In recent years, non-renewable and non-biodegradable plastic packaging forms the majority of landfilled waste. These products, mainly made from Polyethylene Tetraphlatate (PET) and other polyolefins, have excellent durability and barrier properties, but take hundreds of years to degrade.
Much focus has been put on developing environmentally friendly alternatives to polyolefins...
Aromatic hydrocarbons represent a large class of environmental contaminants that have a broad range of structures, physicochemical properties, and toxicities. Arising from the burning of organic matter, particularly fossil fuels, they are both widespread and abundant in all environmental compartments. Both monoaromatic hydrocarbons (BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are...
Rapid and sensitive detection of stress hormones, such as cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), can benefit the diagnosis of diseases related to adrenal gland disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, and more. Stress hormones fluctuate in a circadian rhythm, the highest in the early morning and the lowest at night;...
The utility of high-throughput, computational screening has become an invaluable asset to the field of materials science. In the hierarchy of computational methods, the most accurate methods are often the most computationally expensive. However, as both the efficiency and fidelity of numerical techniques advance, high-quality screening of large materials datasets...
CisCis-Dichloroethylene (ciscis-DCE), 1,1,1-Trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA), and 1,4-Dioxane (1,4-D) are chlorinated solvents used as solvents and degreasers in industrial cleaning agents that have become common groundwater contaminants. To develop an effective treatment method for these compounds, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sodium alginate (SA) hydrogel beads were co-entrappcapsulated with Rhodococcus rhodochrous Strain ATCC...
The focus of this thesis is to design, characterize, and apply novel computational methods and molecular systems to interrogate heterogeneous human gut microbiome-related phenomena. In Chapter 2, I design, implement, and characterize a method for embedding co-occurrence patterns derived from massive 16s amplicon datasets. I use this method to 1....
Orthopaedic soft tissue degenerative diseases significantly affect the population, especially as it ages. Degeneration is characterized by a progressive loss of extracellular matrix (ECM) components necessary for the proper functioning of the tissues and joints, eventually leading to pain and dysfunction. In humans, the intervertebral disc (IVD) and tendon are...
Cell signaling is often mediated by protein-protein interactions, which must be specific, tunable, and transient to allow agile responsiveness to cellular messages. Due to their unique properties, multivalent, intrinsically disordered proteins make ideal candidates to accomplish these vital tasks. A single protein with multiple binding sites may bind numerous partners,...
Osteochondrosis (OC) is a developmental orthopedic disease that results from a disruption to normal endochondral ossification in the articular-epiphyseal growth complex. In mammals, the hedgehog pathway and growth factor signaling are essential to this process. Previous studies in yearling horses with OC have shown upregulation of Indian hedgehog and insulin-like...
Electrodeposition is a versatile polymer deposition technique to create nano-microscale materials using an electrical field generated from a charged droplet of solution and a grounded collector. Electrospinning or electrospraying can occur during electrodeposition, leading to the creation of nanofibers or bead-like materials depending on the process parameters. Photopolymerization of the...
Structural engineered wood manufacturers need a quantitative measurement technique to determine the ratio of wood to adhesive failure in their shear specimens. Visual estimation of percent wood failure has long stood as an extremely subjective quality control approach according to ASTM D5266 – Standard Practice for Estimating the Percentage of...
Skeletal muscles provide several functions, including, yet not limited to, voluntary body movement and locomotion, posture and body position, and soft tissue support. Skeletal muscles also play a role in metabolism, requiring energy to facilitate contraction. Each skeletal muscle serves a different purpose despite seeming to perform the same task....
1,4-Dioxane (dioxane) and cis-dichloroethylene (cDCE) are compounds commonly found in industrial cleaning and degreasing agents that are frequently present as groundwater contaminants. In an effort to develop a more effective treatment method for these compounds, hydrogel beads were fabricated with either gellan gum or a combination of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)...
Hyperuricemia is the condition of excessive presence of plasma uric acid ≥ 6 mg/dl. Conventional clinical/hospital urate-lowering treatment includes the administration of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs or xanthine oxidase inhibitors. Numerous drawbacks can be observed from these conventional treatments. In patients with refractory gout symptoms and tumor lysis syndrome, recombinant uricase...
