difficult to remove due to its size, 18-26 nm in diameter, and its chemical stability. To improve virus adsorption, we functionalized the nanofibers with a quaternized amine, forming N-[(2-hydroxy-3-trimethylammonium) propyl] chitosan chloride (HTCC). This was blended with additives to increase the ability to form HTCC nanofibers. The additives changed the viscosity …

Synthesis Of Pdms-Metal Oxide Hybrid Nanocomposites Using An In Situ Sol-Gel Route, Qiaoyu Lu

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

Organic-inorganic hybrid nanocomposites are widely studied and applied in broad areas because of their ability to combine the flexibility, low density of the organic materials with the hardness, strength, thermal stability, good optical and electronic properties of the inorganic materials. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) due to its excellent elasticity, transparency, and biocompatibility has been extensively employed as the organic host matrix for nanocomposites. For the inorganic component, titanium dioxide and barium titanate are broadly explored as they possess outstanding physical, optical and electronic properties.

In our experiment, PDMS-TiO₂ and PDMS-BaTiO₃ hybrid nanocomposites were fabricated based on in-situ sol-gel technique. By …

Automatic Food Intake Assessment Using Camera Phones, Fanyu Kong

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

Obesity is becoming an epidemic phenomenon in most developed countries. The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. It is essential to monitor everyday food intake for obesity prevention and management. Existing dietary assessment methods usually require manually recording and recall of food types and portions. Accuracy of the results largely relies on many uncertain factors such as user's memory, food knowledge, and portion estimations. As a result, the accuracy is often compromised. Accurate and convenient dietary assessment methods are still blank and needed in both population and research societies.

In …

Bifunctional Bisphosphonates For Delivering Biomolecules To Bone, Jivan N. Yewle

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Active targeting with controlled delivery of therapeutic agents to bone is an ideal approach for treatment of several bone diseases. Since bisphosphonates (BPs) are known to have high affinity to bone mineral and are being widely used in treatment of osteoporosis, they are well-suited for drug targeting to bone. For this purpose, bifunctional hydrazine-bisphosphonates (HBPs) with spacers of various lengths and lipophilicity were synthesized and studied. Crystal growth inhibition assays demonstrated that the HBPs with shorter spacers bound more strongly to bone mineral, hydroxyapatite (HA), than did alendronate. HBPs were also demonstrated to be non-toxic to MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts. The targeted …

Investigations Of Oxidative Stress Effects And Their Mechanisms In Rat Brain After Systemic Administration Of Ceria Engineered Nanomaterials, Sarita S. Hardas

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Advancing applications of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in various fields create the opportunity for intended (e.g. drug and gene delivery) or unintended (e.g. occupational and environmental) exposure to ENM. However, the knowledge of ENM-toxicity is lagging behind their application development. Understanding the ENM hazard can help us to avoid potential human health problems associated with ENM applications as well as to increase their public acceptance. Ceria (cerium [Ce] oxide) ENM have many current and potential commercial applications. Beyond the traditional use of ceria as an abrasive, the scope of ceria ENM applications now extends into fuel cell manufacturing, diesel fuel additives …

Protein Based Biomimetic Approachs To Surface Hemocompatibility And Biocompatibility Enhancement, Matthew Thomas Dickerson

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

T. pallidum can survive a primary immune response and continue growing in the host for an extended period of time. T. pallidum is thought to bind serum fibronectin (FN) through Tp0483 on the surface to obscure antigens. A Tp0483 fragment (rTp0483) was adsorbed onto functionalized self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with FN. FN capture by adsorbed rTp0483 depended greatly on surface chemistry with COO- groups being best for FN binding. Hemocompatibility was determined by analysis of plasma protein adsorption, intrinsic pathway activation, and platelet activation. rTp0483+FN bound an equal or lesser amount of fibrinogen (Fg), human serum albumin (HSA), and factor XII …

Fabrication Of An Epithelial Cell-Based Ion-Selective Electrode And Its Application For Use As Alternative Tumor Angiogenesis Assay, Christina Nicole Simmons

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Previous studies have provided evidence that endothelial cell-based potassium ion selective electrodes possess the ability to quantify substances that have permeability-altering effects on those endothelial cells. The capability of these so-called biosensors to detect elevated concentrations of certain chemical agents found following tumor formation make them useful in the application as an alternative tumor angiogenesis assay. In this study an epithelial cell line, human colon adenocarcinoma epithelial cells (Caco-2), was used to fabricate membranes that were used to test concentrations of these chemical agents, known as cytokines, mimicking the concentrations that have been observed in the serum of healthy individuals …

