Digital Commons Network^™

Development And Characterization Of Nanomaterials For Pulmonary Drug Delivery Applications, Elisa A. Torrico Guzman

Open Access Dissertations

Chronic pulmonary diseases such as lung cancer and cystic fibrosis represent significant global health concerns because of their resulting high mortality and low life expectancy. Pulmonary drug delivery has demonstrated advantages over other delivery routes due to the ability to use lower concentrations of drug, reduction in systemic toxicity, and offering better targeting to the area of disease. Effective application of dry powder therapeutics requires the optimization of particle deposition in the lungs and avoidance of physiologic defense mechanisms such as mucosal entrapment, mucociliary clearance, and macrophage engulfment. Evaluation of aerosol pulmonary therapeutic parameters demands accurate in vitro models that …

Advancements In Biomimetic Underwater Propulsion: Boundary Interactions And Crossflow Compensation, Matthew Perkins

Open Access Dissertations

Biomimetic propulsion is an active area of research in the field of robotics. This work presents advancements to help improve the performance of vehicles employing oscillating foil propulsion. For vehicles operating near the sea floor, ground effect on rolling and pitching foils was investigated in Manuscript 1. The ‘ground effect’ was found to be present and to cause a repulsion force on the foil as well as an increased thrust force. It was also shown that ground effect can be activated by biasing the foil into the ground effect zone while the vehicle maintains a greater distance from the boundary. …

Nanomaterials For Sensing, Heating And Applications In Composites And Emulsion Biofouling, Akram Abbasi

Open Access Dissertations

Nanoscale materials often exhibit fascinating physical, chemical, and biological properties which are considerably different from those of their macro-and/or microscale counterparts. These unique characteristics have led to considerable growth over the last decade in nanomaterial-enabled applications in areas such as biomedicine, environmental sensing and remediation, and energy production and storage. In this dissertation, techniques are presented to create new nanomaterials relevant to these areas.

Gold nanostructures are an example of a nanomaterial with great interest in biomedical therapy and sensing applications due to their high chemical and physical stability, ease of synthesis and surface functionalization and their unique optical properties. …

Computational Gene Association Based On Relative Species Displacement In Gene And Morphology Trees, Martin D. Hellwig

Open Access Dissertations

While a number of methods exist for gene based fin prediction, these studies are mostly limited to single sites and to binary morphological characters and they are very susceptible to missing data. Here we present GATRS (Gene Association in TRee Space), a novel algorithm than can operate on continuous morphological observations such as fin size and is robust to missing data by operating in gene tree space, analyzing linkages between entire genes and morphological traits. GATRS performs a large number of comparisons between closely related trees which requires a tree distance method that is particularly apt at distinguishing closely related …

Global Dynamics Of Some Discrete Dynamical Systems In Mathematical Biology, Sarah Van Beaver

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis will be presented in manuscript format. The first chapter will introduce preliminary definitions and theorems of difference equations that will be utilized in chapters 2, 3, and 4.

The second chapter will investigate the global behavior of two difference equations with exponential nonlinearities

x_n+1 = be^-cx_n + px_n-1, n = 0, 1,...

where the parameters b; c are positive real numbers and p 2 (0; 1) and

x_n+1 = a + bx_n-1e^-x_n, n = 0, 1,...

where the parameters a; b are positive numbers. …

Identifying Factors Of Success For Renewable Energy Growth In The United States Of America, Alaa Masrahi

Open Access Dissertations

Energy consumption has a complex relationship with its physical, demographic, and behavioral characteristics. The literature review showed that renewable energy is an increasingly important issue in energy security and sustainability. The research on renewable energy consumption identifies the driving and obstructing factors. Renewable energy growth is associated with complex, interacting variables and requires concerted, multidisciplinary efforts for effective research and development. Thus, the aim of this study is to demonstrate the importance of findings that influence renewable energy consumption among 22 states. Our study seeks to understand and assert the complex energy perspective via the relationship between factors and nature …

The Home And Child-Care: Are Preschoolaged Children Getting Mixed Food-Related Messages?, Noereem Zenaida Mena

Open Access Dissertations

Statement of the Problem: In the United States, nearly 14% of preschool-aged children (ages 2 to 5) are obese. Additionally, disparities persist, with the highest prevalence of obesity among Hispanic preschool-aged children (17% vs. 11% non-Hispanic Black and 3.5% non- Hispanic White preschool-aged children). Establishing healthy eating habits in early childhood is critical and providing children with similar opportunities to practice healthy eating habits independently at home and in child care is thought to reinforce the development of healthy eating habits early in life. However, there is limited information regarding how parents and childcare providers communicate about child-nutrition, including …