Thermal wave imaging (TWI), a technology based on heat conduction and radiation through materials, is a relatively new addition to current non-destructive inspections (NDI) systems. Bonding of composites, an extremely important step in manufacturing and repair of laminates, could be affected by defects originating from faulty manufacturing processes or damages...
In the search to improve and incorporate nano and renewable materials into urea-formaldehyde (UF), several researchers have incorporated cellulose nano fibrillated (CNF) into the adhesive. This study aimed to find an optimal way of incorporating CNF into UF and understand how CNF interacts with and changes the properties of the...
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7.1. Internal Bond and three-point bending test
Luteinizing hormone (LH) stimulates the secretion of gonadal steroid hormones (testosterone in males and estrogen/progesterone in females) and is under negative feedback from gonadal hormones. In gonad-intact dogs, LH is secreted in low amplitude pulses of concentrations under 1 ng/mL; except for the day of the LH surge in females...
Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus) is one of the most abundant fisheries on the American west coast. However, these fish are historically underutilized due to quality issues resulting from fillet softening that occurs as a result of both endogenous and exogenous (Myxosporidian parasite infection) cathepsin protease action during either storage (cathepsin...
The overall goal of this study was to utilize apple pomace, the byproduct from juice processing, as a renewable source of fiber to create sustainable packaging using molded pulp technology. The goal was accomplished through two studies: 1) to modify apple pomace fibers for increasing relative cellulose composition and improving...
In biology, function and disease are closely intertwined, requiring the coordination of hundreds of intricate chemical reactions. Interdisciplinary cooperation between chemical and biological approaches is necessary to decipher the chemical links between physiological and pathological conditions. In this arena, the precision tools made possible with chemical biology can manipulate and...
Flax fibers are frequently used as a sustainable and recyclable reinforcement for composite materials in aesthetic applications (ex. car interiors). Flax fibers are biodegradable and can be sustainably harvested. Furthermore, the question of how to dispose of flax reinforced materials after the end of their lifetime can be solved in...
Surface-associated thrombosis is a critical concern in medical device development. Current extracorporeal circulation units require systemic anticoagulation to avoid thrombosis, which can cause adverse effects such as thrombocytopenia, hypertriglyceridemia, and hyperkalemia. To address this issue, we combine the technology of polydopamine (PDA) functionalization with slippery liquid infused porous surfaces (SLIPS)....
Messenger RNA (mRNA) therapy has massive potential to treat various genetic disorders by providing effective proteins to the diseased cells and tissues. Its therapeutic applications include protein replacement, genome editing, and immunotherapy. For successful mRNA treatment, mRNA must be delivered to the cytosol of target cells. One of the leading...
Otoferlin is a C2-domain, transmembrane protein whose mutated form is responsible for the DFNB9 subtype of prelingual hearing impairment. Mutations in otoferlin cause an autosomal recessive, non-syndromic form of deafness that is characterized by auditory neuropathy/ auditory dissynchrony (AN/AD), meaning that the outer hair cells (OHCs) are normal, and the...
At the intersection of basic science research and clinical relevance, cancer metastasis and cell invasion is a multifaceted problem that has been investigated for the past several decades. Importantly, cancer cell plasticity, the ability of a single cell to change its phenotype without genetic mutations in response to environmental cues,...
Solar cells, also known as photovoltaic devices, are a class of renewable energy systems that can convert photons into electrons without the carbon dioxide emission. Short-wavelength, high-energy photons in the ultraviolet (UV) range can't be efficiently utilized by most solar cells because of the spectral mismatch. Luminescent downshifting is a...
There is an emerging interest in developing wearable electronics as a platform, which
provides the flexibility of a wearable while maintaining its promising functionality as smart textiles. Metal-halide semiconductors are attractive materials with tunable optical and electrical properties. Researchers have widely studied and applied it for advanced
photonics and optoelectronic...
Unlike other biosensing, electrochemical biosensor has the advantages of robustness, easy miniaturization, excellent detection limits, and capability in handling small analyte volumes. The detection selectivity of the electrochemical biosensors is mainly supported by bioreceptors. However, these receptors always suffer from the performance variation caused by the environment and the thermal-...
