Digital Commons Network^™

Characterization And Effects Of Halloysite Nanotubes And Date Palm Fibers On Thermoplastic Starch Based Nanocomposites, Ahmed Mostafa Aboelsoud

Theses and Dissertations

Great attention was paid to develop new eco-friendly “green” materials with growing environmental awareness in recent years. Composites of environmental friendly reinforcements and resins that provide high performance at affordable costs are in continuous progress. In this work, completely biodegradable thermoplastic starch (TPS) based matrix was reinforced with Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and date palm fibers (DPFs) individually with different HNTs weight fractions (2.5 to 10 wt. %) in order to investigate their effect on composite mechanical properties. HNTs and DPFs were then combined to reinforce TPS- based matrix at the optimum fiber weight content. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) was obtained by …

Fabrication Of Layer-By-Layer Ecm/Polysaccharides/Electrospun Composite Nanofibrous Scaffolds And Hydrogels For In-Vitro Skin Cell Regeneration, Fatma Nabil El-Shishiny

Theses and Dissertations

Skin burn wounds is a crucial issue that could reduce life quality. The novel tri-layered asymmetric porous scaffold has been innovated to mimic the natural skin layers. The scaffold constitutes of upper electrospun Cs-PVA layer and lower xerogel layer that made of effective skin ECM components. Both layers were stuck together by fibrin glue. The developed scaffold resulted in promising swelling capability suitable for absorbing wound exudates, followed by constant degradable weight over time which is appropriate for burn wounds environment. SEM images revealed the presence of significant pore distribution among the electrospun and xerogel layers confirmed by BET analysis. …

Electroactive Nanomaterials For Environmental And Pharmaceutical Sensing, Ibrahim Hassan Abdullah

Theses and Dissertations

Sensing is an important emerging technology in the current industrial era. It covers a plethora of applications from medical personalized devices to aerospace oxygen level detectors. Of those applications, environmental and pharmaceutical sensors are significantly important. Specifically, electrochemical sensors are easy to use and develop besides being cost-effective and accurate. The work in this thesis concerns the development of two sensing platforms for the detection of Hg(II) as a water pollutant, and the detection of Lornoxicam (LOR) as a pharmaceutical compound. The materials fabricated were morphologically, structurally, and electrochemically characterized. They were also tested against their analytical targets in spiked …

Excel-Based Computational Template For Irrigation Scheduling Using Dual Crop Coefficients, Younggu Her, Kelly T. Morgan, Qingren Wang

Journal of Extension

We developed an Excel-based computational template Extension educators can use to assist clientele with scheduling irrigation for efficient use of water. With the template, the user applies the dual crop coefficient method to calculate evaporation and transpiration rates separately, with the result being more accurate soil water tracking as compared to what occurs when a single crop coefficient is used. Crop water needs can be conveniently calculated on the basis of soil characteristics, crop growth stages, and weather information. Application examples demonstrate that the amount and frequency of irrigation should be adjusted according to soil texture. The template and application …

Ocean Robots Uncover Microbial Secrets, Susan Evans, Jim Birch, John A. Breier, Michael V. Jakuba, Mak A. Saito, Julie Robidart

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Life on Earth began in the sea, and the oceans continue to support life on our planet. Of particular importance is the ability of marine microbes to exist in a complex web of relationships where substances are continually transformed and exchanged.

Kinematic Foot Types In Youth With Pes Planovalgus Secondary To Cerebral Palsy, Juliet Amene, Joseph J. Krzak, Karen M. Kruger, Logan Killen, Haluk Altiok, Peter A. Smith, Gerald F. Harris

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Kinematic variability of the foot and ankle segments exists during ambulation among individuals with pes planovalgus (PPV) secondary to cerebral palsy (CP). Clinicians have previously recognized such variability through classification schemes to identify subgroups of individuals, but have been unable to identify kinematic foot types.

Research question

The purpose of this work was to identify kinematic foot types among children with PPV secondary to CP using 3-dimensional multi-segment foot and ankle kinematics during gait as inputs for principal component analysis (PCA) and K-means cluster analysis.

