Digital Commons Network^™

A Diagnostic And Control Programme For Johne’S Disease On Irish Dairy Farms, Aideen Kennedy

Theses

Johne’s disease (JD) is an enteritis of ruminants with potential zoonotic implications. JD diagnosis and control present difficulties given JDs prolonged subclinical nature. In order to improve JD control in Ireland, PhD aims included conducting a national survey documenting high-risk husbandry practices employed on Irish farms, thereby targeting areas for improved management. Furthermore as JD has been associated with on-farm economic losses internationally, this research programme aimed to analyse production losses associated with testing JD ELISA positive on Irish dairy farms. A longitudinal study was also conducted to assess if successful JD control can be achieved using gold-standard protocols. Due …

In Vitro Three-Dimensional Skin Tissue Constructs, Tinashe Dereck Gombedza

Theses

Human skin provides fortification against peripheral threats which may compromise the integrity and health of the human body. Its presence as the largest human organ forms a protective barrier making it an effective first line of defence against pathogenic, chemical and physical damage. Tissue engineering technology has enabled the development of in vitro three-dimensional (3D) organotypic skin cultures in order to understand the skin's physiology and architecture. This advancement has enabled the use of 3D skin model platforms to study skin diseases and conditions as well as facilitate drug discovery, clinical research and cosmetic product development.

In this study, an …

Intelligent Profiling Of Blood Donors In Ireland, Joanna Kossakowska

Theses

The demand for blood products in Ireland is constantly rising due to population growth and population ageing. It is believed that within the next decade these two factors will present challenges to blood donor recruitment and the availability of blood supplies. Improving the retention of blood donors will have a positive impact on the availability of blood products. Identification of suitable donors with the potential for long-term donating can potentially enhance the predictability of blood supply levels.

This research proposes that the patterns of blood donation behaviours of donors can be isolated from blood donor databases held by blood collecting …

Exploring The Impact Of A Training Programme On Acute Healthcare Professionals' Attitudes And Understanding Of Dementia, Orla Quirke

Theses

Acute healthcare professionals lack education and training in dementia care. This results in people with dementia having poorer outcomes when admitted to the acute healthcare setting. An overarching aim of The National Dementia Strategy (2014) is the provision of optimal care for people with dementia in all healthcare and community settings. In response to this, Dementia Elevator a national inter-professional suite of educational programmes were developed by Dublin City University and the Health Service Executive to help individuals, communities and health systems engage positively with people with dementia. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a four-hour dementia training …

Mycobacterium Species Identification In An Acute Hospital: Towards Rapid Identification, And Improved Epidemiology, Using Novel Mass Spectrometry Analysis, James Anthony O'Connor

Theses

Mycobacteria are a heterogeneous group of bacteria that cause a wide spectrum of disease, including Tuberculosis (TB), the single biggest killer worldwide. The genus also incorporates over 170 nontuberculosis (NTM) species, many of which are opportunistic pathogens. The aim of this project was to ascertain the burden of mycobacterial disease in the region and to determine the efficacy of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionisation time-of-flight (MALDI-tof) mass spectrometry (MS) for novel uses as a rapid identification method for clinical mycobacteria and as a typing tool for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates. A five-year retrospective epidemiological study of the region was conducted, the first …

Synthesis, Characterization And Reactivity Of Bio Inspired Mononuclear Copper (Ii) And Nickel (Ii) Complexes With N-Rich Ligand Infrastructure, Nirupama Singh

Theses

Metalloenzymes that reacts with dioxygen play an important role in numerous biological processes. Due to their well-tuned redox activity, these metalloenzymes are appropriate to participate in various biological oxidation/oxygenation reactions in-volving dioxygen. In dioxygen activation chemistry, these metal containing enzymes interact with molecular oxygen. With the help of reduced metal center at the enzyme active site, dioxygen gets activated and produce metal oxygen adducts such as metal superoxo, metal hydroperoxo and metal oxo intermediate species. These intermediate species are responsible for many biological processes observed in metabolic pathways and aerobic respiration. To study the formation and characterization of structural and …

