Digital Commons Network^™

Predictive Model Development For Adsorption Of Organic Contaminants By Carbon Nanotubes, Onur Apul

All Dissertations

The main objective of the study was to investigate mechanisms and statistical modeling of synthetic organic contaminant (SOC) adsorption by carbon nanotubes (CNTs). First, predictive models were developed for adsorption of low molecular weight aromatic compounds by multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using experimental data for 59 compounds. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) and linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) approaches were employed and developed models were externally validated using an independent dataset obtained from the literature. Up to date, no QSAR model has been reported for predicting adsorption of organics by CNTs. No LSER model is available which comprehensively investigates the adsorption …

Biology, Ecology, And Control Of Doveweed (Murdannia Nudiflora [L.] Brenan), Jeffrey Atkinson

All Dissertations

Doveweed (Murdannia nudiflora [L.] Brenan) is a summer annual in the Southeastern United States with an expanding geographic range. The light green color and texture of doveweed is problematic for turfgrass managers as it contrasts with the color and texture of desirable turfgrasses. Limited research is available concerning the biology, ecology, and herbicide control options for doveweed. Therefore, experiments were conducted to improve the understanding of how environmental conditions effect doveweed germination, how cultural practices and environmental resource availability effect doveweed growth and development, to identify pre- and postemergence herbicides with efficacy for doveweed control, and to improve the understanding …

Passivation And Functionalization Of Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles With Head Group Modified Phospholipids And Proteins, Prakash Kandel

All Dissertations

Conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) possess important characteristics such as high fluorescence brightness, reasonable photostability, and non-toxicity. These properties allow the use of CPNs in fluorescence based cellular and biological applications including cellular labeling, imaging, biosensing, and single particle tracking. To realize the broad applications of CPNs, it is required that CPNs possess functionality to conjugate a recognition moiety and maintain colloidal stability in biological media. In the following Dissertation, we have prepared functionalized CPNs by surface passivation with head group- functionalized poly (ethylene glycol) lipids and proteins. We studied the colloidal stability of CPNs in biological media and investigated their …

Evaluation Of A Mycorrhizal-Like Fungus, Piriformospora Indica, On Floriculture Crops, Allison Justice

All Dissertations

Piriformospora indica is a fungal endophyte, often called an arbuscular mycorrhizal-like fungus, that has been shown to provide benefits to plant symbionts by increasing nutrient uptake, biomass production, flower number, and disease resistance in a wide range of plant hosts. Research was carried out to investigate the ability of P. indica to improve plant production in floriculture crops. The first objective was to determine the optimal environmental conditions for growing P. indica in pure culture. Environmental conditions were optimized to produce the maximum chlamydospores for inoculum preparation (Chapter 1). These findings were used in the remaining chapters to prepare inocula …

Mechanisms And Reversal Of Elastin Specific Medial Arterial Calcification, Yang Lei

All Dissertations

There are two distinctive types of vascular calcification: atherosclerotic intimal calcification (AIC) and elastin specific medial arterial calcification (MAC). AIC occurs in the context of atherosclerosis, associated with lipids, macrophages, and vascular smooth muscle cells; whereas, MAC can exist independently of atherosclerosis and is associated with elastin and vascular smooth muscle cells. The work presented here focuses on the mechanisms and reversal of MAC. MAC, termed as Monckeberg's sclerosis, is a type of vascular calcification disease mostly occurs as linear deposits along elastic lamellae. Vascular calcification, including medial calcification, is a strong predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Currently the …

Processing-Structure-Property Relationships Of Meat And Bone Meal Derived Bioplastics, Sam Lukubira

All Dissertations

Sustainability concerns arising from over-use of fossil-derived materials have prompted renewed interest in developing and use of products from renewable biomass. Agricultural materials like soy, starches, cellulose esters and co-products like lignin, soybean meal, feather meal, blood meal and others are being investigated for bioplastic applications. Unlike fossil-based plastics, most of these materials are biodegradable and obtained from renewable precursors, hence sustainable.

