Engineering Commons^™

An Apoptosis Targeted Stimulus With Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields (Nspefs) In E4 Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Wei Ren, Stephen J. Beebe

Bioelectrics Publications

Stimuli directed towards activation of apoptosis mechanisms are an attractive approach to eliminate evasion of apoptosis, a ubiquitous cancer hallmark. In these in vitro studies, kinetics and electric field thresholds for several apoptosis characteristics are defined in E4 squamous carcinoma cells (SCC) exposed to ten 300 ns pulses with increasing electric fields. Cell death was [95% at the highest electric field and coincident with phosphatidylserine externalization, caspase and calpain activation in the presence and absence of cytochrome c release, decreases in Bid and mitochondria membrane potential (Δψm) without apparent changes reactive oxygen species levels or in Bcl2 and Bclxl levels. …

Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute Annual Technical Report Fy 2010, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

KWRRI Annual Technical Reports (USGS’s 104b Grant Program)

The 2010 Annual Technical Report for Kentucky consolidates reporting requirements for the Section 104(b) base grant award into a single document that includes: 1) a synopsis of each research project that was conducted during the period, 2) citations for related publications, reports, and presentations, 3) a description of information transfer activities, 4) a summary of student support during the reporting period, and 5) notable awards and achievements during the year.

A Cell Electrofusion Microfluidic Device Integrated With 3d Thin-Film Microelectrode Arrays, Ning Hu, Jun Yang, Shizhi Qian, Sang W. Joo, Xiaolin Zheng

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

A microfluidic device integrated with 3D thin film microelectrode arrays wrapped around serpentine-shaped microchannel walls has been designed, fabricated and tested for cell electrofusion. Each microelectrode array has 1015 discrete microelectrodes patterned on each side wall, and the adjacent microelectrodes are separated by coplanar dielectric channel wall. The device was tested to electrofuse K562 cells under a relatively low voltage. Under an AC electric field applied between the pair of the microelectrode arrays, cells are paired at the edge of each discrete microelectrode due to the induced positive dielectrophoresis. Subsequently, electric pulse signals are sequentially applied between the microelectrode arrays …

Long Term, Continuous Temperature Monitoring Of A Simple Anaerobic Digester And Open Manure Storage Pond In Eastern South Dakota, J. Darrington, E. Cortus

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

A two-cell manure storage system with a cover on the first cell was constructed in the late summer of 2009 in Eastern South Dakota. The covered cell acts as a simple anaerobic digester. Continuous temperature monitoring for 8 months shows the winter effluent temperature equilibrated to around 6°C, and that the effluent temperature trend lagged the ambient temperature trend by a month. Manure composition was also analyzed and was found to be relatively steady throughout the system. Volatile solids were the only component that dropped appreciably across the treatment cell, with an observed maximum of 50% reduction.

A Multi-Species Analysis Of Biomechanical Responses Of The Head To A Shock Wave, Richard Bolander

Wayne State University Dissertations

Shock wave induced brain injury remains a field of research that has great consequences for the rehabilitation of soldiers and civilians that are exposed to an explosion. As such, for the research to be successful in developing strategies to mitigate the effects of these injuries, appropriate research methods need to be developed. Animal models are currently employed to understand the brain's response to a shock wave exposure. Unfortunately no criteria have been established that indicates in what way the mechanical inputs that the cells in an animal's brain are subjected to are similar to a human. The purpose of this …

Computational Simulation Of Skull Fracture Patterns In Pediatric Subjects Using A Porcine Model, Christina Devito Wagner

Wayne State University Dissertations

In cases of suspected child abuse with skeletal trauma, it is often the role of the injury biomechanist, forensic pathologist, clinical radiologist, and forensic anthropologist to determine the mechanism of injury when the child victims cannot speak for themselves. This is a challenging task, especially for the head, as comprehensive biomechanical data on skull fracture in infants and children do not currently exist, and frequently the determination regarding cause of injury is based on anecdotal evidence from the medical literature and unsubstantiated eyewitness accounts. The current process may result in unreliable autopsy interpretation and miscarriages of justice due to a …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2011, 131st Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Twenty-First Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Collegiate Academy: Biology

