Digital Commons Network^™

Cell Printing: An Effective Advancement For The Creation Of Um Size Patterns For Integration Into Microfluidic Biomems Devices, Megan Aubin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Body-on-a-Chip (BoaC) is a microfluidic BioMEMs project that aims to replicate major organs of the human body on a chip, providing an in vitro drug testing platform without the need to resort to animal model testing. Using a human model also provides significantly more accurate drug response data, and may even open the door to personalized drug treatments. Microelectrode arrays integrated with human neuronal or human cardiac cells that are positioned on the electrodes are essential components for BoaC systems. Fabricating these substrates relies heavily on chemically patterned surfaces to control the orientation and growth of the cells. Currently, …

Help Me Be Healthy: Perceptions Of Social Support In An Online Weight Loss Program, Brittany Davies

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As technology changes, so do the ways in which we receive information, provide information and interact with one another. The exchange of social support is increasingly mediated by technology in the realm of health, nutrition, and fitness (Dahl, et al 2015; Wright et al 2011). Commercial weight loss and healthy lifestyle initiatives such as the Beachbody programs incorporate social media and web applications to reach a broader consumer base with individualized programming options. The present study, guided by optimal matching theory and the helper theory principle, employed online participant-observation and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Beachbody coaches and participants to investigate …

Fluid Dynamics Modeling And Sound Analysis Of A Bileaflet Mechanical Heart Valve, Fardin Khalili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the main causes of death in the world. Some CVD involve severe heart valve disease that require valve replacement. There are more than 300,000 heart valves implanted worldwide, and about 85,000 heart valve replacements in the US. Approximately half of these valves are mechanical. Artificial valves may dysfunction leading to adverse hemodynamic conditions. Understanding the normal and abnormal valve function is important as it help improve valve designs. Modeling of heart valve hemodynamics using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides a comprehensive analysis of flow, which can potentially help explain clinical observations and support therapeutic …

Biomechanical Models Of Human Upper And Tracheal Airway Functionality, Don Nadun Kuruppumullage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The respiratory tract, in other words, the airway, is the primary airflow path for several physiological activities such as coughing, breathing, and sneezing. Diseases can impact airway functionality through various means including cancer of the head and neck, Neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and sleep disorders and all of which are considered in this study. In this dissertation, numerical modeling techniques were used to simulate three distinct airway diseases: a weak cough leading to aspiration, upper airway patency in obstructive sleep apnea, and tongue cancer in swallow disorders. The work described in this dissertation, therefore, divided into three biomechanical …

Artificial Neuron Using Mos2/Graphene Threshold Switching Memristor, Hirokjyoti Kalita

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the ever-increasing demand for low power electronics, neuromorphic computing has garnered huge interest in recent times. Implementing neuromorphic computing in hardware will be a severe boost for applications involving complex processes such as pattern recognition. Artificial neurons form a critical part in neuromorphic circuits, and have been realized with complex complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry in the past. Recently, insulator-to-metal-transition (IMT) materials have been used to realize artificial neurons. Although memristors have been implemented to realize synaptic behavior, not much work has been reported regarding the neuronal response achieved with these devices. In this work, we study the IMT in …

Energy-Optimal Guidance Of An Auv Under Flow Uncertainty And Fluid-Particle Interaction, Demuni Singith De Zoysa Abeysiriwardena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The work presented gives an energy-optimal solution to the guidance problem of an AUV. The presented guidance methods are for lower level control of AUV paths, facilitating existing global planning methods to be carried out comparatively more efficiently. The underlying concept is to use the energy of fluid flow fields the AUVs are navigating to extend the duration of missions. This allows gathering of comparatively more data with higher spatio-temporal resolution. The problem is formulated for a generalized two dimensional uniform flow field given a fixed final time and free end states. This allows the AUVs to navigate to certain …

A Decision Support Tool For Video Retinal Angiography, Sumit Laha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fluorescein angiogram (FA) is a medical procedure that helps the ophthalmologists to monitor the status of the retinal blood vessels and to diagnose proper treatment. This research is motivated by the necessity of blood vessel segmentation of the retina. Retinal vessel segmentation has been a major challenge and has long drawn the attention of researchers for decades due to the presence of complex blood vessels with varying size, shape, angles and branching pattern of vessels, and non-uniform illumination and huge anatomical variability between subjects. In this thesis, we introduce a new computational tool that combines deep learning based machine learning …

