Digital Commons Network^™

Fabrication Of 3d Tissue Constructs Using Standing Post Platform, Kantaphon Suddhapas

Theses - ALL

3D tissue constructs offer a simplified model that mimics the in vivo tissues. Standing post platform has been established in this study to fabricate 3D tissues with a variety of shapes. Non-fouling PDMS molds cast from ABS templates were seeded by cell-laden collagen type I scaffolds. The scaffolds were aggregated to form the tissues within 24 hours. Human fibroblast, hiPSC-CM, and hiPSC-MSC tissue rings were successfully fabricated with this standing post platform. Ring contracture of fibroblasts and hiPSC-MSCs was observed and compared with different collagen density, different cell seeding density, and different cell culture concentration. In addition, the tissue constructs …

Occurrence And Mass Flows Of Organic Micropollutants In The Onondaga Lake – Three Rivers System, Shiru Wang

Theses - ALL

Organic micropollutants (OMPs) are synthetic and naturally occurring organic compounds that may pose long-term ecotoxicological risks to the aquatic life occur at low levels. This work seeks to characterize the spatiotemporal occurrence and mass flows of OMPs in the Onondaga Lake-Three Rivers system in central New York. In collaboration with the Upstate Freshwater Institute, multiple batches of water samples were collected from the lake-river system between June and October 2017 and analyzed for OMPs using a suspect screening workflow developed on liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry. To date, a total of 52, 31, and 37 OMPs were identified and quantified …

A Multi-Isotope (Δ13c, Δ15n, Δ34s, Δ2h) Approach To Establishing Migratory Connectivity In Lesser Snow Geese: Tracking An Overabundant Species, Drew N. Fowler, Elisabeth B. Webb, Frank B. Baldwin, Mark P. Vrtiska, Keith A. Hobson

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Staff Research Publications

Expanding populations of North American midcontinent lesser snow geese (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) have potential to alter ecosystems throughout the Arctic and subarctic where they breed. Efforts to understand origins of harvested lesser snow geese to better inform management decisions have traditionally required mark-recapture approaches, while aerial photographic surveys have typically been used to identify breeding distributions. As a potential alternative, isotopic patterns that are metabolically fixed within newly grown flight feathers following summer molting could provide inferences regarding geographic breeding origin of individuals, without the need for prior capture. Our objective was to assess potential to use four stable isotopes …

On Optimization Of Cold Chain Logistics Systems For Rokin Logistics Company, Huimin Luo

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Unh And Ccsnh Sign Agreement To Ensure Transfer Students Succeed, Erika Mantz

Media Relations

No abstract provided.

Measuring Atmospheric Dry Deposition To Urban Surfaces, Alexander J. Johnson

Theses - ALL

Surrogate surfaces are used to measure atmospheric dry deposition of contaminants, and are sometimes designed intentionally with simple geometry to estimate the lower limit of the flux to any surface. However, most surrogate surfaces have a small collection area: long periods of dry weather may be needed to obtain sufficient deposited contaminants to be detected and quantified, and such exposure periods may not be common in wet climates. In this study, two relatively large surrogate surfaces—disks with surface areas > 1 m2—were designed to measure dry deposition of F-, Cl-, SO42-, and NO3- in Syracuse, NY. Results indicate that good reproducibility …

What Kind Of Thing Are We? Our Unrelenting Demand For Self-Significance, Marilyn Yvonne Koch

Theses - ALL

My work is motivated by my struggles to cope with the absurdity of my own existence. I am investigating the essential property of our personal identity through ephemerality, memories, and the similarities between man and machine. Using the body as object and context, I use humor and absurdity to ease the burden of my haunting realizations, and allow my creations to be enjoyed simply through comedy or visual allure. I offer these social disturbances as mementos of the idea that it is impossible for the evidence-based understanding of ourselves to ever merge into the realm of the ethereal, but as …

Developing A New Mechanical Model For Swarm Development In Myxococcus Xanthus & Establishing A Genotype-To-Phenotype Correlation Between Swarm Pattern Formation And Gene Homology, Fatmagul Bahar

Dissertations - ALL

The primary goal of systems biologists is to understand the mechanics underlying complex, collective, self-organizing behaviors displayed by all living systems, from biofilm formation and wound healing to embryogenesis. Myxococcus xanthus is a soil bacterium used as a model organism to study biofilm self-organization. It has a relatively large genome and a complex life cycle that involves two distinct phases. M. xanthus cells can move on agar, and a few million cells will organize to form a predatory biofilm or “swarm” that grows and expands if placed on a nutrient-rich agar surface. If placed on a nutrient-poor agar surface, the …

Ghrelin Processing And Maturation: Developing A Molecular-Level Framework For Hormone Activation And Biological Function, Elizabeth Rose Cleverdon

