Digital Commons Network^™

Sublethal And Killing Effects Of Atmospheric-Pressure, Nonthermal Plasma On Eukaryotic Microalgae In Aqueous Media, Ying Zhong Tang, Xin Pei Lu, Mounir Laroussi, Fred C. Dobbs

OES Faculty Publications

In-depth studies on the interaction of nonthermal plasmas with microorganisms usually focus on bacteria; only little attention has been given to their effects on more complex eukaryotic cells. We report here nonthermal plasma's effects on cell motility, viability staining, and morphology of eukaryotic microalgae, with three marine dinoflagellates and a marine diatom as major targets. The effects on motility and viability staining depended on the time of exposure to plasma and the species of microalgae. We observed a strong pH decrease in aqueous samples (marine and freshwater algal cultures, their culture media, and deionized water) after exposure to plasma, and …

A Macro-Bend Fiber Based Wavelength Demodulation System For Optical Fiber Sensing Applications, Ginu Rajan

Doctoral

This thesis considers the design and development of a wide range all fiber interrogation system with a rapid measurement capability for extracting reliable measure and information from fiber Bragg grating sensors. Existing passive and active interrogation systems have certain limitations and do not satisfy all requirements. In this thesis a wavelength demodulation system is proposed, based on a macro-bend fiber filter employed in a ratiometric detection scheme. A theoretical model and analysis of an edge filter based ratiometric wavelength measurement (RWM) system is presented. A fiber edge filter is realized by carefully selecting an appropriate bend radius and number of …

A System For Automatically Annotating Traditional Irish Music Field Recordings, Bryan Duggan, Brendan O'Shea, Padraig Cunningham

Conference papers

This paper presents MATT2 (Machine Annotation of Traditional Tunes). MATT2 is a novel system which can automatically annotate field recordings of traditional Irish music with useful metadata such as tune name, key signature, time signature, composer and discography. MATT2 works by using a number of algorithms to automatically transcribe digital audio to be annotated to the ABC music notation language. It then compares these transcriptions against a corpus of 860 human made transcriptions in ABC using a variation of the edit distance algorithm. Results using MATT2 to annotate fifty recordings of flute and fiddle tunes demonstrate a high success rate …

Autopilot: Simulating Changing Concepts In Real Data, Patrick Lindstrom, Sarah Jane Delany, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

An increasingly important area in supervised incremental learning is learning in the presence of changing concepts. Research into concept drift is hampered by the lack of availability of controllable `real life' datasets. In this paper we propose an approach for generating real life data over which we have control of the concept and can generate data exhibiting different types of concept drift. The approach uses a 3-D driving game to produce a data stream of instances describing how to drive around a track. The classification problem is learning the driving technique of the driver, which can be affected by changes …

Machine Annotation Of Sets Of Traditional Irish Dance Tunes, Bryan Duggan, Brendan O'Shea, Mikel Gainza, Padraig Cunningham

Conference papers

A set in traditional Irish music is a sequence of two or more dance tunes in the same time signature, where each tune is repeated an arbitrary number of times. A turn in a set represents the point at which either a tune repeats or a new tune is introduced. Tunes in sets are played in a segue (without a pause) and so detecting the turn is a significant challenge. This paper presents the MATS algorithm, a novel algorithm for identifying turns in sets of traditional Irish music. MATS works on digitised audio files of monophonic flute and tin-whistle music. …

Design Of A High-Speed Architecture For Stabilization Of Video Captured Under Non-Uniform Lighting Conditions, Ming Zhu Zhang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Video captured in shaky conditions may lead to vibrations. A robust algorithm to immobilize the video by compensating for the vibrations from physical settings of the camera is presented in this dissertation. A very high performance hardware architecture on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology is also developed for the implementation of the stabilization system. Stabilization of video sequences captured under non-uniform lighting conditions begins with a nonlinear enhancement process. This improves the visibility of the scene captured from physical sensing devices which have limited dynamic range. This physical limitation causes the saturated region of the image to shadow out …

Stereolithography Of Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Hydrogels With Application In Tissue Engineering As Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Scaffolds, Karina Arcaute

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, rapid prototyping (RP) technologies initially developed to create prototypes prior to production for the automotive, aerospace, and other industries, have found applications in tissue engineering (TE). Several different RP technologies are being used to fabricate biocompatible 3D structures with controlled micro- and macro-scale characteristics. The focus of this research was to explore the capabilities of the RP technology, stereolithography (SL), for creating complex, 3D scaffolds with applications in TE using a photocrosslinkable biopolymer, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). The primary objective was to create an implantable multi-lumen nerve guidance conduit (NGC) for the regeneration of peripheral nerves.

