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Modeling The Distribution Of Meadows In Arid And Semi-Arid Patagonia, Argentina: Assessing Current Distribution And Predicting Response To Climate Change, Ramiro Daniel Crego

Theses

Meadows are critical in arid and semi-arid Argentinean Patagonia because of their importance for regional biodiversity. Despite this, little information on the spatial distribution of meadows is available and no analysis of the potential effect of climate change on meadows has been performed, which hampers conservation planning. In this study, I modeled the spatial distribution of meadows and investigated how climate change may affect the current distribution of meadows in arid and semiarid Patagonia by 2050. In addition, I investigated conservation status and areas of desertification vulnerability of those areas predicted to contain meadows. I used high-resolution imagery available in …

Specific Gage Analysis On The Lower White River, Arkansas, Adam Levis Shaffner

Theses

This study documents the stage adjustments in the Lower White River between 1931 and 2012 at four rated gaging stations along the trunk stem of the river. The study reach extends from Calico Rock, Arkansas, to the confluence of the White River with the Mississippi River north of Arkansas City, a distance of about 509 km. The specific gage approach was used to track hydrological response in the study reach. In order to approach spatial homogeneity across the four gaging locations along the study reach, input discharges were normalized to multiples of mean daily flow (MDF). Specific gage analysis tracks …

Genetic Admixture And Tooth Size In An Enslaved Population From Newton Plantation, Barbados, Susannah Munson

Theses

This study examined the amount of European genetic admixture in the enslaved African population from Newton Plantation, Barbados. Newton Plantation was a British sugar plantation from the 17th to 19th centuries. Approximately 150 individuals were recovered from an unmarked slave cemetery during archaeological investigations in the 1970s and 1990s. Using maximum mesiodistal and buccolingual tooth measurements of the available teeth from the individuals in the cemetery, Newton was compared to nineteen comparative samples of African, European, African American and European American populations that date from the time of British colonization to the 20th century. Previous European admixture estimations in the …

Patterns In Environmental Drivers Of Wetland Functioning And Species Composition In A Complex Peatland, Jeremy A. Graham

Theses

The boreal peatlands that cover much of western Canada are immense reservoirs of organic carbon and nitrogen, serving as sinks for atmospheric carbon, as well as providing habitat for flora and fauna, and nutrient cycling. These ecosystems are generally believed to be nitrogen limited. Due to regional increases in industrial activities associated in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR), atmospheric deposition of nitrogen is projected to increase, with unknown effects on peatland functioning. The results of this study provide baseline data for a nitrogen fertilization experiment with an accurate site description of the entire peatland complex to provide reference for …

The ‘Slow-Growth-High-Mortality’ Hypothesis: How Plant Species, Leaf Quality, And The Third Trophic Level Contribute To The Mortality Of Two Common Leaf-Tying Microlepidopteran Herbivores, Kirk Lee Barnett

Theses

I investigated how the survivorship, abundance, and development of two common microlepidoteran leaf-tiers on four species of oak change in response to leaf quality and exposure to the third trophic level, and used those results to validate predictions under the slow-growth-high-mortality hypothesis. In chapter 1, I begin with a review of the literature by examining the components of plant traits that contribute to the success of insect herbivores and how plants can alter both defensive compounds and nutritional quality in order to deter herbivory. I then describe how changes in leaf quality and defense can be overcome by insect herbivores, …

Morphological, Phylogenetic, And Ecological Analyses Of The New Model Grass Species Setaria Viridis (Poaceae) And Its Close Relative Setaria Faberi, Daniel J. Layton

Theses

Species limits as defined by herbarium taxonomists are nearly always based on intuitive morphological comparisons with little concrete data or statistical analysis. Setaria viridis (tribe Paniceae, subtribe Cenchrinae), an emerging model organism for the study of C4 photosynthesis, is one such inadequately defined species. In order to evaluate its relationship with the morphological intergrading Setaria faberi, a “total data” approach was taken. Statistical morphology, cytology, molecular phylogenetics, and growth experimentation were employed to examine the putative species boundary in this group. Principal components analysis of 70 morphological characters in 85 individuals revealed consistent separation between the two species in morphospace, …

Environmental Science In Middle School Curricula: A Pilot Project In The Dominican Republic, Laura Tejeda

