Effects Of Protein-Coated Nanofibers On Conformation Of Gingival Fibroblast Spheroids: Potential Utility For Connective Tissue Regeneration, Gili Kaufman, Ryan A. Whitescarver, Laiz Nunes, Xavier-Lewis Palmer, Drago Skrtic, Wojtek Tutak

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Deep wounds in the gingiva caused bytrauma or surgery require a rapid and robust healing of connective tissues. Wepropose utilizing gas-brushed nanofibers coated with collagen and fibrin for that purpose. Our hypotheses are that protein-coated nanofibers will: (i) attract and mobilize cells in various spatial orientations, and (ii) regulate the expression levels ofspecific extracellular matrix (ECM)-associated proteins, determining the initial conformational nature ofdense and soft connective tissues. Gingival fibroblast monolayers and3D spheroids were cultured onECMsubstrate and covered with gas-blown poly-(DL-lactide-co-glycolide)(PLGA) nanofibers (uncoated/coated with collagen and fibrin). Cell attraction and rearrangement was followed byF-actin staining and confocal microscopy. Thicknesses ofthe cell …

Celebrating 20 Years Of The Exceed Teaching Workshop, Allen C. Estes, Stephen J. Ressler P.E., Camilla M. Saviz P.E., Brock E. Barry, Carol L. Considine, Dion Coward, Norman D. Dennis Jr., P.E., Scott R. Hamilton P.E., David S. Hurwitz, Tanya Kunberger P.E., Thomas A. Lenox, Tonya Lynn Nilsson, Leslie Nolen Cae, James J. O'Brien Jr., Robert James O'Neill, David A. Saftner, Kelly Salyards P.E., Ronald W. Welch P. E.

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

In response to the clear need for faculty training, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) developed and funded Project ExCEEd (Excellence in Civil Engineering Education) which is celebrating its twentieth year of existence. For the past two decades, 38 ExCEEd Teaching Workshops (ETW) have been held at six different universities. The program has 910 graduates from over 267 different U.S. and international colleges and universities. The ExCEEd effort has transformed from one that relied on the grass roots support of its participants to one that is supported and embraced by department heads and deans. This paper summarizes the history …

Collaborative Strategies For Sea Level Rise Adaptation In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Carol Considine, Emily Steinhilber

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

[Introduction] The Hampton Roads region is located in southeastern Virginia where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The region includes seventeen municipal governments and has a large federal government presence with 26 federal agencies represented (See Figure 1). The region has a population that exceeds 1.7 million and is home to the deepest water harbor on the U.S. East Coast. Hampton Roads' economy is dependent on the local waterways and houses the world's largest naval facility, the sixth largest containerized cargo complex and supports a thriving shipbuilding and repair industry as well as a tourism industry. However, the region's …

On The Feasibility Of Utilizing Commercial 4g Lte Systems For Misson-Critical Iot Applications, Alfred Rezk

Dissertations and Theses

Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) applications and services including e-healthcare, intelligent transportation systems, smart grid, and smart homes to smart cities to smart workplace, are poised to become part of every aspect of our daily lives. The IoT will enable billions of sensors, actuators, and smart devices to be interconnected and managed remotely via the Internet. Cellular-based Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications is one of the key IoT enabling technologies with huge market potential for cellular service providers deploying Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. There is an emerging consensus that Fourth Generation (4G) and 5G cellular technologies will enable and support these …

A Quantification Analysis On Potential Use Of Recuperated Regenerative Braking Energy From Nyct Subways Into Charging Electric Buses, Ahmed S. Rahman

Dissertations and Theses

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is one of the biggest consumers of electricity in east coast of the United States. According to a report published by Dayton T. Brown in 2013, MTA consumes approximately 2150 GWh electrical energy per year for traction power, where the New York City Transit (NYCT) alone is a consumer of about 80% of the total annual MTA energy consumption. This continuous high demand for electricity from a single organization opens research opportunities to search for alternative ways to reduce the needs. NYCT Subways has an existing total rolling stock of 6,418 train cars …

