Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Using Titanium Zirconium Molybdenum For Additively Manufacturing Aerospace Components, Justin Hunter Vanhoose

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Mankind throughout history has possessed an innate characteristic to explore, migrating to new frontiers.The requirement for this travel is most broadly associated with the need to pursue more resources. Rockets have been used as a means of weapons since the Sung Dynasty in the thirteenth empire and have now been integrated for travel/transport. The sophistication of rocketry and propulsion has reached a level to where it is plausible that mankind will be a multi-planetary species. The space industry has grown significantly with the advancement of the sophistication of these rocket technologies. However, a specific challenge to overcome in the space …

Exploration And Optimization Of Biomaterials And Cells Required For The Fabrication Of A "Cardiac Patch", Shweta Anil Kumar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cardiac failure induced by myocardial infarction is believed to be one of the primary causes of morbidity and mortality all over the world. Affecting more than 26 million people worldwide, its prevalence has been observed to increase steadily. Myocardial infarction, which intitially begins as the occlusion of of a coronary artery, results in the death of millions of cardiomyocytes by obstructing blood flow to the serviced regions of the myocardium. The dead myocardium is replaced by a dense,collagenous scar which reduces the contractility of the heart, gradually leading to heart attacks. Most of the existing treatment therapies are palliative in …

Bioprinted Mcf7 Breast Cancer Cells, An In Vitro Model For Drug Discovery, Aleli Campbell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Current breast cancer treatments are successful in eradicating this disease in the majority of patients, though there are quite a few cases where relapse or recurrence follow, which may lead to continued cancer therapy or death. Thermal inkjet bioprinting (BP) is a novel technique that is used to bioprint biomaterials or diverse cellular organisms to engineer tissue or organ models in vitro. In this Dissertation, we investigated the molecular effect of BP MCF7 breast cancer cells (BCC), cell survival of the cells when exposed to FDA approved systemic therapy alone and in combination with radiation and lastly, the ability of …

Shining Light On An Amygdala -- Brainstem Connection Important For Attention Processing, Jose Carlos Cano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

We are continuously being exposed to an exorbitant amount of sensory information, which should result overwhelming. However, the nervous system operates several intrinsic sensory filtering mechanisms that allow us to cope with such sensory cluttering and shape appropriate behavior. Sensorimotor gating is a pre-attentive neuronal filtering mechanism that gates superfluous sensory information, and orients attentional resources towards salient information processing. Its relevance becomes in individuals suffering from schizophrenia and several otherwise unrelated neuropsychiatric disorders where sensorimotor gating is impaired. To understand the neural impaired mechanisms, extensive research studies have focused on first identifying the neural substrates underlying sensorimotor gating. This …

Manfreda Maculosa Leaf Extracts And Their Effects On Whole And Selected Myotoxic Components In Crotalid Venom, Charles Steven Gilbert

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Manfreda spp have been used for the treatment of snakebite by several cultures in North and Central America (Austin & Honychurch, 2004, Johnson, 1999, Moerman, 2008, Verhoek, 1978a). There has been no systematic study of the genus Manfreda for its usefulness in the treatment of snakebite.

While the annual incidence of snakebite in the United States is relatively low (approximately 8,000 - 10,000), with a low mortality rate of 5 - 6 cases per year, there is still significant morbidity associated with snakebite (CDC - NIOSH, 2018, Springhouse Corp (eds), 2005). Worldwide numbers of the cases of snakebite can only …

Structural And Sedimentological Analysis Of The Bear Canyon Conglomerate, Southeastern California: Implications For The Timing And Style Of Miocene Deformation Within The Eastern California Shear Zone, Garrett Goff

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The region between Indian Pass and Picacho State Recreation Area (PSRA) in southeastern California records complex deformation related to the transition from a Paleogene convergent margin to a Neogene transform setting, although the timing and nature of youngest deformation in this region remains incompletely known. A 1.7 km-thick section of Miocene Bear Canyon conglomerate (BCC) was studied to constrain this young period of deformation. These rocks lie unconformably upon 23 Ma volcanic and epiclastic rocks and a Mesozoic metamorphic basement terrane. Near PSRA the BCC contains locally derived clasts and can be further subdivided into three unconformity-bounded sequences, referred to …

Novel Methods For The Inactivation Of Cruzain For The Prevention And Treatment Of Chagas Disease, Veronica Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Chagas Disease, also known as American Trypanosomiasis, is endemic to Latin American and is gradually making its way to other countries. The disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan parasite that causes lesions and inflammation of organs including the heart, esophagus, and colon. Over 30% of people infected will develop heart disease which can be fatal if untreated. While no vaccine is yet available, research is currently being conducted in finding new treatments for the disease. One target is an enzyme that is believed to help the progression of the disease. Cruzain, a cysteine protease expressed as a pro-enzyme, …

