The heat pipe augmented solar wall operates much more efficiently for domestic air heating than alternative passive solar technologies. The thermal diode effect of heat pipes reduces the insulating losses of the unit during nighttime and adverse...
Many species of fungi undergo a dimorphic transition to switch from a unicellular yeast-like growth form to a filamentous growth form. Ustilago maydis undergoes such a transition, in response to successful mating events and subsequent host cues, to...
The current study examined how Disclosure, Stereotype Disconfirming Information, and Stereotype Disconfirming Information and Disclosure Combined) influences an individual's stigma (stereotype endorsement, emotional reactions, and discrimination)...
Item response theory; Goodness-of-fit tests; Monte Carlo method
Item response theory (IRT) is expanding to diverse research settings, without accompanying access to easily implemented model fit methods. One simple model fit approach involves x2/df ratios. However, its utility is not known across several...
Historically in the area of pediatric heart failure, few options have been available that are specifically designed to provide pediatric circulatory support. Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) was the traditional method of choice, providing...
Older people--Mental health; Rural health; Urban health
Depression is one of the most prevalent psychiatric conditions experienced by older adults and represents a major public health concern. Rural/urban residence may affect the prevalence of depression as rural older adults differ from their urban...
This dissertation describes research focused on the synthesis, polymerization and
applications of cationic aminooxy lipids. An efficient and convenient method was
developed to stabilize liposomes using 'click chemistry'. The 'click...
Skeletal muscle is the most abundant tissue in our body that provides a structural framework and regulates important biological processes. It is also a primary reservoir of protein. Skeletal muscle maintains its structural and functional integrity...
Dimorphism is a highly conserved process in fungi in which a transition between a unicellular, yeast-like growth form and either a unicellular or multicellular, filamentous growth form occurs in response to several different environmental cues. The...
Background: Dental caries is the most common childhood ailment and one of the most prevalent chronic diseases of people worldwide. Approximately 91% of dentate adults 20 years or older have experienced dental caries. Carious lesions on proximal...
Cardiology--Research--Methodology; Microfluidics--Equipment and supplies
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and accounts for nearly 1,372,000 deaths each year. In addition, ~81 million Americans suffer from some form of CVD. Understanding the molecular basis of various...
Wounds and injuries--Treatment; Drug delivery systems
Wounds care and management is one of the most basic needs in the medical setting. Burn wounds, trauma wounds, pressure ulcers and bedsores are just some of the many types of wounds that need to be treated quickly and efficiently. Take for instance...
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fibrotic lung disease with poor prognosis.
To address this disease broadly, the candidate engaged in clinical work, literature
analysis, database analysis, and laboratory work. The clinical work culminated...
Speech intelligibility has been found to improve with prior exposure to a reverberant room environment. It is believed that perceptual mechanisms help maintain accurate speech perception under these adverse conditions. Potential factors underlying...
Parasites; Medical parasitology; Parasitic diseases
This thesis investigated infection dynamics of parasitic nematodes at both the population
and individual levels by exploring evolutionary and historical aspects of infection as well
as how host-parasite interactions influence virulence. In...
Enzymatic hydrolysis is the most common method of producing fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. Limitations to this step include the high cost of enzymes, and the time required to process the biomass. To increase the throughput and...
Various vision tasks are usually confronted by appearance variations due to changes of illumination. For instance, in a recognition system, it has been shown that the variability in human face appearance is owed to changes to lighting conditions...
Nitrile hydratase (NHase) is a metalloenzyme that contains a non-heme iron (III)
or non-corin cobalt (III) in a non-redox active role. NHase is used as biocatalyst in the
industry for the hydrolysis of nitriles to arnides. The trivalent metal ions...
This thesis looks at the optimization of fluid flow and mass transfer using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a micro fluidic coulter counter. CFD will be used to solve equations of fluid flow and mass transfer to see how molecules within the...
Oxygen is critical to aerobic metabolism, but hyperoxia is cytostatic and cytocidal. The precise mechanisms involved in hyperoxic cell injury remain incompletely understood although there is substantial support for the possibility that hyperoxia...