Knockdown Of Heparan Sulfate Via Ndst1 Knockout Does Not Inhibit Mouse Aortic Endothelial Cell Alignment In-Vivo, John Diaz De Leon Iii

Dissertations and Theses

Atherosclerotic plaque localizes in predictable areas such as arches and bifurcations which are characterized by disturbed flow patterns and the resulting damage and dysfunction to the endothelium. Endothelial cells (ECs) under sustained laminar flow align in the direction of flow; however, under disturbed flow conditions, ECs sustain damage to their glycocalyx (GCX) which results in unaligned and rounder cells. An investigation into the role of NDST1 sulfation of heparan sulfate (HS), a key component of many proteoglycans which make up the GCX, was conducted. The descending aortas (DAs) of transgenic mice with conditional knockouts (KOs) of NDST1 in vascular ECs …

Developing A 3d In Vitro Model By Microfluidics, Hung-Ta Chien

Dissertations and Theses

In vitro tissue models play an important role in providing a platform that mimics the realistic tissue microenvironment for stimulating and characterizing the cellular behavior. In particular, the hydrogel-based 3D in vitro models allow the cells to grow and interact with their surroundings in all directions, thus better mimicking in vivo than their 2D counterparts. The objective of this thesis is to establish a 3D in vitro model that mimics the anatomical and functional complexity of the realistic cancer microenvironment for conveniently studying the transport coupling in porous tissue structures. We pack uniform-sized PEGDA-GelMA microgels in a microfluidic chip to …

Understanding Of Molecular Interactions And Reversibility In Silylamines, Josephine Chen

Dissertations and Theses

Modern Li-ion batteries employ flammable electrolytes that pose safety concerns. Battery safety has become important as several incidents involving Li-ion battery fires have been observed. This issue could be addressed through a switchable battery electrolyte. Reversible ionic liquids (RevILs) could be used in such an electrolyte that would cease operation in the event of rapid temperature elevation because they can switch between states of drastically different properties upon the application of an external stimulus, such as temperature or CO₂ addition. Silylamines, in particular, are a class of thermally responsive RevILs that are conducting in its ionic liquid (RevIL) state …

Smart Prismatic Louver Technology For Enhanced Daylighting And Management Of Thermal Loads In Green Buildings, Michael Alva

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

Two significant design strategies for mitigating building energy consumption are daylight redirection and solar energy harvesting. Good daylighting implementation enhances the amount of useful natural light within a space, thereby offsetting the need for electric lighting. Solar energy harvesting systems can mitigate energy costs from mechanical systems by managing incoming thermal loads or capturing solar energy that can be used to supplement thermal systems in the building. While there are many available façade-based technologies that can perform daylighting or solar thermal energy harvesting, there remains a limitation in available systems that can perform both simultaneously. The proposed Liquid Filled …

Collective Chemotaxis Of Retinal Neural Cells From Drosophila Melanogaster In Controlled Microenvironments, Stephanie Zhang

Dissertations and Theses

More than 172 million people are influenced by a retinal disorder that stems from either age-related or developmental causes. Of those, 1.5 million people endure a developmental retinal disorder. In the developing retina, neural cells undergo a series of highly complicated differentiation and migration process. A main cause of these diseases is abnormal collective migration of neural progenitors hindering the retinogenesis process. However, our grasp of collective migration and signaling molecules, critical to the developing retina, is incompletely understood. Understanding the molecular mechanisms, such as the fibroblast growth factor pathway, that regulate glial and neuronal migration provides decisive insights in …

Analysis Of The Benefits Of Regenerative Braking In Urban Railway Traction System, Khan M. Adnan

Dissertations and Theses

Increasing environmental awareness and the requirement for lower project costs is forcing transit system suppliers to think more innovatively and engineer more accurately to strengthen their competitive edge. Of late, clients more often desire a system that is optimized to minimize the energy consumed during operation; a requirement that is often imposed upon transit system suppliers through financially binding energy commitments.