Feasibility Of Physiological Monitoring Embedded In Smart Stuff, Jonathan E. Pryor

Theses

This thesis evaluates the feasibility and effectiveness of smart physiological sensors embedded in smart objects of everyday use. The wide acceptance of Smart Stuff, our term for intelligent objects integrated into Internet of Things (IoT), opens new opportunities in various application fields such as healthcare and smart homes. With the proliferation of IoT platforms, there is an opportunity for embedded physiological monitors in everyday devices. We designed and developed The Touch and Pulse Sensor (TAPS) that integrates a photoplethysmographic (PPG) and capacitive touch sensor (for detection of handling), and integrated the sensor with the smart water bottle. We ran a …

The Role Of Schematic Support And Fluency In Value-Directed Remembering, Donald J. Skinner

Theses

Value-directed remembering can be influenced by multiple factors, such as learners’ goals, perceptual cues, and perceived familiarity and fluency. Font size, type, and clarity are all perceptual cues that have been found to influence the subjective value of to-be-learned information. Fluency, or the ease with which information is processed, a factor influenced by familiarity, can also impact value-directed remembering. More fluent information is perceived as easier to process and thus more likely to be remembered. Judgments of learning (JOLs; i.e. subjective ratings regarding whether information will be remembered) can also be influenced by these three factors. The present study examined …

Variation In Larval Behavior Across The Ecologically Distinct Host Populations Of The Cactophilic Drosophila Mojavensis, Joshua Coleman

Theses

Ecological host shifts likely have a major impact on the evolution of species. The host shift can result in an organism being faced with significant chemical, nutritional, volumetric, and other challenges, which may lead to adaptation. Host shifts can lead to speciation by prezygotic isolation, and even reinforcement through postzygotic isolation. This study looks at behavioral differences in terms of larval activity in populations of Drosophila mojavensis which have experienced host shifts. The mean speed of the four populations of D. mojavensis larvae were measured, and considered in the ecological context. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA library was prepared …

Predictive Networking And Optimization For Flow-Based Networks, Michael Arnold

Theses

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were used to classify neural network flows by flow size. After training the neural network was able to predict the size of a flows with 87% accuracy with a Feed Forward Neural Network. This demonstrates that flow based routers can prioritize candidate flows with a predicted large number of packets for priority insertion into hardware content-addressable memory.

Schema Matching And Data Integration With Consistent Naming For Protein Crystallization Screens, Midusha Shrestha

Theses

Many companies have developed commercial screen kits of different combinations of chemicals for protein crystallization trials. Typically, scientists may use screen kits from various companies for crystallizing a single protein. The data representation as well as naming conventions used by these different companies make the automated analysis of crystallization experiments difficult and time-consuming. Matching headers among the input and output screens need to be identified and then the data has to be copied under corresponding headers in the output file. In order to reduce the human effort required to deal with this problem, we present an algorithm based on linguistic …

Validating Petri Net Models Of Cyberattacks, Nicholas M. Christensen

Theses

As part of a team project modeling computer system vulnerabilities and cyberattacks, this research focused on Petri net models and validation methods for them. First, the chosen target, Metasploitable, was scanned for vulnerabilities, which were matched to Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) entries. For a preliminary validation, the models were compared with the entries. Then a dynamic validation was applied to two models of CAPEC entries and to one model of a known backdoor, Ingreslock. Three experimental cyberattacks were compared with their respective models, giving partial validation. The results of the comparison show that this dynamic method was …

Reproductive Timing Of The Largescale Stoneroller, Campostoma Oligolepis, In The Flint River, Alabama, Dana M. Timms

