The effects of cross linking on collagen type 1 nanostructure and nanostructural response to uniaxial tension : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry: Kayed, H. R., Sizeland, K. H., Kirby, N., Hawley, A., Mudie, S. T., & Haverkamp, R. G. (2015). Collagen cross linking and fibril alignment in pericardium. RSC Advances, 5, 3611-3618. doi:10.1039/c4ra10658j ; Kayed, H.R., Kirby, N., Hawely, A., Mudie, S.T., & Haverkamp, R.G. (2015). Collagen fibril strain, recruitment and orientation for pericardium under tension and the effect of cross links. RSC Advances, 5, 103703-103712. doi:10.1039/C5RA21870E Reproduced by permission of the American Institute of Physics: Wells, H. C., Sizeland, K. H., Kayed, H. R., Kirby, N., Hawley, A., Mudie, S. T., & Haverkamp, R. G. (2015). Poisson's ratio of collagen fibrils measured by small angle X-ray scattering of strained bovine pericardium. Journal of Applied Physics, 117, 044701. doi:10.1063/1.4906325 Reproduced by permission of American Scientific Publishers: Kayed, H.R., Sizeland, K.H., Wells, H.C., Kirby, N., Hawley, A., Mudie, S.T., & Haverkamp, R.G. (2016). Age differences with glutaraldehyde treatment in collagen fibril orientation of bovine pericardium. Journal of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, 6, 992-997. doi:10.1166/jbt.2016.1532Collagen type I, is a fibrillar protein with a complex hierarchical structure, forming the extracellular matrices of an extensive range of organs and tissues. Applications for treated collagen materials vary vastly from commercial uses to the medical field for bioprosthetics and tissue grafts. Glycosaminoglycan (GAG), cross links naturally bridge fibrils, whilst glutaraldehyde is widely used as a synthetic linking agent in medical and other industries. No consensus has been reached regarding what contribution, if any, such cross links have on collagen structure and mechanical responses to applied stresses. This research investigated the role of GAG and glutaraldehyde cross links on the nanostructure and nanostructural response of type I collagen fibrils under uniaxial strain. Bovine pericardium was decellularised, producing native samples, or further treated with glutaraldehyde or chondroitinase ABC to produce glutaraldehyde cross linked or GAG-depleted collagen samples respectively. Synchrotron small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and atomic force and polarised light microscopy provided quantitative and qualitative information on collagen nanostructure. Uniaxial tensile experiments in conjunction with SAXS were performed to monitor structural changes with applied strain. Glutaraldehyde cross links constrained fibrils into more networked isotropic structures and demonstrated a mechanical function, recruiting 45% of fibrils into stretching which experienced strains of up to 6.4%. Comparison of native with chondroitinase ABC-treated samples showed GAGs do not constrain fibrils into alignment and have potential fibril lubricating effects; 12% of fibrils in native tissue experienced strains up to 4.1%, and 36% of fibrils experienced strains up to 4.6% in the GAG-depleted tissue. A higher degree of fibril sliding occurs in native tissue. Interestingly, whilst adult pericardia are more cross linked and fibrils of neonatal pericardia are more aligned, both tissues share similar propensities to form more isotropic structures with glutaraldehyde treatment. These findings build a comprehensive picture as to the function cross linking has in collagen structure and mechanical response at the nano-level, where such knowledge may prove useful for the preparation of collagen materials for specific applications

