Digital Commons Network^™

A Model To Predict Concentrations And Uncertainty For Mercury Species In Lakes, Ashley Hendricks

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

To increase understanding of mercury cycling, a seasonal mass balance model was developed to predict mercury concentrations in lakes and fish. Results indicate that seasonality in mercury cycling is significant and is important for a northern latitude lake. Models, when validated, have the potential to be used as an alternative to measurements; models are relatively inexpensive and are not as time intensive. Previously published mercury models have neglected to perform a thorough validation. Model validation allows for regulators to be able to make more informed, confident decisions when using models in water quality management. It is critical to quantify uncertainty; …

Meniscus Modeling And Emission Studies Of An Ionic Liquid Ferrofluid Electrospray Source Emitting From A Magneto-Electric Instability, Brandon Jackson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation presents three studies on the electrospray of ionic liquid ferrofluid. Ionic liquid ferrofluids are electrically conductive super-paramagnetic fluids which respond strongly in the presence of electric and magnetic fields. When a small reservoir of ionic liquid ferrofluid is positioned within a magnetic field, magnetic stresses will deform the fluid interface into a peak. The addition of a strong electric field will further stress the fluid interface until a threshold stress is reached at which point the surface tension cannot contain the combined stresses and a spray of fluid or ions results at the apex. This process is termed …

A Bluetooth Low-Energy Wireless Sensor Platform For Continuous Monitoring Of A Bioreactor Environment During Cell Manufacturing, Brad Nelson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A wireless sensor platform based on Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) technology was designed and prototyped for continuous monitoring of physical conditions and chemical analytes, which could be applied to bioreactors during the cell manufacturing process. Controlling environmental conditions such as pH, oxygen, glucose, temperature, and pressure is vital to ensure the consistency of the manufactured cells and maintain the potency of the product. Current methods to control bioreactor conditions focus only on monitoring the cell culture environment during cell growth, but there is a lack of direct quantification of cell properties to provide an integrated feedback system that can also maintain …

Acute Cardiovascular Responses To Novel Combinations Of Resistance And Aerobic Exercise, Travis Wakeham

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally. One of the most effective forms of prevention and treatment is physical activity. However, recent studies have suggested that resistance exercise can increase arterial stiffness. Maintaining adequate strength is critical for performing activities of daily living, occupational-related tasks, and sport movements. The purpose of this project was to determine if novel combinations of resistance and aerobic exercise could offer musculoskeletal benefits without adverse cardiovascular consequences. In Study 1, we examined the effect of order (i.e. aerobic before resistance, or resistance before aerobic) on arterial stiffness when combining these exercise …

System Architecture Optimization Using Hidden Genes Genetic Algorithms With Applications In Space Trajectory Optimization, Shadi Ahmadi Darani

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this dissertation, the concept of hidden genes genetic algorithms is developed. In system architecture optimization problems, the topology of the solution is unknown and hence, the number of design variables is variable. Hidden genes genetic algorithms are genetic algorithm based methods that are developed to handle such problems by hiding some genes in the chromosomes. The genes in the hidden genes genetic algorithms evolve through selection, mutation, and crossover operations. To determine if a gene is hidden or not, binary tags are assigned to them. The value of the tags determine the status of the genes. Different mechanisms are …

A Combined High Salt Plus Fructose Diet Mediates Hypertension, Taija Marie Hahka

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is the main control center for the neurogenic regulation of blood pressure and is affected in fructose induced hypertension. The brain is by far the greatest consuming and energy demanding organ in the body which has the ability to metabolize and generate fructose but with consequences. Diets high in salt and fructose enter the body and eventually crosses the blood brain barrier where it exerts its effects on SNS signaling. The aim of this thesis is to determine the connection between fructose and hypertension along with the detrimental effects of fructose within the brain. Here …

Effect Of Hierarchical Structure And Orientation On Water-Repellent Legs Of Water-Walking Insects, Georgia Hurchalla

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Some insects have the ability to walk on water surface due to hierarchical leg structure and wax coating. This work presents studies of water strider and fire ant leg immersion force profiles to measure resistance of legs to submersion and show orientation effects. A high-sensitivity microbalance measured force during immersion of insect legs at various angles into water droplets. Legs oriented parallel to water surface could support three to five times as much force before immersion, compared to legs in a perpendicular orientation. Water pressure affects the setae structure differently at parallel and perpendicular approaches, and complete wetting is more …

Evaluating The Interactive Roles Of Soil Nutrients And Polyploidy On Competitive Outcomes Of Chamerion Angustifolium, Angela Walczyk

