This thesis describes the successful development and initial evaluation of a proof-of-concept wireless monitoring system for improving the effectiveness and safety of pneumatic compression therapy to help prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT). In the development, an important objective was to make feasible the practical and commercial deployment of such improved therapy systems in future, by focusing on a cost-effective design and implementation. Over the years, pneumatic compression has been shown to be an effective solution for the prevention of DVT. However, different problems and complications related to the use of commercial pneumatic compression de-vices that typically include automatic pressure controllers and pneumatic compression sleeves have been reported. For example, one study reported a high percentage of improperly applied or nonfunctional pneumatic compression devices in routine usage. Technical problems, non-compliance, and human error were identified as the causes behind the failed therapies. Also, it was reported that dedicated in-service instruction did not improve the proper use of the pneumatic compression controllers and sleeves. In another study, significant unanticipated variations between expected and delivered pneumatic compression therapy were reported: expected therapy delivered only an average of 77.8% of the time during the therapy, and much of the time key values related to the outcome of the therapy were found to have variations great than 10%. Specific hazards have also been reported. For example, one patient developed acute compartment syndrome after wearing a pair of pneumatic compression sleeves with faulty pressure release valves. In another case, epidural analgesia masked a malfunction resulting from a reversed connection between four-way plastic tubing of the sleeves and the controller, exposing a patient to a hazardous pressure of around 300mmHg,blocking all blood flow for a prolonged period of time. Newer models of pneumatic compression sleeves and controllers from various manufacturers claim to improve therapy by, for example, increasing the peak blood flow velocity. However, there is no evidence in the published literature to support such claims. A published review of the literature from1970-2002 reached the conclusion that the most important factors in im-proving therapy with pneumatic compression devices, particularly during and after surgery, were the degree of conformance of delivered therapy to the prescribed therapy, patient compliance, and the appropriateness of the site of compression. The inability to monitor delivered therapy and patient compliance remains a problem in efforts to improve pneumatic compression therapy. The above-described problems were addressed in the successful development of the innovative prototype described in this thesis. This wireless monitoring system should improve the effectiveness and safety of pneumatic compression therapy. Also, innovative aspects of the system design allow for cost-effective integration into existing commercial controllers and sleeves. For example, an innovative and potentially patentable usage and reprocess indicator was developed for pneumatic compression sleeves to significantly improve their safety and to reduce their cost of use per patient.

Color formation in oils during frying is one of the most noticeable degradation reactions that occur in the frying oil. Degradation reactions cause formation of products that positively and negatively impact the nutritional and sensory qualities of both the food being fried and the frying oil. The origins of these pigment forming reactions in the oil and the factors affecting these reactions are not well understood. Assessments of the mechanisms, the components involved and external conditions affecting oil darkening were conducted. The effect of basic food ingredients, commercially sold and laboratory formulated breading and battering, preformed lipid hydroperoxides and phospholipids on color formation and oil degradation of the frying oil were investigated. Protein products, specifically whey protein, caused both the fastest darkening and thermo-oxidative deterioration of the frying oil. This breakdown was aided further through the addition of minor food materials such as glucose and amino acids as well as lipid hydroperoxides in concentrations greater than 5 % of the frying oil. Nonenzymatic browning is the main reaction causing color formation in the frying oil and utilizes carbonyls from the food product such as starches, sugars and lipid oxidation products as starting materials alongside amino groups from proteins and amino acids. Breading ingredients contributed to oil color formation due to particles from the food crust breaking off into the frying oil to further accelerate browning reactions. Increasing the temperature of the frying oil provided additional stimulus for color forming and thermo-oxidative reactions to progress at a faster rate. / xv, 184 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