Collegiate Academy: Chemistry and Physics

Chemistry and Physics

Biological and Medical Sciences

Junior Academy, Senior High Competition

Nebraska Wesleyan University Health and Sciences Graduate School Fair, Olin and Smith Curtiss Halls

Teaching of Science and Math

Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session

Applied Science and Technology

Maiben Memorial Lecture: Erin Flynn, Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo

Aeronautics

Anthropology

Earth Science

Junior Academy, Junior High Competition

The Formation And Distribution Of Hippocampal Synapses On Patterned Neuronal Networks, Natalie Michelle Dowell-Mesfin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

Building Spaces To Grow New Ideas: Research 2011, University Office Of Research, South Dakota State University

State of Discovery South Dakota State University's Research Magazine

CONTENTS:

Feeding the World [Page] 2
A Light on New Possibilities [Page] 4
Designing New Tools [Page] 6
Wellness Science [Page] 8
Renovating a Science Resource [Page] 10
Connect World Possibilities [Page] 12
Transfer Research [Page] 14

The Journal Of Undergraduate Research: Volume 09

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

This is the complete issue of the South Dakota State University Journal of Undergraduate Research, Volume 13.

Mathematical Modeling Of Clostridium Thermocellum’S Metabolic Responses To Environmental Perturbation, Bless Adotey

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Clostridium thermocellum is a thermophilic anaerobe that is capable of producing ethanol directly from lignocellulosic compounds, however this organism suffers from low ethanol tolerance and low ethanol yields. In vivo mathematical modeling studies based on steady state traditional metabolic flux analysis, metabolic control analysis, transient and steady states’ flux spectrum analysis (FSA) were conducted on C. thermocellum’s central metabolism. The models were developed in Matrix Laboratory software ( MATLAB^® (The Language of Technical Computing), R2008b, Version 7.7.0.471)) based on known stoichiometry from C. thermocellum pathway and known physical constraints. Growth on cellobiose from Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) and Metabolic …

Influence Of Fan Operation On Fan Assessment Numeration System (Fans) Test Results, Gabriela Munhoz Morello

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The use of velocity traverses to measure in-situ air flow rate of ventilation fans can be subject to significant errors. The Fan Assessment Numeration System (FANS) was developed by the USD-ARS Southern Poultry Research Laboratory and refined at the University of Kentucky to measure air flow of fans in-situ. The procedures for using the FANS unit to test fans in-situ are not completely standardized. This study evaluated the effect of operating fan positions relative to the FANS unit for ten 1.22 m diameter fans in two types of poultry barns, with fans placed immediately next to each other and …

Computer Simulation Of A Hollow-Fiber Bioreactor: Heparan Regulated Growth Factors-Receptors Binding And Dissociation Analysis, Changjiang Zhang

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates the use of numerical simulation in predicting the behavior of proteins in a flow environment.

A novel convection-diffusion-reaction computational model is first introduced to simulate fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) binding to its receptor (FGFR) on cell surfaces and regulated by heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) under flow in a bioreactor. The model includes three parts: (1) the flow of medium using incompressible Navier-Stokes equations; (2) the mass transport of FGF-2 using convection-diffusion equations; and (3) the cell surface binding using chemical kinetics. The model consists of a set of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) for flow and …

Modeling And Quantitative Analysis Of White Matter Fiber Tracts In Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Xuwei Liang

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to record incoherent motion of water molecules and has been used to detect micro structural white matter alterations in clinical studies to explore certain brain disorders. A variety of DTI based techniques for detecting brain disorders and facilitating clinical group analysis have been developed in the past few years. However, there are two crucial issues that have great impacts on the performance of those algorithms. One is that brain neural pathways appear in complicated 3D structures which are inappropriate and inaccurate to be approximated by simple 2D structures, …

