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Understanding The Connection Between The Hydro-Climatic Extremes And Diarrheal Diseases Over Bengal Delta: The Vulnerability Assessment Of Past, Present And Future, Mohammad Alfi Hasan

Open Access Dissertations

Living in the age of space exploration and nanotechnology, the significant portion of human population still have threatened by diarrheal diseases throughout the globe. Being a major contributor of the global mortality, the diarrheal diseases account for an estimated 3.1% of the total burden of disease in terms of Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) where cholera and rotavirus diarrhea comprise more than two-thirds of the diarrheal morbidity in developing countries of South Asia.

Alongside with many more challenges like climate change or civil war, the capability to resolve the diarrheal disease burden in developing countries remains questionable. As the primary reasons …

Stimuli-Responsive Biomaterials For Drug Delivery To Improve Cancer Immunotherapy And Chronic Wound Healing, Anita E. Tolouei

Open Access Dissertations

Sequential delivery of biomolecules is very important as many biologics underlying injury and disease follow an orderly and sequenced series of events. Here we developed and introduced for the first time a dual compartment biomaterial system with an outer compartment made of gelatin and inner compartment that is a ferrogel which can be magnetically stimulated in order to provide on-demand, sequential delivery of multiple bio-instructive payload. We studied the potential application of this dual-compartment biomaterial system in different therapeutic contexts that may benefit from on-demand sequential deliveries, such as in cancer immunotherapy and in chronic wound healing.

Chronic wounds can …

Eastern Oyster Larval Transcriptomes In Response To Probiotic And Pathogenic Bacteria, Tejashree Modak

Open Access Dissertations

Oysters are described as keystone species serving an important ecological role. As filter-feeders they help in maintaining water quality. Oyster reefs provide refuge and support to different organisms. The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, native to the East Coast of United States and Gulf of Mexico is a part of the rapidly growing aquaculture industry. Aquaculture production depends on a healthy and constant supply of oyster larvae that are provided by hatcheries. Several hatcheries on the east coast that provide C. virginica seed to oyster farms face significant losses owing to Vibrio infections causing massive larval mortalities. Use of antibiotics …

A Hybrid Lattice Boltzmann Method-Potential Flow Model For Naval Hydrodynamics, Christopher M. O'Reilly

Open Access Dissertations

The simulation of many naval hydrodynamics problems, such as a ship's motions in waves, is often performed using potential flow solvers which are usually based on a Boundary Element Method (BEM) that use semi-empirical corrections to account for viscous/turbulent effects. However in some cases, viscous/turbulent flows near the ships hull and breaking waves must be accurately modeled to capture the salient physics. Navier-Stokes (NS) solvers can and have been used to model such flows, but they are computationally expensive, often requiring several orders of magnitude more computational resources relative to potential flow methods, rendering them impracticable for many engineering applications. …

Compassion: Can Service Learning Make A Difference, And If So, How?, Edward Goldberg

Open Access Dissertations

The future of education is often framed in terms of bringing education into the second half of the 21^st century. Technology and along with it, faster and better ways to bring content to our students are important topics for discussion; but how our students treat each other and other members of their community is equally, if not more, important.

This study takes a look at how we may be able to encourage and foster compassion among our students. I wanted to know how compassionate thoughts and feelings develop following a service-learning experience focused on compassionate behavior. In this qualitative …

Refining The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Screening: Is There A Distinct Role For Anxiety?, Meada R. Daly-Cano

Open Access Dissertations

Anxiety and depressive symptoms were investigated using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) in a convenience sample of 371 mothers who were referred to a maternal mentoring program for mothers with, or at risk for, postpartum depression. Social support is considered a protective factor for postpartum mothers at risk for depression but there is less research about the connection between postpartum anxiety and social support.