Dissertations - ALL

Ghrelin is a 28 amino acid hormone involved in appetite stimulation, maintenance of energy balance, and a range of other neuroendocrine functions. Over the course of its expression and maturation, proghrelin (the prohormone of ghrelin) undergoes a unique posttranslational modification whereby a serine side chain is esterified with octanoic acid. Proghrelin then undergoes subsequent proteolysis to yield ghrelin. This octanoylation modification has been demonstrated to be required for ghrelin to activate its cognate receptor. Since acylated ghrelin has been linked with a variety of disease states, ghrelin signaling is a prime target for inhibition and inhibitor development. Biochemical and structural …

Rheology And Collective Behavior In Living Tissue, Michael David Czajkowski

Dissertations - ALL

Recent experiments and simulations have indicated that confluent epithelial layers, where there are no gaps or overlaps between the cells, can transition from a soft fluid-like state to a solid-like state, with dynamics that share many features with glass transitions. While a coherent picture has begun to form connecting the microscopic mechanisms that drive this transition with macroscopic observables, much less is known of its consequences in biological processes. Do tissues tune themselves to a fluid state in order to promote collective motion? Has evolution made use of the ability of tissues to tune themselves between fluid and solid states …

All The Small Things: Contingent Mereological Nihilism, Naomi Dershowitz

Dissertations - ALL

Scientists and metaphysicians alike often accept that the best theory is that which best exhibits familiar theoretical virtues such as empirical testability, fruitfulness, conservatism, explanatory power, and parsimony. In this dissertation, I assume this naturalistically respectable methodology and explore whether it can help decide between competing metaphysical theories. I argue it can.

In chapter 1, I present my version of mereological nihilism, Minimal Truthmaker Nihilism (MTN). According to MTN, only the minimal truthmakers for all true sentences are included in the correct ontology and composite objects are not among the minimal truthmakers. I argue that the proponent of MTN can …

Sustainability Benefits Analysis Of Cybermanufacturing Systems, Zhengyi Song

Dissertations - ALL

Confronted with growing sustainability awareness, mounting environmental pressure, meeting modern customers’ demand and the need to develop stronger market competitiveness, the manufacturing industry is striving to address sustainability-related issues in manufacturing. A new manufacturing system called CyberManufacturing System (CMS) has a great potential in addressing sustainability issues by handling manufacturing tasks differently and better than traditional manufacturing systems. CMS is an advanced manufacturing system where physical components are fully integrated and seamlessly networked with computational processes. The recent developments in Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Fog Computing, Service-Oriented Technologies, etc., all contribute to the development of CMS. Under the context …

Motility-Induced Phases: Out-Of-Equilibrium Droplets, Surfaces, And Survival, Adam Edward Patch

Dissertations - ALL

Active matter represents a unique kind of out-of-equilibrium matter that is endowed with motility, the ability of each individual unit to move according to its own self-propulsion force. Objects of study in active matter include entities like birds and cells, which become particularly interesting at scales larger than the individuals, where we find emergent collective behavior like flocking and morphogenetic self-organization, respectively. One can study both microscopic and macroscopic behaviors of these particles using theory, simulation, and experiment, but largescale simulations are critically important to understanding some of the underlying statistical mechanical properties of active matter.

Motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) …

Design And Synthesis Of Stainless-Steel Nanoparticles: Oxidation Behavior And Morphological Evolution, Laxmikant Pathade

Dissertations - ALL

The objective of my graduate research is to understand the oxidation in heterostructured transition metal-based core/alloy nanostructures and to design protocol towards the synthesis of oxidation resistant stainless-steel nanoparticles. To this effect, I employed bottom-up wet chemistry approach to synthesize multi-shell Fe/CrxNi1-x NPs, bimetallic FexCr1-x alloy NPs, and Fe/Ni core/shell NPs. I performed the morphological analysis of these NPs via transmission electron microscopes (TEM/HRTEM), structural characterization via X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface analysis via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermal property analysis via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), organic ligand characterization using infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and absorption spectra using UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). In chapter …

Adaptive Management For Urban Oak Ecosystem Restoration: Effects Of Canopy Thinning On Seedling Regeneration And Groundlayer Plant Communities, Jillian Pastick

Master's Theses

Oak forests are complex, fire-dependent ecosystems, critical for supporting ecosystem services such as biodiversity and carbon storage. However, throughout eastern North America, previously oak-dominant ecosystems have undergone shifts in species composition and structure, primarily as a result of human influences. Land managers face the challenge of restoring oak ecosystems and promoting oak regeneration in urban and suburban natural areas, where high-intensity silvicultural treatments are often not feasible. To investigate management alternatives, an adaptive management experiment was implemented in Lake County, IL in 2012, in which five thinning treatments of varying intensity, timing, and spatial aggregation were replicated across three study …