Methods

In a single assessment session, multi-segment foot and ankle kinematics using the …

Mythology, Morality, And The Messiah: How Natural Moral Law And Hero Myth Entail That Jesus Christ Is The Best Possible Hero, Matthew J. Coombe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Essentially this dissertation is an abductive argument for Jesus Christ being the best possible hero. The abductive argument is concerned with the synthesis of several different disciplines: natural theology, general revelation, ethics, natural law (meta-ethics), literary criticism, Biblical criticism, and mythology. When synthesized the most reasonable conclusion for the data is that Jesus Christ is the best possible hero. All of the disciplines work together: Natural theology establishes the axiological basis for moral realism and moral knowledge. General revelation acts as a universal imprinter, which not only imbeds man with moral knowledge, but also with inherent notions of heroism—heroism and …

Lindenwood Digest, February 1, 2019, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

University Honors Program News, Georgia Southern University

Honors College: News & Publications (2008-2020)

• Fashioning Experience
• Alumni Update: Jordan Logue Wins Award for Research

University Honors Program Newsletters, Honors College, Georgia Southern University

Honors College: News & Publications (2008-2020)

• Grace Pittman Reveals What is "Better Left Unsaid"

• Invest in Honors

• A Super Sunday Immersed in Savannah History

• Interdisciplinary Innovation

• Andrea Appleton Receives Research Grant

Asymptotic Theory For Estimating Drift Parameters In The Fractional Vasicek Model, Weilin Xiao, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This article develops an asymptotic theory for estimators of two parameters in the drift function in the fractional Vasicek model when a continuous record of observations is available. The fractional Vasicek model with long-range dependence is assumed to be driven by a fractional Brownian motion with the Hurst parameter greater than or equal to one half. It is shown that, when the Hurst parameter is known, the asymptotic theory for the persistence parameter depends critically on its sign, corresponding asymptotically to the stationary case, the explosive case, and the null recurrent case. In all three cases, the least squares method …

Detection Of Hfe Haemochromatosis In The Clinic And Community Using Standard Erythrocyte Tests, Niwansa Adris, Simon Hazeldine, Peter Bentley, Debbie Trinder, Anita C.G. Chua, Lawrie W. Powell, Louise E. Ramm, Grant A. Ramm, John K. Olynyk

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Detection of HFE Haemochromatosis (HH) is challenging in the absence of clinical features. HH subjects have elevated erythrocyte parameters compared to those without HH, but it remains unclear how this could be applied in clinical practice. Thus, we determined the sensitivity, specificity and clinical utility of erythrocyte parameters in 144 HH subjects with (n = 122) or without (n = 22) clinical and/or biochemical expression of iron overload, 1844 general population controls, and 700 chronic disease subjects. For both expressing and non-expressing HH subjects, the mean pre- and post-phlebotomy values of mean cell volume (MCV) and mean cell haemoglobin (MCH) …

Reduction Of Initial Occurrence Of Rice Blast (Pyricularia Oryzae) Inocula On Seeds By Microbial And Hot Water Seed Treatments, Ibrahim Hashim, Delphine Mamiro, Robert B. Mabagala, Tadele Tefera

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Rice blast disease resulting from infected rice seed can be avoided by using treated seeds. Seed treatment using chemical fungicide has many limitations such as development of resistance to pathogens, damage to the natural environment and the health of farmers and consumers. Such limitations have raised the need for alternative non-chemical seed treatment methods such as antagonist microbial agents and hot water. Laboratory and the screen house experiments were carried out with the aim of evaluating the efficacy of Trichoderma asperellum, Bacillus subtilis and hot water (50°C/15 min) seed treatments against rice blast disease inocula on rice seeds. The results …

Culture Clubs: Processing Speech By Deriving And Exploiting Linguistic Subcultures, David Guy Brizan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Spoken language understanding systems are error-prone for several reasons, including individual speech variability. This is manifested in many ways, among which are differences in pronunciation, lexical inventory, grammar and disfluencies. There is, however, a lot of evidence pointing to stable language usage within subgroups of a language population. We call these subgroups linguistic subcultures.

The two broad problems are defined and a survey of the work in this space is performed. The two broad problems are: linguistic subculture detection, commonly performed via Language Identification, Accent Identification or Dialect Identification approaches; and speech and language processing tasks taken which may see …

The Master Synaptic Regulator: Activity Regulated Cytoskeleton Associated Protein, Arc, In Normal Aging And Diseases With Cognitive Impairment, Amber Khan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with complex underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Epidemiological studies have forecasted that in the next 3 decades, the number of AD cases will rise to epidemic proportions with enormous medical, emotional and financial burdens impacting individuals affected and society. Among many risk factors for AD, advancing age is clearly essential and necessary. Revelation of molecular changes in synaptic activities leading to the prodromal, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage may help illuminate the course of pathogenic progression and its cause-effect relationship with various targets thereby enabling target-driven disease-modifying therapeutic agents for AD.

Activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) …

Green Tea Extract, Epigallocatechin Gallate, Protect Against Methamphetamine-Induced Striatal Neurotoxicity In Mice, Allen L. Pan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Methamphetamine (METH) is a strong psychostimulant and its exposure can lead to serious neurological complications. METH-induced neuronal injury is the result of a complex interplay of different factors including dopamine (DA) overflow, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Although the mechanisms of METH-induced neurotoxicity have been extensively studied, there is still no effective therapeutic treatment. Therefore, it is essential to study potential drug candidates that can treat METH-induced neurotoxicity. Green tea extract, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), has emerged as a neuroprotective agent that can protect against several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Recently, our lab has shown that EGCG prevents …

Sighs Of The German People: An Emotional History Of Musical Sigh-Compositions During The Thirty Years War (1618–1648), Thomas Marks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is the first of its kind to offer a comprehensive account of a genre of German Lutheran sacred works titled Seufftzer or suspiria (sighs) that were published with increasing frequency during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648). Drawing from recent work in the history of emotion, I approach emotion-terms from the mentalities of those who deployed them. In chapter two, I offer a historically nuanced definition of the word Seufftzer, which takes into account the emotional gesture’s largely sacred meanings. For German Lutherans in the early modern era, the sigh was not just an expression of some internal feeling …

Novel Biobehavioral Methods For Assessing The Anxiety-Related Attention Bias, Samantha Denefrio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anxiety disorders will affect an estimated one in three Americans, significantly impacting emotional health and quality of life. High personal and economic costs make research on the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety a crucial public health goal. Selective and exaggerated attention towards threat, termed attention bias (AB), has been identified as a core behavioral and neurocognitive mechanism in anxiety. A novel treatment, attention bias modification training (ABMT), targets AB and aims to ameliorate anxiety. Rarely acknowledged, however, are the challenges in the conceptualization and measurement of AB. First, associations between anxiety and AB in anxious populations have been increasingly …

Quantum Uncertainty Reduction (Qur) Theory Of Attended Access And Phenomenal Consciousness, Anatoly V. Nichvoloda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I defend a theory of perceptual consciousness titled “Quantum Uncertainty Reduction” (QUR[1]) Theory of Attended Access and Phenomenal Consciousness.” Consciousness is widely perceived as a phenomenon that poses a special explanatory problem for science. The problem arises in the apparent rift between an immediate first-person acquaintance with consciousness and our lack of ability to provide an objective/scientific third-person characterization of consciousness.

I begin by reviewing philosophical ideas of Ned Block, David Chalmers and Jesse Prinz whose characterizations of consciousness provide a conceptual framework that the proposed theory aims to satisfy. Block and Chalmers argue that …

A Defense Of Pure Connectionism, Alex B. Kiefer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Connectionism is an approach to neural-networks-based cognitive modeling that encompasses the recent deep learning movement in artificial intelligence. It came of age in the 1980s, with its roots in cybernetics and earlier attempts to model the brain as a system of simple parallel processors. Connectionist models center on statistical inference within neural networks with empirically learnable parameters, which can be represented as graphical models. More recent approaches focus on learning and inference within hierarchical generative models. Contra influential and ongoing critiques, I argue in this dissertation that the connectionist approach to cognitive science possesses in principle (and, as is becoming …

Structural Studies On Calcium/Calmodulin-Dependent Activation Of Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Kinase, Kwangwoon Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eEF-2K) is a key modulator of the rate of protein synthesis. Activated by calcium-loaded calmodulin (Ca²⁺-CaM), eEF-2K phosphorylates its only known physiological substrate, eEF-2, on a specific threonine residue (Thr-56). Phosphorylated eEF-2 has reduced affinity for the ribosome, and results in a significant decrease in the rate of translation elongation. Modulation of the rate of translation elongation plays a crucial role in proteostasis – adequate regulation of protein synthesis, protein folding, and protein degradation that greatly influences cellular growth and survival. Binding of Ca²⁺-CaM triggers activation of eEF-2K and remains intact …

A Study Of The Impact Of The Physical Properties Of Blood On The Interpretation Of Bloodstain Patterns In Forensic Investigations, Ira S. Dubey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There are many situations when the value of the physical characteristics of blood far outweighs the information gained from DNA analysis of the bloodstain (Brodbeck, 2012; Raymond, Smith and Liesegang, 1996). Analysis of bloodstain patterns at crime scenes or on clothing often provides significant information and serves both as investigate aids and as evidence presented in court. There has been limited work done to evaluate the potential impact of variation in the physical properties of blood on the interpretation of blood spatter patterns. This dissertation will expand on previous work and investigate how changes in the physical properties of blood, …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Novel Iodine-124 Labeled Nucleoside Analogs As Pet Imaging Agents To Predict Response To Gemcitabine Therapy, Kishore Kumar Gangangari