A Computational Tool For Estimating Off-Target Application Areas In Agricultural Fields, Rodrigo S. Zandonadi, Joe D. Luck, Timothy S. Stombaugh, Michael P. Sama, Scott A. Shearer

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

A computational method for estimating off-target application areas based on the machine-controlled section width and the field shape was developed and implemented in software with a graphical user interface written in the MatLab environment. The program, which is called the Field Coverage Analysis Tool (FieldCAT), includes three modules: data import, data preparation, and coverage analysis. Nine field boundaries were evaluated to test the software using controlled section widths from 0.5 to 27 m and various swath orientations. The estimated off-target application area from the widest section width varied from 9% to 24% depending on the shape and size of the …

Spatio-Temporal Variations In Soil Moisture And Physicochemical Properties Of A Typical Semiarid Sand-Meadow-Desert Landscape As Influenced By Land Use, L. Duan, T. Liu, X. Wang, G. Wang, L. Ma, Y. Luo

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A good understanding of the interrelations between land cover alteration and changes in hydrologic conditions (e.g., soil moisture) as well as soil physicochemical properties (e.g., fine soil particles and nutrients) is crucial for maintaining the fragile hydrologic and environmental conditions of semiarid land, such as the Horqin Sandy Land in China, but is lacking in existing literature. The objectives of this study were to examine: (1) spatio-temporal variations of soil moisture and physicochemical properties in semiarid land; and (2) how those variations are influenced by land cover alteration. Using the data collected in a 9.71 km2 well-instrumented area of the …

Imbalanced Learning For Functional State Assessment, Feng Li, Frederick Mckenzie, Jiang Li, Guanfan Zhang, Roger Xu, Carl Richey, Tom Schnell, Thomas E. Pinelli (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents results of several imbalanced learning techniques applied to operator functional state assessment where the data is highly imbalanced, i.e., some function states (majority classes) have much more training samples than other states (minority classes). Conventional machine learning techniques usually tend to classify all data samples into majority classis and perform poorly for minority classes. In this study, we implemented five imbalanced learning techniques, including random under-sampling, random over-sampling, synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE), borderline-SMOTE and adaptive synthetic sampling (ADASYN) to solve this problem. Experimental results on a benchmark driving test dataset show that accuracies for minority classes …

Longissimus Muscle Fatigue And Injury Response Due To Electrical Stimulation With Varied Work/Rest Ratios, Peter Wawrow

Wayne State University Dissertations

LONGISSIMUS MUSCLE FATIGUE AND INJURY RESPONSE DUE TO ELECTRICAL STIMULATION WITH VARIED WORK/REST RATIOS

BY

PETER WAWROW

May 2011

Advisor: John Cavanaugh, MD

Major: Biomedical Engineering

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

The estimated yearly cost of lost-time work injuries and illnesses is $140 billion. The average cost of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) exceeds all other claims. These injuries persist in spite of ergonomic interventions addressing known risk factors. Work/rest ratios have not received a significant amount of attention, particularly in low back disorders, and it is hypothesized that the lack of adequate rest within a work cycle may contribute to muscle fatigue …

Fus Transgenic Rats Develop The Phenotypes Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis And Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Cao Huang, Hongxia Zhou, Jianbin Tong, Han Chen, Yong-Jian Liu, Dian Wang, Xiaotao Wei, Xugang Xia

Nebraska Center for Biotechnology: Faculty and Staff Publications

Fused in Sarcoma (FUS) proteinopathy is a feature of frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD), and mutation of the fus gene segregates with FTLD and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To study the consequences of mutation in the fus gene, we created transgenic rats expressing the human fus gene with or without mutation. Overexpression of a mutant (R521C substitution), but not normal, human FUS induced progressive paralysis resembling ALS. Mutant FUS transgenic rats developed progressive paralysis secondary to degeneration of motor axons and displayed a substantial loss of neurons in the cortex and hippocampus. This neuronal loss was accompanied by ubiquitin aggregation and …