Electric rail transit systems are large consumers of energy. In trains with regenerative braking capability, a fraction of the energy used to power a train is regenerated during braking. This regenerated energy, if recuperated and reused, can result in …

A Case Study On Grid Impacts Of Electric Vehicles On New York City Power Grid, Amir Abbas Rizvi

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. electric power industry is anticipating a huge increase in electricity demand in the future due to reformation of the transportation industry. In this work, we focus on electric cars and their impact on the transportation industry as well as the electric grid. The increase in number of electric cars over the years and their growing number indicates that in the future, transportation means are going to largely depend upon electricity to achieve cost and environmental benefits. In other words, in future, the transportation will be impacting the electric grid and vice versa.

The surge in electric vehicles on …

Fossil Fuel Impact Of Buildings Electrification In New York City, Mattia Sartori

Dissertations and Theses

New York City's commitment to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions 80% by 2050 (80X50) requires a deep citywide conversion from fuel combustion systems to more efficient technologies, such as air-source heat pumps. Moreover, this challenging goal relies also on a much cleaner grid with the majority of electrical generation being provided by renewable sources, such as solar and wind. In this regard, building electrification is being considered as a possible solution in order to reduce emissions and maximize the efficiency of the energy utilization as well as improve the comfort of the indoor environment.

Under the assumption of a cleaner …

Effective Turning Motion Control Of Internally Actuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Saeedeh Ziaeefard, Brian R. Page, Anthony Pinar, Nina Mahmoudian

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This paper presents a novel roll mechanism and an efficient control strategy for internally actuated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The developed control algorithms are tested on Michigan Tech’s custom research glider, ROUGHIE (Research Oriented Underwater Glider for Hands-on Investigative Engineering), in a controlled environment. The ROUGHIE’s design parameters and operational constraints were driven by its requirement to be man portable, expandable, and maneuverable in shallow water. As an underwater glider, the ROUGHIE is underactuated with direct control of only depth, pitch, and roll. A switching control method is implemented on the ROUGHIE to improve its maneuverability, enabling smooth transitions between …

User-Friendly Deniable Storage For Mobile Devices, Bing Chang, Yao Cheng, Bo Chen, Fengwei Zhang, Wen-Tao Zhu, Yanju Liu, Zhan Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Mobile devices are prevalently used to process sensitive data, but traditional encryption may not work when an adversary is able to coerce the device owners to disclose the encryption keys. Plausibly Deniable Encryption (PDE) is thus designed to protect sensitive data against this powerful adversary. In this paper, we present MobiPluto, a user-friendly PDE scheme for denying the existence of sensitive data stored on mobile devices. A salient difference between MobiPluto and the existing PDE systems is that any block-based file systems can be deployed on top of it. To further improve usability and deniability of MobiPluto, we introduce a …

Real-Time Inbound Marketing: A Use Case For Digital Banking, Alan Megargel, Venky Shankararaman, Srinivas K. Reddy

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the years banks have been strategically using digital technologies to help transform various aspects of their business. In recent times, this strategy has evolved into one of digital augmentation of the bank’s processes, products and channels. This allows for reaching out to customers and partners through digital platforms, for example; the addition of mobile apps for customers to access and perform service transactions. Marketing continues to play a major role in supporting the expansion of business and increasing revenue for the bank. Marketing has evolved from mass direct targeting to more personalised, face-to-face and real-time targeting. In the digital …

Integrated Reward Scheme And Surge Pricing In A Ride Sourcing Market, Hai Yang, Chaoyi Shao, Hai Wang, Jieping Ye

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Surge pricing is commonly used in on-demand ride-sourcing platforms (e.g., Uber, Lyft and Didi) to dynamically balance demand and supply. However, since the price for ride service cannot be unlimited, there is usually a reasonable or legitimate range of prices in practice. Such a constrained surge pricing strategy fails to balance demand and supply in certain cases, e.g., even adopting the maximum allowed price cannot reduce the demand to an affordable level during peak hours. In addition, the practice of surge pricing is controversial and has stimulated long debate regarding its pros and cons. In this paper, to address the …

