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Tissue Engineering A Blood Vessel Mimic While Monitoring Contamination Through Sterility Assurance Testing, Navid Djassemi

Master's Theses

Tissue Engineering A Blood Vessel Mimic While Monitoring Contamination Through Sterility Assurance Testing

Navid Djassemi

Tissue engineering blood vessel mimics has been proposed as a method to analyze the endothelial cell response to intravascular devices that are used in today’s clinical settings for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Thus, the development of in vitro blood vessel mimics (BVMs) in Cal Poly’s Tissue Engineering Lab has introduced the possibility of assessing the characteristics of cellular response to past, present, and future intravascular devices that aim at treating coronary artery disease.

This thesis aimed at improving the methods and procedures utilized in …

Geoinformation Technologies In The Identification Of Meandering Section Of The River, Beata Wieczorek, Katarzyna Glińska-Lewczuk, Anna Sobieraj

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The aim of this study was to present the capabilities of using geoinformation technologies in the process of outlining meandering section of the river.Development of valley plain rivers landscape is connected with occurrence of old river beds, which came into existence because of natural changing of river-bed (meandering) or man interference in water system (Glińska-Lewczuk et al. 2010). Survey results from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) combined with hydrologic data can be successfully used to determine area, borders and duration of overflow of the old river beds. It is a complex problem which requires operations with large data sets. These actions …

Validation And Sensitivity Of A Coupled Model Tool For Cso Impact Assessment In Berlin, Germany, Mathias Riechel, Andreas Matzinger, Hauke Sonnenberg, Nicolas Caradot, Ilka Meier, B. Heinzmann, Pascale Rouault

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the city of Berlin combined sewer overflows (CSO) can lead to severedepressions in dissolved oxygen (DO) of receiving urban rivers and hence to acutestress for the local fish fauna. To quantify CSO impacts and optimize sewermanagement strategies, a model-based planning instrument has been developed.It couples the urban drainage model InfoWorks CS which simulates hydraulics andpollutant transport in the sewer with the river water quality model QSim whichsimulates hydraulics, mass transport and various biogeochemical processes in thereceiving water body. To identify simulated CSO impacts, concentration-durationfrequency-thresholds for DO are applied to river model results via an impactassessment tool. Two kinds of …

Transdisciplinary Conceptual Modeling Of Socio-Ecological System, Maria Helena Guimarães, Johanna Ballé-Béganton, Denis Bailly, Alice Newton, Tomasz Boski, Tomaz Dentinho

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Management of natural resources is a complex issue. Human history shows the need for sustainable management of natural resources and one of the premises for this is knowledge integration. Nevertheless the need to integrate different types of knowledge poses a challenge. This paper proposes Conceptual Modeling as a tool to improve deliberation processes and research. Praia da Vitoria Bay in Terceira Island, part of Azores archipelago is the case study for Conceptual Modeling in a transdisciplinary setting towards system definition. During a three hour workshop, 18 stakeholders worked together to produce Conceptual Models describing Praia da Vitória Bay socio-ecological system. …

Model Components For Evaluating Climate Change Impact On Wetlands, Nikolay Zavalishin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Reaction of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change and human perturbations can be complex and uncertain. It is reflected in changes of ecosystem biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen. For wetland and spruce forest ecosystems of boreal forest area in European territory of Russia and Western Siberia the series of compartment models for combined carbon-nitrogen cycle dynamics is developed and analyzed. The models are realized in several software modules allowing make estimates of stability boundaries for equilibria, trajectories of ecosystem dynamics under climate change and perturbations initiated by human activities.

Implementing Biodiversity Risks In The Classroom - The Educational Software Pronas, Karin Ulbrich, Oliver Schweiger, Josef Settele

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Climate change and dramatic loss of biodiversity are essential subjects for EU research. However, little of current knowledge is reaching the young generation. In order to implement biodiversity research into the reality of school education we brought members of the scientific and educational communities together. Educational software has been developed which combines desk (or rather lap-)top work with field experiences by combining virtual excursions with real ones.The software PRONAS shows how scientists handle questions about the impact of climate change on species’ habitats. It makes core results of research projects available for students from 12 to 19 and is freely …