Studies of …

Homography Based Multiple Camera Detection Of Camouflaged Targets, Jesus Flores Guerra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis proposes an improvement on segmentation of camouflaged objects by combining information from multiple static cameras with overlapping views onto a common reference plane. Previous camouflage detection work relies on a single camera and focuses on pattern recognition, gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) computation, convexity detection and operations such as connected components or morphology. These methods make real-time implementation computationally expensive. The proposed work diverges from these techniques, taking advantage of the added information from several viewpoints. Background subtraction is performed on each individual camera and then, the segmentation result is transformed onto a common plane using homography. A …

Evaluation Of An Image Processing Algorithm For Scene Change Detection, Daniel Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite the efforts to reduce traffic accidents by government entities and automobile manufactures, the numbers of accidents are not considerably reduced. An evaluation of an algorithm based on the fly's eye is done on this research applying its principles to detect scene change on images for printed circuit boards providing initial steps to implement this algorithm on vehicular traffic to keep track of objects moving on the field for collision avoidance purposes. The effectiveness of the algorithm is addressed through a comparison of its performance with that found in experimental data.

Assessment Of Human Muscle Fatigue From Surface Emg Signals Recorded During Isometric Voluntary Contractions By Using A Cosine Modulated Filter Bank, Cristhian Mauricio Potes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Human muscle fatigue involves both a decrease in the frequency and increase in the amplitude of a surface electromyographic (EMG) signal. Muscle fatigue is also related to a decrease of the force impeding to reach the same initial level of the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). To determine muscle fatigue indices, a method is proposed by decomposing a surface EMG signal into 32-subbands. This decomposition was attained by using a cosine modulated filter bank. The

surface EMG signals analyzed during this research were recorded during isometric voluntary contractions. Both the instantaneous mean frequency (IMF) and the instantaneous amplitude (IA) are estimated …

Site-Specific Effects Of Pecam-1 On Atherosclerosis In Ldl Receptor-Deficient Mice, Shikha Arora, Brian Boylan, Reema Goel, Benjamin R. Schrank, Barbara Fleming, Rose Ann Fleming, Hiroto Mirura, Peter J. Newman, Robert C. Molthen, Debra K. Newman

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Objective—Atherosclerosis is a vascular disease that involves lesion formation at sites of disturbed flow under the influence of genetic and environmental factors. Endothelial expression of adhesion molecules that enable infiltration of immune cells is important for lesion development. Platelet/endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1; CD31) is an adhesion and signaling receptor expressed by many cells involved in atherosclerotic lesion development. PECAM-1 transduces signals required for proinflammatory adhesion molecule expression at atherosusceptible sites; thus, it is predicted to be proatherosclerotic. PECAM-1 also inhibits inflammatory responses, on which basis it is predicted to be atheroprotective.

Methods and Results—We evaluated herein the effect of …

Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation Of Mono Azo Dye Orange Ii: Catalyst Selection, Reaction Kinetics, And Modeling, Pinar Ozdural

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wastewaters generated as byproducts of dyeing processes are not treatable with conventional methods. It has been estimated that among the 900,000 tons of different dyes produced annually in the world, approximately 10–15% are lost in wastewater streams during manufacturing and processing operations. Once in rivers and streams, dyes cause major problems, such as reducing light penetration, or displaying toxic effects on aquatic life. Therefore, it is essential that dyes are removed from wastewaters before being discharged into the environment.