Comparative Manufacture And Cell-Based Delivery Of Antiretroviral Nanoformulations, Shantanu Balkundi, Ari S. Nowacek, Ram S. Veerubhotla, Han Chen, Andrea Martinez-Skinner, Upal Roy, R. Lee Mosley, Georgette Kanmogne, Xinming Liu, Alexander V. Kabanov, Tatiana Bronich, Joellyn Mcmillan, Howard E. Gendelman

Nebraska Center for Biotechnology: Faculty and Staff Publications

Nanoformulations of crystalline indinavir, ritonavir, atazanavir, and efavirenz were manufactured by wet milling, homogenization or sonication with a variety of excipients. The chemical, biological, immune, virological, and toxicological properties of these formulations were compared using an established monocyte-derived macrophage scoring indicator system. Measurements of drug uptake, retention, release, and antiretroviral activity demonstrated differences amongst preparation methods. Interestingly, for drug cell targeting and antiretroviral responses the most significant difference among the particles was the drug itself. We posit that the choice of drug and formulation composition may ultimately affect clinical utility.

Analysis Of The Performance Of Peanut Fame In A Single Cylinder Idi Engine And Investigations Of Neat Methyl Ester Influence On Fuel Quality, Jeffery Lewis

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Author's abstract: To meet evolving standards set forth by the U.S. EPA and U.S. Energy Policy it is necessary to consider a variety of feedstock for biofuels synthesis and to understand the role individual fatty acids contribute to the overall performance. It is the belief of the authors that excess peanut production would provide an excellent source for high quality biodiesel feedstock, and the complete property and combustion analysis of the fatty acid components will provide insight for future biofuel developments. The preliminary investigations of the project focused on the combustion performance and thermal efficiency of peanut FAME and its …

Role Of Hydrodynamic Behavior Of Dna Molecules In Dielectrophoretic Polarization Under The Action Of An Electric Field, Hui Zhao

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

A continuum model is developed to predict the dielectrophoretic polarizability of coiled DNA molecules under the action of an alternating current electric field. The model approximates the coiled DNA molecule as a charged porous spherical particle. The model explains the discrepancies among scaling laws of polarizability of different-sized DNA molecules with contour length and such discrepancies are attributed to different hydrodynamic behavior. With zero or one fitting parameter, theoretical predictions are in good agreement with various experimental data, even though in experiments there are some uncertainties in regard to certain parameters.

Bcc Skin Cancer Diagnosis Based On Texture Analysis Techniques, Shao-Hui Chuang, Xiaoyan Sun, Wen-Yu Chang, Gwo-Shing Chen, Adam Huang, Jiang Li, Frederic D. Mckenzie

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we present a texture analysis based method for diagnosing the Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) skin cancer using optical images taken from the suspicious skin regions. We first extracted the Run Length Matrix and Haralick texture features from the images and used a feature selection algorithm to identify the most effective feature set for the diagnosis. We then utilized a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) classifier to classify the images to BCC or normal cases. Experiments showed that detecting BCC cancer based on optical images is feasible. The best sensitivity and specificity we achieved on our data set were 94% …

A Novel Device For Cell-Cell Electrofusion, Justin T. Stewart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell transplantation therapy is a potentially powerful tool and can be used to replace defective cells with healthy cells. This offers the possibility of alleviating the destructive symptoms for many diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, spinal cord trauma, Type I diabetes and many more. While there are many diseases that could be positively impacted from cell transplantation therapy, the focus of this research is insulin dependent, Type I Diabetes.