Sensitivity Analysis Of Environmental Flow Rule Curves For Water Allocation Optimization: Case Study, The Upper Oldman River Basin, Alberta, Canada, M. Reza Ghanbarpour, Howard Wheater, Patricia Gober

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water allocation models use a set of decision rule curves to define constraints and priorities for optimal allocation of limited water supply to all water demands and requirements at the river basin scale. These rules are necessary to achieve optimal tradeoff between different river basin management goals (e.g. environment protection, urban development, agricultural expansion). However, many operating rules need to be modified as water demands and river basin priorities change over time due to socio-political forces and climate change. In particular, environmental flow criteria are of major interest; they can raise challenges for resource allocation, and represent an important interface …

Application Of A Metapopulation Approach For Analysis Of Space-Time Population Dynamics (Case Study Using Ungulates), Matvey Kulakov, Oksana Revutskaya, Efim Frisman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper is devoted to the analysis of basic regularities in spatialdynamics of the wild boar (Sus scrofa ussuricus Heude, 1888) and the red deer(Cervus elaphus xanthopigus Milne-Edwards, 1867) numbers in the Russian MiddleAmur area, on the example of the Jewish Autonomous Region. We research amodel of space-time metapopulation dynamics based on a coupled map lattice. Weuse the metapopulation approach for quantitative analysis of migration activity forthe wild boar and the red deer populations. Using the model estimates of migrationand reproductive parameters we described the main migration routes of thesepopulations. It is shown that individuals of wild boar population migrate …

Development Of A Guideline For Regional And Local Authorities To Adapt To Climate Change - Results Of The Project “Klimpass”, Hardy Pundt, Andrea Heilmann, Enrico Kerwel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The project KLIMPASS was aimed at the development of an adaptation strategy to climate change based on a regional, and local level. The basis of such a strategy is formed by the existing climate change scenarios. The overall goal is to move from a high level of abstraction to context specific conditions, involving local stakeholders and concrete actors. GIS technology was used to process vulnerability maps that support decision-making processes about measures to be implemented envisaging potential climatic threats. This paper describes the overall methodology applied, and focuses later on the GIS-based vulnerability maps.

Distributed Modelling Of The Fate Of Pesticides In Groundwater, Approaches For Calibration And Validation, Kees Vink, Matthijs Bonte

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Groundwater and raw water pollution risks of pesticides were assessed by analyses of groundwater samples and by modelling groundwater flow and chemical transport with a coupled model ‘train’ consisting of: - a regional Modflow model for simulation of groundwater flow in the saturated zone (IBRAHYM, TNO 2007)) - a 1-D model for simulation of water and pesticide transport in the unsaturated zone (PEARL, Leistra, 2001) - a pathline-based chemical transport model for the saturated zone (RESPOND, Vink, 2008) The use of pesticides over the years was reconstructed with a series of detailed land-use maps specifying agricultural use over the period …

Comparison Of Two Common Empirical Methods To Model Land-Use Choices In A Multi-Agent System Simulation Of Landscape Transition: Implication For A Hybrid Approach, Quang Bao Le, Flávia F. Feitosa

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Land-use choice routines embedded in a human-environment system (HES) model must meet more requirements than those in models typically presented in purely economic or psychological studies. This study compares the strengths and shortcomings of two common empirical methods - multi-nominal logistic (MNL) regression and classification tree (CT) analysis – for specifying landuse choices in a multi-agent system simulation framework (Land Use Dynamics Simulator - LUDAS). First, we described design concepts of land-use decisionmaking mechanism in the LUDAS framework in which household’s land-use choice is a component. Next, we compared two common methods for modeling the landuse choice with respect to …

Agent-Based Simulation Of Stakeholders' Negotiation Regarding Land Development Scenarios Using A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, Majeed Pooyandeh, Danielle J. Marceau

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper describes an agent-based model (ABM) that was developed to simulate the negotiation process of stakeholders over different land development scenarios in the Elbow River watershed in southern Alberta, an area subject to considerable urbanization pressure due to its proximity to the fast growing City of Calgary. In this initial phase of development, the stakeholders represented as agents include representatives of a Municipal District and two non-profit organizations. The modeling framework contains three main components: a web interface designed to facilitate the interactions of the users with the system, a PostgreSQL database in which data regarding the stakeholders’ preferences …