Theses

The purpose of this research was to ascertain the reproductive timing of a species that has been scantily researched. Campostoma oligolepis, the Largescale Stoneroller, inhabits freshwater streams from Michigan to the Mobile Basin and parts of the Ozark region. Specimens totaling 768 were collected from March, 2014 to September, 2015 from the Flint River in Northern Alabama. By assessing the size and condition of testes, ovaries, and subsequent oocytes, their reproductive schedule could be determined. Ovaries are latent from June through October. They begin developing oocytes in November and continue to enlarge through their reproductive peak. Gonads reached peak reproductive …

From Logology To Dramatism : Kenneth Burke And Kurt Vonnegut As Critical Companions, Eryn Johnson

Theses

Although Kenneth Burke originally theorized language as symbolic action and Dramatism with literary analysis in mind, he remains unthought of by literary scholars. With the aim of reclaiming Dramatism for literary analysis, I grapple with Fredric Jameson’s criticisms of Burke in order to show how Dramatism maintains potential for productive literary analysis, particularly in regard to ideology. In doing so, I apply Burke’s Dramatistic method to a series of Kurt Vonnegut novels in order to investigate the similarities between Burke and Vonnegut as well as to demonstrate a fruitful literary analysis by way of Burke’s method.Though their writings differ generically, …

A Closed-Form Solution To The Aeroelastic Response Of An Elastic Plate In Axial Flow, Cory Ryan Medina

Theses

The unsteady aeroelastic response of an elastic plate immersed in an axial flow addresses many real-world applications and problems from plate flutter, bio-locomotion, to deforming airfoils. However, the analysis is challenging due to the coupling between the structure and fluid. This study presents a closed-form analytical solution to the two-way coupled aeroelastic response of a two-dimensional elastic plate in axial potential flow. The coupled model utilizes linearized beam theory and linearized unsteady thin airfoil theory. The coupled equations of motion are solved via Galerkin’s method, where closed-form solutions for the plate deformation are obtained by introducing Chebyshev series to solve …

Giving Up The Microphone: The White Racial Framing Of Race, Kimberly Lane

Theses

Drawing from Joe Feagin’s white racial frame, the study employs critical discourse and framing analysis to examine ways in which two national newsprints- the New York Times and Washington Post- reinforced the framing of race in coverage of Trayvon Martin and the Black Lives Matter movement. Results showed that the news coverage reflected an encompassing pro-white/anti-Black master-frame that presented Black Americans as: inadequate, lawless, criminal, sassy, hypersexual, threatening, and biologically different. The news stories also contributed to the media’s conceptualization of race within a paradigm of a liberty-and-justice American myth narrative. Conversely, whites were presented favorably as “protectors” and “virtuous.” …

Aligning Business Decision Making To Strategy, Donald J. Barnes, Katherine A. Dominguez, Whitney J. Vazquez

Theses

"Hurry up and wait" is a recipe for inefficiency. Some product development projects start and stop and start again, with team members being added and removed throughout the process. The cost of this lurching does not appear to be well quantified. Moving technical talent from one project to another may assume 100% engineering efficiency, which is not case. Hidden effects of engineers being moved include having to "spin up" on the new project and learn where the last team members left off (which may not be well documented), repeating initial work, and lowered efficiency and morale on the part of …

Novel Neuroevolution Techniques For The Life Science Domain, Timothy Manning

Theses

The life science domain is a high value research area, both in terms of the benefits in increased knowledge and in societal impact. Much of the research funding has focused on wet lab based approaches to increase visibility into biological processes and producing maximal relevant information on which to make decisions. Given the complexity of biological functions, in many cases this has led to an information overload. Researchers are now able to routinely generate and access petabytes of data as a result of high throughput experiments, and this capability is growing. This data can be difficult to interpret and intractable …

Transfer And Competency Exchange Of Wisetek Into The Data Centre Hubs Of Frankfurt And Amsterdam: An Empirical Study, Thomas G. O'Farrell