Movimiento Saludable "Movs" Project: Impact On Fruit And Vegetable Intake Using Reflectance Spectroscopy And Relationship With Behavioral Theory Predictors, Karen Marleen Juarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background. Movimiento Saludable (MOVS), a component of Ciudadanos Comprometidos con la Paz (CCOMPAZ) in Ciudad Juarez, MX is an after-school lifestyle program that was implemented at five schools during 2016 - 2017. The purpose of the MOVS program is to prevent chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes in children. The MOVS curriculum includes two components: a) physical conditioning through dance, body expression, and free play, and b) nutrition education and healthy meals to increase fruit and vegetable (F/V) intake. The Paso del Norte Institute for Healthy Living (IHL) at UTEP collected the data to conduct an evaluation of the …

I'M Never Fine, Joseph S. Lezza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Title of Thesis: I'm Never Fine

Joseph S. Lezza, Master of Fine Arts, 2019

Thesis Directed by: Nelson Cardenas, Ph. D.

The University of Texas at El Paso, Department of Creative Writing

During the course of my father's fifteen-month battle with pancreatic cancer, and in its oceanic aftermath, I became both intimately and uncomfortably familiar with the phrase "I'm fine." It developed into a practical and efficient tool for bringing about a quick shift in subject whenever my family situation came under question by a well-meaning friend, trepidatious relative and even during an unexpectedly emotional phone call with my …

The Female Nature: Representations Of Motherhood And Nature In Dystopian Films, Veronica Andrea Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study will explore female representation and conceptualization of nature in dystopian narratives by examining dystopian films. The study is guided by film theory and ecofeminism to investigate themes of domination of both nature and women. The main goal is to examine the structure, themes, dialogue, and visuals in the films to explore the underlying essence of dystopian narratives and examine roles of reproduction and motherhood of female characters. The study contributes to previous studies on female and nature representation in media.

Platelet Biology And Thrombosis: Juul E-Cigarette Exposure And 5ht2a Receptor Drug Discovery, Jean Emmanuel Montes Ramirez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

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The Drones' Impact On Precision Agriculture, Ibrahim Naji

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A study to assess the overall impact of drones in the agricultural sector. The specific goal of this research was to provide a drone system to ward off pestering birds from crops to allow for better growth and an increased yield. Along with providing a user-friendly coded drone system for farmers that is cost effective, this project has inspired other areas of use for the drone.

Non Linear Optics For Materials Fabrication And Medical Instrumentation, Aurelio Paez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Two-photon absorption is a nonlinear optical process where two photons are absorbed by a molecule simultaneously. The probability of this quantum phenomenon is proportional to the quadratic excitation of light intensity. It has many applications in biomedical and materials research, such as two-photon fluorescence microcopy. The first project is to apply two-photon absorption induced bond cleavage in photoreactive materials for engineering 3D tissue scaffolds. The major challenge for growing thick 3D tissues is the lack of vasculature, where nutrients and oxygen can be delivered to the growing cells. Our collaborators have synthesized a novel polypeptide that is composed of 34-mer …

Dust Storms And The Dispersal Of Aquatic Invertebrates In The Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion, Jose Rivas Jr.

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Chihuahuan Desert surrounding El Paso, Texas is one of the most intense sources of dust in the Western Hemisphere. Within this vast desert are ephemeral wetlands with micrometazoan propagules contained within their sediment egg banks. Dispersal of aquatic microinvertebrates between habitats is vital for the success of their populations. Passive dispersal of the propagules provides an escape mechanism from unfavorable conditions. Upon desiccation of these habitats, windstorms can potentially transport propagules mixed within entrained sediments across regional scales. To study this process, I collected falling sediment from 91 windstorms, with 59 samples collected at the University of Texas at …

Children And News Consumption: Tailoring News Broadcasts For Young Audiences, Yvette Van Oijen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

It is important for children to know what is going on in the world, but they should not get afraid of what they see in the news. The Dutch children television news show Jeugdjournaal makes the news more understandable and suitable for children by using strategies. The present study investigated Jeugdjournaal to discover how the show uses the consolation strategies by Van der Molen and De Vries (2003), and if they use any other strategies during tragedies to comfort children. Also, the show was investigated to find how they frame messages for children during all different news items. A media …