Semantic Array Programming For Environmental Modelling: Application Of The Mastrave Library, Daniele De Rigo

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental datasets grow in size and specialization while models designed for local scale are often unsuitable at regional/continental scale. At regional scale, data are usually available as georeferenced collections of spatially distributed despite semantically atomic information. Complex data intrinsically impose modellers to manipulate nontrivial information structures. For example, multi-dimensional arrays of time series may be composed by slices of raster spatial matrices for each time step, whilst heterogeneous collections of uneven arrays are common when dealing with data analogous to precipitation events, and these structures may ask for integration at several spatial scales, projections and temporal extents. Interestingly, it might …

Modelling Human-Environment Systems In Transdisciplinary Processes, Roman Seidl, Quang Bao Le

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

There is an increased tendency in scientific projects to include different disciplines, policy makers, practitioners, and the general public in unstructured, complex, or potential environmental problems resulting from human activities. Such problems may sometimes be associated with strong value-laden and contested issues. Integrated assessment modelling (IAM) or decision support systems (DSS) are used in transdisciplinarity (TD) settings to organize processes of mutual learning in science and society. In its ideal form, a TD process is characterized by joint leadership, with representatives from the science community and legitimized decision makers having equal roles. We present and briefly illustrate our TD approach …

Modelling The Spread Of An Invasive Crayfish Population With Fuzzy Cellular Automata, Stefano Marsili-Libelli, E. Giusti, F. Gherardi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper analyzes the spread of the invasive red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) with a Cellular Automata (CA) model in a mixed terrestrial/aquatic environment. The spatial domain is subdivided in a number of cells, each behaving as a cellular automaton with local rules governing inner growth and movements across the cells. The novelty of the CA approach consists of incorporating a fuzzy inference system in the local rules determining the habitat suitability of neighbouring cells, thus determining the mobility of crayfish. Though the study is in an early stage of development, the preliminary results presented here look encouraging enough to …

Which Household Tolerates Droughts? – Strategies To Secure Pastoral Livelihoods, Romina Drees, A. Linstadter, Karin Frank, Birgit Müller

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Increasing frequencies of droughts pose a threat to pastoral livelihoods in drylands. Using a rangeland model, we analyze the effects of droughts and mobility strategies on herd size dynamics. Since the herd provides the basic income for mobile pastoralists, we evaluate herd dynamics as income to estimate the risk of endangered livelihoods due to droughts. This methodology enables us to identify critical changes in natural resource use systems which are prone to shocks. Model results show that the socio-economic type of the household and therewith its adaptive capacity to be mobile rather than the obvious ecological effects of droughts determine …

Modeling Urban Growth And Land Use Change With Cellular Automata And Genetic Algorithms, Arlex Sanchez, Wilmer Barreto, Neiler Medina, Zoran Vojinovic

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

It is a well accepted fact that urbanisation, climate change and population growth represent an enormous challenge for urban water managers. In this respect, computer models coupled with spatial mapping techniques have proved to be invaluable. The present paper demonstrates the use of a cellular automata model (Dinamica Ego) for modeling land use change process on a case study of Birmingham (UK). Two approaches were evaluated for this purpose. The results obtained show that the model based on optimization of parameters that deal with the process of expansion/contraction is capable of producing promising results. The analysis was carried out using …

An Extensible, Multi-Model Software Library For Simulating Crop Growth And Development, Roberto Confalonieri, S. Bregaglio, T. Stella, G. Negrini, Marco Acutis, Marcello Donatelli

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The availability of different crop models and of a variety of techniques to evaluate their behaviour led to a change of paradigm in crop models use. Modellers are now looking beyond the idea of groups of users and developers grounded on a specific model, and international initiatives focusing on model improvement basing on intercomparison and knowledge sharing are recently catalysing the attention of the international community. Also, the analysis under environmental conditions of no adaptation by crops, such as the ones of climate change scenarios, demand for extension of crop models to account for extreme events, diseases and pests impact, …