Advanced Nanoscale Characterization Of Plants And Plant-Derived Materials For Sustainable Agriculture And Renewable Energy, Mikhael Soliman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The need for nanoscale, non-invasive functional characterization has become more significant with advances in nano-biotechnology and related fields. Exploring the ultrastructure of plant cell walls and plant-derived materials is necessary to access a more profound understanding of the molecular interactions in the systems, in view of a rational design for sustainable applications. This, in turn, relates to the pressing requirements for food, energy and water sustainability experienced worldwide. Here we will present our advanced characterization approach to study the effects of external stresses on plants, and resulting opportunities for biomass valorization with an impact on the food-energy-water nexus. First, the …

Bio-Inspired Visual Servo Control Of A Picking Mechanism In An Agricultural Ground Robot, Sinem Gozde Defterli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For a recently constructed disease detection agricultural ground robot, the segregation of unhealthy leaves from strawberry plants is a major task of the robot's manipulation subsystem in field operations. In this dissertation, the motion planning of a custom-designed picking mechanism in the ground robot's subsystem is studied in two sections. First, a set of analytical, suboptimal semi-analytical and numerical algorithms are studied to solve the inverse kinematics problem of the handling mechanism in firm circumstances. These premeditated approaches are built on the computation of the joint variables by an identified 3D position data of the target leaf only. The outcomes …

Investigation Of A Self-Powered Fontan Concept Using A Multiscale Computational Fluid-Structure Interaction Model, Kyle Beggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) occurs in about 1\% (40,000) of newborn babies each year in the United States alone. About 10.9\% (960) of whom suffer from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) - a subset of CHD where children are born with a single-ventricle (SV). A series of three surgeries are carried out to correct HLHS culminating in the Fontan procedure where venous flow returns passively to the lungs. The current configuration for the Fontan results in elevated Central Venous Pressure (CVP), inadequate ventricular preload, and elevated Pulmonary Vascular Resistance (PVR) leading to a barrage of disease. To alleviate these complications, …

Psychophysiology Meets Computer Science: Predicting The Magnitude Of Participant Physiological Response With Machine Learning, Avonie Parchment

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present inquiry uses methods from psychophysiology and machine learning to reduce overall error in classification models. The field of psychophysiology, though rooted in decades of experimentation, has never reached the same level of precision as some aspects of medical inquiry. In fact, while some medical regression models, when determining some way to classify a patient's illness based on certain symptoms, can result in highly significant results with large effect sizes, equal levels are virtually unheard of in psychophysiology. The present investigation attempts to unravel some part of this mystery and determines some possible reasons for the difficulty in finding …

Applied Software Tools For Supporting Children With Intellectual Disabilities, Ahmad Abualsamid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We explored the level of technology utilization in supporting children with cognitive disabilities at schools, speech clinics, and with assistive communication at home. Anecdotal evidence, literature research, and our own survey of special needs educators in Central Florida reveal that use of technology is minimal in classrooms for students with special needs even when scientific research has shown the effectiveness of video modeling in teaching children with special needs new skills and behaviors. Research also shows that speech and language therapists utilize a manual approach to elicit and analyze language samples from children with special needs. While technology is utilized …

African American And First-Generation Students’ Perceptions Of And Experiences With An Academic Cohort, Sovent Zantrell Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Underrepresented student populations are faced with numerous barriers and are often overlooked on many college campuses. The aim of this research was to better understand academic cohorts and if they help reduce some of the barriers faced by African American and first-generation students which can ultimately affect retention and persistence to graduation. In order to gather this information, interviews and surveys were conducted with students once enrolled in the foundations for academic success track (Fastrack) program at the University of Mississippi. Results from the interviews and surveys indicate that while the Fastrack program seemed to support successful social transitions for …

Biodiversity And Evolution In The Guiana Shield, South America, Andrew Michael Snyder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The neotropics are characterized as the most species rich region in the world. Unfortunately, the region's unparalleled biodiversity has not protected it from ongoing threats such as agriculture, mining, logging, oil extraction, and climate change. I studied the biodiversity and evolution of the herpetofauna of South America in order to investigate the influence of historical geological and climatological events in shaping extant neotropical diversity, particularly the Guiana shield. For my research, I set out to explore the processes involved in shaping the remarkable extant diversity using anuran amphibians as models. With my dissertation, I provide a comprehensive review of the …

Cementless Tibial Base Micromotion During Activities Of Daily Living, Hayden Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Initial stability of cementless total knee replacement (TKR) components is directly related to long-term fixation and success, as excess motion hinders bony ingrowth. To assess implant stability, there is a need for more physiologically accurate loading conditions, incorporating forces and displacements in all 6 degrees-of-freedom found in the knee joint, as well as understanding the impact of femoral flexion on conformity of tibiofemoral articulation. Understanding how different activities of daily living generate tibial micromotion yields insight into surgical technique considerations, and rehabilitation strategies post-operatively. ASTM F3141-15, which specifies knee flexion, Internal-External moment, Medial-Lateral, Anterior-Posterior and Superior-Inferior forces during gait and …