High Sensitivity Optical Fiber Interferometric Sensors, Dejun Liu

Doctoral

Optical fiber interferometers have been widely employed and investigated for monitoring the changes in both physical and chemical parameters, with the advantages of compact size, light weight, immunity to electromagnetic interference, high sensitivity, capability to work in harsh environments and remote operation capabilities. Among the different kinds of fiber sensors based on interferometry, singlemode-multimode-singlemode (SMS) structures has attracted considerable interest due to their inherent advantages of high sensitivity, ease of fabrication and interconnection to other fiber systems and low cost. However, the challenge is that the sensitivity of the traditional SMS based fiber structure is not sufficient in some cases, …

Collaborative Fall Detection Using Smartphone And Kinect, Xue Li, Lanshun Nie, Hanchuan Xu, Xianzhi Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Humanfall detection has attracted broad attentions as sensors and mobile devices are increasingly adopted in real-life scenarios such as smart homes. The complexity of activities in home environments pose severe challenges to the fall detection research with respect to the detection accuracy. We propose a collaborative detection platform that combines two subsystems: a threshold-based fall detection subsystem using mobile phones and a support vector machine (SVM)-based fall detection subsystem using Kinects. Both subsystems have their respective confidence models and the platform detects falls by fusing the data of both subsystems using two methods: the logical rules-based and D-S evidence fusion …

A Distributed Intrusion Detection Model Via Nondestructive Partitioning And Balanced Allocation For Big Data, Xiaonian Wu, Chuyun Zhang, Runlian Zhang, Yujue Wang, Jinhua Cui

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

There are two key issues in distributed intrusion detection system, that is, maintaining load balance of system and protecting data integrity. To address these issues, this paper proposes a new distributed intrusion detection model for big data based on nondestructive partitioning and balanced allocation. A data allocation strategy based on capacity and workload is introduced to achieve local load balance, and a dynamic load adjustment strategy is adopted to maintain global load balance of cluster. Moreover, data integrity is protected by using session reassemble and session partitioning. The simulation results show that the new model enjoys favorable advantages such as …

A Microscopic Simulation Study Of Applications Of Signal Phasing And Timing Information In A Connected Vehicle Environment, Gwamaka Lameck Njobelo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The connected vehicle technology presents an innovative way of sharing information between vehicles and the transportation infrastructure through wireless communications. The technology can potentially solve safety, mobility, and environmental challenges that face the transportation sector. Signal phasing and timing information is one category of information that can be broadcasted through connected vehicle technology. This thesis presents an in-depth study of possible ways signal phasing and timing information can be beneficial as far as safety and mobility are concerned. In total, three studies describing this research are outlined.

The first study presented herein focuses on data collection and calibration efforts of …

The Effect Of Friction Stir Processing On The Microstructure And Tensile Behavior Of Aluminum Alloys, Nelson Gomes Affonseca Netto

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Friction Stir Processing (FSP) is a promising thermomechanical technique that is used to modify the microstructure of metals locally, and thereby locally improve mechanical properties of the material. FSP uses a simple and inexpensive tool, and has been shown to eliminate pores and also reduce the sizes of intermetallics in aluminum alloys. This is of great interest for research on solidification, production and performance of aluminum alloy castings because FSP can enhance the structural quality of aluminum casting significantly by minimizing the effect of those structural defects.

In the literature, there is evidence that the effectiveness of FSP can change …

Particle Filters For State Estimation Of Confined Aquifers, Graeme Field

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mathematical models are used in engineering and the sciences to estimate properties of systems of interest, increasing our understanding of the surrounding world and driving technological innovation. Unfortunately, as the systems of interest grow in complexity, so to do the models necessary to accurately describe them. Analytic solutions for problems with such models are provably intractable, motivating the use of approximate yet still accurate estimation techniques. Particle filtering methods have emerged as a popular tool in the presence of such models, spreading from its origins in signal processing to a diverse set of fields throughout engineering and the sciences including …

Implementation Of Cache Attack On Real Information Centric Networking System, Faustina J. Anto Morais