This study focuses on the catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of Orange II, a mono azo dye used in large amounts …

Interactive Visualization Of Information Hierarchies And Applications On The Web, Confesor Santiago Iii

Theses and Dissertations

The visualization of information hierarchies is concerned with the presentation of abstract hierarchical information about relationships between various entities. It has many applications in diverse domains such as software engineering, information systems, biology, and chemistry. Information hierarchies are typically modeled by an abstract tree, where vertices are entities and edges represent relationships between entities. The aim of visualizing tree drawings is to automatically produce drawings of trees which clearly reflect the relationships of the information hierarchy.

This thesis is primarily concerned with problems related to the automatic generation of area-efficient grid drawings of trees, interactively visualizing information hierarchies, and applying …

Forensics Image Background Matching Using Scale Invariant Feature (Sift)Transform And Speeded Up Robust Features (Surf), Paul N. Fogg Ii

Theses and Dissertations

In criminal investigations, it is not uncommon for investigators to obtain a photograph or image that shows a crime being committed. Additionally, thousands of pictures may exist of a location, taken from the same or varying viewpoints. Some of these images may even include a criminal suspect or witness. One mechanism to identify criminals and witnesses is to group the images found on computers, cell phones, cameras, and other electronic devices into sets representing the same location. One or more images in the group may then prove the suspect was at the crime scene before, during, and/or after a crime. …

Electrical Activation Studies Of Silicon Implanted Aluminum Gallium Nitride With High Aluminum Mole Fraction, Elizabeth A. Moore

Theses and Dissertations

This research demonstrates a method for producing highly conductive Si-implanted n-type aluminum gallium nitride (Al_xGa_1-xN) alloys, and represents a comprehensive analysis of the resulting material's electrical and optical properties as a function of Al mole fraction, anneal temperature, anneal time, and implantation dose. Highly conductive alloys are critical to the fabrication of devices operating in deep UV, high-temperature, high-power, and high-frequency environments, and thus this research is significant in regard to the application of such devices. The Al_xGa_1-xN wafers of this study, with Al concentrations of 10 to 50%, were implanted at …

2007 Fall Engr333/Biol354 Project Final Report, 2007 Fall Engr333, 2007 Fall Biol354

ENGR 333

The students of Calvin College’s Engineering 333 and Biology 354 classes were given the task of determining “What would it take to make Calvin College Carbon Neutral?” At first glance, it would not appear that classes on Advanced Thermal System Design and Investigations in Plant Ecology would have much in common. However, the biology and engineering students comprising these classes banded together to tackle the problem. Coming to a satisfactory conclusion would require:

• Creating an inventory of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and sequestration potential
• Coming up with detailed solutions to achieve Carbon Neutrality
• Working out a practical schedule to …

Bacterial Auto-Aggregation And Co-Aggregation In Activated Sludge, Fei Chen

All Theses

Microbial auto-aggregation and co-aggregation, leading to biofilm or floc formation, widely occur in natural systems. This study was conducted to investigate the extent of bacterial auto-aggregation and co-aggregation in activated sludge and their contributions in activated sludge floc formation. In this study, an activated sludge sample was separated into a supernatant part (planktonic community) and a sediment part (floc community) by centrifugation at 650_g for 2 minutes. 197 strains were isolated from both communities. These isolates belong to 18 phylotypes based on molecular identifications. Similar phylogenetic distributions of these isolates were observed in planktonic and floc communities, suggesting a similar …

Metalloporphyrin Catalyzed Degradation Of Pce: Effects Of Reductants, Buffers And Cosolvent Concentration, Sowmya Suryanarayanan

All Theses

Reductive dechlorination of chlorinated organic contaminants using metalloporphyrins as catalysts may be an effective approach to treat widespread contamination. However, most previous studies have examined water-soluble rather than insoluble metalloporphyrins despite the fact that the latter category makes up the largest fraction found in nature. Recent studies have shown that addition of different cosolvents to water can activate otherwise non-reactive metalloporphyrin catalysts and facilitate the reduction of tetrachloroethylene (PCE), presumably by the mere process of making the otherwise insoluble metalloporphyrins dissolve in solution. Therefore, solubility has been advanced as a key factor in the ability of metalloporphyrins to catalyze organic …

