Digital Commons Network^™

Biofunctional Coatings Using Direct-Write Fabrication Technique For Surgical Implant Devices, Jessica L. Perkins

Dissertations

Surface modification of biomaterials is of critical value to attain desired functionality of biomedical devices and implants. Many of the conventional manufacturing methods used for the fabrication of thin film coatings lack the ability to precisely dispense biological compounds without compromising its chemical integrity. This research investigates the use of direct-write inkjet technique for the deposition of multi-layer coatings of biodegradable polymers. The Direct Write inkjet method provides selective deposition and patterning capability for depositing multi-material coatings on biomaterials for a vast array of surgical implant devices (e.g. stents for cardiovascular applications and orthopedic implants). In the first phase of …

An Integrated Data Mining Approach To Real-Time Clinical Monitoring And Deterioration Warning, Yi Mao, Wenlin Chen, Yixin Chen, Chenyang Lu

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Clinical study found that early detection and intervention are essential for preventing clinical deterioration in patients, for patients both in intensive care units (ICU) as well as in general wards but under real-time data sensing (RDS). In this paper, we develop an integrated data mining approach to give early deterioration warnings for patients under real-time monitoring in ICU and RDS. Existing work on mining real-time clinical data often focus on certain single vital sign and specific disease. In this paper, we consider an integrated data mining approach for general sudden deterioration warning. We synthesize a large feature set that includes …

Electrokinetic Properties Of Lipid And Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Membranes In Aqueous Electrolyte And In The Presence Of Lipophilic Ions, Laura Elizabeth Satterfield

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is the characterization of the membrane-water interfaces of both sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane (SR) and charged lipid bilayers under varied properties of the surrounding aqueous solution. In this work we studied the electrokinetic properties of liposomes and SR vesicles as well as the interaction of lipophilic ions with these membranes. The study of electrokinetic properties is based on the measurements of electrophoretic mobility of SR membrane vesicles and PC/PG liposomes. Electrophoretic mobility of SR vesicles was measured as a function of ionic strength for six pH values (pH 4.0, 4.7, 5.0, 6.0, 7.5, and 9.0). Electrophoretic …

The Assault On Bad Food: Tobacco-Style Litigation As An Element Of The Comprehensive Scheme To Fight Obesity, Jada Fehn

Faculty Scholarship

This article provides a summary of the obesity epidemic - the economic costs and importantly, some causes. The need for a comprehensive scheme will be explained by examining the shortfalls of current regulatory mechanisms. Next, this article will explain the three waves of tobacco litigation, the strategy involved in each, and why the third wave left an impact. Then, the current status of food litigation will be explained. Next, applying the tobacco model to big food, this article will make it clear that discovery is crucial in several respects. Lastly, an explicit call to action and a battle plan will …

Rafts, Nanoparticles And Neural Disease, Vishal Gulati, Ron Wallace

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

This review examines the role of membrane rafts in neural disease as a rationale for drug targeting utilizing lipid-based nanoparticles. The article begins with an overview of methodological issues involving the existence, sizes, and lifetimes of rafts, and then examines raft function in the etiologies of three major neural diseases-epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease-selected as promising candidates for raft-based therapeutics. Raft-targeting drug delivery systems involving liposomes and solid lipid nanoparticles are then examined in detail.

Report And Reflections From Year One Of The Nsf Gk- 12 Program At Usm, Sherry S. Herron, J. Hanna, K. Wingo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Chemical Substances On Hearing: Interactions With Noise, Adolf Vyskocil, Tony Leroux, Ginette Truchon, François Lemay, France Gagnon, Martine Gendron, Amar Boudjerida, Naïma El-Majidi, Claude Viau

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Cliquez ici pour la version française de ce rapport

Les auteurs ont examiné l’effet combiné du bruit et de l’exposition à des substances chimiques sur l’audition en utilisant des données humaines et animales de la littérature scientifique. Ils constatent qu’il n’existe qu’une cinquantaine d’études dans lesquelles l’exposition tant au bruit qu’aux substances chimiques est caractérisée avec suffisamment de précision et de fiabilité. De plus, les définitions données à une exposition au bruit « forte » ou « faible » varient d’une étude à l’autre. Il en résulte qu’il est très difficile de combiner l’ensemble des données pour en tirer des …

Complexities In The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Thyroid Cancer: Discussions, Observations, Research And Public Policy, Hannah V. Gordon

CMC Senior Theses

The impact of the increasing incidence of thyroid cancer presents an interesting case study in public health policy and resource allocation. During the last three decades, thyroid cancer cases have increased by more than 400%. As an illness that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands each year, the human and economic costs will be magnified in the next decade. It is estimated that approximately 13-67% of people will have thyroid nodules during their life of which approximately 5% will be malignant. The standard treatment, a thyroidectomy frequently followed by radioactive 131 iodine treatment, accordingly would seem to be a …

Improving The Throughput And Reliability Of Wireless Sensor Networks With Application To Wireless Body Area Networks, Gabriel Arrobo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation will present several novel techniques that use cooperation and diversity to improve the performance of multihop Wireless Sensor Networks, as measured by throughput, delay, and reliability, beyond what is achievable with conventional error control technology.