Thermal Characterization Of Abs/Carbon Fiber, Abs/ Glass Fiber And Petg/Glass Fiber Reinforced Composites Used In Large Area Additive Manufacturing, Fernando Adrian Rodriguez Lorenzana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Additive manufacturing has seen continuous advancements, such as the inclusion of large-area additive manufacturing extrusion systems. These systems precede small-scale 3D printing by means of research and technological development for the manufacturing of plastic and fiber industries. Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM), a material extrusion process, is capable of 3D printing large parts using thermoplastic composites by adding fiber reinforcements. The incorporation of fibrous materials, carbon fiber (CF) or glass fiber (GF), is a common practice in which percentage nominal ratios of fiber reinforcement by weight are implemented to the polymer matrix. In general, this enables warpage reduction during printing, …

Ofelia The Saint, Samuel H. Duarte

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ofelia the Saint takes place between 1954 and 1979, during a period in which the Mexican economy boomed with rapid industrialization which included the mining industry. It centers around a young woman named Ofelia who rises up against a multinational mining company (Empreza Stil) that forces itself upon her ancestral land and traces her passage from birth to womanhood, challenging authority and inspiring the women in her village to break away from gender constraints and reclaim their land along the way. When I imagined Ofelia living in the village, she emerged as a playfully rebellious, strong-willed ten-year-old girl, ready to …

Potential Of Nanoscale Elements To Control Fusarium Wilt Disease In Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum), Enhance Macronutrient Use Efficiency, And Increase Its Yield, Ishaq Olarewaju Adisa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nanotechnology has a great potential in ensuring food production, security and safety globally. Over the past decade, research on the use of nanomaterials to supply nutrient elements and protect plants from pest and diseases has significantly increased. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world and United State is one of its largest producers globally generating billions of dollars annually in revenue.. Tomato plants are affected worldwide by Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lycopersici. There is growing concern about excessive use of conventional pesticides in controlling Fusarium and other diseases in tomato …

Nonlinear Optics For Nanoparticle Tracking And Materials Characterization, Angela Christina Aguilar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A high-speed 3D imaging method is developed by integrating ultrafast laser pulse shaping, temporal focusing microscopy and defocused imaging. This system does not require mechanical movement of either the stage or laser beam. Axial scanning is achieved by manipulation of group velocity dispersions on the femtosecond laser spectrum via pulse shaping method by applying modulation functions on an acoustic optical modulator which diffracts the laser spectrum. The scanning depth becomes only dependent on electronic signals which can be tuned to kHz speeds. The volumetric high-speed scanning capability was demonstrated on fluorescent microspheres suspended in a volume of 100 x100 x …

Creating Spaces For Conversations On Conservation: A Case Study Of Joint Forest Management In East Sikkim, India., Paulami Banerjee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Successful community-based natural resource management should include both resource professionals and local communities. Recognizing this fact, my research seeks to encourage more locally adaptive and collaborative forest governance that facilitates sustainable development by enabling grassroots participation. Specifically, I explore opportunities for developing a more sustainable relationship between India's Joint Forest Management (JFM) program and rural forest-dependent communities in Sikkim-a remote, northeastern state of India bordering Nepal to the west, the Tibet Autonomous region of China to the north and northeast, and Bhutan to the southeast. As an instrument for sustainable forestry management, JFM seeks to develop partnerships between forest user …

Exploring Dynamic Triggering Of Earthquakes Within The United States & Quaternary Faulting And Urban Seismic Hazards In The El Paso Metropolitan Area, Richard Alexander Alfaro-Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Technological advances in combination with the onslaught of data availability allow for large seismic data streams to automatically and systematically be recorded, processed, and stored. Here, we develop an automated approach to identify small, local earthquakes within these large continuous seismic data records. Our aim is to automate the process of detecting small seismic events triggered by a distant large earthquake, recorded at a single station. Specifically, we apply time-domain short-term average (STA) to long-term average (LTA) ratio algorithms to three-component data to create a catalog of detections. We remove some of the false detections by requiring the detection be …

Development And Characterization Of Polyethylene Terephthalate (Pet)-Cotton Natural Fiber-Reinforced Composites From Waste Materials, Israel Alejandro Carrete

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Unprecedented levels of production and consumption have caused a rapid exhaustion of the Earth's virgin resources, which is coupled with a fast accumulation of contaminants in the form of solid waste, especially in landfills. Two significant landfill constituents come from textile waste and discarded plastic bottles. Since there is a finite amount of space that can be feasibly used for landfills, solutions that make use of these post-consumer products are imperative. This study presents one possible solution by using surface modifications of cotton fibers to produce a natural fiber-reinforced polymer composite (NFRPC) from post-consumer textile waste and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) …