Heterotrophic Culture Of Microalgae Using Biodiesel Derived Glycerol, Karthik Gopalakrishnan

All Dissertations

Algae-based technologies are fast growing and the growing demand for sustainable technologies is evident from the growing energy demand and global warming. Microalgae culturing for higher lipid contents have been a hot topic of intense discussion in the past years. Crude glycerol, a byproduct from biodiesel production seems to be an attractive feedstock for microbial cultivation and crude glycerol has been proven as a good alternative feedstock for cultivation of Chlorella protothecoides. The effect of impurities present in the crude glycerol is important to develop a method for high-density cultivation of microalgae to increase the commercialization potential of algae systems. …

Platform Technologies To Advance Clinically Relevant Tissue Engineered Heart Valve Products, Leslie Neil Sierad

All Dissertations

Diseased heart valves are commonly replaced by mechanical, bioprosthetic, or allograft heart valves. These replacements provide major improvements in cardiac function and quality of life, but have significant limitations and eventually require surgical replacement within 15-20 years. These risks are particularly prominent in pediatric patients and young adults. The field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, which combines scaffolds and cells, holds great promise in developing living replacement heart valves that would self-repair and grow in size along with the growing children.

The long-term goal of this project is to generate living, tissue-engineered heart valves from biological scaffolds and autologous …

‘No One Should Destroy The Forest': Using Photo-Based Vignette Interviews To Understand Kenyan Teachers' Views Of The Environment, Cassie Quigley, Zachary D. Miller, James Dogbey, S Megan Che, Jeffrey Hallo

Publications

In the midst of the current environmental crisis, scientists, academics, authors, and politicians worldwide are urging citizens to create sustainable communities. However, there is little capability to build a sustainable society without an informed, active, and engaged populous. This requires more than just environmentally knowledgeable citizens. It requires a society that understands the principles of the environment and can also exemplify them in daily life. In order to create a more environmentally literate world, there has been a push for environmental education integrated into schools. This qualitative study sought to examine Kenyan teachers’ perspectives on the human–nature interaction by conducting …

Explaining Research Utilization Among 4-H Faculty, Staff, And Volunteers: The Role Of Self-Efficacy, Learning Goal Orientation, Training, And Previous Experience, Julianne Tillman, Lynette H. Bikos

Journal of Youth Development

An investigation of factors that facilitate the utilization of research evidence among faculty, staff, and volunteers in the 4-H Youth Development Program is presented in this paper. Participants (N = 368; 86 4-H faculty, 153 staff, and 129 volunteers) represented 35 states; structural equation modeling was utilized in the analyses. Results of the path analysis explained 56% of variance in research utilization and 28% in research utilization self-efficacy. Among the factors impacting research utilization, self-efficacy played the most important role. In turn, self-efficacy for research utilization was positively influenced by participants’ learning goal orientation, frequency of 4-H training during the …

Potential Susceptibility Of Canna Flaccida And Two Canna Hybrids To Five Species Of Phytophthora, Kristin Van Kampen

All Theses

The costs and need for clean water are increasing for greenhouse, nursery, and agricultural businesses. Runoff from irrigated agriculture and specialty crops also can take a toll on the surrounding environment, because irrigation runoff water can contain high amounts of nutrients, contaminants, and plant pathogens. To assuage the pollution contributed to runoff water and reduce the overall volume of water used, nurseries are starting to reuse irrigation runoff water. For this to be possible, the water first should be treated before reuse. Constructed wetlands are a biological treatment option that employs vegetation to collect, filter, and store runoff water. Some …

Use Of Macroinvertebrates In Bioassessment Of Land Use And Water Quality In Northern Mongolia, Oyunchuluun Yadamsuren

All Dissertations

Land-use practices in Mongolia lead to habitat degradation and consequently affect the structure and function of biological communities. There is no accepted bioassessment technique for determining the ecological consequences of habitat degradation on biological communities and water quality in Mongolia, such that a monitoring and management program suitable for Mongolia is sorely needed. Both a trait-based approach and the North American Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP) metrics were tested with macroinvertebrates to determine the performance and applicability of these approaches for predicting general ecological responses of freshwater and terrestrial communities to habitat variation due to overgrazing and mining in northern Mongolian …

The Graceling Realm Series, Maggie Mason Smith

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Simulation Protocol For Exercise Physiology In Fontan Patients Using A Closed Loop Lumped-Parameter Model, Ethan Kung, Giancarlo Pennati, Francesco Migliavacca, Tian-Yen Hsia, Richard Figliola, Alison Marsden, Alessandro Giardini

Publications

Background: Reduced exercise capacity is nearly universal among Fontan patients, though its etiology is not yet fully understood. While previous computational studies have attempted to model Fontan exercise, they did not fully account for global physiologic mechanisms nor directly compare results against clinical and physiologic data. Methods: In this study, we developed a protocol to simulate Fontan lower-body exercise using a closed-loop lumped-parameter model describing the entire circulation. We analyzed clinical exercise data from a cohort of Fontan patients, incorporated previous clinical findings from literature, quantified a comprehensive list of physiological changes during exercise, translated them into a computational model …