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Gemcitabine (gem) is a nucleoside analog that is used to treat pancreatic cancers (PaCa), which have dismal prognosis and low survival rate. Though gem is used as first line of treatment for PaCa, the response rate is quite low (~30%). Currently, there is no a priori way to determine a responder from a non-responder to gem therapy either invasively or non-invasively. Any biomarker that can act as a prognostic indicator of gem response will greatly aid in selecting responsive patients to gem therapy and provide alternative options such as Folfirinox or other treatments to resistant patient population. Amongst various known …

From Micro To Macro-Contaminants: The Impact Of Low-Energy Titanium Dioxide Photocatalysis Followed By Filtration On The Mitigation Of Drinking Water Organics, Brooke K. Mayer, Carlan Johnson, Yu Yang, Nicole Wellenstein, Emily K. Maher, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This study evaluated strategies targeting macro- and micro-organic contaminant mitigation using low-energy titanium dioxide photocatalysis. Energy inputs of 1, 2, and 5 kWh m⁻³ resulted in incomplete oxidation of macro-organic natural organic matter, signified by greater reductions of UV₂₅₄ and specific ultraviolet UV absorbance (SUVA) in comparison to dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The rate of UV₂₅₄ removal was 3 orders of magnitude greater than the rate of DOC degradation. Incomplete oxidation improved operation of downstream filtration processes. Photocatalysis at 2 kWh m⁻³ increased the bed life of downstream granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration by 340% relative …

Caring For The Elderly At Work And Home: Can A Randomized Organizational Intervention Improve Psychological Health?, Ellen Ernst Kossek, Rebecca J. Thompson, Katie M. Lawson, Todd Bodner, Matthew B. Perrigino, Leslie B. Hammer, Orfeu M. Buxton, David M. Almeida, Phyllis Moen, David Hurtado, Bradley Wipfli, Lisa Berkman, Jeremy W. Bray

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although job stress models suggest that changing the work social environment to increase job resources improves psychological health, many intervention studies have weak designs and overlook influences of family caregiving demands. We tested the effects of an organizational intervention designed to increase supervisor social support for work and nonwork roles, and job control in a results-oriented work environment on the stress and psychological distress of health care employees who care for the elderly, while simultaneously considering their own family caregiving responsibilities. Using a group-randomized organizational field trial with an intent-to-treat design, 420 caregivers in 15 intervention extended-care nursing facilities were …

Polychaete Mucopolysaccharide Alters Sediment Microbial Diversity And Stimulates Ammonia-Oxidising Functional Groups, Harriet Dale, Joe D. Taylor, Martin Solan, Phyllis Lam, Michael Cunliffe

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Records Management Practices At The Ministry Of Health, Abia State, Nigeria, Prof. Gabriel O. Alegbeleye, Uzoma C. Chilaka

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Records in any organization is very vital and an important asset. This article evaluates records management practices at the Abia State Ministry of Health. This study reports on part of a doctoral research project by Chilaka (2018) that sought to look at the influence of records management practices and organizational culture on good governance in Abia State Civil Service, Nigeria. The aim of the study was to evaluate records management practices at the Ministry of Health and suggest ways in which these practices can be improved upon. The objectives of this study were: to establish the existing records management practices …

Volume Cxxxvi, Number 13, February 1, 2019, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

Dr. Eldred Ademola Wright

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Gratitude Reception And Physical Health: Examining The Mediating Role Of Satisfaction With Patient Care In A Sample Of Acute Care Nurses, Alicia R. Starkey, Cynthia D. Mohr, David M. Cadiz, Robert R. Sinclair

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Literature examining well-being benefits of gratitude experiences is currently thriving in psychological science. However, evidence of the physical health benefits of gratitude remains limited. Research and theory in affective science suggests an indirect relationship between gratitude and physical health. This study examines how receiving expressions of gratitude predicts physical health outcomes in a sample of acute care nurses over time. Registered nurses (N = 146) practicing in Oregon completed weekly surveys over 12 consecutive weeks describing their positive and negative events, health, and work-related experiences. Multilevel mediation models revealed that being thanked more often at work was positively related to …