N-Glycan Modification In Aspergillus Species, Elke Kainz, Andreas Gallmetzer, Christian Hatzl, Juergen H. Nett, Huijuan Li, Thorsten Schinko, Robert Pachlinger, Harald Berger, Yazmid Reyes-Dominguez, Andreas Bernreiter, Tillmann Gerngross, Stefan Wildt, Joseph Strauss

Dartmouth Scholarship

The production by filamentous fungi of therapeutic glycoproteins intended for use in mammals is held back by the inherent difference in protein N-glycosylation and by the inability of the fungal cell to modify proteins with mammalian glycosylation structures. Here, we report protein N-glycan engineering in two Aspergillus species. We functionally expressed in the fungal hosts heterologous chimeric fusion proteins containing different localization peptides and catalytic domains. . This strategy allowed the isolation of a strain with a functional -1,2-mannosidase producing increased amounts of N-glycans of the Man 5 GlcNAc 2 type. This strain was further engineered by the introduction of …

Operational Strategies For Continuum Manipulators, Matt Csencsits

All Theses

We introduce a novel, intuitive user interface for continuum manipulators through the use of various joystick mappings. This user interface allows for the effective use of continuum manipulators in the lab and in the field. A novel geometric approach is developed to produce a more intuitive understanding of continuum manipulator kinematics. Using this geometric approach we derive the first closed-form solution to the inverse kinematics problem for continuum robots. Using the derived inverse kinematics to convert from workspace coordinates to configuration space coordinates we develop a potential-field path planner for continuum manipulators.

Laboratory Evaluation Of Microbial Aggregation In Activated Sludge, Xiaoling Liu

All Theses

Microbial aggregation was investigated in this study using the activated sludge process as a model system, the performance of which is highly dependent on effective bioaggregation. This research includes two experiments. First, four laboratory-scale activated sludge sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were constructed in order to evaluate the effect of solids retention time (SRT) on microbial aggregation. These SBRs were operated at SRT of 4, 8, 16, and 32 days, respectively, fed with a protein-based synthetic wastewater, and monitored over a period of 268 days for performance and sludge settling characteristics including soluble COD in the effluent (sCOD), sludge volume index …

Optical Force Based Cancer Cell Identification, Justin Roman

All Theses

We present the basis of a novel, non-invasive technique for cell diagnostics which utilizes the optical force generated by a weakly focused laser beam to distinguish cells based on their size, structure, composition, and membrane properties. Cell populations of different types, biological states or with different treatments can be studied. This research focuses on two particular instances where other methods of cell sorting, such as those that require fluorescent markers, are not ideal. What's more, this research emphasizes the ability to sort morphologically similar cells that are identical to the naked eye, but phenotypically different on the molecular level. The …

Cosolvent Effects On The Reductive Dechlorination Of Tetrachloroethylene Catalyzed By Iron Tetraphenyl Porphyrin Chloride, Lavanya Ramasubramanian

All Theses

Abiotic electron transfer mediated reductive dechlorination reactions have been studied extensively in the past decade. Porphyrins and metalloporphyrins are common electron transfer mediators used. Past studies have shown that some metalloporphyrins play a key role in increasing the rate of reaction in the presence of cosolvents. There have also been suggestions that organic cosolvents enhance the rate of reduction by increasing the solubility of metalloporphyrins.
The primary objective of this project was to examine the effect of cosolvents on the metalloporphyrin-catalyzed reductive dechlorination of tetrachloroethylene (PCE). Subsequently, experiments were also conducted to test the hypothesis that metalloporphyrin solubility is linked …

Multi-Objective Generation Scheduling With Hybrid Energy Resources, Manas Trivedi

All Dissertations

In economic dispatch (ED) of electric power generation, the committed generating units are scheduled to meet the load demand at minimum operating cost with satisfying all unit and system equality and inequality constraints. Generation of electricity from the fossil fuel releases several contaminants into the atmosphere. So the economic dispatch objective can no longer be considered alone due to the environmental concerns that arise from the emissions produced by fossil fueled electric power plants. This research is proposing the concept of environmental/economic generation scheduling with traditional and renewable energy sources. Environmental/economic dispatch (EED) is a multi-objective problem with conflicting objectives …

