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Title: INVESTIGATION OF NOROVIRUS CROSS CONTAMINATION DURING FOOD SERVICE PROCEDURES USED IN PREPARATION OF FRESH PRODUCE
Creator: Suriyanarayanan, Annamalai
Date: 2011-11, 2011-12
Description: Human norovirus (HuNoV) is considered an important cause of foodborne outbreaks, often attributed to the preparation of fresh produce by...
Show moreHuman norovirus (HuNoV) is considered an important cause of foodborne outbreaks, often attributed to the preparation of fresh produce by infected food handlers. In this investigation, methods for recovery of murine norovirus (MNV-1), a surrogate for HuNoV, from food preparatory surfaces were optimized, and MNV-1 crosscontamination between various surfaces common in a food service setting were studied. Fifty microliters of MNV-1 was inoculated onto demarcated 1 x 1 inch squares of polypropylene cutting board, stainless steel knife and spigots. After drying, MNV-1 was recovered from each surface using either a cotton swab, composite tissue or sterile sponge in combination with different eluents such as tissue culture growth medium, 3% beef extract, glycine buffer (50mM glycine, 1% beef extract), stripping solution (0.04% K2HPO4, 1.01% Na2HPO4, 0.1% Triton X-100), and Earle’s Balanced Salt Solution (EBSS). The eluent/recovery tool combinations that recovered the highest percentage of MNV-1 from cutting board were stripping solution/sponge (20%) and growth medium/swab (20%). The greatest recovery from the knife blade was achieved with the growth medium/composite tissue combination (43%), while recovery from spigots was greatest using the stripping solution/sponge (28%) and the growth medium/sponge combinations (27%). In the second phase of this investigation, human volunteers were asked to perform various tasks in order to quantify the amount of MNV-1 cross contamination between various surfaces, including bare hands, fresh-cut lettuce, and spigots. The percentage of MNV-1 transfer from hands to spigots varied from 0.06% to 3.59%, spigots to hands varied from 10% to 90.4% and lettuce to hands varied from 0.30% to 4.33%. x The results of this investigation can be used in developing a model describing the transfer pattern of HuNoV between surfaces common in retail food service, and used in developing educational materials for food service workers.
M.S. in Science, Food Safety, and Technology, December 2011
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Title: PULSED LIGHT INACTIVATION OF MURINE NOROVIRUS ON VARIOUS FOOD CONTACT SURFACES
Creator: Zhou, Zijin
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: Norovirus is one of the leading causes for foodborne illness. Transmission of virus from surface to food has been known to cause a number of...
Show moreNorovirus is one of the leading causes for foodborne illness. Transmission of virus from surface to food has been known to cause a number of outbreaks. Studies of norovirus have been conducted using Murine Norovirus to simulate the behaviors. Pulsed light (PL) is a promising surface decontamination technology, which has the potential to be applied in a food service setting. PL uses intense pulses of short duration and a broad spectrum to accomplish microbial inactivation. This study evaluates the effect of PL on MNV-1, artificially inoculated onto various food contact surfaces including 304 stainless steel, glazed tile, polypropylene, and ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) polyethylene. The virus was allowed to inoculate on the coupons for 20mins and treated with PL in a Xenon Steripulse XL-3000TM pulsed light treatment system for up to 60 s, at a distance of 8.3 cm 10.8 cm or 13.3cm from the central axis of the lamp. An infrared (IR) camera was used to record surface temperatures, in 1-s increments. After PL treatments, remaining viruses were recovered from surfaces and quantified by plaque assay. At a distance of 10.8cm, MNV-1 was reduced by 2.22-, 2.27- 2.75- and 3.12-log, after 20s treatment on inoculated stainless steel, glazed tile, UHMW polyethylene and polypropylene, respectively. After 50s treatment, MNV-1 was reduced by 4.86- and 5.93- log on glazed tile and stainless steel surface respectively. The surface temperature on tile and stainless steel increased at the rate of 1.08±0.20 and 1.28±0.32°C /s respectively. A relatively short treatment using pulsed light is sufficient to inactivate MNV-1 on the surface of materials commonly used in food preparation. The results suggest that the technology has the potential to reduce surface viral contamination in a food preparation setting.
