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The Evolution Of The Krüppel-Like Factor Gene Family And Their Function During Embryonic Development In The Ctenophore Mnemiopsis Leidyi, Jason Scott Presnell
The Evolution Of The Krüppel-Like Factor Gene Family And Their Function During Embryonic Development In The Ctenophore Mnemiopsis Leidyi, Jason Scott Presnell
Open Access Dissertations
How modifications during development influence large-scale evolutionary changes is a major emphasis in the field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). Comparing the underlying cellular and molecular basis of development in diverse organisms can provide insight into how alterations of these processes contribute to morphological diversity. Ctenophores, or comb jellies, are a phylum of marine invertebrates and, due to their unique phylogenetic position as one of the earliest branching lineages of extant animals, are an ideal system for investigating the origin and evolution of metazoan character traits. For example, the animal through-gut is thought to have originated in the metazoan stem …
On The Interaction Between Superabsorbent Hydrogels And Cementitious Materials, Khashayar Farzanian
On The Interaction Between Superabsorbent Hydrogels And Cementitious Materials, Khashayar Farzanian
Open Access Dissertations
Autogenous shrinkage induced cracking is a major concern in high performance concretes (HPC), which are produced with low water to cement ratios. Internal curing to maintain high relative humidity in HPC with the use of an internal water reservoir has proven effective in mitigating autogenous shrinkage in HPC. Superabsorbent polymers (SAP) or hydrogels have received increasing attention as an internal curing agent in recent years. A key advantage of SAP is its versatility in size distribution and absorption/desorption characteristics, which allow it to be adapted to specific mix designs. Understanding the behavior of superabsorbent hydrogels in cementitious materials is critical …
The Development And Use Of The Component Timed-Up-And-Go Test To Determine Basic Prosthetic Mobility In People With Lower Limb Amputation, Sheila Marie Clemens
The Development And Use Of The Component Timed-Up-And-Go Test To Determine Basic Prosthetic Mobility In People With Lower Limb Amputation, Sheila Marie Clemens
Open Access Dissertations
Lower limb amputation (LLA) is a devastating event for an individual, often disrupting several aspects of life and, at least initially, upsetting the order of their daily routine. Lower limb amputation places a person at increased risk for secondary medical conditions, like joint degeneration and low back pain, related to use of a prosthesis. Additionally, an increased risk for falls may illicit loss of confidence, and have a detrimental effect on social interactions and quality of life (QoL). The use of outcome measures to assess whether applied interventions are effective can help to focus care and provide guidance to clinicians …
Study Of Selected Issues Of Solid-State Electrochemical Energy Storage, Yuchen Wang
Study Of Selected Issues Of Solid-State Electrochemical Energy Storage, Yuchen Wang
Open Access Dissertations
The present dissertation focuses on three different topics of supercapacitor (SC) technology: 1) combination of galvanic cell components into SCs to mitigate the problem of self-discharge, 2) development of an all-solid-state SC/battery based on a superionic ceramic electrolyte and 3) mechanical-electrochemical study of a composite structural SC. A new hybrid supercapacitor SC with the galvanic cell materials is proposed to mitigate the self-discharge problem and to increase the storage-life. The galvanic cell components in the hybrid SC can provide a micro-current to compensate the self-discharge current. The hybrid SC was fabricated with active carbon electrodes, a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/lithium trifluoromethanesulfonate …
Intestinal Exposure To Pcb 153 Induces Inflammation Via The Atm/Nemo Pathway, Matthew C. Phillips
Intestinal Exposure To Pcb 153 Induces Inflammation Via The Atm/Nemo Pathway, Matthew C. Phillips
Open Access Dissertations
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants that adversely affect human health. Although production of PCBs has stopped, they remain a pressing environmental problem due to their slow biodegradation and high lipophilicity. These properties enable PCBs to bio-accumulate in food chains leading to high levels of PCBs in the tissues of foodstuffs, especially fish. Despite dietary exposure being one of the main routes of exposure to PCBs, the gut has been widely ignored when studying the effects of PCBs. We set out to investigate the effects of PCB 153, the most environmentally prevalent PCB, on the gut, looking specifically for …
