Digital Commons Network^™

Insights Into The Packaging Of Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus (Mmtv) Genomic Rna By Identifying Pr77ᴳᴬᴳ Binding Sites Involved During Its Selective Encapsidation, Akhil Chameettachal

Dissertations

Selective encapsidation and/or packaging of retroviral genomic RNA (gRNA) by Gag during retrovirus assembly is a crucial step for generating infectious virus particles. Despite having been studied extensively, the mechanism by which the retroviral Gag precursor selects and packages the retroviral genome remains largely unclear. Therefore, to understand the molecular mechanism(s) of mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) gRNA packaging, as a first step, expression of full-length recombinant Pr77^Gag -His6-tag fusion protein in bacteria was done. The recombinant Gag protein was then purified from the soluble fractions of bacterial cultures using immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) and size exclusion chromatography …

The Role Of Nutrient Sensitive Protein O-Glcnacylation In Developmental Cortical Neurogenesis, Shama Parween

Dissertations

The nutrient responsive O-GlcNAcylation is a dynamic, posttranslational protein modification present on many nucleocytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins. Previous research has indicated that hyperglycaemia increases the levels of total O-GlcNAcylation within cells. Transcription factors and histones are among hundreds of proteins that have been reported to be O-GlcNAcylated and have importance in cell fate determination during cell growth, proliferation, and differentiation. However, the role of protein O-GlcNAcylation in epigenome control in response to nutritional perturbations is poorly understood. Hyperglycaemia induced protein O-GlcNAcylation have been linked to several pathologies, including obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. …

Epigenetic Modifications In Metabolic Syndrome: Identification And Evaluation Of Early Indicators Using A Rodent Model System, Ashok Daniel Pragasam

Dissertations

It is increasingly realized that mechanisms of developmental plasticity rather than pathology independently facilitate the size of developing embryos during early development. Changes in the early developmental environment alter the metabolic traits resulting in diseases, including metabolic syndrome, including type 2 diabetes and obesity in adulthood. Molecular and epidemiological studies have documented an association between Lower Birth Weight (LBW) and increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Henceforth, using birth weight as a marker, two groups of normal birth weight range rat pups, Lower Birth Weight (LBW, 5th to 25th percentile) and Average Birth Weight (ABW, 50th to 75th percentile) as …

Development And Characterization Of Sustainable Novel Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites, John Victor Christy

Dissertations

Low crude oil prices have impacted the economy of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hence it is vital to accelerate the diversification of the economy. Among the many potential diversification avenues, manufacturing is a promising area that could add to the GDP. This work brings out a sustainable and cost-effective method for manufacturing AMCs and expanding their applications.

This work deals with the processing and characterization of recycled AMCs manufactured using a novel approach. With the emphasis on sustainable manufacturing, this work aims to use Scrap Aluminum Alloy Wheels (SAAW) of cars …

Exposure And Handling Practices Of Healthcare Professionals For Cytotoxic Drugs In The Workplace Environment, Laila Masoud Al Alawi

Dissertations

Introduction: Occupational exposure to cytotoxic drugs is associated with various unfavorable health outcomes. There is currently no safe level for occupational exposure to cytotoxic agents. Healthcare workers’ adherence to cytotoxics control measures is of primary importance to minimize the risk from exposure to these agents.

Aims: To develop a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis on environmental assessment of cytotoxic drugs in healthcare settings and conduct an environmental assessment study of cytotoxic drugs in two Oncology centers of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). In addition to evaluate pharmacists’ and nurses’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) towards handling of …

Chemical And Biological Control Of Canker Disease Of Delonix Regia Caused By The Fungus Neoscytalidium Dimidiatum, Seham Mohammed Al Raish