The work presented in this dissertation highlights the various techniques available to characterize the increasingly complex surfaces of engineered biomaterials. The methods used range from the simple measurement of a contact angle with a smartphone to a complex synchrotron technique like near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy to...
Immobilized proteins are integral components of a number of important technologies, including the principal component of many biosensors, as functional coatings in various implants, as catalysts is industrial biosynthesis, and as the building blocks of next-generation nanotechnologies. Despite their ubiquity, relatively little is known about the processes that shape immobilized...
Light trapping plays a phenomenal role in enhancing light confinement and light absorption within the solar cells, thus increasing the optical efficiency of the cell. Different strategies are employed for trapping light photons within the cell. Methods used include a substrate or single layer texturing, light trapping coating, plasmonic gratings,...
Mixtures of 1,4-dioxane (1,4-D) and chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) are common and hazardous groundwater contaminants that can be challenging to address with traditional remediation strategies. Bioremediation through aerobic cometabolism has the potential to be an effective in-situ treatment strategy for these contaminants. Rhodococcus rhodochrous strain ATCC 21198 is capable of...
Non-destructive testing is a methodology to inspect production and operational parts for potential flaws, defects, or damages. The present work is based on pulsed wave thermography, a thermal imaging method based on heat conduction to identify surface and subsurface defects potentially present in a component. Pulsed wave thermography applies a...
Gut-brain communication consists of bidirectional routes between cognitive centers of the brain and peripheral intestines. This bidirectional communication is the result of the interplay between enteroendocrine cells (EECs), enteric nervous system, central nervous system, the vagus nerve, and our microbiota. Multiple studies have associated gut microbial dysbiosis with neurological disorders...
Chlamydia is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes a variety of disease in animals and humans worldwide. Veterinary chlamydial pathogens can lead to chronic infections and serious consequences that result in millions of dollars of losses in animals and resources in the agricultural industry in countries that rear ruminants....
Brewers' spent grain (BSG), the byproduct from beermaking, is a good source of protein and dietary fiber and may be utilized as a functional ingredient for food applications such as bakery goods. Starch-based film is well-known for its safety, edibility, and renewability. Starch films with the incorporation of cellulose nanofiber...
Global efforts to support non-uranium approaches for 99Mo production, due to the proliferation risks associated with 235U fission-based production methods, have recently taken huge strides towards fruition. Several linear accelerator-based methods are currently in late-stage development that can produce low specific activity 99Mo from enriched 98/100Mo targets. The development of...
The potential for nanomedicine to reduce toxicity and improve therapeutic response to radiation is vast. Clinically, this potential has thus far only begun to be realized with the recent success of the radioenhancing nanoparticle, NBTXR3 by Nanobiotix. Radioenhancing nanoparticles, however, represent only a small class of nanomaterials that may be...
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited genetic disease caused by a single gene mutation in the CFTR protein. Affecting 70,000 people worldwide, this disease is debilitating to patients, resulting in persistent lung infections and decreased quality of life. Due to the various mutation types, there is not currently a single drug...
Extending rheological characterization methods to very small length scales is of interest. AC susceptometry using magnetic nanoparticle probes has been proposed for measurement of frequency-dependent rheological properties at the nanoscale. As this technique has been primarily used for ideally Newtonian fluids, this research aimed to extend this technique to viscoelastic...
Magnetic materials can be used in modern soft robotics as a method for external stimulus actuation and motion control. By combining aspects of biology and mechanics, devices are fabricated to create a structure capable of complex movement. Applications that these devices are subject to can be broken down into four...
The cometabolic ability of Burkholderia vietnamiensis G4 grown on aromatic substrates was first assessed by resting suspended cells, and subsequently for cells encapsulated with and without slow release compounds (SRCs). In Chapter 3, benzyl alcohol was assessed as a food-grade growth substrate for promoting cometabolism of trichloroethene (TCE), via the...