A factor analysis of the EPDS provided evidence of a two-factor correlated model with a three-item anxiety subscale and six-item depression subscale. Comparisons, using chi-square tests, were done of risk factors, associated with postpartum depression …

Exploring The Role Of A Novel Device In Weight Loss Outcomes And Behaviors, Jacqueline Ann Beatty

Open Access Dissertations

Obesity is a serious public health problem. There is a need for scalable weight loss interventions that can help people lose weight and decrease their risk of obesity related chronic disease development. Self-monitoring is a key component of successful weight loss. The Eat Less, Move More (ELMM) device is wrist-worn, and is capable of counting bites by detection of a wrist-roll motion that is specific to eating. The device can also measure seconds between bites, as a proxy to eating rate (ER) measurement, as well as the number of steps taken by the user. The aim of this body of …

Climate Change And Coastal Cultural Heritage: Insights From Three National Parks, Alanna Casey

Open Access Dissertations

Global climate change is expected to contribute to between 30 and 122 centimeters of sea-level rise by 2100, as well as increase the frequency and intensity storm surge, flooding, and erosion in coastal systems (IPCC 2014; Melillo, Richmond and Yohe 2014; Moser, Williams and Boesch 2012). Consequently, coastal cultural resources including archaeological sites, historic structures, and cultural landscapes will face increasing damages from salt water inundation, storm erosion, that comprise the frequency and intensity of the negative impacts of these coastal climate changes on cultural heritage resources, sites, and landscapes will also increase (Daly 2011b; WHC 2006; Cassar 2005). Current …

Photonic Metamaterials: Spectral Control And Modulation Of Nanoscale Thermal Radiative Transport, Alok Ghanekar

Open Access Dissertations

Micro/nano scale radiative transport phenomena present new opportunities to design spectrally selective radiative surfaces and configurations that enable an active control of radiative transfer. Several applications such as thermophotovoltaic energy technology, local thermal management and sensing can benefit from fundamental research in the field. An investigation into photonic metamaterials and near-field thermal radiation was conducted to explore various ways to achieve spectral control and modulation of radiative heat transfer. This was followed by designing novel metamaterials and configurations to consider their feasibility for specific applications of thermophotovoltaics (TPV) and nanoscale thermal management.

An experimental investigation was conducted to estimate optical …

Design Of Complex Engineered Systems And The Effectiveness Of Organizational Networks, Bryan Still

Open Access Dissertations

Cost and schedule overruns have become increasingly common in projects that set out to design and deliver complex engineered systems. Noting the well-established relationship between products and the organizations that design them, this study evaluates the effectiveness of different organizational networks at designing complex engineered systems using agent-based modeling. Specifically, it compares matrix and military staff organizational networks to random and multiscale networks, modeling design as an activity that requires organizations to create design artifacts and share information. It examines the nature of design, the role of product architecture, the nature of complexity and how it affects projects, and the …

A Multiphysics Computational Framework For Understanding Cell And Microtissue Morphogenesis, Bahador Marzban

Open Access Dissertations

A sophisticated computational model is developed to consider different interactive parts between cells and its components and their local microenvironment. The present work is mainly focused on the modeling of the coupling of the stress and concentration of the signaling proteins within the cell domain. In this research, the fundamental aspects and details of a coupled Contraction-Reaction-Diffusion (CRD), is presented. The model accounts for diffusion of the proteins and mechanical equilibrium of the cells simultaneously while considering different subunits which are affecting the cell migration. For instance, cell-cell interaction, nucleus effects, focal adhesion distribution, anisotropic stress fiber formation, membrane tension, …

Collective Synchrony In Team Sports, Daniel Martin Smith

Open Access Dissertations

Collective synchrony is the simultaneous occurrence of behavior, cognition, emotion, and/or physiology within a group of three or more people. In this dissertation, I draw from various literatures to inform exploratory empirical and methodological investigation of collective synchrony in team sports. These include physiological synchrony, which has been examined primarily in dyads, and collective behavior in sports teams.

In Manuscript 1, I present a conceptual framework of collective synchrony in team sports. I argue that three possible antecedents (copresence, shared task, and coordination) underlie the interindividual matching of emotion, behavior, and cognition. This matching contributes to collective behavioral synchrony and/or …

Kinetic, Metabolic And Macromolecular Response Of Bacteria To Antimicrobial Agents, Fatemeh Faghihzadeh

Open Access Dissertations

Bacteria have the extraordinary capability to modify their phenotype in response to stress agents. Response mechanisms to stressor (such as nanoparticles or light treatments) are the result of an evolutionary process in which bacteria can become resistant, or adapt to the stressor. Therefore, it is essential to elucidate the bacterial adaptation mechanisms to metal nanoparticles or pulse ultraviolet light since these processes not only can compromise the efficacy of these treatment methods but also has implications to public health issues.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most commonly used nanomaterials in consumer products and medical applications due to their …