Development Of An In Vitro Test System For Breast Cancer Research, Chih-Chao Yang

All Dissertations

In the United States, breast cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer and colon cancer). In 2007, breast cancer is expected to cause 40,910 deaths (7% of cancer deaths; almost 2% of all deaths) in the U.S. The long term goal of this project is to develop an in vitro test system that can be used to develop breast cancer vaccine or screen breast cancer chemotherapy. This dissertation was driven by four objectives and it can be thought as a toolbox that provides practical experimental design and lab work for the development of an …

A Comparative Fault Diagnosis Methodology Based On Time Series Analysis Of System's Signals, Hany Bassily

All Dissertations

The detection of system anomalies represents an important task in safety critical systems. Over the past two decades, advances in data manipulation techniques and sensor technology have contributed to the widespread application of signal processing concepts for fault diagnosis. However, the majority of these signal processing, or data driven, diagnostics do not possess the redundancy level exhibited in conventional model-based methods. Among signal processing methods, time series analysis is advantageous since it offers insight into the underlying dynamics and forecasts system behavior. Furthermore, the data driven method allows the depiction of system dynamics with an increased level of redundancy. This …

Ultrahydrophobic Surface Modification Of Polymeric Fibers And Inorganic Substrates, Karthik Ramaratnam

All Dissertations

The wettability of a solid surface is a very important property, and is governed by both the chemical composition and the geometrical microstructure of the surface. Wettability and repellency are important properties of solid surfaces from both fundamental and practical aspects. The wettability of the solid surface is a characteristic property of materials and strongly depends on both the surface energy and the surface roughness. These properties may be approached by mimicking hydrophobic structures created by nature on lotus leaf surface. The lotus effect is based on surface roughness caused by different microstructures together with the hydrophobic properties of the …

Adipocyte Response To Injectable Beads Engineered For Breast Tissue Reconstruction, Katherine Neser

All Theses

It is estimated that over 150,000 patients will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2007. Patients must undergo a mastectomy or a lumpectomy to remove the cancerous tissue, but only a mastectomy allows breast reconstructive surgery. Due to the limitations of current reconstruction options, new alternatives are being explored. Injectable materials have been suggested for breast tissue reconstruction because of their versatility. Cells cultured on injectable beads form cell carriers that may be mixed with a hydrogel, resulting in a construct that may be injected through a syringe to restore normal tissue mass. This solution offers breast cancer patients …

Response Of Phlebotomine Sand Flies To Light-Emitting Diode-Modified Light Traps In Southern Egypt, D. F. Hoel, Emad Y. Fawaz, J.E Butler, N. Watany, S. S. El-Hossary, J. Villinski

United States Navy: Publications

Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light traps were modified for use with light-emitting diodes (LED) and compared against a control trap (incandescent light) to determine the effectiveness of blue, green, and red lights against standard incandescent light routinely used for sand fly surveillance. Light traps were baited with dry ice and rotated through a 4 x 4 Latin square design during May, June, and July, 2006. Trapping over 12 trap nights yielded a total of 2,298 sand flies in the village of Bahrif, 6 km north of Aswan on the east bank of the Nile River in southern …

Department Of Biological Systems Engineering Newsletter, Volume 2, Issue 3, December 2007

BSE Department Magazine

Contents:
New Tractor Test Track Dedication
From the Department Head
Awards
Meet the Faculty
Alumni News
Student News
Summer Graduations
Quarter-scale Tractor Competition
ASABE Student Branch
ASABE International Preprofessional Council
Distinguished Fellowship Awards
John and Louise Skala Fellowships
Researching Plant Sterols
Milton E. Mohr Fellowship in Agriculture
Scholarships and Ice Cream
100 Years As a University of Nebraska Department
Alumnus Profile
Career opportunities in food engineering
Congratulations
Comings and Goings