The Islets of Langerhans are composed of various types of cells located in the pancreas and are responsible for a variety of biochemical functions. Specifically, the beta Islet …

A Systematic Approach For Engagement Analysis Under Multitasking Environments, Guangfan Zhang, John Leddo, Roger Xu, Carl Richey, Tom Schnell, Frederick Mckenzie, Jiang Li, Thomas E. Pinelli (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

An overload condition can lead to high stress for an operator and further cause substantial drops in performance. On the other extreme, in automated systems, an operator may become underloaded; in which case, it is difficult for the operator to maintain sustained attention. When an unexpected event occurs, either internal or external to the automated system, a disengaged operation may neglect, misunderstand, or respond slowly/inappropriately to the situation. In this paper, we discuss a systematic approach monitor for extremes of cognitive workload and engagement in multitasking environments. Inferences of cognitive workload and engagement are based on subjective evaluations, objective performance …

Regulation Of Cell Adhesion Strength By Spatial Organization Of Focal Adhesions, Kranthi Kumar Elineni

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM) is critical to various cellular processes like cell spreading, migration, growth and apoptosis. At the tissue level, cell adhesion is important in the pathological and physiological processes that regulate the tissue morphogenesis. Cell adhesion to the ECM is primarily mediated by the integrin family of receptors. The receptors that are recruited to the surface are reinforced by structural and signaling proteins at the adhesive sites forming focal adhesions that connect the cytoskeleton to further stabilize the adhesions. The functional roles of these focal adhesions extend beyond stabilizing adhesions and transduce mechanical signals at the …

Investigation Of The Optimal Dissolved Co2 Concentration And Ph Combination For The Growth Of Nitrifying Bacteria, Raymond Anthony Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ammonium (NH₄⁺) is a biological nutrient that is transformed in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in a process called activated sludge. This is accomplished in an aerobic environment using microorganisms and inorganic carbon that convert the ammonium to nitrate (NO₃^-). This process is termed nitrification. Removal of ammonium is necessary due to its oxygen demand and toxicity to the environment.

Nitrification is considered a slow process due to the slow growth rate of the nitrifying bacteria. Ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) first covert the ammonium (NH₄⁺) to nitrite (NO₂^-) …

Mechanistic Modeling Of Photocatalytic Water Disinfection, Omatoyo Kofi Dalrymple

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this research was to develop a mechanism-based model for photocatalytic disinfection of bacteria in water using suspended catalyst pthesiss in batch reactors. The photocatalytic disinfection process occurs as a semiconductor photocatalyst, most commonly titanium dioxide (TiO₂), is irradiated with light of wavelength less than 380 nm to produce hydroxyl radicals and other highly reactive oxidants which can inactivate microorganisms. Photocatalytic disinfection involves a complex interaction of many fundamental mechanisms such as light absorption and scattering by semiconductor pthesiss, electrochemical surface reactions, and heterogeneous colloidal stability. Current models, based largely on chemical reacting systems, do …

Computational Discovery Of Phenotype Related Biochemical Processes For Engineering, Andrea M. Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Application of bioengineering technologies for enhanced biological hydrogen production is a promising approach that may play a vital role in sustainable energy. Due to the ability of several naturally occurring microorganisms to generate hydrogen through varying metabolic processes, biological hydrogen has become an attractive alternative energy and fuel source.

One area of particular interest is the production of biological hydrogen in organically-rich engineered systems, such as those associated with waste treatment. Despite the potential for high energy yields, hydrogen yields generated by bacteria in waste systems are often limited due to a focus on microbial utilization of organic material towards …

Design Of Laser Multi-Beam Generator For Plant Discrimination, Sreten Askraba, Arie Paap, Kamal Alameh, John Rowe

Research outputs 2011

Optimisation of the optical signal from the laser multi-spot beam generator employed in a photonic based real-time plant discrimination sensor for use in selective herbicide spraying systems is presented. The plant detection sensor uses a three-wavelength laser diode module that sequentially emits identically-polarized laser light beams through a common aperture, along one optical path. Each laser beam enters a multi-spot beam generator which produces 15 parallel laser beams over a 240mm span. The intensity of the reflected light from each spot is detected by a high-speed line scan image sensor. Plant discrimination is based on calculating the slope of the …