We will investigate the applicability of these new technologies to Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) an important emerging class of wireless sensor networks. WBANs, which promise significant improvement in the reliability of monitoring and treating people's health, comprise a number of sensors and actuators that may either be implanted in vivo or mounted on the surface of the human body, and which are …

Biobehavioral Correlates In Fibromyalgia, Ann Trivigno Mcnallen

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Fibromyalgia (FMS) is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by non-restorative sleep, and fatigue. Over 75% of individuals with FMS complain of poor sleep quality and fatigue. These have been ranked by patients with FMS as having great impact on quality of life. A literature review suggested that poor sleep quality may be a predictor of increased stress and FMS symptom onset in those affected. However, no experimental studies have demonstrated a causal relationship between poor sleep and stress in people with FMS. Methods: Using a single stage cross-sectional design, the primary study aim was to compare 25 women with …

Effect Of Leech Therapy On Body Composition Parameters / Nazihah Ahmad, Ahmad Nazihah

Student Works (2010-2019)

Leech therapy treatment is one of the complimentary and alternative medicine that has been categorized as one of the ancient method in treating diseases. Locally unpopular this treatment still has its own believer that practices it for the sake of bloodletting treatment that claims to be successful. Therefore, a series of study should be conducted in order to prove the aforementioned claim by using the bioimpedance analysis. Bioimpedance analysis is way of measuring the fat and fat free mass in much more convenience way. This measurement is normally used by nutritionist as this invasive method is very suitable to determine …

Effect Of Acupuncture Therapy On Body Composition Parameters / Kamrun Nahar, Nahar Kamrun

Student Works (2010-2019)

Acupuncture is a technique for inserting needles into the body to introduce anesthesia or reduce pain. In detail, acupuncture basically is a procedure involved with stimulation of anatomical locations on or in the skin by using different types of techniques. Acupuncture is used for maintaining condition of body or treats human diseases for thousands of years.This thesis concerns the bioimpedance parameters (BI) and body composition parameters of people before and after undergoing acupuncture therapy. To measure bioimpedance (BI) parameters of normal subject and patients before and after acupuncture therapy I need to calculate the body composition parameters using Quadscan 4000. …

Global Warming And Heat Stress Among Western Australian Mine, Oil And Gas Workers, Joseph Mate, Jacques Oosthuizen

Research outputs 2012

The earth is currently experiencing a change in its climate which in some areas is resulting in warmer ambient temperatures. Globally the frequency and severity of heat waves have increased over the last few decades leading to an associated increase in the burden of morbidity and mortality associated with heat waves. Global temperatures are predicted to rise even further in the foreseeable future....

Aging, Neuromuscular Decline, And The Change In Physiological And Behavioral Complexity Of Upper-Limb Movement Dynamics, S. Morrison, K. M. Newell

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Aging is characterized by a general decline in physiological and behavioral function that has been widely interpreted within the context of the loss of complexity hypothesis. In this paper, we examine the relation between aging, neuromuscular function and physiological-behavioral complexity in the arm-hand effector system, specifically with reference to physiological tremor and isometric force production. Experimental findings reveal that the adaptive behavioral consequences of the aging-related functional decline in neurophysiological processes are less pronounced in simple motor tasks which provides support for the proposition that the motor output is influenced by both extrinsic (e.g., task related) and intrinsic (e.g., coordination, …

Identification And Characterization Of A Spore-Like Morphotype In Chronically Starved Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis Cultures, Elise A. Lamont, J. P. Bannantine, Anibal Armien, Don Sanjiv Ariyakumar, Suelee Robbe-Austerman

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Mycobacteria are able to enter into a state of non-replication or dormancy, which may result in their chronic persistence in soil, aquatic environments, and permissive hosts. Stresses such as nutrient deprivation and hypoxia provide environmental cues to enter a persistent state; however, a clear definition of the mechanism that mycobacteria employ to achieve this remains elusive. While the concept of sporulation in mycobacteria is not novel, it continues to spark controversy and challenges our perceptions of a non-replication. We investigated the potential role of sporulation in one-year old broth cultures of Mycobacterium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). We show that dormant cultures …

Morality In The Virtual Space: Applying Moral Philosophy To Digital Worlds, James O'Sullivan