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Network security is an ongoing major problem in today’s Internet world. Even though there have been simulation studies related to denial of service and cache attacks, studies of attacks on real networks are still lacking in the research. In this thesis, the effects of cache attacks in real information-centric networking systems were investigated. Cache attacks were implemented in real networks with different cache sizes and with Least Recently Used, Random and First In First Out algorithms to fill the caches in each node. The attacker hits the cache with unpopular content, making the user request that the results be fetched …

Architectures For Real-Time Automatic Sign Language Recognition On Resource-Constrained Device, James M. Blair

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Powerful, handheld computing devices have proliferated among consumers in recent years. Combined with new cameras and sensors capable of detecting objects in three-dimensional space, new gesture-based paradigms of human computer interaction are becoming available. One possible application of these developments is an automated sign language recognition system. This thesis reviews the existing body of work regarding computer recognition of sign language gestures as well as the design of systems for speech recognition, a similar problem. Little work has been done to apply the well-known architectural patterns of speech recognition systems to the domain of sign language recognition. This work creates …

The Microstructural Annealing Response Of Cold Gas Dynamically Sprayed Al 6061, Clayton Andrew Cushway

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Cold-Gas Dynamic-Spray process also known as Cold Spray (CS) has been researched for three decades. The CS process is a solid-state deposition technique via supersonic velocity of powder particles at a temperature significantly below the melting point of the spray material. This thesis presents background on the overall CS process parameters, and additional information on the microstructural and mechanical properties of typical Cold Sprayed materials.This Thesis primarily presents a study on the microstructural annealing response of CS Al 6061. It should be noted that for this study, the term “annealing” is used in the sense of the classical metallurgical …

Profile Analysis Of Mobile Application Security, Adetunji A. Olunuga

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This thesis conducts profile analysis on the mobile application security using peer-review articles that were published from 2010 to 2018. From the analysis, we will identify prolific authors, intuitions, and geographic regions as well as the topics addressed by the articles. The profile analysis will reveal most frequently used research methods, research approaches (quantitative, qualitative and mixed), and theories used to study the field. This thesis reveals that none of the researchers have made significant contributions to the field, and researches are not collaborating to solve their research problems. The profile analysis shows that surveys and experiments are the …

Optimizing Nature-Based Features For Wave Dissipation And Land-Water Connectivity, Maura Boswell, Navid Tahvildari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Living shorelines integrate structural and natural features to stabilize the shoreline, through reduction of erosion from the wave climate, while keeping the connectivity between land and aquatic ecosystems. This study includes field study for two different types of living shoreline systems to quantify and compare their wave dissipation services and provide physics-based guidance for the design of living shoreline systems that are efficient in wave dissipation yet maximize land-water connectivity.

A Numerical Study On Surface Wave Evolution Over Viscoelastic Mud, Elham Sharifineyestani, Navid Tahvildari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A numerical modeling approach is applied to investigate the combined effect of wave-current-mud on the evolution of nonlinear waves. A frequency-domain phase-resolving wave-current model that solves nonlinear wave-wave interactions is used to solve wave evolution. A comparison between the results of numerical wave model and the laboratory experiments confirms the accuracy of the numerical model. The model is then applied to consider the effect of mud properties on nonlinear surface wave evolution. It is shown that resonance effect in viscoelastic mud creates a complex frequency-dependent dissipation pattern. In fact, due to the resonance effect, higher surface wave frequencies can experience …

Combined Effect Of Storm Surge And Overland Flow On Flooding In A Coastal Urban Area, Navid Tahvildari, Akash Sahu, Yawen Shen, Mohamed Morsy, Jonathan Goodall

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The coastal regions in the U.S. East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico are under the risk of storm surge and precipitation-driven flooding. The adverse impacts of climate change including sea level rise (SLR), potential increase in intensity and frequency of extreme storms, and increase in precipitation intensity increases the vulnerability of coastal communities to flooding. The common practice for flood hazard assessment in urban coastal areas can result in some errors as the effect of storm surge and overland flow are not considered simultaneously. In this study, we combine the results of two hydrodynamic models, one for overland flow …