M.S. in Food Safety and Technology, July 2015
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Title: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION FOR AN ACTUATED GLOVE FOR HAND REHABILITATION
Creator: Yuan, Ning
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: Stroke survivors often experience long-term upper extremity impairment. This can greatly impair activities of daily living. The eXtension...
Show moreStroke survivors often experience long-term upper extremity impairment. This can greatly impair activities of daily living. The eXtension Glove (X-Glove) is a soft robotic device to aid hand therapy. It uses cables serving as external extensor tendons to assist digit extension and control digit flexion. Load cells are located on each motor to detect the force value of fingers. This paper provides a way to add a biofeedback function on the X-Glove and update the microprocessor to a PIC32MX795. So the X-Glove can establish a wireless communication transmit data with terminals, like PC. In order to display the biofeedback, a graphic user-interface is also developed so that therapists can optimize the therapy for each individual patient in real time.
M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, December 2016
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Title: STUDY OF SALMONELLA SURVIVAL ON THE SURFACE OF FRUITS
Creator: Sui, Ke
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: Salmonella enterica has been frequently linked to the major foodborne disease outbreaks. The molecular mechanisms underlying this pathogen...
Show moreSalmonella enterica has been frequently linked to the major foodborne disease outbreaks. The molecular mechanisms underlying this pathogen survival on the fresh fruit surface remain largely unexplored. In this study, the environmental factors that affect the survival of Salmonella strains on the surface of selected fruits were studied. Grape tomatoes (or cantaloupe peels) were inoculated in three separate trials with 1 mL Salmonella enterica serotypes Enteritidis or Typhimurium (approximately 1010-11 CFU/mL). Storage of grape tomatoes at 4 ℃ resulted in significant decrease in populations of S. Enteritidis; this trend was observed at both of the tested relative humidity with the D-value as 7.25±1.05 d and 7.28±2.34 d, respectively. At different temperatures, relative humidity only had marginal effects on the bacterial survival on the surface of grape tomato and cantaloupe. In addition, S. Typhimurium apparently survived better than S. Enteritidis on the surface of grape tomato. Furthermore, a transposonmutagenesis library with random transposon insertion mutants of S. Enteritidis and high-throughput sequencing analysis showed that the expression of genes rcsB and nlpD were hypothesized to be associated with the survival of S. Enteritidis on grape tomatoes. Inframe deletions of the two genes in S. Enteritidis were constructed by lambda red recombinase system and respective complementation mutants were also obtained for identification of the contribution of the two genes to the bacterial survival on the surface of grape tomato. Thus, this study provided microbiological and molecular microbiological basis to probe the roles of putative genes in Salmonella enterica survival on the surface of fresh fruits.
M.S. in Food Safety and Technology, May 2017
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Title: LENGTH DEPENDENT ACTIVATION IN MANDUCA SEXTA FLIGHT MUSCLE
Creator: Kumar, Mohit
Date: 2011-08-09, 2011-07
Description: The flight muscle of Manduca sexta has some interesting properties. It is synchronous, like mammalian skeletal and cardiac striated muscle,...
Show moreThe flight muscle of Manduca sexta has some interesting properties. It is synchronous, like mammalian skeletal and cardiac striated muscle, but it is structurally similar to the more widely studied asynchronous insect flight muscles of Drosophila and Lethocerus. One of the main goals of the thesis is to generate a useful skinned preparation for mechanical studies in vitro. A number of different skinning protocols were tried and evaluated for preservation of structural integrity by using light and X-ray diffraction. In all muscles studied to date, isometric force is a function of the [Ca2+] of the bathing solution and also a function of the sarcomere length whereby more force is generated at a longer sarcomere length than at a shorter for the same [Ca2+]. This phenomenon is termed “length dependent activation” (LDA). To date no real studies on the force-pCa relationship has been done on Manduca sexta flight muscle. This force-pCa analysis would give us some insight into the length dependent activation (LDA) in this novel insect flight muscle system. The present studies were undertaken to characterize and analyze the force-pCa relationships in Manduca sexta. Conditions were found that allowed skinning muscles while maintaining good structural order. We found that both DLMs dorsal and ventral show length-dependent activation at longer SL. Our study also shows that ventral muscles are more cooperative than the dorsal muscles which may be related to their different functions in vivo.