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Newly formed polyploids face strong barriers preventing their establishment, but despite these barriers polyploidy is prevalent among angiosperms being a major mechanism of adaptation and speciation. Morphological and phenological differences between diploids and related polyploids often results in different ecological tolerances among cytotypes. Differences in competitive abilities brought on by genome duplication can vary with abiotic and biotic environmental conditions and influence polyploid establishment. In my theses, I test the overall hypothesis that soil nutrient availability and polyploidy interact to affect competition and performance of Fireweed plants (Chamerion angustifolium), which differ in ploidy levels. Additionally, I examined whether …

Microbial Community Response To Light And Heavy Crude Oil In Freshwater Systems, Timothy M. Butler

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With increased demand for oil, there is an increased risk for oil spills in many environments. A number of pipelines transport oil near or across freshwater systems including the Great Lakes. Microbes are capable of breaking down oil and have thus been proposed as tools for oil spill response through bioremediation. There is a need to understand the microbial response to diverse oil types in freshwater environments due to the lack of research into this topic. This study’s main objectives are to understand how the freshwater microbial communities respond to oil, and how the bacterial communities may respond to different …

Algorithms For Reconstruction Of Gene Regulatory Networks From High -Throughput Gene Expression Data, Wenping Deng

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Understanding gene interactions in complex living systems is one of the central tasks in system biology. With the availability of microarray and RNA-Seq technologies, a multitude of gene expression datasets has been generated towards novel biological knowledge discovery through statistical analysis and reconstruction of gene regulatory networks (GRN). Reconstruction of GRNs can reveal the interrelationships among genes and identify the hierarchies of genes and hubs in networks. The new algorithms I developed in this dissertation are specifically focused on the reconstruction of GRNs with increased accuracy from microarray and RNA-Seq high-throughput gene expression data sets.

The first algorithm (Chapter 2) …

Comparative Diet Of Hedgehogs (Atelerix Algirus) In Two Localities In Kabylia, Algeria, Dalila Djennoune, Faiza Marniche, Mansour Amroun, Raphaël Boulay

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The present study is the first qualitative and quantitative analysis of the diet of Algerian hedgehogs (Atelerix algirus) in Kabylia, Algeria. The study was carried out between May and October 2014 and covered two different sites, Yakouren (a forested site) and Tizi-Rached (an agricultural site). In Yakouren, the analysis of droppings allowed us to identify 12,050 items grouped into 16 categories of eaten preys, while in Tizi-Rached, 13,543 items grouped into 13 categories of preys were identified. In both locations, the Hymenoptera category is the most eaten type of prey at a rate of 93% in Yakouren and 98% in …

Topical Formulation For Stimulating Sweat Secretion As An Alternative To Iontophoresis, Tasnim Fatima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sweat test or pilocarpine iontophoresis test is the existing method for diagnosis of cystic fibrosis that is recommended to perform at 48 hours after birth. However, the current method is painful, with several side effects such as full thickness skin burn, skin rash, erythema etc. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a pilocarpine topical formulation which can stimulate sweat secretion when applied on skin without iontophoresis. Several formulations with Transcutol®, polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400), Polyethylene glycol 200 (PEG 200), menthol and salicylic acid (SA) each at varying concentrations were screened as penetration enhancers. In vitro penetration …

Identifying Predictors Of New Teacher Retention, Bonita Lanoza Maready

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifying Predictors of New Teacher Retention Abstract High teacher turnover is a financial and instructional problem in schools on the national, state, and district level. Because the greatest proportion of teacher attrition (not related to retirement) and turnover occurs in the first five years of beginning a teaching career, retaining new teachers is critical to the effective use of shrinking education budgets and bringing about instructional stability, particularly in high-poverty and high-minority schools and districts. The study utilized restricted-use data from the 2007-2012 Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study (BTLS) to identify predictors of teachers remaining in their initial teaching assignment into …

Fashioning Worker Protections To Combat The Thin Ideal's Cost On Fashion Models And Public Health, Erin E. Meyers

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Studies linking thin-obsessed media consumption to poor health outcomes for women have permeated the medical literature for years. The pressures female fashion models face to sacrifice their health for their jobs are perhaps even more disturbing. These harrowing issues are symptoms of the "thin ideal," the social norm glorifying a female body type so thin it is unattainable for most women. Despite the clear harm imposed by the thin ideal, the United States has done little to combat its effect on the working conditions of fashion models and on public health more generally. This Note suggests that the US fashion …

“I’Ll Come Back And Break Your Spell”: Narrative Freedom And Genre In The Haunting Of Hill House, Hilarie Ashton

Publications and Research

In The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson interplays repression and fear inside a “normal” world, reshaping the modern Gothic novel. In this article, I trace key moments in the text where the perceptions of her complicated protagonist, Eleanor Vance, appear without the mediation of the narrator, via verb tenses, punctuation/formatting choices, and quotation. Many of these moments, I argue, occur in narrative spaces that are more quotidian than Gothic (some not even chilling at all). With the periodic narrative freedom, which I call bare thoughts, this recalibrates the division between imaginary and reality while opening up possibilities for …