The Dark Side Of Social Media: The Case Of The Mexican Drug War, Nilda M. Garcia
The Dark Side Of Social Media: The Case Of The Mexican Drug War, Nilda M. Garcia
Open Access Dissertations
The rapid increase in the use of social media during the “war on drugs” in Mexico, especially in the first decades of the 21st century, has stimulated a growing research agenda in academia. To date, this scholarship has focused primarily on investigating the opportunities social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube offer to civilians as organizing mechanisms, to fill the informational vacuum left by the tightly selfcensured mainstream media outlets, and as a tool for survival. Yet, in Mexico, the use of these platforms has taken a darker, more sinister turn. Research exploring the use of social media …
Bioluminescent Sensing Systems For Cytokines And Cancer Biomarker Detection, Xiaowen Yu
Bioluminescent Sensing Systems For Cytokines And Cancer Biomarker Detection, Xiaowen Yu
Open Access Dissertations
Bioluminescence is the generation of light through a natural oxidation chemical reaction, thus eliminating the need for an external light source which eliminates background fluorescence. This results in higher signal-to-noise ratio when compared to fluorescence, making it suitable for use as a label in ultra-sensitive detection applications. Herein, a multiplexed assay to measure three analytes simultaneously in a single solution by employing the variants of the photoprotein aequorin (AEQ) has been demonstrated. Aequorin, natively found in jellyfish Aequorea victoria, can emit a flash-type light at 469 nm with a half-life around 0.5-1 s after the binding of calcium ions (Ca2+). …
How Regimes Shape Organized Crime: Mexico And Russia During Political Transitions, Yulia Vorobyeva
How Regimes Shape Organized Crime: Mexico And Russia During Political Transitions, Yulia Vorobyeva
Open Access Dissertations
The cases of Russia and Mexico, where deadly and violent organized crime erupted during transitions from authoritarian rule, suggest that political regimes may determine the type of organized crime in a society. This assertion runs counter to the common view of organized crime as a powerful corrosive force that undermines the vitality of democratizing regimes. Why did not democratization strengthen the rule of law in Mexico and Russia, two countries where concurrent processes of economic and political liberalization occurred in the last decade of the 20th century? Why did Russian organized crime become less violent and more controllable after Russia …
Role Of An Upwelled Coastal Area In Northeastern Colombia In The Distribution, Population Dynamics And Genetic Diversity Of The Migratory Habitat-Shifting Chelonia Mydas, Catalina Vasquez Carrillo
Role Of An Upwelled Coastal Area In Northeastern Colombia In The Distribution, Population Dynamics And Genetic Diversity Of The Migratory Habitat-Shifting Chelonia Mydas, Catalina Vasquez Carrillo
Open Access Dissertations
The Caribbean is generally an oligotrophic sea; however, in the southern portion between Venezuela and Colombia, a yearly, moderate, coastal upwelling fuels a very productive marine ecosystem, the Southern Caribbean Upwelling System. Extensive submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) ecosystems are found in the Colombian side of the system, by La Guajira peninsula. SAV ecosystems constitute key habitat for multiple marine fauna species, specially at juvenile/larval stages. La Guajira’s SAV unique, upwelled ecosystems are hypothesized as important foraging and developmental habitat for the endangered, migratory sea turtle Chelonia mydas. The complex habitat-shifting behavior and very long-lasting juvenile stage traits of the species …
Study On Ultra Wideband Spectral Response And Efficient Hot Electron Detection Using Plasmon Field Effect Transistor, Seongman Cho
Study On Ultra Wideband Spectral Response And Efficient Hot Electron Detection Using Plasmon Field Effect Transistor, Seongman Cho
Open Access Dissertations
Plasmon based field effect transistors (FET) can be used to convert energy induced by incident optical radiation to electrical energy. Plasmonic FETs can efficiently detect incident light and amplify it by coupling to resonant plasmonic modes thus improving selectivity and signal to noise ratio. The spectral responses can be tailored both through optimization of nanostructure geometry as well as constitutive materials. In this paper, we studied various plasmonic nanostructures using gold for a wideband spectral response from visible to near IR. We show using empirical data and simulation results that detection loss exponentially increases as the volume of metal nanostructure …