M.S. in Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, July 2011
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Title: MEAN EXIT TIME FOR RADIALLY SYMMETRICAL DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS DRIVEN
Creator: Luan, Yuanchao
Date: 2013, 2013-12
Description: Stochastic differential equations (SDEs) driven by non-Gaussian L´evy noises have attracted much attention recently [1, 29]. In [12], the...
Show moreStochastic differential equations (SDEs) driven by non-Gaussian L´evy noises have attracted much attention recently [1, 29]. In [12], the authors studied a scalar SDE driven by a non-Gaussian L´evy motion, and numerically investigate mean exit time and escape probability for arbitrary noise intensity in one dimensional case. In the present thesis, we utilize a different strategy to explore a numerical method for the problem in two dimensional cases. To be specific, we assume the solution u(x) is radially symmetric with respect to the origin, and then represent the equation using radial coordinate, reducing the problem into one dimensional case. Then main difficulty is that, in the integral term, appears a Gauss Hypergeometric function and the unknown function u(r), which makes the error estimates complicated. We exploit some properties of Gauss Hypergeometric function, and finally make out a way for estimating the error [19]. Up to now we are only able to deal with this problem with 0 < α ≤ 1, since our numerical scheme does not converge when 1 < α < 2. Then we compare our numerical solutions with the analytical ones which are given in [3], and they coincide very well. KeyWords: Stochastic dynamical systems; non-Gaussian L´evy motion; L´evy jump measure; First exit time
M.S. in Applied Mathematics, December 2013
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Title: CONSTRUCTION OF ZEBRAFISH OLFACTORY RECEPTORS INTO A MAMMALIAN EXPRESSION VECTOR FOR FUTURE LIGAND-BINDING STUDIES
Creator: Tian, Chen
Date: 2011-07, 2011-07
Description: The olfactory system is an important chemosensory system. Our identification of odorants is occurred through binding of odorant molecules with...
Show moreThe olfactory system is an important chemosensory system. Our identification of odorants is occurred through binding of odorant molecules with olfactory receptors in the olfactory epithelium. In zebrafish, there are four classes of olfactory receptors: trace amine-associated receptor (TAAR), odorant receptor (OR), vomeronasal type 1-like receptor (V1R-like) and vomeronasal type 2-like receptor (V2R-like). In this study, I amplified four olfactory receptors taar1a, or1016, ora5 and olfcc1, which are respectively belong to the four olfactory receptor classes, from cDNA of the zebrafish olfactory epithelium and cloned genes into a mammalian expression vector pCI. The gene sequences of these receptors were not identical as the sequences obtained from GenBank database. The possible reasons for the inconsistency of gene sequence are discussed. I further tranfected these four cloned olfactory receptors in a mammalian cell line Hana3A. Expression of all four olfactory receptors in Hana3A cells was confirmed by immunocytochemistry. In summary, these four olfactory receptors taar1a, or1016, ora5 and olfcc1 were successfully cloned into the pCI vector and can be expressed on cell membrane surface of Hana3A cells.
M.S. in Biology, July 2011
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Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF VERY LARGE YET VERY MILD BMD TYPE EDITS OF DYSTROPHIN
Creator: Lin, Yi-hsiu
Date: 2014, 2014-12
Description: Duchenne muscular dystrophy, DMD, is a severe X-linked recessive disease that kills boys in their second or third decade of life. A related...
Show moreDuchenne muscular dystrophy, DMD, is a severe X-linked recessive disease that kills boys in their second or third decade of life. A related condition Becker Muscular Dystrophy, BMD, is very heterogeneous with clinical severity ranging from nearly as bad as DMD, to nearly benign. Both of these are caused by defects in the dystrophin gene, which encodes a 427 kDa cytoskeletal protein, dystrophin, which can provide a mechanical link between the cytoskeleton and the muscle membrane and stables muscle tissue. In general, DMD results from defects that eliminate all dystrophin expression, whereas BMD patients carry mutated products: modified and malfunctioned dystrophin proteins. Since DMD is invariably fatal, monogenic, has a high incidence (1:3500 male births) and afflicts a charismatic patient profile, it has been an attractive target for gene therapy. However, the huge size of the dystrophin gene (2.4 Mbp) and more importantly its processed mRNA (14.2 kb) poses a problem for viral gene therapy which is limited to payloads of about 8 kb. This has prompted efforts to reduce the size of the dystrophin protein while still maintaining functionality. A major inspiration for such efforts was the identification of a very unusual, very large deletion serendipitously found in an extremely mild BMD case. The patient identified with this defect was ambulatory at 65 year of ages. This edit removes more than half the central rod region, from exon 17 to 48, Δe17-48, and, fortunately, the size of this BMD type edit protein is available for viral vector loading. In this project, edited dystrophin with central rod region deletion (D2:22 Δe17-48) and other two related edits, D2:22 Δe17-47 (exon 48 is added in D2:22 Δe17-48) and D2:22 Δe17-49 (exon 49 is deleted from D2:22 Δe17-48), were studied. According to these results, D2:22 Δe17-47 demonstrated the best biophysical and biochemical properties, but D2:22 Δe17-48 displayed higher to protease sensitivity, and D2:22 Δe17-49 had the worst thermal stability. This work will help us to understand the factors that result in benign large scale edits, and facilitate the development of effective viral gene therapy vectors.