Towers of solutions of qKZ equations and their applications to loop models

Cherednik's type A quantum affine Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov (qKZ) equations form a consistent system of linear $q$-difference equations for $V_n$-valued meromorphic functions on a complex $n$-torus, with $V_n$ a module over the GL${}_n$-type extended affine Hecke algebra $\mathcal{H}_n$. The family $(\mathcal{H}_n)_{n\geq 0}$ of extended affine Hecke algebras forms a tower of algebras, with the associated algebra morphisms $\mathcal{H}_n\rightarrow\mathcal{H}_{n+1}$ the Hecke algebra descends of arc insertion at the affine braid group level. In this paper we consider qKZ towers $(f^{(n)})_{n\geq 0}$ of solutions, which consist of twisted-symmetric polynomial solutions $f^{(n)}$ ($n\geq 0$) of the qKZ equations that are compatible with the tower structure on $(\mathcal{H}_n)_{n\geq 0}$. The compatibility is encoded by so-called braid recursion relations: $f^{(n+1)}(z_1,\ldots,z_{n},0)$ is required to coincide up to a quasi-constant factor with the push-forward of $f^{(n)}(z_1,\ldots,z_{n})$ by an intertwiner $\mu_{n}: V_{n}\rightarrow V_{n+1}$ of $\mathcal{H}_{n}$-modules, where $V_{n+1}$ is considered as an $\mathcal{H}_{n}$-module through the tower structure on $(\mathcal{H}_n)_{n\geq 0}$. We associate to the dense loop model on the half-infinite cylinder with nonzero loop weights a qKZ tower $(f^{(n)})_{n\geq 0}$ of solutions. The solutions $f^{(n)}$ are constructed from specialised dual non-symmetric Macdonald polynomials with specialised parameters using the Cherednik-Matsuo correspondence. In the special case that the extended affine Hecke algebra parameter is a third root of unity, $f^{(n)}$ coincides with the (suitably normalized) ground state of the inhomogeneous dense $O(1)$ loop model on the half-infinite cylinder with circumference $n$.Comment: 45 pages. v2: main theorem (Thm. 4.7) strengthened. v3: minor typos corrected. To appear in Ann. Henri Poincar

Calibration and Evaluation of Phosphorus Loss in Surface Runoff and Subsurface Drainage Using APEX

Modeling phosphorus (P) loss through surface runoff and subsurface drainage is essential because it helps understand how P transfers to the water bodies in an inexpensive and feasible way. P loss into the Great Lakes leads to eutrophication. APEX (Agriculture Policy/Environmental eXtender) is extended from EPIC (Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model) and can simulate management practices and land use impacts for various land sizes from a field to a small watershed. However, APEX has not been tested in Lake Erie Region. This research, therefore, represents the first effort to use APEX to simulate P loss in this area. Field data were obtained from experiments conducted at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada\u27s Whelan experimental farm in Woodslee, ON, Canada, with corn-soybean rotation. Calibration and evaluation of APEX was executed to test its capability in simulating the impacts of chemical fertilizers and cattle manure on P loss. Different potential evapotranspiration equations (PET) and curve number (CN) equations were used to determine the most suitable one for this study area. Statistical analysis was used to assess the model performance. Satisfactory results were obtained from the simulation of APEX in the Brookstone clay loam soil

Leadership Challenges for Women Managers in Public Universities in Saudi Arabia

Recent deliverances by king Abdullah in Saudi Arabia SA has opened many doors for women over the past seven years Women joined the consultative assembly in 2013 in the same year three women were named as deputy chair persons of three committees In 2011 King Abdullah announced that women would be allowed to vote and run for office in the 2015 municipal elections All these actions grant Saudi women the chance to occupy managerial positions in many organizations However Saudi women in managerial positions face many challenges The purpose of this study is to recognize the challenges that female managers in public Saudi universities face in their managerial positions The paper adopted an in- depth personal interviewsmethod in order to gain a deep understanding of the specific challenges faced by female managers in public universities Nineteen female managers of which 10 were in high managerial positions of universities were interviewed The study found that Saudi female managers face a number of challenges the most important challenge is the long working hours dealing with different natures of subordinates and lack of authorization The study provided a number of recommendations to decision makers in order to alleviate those challenges such as the limitation of female long working hours by decentralization and better distribution of work load Training programs in management and communication skills would help female managers to better manage and communicate with subordinates Authorization should be given to female managers in order to be able to issue decisions necessary for their department

STRATEGIC RETREAT IN AN AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

According to FEMA and NOAA, flooding is the most frequent and costly natural disaster in the United States. The National Flood Insurance Program, designed to alleviate some of the costs of this hazard, is financially insolvent and fiscally unsustainable. Through its Hazard Mitigation Assistance program, FEMA buys out homes, but the process is voluntary and slow, and demand far exceeds funds available. Consequently, the number of Repetitive Loss and Severe Repetitive Loss properties increases each year. The thesis explores why and how FEMA should pursue strategic retreat from high-risk areas. Disaster costs continue to rise as extreme weather events increase in frequency and intensity. Sea-level rise endangers coastal regions, and more homes may be susceptible to systemic and regular flooding than official estimates show. To resist by building ever larger flood walls and barriers may be unrealistic, and retreat as an adaptation technique may be preferable. Expensive as strategic retreat may be, loss-avoidance studies indicate that besides reducing pain and suffering, these measures pay for themselves. Strategic retreat may also result in climate refugees who are not prepared to deal with rapidly changing conditions. An adaptation framework recommends deterrents and incentives available to policymakers and practitioners to pursue strategic retreat in a planned, comprehensive, and equitable manner.Civilian, Department of Homeland SecurityApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