Organotin clusters have attracted notable attention for use as inorganic photoresists. This dissertation discerns dimeric and dodecameric organotin clusters, [(n-C₄H₉Sn)(OH)(H₂O)Cl₂]₂ (Sn₂) and [(n-C₄H₉Sn)₁₂O₁₄ (OH)₆ ]+ (Sn₁₂), both of which are stable hydrolysis and condensation products of n-C₄H₉SnCl₃. This work identifies Sn₂ as a superior precursor choice for solution deposition of...
Our goal is to build a system to model the RNA sequences that reveals their structural information by using efficient dynamic programming algorithms and deep learning approaches. We aim to 1) achieve linear-time for RNA secondary structure prediction based on existing minimum free energy models; 2) utilize deep neural networks...
Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models impact our daily lives with applications in natural language modeling, image analysis, healthcare, genomics, and bioinformatics. The exponential growth of biological sequence data necessitates accompanying advances in computational methods. Although deep learning is highly effective for detecting and classifying biological sequences, challenges...
Metal-oxo clusters can be described as soluble pieces of metal-oxide frameworks. Currently, metal-oxo clusters are being considered as solution-based precursors for extreme ultraviolet (EUV, 13.5 nm) photoresist materials, which are a crucial component in the fabrication of microelectronic devices. Two different photoresist precursor systems have been investigated – alkyltin clusters...
Using plant fibers as a potential renewable material to substitute for glass fibers in fiber-reinforced polymer composites has been growing since the late 1990s. Due to high demand, there has been a shift towards ‘green concept’ material in many applications. Numerous secondary plant fibers have been explored as a source...
Dental plaque is one of the well-characterized biofilms in the human body. Oral bacterial species play vital roles in maintaining healthy bacterial homeostasis as well as causing oral infections. Many of the oral diseases are caused by opportunistic pathogens, and therefore, the bacterial metabolic activities become important in dictating their...
Zebrafish are capable of fully regenerating organs and tissue such as their caudal fin, which is similar to a human regrowing an arm or a leg. In contrast, most mammals including humans have a greatly reduced capacity for wound healing. The ability of zebrafish to undergo this regenerative process, called...
Electrospinning and electrospray are both nano-scale material fabrication techniques, based on related phenomena of electrically charged fluid spray from a droplet of liquid. Material is dissolved in liquid, then a spray is generated by applying a high voltage, creating an electric field, between the fluid dispensing capillary and a grounded...
Wood-based composites such as plywood and particleboard are produced with a thermoset adhesive via a hot-press process. At present, UF is the most commonly used thermoset adhesive for production of decorative plywood. The emission of the carcinogenic formaldehyde from UF-bonded panels during the use of panels affects the indoor air...
Chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) like trichloroethene (TCE) were mostly used to replace drying cleaning fluids which contained hydrocarbons like benzene, and were highly flammable. Through improper disposal, storage, and spills, TCE and its downstream products, like cis-dichloroethene (cDCE) and vinyl chloride (VC), leached into groundwater and threaten human and environmental...
Rapid and effective treatment of burn injuries is critical to prevent long term damage. Besides the pain associated with the burn injury due to damage and death of surrounding tissue and cells, there is a large risk for complications, particularly infection, following a burn injury. To address these risks, Meta...
We found unexpected complexities resulting from the miscible displacement of a non-Newtonian fluid for both convergent and divergent flow as observed by displacing a miscible shear-thinning fluid (xanthan gum) in a radial Hele-Shaw cell. Such complex patterns have not been described before for either Newtonian or non- Newtonian fluids. A...
Platelet activation uses a complex set of pathways to respond to vascular injury during hemostasis. However, thrombosis relies on the same set of pathways. Antiplatelet therapies used to prevent thrombotic events often target the P2Y₁₂ platelet receptor for inhibition but can result in bleeding diathesis or in abnormally high ADP...
Platelets undergo morphological changes essential to hemostasis upon activation at sites of vascular injury. The Rho GTPases Rac1, Cdc42, and RhoA drive these changes. Rho guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors (RhoGDIs) bind to the Rho GTPases to block the GDP from dissociating from the Rho GTPases, as well as anchoring the...
