The lipid composition of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum, L) fibers was determined. Fatty acid profiles revealed that linolenate and palmitate were the most abundant fatty acids present in fiber cells. Phosphatidylcholine was the predominant lipid class in fiber cells, while phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and digalactosyldiacylglycerol were also prevalent. An unusually high amount of phosphatidic acid was observed in frozen cotton fibers. Phospholipase D activity assays revealed that this enzyme readily hydrolyzed radioactive phosphatidylcholine into phosphatidic acid. A profile of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for genes involved in lipid metabolism in cotton fibers was also obtained. This EST profile along with our lipid metabolite data was used to predict lipid metabolic pathways in cotton fiber cells.

We report on the scrambling performance and focal-ratio-degradation (FRD) of various octagonal and rectangular fibers considered for MAROON-X. Our measurements demonstrate the detrimental effect of thin claddings on the FRD of octagonal and rectangular fibers and that stress induced at the connectors can further increase the FRD. We find that fibers with a thick, round cladding show low FRD. We further demonstrate that the scrambling behavior of non-circular fibers is often complex and introduce a new metric to fully capture non-linear scrambling performance, leading to much lower scrambling gain values than are typically reported in the literature (<1000 compared to 10,000 or more). We find that scrambling gain measurements for small-core, non-circular fibers are often speckle dominated if the fiber is not agitated.

No description available.

Chemical sensors based on arrays of polymer-coated surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are required for defense applications that provide a combination of sensitivity, selectivity, portability and response time. The primary challenge in the development of these polymer-based microsensors is the need to reproducibly deposit high quality, defect-free polymer coatings onto microelectrodes. Coating methods such as air brushing and solvent casting have proven unreliable and I have investigated the possibility of depositing polymer films on microelectrodes using electrostatic processing methods. In this work AC electrospraying was used to deposit nanoscale polymer films onto the surface of microelectrodes. The alternating polarity of the electric field eliminates surface charge accumulation and the polymers were deposited uniformly across both electrically insulating and conducting surface regions. In a different work, DC electrospraying was used to deposit patterned organic coatings onto the surface of microelectrodes. The surface of the microelectrode array consisted of an alternating pattern of insulating, grounded-metallic and ungrounded metallic regions, each with a width of 15µm. The charged particles were deposited only onto the grounded-metallic surface regions where there is an electrical path for charge dissipation. No polymer deposition was observed on the insulating or ungrounded-metallic regions due to the effects of surface charge accumulation. Also, I, DC electrodeposited organic molecules within the pores of ceramic film. Due to electrospraying, this film has a strong built-in electric field that induces Stark effect in the organic molecules, providing a unique new technology for bio and chemical sensing. Electrospinning has been used to produce polymer nanofibers with diameters ranging from a few microns to less than 100 nanometers. Due to mechanical oscillations of the electrically charged fibers during electrospinning, they are usually collected in the form of a non-woven mat without any significant fiber orientation. I have developed a new method for making highly aligned arrays of polymer nanofibers by using an AC coupled DC field to drive the electrospinning process. This new "biased AC electrospinning" method can be used to deposit aligned arrays of polymer nanofibers onto virtually any substrate. Potential applications of well-ordered nanofiber materials include tissue engineering, filtration, drug delivery and microelectronics.

Capillarity is a physical phenomenon that acts as a driving force in the displacement of one fluid by another within a porous medium. This mechanism operates on the micro and nanoscale, and is responsible for countless observable events. This can include applications such as absorption in various hygiene products, self-cleaning surfaces such as water beading up and rolling off a specially-coated windshield, anti-icing, and water management in fuel cells, among many others. The most significant research into capillarity has occurred within the last century or so. Traditional formulations for fluid absorption include the Lucas–Washburn model for porous media, which is a 1-D model that reduces a porous medium to a series of capillary tubes of some educated equivalent radius. The Richards equation allows for modeling fluid saturation as a function of time and space, but requires additional information on capillary pressure as a function of saturation (pc(S)) in order to solve for absorption. In both approaches, the surface can only possess one fluid affinity. This thesis focuses on developing capillary models necessary for predicting fluid absorption and repulsion in fibrous media. Some of the work entails utilizing approximations based on pore space available to the fluid, which allows for capillary pressure simulation in media with arbitrary fiber orientation. This thesis also presents models for tracking the fluid interface in fibrous media and coatings with simpler geometries such as horizontally and vertically aligned fibers and orthogonal fiber layers. This method hinges on solving for the true fluid interface shape between the fibers based on the balance of forces across it, ensuring the accurate location and total content of fluid in the medium, and therefore accurate pc(S). Using this approach also allows, for the first time, fibers of different fluid affinities to exist in the same structure, to examine their combined influence on fluid behavior. The models in this thesis focus mainly on absorbent fabrics and superhydrophobic coatings, but can be easily expanded for use in other applications such as water filtration from fuel, fluid transport and storage in microchannels, polymer impregnation in fiber-reinforced composite materials, among countless others.