A Scalable Solution For Interactive Video Streaming

This dissertation presents an overall solution for interactive Near Video On Demand (NVOD) systems, where limited server and network resources prevent the system from servicing all customers’ requests. The interactive nature of recent workloads complicates matters further. Interactive requests require additional resources to be handled. This dissertation analyzes the system performance under a realistic workload using different stream merging techniques and scheduling policies. It considers a wide range of system parameters and studies their impact on the waiting and blocking metrics. In order to improve waiting customers experience, we propose a new scheduling policy for waiting customers that is fairer and delivers a descent performance. Blocking is a major issue in interactive NVOD systems and we propose a few techniques to minimize it. In particular, we study the maximum Interactive Stream (I-Stream) length (Threshold) that should be allowed in order to prevent a few requests from using the expensive I-Streams for a prolonged period of time, which starves other requests from a chance of using this valuable resource. Using a reasonable I-Stream threshold proves very effective in improving blocking metrics. Moreover, we introduce an I-Stream provisioning policy to dynamically shift resources based on the system requirements at the time. The proposed policy proves to be highly effective in improving the overall system performance. To account for both average waiting time and average blocking time, we introduce a new metric (Aggregate Delay) . We study the client-side cache management policy. We utilize the customer’s cache to service most interactive requests, which reduces the load on the server. We propose three purging algorithms to clear data when the cache gets full. Purge Oldest removes the oldest data in the cache, whereas Purge Furthest clears the furthest data from the client’s playback point. In contrast, Adaptive Purge tries to avoid purging any data that includes the customer’s playback point or the playback point of any stream that is being listened to by the client. Additionally, we study the impact of the purge block, which is the least amount of data to be cleared, on the system performance. Finally, we study the effect of bookmarking on the system performance. A video segment that is searched and watched repeatedly is called a hotspot and is pointed to by a bookmark. We introduce three enhancements to effectively support bookmarking. Specifically, we propose a new purging algorithm to avoid purging hotspot data if it is already cached. On top of that, we fetch hotspot data for customers not listening to any stream. Furthermore, we reserve multicast channels to fetch hotspot data

Optimal QoS aware multiple paths web service composition using heuristic algorithms and data mining techniques

The goal of QoS-aware service composition is to generate optimal composite services that satisfy the QoS requirements defined by clients. However, when compositions contain more than one execution path (i.e., multiple path's compositions), it is difficult to generate a composite service that simultaneously optimizes all the execution paths involved in the composite service at the same time while meeting the QoS requirements. This issue brings us to the challenge of solving the QoS-aware service composition problem, so called an optimization problem. A further research challenge is the determination of the QoS characteristics that can be considered as selection criteria. In this thesis, a smart QoS-aware service composition approach is proposed. The aim is to solve the above-mentioned problems via an optimization mechanism based upon the combination between runtime path prediction method and heuristic algorithms. This mechanism is performed in two steps. First, the runtime path prediction method predicts, at runtime, and just before the actual composition, execution, the execution path that will potentially be executed. Second, both the constructive procedure (CP) and the complementary procedure (CCP) heuristic algorithms computed the optimization considering only the execution path that has been predicted by the runtime path prediction method for criteria selection, eight QoS characteristics are suggested after investigating related works on the area of web service and web service composition. Furthermore, prioritizing the selected QoS criteria is suggested in order to assist clients when choosing the right criteria. Experiments via WEKA tool and simulation prototype were conducted to evaluate the methods used. For the runtime path prediction method, the results showed that the path prediction method achieved promising prediction accuracy, and the number of paths involved in the prediction did not affect the accuracy. For the optimization mechanism, the evaluation was conducted by comparing the mechanism with relevant optimization techniques. The simulation results showed that the proposed optimization mechanism outperforms the relevant optimization techniques by (1) generating the highest overall QoS ratio solutions, (2) consuming the smallest computation time, and (3) producing the lowest percentage of constraints violated number