Relating Marine Mammal Distribution To Prey Abundance, Christopher D. Orphanides

Open Access Dissertations

Marine mammal foraging and diet in southern New England is not well known and has therefore been largely ignored as a component of habitat, distribution, and bycatch. Incorporating prey components into marine mammal management is key to improving management of these species, especially as fisheries management progresses towards ecosystem-based management, climate change results in shifting distributions of marine mammals, and we are faced with new management challenges stemming from offshore wind development. This dissertation aims to address data gaps for species highly impacted by human activities, specifically the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and the harbor porpoise …

Exploring The Lived Experience Of Being Pregnant While A College Student, Kristina M. Perrelli

Open Access Dissertations

Almost five million college students in the United States have child dependents (U.S. Department of Education, 2015), but little is known about the experience of pregnancy in college. This qualitative study addressed this gap in scholarship. A feminist intersectional theoretical framework and a feminist interpretive phenomenology methodology were used to explore the experiences of ten women from three institutions of higher education who were currently pregnant or recently pregnant. Most participants identified as low-income or working-class women of color. The phenomenological goal of this study was to learn about each woman’s lived experience of pregnancy in college toward identifying commonalities …

Compassion And Well-Being: The Effects Of An Online Filmmediated Compassion Education On Undergraduate Students, Thupten Tendhar

Open Access Dissertations

An increasing number of college students in the US are reportedly experiencing significant levels of emotional distress and mental health challenges. College students who practice compassion have been found to have significantly lower negative emotions when compared to students who do not practice compassionate thinking. This underscores the need for compassion education programs. However, only a limited number of college students benefit from existing compassion programs because many are too busy to commit to eight or more weeks of such face to face training along with their regular course load and work schedule. This study used a quantitative method with …

What To Eat And When: The Consequences Of Polyunsaturated Fat Consumption And Pace Of Changes To Body Lipid Composition In Songbirds, Wales Aran Carter

Open Access Dissertations

Diet mediates environmental influence on organismal performance, but diets must be broken down into their constituent compounds and integrated into organismal tissues before they can exert such influence. Thus, a full account of the relationship between diet and organismal performance requires descriptions of intermediate effects on body composition and tissue function, as well as the dynamics of composition and function over time. The work described in this dissertation investigates a case study of diet and organismal performance in songbirds: dietary polyunsaturated fats have been demonstrated to influence the metabolic performance of songbirds, but the influence of individual fatty acid compounds, …

Higher Dietary Diversity Scores And Protein-Rich Food Consumption Were Associated With Lower Risk Of All-Cause Mortality In The Oldest Old, Yuebin Lv, Virginia Byers Kraus, Xiang Gao, Zhaoxue Yin, Jinhui Zhou, Chen Mao, Jun Duan, Yi Zeng, Melanie S. Brasher, Wanying Shi, Xiaoming Shi

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Background & aims: Dietary diversity is widely advocated in national and international recommendations although whether the beneficial effects on survival or longevity still apply in the final phase of the lifespan remains understudied. We aimed to prospectively examine the association of dietary diversity, food items with all-cause mortality among the oldest old (80+) and determine whether dietary diversity recommendations were appropriate for this population.

Methods: The study included 28,790 participants aged 80+ (9957 octogenarians, 9925 nonagenarians, and 8908 centenarians). A baseline dietary diversity score (DDS) was constructed based on nine food items of a food frequency questionnaire. Cox models with …

The Characterization Of Xanthene Dyes On A Glass Substrate From Different Coating Techniques, Elsa Ortega

Open Access Dissertations

Chapter 1 of this dissertation is an investigation of rhodamine 560 (Rh560), a cationic dye similar to the well-studied rhodamine 6G (Rh6G). The spectral properties of Rh560 and Rh6G have similar changes as a function of thickness. At low surface coverage the spectra indicate monomers, at 1-2 monolayers dimers dominate, and thicker films show larger aggregates. The difference between Rh6G and Rh560 is that the transition from monomer to dimer occurs at different thickness, ~1.2 nm for Rh6G and ~0.5 nm for Rh560. This difference is accounted for by the molecular size. Chapters 2 and 3 describe photophysical investigations of …