Theses

The Dominican Republic's (DR) public investment in education by 2010 was 2% of the GNP; falling behind the 6% minimum established by UNESCO in 2010 as a requirement to achieve quality education. The DR has not developed an Environmental Education policy. The DR's Environment Law 64-00 dictates Environmental Education to be introduced as one of the cross-cutting themes called "transverse axis" into the general curricula of all schools. However; due to lack of time and teachers able to integrate these axes into lesson plans, they were seldom implemented. This pilot project took place at The Community for Learning School (TCFL). …

Micro-Extrusion Process Parameter Modeling, Anuj Datar

Theses

Direct write processes are a family of technologies with the ability to deposit functional structures directly onto planar and non-planar surfaces. Direct writing includes a variety of processes that use different mechanisms to transfer materials on to substrates and can be generally distinguished from conventional rapid prototyping processes by a feature resolution in the sub-micron to micron range. The dispensing system studied in this thesis is a pneumatically actuated micro-extruder which is capable of processing a wide variety of materials. This material dispensing tool is capable of depositing small amounts of material to build three dimensional structures in an accurate …

The Soulless Machine, Nathan Lomas

Theses

Since their creation, we have grown increasingly reliant on machines to aid us in our understanding and perceptions of the world - the camera is no exception. As an extension of the human eye, it allows us the opportunity to examine our environments from new perspectives, offering up views that we may not be able to witness on our own. Though in truth, the structure of the machine is ingrained in everything we know: from the natural world to our social patterns, actions are prescribed, parts move with united purpose, yet there is a certain comfort in the surrender of …

Evolutionary Star-Structured Heterogeneous Data Co-Clustering, Amit Salunke

Theses

A star-structured interrelationship, which is a more common type in real world data, has a central object connected to the other types of objects. One of the key challenges in evolutionary clustering is integration of historical data in current data. Traditionally, smoothness in data transition over a period of time is achieved by means of cost functions defined over historical and current data. These functions provide a tunable tolerance for shifts of current data accounting instance to all historical information for corresponding instance. Once historical data is integrated into current data using cost functions, co-clustering is obtained using various co-clustering …

Three-Dimensional Quantification And Visualization Of Vascular Networks In Engineered Tissues, Mohammed Yousefhussien

Theses

Three-dimensional textural and volumetric image analysis holds great potential in understanding the image data produced by multi-photon microscopy. In this thesis, a tool that provides quantitative textural and morphometric analyzes of vasculature in engineered tissues, alongside with a fast three-dimensional volume rendering is proposed. The investigated 3D artificial tissues consist of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) embedded in collagen exposed to two regimes of ultrasound standing wave fields under different pressure conditions. Textural features were evaluated over the extracted connected region in our samples using the normalized Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) combined with Gray-Level Run Length Matrix (GLRLM) …

Challenges Of Permitting Ballast Water Discharges From Commercial Vessels In U.S. Waters, Paul Rodriguez

Theses

On February 5, 2009, the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) issued the Vessel General Permit (VGP), under the Clean Water Act (CWA), for discharges incidental to the normal operation of vessels, including ballast water discharges. This set forth permit requirements for most commercial vessel discharges within 3 nautical miles of U.S. shore. Since it will expire in December 2013, the US EPA recently issued a draft 2013 VGP. One of the significant changes is the proposal of numerical ballast water discharge standards requiring most commercial vessels to install ballast water treatment systems onboard.

The objective of this thesis is …

Design And Simulation Of A Mechanical Hand, Yateen P. Shembade

Theses

A variety of mechanical hand designs have been developed in the past few decades. The majority of the designs were made with the sole purpose of imitating the human hand and its capabilities; however, none of these designs have been equipped with all the motions and sensory capabilities of the human hand. The primary goal of this thesis project was to design a robotic hand with the required amount of degrees-of-freedom and necessary constraints to achieve all the motions of the human hand. Demonstration of the American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet, using a virtual design and controls platform, was used …

Cancer Biotherapy Resource, Preety Priya

Theses

`Cancer Biotherapy' - as opposed to cancer chemotherapy- is the use of macromolecular, biological agents instead of organic chemicals or drugs to treat cancer. Biotherapy is a treatment modality that blocks the growth of cancer cells by interfering with specific, targeted molecules needed for carcinogenesis and tumor growth instead of simply interfering with rapidly dividing cells as in chemotherapy1. In light to the much higher selectivity of biological agents than chemical agents for cancer cells over normal cells, there is a much less toxic side effect in biotherapy as compared to chemotherapy. As solid tumor cancer continues to be analyzed …