The Associations Between Parental Involvement And Science Achievement Via Children's Perceived Academic Competence And Academic Effort, Yue Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

The primary goal of this study was to examine the way in which parental involvement, specifically parents’ educational expectations and parent-child communication, are related directly to children’s science achievement, and indirectly, through their perceived academic competence and academic effort across gender and race/ethnicity groups using data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY). The ecological model, social cultural contexts of parental academic socialization, the parental involvement framework, and social cognitive theory served as the theoretical frameworks for the study. The sample included 3,116 seventh graders (1,621 male and 1,495 female students) and their parents. Structural regression analysis was performed, …

Minimizing Co-Sleeping Disruptions: A Design Intervention, Yining Shi

Theses - ALL

A recent survey indicates that 30% of adults in the United States sleep separately from their partners because of co-sleep disruptions (Rogojanski et al., 2013). However, research suggests that sleeping together is good for couple relationships (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010). While there are many products on the market designed to help individuals with sleep problems, there are few that address co-sleeping problems. This thesis addresses this gap in the market for co- sleeping products by exploring how a design intervention of bedroom furniture can help couples sleep together despite the disruptions to each other. This paper records the design …

A Knowledge Enriched Computational Model To Support Lifecycle Activities Of Computational Models In Smart Manufacturing, Heng Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

Due to the needs in supporting lifecycle activities of computational models in Smart Manufacturing (SM), a Knowledge Enriched Computational Model (KECM) is proposed in this dissertation to capture and integrate domain knowledge with standardized computational models. The KECM captures domain knowledge into information model(s), physics-based model(s), and rationales. To support model development in a distributed environment, the KECM can be used as the medium for formal information sharing between model developers. A case study has been developed to demonstrate the utilization of the KECM in supporting the construction of a Bayesian Network model. To support the deployment of computational models …

Breaking Symmetry: A Study Of Novel Phenomena In Asymmetric Nanoplasmonic Systems, Matthew Scott Davis

Dissertations - ALL

Offering tailorable optical properties not achievable with symmetric or periodic optical materials, chiral, weakly disordered, deterministic aperiodic, quasiperiodic and random structures make up a new wave of asymmetric optical systems demonstrating unprecedented control of light compared to their periodic counterparts in areas such as random lasing, imaging, and bio-sensing. The governing physics of asymmetric systems is, however, not as analytically intuitive and computationally straightforward as periodic or highly symmetric systems, and thus the availability of simple analytic and computational design tools has made periodic systems an attractive option for many optical applications. For example, plasmonic systems consisting of periodic arrays …

Seasonal Patterns Of Total And Methyl Mercury Concentrations In Ground And Surface Waters In Natural And Restored Freshwater Wetlands In Northern New York, Ting Wang

Theses - ALL

Among mercury species, methylmercury (MeHg) strongly bioaccumulates and biomagnifies in aquatic food chains, generally controlling the exposure that threatens human and wildlife health. Wetlands are important environments for biogeochemical transformations of Hg, as reducing conditions and wetting/drying cycles promote the production of MeHg. In recent years, nearly half of freshwater wetlands have been lost. In response, there has been an effort to restore freshwater wetlands to improve the ecosystem services they provide. Although wetlands are important landscape features that supply MeHg to downstream aquatic ecosystems, there have been few studies comparing the processing of Hg in restored wetlands with natural …

Redefining The Scope Of Prenylation: Discovery Of “Forbidden” Substrate Recognition And Development Of Methods Utilizing Prenylated Proteins, Melanie Jane Blanden

Dissertations - ALL

Post-translational modifications play a central role in controlling biological function and cell behavior through changes in protein structure, activity, and localization. Prenylation is one such modification wherein a 15- or 20-carbon isoprenoid group is attached to a cysteine residue near the C-terminus of a substrate protein by one of three enzymes: protein farnesyltransferase (FTase), protein geranylgeranyltransferase type I (GGTase-I) or protein geranylgeranyltransferase type II (GGTase-II, also known as Rab GGTase). These covalent modifications can aid in protein association with cellular membranes, with this localization necessary for function of many prenylated proteins. FTase and GGTase-I have been proposed to recognize a …

Cognitive Presence In Peer Facilitated Asynchronous Online Discussion: The Patterns And How To Facilitate, Ye Chen

Dissertations - ALL

This study, in the context of peer-facilitated asynchronous online discussion, explored the characteristics and patterns of students’ cognitive presence, and examined the practices that aim to enhance cognitive presence development. Participants were 53 students from a graduate-level online course that focused on the integration of educational technologies. Data were collected from discussion transcripts, student survey, student artifacts, and researcher’s observations.