Theses

This research study is an examination of Wisetek; an organization that has expanded from their head office in Cork, Ireland into the North America, Asian and the MENA region. This study is particularly focused on analysing the data centre hubs of Frankfurt and Amsterdam, a market where Wisetek do not have a presence and are looking to explore the region further. The growing problem of E-waste defined in this research, and the benefits of the services that Wisetek offer of managing E-waste, is a solution for data centres. Wisetek was founded in 2007 by Sean Sheehan and is a provider …

Metabolic Characteristics Of Macrophage Activation With Phenotype Microarrays, Tanya Kathryn D'Souza

Theses

Inflammation is a natural protective response and is characterised by the activation of numerous immune cells, including macrophages which can release a variety of inflammatory mediators. Macrophages play a flexible role in the initiation and effector phases of the immune response and change their behaviour to respond to environmental stimuli. The main objectives in this study were to create and characterise different macrophage behaviours and employ a novel metabolic characterisation platform the Phenotype Microarray^TM to attribute additional characteristics to the currently well recognised phenotypes. Five activated macrophage states were demonstrated and characterised. Unactivated macrophages (MO) demonstrated undetectable levels of …

The Effectiveness Of Low Intensity Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Li-Cbt) On Reducing Symptoms Of Depression In Arab Clients, Safa Ali Bait Jameel

Theses

This study examines whether an awareness of LI-CBT skills would result into the reduction of symptoms of depression in Arab clients. The study exclusively applies two techniques, behavioral activation (BA) and cognitive restructuring (CR), to clients of varying levels of depression residing in the United Arab Emirates. Utilizing a pre-test-post-test design, 50 participants (25treatment and 25control) were included in the analyses of the study and level of depression was measured using the PHQ-9. Results indicate that 76 percent of participants in the treatment group showed improvement in their level of depression, when compared to 30.4 percent of participants in the …

Self-Compassion : What Meaning And Role Does It Play In The Lives Of Women Who Experience Anxiety And Depression In The Perinatal Period, Cindy Cranswick

Theses

With one in five Australian women suffering from perinatal anxiety and depression, there is a constant need for a greater understanding of the lived experience of motherhood. This research investigated the role and meaning of self-compassion in the lives of women in the perinatal period who experience anxiety, depression and psychological distress. There is a growing body of evidence to support findings that self-compassion is an important source of emotional and psychological well-being, but little evidence on the potential role it plays in the lives of women in the perinatal period. A qualitative approach was chosen to undertake this research …

Bioimpedance Spectroscopy - Can It Be Used As A Tool For Monitoring Fluid Shifts In Burns?, Pippa Kenworthy

Theses

Large fluid shifts and oedema are features of burn injuries. Oedema hampers burn wound healing and is directly related to the size and depth of the burn. The degree of oedema in burns covers a broad spectrum: Minor burns cause localised or peripheral oedema, whilst major burns may result in a systemic inflammatory response which can be life threatening and necessitates formal fluid resuscitation. Acute burn fluid resuscitation is paramount in decreasing patient morbidity and mortality but can contribute to already large amounts of oedema. There is currently no single clinically applicable, non-invasive and accurate outcome measure to titrate fluid …

Assessment Of The Neuroprotective Potential Of Poly-Arginine Peptides In Stroke Models, Diego Milani

Theses

Currently, there is no available neuroprotective treatment for reducing acute brain injury following stroke. Recent studies have demonstrated that poly-arginine and arginine-rich peptides (e.g. R18; R = arginine residues) exhibit potent neuroprotective properties in both in vitro and in vivo stroke models, and therefore have the potential to be developed into a neuroprotective treatment for stroke.

Consequently, the aim of this thesis was to further assess the neuroprotective efficacy of several poly-arginine and arginine-rich peptides in permanent and transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) stroke models in the rat.