Assembly, Annotation, And Polymorphic Characterization Of The Erysiphe Necator Transcriptome, Jason Myers

Theses

The objectives of this study were to develop a transcriptomic reference resource and to characterize polymorphism between isolates of Erysiphe necator (syn. Uncinula necator), grape powdery mildew. The wine and fresh fruit markets are economically vital to many countries worldwide, and E. necator infection can cause severe crop damage and subsequent financial loss. Most of the publicly available sequence data for Erysiphales are from research done on Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei, barley powdery mildew, which occupies a distinct clade within the Erysiphales. We obtained 641,601 sequencing reads from a Roche 454–FLX next–generation sequencer (RNA–Seq) and performed multiple assemblies using …

Avoidance, Escape, And Approach Behavior In Individuals With High Behavioral Inhibition, Nicole Anastasides

Theses

No abstract provided.

Study Of Cellular Responses Under Chemically Induced Hypoxia, George Coricor

Theses

No abstract provided.

Hardware Neuromorphic Learning Systems Utilizing Memristive Devices, Michael Soltiz

Theses

As the efficiency of neuromorphic systems improves, biologically-inspired learning techniques are becoming more and more appealing for various computing applications, ranging from pattern and character recognition to general purpose reconfigurable logic. Due to their functional similarities to synapses in the brain, memristors are becoming a key element in the hardware realization of perceptron-based learning systems. By pairing memristive devices with a perceptron-based neuron model, previous work has shown that an efficient and low area neural logic block (NLB) can be developed. However, the use of a simple threshold activation function has limited the set of learnable functions for a single …

Influence Of Coffee Vermicompost On Growth And Nutrient Quality Of Greenhouse Spinach And Field Grown Green Bell Peppers, April Lorraine Vigardt

Theses

The vermicomposting of coffee grounds shows great promise for urban areas and university campuses. Several studies have examined using coffee grounds as a substrate for vermicomposting, however, little is known about its effect on plant growth, yield and quality. Therefore, two studies were conducted to assess these effects on greenhouse spinach and field grown bell peppers. Coffee vermicompost (VC) was utilized in a greenhouse spinach study over two spring growing seasons (2011 and 2012). Coffee VC was added to a 1:1:1 (peat, soil, sand) medium by volume (0, 25, 50 and 75%) in 4.5 L clay pots and seeded with …

Evaluation Of Growing Media For Annual Herb Production In Green Roof Modular Trays, Mary Margaret Fischer

Theses

Extensive urban development has led to the resurgence of green roofs. These vegetated roofs provide significant ecological and economic benefits including mitigation of the urban heat island effect, reduced storm-water runoff, lower energy costs, increased biodiversity, and improved aesthetics, as well as food production and security. Urban agriculture and food security are becoming increasingly important factors of the green roof renaissance. Due to weight load limitations of potential buildings, the ability to produce quality food in shallow media, less than 6.75 cm, could encourage green roof food production. The effectiveness of a commercially available green roof media and a vermicompost …

Do Large, Infrequent Disturbances Release Estuarine Wetlands From Coastal Squeezing?, Jesse Fruchter

Theses

As disturbance frequencies, intensities, and types have changed and continue to change in response to changing climate and land-use patterns, coastal communities undergo shifts in both species composition and dominant vegetation type. Over the past 100 years, fire suppression throughout the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast has resulted in shifts towards woody species dominance at the expense of marsh cover. Over the next 100 years, sea levels will rise and tropical storm activity is projected to increase; resultant changes in salinity could reduce cover of salt-intolerant fresh marsh species. Together, the effects of fire suppression upslope and rising salinities downslope …

Positron Emission Tomography Utilization Development In Hong Kong, Steve Sitt

Theses

The introduction of clinical Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in oncology in the 1990s has substantially changed the management of patients with cancer and become one of the diagnostic modalities with the fastest growth worldwide (Buck et al., 2010). The major hurdle delaying the proliferation of PET was partly due to its high initial investment and insufficient third-party reimbursement (Keppler & Conti, 2001). Hong Kong, a region with about half the economic strength of Germany, was able to sustain a higher ratio of PET-CT scanners than that of Germany. Through the study of the PET utilization in Hong Kong, this research …