Contribution Of River-Bed Interfaces To Running Water Quality By Coupling Modeling And In Situ Measurements., Sabine Sauvage, José-Miguel Sanchez-Perez, Magali Gerino, Stéphanie Boulêtreau, Sébastien Delmotte, Dimitri Peyrard, Samuel Teissier

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Water quality is strongly related to interactions between the structure and function of ecosystem components at landscape scale of a river. Key interfaces as part of these components, identified in our study, are the epilithic biofilm, the fine sediments in the bottom of the river and the macroporous medium or hyporheic zone located essentially in the active channel where subsurface flow takes place. This article presents three examples of interface sub-models where water and elements fluxes exchanged with the surface water are different, with the focus on organic matter and nitrate dynamics for the Garonne river (France) in its middle …

Modelling Of Ecosystem With Different Types Of Components Aggregation, Evgeniya Giricheva

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The paper presents several models of the Bering Sea ecosystem. The models differ in the degree and method of grouping. The use of the multimodal approach to research of ecosystems makes better use of available information about the object. The system is considered in two ways: as a closed object and given the influence of the environment. Equilibriums of the system were examined for stability. A comparison of the solutions of the aggregated model with the dynamics of the original model is performed.

Weight-Of-Evidence-Based Assessment Of Sediment Quality Of The São Francisco River (Brazil) With The Help Of Software Tool Sqa, Alla Khosrovyan, Maria Jose Salamanca Marin, André Moldenhauer Peret, Débora Fernandes De Almeida, T. Angel Delvalls, Inmaculada Riba

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Weight-of-evidence (WOE) approach is a requirement for comprehensive integrated sediment quality assessment and management worldwide. WOE is a system approach based on collection of several lines of evidences that are able to derive multi-aspect characterization of availability and adverse effects of contaminants for living organisms in water environments. A software tool addressing this approach is already available and based on the statistical package STATISTICA 6.0. The tool provided user-friendly and user-assisting interface for entering and analyzing of data, as well as presented a summary of the results of the conducted analysis. It was designed for environmental scientists and managers, academia …

Combining Socio-Economic And Ecological Modelling To Inform Natural Resource Management Strategies, Johannes P. M. Heinonen, Justin M. J. Travis, Steve M. Redpath, Michelle A. Pinard

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Effective management of natural resources requires understanding both the dynamics of the natural systems being subjected to management and the decision-making behaviour of stakeholders who are involved in the management process. We suggest that simulation modelling techniques can provide a powerful method platform for the transdisciplinary integration of ecological, economic and sociological aspects that is needed for exploring the likely outcomes of different management approaches and options. A concise review of existing literature on ecological and socio-economic modelling and approaches at the interface of these fields is presented followed by a framework coupling an individual-based ecological model with an agent-based …

Conceptual And Practical Aspects Of Quantifying Uncertainty In Environmental Modelling And Decision Support, Peter Reichert

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Environmental decision support intends to use the best available scienti-fic knowledge to predict the consequences of management alternatives. This raises 3 questions:(i) How to formally represent and quantify scientific knowledge?(ii) How to find adequate model structures and parameter values for predicting the behaviour of environmental systems under different driving conditions?(iii) How to implement efficient numerical procedures to actually calculate such predictions?Approaches to address all three of these questions will briefly be discussed. With respect to (i) an intersubjective interpretation of probabilities with an extension to imprecise probabilities is suggested as the most adequate representation of scienti-fic knowledge. Conceptual arguments in …

Transdisciplinary Research For Supporting Environmental Management, Meike Düspohl, Sina Frank, Tuck-Fatt Siew, Petra Döll

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Generation and integration of different forms of disciplinary knowledgeand knowledge outside of academia have become increasingly important in theeffort of tackling real-world problems that are related to complex and uncertainhuman-environment systems. In recent years, transdisciplinary research hasemerged as a collaborative and integrative approach for the co-generation ofsystem knowledge, target knowledge, and transformation knowledge amongscientists and stakeholders. In this paper, we present a methodology forparticipatory modelling processes that we apply in a transdisciplinary project forsustainable energy supply based on renewable energies in the county of Groß-Gerau in the German state of Hesse. The core of the transdisciplinary researchproject is a stakeholder …