Dissertations

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), royal poinciana (Delonix regia) trees suffer from stem canker disease. Symptoms of stem canker can be characterized by branch and leaf dryness, bark lesions, discoloration of xylem tissues, longitudinal wood necrosis and extensive gumming. General dieback signs were also observed leading to complete defoliation of leaves and ultimately death of trees in advanced stages. The fungus, Neoscytalidium dimidiatum DSM 109897, was consistently recovered from diseased royal poinciana tissues; this was confirmed by the molecular, structural and morphological studies. Phylogenetic analyses of the translation elongation factor 1-a (TEF1-α) of N. dimidiatum from the …

Optical Engineering Of Iii-Nitride Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes And Applications, Ha Quoc Thang Bui

Dissertations

Applications of III-nitride nanowires are intensively explored in different emerging technologies including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), laser diodes, photodiodes, biosensors, and solar cells. The synthesis of the III-nitride nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is investigated with significant achievements. III-nitride nanowires can be grown on dissimilar substrates i.e., silicon with nearly dislocation free due to the effective strain relaxation. III-nitride nanowires, therefore, are perfectly suited for high performance light emitters for cost-effective fabrication of the advanced photonic-electronic integrated platforms. This dissertation addresses the design, fabrication, and characterization of III-nitride nanowire full-color micro-LED (µLED) on silicon substrates for µLED display technologies, high-efficient …

Selective Neural Stimulation By Leveraging Electrophysiological Diversity And Using Alternative Stimulus Waveforms, Bemin Ghobreal

Dissertations

Efforts on finding the principle mechanism for selective neural stimulation have concentrated on segregating the neurons based on their size and other geometric factors. However, neuronal subtypes found in different parts of the nervous system also differ in their electrophysiological properties. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of selective activation of neurons by leveraging the diversity seen in passive and active membrane properties.

Using both a local membrane model and an axon model based on the CRRSS, the diversity of electrophysiological properties is simulated by varying four model parameters (membrane leakage-Gleak and capacitance-Cm, temperature coefficient-Ktemp, …

These Fish Were Made For Walking: Morphology And Walking Kinematics In Balitorid Loaches, Callie Hendricks Crawford

Dissertations

Terrestrial excursions have been observed in multiple lineages of marine and freshwater fishes. These ventures into the terrestrial environment may be used when fish are searching out new habitat during drought, escaping predation, laying eggs, or seeking food sources. The physiological demands for life under water and on land are vastly different and require different functional adaptations. Fish with terrestrial excursions must be capable of dealing with the stresses of both aquatic and terrestrial environments for varying periods of time. To deal with these stresses, amphibious fishes exhibit many morphological and behavioral adaptations. These adaptations have led to a range …

Methods For Extending Biomedical Reference Ontologies And Interface Terminologies For Ehrr Text Annotation, Vipina Kuttichi Keloth

Dissertations

Biomedical ontologies and terminologies are a cornerstone in various electronic health record systems (EHRs) for encoding information related to diseases, diagnoses, treatments, etc. Ontologies in general represent entities (concepts) and events along with all interdependent properties and relationships in an efficient way to facilitate easy access, retrieval and sharing. With the landscape of medicine rapidly changing, biomedical ontologies and terminologies need to rapidly evolve to support interoperability, medical coding, record keeping, and healthcare activities in general, and to facilitate interdisciplinary research. Extending ontologies by identifying new and missing concepts plays a vital role in the maintenance of ontologies to keep …

Reconstituting The Cyanobacterial Circadian Clock In Vitro, Pyong Hwa Kim

Dissertations

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic organisms that are known to be responsible for oxygenating Earth’s early atmosphere. Having evolved to ensure optimal survival in the periodic light/dark cycle on this planet, their genetic codes are packed with various tools, including a sophisticated biological timekeeping system. Among the cyanobacteria is Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, the simplest clock-harboring organism with a powerful genetic tool that enabled the identification of its intricate timekeeping mechanism. The three central oscillator proteins—KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC—drive the 24 h cyclic gene expression rhythm of cyanobacteria, and the "ticking" of the oscillator can be reconstituted inside a test tube just …