The Nsf/Nih Effect: Surveying The Effect Of Data Management Requirements On Faculty, Sponsored Programs, And Institutional Repositories, Anne Diekema, Andrew Wesolek, Cheryl D. Walters

Publications

The scholarly communication landscape is rapidly changing and nowhere is this more evident than in the field of data management. Mandates by major funding agencies, further expanded by executive order and pending legislation in 2013, require many research grant applicants to provide data management plans for preserving and making their research data openly available. However, do faculty researchers have the requisite skill sets and are their institutions providing the necessary infrastructure to comply with these mandates? To answer these questions, three groups were surveyed in 2012: research and teaching faculty, sponsored programs office staff, and institutional repository librarians. Survey results …

Interpreter Boot Camp: Working Toward Achieving Interpreter Standards, Jessica Bentley Sassaman

International Journal of Interpreter Education

A project was established in the state of Pennsylvania to mentor interpreters who scored between 3.0 and3.4 on the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment(EIPA), missing the state minimum standard score of 3.5 or higher. This article serves as a template for interpreter trainers interested in setting up an interpreter “boot camp” to assist graduates in bridging the gap from an interpreter training program to work in an educational setting. Four mentees and four mentors, two instructors from interpreting programs, and one educational consultant participated in the Pennsylvania Interpreter Boot Camp. Although not all mentees achieved the targeted 3.5 scores when they …

Clemson Commencement Program, May 2014, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

In Vitro Validation Of Patient-Specific Hemodynamic Simulations In Coronary Aneurysms Caused By Kawasaki Disease, Ethan Kung, Andrew M. Kahn, Jane C. Burns, Alison Marsden

Publications

To perform experimental validation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applied to patient specific coronary aneurysm anatomy of Kawasaki disease. We quantified hemodynamics in a patient-specific coronary artery aneurysm physical phantom under physiologic rest and exercise flow conditions. Using phase contrast MRI (PCMRI), we acquired 3-component flow velocity at two slice locations in the aneurysms. We then performed numerical simulations with the same geometry and inflow conditions, and performed qualitative and quantitative comparisons of velocities between experimental measurements and simulation results. We observed excellent qualitative agreement in flow pattern features. The quantitative spatially and temporally varying differences in velocity between PCMRI …

The Deception Of Perception: Browning, Childe Roland, And Supersensory Belief, Catherine Blass

All Theses

Browning's fascination with the senses and the mind as determiners of reality floods his work. 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,' in particular, offers a more complicated, sincere exploration of this topic that had become central to Victorian debate. As Browning acknowledges repeatedly through his poetry, the debate between sensory data (empiricism) and supersensory belief (idealism) could not be understood in clear-cut categories. In much of his poetry, however, he grounds these questions in deceptively simple discussions of mesmerism or the Victorian philosophy of the mind. Although those two topics may seem disparate to twenty-first century readers, Victorian belief …

Computational And Experimental Approaches To Reveal The Effects Of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms With Respect To Disease Diagnostics, Tugba G. Kucukkal, Ye Yang, Susan C. Chapman, Weiguo Cao, Emil Alexov

Publications

DNA mutations are the cause of many human diseases and they are the reason for natural differences among individuals by affecting the structure, function, interactions, and other properties of DNA and expressed proteins. The ability to predict whether a given mutation is disease-causing or harmless is of great importance for the early detection of patients with a high risk of developing a particular disease and would pave the way for personalized medicine and diagnostics. Here we review existing methods and techniques to study and predict the effects of DNA mutations from three different perspectives: in silico, in vitro and …

Avs Corner, May 2014, Kathy Still, Johanna Johnson, Allison Millican, Megan Kelley, Michelle Brauneis, Tina Rowland

AVS Corner

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Multi-Dimensional Interactive Time-Lapse Photography Using Microsoft Kinect, Daniel Mccoy

All Theses

In this thesis, a method is presented for the capture and interactive presentation of long-term multi-dimensional time-lapse photography. Time-lapse capture is commonly used for the observation based study of relatively long term phenomena such as plant growth and weather patterns. In terms of filmic devices, the visual time compression effect is complementary to slow motion and is nearly as prevalent. In this project, commonly available camera and computer equipment is used to capture images autonomously with minimal system supervision. A set of images is established, using long term, short interval continuous capture at a fixed position. Results are presented demonstrating …

Social Learning And The Development Of Social Foraging Behavior In Golden Lion Tamarins (Leontopithecus Rosalia), Carly Slack