Design And Synthesis Of Molecular Probes For Medical And Environmetal Applications, Payagala Udawattage Ashvin Iresh Fernando

Open Access Dissertations

The main aim of this dissertation was to design and synthesize molecular probes with ease to be used in medical and environmental applications. The first chapter focuses on a novel pseudo-rotaxane probe that can be used in ¹²⁹Xe imaging, which was synthesized using commercially available cyclodextrin moieties with a one-step reaction. This is probe can be synthesized in high yields and results in an acceptable level of hyperCEST depletion percentage. The second chapter showcases pillararenes as a potential candidate for ¹²⁹Xe imaging. In addition, this chapter discusses the aid of a computational programs to design the supramolecular scaffold …

A Global 3‐D Ocean Model For Pcbs: Benchmark Compounds For Understanding The Impacts Of Global Change On Neutral Persistent Organic Pollutants, Charlotte C. Wagner, Helen N. Amos, Colin P. Thackray, Yanxu Zhang, Elizabeth W. Lundgren, Gael Forget, Carey L. Friedman, Noelle E. Selin, Rainer Lohmann, Elise M. Sunderland

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Human activities have released large quantities of neutral persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that may be biomagnified in food webs and pose health risks to wildlife, particularly top predators. Here we develop a global 3‐D ocean simulation for four polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) spanning a range of molecular weights and volatilities to better understand effects of climate‐driven changes in ocean biogeochemistry on the lifetime and distribution of POPs. Observations are most abundant in the Arctic Ocean. There, model results reproduce spatial patterns and magnitudes of measured PCB concentrations. Sorption of PCBs to suspended particles and subsequent burial in benthic marine sediment is …

Trophic Position And Foraging Ecology Of Ross, Weddell, And Crabeater Seals Revealed By Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis, Emily K. Brault, Paul L. Koch, Daniel P. Costa, Matthew D. Mccarthy, Luis A. Hückstädt, Kimberly Goetz, Kelton W. Mcmahon, Michael G. Goebel, Olle Karlsson, Jonas Teilmann, Tero Härkönen, Karin Hårding

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Ross seals Ommatophoca rossii are one of the least studied marine mammals, with little known about their foraging ecology. Research to date using bulk stable isotope analysis suggests that Ross seals have a trophic position intermediate between that of Weddell Leptonychotes weddellii and crabeater Lobodon carcinophaga seals. However, consumer bulk stable isotope values not only reflect trophic dynamics, but also variations in baseline isotope values, which can be substantial. We used compound-specific isotope analysis of amino acids (CSI-AA) to separate isotopic effects of a shifting baseline versus trophic structure on the foraging ecology of these ecologically important Antarctic pinnipeds. We …

Major Shifts In Nutrient And Phytoplankton Dynamics In The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre Over The Last 5000 Years Revealed By High-Resolution Proteinaceous Deep-Sea Coral Δ15N And Δ13C Records, Danielle S. Glynn, Kelton W. Mcmahon, Thomas P. Guilderson, Matthew D. Mccarthy

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) is the largest continuous ecosystem on Earth and is a critical component of global oceanic biogeochemical cycling and carbon sequestration. We report here multi-millennial-scale, sub-decadal-resolution records of bulk stable nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) and carbon (δ¹³C) isotope records from proteinaceous deep-sea corals. Data from three Kulamanamana haumeaae specimens from the main Hawaiian Islands extend the coral-based time-series back ∼5000 yrs for the NPSG and bypass constraints of low resolution sediment cores in this oligotrophic ocean region. We interpret these records in terms of shifting biogeochemical cycles and plankton community structure, with a …

The Concept Of Essential Use For Determining When Uses Of Pfass Can Be Phased Out, Ian T. Cousins, Gretta Goldenman, Dorte Herzke, Rainer Lohmann, Mark Miller, Carla A. Ng, Sharyle Patton, Martin Scheringer, Xenia Trier, Lena Vierke, Zhanyun Wang, Jamie C. Dewitt

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Because of the extreme persistence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and their associated risks, the Madrid Statement argues for stopping their use where they are deemed not essential or when safer alternatives exist. To determine when uses of PFASs have an essential function in modern society, and when they do not, is not an easy task. Here, we: (1) develop the concept of “essential use” based on an existing approach described in the Montreal Protocol, (2) apply the concept to various uses of PFASs to determine the feasibility of elimination or substitution of PFASs in each use category, and …