Deep-corrugated steel culverts (with a corrugation wavelength of 400mm and amplitude of 150mm) can be used as an effective alternative for short-span bridges. Current design methods are typically based on two-dimensional finite element analysis. This thesis reports results from three-dimensional finite element analysis, with explicit modelling of the geometry of the corrugated plates (called corrugated analyses) and employing the orthotropic shell theory (called orthotropic analyses), for a specific box culvert having a 10 m span and 2.4 m rise. The results were compared to previously reported experimental data where a specific large span box culvert was tested under controlled laboratory conditions. The behaviour of the box culvert under small vertical displacement without any soil support was modelled to isolate the structure response. The box culvert was also modelled when subject to fully loaded dump truck, and when loaded using a tandem axle frame to service and ultimate loads. Both corrugated and orthotropic analyses successfully captured the response of the box culvert when backfilled and loaded using dump truck and axle frame loading. It was found that the orthotropic model overestimated the culvert stiffness at the ultimate limit state, but provided effective estimates of response up to the factored design loads. The corrugated model with geometric nonlinearity was required to capture the real behaviour of the corrugated plates up to the ultimate limit state. New insight into the failure mechanisms of the box culvert were provided by the corrugated model analysis. A parametric study was then performed for 86 different long-span box and arch culverts, examining live load spreading in the axial direction, number of loaded lanes, design truck position, culvert geometry, plate thickness, and the existence of pavement. The results were then compared to the moment and thrust equations in the 2006 Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC) to check the performance of the current design equations. CHBDC equations overestimated the earth and live load bending moments, and did not give the correct trend for different spans. CHBDC thrust equations were found to underestimate the earth and live load thrust values for arch culverts. / Thesis (Ph.D, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-04-26 15:33:45.103

The application of visible/near-infrared hyper-spectral analysis to monitor the quality of frying oil and fried breaded chicken nuggets was investigated. / Partial least squares (PLS) calibration models were developed to predict the acid value, total polar components and viscosity of heated oils with different ratios of hydrogenation. Coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE) were calculated to assess the performance of each model. Results of the study demonstrated good prediction ability of the calibration models for the quality parameters with R2 values of over 0.92. / The second study was based on developing calibration models for prediction of moisture and fat contents of fried breaded chicken nuggets with different levels of moisture and fat contents. Performing the same procedure for evaluation of the PLS calibration models, results of the study demonstrated that moisture and fat contents of fried breaded chicken nuggets could be predicted with R2 values of 0.92.

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s Underground Research Laboratory was built to allow study of concepts for the long-term disposal of Canada’s used nuclear fuel in a deep geological repository. The underground portion of the facility was decommissioned and permanently closed in 2010. Decommissioning included the installation of a seal at the intersection of the access shaft with a hydraulically active fracture zone located at 275 m depth. The objective of the shaft seal is to limit potential groundwater mixing above and below the fracture zone. This project provided a unique opportunity to study the hydro-mechanical evolution of a full-scale shaft seal installed under conditions similar to those in a deep geological repository. This thesis provides an overview of the instrumentation and data logging techniques that have been successfully used to monitor the initial behaviour of the shaft seal in this unique underground environment.

Thunderstorms have been identified as an important component of the hydrological cycle on the Canadian Prairies, a region that is postulated to have the potential to exert a detectable influence on convective precipitation in the summer. However, very little work has been undertaken exploring and elucidating those aspects of biophysical forcing on the Canadian Prairies that affect lightning activity during the summer months, the constraints under which any linkages operate, and the mechanisms by which surface anomalies modify the structure and moisture content of the convective boundary layer (CBL) so as to modulate lightning activity. Evapotranspiration (ET) from the soil and vegetation canopy is known to be important for modulating the moisture content in the CBL, and this in turn has important implications for the initiation and intensity of deep, moist convection. The Second Generation Prairie Agrometeorological Model (PAMII) of Raddatz (1993) has been used extensively for the purpose of quantifying the evolution of soil moisture and ET in response to atmospheric drivers on the Canadian Prairies. However, the ability of PAMII to simulate the evolution of root-zone soil moisture and ET during the growing season has yet to be verified against a comprehensive set of in-situ observations. In this thesis, we address the above knowledge gaps using unique datasets comprising observed lightning flash data, satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, observed atmospheric soundings, in-situ soil moisture observations and estimates of daily ET from eddy-covariance systems. A thorough quantitative validation of simulations of root-zone soil moisture and ET from PAMII was undertaken against in-situ soil moisture measurements and ET from eddy-covariance systems at sites on the Canadian Prairies. Our analysis demonstrates that PAMII shows skill in simulating the evolution of bulk root-zone soil moisture content and ET during the growing season, and for contrasting summer conditions (i.e., wet versus dry). As part of the soil moisture validation, a novel multi-model pedotransfer function ensemble technique was developed to quantify the uncertainty in soil moisture simulations arising from errors in the specified soil texture and associated soil hydraulic properties. An innovative approach was used to explore linkages between the terrestrial surface and deep, moist convection on the Canadian Prairies, using datasets which avoid many of the problems encountered when studying linkages between soil moisture and thunderstorm activity. This was achieved using lightning flash data in unison with remotely sensed NDVI data. Specifically, statistical analysis of the data over 38 Census Agricultural Regions (CARs) on the Canadian Prairies for 10 summers from 1999 to 2008 provided evidence for a surface-convection feedback on the Canadian Prairies, in which drought tends to perpetuate drought with respect to deep, moist convection. The constraints in which such a feedback operates (e.g., areal extent and magnitude of the NDVI anomalies) were also identified. For example, our data suggest that NDVI anomalies and lightning duration are asymmetric, with the relationship between NDVI and lightning duration strengthening as the area and amplitude of the negative NDVI anomaly (less vegetation vigour) increases. Finally, we focused on how surface anomalies over the Canadian Prairies can condition the CBL so as to inhibit or facilitate thunderstorm activity, while also considering the role of synoptic-scale forcing on modulating summer thunderstorm activity. We focused on a CAR located over central Alberta for which observed lightning flash data, NDVI data, and in-situ sounding data were available for 11 summers from 1999 to 2009. Our analysis suggests that storms over this region are more likely to develop and are longer-lived or more widespread when they develop in an environment in which the surface and upper-air synoptic-scale forcings are synchronized. On days when a surface or upper-air feature is present, storms are more likely to be triggered when NDVI is much above average, compared to when NDVI is much below average. We propose a conceptual model, based almost entirely on observations, which integrates our findings to describe how a reduction in vegetation vigour modulates the partitioning of available energy into sensible and latent heat fluxes at the surface, thereby modulating the lifting condensation level heights, which in turn affect lightning duration.