M.S. in Biology, December 2014
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Title: PRENATAL ULTRASOUND CONSULTATION AND MATERNAL FEELINGS IN THE SECOND TRIMESTER OF PREGNANCY
Creator: Stockman, Alexandria
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: NO ABSTRACT
M.S. in Psychology, July 2015

Title: Vacuum jacketing vs. steam jacketing
Creator: Gentry, T. E., Wernick, F. E.
Date: 2009, 1910
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/vacuumjacketingv00gent
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: INTERACTION IN THE SIXTH SENSE
Creator: Ghods, Ramin
Date: 2014, 2014-05
Description: Every experience of architecture is rooted in multi-sensory and embodied interactions with surroundings. All sensory modalities as well as...
Show moreEvery experience of architecture is rooted in multi-sensory and embodied interactions with surroundings. All sensory modalities as well as linguistic paradigms are integrated in the sensorimotor cortex of brain where mirror neurons are originated therein. Neurological understanding, on the other hand, suggests that meaning is always contextually grounded. Metaphor, in its very essence, is an expression to convey meaning to spectator. It stimulates ventra premotor cortex of brain, wherein mirror neurons activate the embodied simulation of actions, emotions, and corporeal sensations. So conceptual metaphors in everyday language are highly based on bodily interaction and encountering with surroundings. Additionally, they are also rooted in context and primordial images. Metaphor creates an interactive atmosphere in which symbolic and literal meanings are conveyed to beholders. Atmosphere is the essence of a space, in other words, understanding this atmosphere is the most crucial for understanding architecture. Spatial experiencing in its complete entirely could be taken through the emissions of atmosphere. In general, interaction in the 6th sense is focusing on a methodology of design to facilitate immediate perception of spatial settings of architecture. Far from abstraction and intellectualism, an atmosphere conveyed meaning through sensual perceptions. In this case, several modalities of architectural design, including materializes and de-materialized qualities such as light, texture, geometry, reflection, smell, sound, air, have been identified as contributing to atmosphere.
M.S. in in Architecture, May 2014
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Title: Washington Park Center for Improvisational Music: Kellen White_Final Booklet_Spring 2010
Creator: White, Kellen
Date: 2010-07-30

Title: HIGH PERFORMANCE LOGIC DESIGN FOR ADAPTIVE FIR FETAL ECG ESTIMATION
Creator: Wang, Sizhou
Date: 2014, 2014-05
Description: This thesis presents realizations of IEEE-754 single precision floating point non-invasive fetal ECG estimation based on QR Decomposition...
Show moreThis thesis presents realizations of IEEE-754 single precision floating point non-invasive fetal ECG estimation based on QR Decomposition Recursive Least Square algorithm (QRD-RLS). Experiments of the system, which is implemented on Xilinx Zynq SoC platform, are carried out with electrocardiogram (ECG) data and the results with analysis are presented. The embedded system design aims for saving resources, streaming pipeline performance and software-aid computation and integration. The challenge of exploiting the system full potential with pseudo-parallel computation on multiple fetal ECG data packets is also examined.
M.S. in Computer and Electrical Engineering, May 2014
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Title: FABRICATION OF POLYMER OF CLAY NANOCOMPOSITES AND DEVELOPMENT OF CLAY DIGESTION METHODS
Creator: Jin, Zhen
Date: 2014, 2014-07
Description: This thesis reports on our preliminary development of methods used to assess the risks that polymer/clay nanocomposite (PCN) food packaging...