Proactive Hiv Testing Among Youth, Oluwamuyiwa Winifred Adebayo
Proactive Hiv Testing Among Youth, Oluwamuyiwa Winifred Adebayo
Open Access Dissertations
HIV testing is used to identify people at risk for HIV infection, or those who are infected, and provide linkage to appropriate care that will decrease HIV risk or manage HIV infection. However, youth have low rates of HIV testing and participate in testing mainly due to recommendations from healthcare providers. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the factors that influence proactive HIV testing among youth and how these factors are related to the decision to test for HIV infection. The Information Motivation Behavior (IMB) model, and the Ottawa Decision Support Framework (ODSF) were used to guide the …
Structural Change: The Case Of China, Yiran Tan
Structural Change: The Case Of China, Yiran Tan
Open Access Dissertations
This paper studies a case of China in the perspective of structural change and industrial revolution. According to industrial revolution theory of Wen (2015), China is at the completion stage of its second industrial revolution and needs to finish agricultural mechanization. Comparing China’s economic structure and agricultural productivity to those of Japan and South Korea, this paper confirms that China has been through the first and second industrial revolution and is on the point of starting the mechanization of its agriculture. The main findings include (1) there exists a similar pattern of economic development in China, South Korea, and Japan. …
Measurement Of Airport Operations Using A Low-Cost Transponder Data Receiver And Collection Unit, John H. Mott
Measurement Of Airport Operations Using A Low-Cost Transponder Data Receiver And Collection Unit, John H. Mott
Open Access Dissertations
Accurate counts of aircraft operations at unmonitored or partially-monitored general aviation airports are important due to their role in the allocation of funds for airport development and improvement. While the Federal Aviation Administration annually invests approximately $1B in small commercial and general aviation airports, fewer than 270 of these 2,950 airports have either full- or part-time air traffic personnel available to register operations counts. Aircraft operations at airports with limited personnel may be counted using temporary acoustic, pneumatic, or video devices, and observations from contract staff. The related sample sizes are inherently small, leading to inaccuracies in the extrapolation of …
An Examination Of The Relationship Between Acoustic Measures Of English Prosody And Holistic Measures Of English Proficiency In Extemporaneous Speech Of Native Chinese Speakers Of English As A Second Language, Carl Tyler Johnson
Open Access Dissertations
English prosody works as a structural and semantic glue that establishes relationships among words and phrases within a sentence, and among sentences within a larger discourse. This dissertation hypothesizes and demonstrates an association between acoustic measurements of English prosody and holistic measures of English proficiency. To test this hypothesis, acoustic data was used from 10 examinees each of low, medium, and high oral English proficiency groups of L1 Chinese speakers who took Purdue’s Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT). Prosodic measurements of duration, F0, and intensity were gathered from adjacent function and content words in the OEPT audio data and compared …
Experimental Study On An Unsteady Pressure Gain Combustion Hypergolic Rocket Engine Concept, Brandon K. Kan
Experimental Study On An Unsteady Pressure Gain Combustion Hypergolic Rocket Engine Concept, Brandon K. Kan
Open Access Dissertations
An experimental study is conducted to investigate pulsed combustion in a lab-scale bipropellant rocket engine using hypergolic propellants. The propellant combination is high concentration hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst-laced triglyme fuel. A total of 50 short duration firings have been conducted; the vast majority in an open-chamber configuration. High amplitude pulsations were evident in nearly all cases and have been assessed with high frequency pressure measurements. Both pintle and unlike impinging quadlet injector types have been evaluated although the bulk of the testing was with the latter configuration. Several firings were conducted with a transparent chamber in an attempt to …