The poly-arginine peptides R12, R15, R18 and the arginine-rich peptide protamine …

Sedimentation Dynamics Of The Cagayan De Oro River Catchment And The Implications For Its Coastal Marine Environments, Mars P. Tan

Theses

Declines in coastal environment condition can often be attributed to land-based activities in the uplands. This may be the case in some parts of Macajalar Bay, where river plume is observed almost daily. This present study aims to demonstrate the erosion-sedimentation process along the Cagayan de Oro River Catchment to its river mouth, and its implication for the marine coastal habitats. Highlighted in the study are the various natural factors that have influenced the erosion-sedimentation process: its volume; direction; and effects on the coastal habitats.

In the uplands, to account for the influence of catchment spatial heterogeneity and local rainfall …

Ni & Cu Complexes Supported By A Family Of Pentadentate Ligands For Reactivity With Activated Oxygen Species, Victoria G. Snider

Theses

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) naturally occur as side products of oxidation reactions in aerobic organisms, however high concentrations of ROS can cause tissue damage and even cell death. Thus, aerobic organisms have developed several mechanisms of defense against ROS that include catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes. This thesis details the design and synthesis of novel nickel superoxide dismutase (NiSOD) and copper zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) biomimics which were probed for reactivity with superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. The metal complexes are supported by nitrogen rich, macrocyclic ligands that were designed to alter the electronic environment of …

Application Of Machine Learning Models To Cftr Enhancer Discovery, James M.J. Lawlor

Theses

Cystic Fibrosis is a Mendelian genetic disorder causing production of hyper- viscous mucus, which damages organs including the lungs and digestive system, and is the result of absent or defective production of the chloride transport protein CFTR. CFTR expression varies between organs, developmental stages, and individuals. We develop and optimize a machine learning pipeline to identify enhancers—binding sites for regulatory proteins—near CFTR. We segment A549, Caco-2, Calu-3, and PANC-1 genomes, train a sequence-based classifier on the predicted enhancer segments, and use the classifier score to predict sequence variants’ enhancer activities. Our optimizations appreciably improve the resulting enhancer predictions. We present …

Investigating The Parameters That Influence The Particle Mass Concentration Rates In A Grade C Cleanroom., Nazar H. Baker

Theses

The cleanroom design engineers use the guidelines tables, in which the Air Change Rates (ACHs) are determined based on the room cleanliness class. These guidelines are based on experience and do not fully address many other critical variables that influence the particulate level and particle distribution. These simplified approaches could often cause significant energy waste. In the last five decades, a number of mathematical models were developed to determine the airflow required in cleanrooms. As a consequence of the approximation of many critical variables in these models, these models can only be used as a qualitative indicator of the airflow …

An Application Of Time Series Methods To Investigate Eu Dairy Commodity Price Dynamics, Dennis Bergmann

Theses

Fundamental changes to the common agricultural policy (CAP) have led to greater market orientation which in turn has resulted in significantly changed price dynamics of EU dairy prices. These changed dynamics include sharply increased price variability of EU farm gate milk prices as well EU dairy commodity prices such as butter and Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP). In addition it was expected that EU dairy prices will align to Word dairy prices. This alignment of prices would also see an alignment of volatility levels which were significantly higher for World dairy prices than EU dairy prices. The aim of this thesis …

Harvesting A Sustainable Energy Future: Examining The Effect Of Chemical Composition On The Electromechanical Properties Of Polymer Gel Beads, Kaushik Kudtarkar

Theses

Clean energy is required to ensure global prosperity and economic growth. Increased industrialization is expected to increase energy demand by 50% by 2035. This will result in increased air pollution. Carbon dioxide emissions have been linked to global warming and other pollution related problems. These emissions can be reduced by recapturing the waste energy in the form of heat, vibration, and friction.

Common applications like transportation can lose as much as 78% of the energy they generate. Energy harvesters can be used to recapture energy lost through vibration, heat, etc. This recaptured energy will be reused and hence, we don’t …