Show moreThis thesis reports on our preliminary development of methods used to assess the risks that polymer/clay nanocomposite (PCN) food packaging pose to consumers. PCN with 1% - 7% (w/w) montmorillonite (MMT) clay and 3 mass equivalents of maleic anhydride-grafted polyethylene (MAPE) as a compatibilizer dispersed in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was successfully extruded into thin, free-standing films using a pilot-scaled microcompounder with 65 mm film device. These films had good optical clarity and a reasonably consistent thickness of 35 ± 3 μm. An oxygen permeability analyzer was used to measure oxygen transmission rate and permeability of these fabricated films to demonstrate that they perform similarly to PCN barrier materials intended for commercial applications; these results showed that the films with the highest amount of added clay had better barrier properties than the neat LDPE films. In preparation of experiments to assess whether clay particles can be released from these materials during intended conditions of use, we also explored effective digestion and trace-metal analysis (Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy) methods of both pure clay and MMT/MAPE/LDPE films. This work resulted in an effective digestion protocol to fully digest neat clays and PCN films, as well as an analysis method that provides for a 5-orders-of-magnitude linear detection range and single-digit parts-per-billion detection limits for aluminum and magnesium. Silicon was a more challenging element and efforts to eliminate environmental contamination of samples with this element were unsuccessful. While the work presented in this thesis is largely preliminary and numerous questions remain unanswered, the PCN fabrication and ix characterization methods developed here will be invaluable in our future efforts to understand the risks that nanocomposite food packaging materials pose to human health.
M.S. in Food Process Engineering, July 2014
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Title: TRANSMISSION RESERVE DESIGN IN ELECTRICITY MARKETS CONSIDERING RAMPING CONSTRAINTS AND LOAD UNCERTAINTY
Creator: Xiao, Xuli
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: With increasing penetration of renewable energy, uncertainty challenges ISOs to keep power balance in real-time. As ramping issues draw public...
Show moreWith increasing penetration of renewable energy, uncertainty challenges ISOs to keep power balance in real-time. As ramping issues draw public attention, many ISOs have instituted flexible ramping products to ensure ramping reserve at generation side. However, not all the ramping reserves are deliverable when a transmission line is already congested. In the real-time market, if an uncertain load estimation is known at peak time t+10mins previously, SCUC/SCED is able to spare transmission reserve by changing the dispatch at time t with additional uncertain load constraints at t. To spare transmission reserve under uncertainty, this research proposes an uncertain load estimation to generate an estimated uncertain load and uncertainty constraints at t+10 in SCUC/SCED: with the help of a stochastic optimization model, uncertainties are quantified as a random actual load y and utilized in a modified stochastic model for undeliverable ramping reserve issues; once the optimal total system generation x is obtained, treated as an estimated uncertain load, uncertainty constraints are added at t+10mins in SCUC/SCED to obtain a secure dispatch at t. Therefore, transmission ramping reserve is ensured by a change in dispatch at t. Numerical results show that this design enhances the economy and scalability of power systems. In addition, scalability analysis proves it works for any scale of power systems with multiple local peak loads.
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, December 2016
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Title: IMPACT OF INOCULUM LEVEL ON THE TRANSFER OF SALMONELLA SEROVARS FROM CONTAMINATED ALMOND BUTTER TO FOOD CONTACT MATERIALS
Creator: Zheng, Yue
Date: 2012-11-19, 2012-12
Description: Outbreaks of salmonellosis associated with nut butter have raised public concerns of sanitation issues in nut butter processing. The high fat,...
