Digital Commons Network^™

Characterizing The Effect Of Vegetable Oil-Based Electron Donor Concentration On Complete Dechlorination Of Trichloroethene And Vinyl Chloride, Alex Haluska

All Theses

Chlorinated ethenes are known or suspected carcinogens. They are also among the most frequently detected organic groundwater contaminants because of wide use and poor disposal practices. Within anaerobic aquifer systems, Fe(III) reduction is a prevalent terminal electron accepting process and has often been reported as a competitive electron acceptor with respect to trichloroethene (TCE), cis-dichloroethene (cis-DCE), and vinyl chloride (VC) reduction. Often, practitioners add excessive amounts of electron donor to compensate for this competition in an effort to avoid incomplete dechlorination or "cis-DCE and VC stall." Contaminated aquifer material incubations were setup to assess dechlorination rates and extent under Fe(III)-reducing …

A Study Of Surface Modification On Current Orthopaedic Bioceramics After In Vivo Exposure To The Physiological Environment, Alexander William Wusylko

All Theses

Over 300,000 total hip replacement (THR) surgeries are performed annually in the United States with generally good clinical outcomes. Surgical registries around the world report that approximately 90% of implanted THR devices survive for ten years or longer after implantation. However, the trend of increasing incidence of THR, particularly among younger, more active patients has generated considerable interest in THR design improvements to increase the longevity of these devices. As a result, many new articular bearing materials have been introduced for THR in recognition of prosthesis wear as a leading failure reason for contemporary designs. Ceramic-on-ceramic articulations were first introduced …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Functionalized Surfaces For Rapid Determination Of Alpha Particle Emitting Radionuclides, Mary Ann Williford

All Theses

To fulfill a need for rapid, simple, and inexpensive ways to identify alpha emitting radioisotopes (i.e. primarily actinides), a method has been developed for the analysis of plutonium by combining concentration and source preparation into a single step using functionalized or coated substrates. Two substrates were utilized in this work 1) glass slides functionalized using polymerized aspartic acid and 2) glass discs coated with graphene oxide (GO) prepared by spin coating. Uptake of plutonium on both substrates was low, on the order of 1% of the total activity in the system. However, GO was found to have superior resolution. As …

Microneedle Arrays For Injection Seeding Of Tissue Engineered Scaffolds, Katelyn Michelle Rye

All Theses

Tissue engineered constructs have proven to possess comparable mechanical and physical characteristics to autologous tissues making them suitable replacements fordiseased anatomy when autologous tissue transplants are unavailable. However, difficulty in reseeding the constructs with cells prevents the tissue-engineered scaffoldsfrom becoming an adequate, equivalent replacement for diseased tissues when compared to autologous transplants. Cells adhere to the outer surfaces of scaffolds but are incapable of penetrating the constructs to provide complete cellularization. If cells were able to populate the inner layers of the tissue, then they could likely diffuse into the intimal and external layers of the construct to create a …

Composite Panel Impact Testing For The Down-Selection Of Material For Use In The Outer Shell Of Football Helmets, Natalie Genevieve Patzin

All Theses

Each year, there are an estimated 3.8 million sports-related concussions that occur in the United States alone, the majority occurring during football collisions. These staggering numbers occur even with the use of mandated protective helmets, which are designed to decrease potential brain injuries. The outer shell of a football helmet acts as a shield for vulnerable areas of the cranium by providing the initial impact force dispersion to allow a more distributed load to be transferred to the inner foam padding. The current material standard for the exterior casing is a polycarbonate blend. Multiple studies demonstrate insufficiencies in current helmets …

A Study Of The Regularity Of Autocorrelation Of Manipulation Of Wrist Motion During Eating, Xueting Yu

All Theses

This thesis considers the problem of detecting the eating activities (e.g. meals, snacks) of people by tracking their wrist motion. Our goal is to automatically de- tect the start and end times of eating activities during free-living. It builds upon previous work done by our research group [6] [7] [8] [21]. The detection is done by segmenting data into segments then classifying the segments as EA (eating activity) and NonEA (non-eating activity) using a Bayesian classier. Previous features used in the classier developed by our group included the sum of acceleration, the amount of manipulation, the amount of wrist roll …

Deveopment Of Explant Registry And Mechanical Testing Of Pristine And Explained Surgical Mesh, Colin Burns-Heffner

All Theses

Abdominal hernia repair is the most commonly performed general surgical procedure, with synthetic surgical mesh commonly used to buttress the defect in the abdominal wall. A majority of surgical mesh is made from Polypropylene (PP), which has been shown to invoke a foreign body response as long as the material remains in the body. Complications such as chronic pain require further investigation of mesh performance in hernia repair to better understand how performance differs for various surgical mesh materials. The broad objective of this thesis is to quantitatively characterize surgical mesh after exposure to human physiology in an in-vivo environment. …

Characterization Of Biofilms On Medical Device Materials With Application To Reusable Surgical Instruments, Amanda Macaluso

All Theses

Reusable medical devices or reprocessed single-use devices are original medical devices that have been used once and then are cleaned, sterilized, and remanufactured for the purpose of an additional single use on a single patient [4]. Improperly reprocessed devices are a significant contributor to hospital-associated infections [4]. Challenges that hinder reprocessing are related to the complexity of reusable medical device design, the necessary validation of cleaning protocols required by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the impact of human factors throughout the reprocessing cycle, as well as economic factors within new business models that are centered on reprocessing. Current …