Enzymatic browning is a consequence of a series of reactions initiated by polyphenol oxidase (PPO)-catalyzed quinone formation. Unwanted browning negatively affects food quality and lowers consumer acceptability. Thus, there is general interest in strategies to control enzymatic browning. Cyclodextrins are cyclic glucan oligosaccharides that form inclusion complexes with a number...
This is the 4th edition of a book that was initiated with the annotation of the function of all the genes in the most commonly studied baculovirus, AcMNPV. It has been almost six years since I reviewed this literature. As a measure of the research that has occurred over this...
Cell migration is fundamental for physiological processes such as immune re-sponses, wound healing and development. It is also a critical characteristic of metastatic cancer cells. An extensive amount of studies have focused on 2D sub-strates in order to understand the mechanism of cancer metastasis. However, much less is known about...
Natural dyes have been used to color textiles for centuries, but with the shift to mass production, the use of synthetic dyes has increased due to their lower cost and easy manufacturing volume. However, synthetic dyes (such as disperse blue dyes 106 and 124) have been reported to cause skin...
Airborne Wind Energy System (AWES) are quickly coming to fruition, with increased energy production while reducing the cost of implementation and materials. This thesis develops a new computational model for a tethered AWES and characterizes a new rapid prototyping method with the objective of supporting the design and rapid prototyping...
The overall objective of this dissertation study was to develop and validate the performance of cellulose nanomaterials (CNs) incorporated fruit coatings for improving the storability of postharvest pears and bananas under various storage conditions. Four specific studies were conducted to fulfill the research objectives as stated below.
First, cellulose nanocrystal...
The immobilization of chelators to solid supports has recently gained renewed interest due to the increasing biomedical and environmental applications made possible by these molecules’ ability to bind Fe(III) and other metal ions. The uses of immobilized chelators have expanded to include the treatment of metal overload in serum, the...
This thesis outlines the development of new elastomeric materials and manufacturing processes for soft robotics. Specifically, this work describes the development of custom material formulations for use in additive manufacturing, additive manufacturing processing techniques for silicone elastomers, and multi-component additive manufacturing techniques. Material synthesis and processing is a gap in...
Methods were developed for the co-encapsulation of slow release compounds (SRC) with viable microbial cells in alginate and gellan gum hydrogel beads, for the in-situ aerobic cometabolic treatment of groundwater contaminated with mixtures of 1,4-dioxane and chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons, which will be referred to as contaminants of concern (CoC). The...
There is a significant need for technological advancement in blood processing. New technologies in rapid processing of frozen blood products could significantly improve management of the blood supply chain in the United States by enabling on-demand use of frozen blood products that can be stored for 10 years instead of...
Protein adsorption on blood contacting medical devices usually causes fouling and failure, and may promote clotting and undesirable immune responses. Hydrophilic polymer coatings in a dense, pendent “brush” conformation can resist protein adsorption on the surface while increasing biocompatibility. Such coatings can also be used to immobilize a variety of...
Biomass gasification is a promising way to obtain green energy, but the gas composition makes it unsuitable for use in traditional technologies (i.e., IC engine). Gas purification over nickel and/or iron catalysts is an attractive alternative. Cellulose-based carbon aerogels (CAGs) have shown suitable physical chemical properties for use as catalyst...
Due to their viscoelastic properties, polymers and hydrogels are widely used in many applications. In this study, the viscoelastic properties of elastomer polymers were investigated for a series of hydrogel, hydrogel composites and silicon materials. A primary application for hydrogels and hydrogel composites is as a replacement for the degenerated...
Traditional robots have a long history in nuclear-related work because their integration decreases risk to humans in dangerous environments. Soft robotics is one promising new branch of traditional robotics with proposed applications in industry, medicine, and society. Collaborators from the Robotics mLab at Oregon State University (OSU) are currently working...
Faithful segregation of genetic material during cell division is essential to all life on earth. In eukaryotes, the mitotic spindle – a bipolar array consisting of cytoskeletal filaments called microtubules – is the cellular machinery responsible for this function. The mitotic spindle requires both exquisite spatiotemporal organization and the generation...
Sepsis is a blood infection caused by circulating pathogens and cell wall fragments that affects over 1 million patients per year in the United States. When bacterial cell membranes are lysed by antibiotics, cell wall fragments containing lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are released. As a result, the capture of LPS is critical...