Biodegradable Hydrogels And Nanocomposite Polymers: Synthesis And Characterization For Biomedical Applications, Ashley Marie Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Hydrogels are popular materials for biological applications since they exhibit properties like that of natural soft tissue and have tunable properties. Biodegradable hydrogels provide an added advantage in that they degrade in an aqueous environment thereby avoiding the need for removal after the useful lifetime. In this work, we investigated poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) biodegradable hydrogel systems. To begin, the factors affecting the macromer synthesis procedure were studied to optimize the reproducibility of the resulting hydrogels made and create new methods of tuning the properties. Hydrogel behavior was then tuned by altering the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance of the chemicals used in the …

Finite Element Analysis Of The Contact Deformation Of Piezoelectric Materials, Ming Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Piezoelectric materials in the forms of both bulk and thin-film have been widely used as actuators and sensors due to their electromechanical coupling. The characterization of piezoelectric materials plays an important role in determining device performance and reliability. Instrumented indentation is a promising method for probing mechanical as well as electrical properties of piezoelectric materials.

The use of instrumented indentation to characterize the properties of piezoelectric materials requires analytical relations. Finite element methods are used to analyze the indentation of piezoelectric materials under different mechanical and electrical boundary conditions.

For indentation of a piezoelectric half space, a three-dimensional finite element …

X-Ray Radiation Enabled Cancer Detection And Treatment With Nanoparticles, Mainul Hossain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite significant improvements in medical sciences over the last decade, cancer still continues to be a major cause of death in humans throughout the world. Parallel to the efforts of understanding the intricacies of cancer biology, researchers are continuously striving to develop effective cancer detection and treatment strategies. Use of nanotechnology in the modern era opens up a wide range of possibilities for diagnostics, therapies and preventive measures for cancer management. Although, existing strategies of cancer detection and treatment, using nanoparticles, have been proven successful in case of cancer imaging and targeted drug deliveries, they are often limited by poor …

Anchoring Of Drifting Spiral And Scroll Waves To Impermeable Inclusions In Excitable Media, Christian W. Zemlin, Arkady M. Pertsov

Bioelectrics Publications

Anchoring of spiral and scroll waves in excitable media has attracted considerable interest in the context of cardiac arrhythmias. Here, by bombarding inclusions with drifting spiral and scroll waves, we explore the forces exerted by inclusions onto an approaching spiral and derive the equations of motion governing spiral dynamics in the vicinity of inclusion. We demonstrate that these forces nonmonotonically depend on distance and can lead to complex behavior: (a) anchoring to small but circumnavigating larger inclusions; (b) chirality-dependent anchoring.

Modeling Collective Dynamics Of Social Systems: Incorporating Various Social Mechanisms Into Agent-Based Models, Dene L. Farrell

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

I present three original papers demonstrating complex behavior arising from collective dynamics in agent-based models (ABM) focusing on evolutionary and cognitive mechanisms. The first report demonstrates the coupled emergence of cooperation and selfish punishment behavior in groups of individuals playing an iterated public goods game. The second report demonstrates the effects of mental modeling within groups of decision makers. The third report demonstrates a synthesis of evolutionary and cognitive mechanisms.

Multi-Disciplinary Hands-On Desktop Learning Modules And Modern Pedagogies, Bernard J. Van Wie, David B. Thiessen, Marc Compere, Ximena Toro, Jennifer C. Adam, Et Al.

Publications

Our team’s research focuses on fundamental problems in undergraduate education in terms of how to expand use of well researched, yet still “new”, teaching pedagogies of ‘sensing’ or ‘hands-on’, ‘active’ and ‘problem-based learning’ within engineering courses. It is now widely accepted that traditional lectures ARE NOT best for students – yet that is what the community almost universally does.

To address this issue we are developing new Desktop Learning Modules (DLMs) that contain miniaturized processes with a uniquely expandable electronic system to contend with known sensor systems/removable cartridges, as well as, unknown expansions to the project. We have shown that …

A Simple Approach For Synthesis, Characterization And Bioactivity Of Bovine Bones To Fabricate The Polyurethane Nanofiber Containing Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles, Faheem A. Sheikh, M. A. Kanjwal, Javier Macossay-Torres, N. A. M. Barakat, H. Y. Kim