Facilitated Excretion Of Gold Nanoparticles By Copper Sulfide Nanoparticles Through The Atp7b Transporter, Xiaodong Wang

Open Access Dissertations

Scientific areas have utilized the exclusive qualities of nanomaterials for medicine, diagnostics, drug delivery, tissue engineering and environmental protection. Inorganic metal nanoparticles such as gold and copper have been widely studied in the past decades. Due to the strong and tunable surface plasmon resonance (SPR), nanostructures including nanoshells, nanorods, nanocages, and hollow nanospheres exhibit strong optical absorption at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths (650–900 nm), resulting in resonance and transfer of thermal energies to the surrounding tissue to raise the temperature. The absorbance of NIR light is desirable because it minimizes thermal injury to normal tissues while providing optimal light penetration. The …

Virtual Environments For The Induction Of Action, Brian Adrian Flowers

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a study on the ways in which Virtual Reality can actively and reactively affect human physiology. The first manuscript describes the design of a highly generalized Virtual Reality biofeedback system. This system was developed such that, given proper design, it would be able to provide users with a highly responsive Virtual Environment to meet the criteria of embodiment, which will increase the user's responsiveness to stimuli. The system also functions as a biofeedback system that can be used for biomechanical as well as physiological feedback by using a generalized design paradigm.

The second manuscript describes a biofeedback …

Value Chain Improvements In Small-Scale Fisheries: Case Studies From West Africa, Kristine Beran

Open Access Dissertations

Seafood is one of the most traded food commodities in the world by value. Small-scale fisheries contribute significantly to the global production and supply of seafood. Yet, many small-scale fisheries in developing countries fail to maximize value of seafood products due to post-harvest loss, production, distribution, and marketing challenges. The purpose of this study is to examine how post-harvest innovations might address some of these challenges, whom they benefit along the fisheries value chain, and factors that influence adoption of innovations through two case studies in West Africa.

A multi-methods approach was used to collect extensive quantitative and qualitative data …

Essays On Economics Of Ecosystem Services From Dam Removal To Improve Decision Making, Ben Blachly

Open Access Dissertations

Many dams throughout New England are approaching the end of their engineered lifespan. Individual dam owners and governments at various levels find themselves navigating decisions to repair, remove, or modify the aging infrastructure. These decisions have implications for the ecosystem services that depend on the presence or absence of dams. By coordinating the ecosystem service tradeoffs at large scales we can more efficiently utilize the productive capacity of river systems. Implementing a large-scale coordinated approach, however, requires understanding stakeholder preferences at different scales, and the willingness of decision makers to coordinate (or not). In this dissertation I address issues surrounding …

Exploring The Treatment Experiences Of African American Substance Using Women And Perceptions Of Culturally Competent Care, Janan Patrice Wyatt

Open Access Dissertations

Research continues to suggest that substance use treatment retention and completion presents an ongoing problem, especially among marginalized groups. In particular, African American women have the lowest rates of treatment retention and completion across all substance using groups. While gender and ethnoracial identities continue to be examined in their relation to substance use treatment, these identities are often studied in isolation offering limited information about how intersecting identities impact substance use treatment for African American women. Researchers have commented on the immediate need for research aimed at describing, understanding, and improving treatment for this population. Research using the voices of …

Effect Of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (Nafld) On Hepatic Drug Metabolism Enzymes In Human, Rohitash Jamwal

Open Access Dissertations

Significant changes in dietary habits have led to a rampant increase in metabolic disorders. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one such disorder characterized by the excess buildup of fat in hepatocytes of people who drink little or no alcohol. If not managed, NAFL (simple steatosis) progress into nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and further deteriorate to cirrhosis leading to severe illness or even death. Drug disposition proteins (enzymes and transporters) in liver control the systemic exposure of drugs and xenobiotics in human and drive the efficacy as well as adverse events in the body. Therefore, it is critical to address the …

Benthic Habitat Mapping And Its Applications To Coastal Resource Management, Monique Lafrance Bartley

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters focused on benthic habitat mapping of coastal waters within northeast region of the United States to support science-based regulatory and management strategies. The first chapter is entitled: Shallow water benthic habitat mapping utilizing the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) to establish baseline conditions post-Hurricane Sandy at Fire Island National Seashore, New York. In response to Hurricane Sandy, a benthic habitat mapping study was conducted at Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS), New York, representing one of the first comprehensive mapping efforts undertaken by the National Park Service. FIIS was of particular interest …

Experimental And Numerical Simulations For Fluid Body Interaction Problems, Amin Mivehchi

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the experimental and numerical modelling of fluid structure interaction (FSI) problems. The main objective of this work was to develop state-of-art experimental and numerical tools to investigate a variety of Fluid-Structure Interaction problems. This topic is of critical importance to Naval Hydrodynamics and offshore applications, such as in ship design, floating offshore wind platforms and offshore ocean energy systems.