Theses

Since the turn of the century and the dawn of the digital age, online communities have witnessed significant growth in their importance. Significant numbers of virtual environments now exist, within which millions of individuals interact socially and economically, engaged fully in what is equivalent to a physical encounter, the only differences being the virtual representations through which they interact, and the physical security that this representation affords them. Though physically absent, individuals are fully engaged psychologically, and thus open to the same ethical dilemmas presented through reality. Application of real-world moral codes is encumbered by the existence of what 1 …

Physical Activity In Childhood May Be The Key To Optimizing Lifespan Skeletal Health, Hawley C. Almstedt, Katherine B. Gunter, Kathleen F. Janz

Health and Human Sciences Faculty Works

Physical activities undertaken in childhood, particularly activities which apply large forces quickly convey optimal benefits to bone mass, size, and structure. Evidence is accumulating that benefits persist well beyond activity cessation. This review examines the potential for early childhood activity to improve bone mineralization and structure and explores childhood activity as prevention for osteoporosis in later life.

The Efficacy Of Inquiry-Based Learning In Undergraduate Physiology, James Depaepe, Tracy Campion

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Lecture, where learning is passive, remains a prevalent instructional method of teaching content. Contextualized approaches like Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) where students are more actively engaged remains less common. For 25 years the literature has supported contextualized approaches. Nevertheless, recent papers have claimed IBL to be an unguided approach that has produced content knowledge deficits. Therefore, we tested whether undergraduate physiology content could be learned using IBL. Four groups of undergraduates (mean ages=23, N=60) took a ten-week physiology course using IBL. A content valid pretest and posttest measured content knowledge. A one-way ANOVA indicated no significant differences within or between groups …

Light-Limited Access To Fructose Alters Metabolic Function And Adipose Tissue Catecholaminergic Activity In Mice, Naima Salem Rodwan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Consumption of high levels of fructose produces glucose intolerance, sympathetic nervous system activation, and renal dysfunction. A diet high in fructose may play a role in the worldwide epidemic of obesity and diabetes. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that time (light/dark) limited access to fructose influences body fat, metabolic function, and adipose tissue catecholaminergic activity in mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were given standard chow and assigned to one of three groups: Control (n=10, water 24h); FL (n=11, 10% fructose solution during 12h light period); and FD (n=10, 10% fructose solution during 12h dark period). Metabolic …

Evolution Of The Globin Gene Family In Deuterostomes: Lineage-Specific Patterns Of Diversification And Attrition, Federico G. Hoffmann, Juan C. Opazo, David Hoogewijs, Thomas Hankeln, Bettina Ebner, Serge N. Vinogradov, Xavier Bailly, Jay F. Storz

Jay F. Storz Publications

In the Metazoa, globin proteins display an underlying unity in tertiary structure that belies an extraordinary diversity in primary structures, biochemical properties, and physiological functions. Phylogenetic reconstructions can reveal which of these functions represent novel, lineage-specific innovations, and which represent ancestral functions that are shared with homologous globin proteins in other eukaryotes and even prokaryotes. To date, our understanding of globin diversity in deuterostomes has been hindered by a dearth of genomic sequence data from the Ambulacraria (echinoderms + hemichordates), the sister group of chordates, and the phylum Xenacoelomorpha, which includes xenoturbellids, acoelomorphs, and nemertodermatids. Here, we report the results …

Gene Transcription In Sea Otters (Enhydra Lutris); Development Of A Diagnostic Tool For Sea Otter And Ecosystem Health, Lizabeth Bowen, A. Keith Miles, Michael Murray, Martin Haulena, Judy Tuttle, William Van Bonn, Lance Adams, James L. Bodkin, Brenda Ballachey, James A. Estes, M. Tim Tinker, Robin Keister, Jeffrey L. Stott

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Gene transcription analysis for diagnosing or monitoring wildlife health requires the ability to distinguish pathophysiological change from natural variation. Herein, we describe methodology for the development of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays to measure differential transcript levels of multiple immune function genes in the sea otter (Enhydra lutris); sea otter-specific qPCR primer sequences for the genes of interest are defined. We establish a ‘reference’ range of transcripts for each gene in a group of clinically healthy captive and free-ranging sea otters. The 10 genes of interest represent multiple physiological systems that play a role in immuno-modulation, …

Privacy & The Personal Prospectus: Should We Introduce Privacy Agents Or Regulate Privacy Intermediaries, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Simple Approach For Synthesis, Characterization And Bioactivity Of Bovine Bones To Fabricate The Polyurethane Nanofiber Containing Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles, Faheem A. Sheikh, M. A. Kanjwal, Javier Macossay-Torres, N. A. M. Barakat, H. Y. Kim