Intermittent Dynamics Of Dense Particulate Matter, Chao Cheng

Dissertations

Granular particle systems are scattered around the universe, and they can behave like solids when there exist strong force-bearing networks, so that the granular system can resist certain stress without deformation. When such a network is not present, particles yield to small stress and behave like a fluid. A wide range of systems exhibit intermittent dynamics as they are slowly loaded, with different dynamical regimes governing many industrial and natural phenomena. While a significant amount of research on exploring intermittent dynamics of granular systems has been carried out, not much is known about the connection between particle-scale response and the …

Radio Diagnostics Of Particles And Plasma In The Solar Corona, Sherry Chhabra

Dissertations

Radio diagnostics, in addition to their capabilities in exploring intense, impulsive bursts, also provide a high sensitivity to much weaker events, which may not show any substantial signature in other wavelengths.

The initial case study examines a complex event consisting of multiple radio sources/bursts associated with a fast coronal mass ejection (CME) and an M 2.1 class solar flare (SOL2015-09-20). ‘First-light’ data from the Owens Valley Radio Observatory–Long Wavelength Array is put in context with observations from Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, along with the WAVES radio spectrograph onboard WIND, the Expanded Owens Valley …

Development Of Deep Learning Neural Network For Ecological And Medical Images, Shaobo Liu

Dissertations

Deep learning in computer vision and image processing has attracted attentions from various fields including ecology and medical image. Ecologists are interested in finding an effective model structure to classify different species. Tradition deep learning model use a convolutional neural network, such as LeNet, AlexNet, VGG models, residual neural network, and inception models, are first used on classifying bee wing and butterfly datasets. However, insufficient data sample and unbalanced samples in each class have caused a poor accuracy. To make improvement the test accuracy, data augmentation and transfer learning are applied. Recently developed deep learning framework based on mathematical morphology …

Safe Yield Comparisons For The 1960’S And 2000’S Drought In The Passaic River Basin, Stephanie R. Santos

Dissertations

The Passaic River Basin is a complex system of rivers, tributaries, reservoirs, and some of the largest water purveyors in the State of New Jersey. Located in the northeastern part of the State, it drains approximately 800 square miles of water that is used for distribution to the five major purveyors: North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, Passaic Valley Water Commission, Jersey City, Newark, and New Jersey American Water. These purveyors operate under a safe yield, which is defined by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) as the amount of water that should be continuously available should the …

First-Principles Density Functional Theory Studies On Perovskite Materials, Aneer Lamichhane

Dissertations

Perovskites are a family of materials with a diverse combination of different elements. As a consequence, they exhibit numerous functionalities such as pyroelectric, piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and ferromagnetic with applications in photovoltaic cells, LEDs, superconductivity, colossal magneto-resistance, and topological insulators. After 2009, perovskites have gained notoriety as suitable materials for solar cells and alternative candidates to silicon-based conventional solar cells. Generally, oxide perovskites exhibit good dielectric properties, halide perovskites display good photonic qualities, and chalcogenide perovskites are used in applications in solid-state lighting, sensing, and energy harvesting. In this dissertation, various types of perovskites ranging from oxide to halide are investigated …

Optimizing Work Zone Schedules Considering Traffic Diversion With Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm, Celina Semaan

Dissertations

Highway maintenance activities often decrease roadway capacity and intrude traffic movements. The need to finish the project on time and under a specific budget while minimizing the traffic congestion and complying with the emission standards requires an appropriate work zone schedule optimization. The objective of this research is to improve the efficiency of work zone activities and minimize the total project cost including maintenance, user, and emission cost.