Passive Voice Usage In Undergraduate Stem Textbooks, Huiyuan Luo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study, a corpus-based quantitative analysis, investigated the use of passive voice in terms of percentage (percentage of total passive usage), constructions (the most commonly used passive forms), and dispersion (the verbs that tended to be associated with passive usage) in college STEM textbooks, more specifically in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The corpus consisted of twenty textbooks with over 1 million running words selected from the textbooks' chapters. By identifying the main verbs and passive verbs used in the textbooks, the percentage of passive voice usage was calculated. The statistical difference of passive constructions between disciplines was examined …

Preparation And Evaluation Of Cefuroxime Axetil Gastro-Retentive Floating Drug Delivery System For Improved Delivery Via Hot-Melt Extrusion Technology, Rahul Madhukar Lalge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The objective of the present study was to develop lipid-based gastro-retentive floating drug delivery system of amorphous Cefuroxime Axetil (CA) to minimize the enzymatic degradation in the gastro intestinal tract utilizing hot-melt extrusion technology for improved absorption.

Methods: Preliminary studies were performed to select the appropriate lipids. Selected ratios of CA and lipids were extruded using a twin screw hot-melt extruder. Extrudates obtained were milled to obtain floating granules and were further evaluated for drug content, floating strength and micromeritic properties. In vitro drug release studies were performed in 900 mL of simulated gastric fluid (without enzyme) of pH …

Topical Formulation For Stimulating Sweat Secretion As An Alternative To Iontophoresis, Tasnim Fatima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sweat test or pilocarpine iontophoresis test is the existing method for diagnosis of cystic fibrosis that is recommended to perform at 48 hours after birth. However, the current method is painful, with several side effects such as full thickness skin burn, skin rash, erythema etc. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a pilocarpine topical formulation which can stimulate sweat secretion when applied on skin without iontophoresis. Several formulations with Transcutol®, polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400), Polyethylene glycol 200 (PEG 200), menthol and salicylic acid (SA) each at varying concentrations were screened as penetration enhancers. In vitro penetration …

Identifying Predictors Of New Teacher Retention, Bonita Lanoza Maready

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifying Predictors of New Teacher Retention Abstract High teacher turnover is a financial and instructional problem in schools on the national, state, and district level. Because the greatest proportion of teacher attrition (not related to retirement) and turnover occurs in the first five years of beginning a teaching career, retaining new teachers is critical to the effective use of shrinking education budgets and bringing about instructional stability, particularly in high-poverty and high-minority schools and districts. The study utilized restricted-use data from the 2007-2012 Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study (BTLS) to identify predictors of teachers remaining in their initial teaching assignment into …

Energy Harvesting Nanocoated Piezoceramics For Low Power Systems, Quinten Humphrey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies Use And 10th Grade Students' College And Career Readiness Achievement In English Language Arts, Davida Smith-Keita

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between 10th grade students’ metacognitive awareness of readings strategies use and their college and career readiness achievement in English language arts as a primary focus of research and, secondarily, the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies use and Lexile® growth as a measure of reading ability. The explanatory research design for this quantitative study included a statistical analysis of scores from the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002), existing college and career readiness achievement scores from the 2016-2017 Georgia Milestones 9th Grade Literature and Composition summative assessment, and existing …

On The Future Of Antidepressant Treatments: Targeting Neurotrophic Factors And Plasticity, Stephen W. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For 60-plus years the explanatory model for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) has been the monoamine theory, which states that low levels of monoamine neurotransmitters or alterations in their post-synaptic receptors are responsible for depressive symptoms. Drugs designed to elevate synaptic monoamine levels have remained the first line of pharmacotherapy prescribed by clinicians for MDD patients. However, these drugs have shortcomings. Despite evidence that current antidepressants elevate synaptic monoamine levels within hours of administration, these drugs require four to six weeks of daily administration before symptom relief appears. Furthermore, approximately half of patients taking typical antidepressants never achieve full symptom relief. …

Rapid And Simultaneous Determination Of Nutritional Constituents Of United States Grown Oats Using Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (Nirs), Devendra Paudel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Oats is a unique cereal owing to its nutritional and health benefits. Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) is an efficient tool for monitoring the quality of cereal foods. NIRS holds potential for non-destructive multicomponent oat analyses with advantage of large sample throughput, speed, and reduced cost. The purpose of this study was to develop predictive calibration models for estimating beta-glucan, protein, and oil content of US oat cultivars using NIRS and validated AACCI reference methods. A rapid, non-destructive (whole oat groat), and secondary NIRS method was developed to estimate beta-glucan, protein, and oil content based on the standard reference analyses …