All Theses

Golden lion tamarins are highly social, group-living primates and are cooperative breeders. As such they are an ideal species in which to study social learning. Observations of six groups of wild golden lion tamarins were used to examine the development of social foraging and related behaviors in juveniles. Rates at which juveniles approached adults that were foraging for plant foods tended to decline with age (F=3.34, p=.0531), and the rates at which they begged (F=4.71, p=.0193), and foraged at the same site (i.e., co-foraged; F=3.44, p=.0495) decreased significantly. For prey foraging, rates at which adults vacated a site to allow …

Efficient Control Of Assets In A Modern Production Pipeline, Timothy Curtis

All Theses

Managing large collections of assets created in today's CG productions is no easy task. This thesis examines basic production hierarchies and identifies problems that arise without proper workflow and asset control. The possibility of hundreds of assets being created in several workflows each week creates the potential for extraordinary time waste and user error without a system to track and manage the files being produced. It is becoming increasingly necessary to utilize methods during production that enforce naming and storage standards to prevent catastrophic data loss. This thesis presents an implementation of a customized database used to track all of …

Endangered Species Day Display, Maggie Mason Smith

Presentations

No abstract provided.

A Modernism Against Maestros: Horacio Quiroga And The Transnational Automaton, Jacqueline Fetzer

All Theses

In this paper I will explore the possibility that Horacio Quiroga's regional treatment of modernist themes is more than a creole adaptation or mimicry of the European maestros, instead placing Quiroga in dialogue with an international framework of contemporary texts that explore conflicting attitudes towards modernity through dark portrayals of science and technology. I focus on Quiroga's 1910 novella El hombre artificial (The Artificial Man), a text with an amalgamation of themes and plot devices that have caused the work itself to be dismissed for being of 'poor quality.' Yet these themes and formal features integrally connect Quiroga's novella to …

Effect Of Low And High Molecular Weights Water Soluble Chitosan On Oxidation Of Whole Milk Powder, Wesam Al-Jeddawi

All Theses

Autoxidation significantly decreases the shelf life of whole milk powder due to primary and secondary oxidation products such as hydroperoxides, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols and hydrocarbons. Water soluble chitosan has been shown to reduce oxidation by chelating metals or combining with lipids resulting in a significant antioxidative effect. The objective of this study was to determine the antioxidative effects of different concentrations of low (L) and high (H) molecular weight water soluble chitosan (9 and 90 kDa, respectively) on whole milk powder (WMP). Commercially dried WMP was obtained and rehydrated 50% (wt/wt) with various aqueous chitosan solutions (2% L2, 4% L4, …

The Reference Transcriptome Of The Adult Female Biting Midge (Culicoides Sonorensis) And Differential Gene Expression Profiling During Teneral, Blood, And Sucrose Feeding Conditions, Dana Nayduch, Matthew B. Lee, Christopher Saski

Publications

Unlike other important vectors such as mosquitoes and sandflies, genetic and genomic tools for Culicoides biting midges are lacking, despite the fact that they vector a large number of arboviruses and other pathogens impacting humans and domestic animals world-wide. In North America, female Culicoides sonorensis midges are important vectors of bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV), orbiviruses that cause significant disease in livestock and wildlife. Libraries of tissue-specific transcripts expressed in response to feeding and oral orbivirus challenge in C. sonorensis have previously been reported, but extensive genome-wide expression profiling in the midge has not. Here, we …

An Engineering Approach To Forensic Methods: The Citrate Method For Postmortem Interval Determination, Melissa Dunphy

All Theses

The Postmortem Interval (PMI) is the amount of time between the death of an individual and the discovery of the remains. Existing forensic techniques for the determination of the PMI are limited once soft tissue fully decays [31, 32]. A novel technique has recently been developed using the molecule Citrate (C6H8O7) to calculate the Postmortem Interval (PMI) [26]. Currently, this method cannot be practically applied due to the limited understanding of different forensic environments on the biochemistry of postmortem bone. In addition, further understanding of bone citrate measurement methods is needed to determine a practical field measurement approach. This study …

Lighting And Compositing For Project Hero, Brooke Buckley

All Theses

With tragedies such as the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary on the rise in the last few years, brainstorming ideas that would prevent that type of violence in schools has become necessary. One such scenario involves a teleoperated robot, manned by local police, which would track down and subdue an intruder until police could arrive at the location. This thesis follows the process of creating a computer-generated robot and compositing it seamlessly into a real environment for the production, Project Hero. This project is a short film that shows a scenario in which a robot would be used to subdue …