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

In the present study, we had introduced polyurethane (PU) nanofibers that contain hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles (NPs) as a result of an electrospinning process. A simple method that does not depend on additional foreign chemicals had been employed to synthesize HAp NPs through the calcination of bovine bones. Typically, a colloidal gel consisting of HAp/PU had been electrospun to form nanofibers. In this communication, physiochemical aspects of prepared nanofibers were characterized by FE-SEM, TEM and TEM-EDS, which confirmed that nanofibers were well-oriented and good dispersion of HAp NPs, over the prepared nanofibers. Parameters, affecting the utilization of the prepared nanofibers in …

Life Expansion: Toward An Artistic, Design-Based Theory Of The Transhuman / Posthuman, Natasha Vita-More

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

The thesis’ study of life expansion proposes a framework for artistic, design-based approaches concerned with prolonging human life and sustaining personal identity. To delineate the topic: life expansion means increasing the length of time a person is alive and diversifying the matter in which a person exists. For human life, the length of time is bounded by a single century and its matter is tied to biology. Life expansion is located in the domain of human enhancement, distinctly linked to technological interfaces with biology. The thesis identifies human-computer interaction and the potential of emerging and speculative technologies as seeding the …

Identifying Ancestral Origin Using A Novel Panel Of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Locations, Zachary D. Williams

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A novel panel of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) used in the classification of ancestral origin is proposed. The panel is motivated by recent results in human identification and categorization using soft biometrics. The panel makes use of SNPs related to the height and ear size of an individual. The classifier proposed in this thesis is a standard maximum-likelihood classifier that matches an individual to the ancestral profile closest to the individual. This method produces results with lower error rates than other proposed methods.;This thesis proposes a new distinct panel of 55 single nucleotide polymorphisms for determining ancestral origin. This panel …

Collegiate Student Athlete Perception Of Satisfaction And Comfort With Athletic Training Students, Keith Tebbe

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

TITLE: Collegiate student athlete perceptions of satisfaction and comfort with athletic training students CONTEXT: Athletic training students (ATS) and student athletes have a large amount of interaction with one another. Many other medical professions study the interaction that their students have with a patient population. OBJECTIVE: Investigate student athlete's perception, satisfaction, and comfort with ATSs. DESIGN: Online survey. SETTING: Student athletes at CAATE- accredited institutions. PARTICIPANTS: 66 student athletes (20 male, 46 female) from 22 universities DATA COLLECTION: The survey consisted of 3 yes/no questions, 5 demographic questions, 1 multiple-answer question asking the participant to select characteristics that describe an …

The Effects Of Personal Protective Respirators On Human Motor, Visual, And Cognitive Skills, Anas Ahmed Alghamri

Doctoral Dissertations

"In oxygen-deficient or toxic environments in which controlling the hazard is not feasible, workers wear personal protective respirators. Hazard controls include but are not limited to engineering controls, such as ventilation, and substituting less hazardous materials. However, respirator selection and the design of tasks that require respirators are critical issues. Understanding the effects of respirators on human abilities is critical to respirator selection and therefore to the safety and efficiency of workers. This research investigated the effect of respirators on human abilities. A review of the relevant literature was conducted, revealing that respirators can affect physiological, psychological, motor, and visual …

Collegiate Student Athlete Perception Of Satisfaction And Comfort With Athletic Training Students, Keith Tebbe

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Title . Collegiate student athlete perceptions of satisfaction and comfort with athletic training students Context . Athletic training students (ATS) and student athletes have a large amount of interaction with one another. Many other medical professions study the interaction that their students have with a patient population. Objective . Investigate student athlete's perception, satisfaction, and comfort with ATSs. Design . Online survey. Setting . Student athletes at CAATE-accredited institutions. Participants . 66 student athletes (20 male, 46 female) from 22 universities Data collection . The survey consisted of 3 yes/no questions, 5 demographic questions, 1 multiple-answer question asking the participant …

The Crossover Effects Of Supervisor Work-Family Positive Spillover On Employee Sleep Deficiency: Moderating Effects Of Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (Fssb), Tori Laurelle Crain

Dissertations and Theses

The majority of literature on the work-family interface has focused on, and provided evidence of, the conflict associated with engagement in both work and family roles (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005). Research examining the positive aspects of work and family participation remains limited. The current study investigated how work-family positive spillover is transferred between members of the supervisor-employee dyad and subsequently how this affects employee sleep outcomes. It was hypothesized that work-to-family affective positive spillover experienced by supervisors would crossover to employees and increase their experiences of work-to-family affective positive spillover. In turn, this would allow for better …

Full Issue: Volume 6, Number 1

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

No abstract provided.