Late Spring Survey And Richness Estimation Of The Aquatic Benthic Insect Community In The Upper Portion Of The Lusk Creek Watershed, Jacqueline Turner

Theses

The Lusk Creek Watershed, located in Pope County, IL, long has been recognized as a high quality area and as biologically significant. Yet, surveys of the macroinvertebrate fauna have been limited. Thus, a survey of the benthic insect community in the upper portion of Lusk Creek was conducted from May 2003 to April 2005. Eleven sites were selected and characterized by physical properties and water chemistry. Insect distribution patterns, abundance, and diversity (richness, evenness) were examined. A total of 20,888 specimens, mostly immatures, were examined during the study and represented eight orders. The Diptera, by far, was the most common …

Interactionist Labeling: Formal And Informal Labeling's Effects On Juvenile Delinquency, Daniel Ryan Kavish

Theses

This thesis critically reviews prior labeling theory research concerning juvenile delinquency and crime; it adds to current work by using contemporary data. Labeling events are described in detail to provide an overall understanding of where labels originate, who is casting the label, and what research suggests concerning different types of labels. An interactionist labeling model is tested to explain levels of juvenile delinquency among a nationally representative sample of American adolescents: the first three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Finally, negative binomial regression models are estimated in order to better explain the dynamic relationship …

Specimen, Mary Richardson

Theses

Ideas of human interaction and levels of physical construction touched upon in geometry and physics have saturated my practice for many years. Having come from a small town in Virginia and moving to a big city like Chicago, I was confronted with massive amounts of people, ideas, cultures, and stimuli of which I had never before conceived. I realized that how we interact as people is a similar dynamic found in molecular interaction. This same interaction takes place in celestial formation, plant growth, decomposition, and even emotion. As I came to terms with my own presence in the world, my …

Defending The Role Of Unconscious Intentions: A Response To Wegner, Hannah Bondurant

Theses

Cognitive science has recently supported and popularized the idea that perhaps free will is but an illusion. With his theory of apparent mental causation, Daniel M. Wegner in particular proposes that our beliefs about intention and the control we exert over our actions are actually based upon other factors and usually occur retroactively. Since many of our actions are determined and preformed outside of awareness, the cause of said actions could then be difficult to locate. Part of Wegner’s argument lies in his assumption of brain activity and corresponding behavior as conscious and “controlled” or outside of awareness and unintended. …

Nuclear Migration And Spermatid Elongation During Spermiogenesis In Drosophila Pseudoobscura, Benjamin S. Reimer

Theses

No abstract provided.

Modeling A Solar-Heated Anaerobic Digester For The Developing World Using System Dynamics, Johanna Bentley

Theses

Much of the developing world lacks access to a dependable source of energy. Agricultural societies such as Mozambique and Papua New Guinea could sustain a reliable energy source through the microbacterial decomposition of animal and crop waste. Anaerobic digestion produces methane, which can be used directly for heating, cooking, and lighting. Adding a solar component to the digester provides a catalyst for bacteria activity, accelerating digestion and increasing biogas production. Using methane decreases the amount of energy expended by collecting and preparing firewood, eliminates hazardous health effects linked to inhalation of particles, and provides energy close to where it is …

A Computational Study Of The Effects Of Adherent Leukocytes On Secondary Recruitment, Dhananjay Subramaniam

Theses

Leukocyte rolling is known to be mediated by the selectin family of adhesion molecules and their corresponding ligands and is characterized by the formation and breakage of receptor-ligand bonds. Selectin mediated rolling is associated with the initial stages of the leukocyte adhesion cascade (LAC) in which the cell passes through several stages including chemo-attraction, rolling adhesion, tight adhesion and transmigration before moving out of the circulatory system towards the site of injury. This thesis studies the initial stages of the leukocyte adhesion cascade through a direct numerical simulation based on boundary element techniques. Besides, cell deformation during rolling is believed …

A Regression-Based Training Algorithm For Multilayer Neural Networks, Christopher W. Sherry

Theses

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are powerful tools for machine learning with applications in many areas including speech recognition, image classification, medical diagnosis, and spam filtering. It has been shown that ANNs can approximate any function to any degree of accuracy given enough neurons and training time. However, there is no guarantee on the number of neurons required or the time it will take to train them. These are the main disadvantages of using ANNs. This thesis develops an algorithm which uses regression-based techniques to decrease the number of training epochs. A modification of the Delta Rule, combined with techniques established …