Mis Familias, Mis Maestros/As Y Yo: A Transformative Research Approach To Latino/A Family Engagement, Literacies In The Community, And Advocacy, Ileana Cortes Santiago
Mis Familias, Mis Maestros/As Y Yo: A Transformative Research Approach To Latino/A Family Engagement, Literacies In The Community, And Advocacy, Ileana Cortes Santiago
Open Access Dissertations
This qualitative study follows a transformative research approach, which intends to shift dominant paradigms and honor the culture and voices of marginalized peoples through collaborative needs-assessment, goal setting, and intervention/initiative development that brings about change (Mertens, 2007, 2009). Five Latina mothers and two literacy teachers living in a Midwest state partook in a six-month project where they identified a need within their community, met, engaged, and partnered with local organizations while working on the social media platform that would address that need [i.e., the provision of a bilingual (Spanish/English) network/space to connect educators and Latino/a families]. Written as three different …
Shear-Induced Aggregation And Ordering Of Amylopectin Dispersion Affected By Hydrocolloids, Fang Fang
Shear-Induced Aggregation And Ordering Of Amylopectin Dispersion Affected By Hydrocolloids, Fang Fang
Open Access Dissertations
Amylopectin is a naturally highly-branched biomacromolecule. Amylopectin molecules with re-ordered structure have high viscosity and viscoelastic properties that may have potentially good nutritional functions such as providing long-lasting energy to the human body and delaying stomach empty among other properties. However, the amylopectin molecular re-ordering process under static conditions normally takes much longer time than amylose to achieve a desired and relatively stable structure. A simple but novel approach consisting in applying a constant shear rate of 20 s-1 at a temperature of 5oC for 24 hours was proposed in this study to accelerate the re-ordering process of gelatinized waxy …
Intravascular Photoacoustic Imaging Of Lipid-Laden Plaque: From Fundamental Concept Towards Clinical Translation, Jie Hui
Open Access Dissertations
Atherosclerosis is the major form of cardiovascular disease, which has been the number one cause of death in the United States and worldwide for a century. Among the different plaque types, vulnerable plaques account for the majority of fatal acute coronary syndromes due to their rupture and thrombosis. Currently, there are no clinically available imaging tools to reliably and accurately detect vulnerable plaques largely due to the lack of chemical selectivity. This gap, along with the increasing prevalence of coronary artery diseases, highlight an unmet clinical need for an imaging modality with both chemical selectivity and enough depth resolution to …
Quality By Design In Twin Screw Granulation, Shankali U. Pradhan
Quality By Design In Twin Screw Granulation, Shankali U. Pradhan
Open Access Dissertations
Granulation is often used as a size enlargement unit operation in various solid handling and powder processing industries such as pharmaceuticals, foods, detergents, catalysts, and particulate chemicals. Granulation helps to mitigate issues related to poor flowability, dust hazards, and powder segregation. Traditionally, granulation has been performed in the batch mode of operation. More recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration is encouraging manufacturers to adopt continuous processing due its several advantages over batch manufacturing. Twin screw granulation is therefore becoming increasingly relevant due to its compact size, continuous and robust mode of operation, flexible and customizable design, and flexible …
Electrochemical Synthesis Of Thin Films For Use As Water And Biofuel Electrocatalysts, Morrisa Regis
Electrochemical Synthesis Of Thin Films For Use As Water And Biofuel Electrocatalysts, Morrisa Regis
Open Access Dissertations
In creating a society focused on responsible energy production and consumption, green chemistry is now at the forefront of much scientific research. Interest in renewable energy and alternative fuels is by no means new but with the rapidly depleting fossil fuel resources, and hazardous byproducts of its production and use the areas hold the most promising answers to the looming energy crisis. Suitable catalyst materials for electrochemical water reduction and biomass conversion, specifically 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) reduction, have been previously identified. In the case of water electrolysis, precious metal catalysts are excellent due to the low energy input, however they are …