Show moreOutbreaks of salmonellosis associated with nut butter have raised public concerns of sanitation issues in nut butter processing. The high fat, low-moisture characteristics of nut butters significantly affect the efficiency of regular cleaning and sanitizing programs, allowing cross-contamination issues to persist on processing equipment. Besides organic matter in food soil, microbial load could also be a factor affecting efficacy of chemical sanitizers. The FDA Food Code (2005) require a 5-log bacterial reduction in testing the efficacy of a chemical sanitation method. As a result, evaluation of microbial transfer is essential for establishing methods for equipment sanitation. The first study of this thesis (Section 4.1) evaluated the survival of Salmonella serovars in almond butter at 25 ± 2 oC. This was achieved by investigating the survival of Salmonella Tennessee and Salmonella Oranienburg in inoculated almond butter sample for up to two weeks. These Salmonella serovars were inoculated into creamy almond butter separately and stored at 25 ± 2 oC. Results showed that Salmonella populations decreased slowly and could survive in almond butter for at least two weeks. This study also investigated the effect of initial inoculum level, contact time, food-contact material and bacterial serovar on the subsequent potential for transfer of bacteria to equipment surfaces (Section 4.2). Almond butter inoculated with Salmonella Oranienburg and Tennessee at different inoculums levels (~3, 6, 9 log CFU/g) were spread on 16 cm2 coupons made of polyethylene, polyurethane, Delrin and stainless steel. Microbial analysis was conducted after physically removing all visible nut butter with laboratory wipes. Results for S. Oranienburg and Tennessee followed similar trends of microbial transfer with regards to inoculum level and food-contact surface. The amount x of Salmonella transferred to a food-contact surface was dependent on initial inoculation levels. An average of 0.88 ± 0.22, 1.53 ± 0.15, and 4.59 ± 0.06 log CFU S. Tennessee per 16 cm2 were transferred to the four different food-contact surface types for low, medium, and high inoculum level, respectively. An average of 1.25 ± 0.24, 2.08 ± 0.08, and 4.55 ± 0.35 log CFU S. Oranienburg per 16 cm2 were transferred to the same four different foodcontact surfaces for low, medium, and high inoculum levels, respectively. The third part of this study (Section 4.3) determined the transfer of Salmonella from contaminated food-contact coupon surfaces to almond butter. Uninoculated almond butter was applied on the surface of previously contaminated food-contact coupon surfaces. More than 5 log CFU/16 cm2 Salmonella could transfer to clean almond butter after immediate contact (within 5 min) with the contaminated area. These findings help advance our understanding of factors affecting microbial transfer between nut butters and processing equipment surfaces. This research can be used to support future cleaning and sanitation studies for nut butter processing equipment.
M.S. in Food Safety and Technology, December 2012
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Title: SITUATING FANS' SOCIAL MEDIA PRACTICES IN THE CONTEXT OF FAN STUDIES
Creator: Rao, Xi
Date: 2015, 2015-05
Description: This paper explores how TV fans use social media. By revtewmg academic perspectives on fandom ofTV shows and social media in past several...
Show moreThis paper explores how TV fans use social media. By revtewmg academic perspectives on fandom ofTV shows and social media in past several decades, this paper discusses the way that audiences react to TV shows using the affordance of social media. At the begirming, this article traces the image, activities, and meaning of fandom. Fans were portrayed as deviant creatures until the late 80s. This image was clarified when people looked into fans and their creative works. Scholars realized that fans productively generated creative products based on the given materials, which reflected the social experience of the creators. Therefore, fandom was soon understood as a way of fans to resist the dominant culture in the society. Later on, social media offer fans an immediate, widespread platform to contribute to the TV conversation. With this platform, normal fans show up. Different from productive fandom, median fans are less active in making new meanings of the TV program. Interestingly, a large number of TV audiences are using social media during the broadcast, participating in the discussion of shows. This evidences the convergence of the traditional media, TV, and the new media, social media. It is also found that comments of TV viewers on social media in turn, influence the content of the TV show. Rather than merely spectators, fans are a part of the TV production. As a special case, gender is discussed from the perspective of fandom. Female composers dominant the fan-writing world. Study the producers and products of fan fiction may provide valuable insights into gender dilemmas in the real world. At the end of this essay, 1 summarize how social media atTect the participation of TV fans and discuss remaining questions worthy of future research. Since fandom becomes ubiquitous in the social media age, it is possible to explore fandom as a way to better understand our daily life.
M.S. in Information Architecture, May 2015
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Title: SUSTAINABLE NEW CITY MENTOUGOU, CHINA
Creator: Yin, Lu
Date: 2013-04-30, 2013-05
Description: This thesis will demonstrate one of the first urban models for the future of China’s growth. The Urban Operating System and GPS make the smart...