Poly- And Perfluoroalkyl Substances In Seawater And Plankton From The Northwestern Atlantic Margin, Xianming Zhang, Rainer Lohmann, Elsie M. Sunderland

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The ocean is thought to be the terminal sink for poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have been produced and released in large quantities for more than 60 years. Regulatory actions have curbed production of legacy compounds such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), but impacts of regulations on PFAS releases to the marine environment are poorly understood. Here, we report new data for 21 targeted PFAS in seawater and plankton from the coast, shelf, and slope of the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean. We find strong inverse correlations between salinity and concentrations of most PFAS, indicating that ongoing continental …

Microbial Selection And Survival In Subseafloor Sediment, John B. Kirkpatrick, Emily A. Walsh, Steven D'Hondt

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Many studies have examined relationships of microorganisms to geochemical zones in subseafloor sediment. However, responses to selective pressure and patterns of community succession with sediment depth have rarely been examined. Here we use 16S rDNA sequencing to examine the succession of microbial communities at sites in the Indian Ocean and the Bering Sea. The sediment ranges in depth from 0.16 to 332 m below seafloor and in age from 660 to 1,300,000 years. The majority of subseafloor taxonomic diversity is present in the shallowest depth sampled. The best predictor of sequence presence or absence in the oldest sediment is relative …

The Significance Of Microbial Symbionts In Ecosystem Processes, Roxanne A. Beinart

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

It is increasingly accepted that the microbial symbionts of eukaryotes can have profound effects on host ecology and evolution. However, the relative contribution that they make directly to ecosystem processes, like energy and nutrient flows, is less explicitly acknowledged and, in many cases, only poorly constrained. Here, I explore the idea that, in some habitats, host-associated microbes may have an outsized role in ecosystem processes relative to functionally equivalent free-living microbes due to key aspects of the physiology, ecology, and evolution of symbiotic interactions. My research quantifying symbiont metabolism has shown that microbial symbionts have the potential to make a …

Divergent Trophic Responses Of Sympatric Penguin Species To Historic Anthropogenic Exploitation And Recent Climate Change, Kelton Mcmahon, Chantel I. Michelson, Tom Hart, Matthew D. Mccarthy, William P.P. Patterson, Michael J. Polito

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The Southern Ocean is in an era of significant change. Historic overharvesting of marine mammals and recent climatic warming have cascading impacts on resource availability and, in turn, ecosystem structure and function. We examined trophic responses of sympatric chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) and gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) penguins to nearly 100 y of shared environmental change in the Antarctic Peninsula region using compound-specific stable isotope analyses of museum specimens. A century ago, gentoo penguins fed almost exclusively on low-trophic level prey, such as krill, during the peak of historic overexploitation of marine mammals, which was hypothesized to have …

Upper Ocean Distribution Of Glacial Meltwater In The Amundsen Sea, Antarctica, Louise C. Biddle, Brice Loose, Karen J. Heywood

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Pine Island Ice Shelf, in the Amundsen Sea, is losing mass due to increased heat transport by warm ocean water penetrating beneath the ice shelf and causing basal melt. Tracing this warm deep water and the resulting glacial meltwater can identify changes in melt rate and the regions most affected by the increased input of this freshwater. Here, optimum multiparameter analysis is used to deduce glacial meltwater fractions from independent water mass characteristics (standard hydrographic observations, noble gases, and oxygen isotopes), collected during a ship-based campaign in the eastern Amundsen Sea in February–March 2014. Noble gases (neon, argon, krypton, and …

Iodp Advances In The Understanding Of Subseafloor Life, Steven D'Hondt, Fumio Inagaki, Beth N. Orcutt, Kai-Uwe Hinrichs

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The most recent decadal phase of scientific ocean drilling through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) has resulted in paradigm-shifting understanding of life below the seafloor. Enabled by new drilling and coring approaches, cutting-edge methodologies, and novel observatory science, IODP expeditions have significantly advanced understanding of the amount and diversity of subseafloor life, the metabolic strategies that this life uses to survive under extreme energy limitation, and consequences of this life for the Earth system. Here, we summarize highlights from recent IODP expeditions focused on life beneath the seafloor and emphasize remaining major science challenges in investigating the form and …

A Direct Comparison Of Biplanar Videoradiography And Optical Motion Capture For Foot And Ankle Kinematics, Sarah E. Kessler, Michael J. Rainbow, Glen A. Lichtwark, Andrew G. Cresswell, Susan E. D'Andrea, Nicolai Konow, Luke A. Kelly