Market Integration Predicts Human Gut Microbiome Attributes Across A Gradient Of Economic Development, Keaton Stagaman, Tara J. Cepon-Robins, Melissa A. Liebert, Theresa E. Gildner, Samuel S. Urlacher, Felicia C. Madimenos, Karen Guillemin, J. Josh Snodgrass, Lawrence C. Sugiyama, Brendan J. M. Bohannan

Publications and Research

Economic development is marked by dramatic increases in the incidence of microbiome-associated diseases, such as autoimmune diseases and metabolic syndromes, but the lifestyle changes that drive alterations in the human microbiome are not known. We measured market integration as a proxy for economically related lifestyle attributes, such as ownership of specific market goods that index degree of market integration and components of traditional and nontraditional (more modern) house structure and infrastructure, and profiled the fecal microbiomes of 213 participants from a contiguous, indigenous Ecuadorian population. Despite relatively modest differences in lifestyle across the population, greater economic development correlated with significantly …

From Departure To Destination. Reminiscences Of The Weissman School Of Arts And Sciences., Aldemaro Romero Jr., Gary Hentzi

Publications and Research

This volume is both a remembrance of the past and a prologue of the bright future to come for the George and Mildred Weissman School of Arts and Sciences (WSAS). As these chapter attest, the Weissman School has grown and evolved significantly, and particularly in the period sine George and Mildred Weissman provided their visionary endowment gift in 1999. Now the School is on the precipice of a new era.

Contents:

"Foreword," Mitchel B. Wallerstein

"Introduction," Katherine Pence

"First Annual Weissman Lecture, 1998," George Weissman

"A Two-Way Street," Carol Berkin

"Baruch and the Liberal Arts," Myrna Chase

"Fertile Ground," Roslyn …

Who Will Regulate American Forensic Science?, Simon A. Cole

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

Energy Harvesting Nanocoated Piezoceramics For Low Power Systems, Quinten Humphrey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies Use And 10th Grade Students' College And Career Readiness Achievement In English Language Arts, Davida Smith-Keita

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between 10th grade students’ metacognitive awareness of readings strategies use and their college and career readiness achievement in English language arts as a primary focus of research and, secondarily, the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies use and Lexile® growth as a measure of reading ability. The explanatory research design for this quantitative study included a statistical analysis of scores from the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002), existing college and career readiness achievement scores from the 2016-2017 Georgia Milestones 9th Grade Literature and Composition summative assessment, and existing …

On The Future Of Antidepressant Treatments: Targeting Neurotrophic Factors And Plasticity, Stephen W. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For 60-plus years the explanatory model for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) has been the monoamine theory, which states that low levels of monoamine neurotransmitters or alterations in their post-synaptic receptors are responsible for depressive symptoms. Drugs designed to elevate synaptic monoamine levels have remained the first line of pharmacotherapy prescribed by clinicians for MDD patients. However, these drugs have shortcomings. Despite evidence that current antidepressants elevate synaptic monoamine levels within hours of administration, these drugs require four to six weeks of daily administration before symptom relief appears. Furthermore, approximately half of patients taking typical antidepressants never achieve full symptom relief. …

Too Intimate To Speak : Regional Cinemas And Literatures, Victor Fan

Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 現代中文文學學報

In this essay, I look back at a moment in Chinese literature and cinema, the 1930s and 1940s, when writers, filmmakers, and critics were driven by a series of political crises to conceptualize the relationship between “mother language” and “national language” from a very different perspective than Song’s. I do so by scrutinizing film and literary criticisms from this period. A national language, literature, and cinema are not static, unified, and internally coherent entities that naturally subsume their regional counterparts under them. While Putonghua 普通話 (literally, common language) required—and still requires—an ongoing process of putong hua 普通化 (communalization), regional topolects, …

Fabrication Of Superhydrophobic Gold Film On Polymer Substrates, Siriwan Boonmeewiriya

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Superhydrophobic surface was fabricated by a reduction reaction between chloroauric acid (HAuCl4) and sodium formate (HCOONa) on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate without any further surface modification. This generated gold films with superhydrophobic properties examined by water contact angle (WCA) and contact angle hysteresis measurement. Wettability of the fabricated gold film on PDMS substrate can be controlled by the deposition time which provides the WCA > 160o and it could be up to 164.41o with a contact angle hysteresis of 1.93o when the deposition time was prolonged at least 2 hours. To propose the deposition mechanism, the morphological structure and chemical characters of …

“Krue Seumangat; Kehamilan Sehat Tanpa Anemia” Booklet Effect To Anemia Among Pregnant Women At Kota Langsa Indonesia : A Quasi Experimental Study, Putri Nahrisah