Paper microfluidic devices are capable of processing fluids using capillary flow in materials that are lower cost than the standard materials used in microfluidics. Due to the low cost of their fabrication and minimal requirements for instrumentation, paper microfluidic devices are ideal for use in low-resource settings. They have the...
Wood-staining fungal pigments have potential uses as colorants for wood and textiles. Traditionally, organic solvents have been used as carriers for these pigments. However, other environmentally-friendly and more readily available carriers must be found. Natural oils have the potential to carry these pigments but have demonstrated color loss over relatively...
There have been many attempts to characterize and mimic natural fluid-based adhesive systems. However, very few of these studies have examined surface or interfacial interactions between adhesive and substrate. Furthermore, until now no study has used a combination of surface analytical and kinematic techniques to determine the precise chemical mechanisms...
Skeletal muscle, the largest organ in the body in mass, is composed by 600 specialized muscles in humans with unique biochemical, physiological and metabolic identities. Skeletal muscles control body movement, locomotion, and nutrient balance. Muscle formation requires precisely orchestrated environmental signals and regulatory gene networks in time and space. Gene...
Metal oxide clusters are promising inorganic photoresists in next generation nanomanufacturing because of their potential for high-resolution and low line-edge roughness patterning, and exceptional sensitivity to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation. In EUV patterning, absorption of EUV radiation leads to electron emission that serve as a primary species for driving radiation...
Ovarian cancer, “the silent killer,” is one of the deadliest gynecological diseases due to delayed diagnosis, leading to a heavily disseminated and aggressive metastatic cancer. Therapeutic options are limited at stages III-IV of ovarian cancer, in which debulking surgery and cytotoxic chemotherapy remain the mainstays of
intervention. However, these therapeutic...
TAC is the most commonly used medication in post transplantation maintenance immunosuppression therapy. TAC lipophilicity and its erratic oral absorption especially in the presence of food intake result in great intra- and interpatient pharmacokinetic variations. Complicated dosing and frequent required therapeutic monitoring is thought to be the main cause of...
Herein, we report an efficient combinatorial therapy for metastatic ovarian cancer based on siRNA-mediated suppression of DJ-1 protein combined with a low dose of cisplatin. DJ-1 protein modulates, either directly or indirectly, different oncogenic pathways that support and promote survival, growth, and invasion of ovarian cancer cells. To evaluate the...
Methanotrophic bacteria are promising means of producing value-added products as they have the ability to transform methane under atmospheric temperature and pressure. Efforts to develop methanotrophs to produce value-added products are hoped to incentivize a decrease in methane flaring operations. The data collected during this study was used to inform...
The Brownian motion of micron-scale particles reflects the viscoelastic response of the local environment of the medium. Tracking the thermal fluctuations of these particles is a measure of the rheology of the material at the microscopic scale. This technique is called passive microrheology. Microrheology has been developed to assess the...
Oxo-hydroxo Group 5 metal clusters are an untapped resource to study and advance aqueous solution processing of metal oxide thin films. The tetramethylammonium (TMA) hexatantalate salt (TMA6[H2Ta6O19]) yields dense Ta2O5 films (~95% of the bulk ß-Ta2O5 density) with atomically smooth surfaces (<4 Å root mean square surface roughness). This same...
Aqueous hydroxo Hf nanoclusters enable studies to identify and codify steps in the deposition of Hf-based oxide thin films from solution precursors. HfOCl2 reacts with combinations of H2O2(aq), acids, and TMAH to produce polymetal species at high pH and low pH. X-ray scattering and spectroscopic methods reveal the nature of...
The structure and mechanics of tissues affect many important cellular functions such as migration, differentiation, and growth. Mechanical interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM), as well as ECM-mediated mechanical communication between cells, plays a part in coordinating collective cellular dy- namics during critical processes such as morphogenesis, tissue...
Internal curing is a term used to describe a process in which curing water is provided to a concrete mixture from inside the mixture. Internal curing water has typically been provided in North America mixtures by using prewetted porous materials, like fine lightweight aggregate (FLWA). Alternative materials, such as superabsorbent...
