Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Influence Of Biomimetic Chelating Packaging On Natural Antimicrobial Efficacy, Paul Castrale

Masters Theses

The iron chelating molecule, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is used in food applications for the preservation of oxidation prone ingredients. Research has suggested that EDTA is also capable of enhancing the antimicrobial effectiveness of various compounds including naturally-derived antimicrobials. With consumer demand for cleaner food labels, there remains an opportunity to introduce new chelating technology to replace synthetically-derived EDTA. Through photographting and chemical conversion, hydroxamic acid ligands were covalently bound to polypropylene films resulting in polypropylene-graft-poly(hydroxamic acid) (PP-g-PHA). The resulting films demonstrated an ability to chelate 64 nmol/cm² from an iron saturated environment or 163 nmol/cm …

Modelling Bird Migration With Motus Data And Bayesian State-Space Models, Justin Baldwin

Masters Theses

Bird migration is a poorly-known yet important phenomenon, as understanding movement patterns of birds can inform conservation strategies and public health policy for animal-borne diseases. Recent advances in wildlife tracking technology, in particular the Motus system, have allowed researchers to track even small flying birds and insects with radio transmitters that weigh fractions of a gram. This system relies on a community-based distributed sensor network that detects tagged animals as they move through the detection nodes on journeys that range from small local movements to intercontinental migrations. The quantity of data generated by the Motus system is unprecedented, is on …

Multiple Testing Correction With Repeated Correlated Outcomes: Applications To Epigenetics, Katie Leap

Masters Theses

Epigenetic changes (specifically DNA methylation) have been associated with adverse health outcomes; however, unlike genetic markers that are fixed over the lifetime of an individual, methylation can change. Given that there are a large number of methylation sites, measuring them repeatedly introduces multiple testing problems beyond those that exist in a static genetic context. Using simulations of epigenetic data, we considered different methods of controlling the false discovery rate. We considered several underlying associations between an exposure and methylation over time.

We found that testing each site with a linear mixed effects model and then controlling the false discovery rate …

Botswana’S Elephant-Back Safari Industry – Stress-Response In Working African Elephants And Analysis Of Their Post-Release Movements, Tanya Lama

Masters Theses

Understanding how African elephants (Loxodonta africana) respond to human interactions in ecotourism operations is critical to safeguarding animal and human welfare and sustaining wildlife ecotourism activities. We investigated the stress response of elephants to a variety of tourist activities over a 15-month period at Abu Camp in northern Botswana. We compared fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations across three elephant groups, including: eight elephants in an elephant-tourism operation (Abu herd), three elephants previously reintroduced back into the wild from the Abu herd, and wild elephants. There were no differences in FGM concentrations between the three groups of elephants. The highest observed …

Spatially Explicit Population Estimates Of The Florida Black Bear, Jacob Michael Humm

Masters Theses

The Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridanus) is currently comprised of 7 isolated subpopulations: Apalachicola, Eglin, Osceola, Ocala/St. Johns, Chassahowitzka, Highlands/Glades, and Big Cypress. The last statewide assessment of Florida black bear population dynamics was conducted by Simek et al. (2005) using traditional capture-markrecapture methods. The subspecies was removed from Florida’s List of State Threatened Species in 2012 contingent upon the formulation of a management plan that would maintain viable subpopulations of black bears in suitable habitat. Accurate population estimates for each of the remaining black bear subpopulations in Florida were needed to achieve the management goals of …

Influence Of Environmental Conditions And Inundation History On Bacterial Diversity Of Salt Marsh Soils In Southern Louisiana, Brandon M. Bagley

Masters Theses

Diversity patterns and controls on bacterial community composition were investigated from coastal salt marsh soils in southern Louisiana (USA) from 2012 – 2014. These salt marshes are part of an extensive coastal landscape that is experiencing land loss due to subsidence, sea-level rise, and anthropogenic activities, including from the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Prior to the oil spill, microbiology research focused predominately on biogeochemical roles and not on taxonomic representation in the soils or on understanding the significance of taxonomic diversity at the microbial level to marsh food webs or ecosystem dynamics. The purpose of …

Classification Of Basal Cell Carcinoma Using Telangiectatic Vessels And Machine Learning, Hemanth Yadav Aradhyula

Masters Theses

“Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is one of the most common types of skin cancer in the United States. Early detection of BCC by noninvasive techniques can decrease delay in treatment and save cost. A recent study estimated that 5.4 million cases of non-melanocytic skin cancer (NMSC) occur each year in the US. BCC accounts for 50% of NMSC cases. Telangiectasia, which appears in most BCCs is an important feature for identification of BCC for an automatic diagnostic system. In this thesis, three methods for detection of telangiectasia present in dermoscopy lesion image (DI) were proposed. Detected telangiectasia in DI was …

Family-Based Association Studies Of Autism In Boys Via Facial-Feature Clusters, Luke Andrew Settles

Masters Theses

"Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a set of developmental disorders with varied attributes. Due to its substantial heterogeneity in terms of behavioral and clinical phenotypes, it is challenging to discern the genetic biomarkers behind ASD, even though the disease is known to be genetic in nature. This serves as a motivation to detect relationships between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and a causal autism disease susceptibility locus (DSL) within more homogeneous subgroups. Recently, clinically meaningful subclassifications of ASD have been discovered utilizing facial features of prepubescent boys. Therefore, through the employment of data from 44 prepubertal Caucasian boys with ASD …

The North American River Otter (Lontra Canadensis) On The Department Of Energy's Savannah River Site, Emily B. Mccallen

Masters Theses

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) faces a legacy of radionuclide and metal contamination from industrial processes that occurred within the site. The risks posed to ecosystems on the site from contaminants are quantified using the ecological risk assessment process, which often uses the health of a particular species as an ecological endpoint. Northern river otters (Lontra canadensis) are appropriate receptors for studying the effects of long-term, low-level contamination because they are long-lived, higher trophic level organisms likely to accumulate high levels of pollutants. However, little information about river otters on the SRS is known; …