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Purpose : To assess the effect of education interventional program by previously developing ane education material (booklet of anemia and supplement reminder) upgrade dietary and iron-folic acid te intake of anemic pregnant women in province Aceh. Patients and methods: It was quasi experimental study using a pre- and posttest design, purposively applied at two municipalities having more than 40% anemic pregnancy. The intervention group (n=70) received two home visits for individual counseling session and was given the paper-based reminder, the control group (n=70) followed the usual antenatal care. The knowledge regard anemia and nutritional anemia score, average daily iron intake …

Jorunnamycin A Induces Anoikis In Human Lung Cancer H460 Cells, Gea Abigail Uy Ecoy

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Metastasis is a key driving force behind the high mortality rate associated with lung cancer. Anoikis is a type of apoptosis triggered by the loss of appropriate cell attachment and its loss via several cancer cell survival strategies has been shown to promote transformation and metastasis. Jorunnamycin A, a promising renieramycin-type anti-cancer compound, is a bistetrahydroisoquinolinequinone alkaloid that has been recently isolated from the Thai blue sponge Xestospongia sp. for use in this study. Herein, we report the anti-metastasis activity of jorunnamycin A, a bistetrahydroisoquinolinequinone isolated from the Thai blue sponge Xestospongia sp. evidenced by its suppression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition, sensitization …

Rod Library: Notes For The Stalled, V10n6, January 2018, University Of Northern Iowa. Rod Library.

Rod Library newsletter: Notes for the Stalled

Contents:

--Student Technology Fee
--Textbook Initiative
--Diversity Exhibits
--Upcoming Events

Reconstructing Phase Diagrams From Local Measurements Via Gaussian Processes: Mapping The Temperature-Composition Space To Confidence, Dhiren K. Pradhan, Shalini Kumari, Evgheni Strelcov, Dillip K. Pradhan, Ram S. Katiyar, Sergei V. Kalinin, Nouamane Laanait, Rama K. Vasudevan

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

We show the ability to map the phase diagram of a relaxor-ferroelectric system as a function of temperature and composition through local hysteresis curve acquisition, with the voltage spectroscopy data being used as a proxy for the (unknown) microscopic state or thermodynamic parameters of materials. Given the discrete nature of the measurement points, we use Gaussian processes to reconstruct hysteresis loops in temperature and voltage space, and compare the results with the raw data and bulk dielectric spectroscopy measurements. The results indicate that the surface transition temperature is similar for all but one composition with respect to the bulk. Through …

Matrix Effect Study And Immunoassay Detection Using Electrolyte-Gated Graphene Biosensor, Jianbo Sun, Yuxin Liu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Significant progress has been made on the development of electrolyte-gated graphene field effect transistor (EGGFET) biosensors over the last decade, yet they are still in the stage of proof-of-concept. In this work, we studied the electrolyte matrix effects, including its composition, pH and ionic strength, and demonstrate that variations in electrolyte matrices have a significant impact on the Fermi level of the graphene channel and the sensitivity of the EGGFET biosensors. This is attributed to the polarization-induced interaction between the electrolyte and the graphene at the interface which can lead to considerable modulation of the Fermi level of the graphene …

Biomimetic Layer-By-Layer Self-Assembly Of Nanofilms, Nanocoatings, And 3d Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering, Shichao Zhang, Malcolm Xing, Bingyun Li

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Achieving surface design and control of biomaterial scaffolds with nanometer- or micrometer-scaled functional films is critical to mimic the unique features of native extracellular matrices, which has significant technological implications for tissue engineering including cell-seeded scaffolds, microbioreactors, cell assembly, tissue regeneration, etc. Compared with other techniques available for surface design, layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technology has attracted extensive attention because of its integrated features of simplicity, versatility, and nanoscale control. Here we present a brief overview of current state-of-the-art research related to the LbL self-assembly technique and its assembled biomaterials as scaffolds for tissue engineering. An overview of the LbL self-assembly …

Enhanced Hot Electron Lifetimes In Quantum Wells With Inhibited Phonon Coupling, Hamidreza Esmaielpour, Vincent R. Whiteside, Herath P. Piyathilaka, Sangeetha Vijeyaragunathan, Bin Wang, Echo Adcock-Smith, Kenneth P. Roberts, Tetsuya D. Mishima, Michael B. Santos, Alan D. Bristow, Ian R. Sellers

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Hot electrons established by the absorption of high-energy photons typically thermalize on a picosecond time scale in a semiconductor, dissipating energy via various phonon-mediated relaxation pathways. Here it is shown that a strong hot carrier distribution can be produced using a type-II quantum well structure. In such systems it is shown that the dominant hot carrier thermalization process is limited by the radiative recombination lifetime of electrons with reduced wavefunction overlap with holes. It is proposed that the subsequent reabsorption of acoustic and optical phonons is facilitated by a mismatch in phonon dispersions at the InAs-AlAsSb interface and serves to …