Fluorinated Organic Molecules For Medicinal Applications, Munia Sowaileh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The significant applications of fluorinated molecules in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and material sciences make them attractive synthetic targets. Difluoromethylation methods are of exceptional value and a limited number of techniques are available to perform that transformation. The primary method for introducing CF2 groups is through the use of difluoroenolates. Difluoroenolates can be generated from α-keto pentafluoro gem -diols under mild conditions. The process involves the cleavage of carbon-carbon bond and the release of trifluoroacetate. The release of trifluoroacetate is a versatile method to generate fluorinated molecules. We explored the utility of this method in generating various fluorinated moieties including α,α-difluoroketones, …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Dual-Acting Ligands For Mu Opioid And Neuropeptide Ff Receptors, Kelsey Gabrielle Mcpherson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pain, although subjective, is an unpleasant sensation caused by a noxious stimulus, that effects millions of people every year. Currently, the most frequently prescribed class of analgesics for moderate to severe acute and sometime chronic pain are opioid analgesics, most commonly ?-opioid receptor (MOP) agonists, such as oxycodone, morphine, and fentanyl. Although these drugs provide significant pain relief, they are also associated with unwelcome side effects such as constipation, addiction, physical dependence, respiratory depression, and physiological tolerance that leads to hyperalgesia. Receptor desensitization due to excessive receptor activation by an agonist is but one source of physiological tolerance; it can …

The Effect Of Environmental Perturbations On The Plant Phyllosphere Microbiome, Bram W. Stone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Applying ecological concepts to microbial communities has proved to be challenging, often revolving around the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic processes applied heterogeneously across the habitat in time or space. The phyllosphere is the aboveground surface of plants on which microbial communities, composed primarily of Bacteria, but also including Archaea and microbial eukaryotes, exist and is characterized by stochastic immigration balanced with strong selective forces. Variation in bacterial community composition was characterized across space and time, with special attention given to the exposure of phyllosphere communities to rain as a plausible mechanism of ecological disturbance. Bacterial communities were characterized …

Exploring Fpga Implementation For Binarized Neural Network Inference, Li Yang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Deep convolutional neural network has taken an important role in machine learning algorithm. It is widely used in different areas such as computer vision, robotics, and biology. However, the models of deep neural networks become larger and more computation complexity which is a big obstacle for such huge model to implement on embedded systems. Recent works have shown the binarized neural networks (BNN), utilizing binarized (i.e. +1 and -1) convolution kernel and binarized activation function, can significantly reduce the parameter size and computation cost, which makes it hardware-friendly for Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) implementation with efficient energy cost. This thesis …

Behavioral And Disease Ecology Of Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus Polyphemus) Post Exclusion And Relocation With A Novel Approach To Homing Determination, Johnathan Napier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of human expansion, relocations and the loss of habitat can be stressful to an organism, plausibly leading to population declines. The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is a keystone species that constructs burrows it shares with 362 commensal species. Frequent exclusions and relocations and long generation times have contributed to G. polyphemus being State-designated as Threatened in Florida. Prior studies have indicated that G. polyphemus may possess homing behavior and thus be able to counteract stressors due to relocation and exclusion. I radiotracked a cohort of G. polyphemus for 11 months following excavation, relocation, and exclusion due to …

Raça, Jinshu, Race: Whiteness, Japanese-Ness, And Resistance In Sūkyō Mahikari In The Brazilian Amazon, Moana Luri De Almeida

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presented an analysis of how leaders and adherents of a Japanese religion called Sūkyō Mahikari understand and interpret jinshu (race) and hito(person) in a particular way, and how this ideology is practiced in the city of Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon. The teachings of Sūkyō Mahikari classify humanity into five races (yellow, white, red, blue/green, black/purple) and five religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism). In this classification, the original humans - hito, the kingly race ōbito, and the God-given supra-religion sūkyō - deteriorated into ningen (people), the other races, and shūkyō (religions) along an …

Optimization Of Plga And Plga-Dasatinib Particles Through A Taguchi Design Approach, Rayeanne N Balgemann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is a disease of the retina in the human eye. Retinal pigment epithelium cells (RPE) undergo an epithelial to mesenchymal transition in response to retinal trauma. This transition gives the cells mobility and allows them to potentially infiltrate the vitreous chamber and deposit on either side of the retina. Once cell deposition has occurred, along with several other transformed cells derived from cell types such as Müller glia, these migratory cells can form a membrane contiguous with the retinal extracellular matrix and, upon contraction, cause wrinkling of the retina. If left untreated PVR can lead to traction …