While previous studies investigated the work zone optimization problem, they did not consider the implementation of emission standards nor applied a green diversion strategy. This dissertation analyzes the optimization of work zone …

Intelligent And Secure Fog-Aided Internet Of Drones, Jingjing Yao

Dissertations

Internet of drones (IoD), which utilize drones as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, deploys several drones in the air to collect ground information and send them to the IoD gateway for further processing. Computing tasks are usually offloaded to the cloud data center for intensive processing. However, many IoD applications require real-time processing and event response (e.g., disaster response and virtual reality applications). Hence, data processing by the remote cloud may not satisfy the strict latency requirement. Fog computing attaches fog nodes, which are equipped with computing, storage and networking resources, to IoD gateways to assume a substantial amount of …

Impact Of User Traversal On Performance Of Stem Learners In Immersive Virtual Environments, Eric W. Nersesian

Dissertations

The emerging technologies of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) may have vast implications to societal communication and representation of information. AR/VR computer interfaces are unique in that they may be placed spatially around the user in three-dimensional (3D) space; this affords new methods of both presentation and user interaction with the target information.

This may be especially impactful in the education of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals. Prior research has shown that simulations and visualizations improve the performance of STEM learners compared to live instruction and textbook reading. Yet, research into AR/VR as a learning environment for widespread …

Deep Learning On Image Forensics And Anti-Forensics, Zhangyi Shen

Dissertations

Image forensics protect the authenticity and integrity of digital images. On the contrary, as the countermeasures of digital forensics, anti-forensics is applied to expose the vulnerability of forensics tools. Consequently, forensics researchers could develop forensics tools against possible new attacks. This dissertation investigation demonstrates two image forensics methods based on convolutional neural network (CNN) and two image anti-forensics methods based on generative adversarial network (GAN).

Detecting unsharp masking (USM) sharpened image is the first study in this dissertation. A CNN architecture comprises four convolutional layers and a classification module is proposed to discriminate sharpened images and unsharpened images. The results …

Eigenvalue Problems For Fully Nonlinear Elliptic Partial Differential Equations With Transport Boundary Conditions, Jacob Lesniewski

Dissertations

Fully nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) arise in a number of applications. From mathematical finance to astrophysics, there is a great deal of interest in solving them. Eigenvalue problems for fully nonlinear PDEs with transport boundary conditions are of particular interest as alternative formulations of PDEs that require data to satisfy a solvability condition, which may not be known explicitly or may be polluted by noisy data. Nevertheless, these have not yet been well-explored in the literature. In this dissertation, a convergence framework for numerically solving eigenvalue problems for fully nonlinear PDEs is introduced. In addition, existing two-dimensional methods …

Global Mhd And Acoustic Solar Modeling And Helioseismic Analysis, Andrey M. Stejko

Dissertations

Computational fluid dynamic simulations have become one of the most prolific avenues of study in the fields of solar and stellar physics within the last several decades. With the advent of ever increasing computing power, high-definition global models of the Sun have become indispensable in understanding the complex and chaotic nature of flows in the solar interior, as well as their impact on the evolution of the global solar dynamo. The mechanisms that connect the generation of the toroidal magnetic field at the base of the convection zone to the emergence of a poloidal field onto the solar surface can …

Electric Field Induced Self-Assembly Of Mesoscale Structured Materials And Smart Fluids, Suchandra Das

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to study the forces that drive self-assembly in binary mixtures of particles suspended in liquids and on fluid-liquid interfaces when they are subjected to a uniform electric or magnetic field. Three fluid-particle systems are investigated experimentally and theoretically : (i) Suspensions of dielectric particles in dielectric liquids; (ii) Suspensions of ferromagnetic and diamagnetic particles in ferrofluids; and (iii) Dielectric particles on dielectric fluid-liquid interfaces. The results of these studies are then used to estimate the parameter values needed to assemble materials with desired mesoscale microstructures.