Still In Kushimoto (A Novel), Warren Decker

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

"Still in Kushimoto" is a novel told from the perspective of a young American man named Zim who finds himself at a campground at the southern tip of Japan's Honshu Island in the rural town of Kushimoto. He makes a New Year's resolution to write in a journal in a conscious attempt to find the narrative of his own life. The novel takes the form of present day journal entries, interwoven with recollected past events in alternating chapters. As the story of the past moves forward, towards the end of the novel it merges with the present, but Zim finds …

Scientific Islanders: Pacific Peoples, American Scientists, And The Desire To Understand The World, 1800-1860, Roberto Jesus Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Between 1800 and 1860, Pacific Islanders sought answers to questions about the mechanics and origins of the universe, just as Americans did. But the systems of thought created by Natives addressing these matters generally would not have been considered "scientific" by Americans. Pacific Islanders and Americans, nevertheless, created extensive scientific traditions to systematically perceive, understand, and explain the nature of existence. These systems were rooted in religion, social dynamics, and other cultural norms, and manifested themselves in writing, artwork, explorations, and technologies that benefited their societies. Thus, this Thesis argues that the practice of scientific methods was not simply a …

Nietzsche And The Aestheticization Of The Natural Sciences, Sean Dillard

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis is an exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche's dictum that life only justifies itself aesthetically. Given his attempt to physiologize aesthetics, this project attempts to show the value of the parallels and reciprocities between taste, style, beauty, and good health for scientists - especially natural scientists. It hopes to show something valuable about what late-modern scientific practice lost, especially in the context of the departmentalization of the sciences in universities. Specifically, I argue, disentangling scientific practice from philosophical concerns - the death of what used to be natural philosophy - has resulted in worse scientists, worse scientific practice, and a …

Cicada's Song: A Memoir, Luz Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cicada's Song is a true account of my coming-of-age as a first-generation Colombian-American girl growing up as the only child of two loving parents-one of whom abused me sexually for eleven years, while the other stood by without intervening. Yet the story is not one of resentment, blame, or self-pity. Rather, it is one of identity, self-reliance, survival, forgiveness, and love. Through a series of memories, essays, statements, and poems, the memoir invites the reader on a voyage through my childhood and youth, with stops in my both present-day and recent past, in the hopes that he will see the …

Hedgehogs, Oscar Antonio Moreno Huizar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An anxious college freshman who befriends a party-loving junior girl and both hatch a plan to escape from the border to California, trying to save a mutual friend and escape their dark pasts.

Las Espinas Del Cactus, Maria Lorena Sosa Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Las espinas del cactus es una exploración científica de la vegetación desértica entre México y Estados Unidos, particularmente la de Ciudad Juárez-El Paso, para abordar desde un lenguaje poético los temas de migración e identidad.

Confeccionado como un herbario este poemario especula sobre dos principales tópicos:

• La ausencia de voces femeninas en los discursos tradicionales y sus derivaciones.

• Narrativas que hacen referencia a diferentes éxodos, que al mismo tiempo han fungido como teorías para explicar el origen de una comunidad.

El leitmotiv de este proyecto está basado en las plantas y la posibilidad de encontrar versiones sobre la …

Spectroscopic Analysis Of Calcium Oxalate Kidney Stone Inhibition By Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid (Ndga), Mahendra Subedi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This current study provides information regarding the inhibition of calcium oxalate type of kidney stones by the use of nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA). Around 80% of kidney stones found in patients are principally made of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate. NDGA is an antioxidant compound that is chemically extracted from the desert bush Larrea tridentata. This work is a logical continuation of a previous research, where different concentrations of Larrea tridentata extract were used for such inhibition. Size and morphological changes from a calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) structure to a calcium oxalate dihydrate (COD) structure were previously reported.

In the current …

Grammatical Error Types Using A Picture Description Task In English And Spanish With Young Children, Lisa Valles

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: The current study was part of a larger project examining diagnostic accuracy of various assessment tools for bilingual children living in a border community. The purpose of this project was to examine language sample measures in young children using a picture description task (Eisenberg & Guo, 2013) by answering the following questions:

1. What were the frequent types of errors exhibited by young children in English and Spanish?

2. Were there distinct types of grammatical errors across languages in bilingual children?

Methods: Participants were recruited from a large city on the US/Mexico border. There were 47 participants in the …