Results demonstrated four phases of students’ cognitive presence: Triggering event, Exploration, Integration, and Resolution. Among the four phases, students’ cognitive presence tended to aggregate at the middle phases: Integration and Exploration. Percentage of the Resolution was very low. The distribution …

Curvilinear Association Between Language Disfluency And Fmr1 Cgg Repeat Size Across The Normal, Intermediate, And Premutation Range, Jessica Klusek, Ann Porter, Leonard Abbeduto, Tatyana Adayev, Flora Tassone, Marsha R. Mailick, Anne Glicksman, Bridgette L. Tonnsen, Jane E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

Historically, investigations of FMR1 have focused almost exclusively on the clinical effects of CGG expansion within the categories of the premutation (55–200 CGG repeats) and fragile X syndrome (>200 CGG repeats). However, emerging evidence suggests that CGG-dependent phenotypes may occur across allele sizes traditionally considered within the “normal” range. This study adopted an individual-differences approach to determine the association between language production ability and CGG repeat length across the full range of normal, intermediate, and premutation alleles. Participants included 61 adult women with CGG repeats within the premutation (n = 37), intermediate (i.e., 41–54 repeats; n = 2), …

The Positive Effect Of Role Models In Evolution Instruction, Emily A. Holt, T. Heath Ogden, Susan L. Durham

Ecology Center Publications

Background: Previous research has identified numerous factors to explain why students have difficulty learning about evolution. Some of these factors include a student’s background (including their religion and major of study), the type of evolution instruction, and the inclusion of the nature of science (NOS) instruction. Sparse but more recent work has investigated the impact of a religious-scientist role model to help dampen perceptions of conflict between evolutionary science and worldview. We had two research goals: (1) to identify which of these factors influence students’ learning of evolution in post-secondary education; and (2) to describe the relationships among incoming …

Biodesign Exhibition Catalog, Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab, Risd Co-Works, Campus Exhibitions, David Kim, Lucia Monge, William Myers, Angela Torchio

Biodesign: From Inspiration to Integration

Catalogue created on the occasion of Biodesign: From Inspiration to Integration, August 24 to September 27, 2018, an exhibition organized as part of RISD Nature Lab’s 80th anniversary celebrations at the Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island. Curated by William Myers, Lucia Monge, David Kim, Neal Overstrom, Julia van den Hout, and Peter Rogers.

Parental Warmth And Physical Punishment And Their Associations With Children’S Social And Academic Skills In Trinidad And Tobago, Mark Andre Primus

Dissertations - ALL

Using the major tenets of interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), Baumrind’sparenting styles typologies and the Developmental Niche Model as guides, this study examined the moderating role of parental warmth on the associations between severity and fairness of physical punishment and preschool-aged children’s social and academic skills in families in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The sample consisted of 191 mothers and 179 fathers, and their preschool-aged children from four diverse ethnic and socioeconomic communities. Mothers and fathers filled out a socio-demographic questionnaire, the parental acceptance-rejection questionnaire (PARQ-Short-Form), and the physical punishment questionnaire (PPQ). Teachers provided assessments of children’s …

Reducing Cell Wall Recalcitrance In Poplar Through Overexpression Of Cell Wall Degrading Enzymes, Yao Xiao

Dissertations - ALL

Abundant cellulose in the secondary cell walls of lignocellulosic biomass provides an alternative source of carbohydrates for ethanol production. However, low efficiency and high cost of conversion of cellulose to glucose prevents the large-scale production of economically viable cellulosic ethanol. Expression of glycosyl hydrolases in plants has been proposed as an ideal replacement for current microbial-cellulase production in order to reduce the investment cost of hydrolases for ethanol production.

In this thesis, a hyperthermophilic endoglucanase, TnCelB, was expressed in hybrid poplar. The transgenic event with highest TnCelB expression level had reduced lignin content, cellulose crystallinity, and resultant more digestible cell …

Evaluation Of Thermal Effects And Lattice Vibrations In Molecular Crystals, Adam Joseph Zaczek

Dissertations - ALL

The effect of temperature plays a large role in the behavior of many physical systems. While it is certainly the case that many effects of temperature can be observed macroscopically, they are often of molecular origin, and determining why these effects occur can provide insight into the nature of chemical systems as a whole. A large portion of this work is dedicated to analyzing polymorphic forms and small organic molecules with interesting thermal effects. Low-frequency spectroscopy is a very useful tool in the investigation of polymorphs, providing a method of probing a sample to investigate the possible motions and characteristics …

Horizontal Integration In The Port Industry In China Challenges And Outlook, Jiren Chen

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Shanghai Aviation Hub Logistics Competitiveness, Tuo Chen

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.