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

In the present study, we had introduced polyurethane (PU) nanofibers that contain hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles (NPs) as a result of an electrospinning process. A simple method that does not depend on additional foreign chemicals had been employed to synthesize HAp NPs through the calcination of bovine bones. Typically, a colloidal gel consisting of HAp/PU had been electrospun to form nanofibers. In this communication, physiochemical aspects of prepared nanofibers were characterized by FE-SEM, TEM and TEM-EDS, which confirmed that nanofibers were well-oriented and good dispersion of HAp NPs, over the prepared nanofibers. Parameters, affecting the utilization of the prepared nanofibers in …

Novel Device To Quantify The Mechanical Properties Of Electrospun Nanofibers, Timothy John Fee

All ETDs from UAB

Electrospun biomaterials are gaining popularity as scaffolding for engineered tissues. These fibrous scaffolds of natural or synthetic polymers can mimic the nano-scale properties of the natural extra-cellular matrix. It is becoming clear that the mechanical deformation of any electrospun matrix plays an important role in cell signaling. However, electrospun biomaterials have inherently complex geometries due to the random deposition of fibers during the electrospinning process. This complex fiber geometry complicates any attempt at quantifying forces exerted on adherent cells during electrospun matrix deformation. In order to quantify the mechanical properties of arrays of individual electrospun fibers in physiological conditions, a …

Modulation Of Morpho-Functional Characteristics Of Astrocytes Using Chemically-Functionalized Water-Soluble Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Manoj K. Gottipati

All ETDs from UAB

In this thesis, I report the use of chemically functionalized water-soluble single-walled carbon nanotubes (ws-SWCNTs) for the modulation of morpho-functional characteristics of astrocytes. When added to the culturing medium, ws-SWCNTs were able to make astrocytes larger and stellate/mature, changes associated with the increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactivity. Thus, ws-SWCNTs could have more beneficial effects at the injury site than previously thought; by affecting astrocytes, they could provide for a more comprehensive re-establishment of the brain computational power.

Design Of An Underground Storage Tank Involving Water Collection For Water Reuse To Irrigate The Campus Green Area Of The Uab Campus, Zhuo Li

All ETDs from UAB

The UAB Campus Recreation Center is located in the Birmingham city block whose boundaries are University Blvd., 10th Avenue South, 14th Street South, and 16th Street South. The water supply of the UAB Campus Recreation Center is based on a natural underground water source, which is use such needs as pool water. The underground water is continuously pumped from its foundation in order to avoid flooding the basement of the Recreation Center. As a result, in addition to the water usage of the Recreation Center, the additional water pumped underground could be utilized to irrigate the campus green area. A …

Multiscale Modeling Of The Mouse Femur, Shannon Lisenbee

All ETDs from UAB

This paper seeks to advance the knowledge base for bones and how they respond to mechanical stimuli through the use of multiscale modeling. First, a simple but effective approach for segmenting bone from computed tomography images using MATLAB is presented. Using edge detection and gradient operators to identify areas of bone within an image allows for much more accurate and consistent bone segmentation than simpler techniques like thresholding. This technique is applied to the femur of a female mouse for use in further modeling and testing. Next a representative volume element (RVE) for lamellar cortical bone is created based on …

The Effects Of Venlafaxine On Functional Recovery Following Spinal Cord Injury, Don E. Mccormick

All ETDs from UAB

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can significantly alter a person's physical and psychological health over their lifetime. Depression in persons with SCI is often treated with antidepressants which alter serotonergic and adrenergic signaling, both regulators of plasticity. However, the effects of antidepressants functional recovery after SCI have never been evaluated. Therefore, we hypothesize that antidepressant therapy would alter functional recovery and neuropathic pain behaviors in a SCI rodent model. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of venlafaxine (VEN) administration on functional recovery in the rehabilitation setting using a SCI rodent model. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats received a …

An Information Theoretical Modeling And Analysis Of Systems, Bunyamin Ozaydin

All ETDs from UAB

The growth of the service industry also comes with problems and complications because of its inherent error proneness. As the complexity of systems increases, whether the system of interest is a service product or a natural phenomenon, it only proves that there is always a need for improved modeling approaches. In this study, we approach systems from an information theoretical perspective. More specifically, we model systems by noisy communication channels and analyze them by a structure of relationships whose elements are commonly used analysis tools in science and engineering. We call this modeling approach and the structure of relationships it …

Connexin 43 Remodeling Contribute To Slowed Conduction Velocity In An Irreversible Arrhythmogenic Canine Model Of Non-Ischemic Heart Failure, Jiajie Yan