I use found botanical material such as leaves, seedpods, and branches to explore human connection to the physical world. By combining these organic objects with the rich traditions of needlecraft, I bind nature and the human touch. Both tender and ruthless, this intricate stitch work communicates the idea that our relationship with the natural world is both tenuously fragile and infinitely complex. The way I think about and make art mirrors the way I think about my life and how I walk through the world. What I do is about elevating details. It is about noticing cycles and connections. It is about regarding a familiar object in a new way. It’s about seeing things and considering their connection to you, their potential futures and possible pasts. There is a depth and an importance to what is present, and what is absent. Invisible narratives are woven into and around each piece, each interaction. As I gather materials with which to work, I consider what connections might exist between us, or how each object might be related to another. I am a cartographer, drawing and plotting an imaginary map, from one object to the next, intervening with each. These objects naturally fit into categories, which relate to my own experiences, but also to their origins and how they came into my hands. The vertices of experience and the actual life trajectory of an object are what interest me the most; the points at which the object and I intersect.

La variété de l'offre alimentaire actuelle incite à l'hyperphagie qui est en partie responsable de la prise de poids corporel. Réduire la consommation est ainsi devenu une contrainte pour une certaine partie de la population. Dans ce contexte, les fibres, qui sont des glucides non-digestibles dans l'intestin grêle, permettent de réduire la prise alimentaire, d'atténuer les sensations de faim et/ou d'augmenter les sensations de satiété. Cependant, les mécanismes comportementaux, périphériques et centraux à l'origine de ces effets sont mal-connus. Leur capacité à maintenir cet effet anorexigène en présence d'autres nutriments comme les lipides et les protéines a également été très peu étudiée.L'étude de ces mécanismes est l'objet de cette thèse. Des fibres telles que la gomme de guar (GG) fortement viscosifiante et le fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) très fermentescible ont été administrées, en début de journée, aux souris sous forme de solution à raison de 700 µL et à une dose de 3%, 5% et 14% via un gavage intra-gastrique. Cette étude a montré que les solutions fortement visqueuses, notamment le GG 5% et le mélange GG-FOS 14% étaient les seules capables d'exercer un effet anorexigène à court terme comparées aux solutions moins visqueuses comme l'eau, le GG 3%, le FOS 14% et les solutions de nutriments comme les protéines (peptides de caséine) et les lipides (huile de colza) qui fournissent 10% de l'ingéré calorique quotidien des animaux (1.2 kcal). Pour le cas du mélange visqueux GG-FOS 14%, la baisse de la prise alimentaire est due au rassasiement (réduction de 50% de la taille et de la durée du repas dans les 30 premières minutes post-ingestion). Cette baisse, non compensée jusqu'à la fin de la journée, n'est pas associée à une aversion gustative conditionnée. Ce rassasiement est dû à l'intégration au niveau du centre de contrôle de la taille du repas (NTS), des signaux vagaux de distension gastrique et de la cholecystokinine (CCK). Quand les fibres visqueuses GG 5% et GG-FOS 14% sont mélangées avec des protéines, elles perdent leur effet anorexigène. L'action de les mélanger avec les lipides a par contre montré que seul le mélange visqueux GG-FOS 14% est capable d'exercer un effet anorexigène. L'effet anorexigène du mélange lipide et GG-FOS 14% est dû au niveau de chaque repas aux signaux mécaniques gastriques et CCK vagaux, et à l'axe PYY- système mélanocortique hypothalamique pour le maintien de l'effet sur la journée.En conclusion, les fibres visqueuses sont des nutriments qui peuvent participer au contrôle de la prise alimentaire en stimulant le rassasiement. Elles sont capables de maintenir cet effet en milieu lipidique. Elles pourraient ainsi être ajoutées aux aliments riches en lipides pour mieux contrôler la prise alimentaire et le poids corporel. / The various types of food currently marketed encourage people to eat more, thus leading to weight gain, and reducing food intake has become challenging. To help deal with this, it was shown that dietary fibers decreased food intake and/or feelings of hunger while increasing those of satiety. However, the behavioral, peripheral and central mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are not well known. This study was undertaken in order to characterize these mechanisms. Dietary fibers such as the highly viscous guar gum (GG) and the highly fermentable fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS), in doses of 3%, 5% and 14%, were given to mice by intra-gastric gavage of 700 µL volume. It appeared that highly viscous fibers such as GG 5% and the mixture GG-FOS 14% were able to decrease food intake compared to less viscous preloads such as water, FOS and nutrient solutions (protein solution with casein peptides, lipid solution with rapeseed oil supplying 1.2 kcal or 10% of daily energy intake in mice). Specifically, the mixture GG-FOS 14% induced satiation by reducing the size and duration of meals during the first 30 min post-treatment. This effect was neither compensated for by the end of the day, nor was it associated with conditioned taste aversion. The GG-FOS 14% -induced satiation was due to gastric distension and vagal CCK signaling which were integrated at the level of the NTS, a nucleus controlling meal size. Moreover, mixing GG 5% and GG-FOS 14% with protein abolished their food intake inhibitory effect. In contrast, when mixed with lipid, GG-FOS 14% maintained its anorexigenic effect. The mixture of lipid and GG-FOS 14% stimulated satiation which involved vagal CCK signaling, gastric distension and the NTS. Additionally, the communication between systemic PYY and melanocortic neurons at the level of the hypothalamus was implicated in the anorexigenic effect of this mixtureIn conclusion, viscous dietary fibers can control food intake by stimulating satiation. They are able to maintain their anorexigenic effect in lipid media such that they can be added to foods containing more fat in order to control food intake and body weight.