The Application Of The Virtual Ecologist Approach To Evaluating The Effects Of Uncertainty In Plot Based Monitoring Schemes Due To Landscape Spatial And Temporal Heterogeneity, Alex Lechner, Daniel Clarke, Dion Weatherley, Andrew Fletcher, Peter Erskine, Alexis Comber

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Monitoring programs that can detect changes in ecosystem condition are critical to assessing the success of rehabilitation and detecting negative anthropogenic impacts from activities such as mining. However, vegetation communities vary considerably and may exhibit short-term condition changes that mask long-term trends. This paper describes the development of a virtual ecologist (VE) landscape and observation simulation model for time-series data (VELOS_t). VELOS_t can be used to quantify the relationship between vegetation temporal and spatial variability, measurement uncertainty and sampling design to evaluate the robustness of a particular monitoring strategy. The model has four components: i) a landscape model that uses …

Modelling Human Radiation Risks Around Nuclear Facilities In Germany And Switzerland: A Case Study, Hagen Scherb, Kristina Voigt, Ralf Kusmierz

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Ever since the discovery of the mutagenic properties of ionizing radiation, the possibility of birth sex odds shifts in exposed human populations was considered. The aim of this study was to investigate sex odds trends in the vicinity of nuclear facilities. Official gender specific annual live birth data were compiled at the levels of all municipalities in Germany, Switzerland and France. In a recently published study by the authors, the effect of ionizing radiation on the alteration of sex odds in the vicinity of German nuclear facilities was investigated. The authors revealed an increase in the sex odds. To assess …

Modeling Dietary Intake Of Arsenic And The Associated Human Health Risk For People Living In Rural Bangladesh, Nasreen I. Khan, David Bruce, Gary Owens

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Dietary intake of Arsenic (As) via contaminated drinking water and food is the major exposure pathway for people living in rural Bangladesh and causes adverse human health effects where groundwater As contamination and the associated human health risks are potentially spatially connected. This research quantifies the spatial variability of As in the rural landscape in relation to As concentrations in drinking water, rice and other foods. The impact of As exposure on an individual’s human health was quantified using the average daily intake (ADI) to calculate the Hazard Quotient (HQ) and Cancer Risk (CR) using Bangladesh specific parameters via integration …

Data Set Characterizing Reforestation Of Drained Peatlands, Victor Sidorencov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The presentation concerns the problem of protecting such vulnerablecarbon stocks as peat deposits at the drained peatlands. Due to reduced demandsfor peat since the middle of 1990s, a large part of peatlands drained in Vologdaregion (Russian North-West) between 1980 and 1990 were not used for peatmining. The risk of fire is high at such ecosystems, and so it was decided to growforest on these lands. This paper presents the data set summarizing the results ofsurvey that was undertaken to study reforestation of drained peatlands.

How To Use New Online Monitoring Techniques To Improve River Water Quality Modeling At The River Reach Scale, Michael Rode, Uwe Kiwel

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

High spatial and temporal resolution monitoring systems are needed to improve our knowledge on flow and matter transport pathways and substance transformation. The presentation will introduce a new online water quality monitoring system as part of the UFZ TERENO Hydrological Observatory “Bode” and show how this new information can improve river water quality modelling. Additional low flow measurement campaigns including delta 18O and delta 15N isotope analyses of nitrate have been used to identify denitrification processes on a selected lower river reach. It will be demonstrated how high resolution data can be used in combination with a process based river …

An Agent-Based Model For Assessing Effects Of A Chinese Pes Programme On Land-Use Change Along With Livelihood Dynamics, And Land Degradation And Restoration, Takafumi Miyasaka, Quang Bao Le, Toshiya Okuro, Xueyong Zhao, Roland W. Scholz, Kazuhiko Takeuchi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Some Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programmes are designed to restore ecosystem services degraded by desertification, but evaluation of their effects are not straightforward because of complex human-environment systems (HES) in drylands. A PES system is used across China (the Sloping Land Conversion Programme, SLCP), including desertified regions. Previous research on SLCP indicated the lack of HES approaches to enable the integrated assessment of socio-ecological long-term effects of the programme. In particular, assessment was needed of: (1) multiple benefits, which cannot be positively correlated, including their cost-effectiveness, and (2) the effect of shifts in economic structure, particularly from agriculture to …