Show moreThis thesis will demonstrate one of the first urban models for the future of China’s growth. The Urban Operating System and GPS make the smart city smarter by linking up networks of billions of distributed sensors, systems, and intelligence across urban environments via city-scale operating systems. Personal Rapid Transit system runs everywhere and it is accessed and ordered by smart phone. Green belt is the medium that links all the natural area and parks in the city which become the core element in the city because it plays the most important role. Two types of transportation system including the Meglev for 10 minute access to Beijing and the PRT system for all internal urban mobility. The population of the new city is 80000. 80% of the people live here and work here, 20% of the people live here but work in Beijing. 30% of the people will use PRT system everyday. All the city blocks are mixed-use blocks. There are several types of residential buildings including mid-rise, high-rise and Beijing traditional courtyard house. This sustainable new city provides quality of lift to all the people live in the city.
M.S. in Architecture, May 2013
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Title: PARADIGM SHIFT IN REMOTE EDUCATION FOR THE LABORATORY: A SOCIAL APPROACH TO DISTANCE LEARNING
Creator: Hanley, Richard
Date: 2011-12, 2011-12
Description: With modern telecommunication tools the ability for two individuals to work together remotely has greatly improved. Moreover, there have been...
Show moreWith modern telecommunication tools the ability for two individuals to work together remotely has greatly improved. Moreover, there have been great strides made to improve handling medium to large groups of people in real time in remote settings, viz. the teleconference and webinar. However, the status of remote tools for laboratory environments where there is significant hardware and the individuals are more likely to talk amongst themselves in irregular patterns is not nearly as well studied. This thesis examines the way most laboratories in electrical engineering are setup, and creates a model for how to create a remote environment for distance learning. It then discusses the current state of the art, and how such an implementation of the model can be made with such tools. Finally a usability study of the implementation is examined. The primary result of the usability study is that when moving to a remote environment the social paradigm that students and instructors use is likely to change, and simply working on creating a virtual mirror to the laboratory may not work in the future.
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, December 2011
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Title: SURVIVAL AND GROWTH OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES IN CHOPPED GREEN AND RED BELL PEPPERS USING PREDICTIVE MODELING
Creator: Zhang, L1jie
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) is a Gram-positive pathogenic organism and the causative agent of human and animal listeriosis....
Show moreListeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) is a Gram-positive pathogenic organism and the causative agent of human and animal listeriosis. Listeriosis is a gastrointestinal or invasive systemic illness resulting from consumption of contaminated food products, mainly cheese, deli meats, and fresh produce, by L. monocytogenes. In recent years, several foodborne outbreaks have been reported that were associated with fresh produce, such as cantaloupe, celery and sprouts. Temperature is considered a major factor that affects L. monocytogenes growth during storage. The proliferation of L. monocytogenes varies on different produce items based on storage temperature. In this study, the persistence and population dynamics of three L. monocytogenes strains, LS806 (cheese isolate), LS810 (cantaloupe isolate) and LS808 (celery isolate) were evaluated by incubating inoculated fresh-cut green bell pepper and red bell pepper at various temperatures (5oC, 10oC, and 25oC) for 14 days. To assess the risk of L. monocytogenes in these fresh-cut vegetable items, a primary predictive model was fitted for L. monocytogenes growth data using DMFit. Green bell pepper had significantly (P<0.05) higher pH and aw, and higher amounts of yeast and mold and Enterobacteriaceae than did red bell pepper. In green bell pepper, all three strains showed no significant difference (P>0.05) in growth rate when incubated at the same temperature. In red bell peppers, LS808 had the highest (P<0.05) growth rate at both 5°C and 25°C out of the three strains. All of the three strains grew significantly faster (P<0.01) at 25°C than either 5°C or 10°C in both green and red bell peppers. All three strains obtained less than 1 log10 growth increase after incubating at 25°C for 6 hours on pre-chilled produce. Some strains (LS806 and LS810) significantly increased (P<0.01) during two 5-hour 25°C incubations, but did not reach 1 log10 growth increase. The results indicate that L. monocytogenes not only persists, but also grows in chopped green and red bell peppers at 5, 10, and 25°C, and strains grew faster at the higher temperature (25°C). Data obtained could be further evaluated for determining whether Time/temperature control for safety (TCS) designation should be applied to chopped green and red bell peppers.
M.S. in Food Safety and Technology, July 2015
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