On the experimental modelling of FSI, this dissertation includes detailed of state-of-art hydrodynamic testing tank system for studying biomimetic fluid-structure interaction problems. This system was employed to study unsteady ground effect for pitching and heaving flapping foil …

Development And Validation Of The Arabic Versions Of The Transtheoretical Model Scales For Exercise, Iman Aly Almohammadi

Open Access Dissertations

High prevalence of physical inactivity in Saudi Arabia is a major public health problem that contributed to the increasing lifestyle-related diseases. Thus, interventions to promote and increase exercise are necessary. The Transtheoretical model demonstrated significant impacts in this area, however, effective interventions require psychometrically sound measures. The goal of this study is to develop, assess the psychometric properties, and confirming the factorial invariance of the Arabic versions of the Decisional Balance and Self Efficacy measures for exercise, as well as test their predicted theoretical relationships with Stages of Change with a population-based sample of Saudi adults (N=685). Three …

Economic Burden And Mortality Associated With Prescription Opioid Use, Hilary A. Aroke

Open Access Dissertations

Prescription opioid use and misuse poses a significant public health challenge to the United States. In this dissertation we use the three-manuscript format to address some the areas of unmet research. Each manuscript has an abstract, introduction, background, methods, results, discussion, and conclusions sections.

Manuscript 1: We used a retrospective cohort design to examine the association between the patterns of initial prescription opioid use for non-cancer pain and risk of all-cause mortality among an insured opioid-naïve patient population in the U.S. Multivariable Cox regression model was used to estimate the association of initial pattern of opioid use with all-cause mortality, …

Towards A Comparative Index Of Seaport Climate Vulnerability: Developing Indicators From Open-Data, Robert Duncan Mcintosh

Open Access Dissertations

This work was motivated in part by Austin Becker’s 2013 dissertation, Building Seaport Resilience for Climate Change Adaptation: Stakeholder Perceptions of the Problems, Impacts, and Strategies, which surveyed global port authorities’ perceptions and plans for climate change adaptation and found a disconnect between perceptions of climate impacts and a lack of policies to address them. That work called for the development of a nationwide risk and vulnerability index for ports as a next step in the climate adaptation process for seaports. Climate change adaptation was found to be in the early planning phase for most ports globally, and assessing …

Profiling And Modification Of Silicon Nitride Based Planar Substrates And Nanopores, Nuwan Dhananjaya Bandara

Open Access Dissertations

A nanopore—typically defined as a through-hole with dimensions <100 nm in all directions that functions as the sole path between two electrolyte reservoirs—is a robust single molecule sensor element which has enjoyed a wealth of applications spanning genomics and proteomics, with fledgling contributions to glycomics over the past two decades. Two classes of nanopores exist—biological and solid state. Biological nanopores, for example, α-hemolysin, are highly reproducible and precise—with nanopore lengths and critical constriction sizes that are well known and reproducible. This is not the case with solid state nanopores. Assuming total nanopore length is equal to the nominal thickness of the membrane provided by the manufacturer is a standard practice in the nanopore field. However, given fabrication tolerances, there is some room for error, in certain instances close to 60% of the provided nominal thickness. Any error in nanopore length will couple to errors in the radius calculation. Another two key assumptions are: i) the nanopore has a cylindrical shape unless (and often even if) the shape is otherwise known and ii) a single nanopore through the membrane is formed when one is intended. These issues were addressed by developing a framework that shows errors in harboring such geometric assumptions and eventual consequences for nanopore-based sensing experiments.