Current technological shortcomings limit the economic viability of capturing and utilizing small sources of methane. The development of a reactor to overcome these limitations would unlock economic opportunity and incentivize reduced methane emissions. A microfluidic bioreactor containing immobilized methanotrophs has the potential to overcome these limitations by profitably converting small...
Mammalian skin is the largest organ of the body and serves as a barrier to protect the body against chemical, mechanical and pathogenic insults as well as water loss. The epidermis is formed from the primitive ectoderm into a multilayered stratified epithelium, consisting of basal, spinous, granular and outermost cornified...
Iodine-129 is a key risk driver at sites where nuclear materials have been fabricated or processed, and it is a predominant isotope of concern in long-term waste storage strategies. I-129 exists primarily as iodate in the subsurface at the Hanford Site in south-central Washington State. Between 15 and 40% of...
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1.4.4 Problems with Linearization of Isotherm Equations
Prepreg is widely used in composite manufacturing with advanced composites such as carbon and aramid. The material is characterized by a degree of flexibility (drape) and stickiness (tack), which allows an efficient layup on molds with complex shapes. However, axial instability of compressed fibers during the molding process may occur,...
Boiling heat transfer is studied for its ability to dissipate high fluxes and achieve heat transfer coefficients two orders of magnitude greater than single-phase heat transfer systems. Heater surface enhancement with increased surface area, varied geometry, wettability contrast and micro/nano-structures can further enhance boiling heat transfer performance through bubble nucleation...
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are extremely abundant, biodegradable and light weight nanoparticles that have the potential to contribute in many fields including packaging, construction, solar cells and automotive. With the increasing interest in nanotechnology and nanocomposites, CNCs could provide a renewable, optically transparent and strong alternative to other nano-scale reinforcement phases....
Gadoid fish, like Alaska pollock and Pacific whiting, have a high level of trimethylamine-N-oxide demethylase (TMAOase) that catalyzes the breakdown of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) to formaldehyde (FA) and dimethylamine (DMA) even during frozen storage. FA reacts with amino acid residues to promote covalent cross-links in the formation of inter- and intramolecular...
Rhizopogon vesiculosus is a common ectomycorrhizal (EM) symbiont of Pseudotusga menziesii (Douglas-fir) in the coast range of the Pacific Northwest. The species has been studied for its systematics, genet size, population structure, and competitive ability in several field and experimental studies. This thesis seeks to provide a more thorough characterization...
Existing research reports the importance of brine injection technology in enhancing the quality of muscle products such as poultry, beef, and pork. In fish, the utilization of brine injection technology is well-known for delivering marinade ingredients for salted or smoked fish production. Until now, there has been limited published scientific...
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) are a class of proteins that lack a three-dimensional structure and their prevalence and diverse functions in the cell have only been discovered relatively recently. The intermediate chain (IC) subunit of the microtubule motor protein complex dynein contains an N-terminal disordered region, N-IC, which is central...
Previous investigations have failed to show benefits of low level laser therapy (LLLT) for tendon healing in horses, contrary to reports in other species. We hypothesized that delivery of LLLT at manufacturer-recommended energy fluence through equine cadaver skin to equine tendon-derived fibroblasts in vitro would increase cell proliferation, metabolic activity...
Most of existing commercial unsaturated polyester (UPE) resins are typically composed of a UPE and a high amount of highly volatile, flammable, and toxic styrene. The emission of hazardous styrene in the handling of the UPE resins and the preparation and use of fiber-reinforced UPE composites poses severe hazards to...
Additive manufacturing (AM) is a relatively new manufacturing technique that can create high complexity parts out of many materials in low volume. The fused filament fabrication (FFF) is the lowest cost AM process and is capable of producing only thermoplastic components. Powder injection molding (PIM) is a high volume low...
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Figure 3-29: SEM images of control test coupon solvent debound in tap water
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by the accumulation of excess neutral lipids within the parenchymal cells of the liver. The primary etiology is diet-induced and most often exists as a comorbidity with obesity, metabolic syndrome, and/or Type 2 Diabetes. The development of excess liver lipid can be self-limiting...