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Measuring motion of the human foot presents a unique challenge due to the large number of closely packed bones with congruent articulating surfaces. Optical motion capture (OMC) and multi-segment models can be used to infer foot motion, but might be affected by soft tissue artifact (STA). Biplanar videoradiography (BVR) is a relatively new tool that allows direct, non-invasive measurement of bone motion using high-speed, dynamic x-ray images to track individual bones. It is unknown whether OMC and BVR can be used interchangeably to analyse multi-segment foot motion. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the agreement in kinematic …

Bioeconomic Analysis Of Engraulicypris Sardella (Usipa) In South East Arm Of Lake Malawi, Innocent Gumulira, Graham E. Forrester, Najih Lazar

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Usipa Engraulicypris sardella is the most abundant small pelagic species in Lake Malawi. It plays an important part in the lake communities’ economy and food security. However, much remains unknown on their stock status and bioeconomic importance. This study is carried out to estimate the maximum economic yield and maximum sustainable yield for Usipa fishery in the South-east arm of Lake Malawi. Structured quantitative questionnaire was used to collect information from 139 informants on the price of usipa landings and cost of fishing effort. Catch and effort data for Usipa were used in a biomass dynamic model (ASPIC) to estimate …

Variation In Both Host Defense And Prior Herbivory Can Alter Plant-Vector-Virus Interactions, Xiaobin Shi, Evan L. Preisser, Baiming Liu, Huipeng Pan, Min Xiang, Wen Xie, Shaoli Wang, Qingjun Wu, Chuanyou Li, Yong Liu, Xuguo Zhou, Youjun Zhang

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background:

While virus-vector-host interactions have been a major focus of both basic and applied ecological research, little is known about how different levels of plant defense interact with prior herbivory to affect these relationships. We used genetically-modified strains of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) varying in the jasmonic acid (JA) plant defense pathways to explore how plant defense and prior herbivory affects a plant virus (tomato yellow leaf curl virus, ‘TYLCV’), its vector (the whitefly Bemisia tabaci MED), and the host.

Results:

Virus-free MED preferred low-JA over high-JA plants and had lower fitness on high-JA plants. Viruliferous MED preferred …

Analysis Of The Tcr Repertoire In Hiv-Exposed But Uninfected Infants, Benjamin Gabriel, Carey Medin, Jeremiah Alves, Ruth Nduati, Rose Kerubo Bosire, Dalton Wamalwa, Carey Farquhar, Grace John-Steward, Barbara L. Lohman-Payne

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Maternal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been shown to leave profound and lasting impacts on the HIV-exposed uninfected (HEU) infant, including increased mortality and morbidity, immunological changes, and developmental delays compared to their HIV-unexposed (HU) counterparts. Exposure to HIV or antiretroviral therapy may influence immune development, which could increase morbidity and mortality. However, a direct link between the increased mortality and morbidity and the infant’s immune system has not been identified. To provide a global picture of the neonatal T cell repertoire in HEU versus HU infants, the diversity of the T cell receptor beta chain (TRB) expressed in …

The Burden Of Invisibility: A Case Study Of The Fisheries Crisis In Ghana, And Usaid/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project’S Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, Danielle Bilecki

Open Access Master's Theses

The Sustainable Fisheries Management Project’s primary goal is to create a more sustainable artisanal fishery in Ghana, in order to increase food security within the nation. One of SFMP’s strategies within this fisheries-based project was to implement a gender mainstreaming strategy in order to empower previously overlooked women stakeholders. This chapter will present the results of a study on the impacts of SFMP’s gender mainstreaming strategy on members of Ghana’s artisanal fisheries sector.

This study focuses on impacts primarily associated with fishers, fish processors, members of client and partner organizations, as well as the organizations themselves, and on the Ministry …

Improving Spatial Predictions Of Animal Resource Selection To Guide Conservation Decision Making, Brian Gerber, Joseph M. Northrup

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Resource selection is often studied by ecologists interested in the environmental drivers of animal space use and movement. These studies commonly produce spatial predictions, which are of considerable utility to resource managers making habitat and population management decisions. It is thus paramount that predictions from resource selection studies are accurate. We evaluated model building and fitting strategies for optimizing resource selection function predictions in a use‐availability framework. We did so by simulating low‐ and high‐intensity spatial sampling data that respectively predicted study area and movement‐based resource selection. We compared one of the most commonly used forms of statistical regularization, Akaike's …