The focus of nanopore-based sensing has been predominantly on DNA and protein profiling with only fledging contributions to glycomic profiling. Silicon nitride-based solid state nanopores were used to understand translocation conditions related to alginate and then to study source variability associated with alginates. The two alginates used (from two different sources) gave two distinct signal patterns. Heparin, a common anticoagulant was contaminated in 2008 with over sulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS)—a structurally similar adulterant—which lead to ~120 deaths in the United States. Nanopores, with sizes ranging from ~8.6 nm- ~13.6 nm were used …

Diffusion Of Ultra-Cold Neutrons In Randomly Rough Channels, Sarah Elizabeth Brent

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis deals with ultra cold neutrons, or, more precisely, with beams of ultra-cold neutrons. ultra-cold neutrons are longwave particles produced in a reactor from which they are coming to experimental cells through narrow channels. The beams are collimated so that the distribution of longitudinal and transverse velocities is narrow. The energies of the neutrons that we consider as ultra cold are somewhere around 100neV.

Neutrons with such low energies have long wavelengths; λ ~ 100nm. Neutral particles with such large wavelengths exhibit nearly (locally) specular reflection when reflected by the solid surfaces at almost any angle of …

Widening The Sphere: Mid-To-Late Victorian Popular Fiction, Gender Representation, And Canonicity, Anna J. Brecke

Open Access Dissertations

When Victorian fiction entered academic study in the mid-twentieth century, the texts that were considered essential had been influenced by a small group of scholars primarily concerned with studying the novel form across periods rather than studying literature of the Victorian Era. The collection of authors that became "the" Victorian canon included Dickens, Thackeray, Hardy, the Brontës, Trollope, Henry James and George Eliot, limiting the Victorian novel to realist fiction. The choices of these critics did not accurately represent the diverse range of authors and genres in fiction published during the period. Particularly absent from this canon are the popular …

Demonstrating Feminist Metic Intelligence Through The Embodied Rhetorical Practices Of Julia Child, Lindy E. Briggette

Open Access Dissertations

The concept of metis reinserts the body and its intelligences into the ways in which rhetoric is understood, harnessed, and performed. Originating from the wisdom of Greek goddess Metis, the concept of metis is commonly understood as cunning intelligence that is deployed in order to escape an adversary, trick an opponent, or dupe its victim. When metic intelligence is read through the helping acts of Metis and her daughter, goddess Athena, however, an expanded version of its ways of operating begins to emerge. Through her efforts to debunk French cuisine using rule-based approaches meant to empower home chefs in their …

The Employment Of Electrolyte Additives To Overcome The Limitations Of Li-Ion Batteries, Mickdy S. Milien

Open Access Dissertations

Due to the shift towards sustainable energy, lithium ion batteries (LIB) have amassed significant interest from the automobile industry. In order to power the large format batteries required for electric vehicles (EV), higher energy density materials are being developed, however challenges such as interfacial resistance of the anode materials and undesirable reactions of the electrolyte with the surface of both electrode materials threatens the power, safety, and lifetime of batteries containing these materials. While there are numerous research efforts dedicated to improving the materials themselves, this work focuses on the in-situ surface modification of the electrode materials by incorporating electrolyte …

Nanostructured Interfaces For Single Molecule Sensing And Molecular Fingerprinting, Buddini I. Karawdeniya

Open Access Dissertations

Nanoscale interfaces can have a profound influence on sensor performance, arising from the increased surface-area-to-volume ratio on length scales <100 nm, and often on the emergence of new phenomena on this length scale and even enhancement of existing phenomena. These interfaces can be used to form sensing devices capable of molecular sensing and fingerprinting. Attaining rapid and reliable molecular information with low analyte concentrations and minimal instrument overhead is crucial for many fields including the pharmaceutical industry, food quality analysis, biomedicine, water quality analysis, etc., to meet the current demands of sample analysis. Nanoscale elements in these nanosensors, in amalgam with other physical and chemical driving forces are useful for attaining low limits of detection with the ultimate goal of observing one molecule-at-a-time. This proposal contains two approaches to develop nanostructured sensors—one optical and one non-optical—to reach this goal. The first study is designed to develop a non-optical sensor—a solid state nanopore—for carbohydrate biopolymers—a class of abundant biomolecules that nevertheless have not been extensively characterized like other biomolecules (DNA or proteins), due to inadequate sensing capabilities to easily tackle the molecular complexity by classical methods alone. Additionally, methods to enhance and control the pore surface chemistry are investigated. Second, a series of accessible and low-cost surface enhanced Raman substrates are fabricated on a range of supports using electroless gold plating, to create optical sensors with vibrational selectivity and multifunctional capabilities.