All ETDs from UAB

Heart failure is associated with a high mortality due to ventricular tachycardia leading to ventricular fibrillation that could arise from impaired conduction velocity. Myocardial conduction relies on intercellular coupling maintained primarily by the gap junction protein connexin43. The objective of this research is to assess the correlation between connexin43 remodeling and altered conduction in our novel irreversible and arrhythmogenic HF large animal model that mimics human heart failure. A novel heart failure canine model was established with combined strategy of creating aortic insufficiency and aortic constriction. We measured conduction velocity in heart failure and control left ventricular epicardium (n=5, 5) …

Effect Of Childhood Obesity On Risk Of Pelvic Bone Fracture In Simulated Sideways Fall, Min-Heng Hsieh

All ETDs from UAB

Since the number of obese children in the U.S. has been increasing, the question arises whether obese children could be at higher or lower risk compared to nonobese children. The objective of this research was to investigate the risk of pediatric pelvic bone fracture in sideways falls using computational modeling and simulation considering various levels of obesity. Two sets of models were developed and tested. The first set was body component models. Several 10-year-old pelvis-femur complex models were developed. The models included biological soft tissue layers to reflect various levels of obesity, and they were validated against published experimental data. …

Model System Using Controlled Receptor Expression For Molecular Ultrasound Imaging Applications, Reshu Saini

All ETDs from UAB

Ultrasound is a noninvasive, inexpensive imaging modality used to characterize biological tissues. Targeted contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging is an emerging preclinical strategy which uses contrast agents for characterization of biological processes on a molecular level. These microbubble agents are lipid shelled micron-sized particles that have the capability to be coated with ligands such as antibodies or small peptides in order to bind to their target receptors. Molecular ultrasound imaging, using these targeted contrast agents, allows for a quantitative assessment of molecular targets with a high sensitivity. Although this technique is in preclinical research, further advances in contrast agent design and potential …

Hydrologic Efficiency In Water Conservation, L. Douglas James

Reports

Introduction: The hydrologic cycle can be subdivided into three phases: 1)Humidity is transported within the atmosphere and becomes precipitation, and 2) Water moves downhill until eventually reaching the sea while all the time 3) Evapotranspiration returns exposed moisture to the atmosphere. During its movement, flowing water transports suspended sediments and dissolved minerals to reshape landforms and redistribute the mineral composition of the earth's surface throughout geologic time. It is during the second phase that flowing water can be diverted for uses that generally add to evaportranspiration (through consumptive use) and transport (through waste disposal). The water resources development that serves …

Solving Problems In Water Quality, Utah Water Research Laboratory

Reports

No abstract provided.

Cee & Uwrl Research In Action, Utah Water Research Laboratory

Reports

Introduction: The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineer (CEE) and the Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL) have a symbiotic working relationship. The CEE Department provides the pricipal investigators with academic affiliation to the university while the UWRL provides faculty with a strong water research arena. Both the CEE department and the UWRL have been involved in research and problem solving for government agencies and private industry.

Investigation Of The Divcon Neuron To Increase The Performance Of A Traditional Feed Forward Multi-Layer Perceptron And Its Hardware Implementation, Jovan Saenz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been developed in an attempt to emulate the information processing capabilities of the biological brain. They offer an alternate computing approach to problems in which mathematical modeling is complicated, such as pattern recognition and pattern classification.

Since ANNs were proposed in the early 1940s, there has been a great amount of research effort dedicated to the development of new models that improve performance. Consequently, different architectures, a variety of activation functions, and distinct learning algorithms have been developed and implemented in different disciplines such as medicine, engineering, and science. In addition, ANNs have been …

Sustainable Disposal Of Brine, Bijoy Krishna Halder

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

To meet growing water demand, more water is being harvested from nontraditional sources like brackish water from deep underground aquifers. Since these sources contain salts, drinkable water is produced by separating salt and other minerals (TDS, Total Dissolved Solids) from water through a process commonly known as desalination. A typical desalination plant produces 50-60% potable water from brackish water and the remaining water (brine) is disposed in evaporation ponds or by injecting it below the ground surface. To maximize the limited water supply, inland desalination plants have developed technologies to reduce brine production commonly known as zero liquid discharge (ZLD) …

Development Of Nanocomposites For Energy Storage Devices, Md Ashiqur Rahaman Khan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the ever-increasing need in improving the performance and operation life of future mobile devices, developing higher power density energy storage devices has been receiving more attention. Lithium ion battery (LIB) and capacitor are two of the most widely used energy storage devices and have attracted increasing interest from both industrial and academic fields. Batteries have higher power density than capacitor but significantly longer charge/discharge rates. In order to further improve the performance of these energy storage devices, one of the approaches is to use high specific surface area nano-materials. Among all the nano-materials developed so far, one-dimensional nanowires are …