The results of three very different studies are presented. X-ray diffraction has been utilized for single-crystal structure determinations, fiber diffraction analyses, and in conjunction with molecular modeling of Cellulose IIII. Although each technique is different in its sampling, data acquisition, data treatment, and identification, the common denominator has been the use of x-rays. The single-crystal structure determination of ethylene glycol bis(tropane-3-carboxylate) is presented as an example of the use of modern single-crystal x-ray instrumentation including the use of coupled charged devices (CCDs) as detectors for accurate data collection and rapid elucidation of crystal structures. The structure determination of Cellulose IIII by x-ray diffraction and computer modeling is presented to show how the use of x-rays in weakly diffracting materials can generate a reliable structure and be a key component in model building. Finally, a study is presented in which x-ray fiber diffraction data is utilized to investigate possible correlations between the crystallite orientation, crystallinity, crystallize size and the strength properties of cotton fibers collected from various countries.

We are developing a stable and precise spectrograph for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) named "iLocater." The instrument comprises three principal components: a cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph that operates in the YJ-bands (0.97-1.30 mu m), a fiber-injection acquisition camera system, and a wavelength calibration unit. iLocater will deliver high spectral resolution (R similar to 150,000-240,000) measurements that permit novel studies of stellar and substellar objects in the solar neighborhood including extrasolar planets. Unlike previous planet-finding instruments, which are seeing-limited, iLocater operates at the diffraction limit and uses single mode fibers to eliminate the effects of modal noise entirely. By receiving starlight from two 8.4m diameter telescopes that each use "extreme" adaptive optics (AO), iLocater shows promise to overcome the limitations that prevent existing instruments from generating sub-meter-per-second radial velocity (RV) precision. Although optimized for the characterization of low-mass planets using the Doppler technique, iLocater will also advance areas of research that involve crowded fields, line-blanketing, and weak absorption lines.

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering(Mechanical Engineering 30 January 2017 / An extensive variety of experimental techniques exist to determining residual stresses, but few of these techniques is suitable, however, for finding the residual stresses that exist in orthotropic or anisotropic layered materials, such as carbon-fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP). Among these techniques, particularly among the relaxation techniques, the incremental hole-drilling technique (IHD) has shown to be a suitable technique to be developed for this purpose. This technique was standardized for the case of linear elastic isotropic materials, such as the metallic alloys in general. However, its reliable application to anisotropic and layered materials, such as CFRP materials, needs to be better studied. In particular, accurate calculation methods to determine the residual stresses in these materials based on the measured in-depth strain relaxation curves need to be developed. In this work, existing calculation methods and already proposed theoretical approaches to determine residual stresses in composite laminates by the incremental hole-drilling technique are reviewed. The selected residual stress calculation method is implemented using MATLAB. For these calculations, specific calibration coefficients have to be numerically determined by the finite element method, using the ANSYS software. The developed MATLAB scripts are then validated using an experimental procedure previously developed. This experimental procedure was performed using CFRP specimens, with the stacking sequence [0o, 90o]5s and, therefore, this composite laminate was selected as case study in this work. Some discrepancies between the calculated stresses using the MATLAB scripts and those imposed during the experimental calibration procedure are observed. The errors found could be explained considering the limitations inherent to the incremental hole-drilling technique and the theoretical approach followed. However, the obtained results showed that the incremental hole-drilling can be considered a promising technique for residual stress measurement in composite laminates. / MT2017