No description available.

This study presents techniques that can be applied to optimize the quality of coated fried chicken nuggets. / Heat and mass transfer during deep fat frying of breaded chicken nugget was simultaneously modeled using the moving boundary concept. Numerical software FEMLABRTM 3.0 was used to solve the proposed model. To validate the model, experiments were conducted. Chicken nuggets were made with wheat flour based batter and breading. The samples were fried in a fryer using oil temperatures at 160, 170 and 180°C. Total frying times ranged from 90 to 300 s. A good agreement was obtained between predicted and observed results. / During the deep-frying process, the chicken nuggets samples shrank because of moisture loss and protein denaturation. Particle density and bulk volume shrinkage were analyzed at 3 different frying temperatures (160, 170 and 180°C). Particle density and shrinkage of the samples was measured using the liquid displacement technique with water. A linear relation was found for particle densities with moisture loss. The relationship between volumetric shrinkage and moisture loss was also found to be linear and the linear equation may be useful in predicting the volumetric shrinkage during frying. / In order to reduce the oil absorption of chicken nuggets during the frying process, the influence of pretreatment in microwave on the moisture and oil transfer in the coating and core layers of coated chicken nuggets were studied. Chicken nuggets pretreated in a microwave oven for 1 or 2 min were fried at 160°C for times ranging from 90 to 300 s to evaluate oil transfer. Microwave pretreatment had an important effect on moisture loss and oil uptake of chicken nuggets during deep-fat frying.

With approximately 7% of the adult population reporting to have taken illicit substances over the course of a year and the chronically relapsing nature of substance use disorders there is a great need for effective forms of treatment and therapies to reduce relapse. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a process of neuromodulation where electrodes are implanted in a target region to modulate the electrophysiological activity of the target region. DBS has been postulated as a potential therapy for treatment-refractory addiction, with a great deal of focus on the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Forty male Long Evans rats were implanted with unilateral stimulating electrodes within the right NAc prior to exposure to chronic cocaine self-administration (0.5 mg/kg/infusion). Following self administration, the animals were withdrawn from cocaine and treated with 14 consecutive days of sham, low frequency (LF, 20 Hz) or high frequency (HF, 160 Hz) stimulation sessions (30 min/day). The animals underwent drug seeking tests on days 1, 15 and 30 of the withdrawal phase with context-induced relapse paired with a drug challenge (5 mg/kg i.p). Relapse rates were highest on day 15 after withdrawal, with both LF and HF attenuating cocaine during this drug-seeking test, however this was not the case for tests on days 1 and 30. Motivation to respond for saccharin solution (0.1 %) remained intact following both LF and HF stimulation intake sessions. These results demonstrate that unilateral DBS of the NAc effectively attenuated cocaine-seeking following chronic exposure to stimulation although these beneficial effects appeared to diminish following cessation of daily treatment with stimulation. The results obtained in this experiment provide support for DBS as a potential therapy for patients with treatment-resistant cases of substance use disorders.

No description available.