The first fluid-particle system studied is an electrorheological (ER) fluid formed using …

Fluorine-Based Inorganic Oxidizers For Use In Metal-Based Reactive Materials, Siva Kumar Valluri

Dissertations

This work explores inorganic fluorides as oxidizers for fuel-rich reactive materials. A preliminary assessment of metal fluorides accounting for their enthalpy of formation points to bismuth (III) fluoride, BiF3 and cobalt (II) fluoride, CoF2 as oxidizers of interest. Initially, composite powders of aluminum with chosen fluorides at 50-50 wt. % are prepared by arrested reactive milling. Despite an increase in reactivity and lowtemperature ignition, the prepared composite powders are insensitive to initiation by electro-static discharge (ESD), making them attractive alternative to analogous thermites having very high ESD sensitivity. In air, the composite powder particles burn faster than reference aluminum particles …

Service Quality Assessment And Improvement Methods And Tools, Kevin M. Moriarty

Dissertations

The nucleus of this research concept and system is being applied to turret lathe and milling machine Computer Numerical Control (CNC) tool systems. The research has a generic application to the service of broad array of sophisticated computer controlled / integrated machines, devices / equipment such as industrial robotics, medical equipment, surgical robots, and similar types of engineered system. Quality design review for quality service systems is a unique concept. Standard product service systems are qualitative and subjective in nature. The quantitative system identifies Key Predictive Attributes (KPAs) and applies quantitative methods to these attributes to develop a systematic process …

Asymmetric Multivariate Archimedean Copula Models And Semi-Competing Risks Data Analysis, Ziyan Guo

Dissertations

Many multivariate models have been proposed and developed to model high dimensional data when the dimension of a data set is greater than 2 (d ≥ 3). The existing multivariate models often force the “exchangeable” structure for part or the whole model, are not very flexible which tends to be of limited use in practice. There is a demand for developing and studying multivariate models with any pre-specified bivariate margins.

Suppose there exists such a class of flexible models with any pre-specified bivariate margins. Given a multivariate data, what is the distribution function and how to easily estimate the parameters …

Private Sound Environments In Public Space: Use Of Headphones In Public Parks And Public Transit, Chathurthi S. De Silva

Dissertations

The use of headphones is now so commonplace that it is almost second nature for many people to use them. Not only do these people use headphones all the time, but they use them nearly everywhere, including in urban public spaces. In using headphones, people create their own “private sound environments” in public space. This phenomenon merits attention from researchers since the creation of private sound environments may well alter people’s experiences of public space.

This study answers five research questions about the use of headphones in parks and on transit: why people use them, when they begin using headphones …

Investigation Of Topological Phonons In Discrete Mechanical Metamaterials, Kai Qian

Dissertations

The study of topological mechanical metamaterials is a new emerging field that focuses on the topological properties of artificial mechanical structures. Inspired by topological insulators, topological mechanism has attracted intensive attention in condensed matter physics and successfully connected the quantum mechanical descriptions of electrons with the classical descriptions of phonons. It has led to experiments of mechanical metamaterials possessing topological characteristics, such as topologically protected conducting edges or surfaces without back-scattering. This dissertation presents a new experimental approach for mechanically engineering topological metamaterials based on patterning magnetically coupled spinners in order to localize the propagation of vibrations and evaluate different …

Towards Improving The Security Of The Software Supply Chain, Hammad Afzali

Dissertations

A software supply chain comprises a series of steps performed to develop and distribute a software product. History has shown that each of these steps is vulnerable to attacks that can have serious repercussions and can affect many users at once. To address the attacks against the software supply chain, end users must be provided with verifiable guarantees about the individual steps of the chain and with assurances that the steps are securely chained together.

In this dissertation, the security of several individual steps in the software supply chain is enhanced. The first step of the chain, managing the source …

Plant-Derived Extracellular Matrix Mimetic Scaffolds For Bone Repair Applications, Jessica Cardenas Turner

Dissertations

Autologous and allogeneic bone grafts are currently used to treat large bone defects or fractures that will not heal. However, for patients with osteoporosis or other conditions that impair the natural bone healing process, such as diabetes, smoking, bed rest, aging, autologous bone graft, which is the patient's own bone, is limited in quantity and its healing potential may be compromised. Allograft bone, or donated bone, lacks the necessary biological activity and has poor integration into defect. There is an urgent need for constructs/grafts capable of promoting bone cell function in fracture healing and large bone defects where the endogenous …