Extrusion Deposition Additive Manufacturing Of Fiber Reinforced Semi- Crystalline Polymers, Bastian Brenken
Extrusion Deposition Additive Manufacturing Of Fiber Reinforced Semi- Crystalline Polymers, Bastian Brenken
Open Access Dissertations
The Extrusion Deposition Additive Manufacturing (EDAM) process is an additive manufacturing technique that shows great potential for producing tooling and molds for traditional composite manufacturing methods. However, additive manufacturing processes are still optimized based on empirically calibrated process conditions and require costly trial and error approaches. During the EDAM process with composites, the temperature history of the printing material drives the evolution of internal stresses in a printed component, which could result in a failure of the print or excessive deformation. Therefore, a set of simulation tools was developed in this work to model the solidification behavior of a fiber …
Automated Patch Point Placement Capability For Hybrid Trajectory Targeting, Christopher M. Spreen
Automated Patch Point Placement Capability For Hybrid Trajectory Targeting, Christopher M. Spreen
Open Access Dissertations
In this investigation, the automation of trajectory discretization, in the form of patch point placement, is explored, along with the effects of such automated strategies on differential corrections processes. To begin, current differential corrections algorithms are presented and evaluated. Extensions of these algorithms into a higher-order ephemeris force model are explored and a hybrid differential corrections algorithm suitable for high-fidelity dynamical environments is proposed. With an appropriate differential corrections algorithm in place, a metric for quantifying the sensitivity of a trajectory to small perturbations is detailed. This sensitivity metric, known as a Lyapunov exponent, is subsequently leveraged to provide information …
Functional Characterization Of Two Novel Myofiber Type-Specific Non-Histone Protein Methyltransferases, Chao Wang
Open Access Dissertations
Skeletal muscles are composed of muscle cells or myofibers which are classified as four types (I, IIa, IIx/d, and IIb), with different physiological, biochemical, structural and metabolic characteristics. The molecular regulation of myofiber identify is not completely understood. I identified methyltransferase like 21 (Mettl21) e and Mettl21c as the type IIb and type I myofiber- specific protein, respectively. The aim of this dissertation was to determine the function of Mettl21e and Mettl21c in regulating myofiber identity. In the first part of the thesis, I used in silico approaches to identify Mettl21e as one of the top up-regulated genes in myostatin …
Project-Oriented Safety Management Of Rural Local Roads, Thomas Hall
Project-Oriented Safety Management Of Rural Local Roads, Thomas Hall
Open Access Dissertations
Although rural areas make up 19% of the U.S. population and have 30% of the annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT), more than half of the annual U.S. traffic fatalities (in excess of 15,000) occur in rural areas. For higher-volume rural state roads with a considerable crash history, the effect of road geometry, infrastructure, traffic, and roadside features on crashes has been studied extensively. However, more than 80% of rural roads in Indiana and other heavily agricultural states are local roads. Rural local roads have lower crash frequencies than rural state roads, but greater crash rates (when adjusted for VMT). Rural …
Engineering Steep Transistors Towards Ultra Low Supply Voltage, Pengyu Long
Engineering Steep Transistors Towards Ultra Low Supply Voltage, Pengyu Long
Open Access Dissertations
Future Very-large-scale-integrated (VLSI) circuits require low supply voltage for minimizing the energy consumption, yet reducing supply voltage for MOSFETs typically increases OFF-current (IOFF ). Steep Subthreshold Swing (S.S.) devices can operate under low voltage without increasing IOFF . Ideal, completely coherent quantum transport calculations had predicted that superlattice MOSFETs (SL-MOSFET) may offer steep subthreshold swing performance below 60mV/dec to around 39mV/dec. However, the high carrier density in the superlattice source suggests that scattering may significantly degrade the ideal device performance. Such effects of electron scattering and decoherence in the contacts of SL-MOSFETs will be examined through a multi-scale quantum transport …
Skeletal Biomechanics And Response To Mechanical Load: A Comparative Approach In The Mouse And Chukar Partridge, Kari A. Verner
Skeletal Biomechanics And Response To Mechanical Load: A Comparative Approach In The Mouse And Chukar Partridge, Kari A. Verner