Building Information Modeling: Beyond Design, Commissioning And Construction, Timothy Brooks

All Theses

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is continuing to grow in popularity among contractors and more recently among owners as the complexity and usefulness of models are improved. Many construction firms have used BIM or adopted it in their practices to some degree. However, while it is growing in popularity, its use in facility management by the owner is still lagging. This research examines how construction processes can be better organized to supply the owner a BIM that would be useful for facility management activities. The research was conducted to identify successful post-construction BIM implementation practices and the ways in which contractors …

Combining Modified Atmosphere Packaging And Nisin To Extend The Shelf Life Of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar), Dong Han

All Theses

Atlantic salmon is often used in laboratory experiments to represent marine fishes. Many researchers try to optimize the levels and dosage of preservatives to maintain the freshness and extend the shelf-life of Atlantic salmon. Little information has been provided about the effectiveness of combined method between MAP and nisin, especially on the preservation of Atlantic salmon. Strong evidences suggest that MAP associated with nisin may have a potential to improve Atlantic salmon storage quality. Preservation effectiveness of combining modified atmosphere package (MAP) and nisin on fresh Atlantic salmon was determined using various methods. Six groups of farmed Atlantic salmon were …

Numerical Simulation Of The Heat Leakage At The Gasket Region Of Domestic Refrigerators, Feng Gao

All Theses

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed to investigate the heat loss at the gasket of a standard over/under domestic refrigerator. The study numerically simulates a unique experimental test cell with only the gasket region exposed to the ambient environment and other parts protected by insulation (see picture below). The test cell is cubic with an interior cavity having dimensions 2' x 2' x 2' within which a heating element is placed to create a specified temperature difference. A matching set of door and side panels exposes a 2' width of the gasket region to heat transfer with the surroundings. …

Diffusion Of The Lnternet And Its Effect On Gender Attitudes: A Cross-National Approach, Robert Roznowski

Masters Theses

The rapid diffusion of the Internet worldwide generates discussion about the social implications of the Internet. To explore the effect of Internet diffusion worldwide, this study examines changes in reported gender attitudes since the introduction of the Internet. I propose that the diffusion of the Internet fosters egalitarian changes in gender attitudes. Using cross-national data from forty countries over a time span of nearly twenty years, I successfully implement an alternative analysis technique, the slope-slope model, to examine the relationship between rates of Internet diffusion and changes in gender attitudes in the economic, political, and education domains. Internet diffusion affects …

Sensitivity Of Columbia Basin Runoff To Long-Term Changes In Multi-Model Cmip5 Precipitation Simulations, Mehmet Demirel, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we used precipitation elasticity index of streamflow, to reflect on the sensitivity of streamflow to changes in future precipitation. We estimated precipitation elasticity of streamflow from: (1) simulated streamflow by the VIC model using observed precipitation for the current climate (1963–2003); (2) simulated streamflow by the VIC model using simulated precipitation from 10 GCM - CMIP5 dataset for the future climate (2010–2099) including two different pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) and two different downscaled products (BCSD and MACA). The hydrological model was calibrated at 1/16 latitude-longitude resolution and the simulated streamflow was routed to the subbasin outlets of …

Enzyme, Cosolvent, And Substrate Interactions In Ple Hydrolysis Reactions And Evaluation Of The Stability Of An Unnatural Glutathione Analogue, Maureen Elizabeth Smith

Dissertations

Prochiral diester malonates have been hydrolyzed in the presence of Pig Liver Esterase (PLE). Several of the diesters produced the respective half-ester in moderate to high enantioselectivity. A series of cosolvent assays were performed to evaluate the ability of the cosolvent to influence the enantioselective outcome of the hydrolysis reactions. Ethanol produced the largest changes in enantioselectivity of all solvents evaluated. The isoenzymes of PLE were also evaluated and provided very different enantioselective outcomes than that of crude PLE. A series of NMR titrations was performed to explore the interactions between the substrates and ethanol cosolvents.

Improvements to our previously …

Panorama December 2014, Southern Adventist University

Panorama Parent Newsletter

This issue of the Panorama parent newsletter provides advice for students transitioning into adulthood, highlights some of the practical life skills training Southern offers, includes a profile on Student Dean Aubrey Wallin, and highlights the SA Senate.

Dielectron Azimuthal Anisotropy At Mid-Rapidity In Au + Au Collisions At √SNn=200 Gev, J. Kevin Adkins, Renee Fatemi, Suvarna Ramachandran, G. Webb, L. Adamczyk, G. Agakishiev, M. M. Aggarwal, Z. Ahammed, I. Alekseev, J. Alford, C. D. Anson, A. Aparin, D. Arkhipkin

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We report on the first measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy (v₂) of dielectrons (e⁺e⁻ pairs) at mid-rapidity from √^S_NN=200 GeV Au + Au collisions with the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), presented as a function of transverse momentum (p_T) for different invariant-mass regions. In the mass region M_eec² the dielectron v₂ measurements are found to be consistent with expectations from π⁰, η, ω, and ϕ decay contributions. In the mass region 1.1<M_ee<2.9GeV/c …