Open Access Dissertations
Dynamic mechanical loading plays an important role in regulating bone geometry and strength. A healthy skeleton adapts to the bone tissue strain profile and magnitude of loads it experiences on a daily basis in order to maintain reasonable safety factors. In skeletal diseases, such as osteoporosis, a bone’s ability to adapt and maintain structural integrity in response to increased mechanical strains is apparently impaired, which allows skeletal resorption to progress unabated and could eventually lead to mechanical failure. In order to develop better treatments for bone wasting diseases, it is important to understand the mechanobiology of how the healthy skeleton …
Electrophysiological, Behavioral, And Histological Assessment Of The Thalamocortical Network As A Stimulation Target For Central Auditory Neuroprostheses, Ryan Scott Verner
Electrophysiological, Behavioral, And Histological Assessment Of The Thalamocortical Network As A Stimulation Target For Central Auditory Neuroprostheses, Ryan Scott Verner
Open Access Dissertations
Brain-machine interfaces aim to restore natural sensation or locomotion to individuals who have lost such ability. While the field of neuroprostheses has developed some flagship technologies which have enjoyed great clinical success, such as the cochlear implant, it is generally understood that no single device will be ideal for all patients. For example, the cochlear implant is unable to help patients suffering from neurofibromatosis type 2, which is commonly characterized by bilateral vestibular schwannomas for which surgical removal requires transection of the auditory nerve. In an effort to develop stimulatory neuroprostheses which can help the maximum number of patients, research …
A Manifestation Of Chinese Tourists: Chinese Values And Touristic Behavior, Yunzi Zhang
A Manifestation Of Chinese Tourists: Chinese Values And Touristic Behavior, Yunzi Zhang
Open Access Dissertations
The rapid growth of China’s outbound tourism market has greatly contributed to today’s global economy. While destinations benefit economically from the activities of Chinese tourists, some public behaviors of this segment of the market have been criticized as disruptive to destinations’ social orders and are considered unexpected and annoying. The disapproval of these behaviors deserves scholarly attention as it essentially implies a socio-cultural disagreement on the appropriateness of public conduct. Applying a mixed method approach, this study first provides a theoretical portrayal of the Chinese tourist through the synthesis of classic Chinese scholars’ works. It then examines U.S. residents’ opinions …
Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury And Subsequent Susceptibility To Parkinson's Disease, Glen G. Acosta
Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury And Subsequent Susceptibility To Parkinson's Disease, Glen G. Acosta
Open Access Dissertations
The prevalence of blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) is steadily increasing due to escalated terror activities and constitutes the signature injury associated with the current military conflicts. Specifically, a mild-bTBI is the most common injury encountered by our military personnel. This type of injury presents a problem because the individual is initially asymptomatic and functional. Increasing studies have suggested that this type of injury may produce long-term neurological consequences that affect the resilience and the performance of soldiers both on and off the battlefield. One such example is an increased susceptibility to Parkinson’s disease (PD) by as many as three …
Turning A Multivalent Lens Toward Depictions Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Film, Ashley Ann Albrecht
Turning A Multivalent Lens Toward Depictions Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Film, Ashley Ann Albrecht
Open Access Dissertations
With innovations in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) advancing at an exponential rate, it is ever the more pertinent to interrogate the ramifications and potentialities of these developments. Luciano Floridi, known as “the Google philosopher,” considers this phenomenon an integral part of the digital information age or the “Fourth Revolution.” We are now forced to confront the following problems: What is the relationship between humans and AI? What does it mean to be “human”? What futures are possible given our current coevolution with AI? Such questions motivate close philosophical consideration. Here, the theoretical polarization of the doomsday neo-Luddite versus …