Browsing by Subject "storage"
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Item Effect of Seminal Plasma on Equine Sperm Quality: Preparation and Storage Techniques(2013-09-03) Whigham, Alison RThis study had four experimental aims. We investigated whether fresh (unfrozen) or snap-frozen homologous seminal plasma yielded similar sperm quality in cool-stored semen. We compared sperm quality following exposure to homologous versus heterologous seminal plasma. Various freezing methods for long-term storage of seminal plasma were also tested to identify any impacts on longevity of sperm quality. Finally, we adapted a freeze-drying protocol originally developed for human blood plasma for use with stallion seminal plasma with the goal of comparing sperm quality in cooled-stored semen prepared with fresh, frozen/thawed or lyophilized seminal plasma. Prior to the lyophilization study, we evaluated different vials and rubber stoppers to identify the most appropriate storage container for this purpose. Experimental endpoints for sperm quality included percent total motility (TMOT), percent progressive motility (PMOT), curvilinear velocity (VCL; ?m/s), straightness of track trajectory (([straight-line velocity/average-path velocity] x 100); %), percent viable (VIAB), percent acrosome intact (AI), and percentage of sperm with abnormal sperm DNA (COMP; %) Motility values were obtained using a computerized sperm motility analyzer, whereas values for VIAB, AI, and COMP were obtained using a flow cytometer. No significant difference was detected between fresh and frozen/thawed seminal plasma for any experimental endpoint (P>0.05). Sperm from two of three stallions yielded similar values for sperm quality with homologous versus heterologous seminal plasma (P>0.05), whereas PMOT and STR in the remaining stallion were greater in heterologous seminal plasma, as compared to homologous seminal plasma (P<0.05). Various methods for processing and freezing seminal plasma prior to use resulted in only minor differences in sperm quality following cooled storage in extender. Prolonged exposure of sperm to chlorobutyl-isoprene blend rubber stoppers resulted in lower values for TMOT, PMOT, and VCL, as compared to chlorobutyl rubber stoppers or plastic vials (P<0.05); therefore, chlorobutyl stoppers were used in the lyophilization experiment. Lyophilization of seminal plasma resulted in similar values for TMOT, PMOT, VCL, VIAB, AI, and COMP, as compared to fresh or frozen/thawed seminal plasma (P>0.05). Variable STR was slightly lower with lyophilized seminal plasma, as compared to fresh or frozen/thawed seminal plasma (P<0.05).Item Factors influencing antioxidant phytochemical stability of teas(2009-05-15) Kim, YoungmokTea is second only to water as the most consumed beverage in the world due to its health-promoting benefits and characteristic flavor. Even though many botanical teas such as yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) and mamaki (Pipturus albidus) are currently available in the tea market, only limited information is available on their polyphenolic contents containing diverse biological activities. Identification of phenolic compounds was performed using advanced analytical technique of mass spectrometry to provide polyphenolic profile of teas. To present fundamental information of phytochemical stability during tea storage, studies to determine the impacts of tea processing, different packaging materials, and various storage conditions on the phytochemical stability were conducted. Ascorbic acid addition and lowering pH successfully decreased the reduction of phenolic compounds by reducing the rate of oxidative degradation while tea pasteurization accelerated oxidative degradation. Glass bottles were most effective to retain higher concentration of polyphenolics. Tea polyphenolics at lower temperature (3 ?C) without light exposure were higher retained in each tea. Tea cream, the complex formed by interaction between polyphenolics, caffeine, protein, and metal ions, is highly undesirable in tea industry since it causes haziness and cloudiness in tea infusion as well as deteriorates sensorial properties. Only limited information is available on tea creaming in non-fermented type teas such as green tea, yaupon holly, and mamaki even though many tea creaming compounds are present in these teas. Therefore, studies were conducted to determine the degree of contribution of the tea creaming compounds to tea creaming and to develop novel chemical methods to minimize tea creaming without detrimental effects. Methods applied in the present study defined that hydrophobic interaction was the driving force make tea cream insoluble in the solution. Results obtained by present studies provided fundamental and practical information to the tea industry in terms of phytochemical stability and suggested storage stability of phytochemicals should be considered during processing and storage, since it could be better retained or improved by applying appropriate methods.Item Impact of Cotton Harvesting and Storage Methods on Seed and Fiber Quality(2012-02-14) Hamann, Mark ThomasThere are currently two main types of machinery used for harvesting cotton in the United States, cotton pickers and cotton strippers with or without field cleaners. These different machine types package seed cotton with varying amounts of burrs, sticks, and leaves. Harvested cotton is placed in modules for storage prior to ginning. Recent developments in the industry include on-board module builders that package seed cotton as they harvest. This leads to three methods of storage: 1) traditional seed cotton modules, 2) half-modules, and 3) round modules utilized by harvesters with on-board module builders; all of these have different levels of packaging density. Cotton is harvested under widely varying conditions throughout the country and the moisture content of seed cotton at the point of containerization can be an important factor in the final quality of the crop. Seed cotton is being stored for increasing periods of time before being processed by cotton gins. The number of cotton gins in the U.S. has decreased while the production of cotton has increased. All cotton is harvested as it matures and the harvesting rate greatly exceeds the ginning rate. As a consequence of fewer gins, increased harvesting rates and increased quantities of cotton, the storage time of seed cotton prior to ginning has increased. It is hypothesized that the impact of varying densities, varying trash contents, and increased storage times prior to ginning is impacting the quality of the cotton lint and seed. The goal of this research is to quantify the impacts of these factors. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effects of packaging seed cotton from any of the three different harvesting methods into varying types of storage as a function of differing moisture content and increased storage time. Results are indicated in terms of quality of both the fiber and the seed of ginned samples, as well as how the quality changes affect the value of the processed cotton. Samples of seed cotton are sealed in plastic containers for up to three months at varying levels of moisture, density, and trash content. Temperature and oxygen levels are monitored during storage. Samples are ginned and cottonseed and fiber are analyzed. The results of this research indicate that density does not affect the final quality of the lint and seed harvested. Increased moisture contents have a negative effect on both the quality and the value of the seed cotton, and this effect becomes more pronounced as the length of storage increases.Item Integration of Non-volatile Memory into Storage Hierarchy(2013-12-04) Qiu, ShengIn this dissertation, we present novel approaches for integrating non-volatile memory devices into storage hierarchy of a computer system. There are several types of non- volatile memory devices, such as flash memory, Phase Change Memory (PCM), Spin- transfer torque memory (STT-RAM). These devices have many appealing features for applications; however, they also offer several challenges. This dissertation is focused on how to efficiently integrate these non-volatile memories into existing memory and disk storage systems. This work is composed of two major parts. The first part investigates a main-memory system employing Phase Change Memory instead of traditional DRAM. Compared to DRAM, PCM has higher density and no static power consumption, which are very important factors for building large capacity memory systems. However, PCM has higher write latency and power consumption compared to read operations. Moreover, PCM has limited write endurance. To efficiently integrate PCM into a memory system, we have to solve the challenges brought by its expensive write operations. We propose new replacement policies and cache organizations for the last-level CPU cache, which can effectively reduce the write traffic to the PCM main memory. We evaluated our design with multiple workloads and configurations. The results show that the proposed approaches improve the lifetime and energy consumption of PCM significantly. The second part of the dissertation considers the design of a data/disk storage using non-volatile memories, e.g. flash memory, PCM and nonvolatile DIMMs. We consider multiple design options for utilizing the nonvolatile memories in the storage hierarchy. First, we consider a system that employs nonvolatile memories such as PCM or nonvolatile DIMMs on memory bus along with flash-based SSDs. We propose a hybrid file system, NVMFS, that manages both these devices. NVMFS exploits the nonvolatile memory to improve the characteristics of the write workload at the SSD. We satisfy most small random write requests on the fast nonvolatile DIMM and only do large and optimized writes on SSD. We also group data of similar update patterns together before writing to flash-SSD; as a result, we can effectively reduce the garbage collection overhead. We implemented a prototype of NVMFS in Linux and evaluated its performance through multiple benchmarks. Secondly, we consider the problem of using flash memory as a cache for a disk drive based storage system. Since SSDs are expensive, a few SSDs are designed to serve as a cache for a large number of disk drives. SSD cache space can be used for both read and write requests. In our design, we managed multiple flash-SSD devices directly at the cache layer without the help of RAID software. To ensure data reliability and cache space efficiency, we only duplicated dirty data on flash- SSDs. We also balanced the write endurance of different flash-SSDs. As a result, no single SSD will fail much earlier than the others. Thirdly, when using PCM-like devices only as data storage, it?s possible to exploit memory management hardware resources to improve file system performance. However, in this case, PCM may share critical system resources such as the TLB, page table with DRAM which can potentially impact PCM?s performance. To solve this problem, we proposed to employ superpages to reduce the pressure on memory management resources. As a result, the file system performance is further improved.Item Modeling and Optimization of a Bioethanol Production Facility(2011-10-21) Gabriel, Kerron JudeThe primary objective of this work is to identify the optimal bioethanol production plant capacity and configuration based on currently available technology for all the processing sections involved. To effect this study, a systematic method is utilized which involves the development of a superstructure for the overall technology selection, process simulation and model regression of each processing step as well as equipment costing and overall economic evaluation. The developed optimization model is also designed to incorporate various biomass feedstocks as well as realistic maximum equipment sizing thereby ensuring pragmatism of the work. For this study, the criterion for optimization is minimum ethanol price. The secondary and more interesting aim of this work was to develop a systematic method for evaluating the economics of biomass storage due to seasonal availabilities. In essence, a mathematical model was developed to link seasonal availabilities with plant capacity with subsequent integration into the original model developed. Similarly, the criterion for optimization is minimum ethanol price. The results of this work reveal that the optimal bioethanol production plant capacity is ~2800 MT biomass/day utilizing Ammonia Fiber Explosion pretreatment technology and corn stover as the preferred biomass feedstock. This configuration provides a minimum ethanol price of $1.96/gal. Results also show that this optimal pretreatment choice has a relatively high sensitivity to chemical cost thereby increasing the risk of implementation. Secondary to this optimal selection was lime pretreatment using switchgrass which showed a fairly stable sensitivity to market chemical cost. For the storage economics evaluation, results indicated that biomass storage is not economical beyond a plant capacity of ~98 MMgal/yr with an average biomass shortage period of 3 months. The study also showed that for storage to be economical at all plant capacities, the storage scheme employed should be general open air land use with a corresponding biomass loss rate as defined in the study of 0.5 percent per month.Item System Design and Optimization of CO2 Storage in Deep Saline Aquifers(2012-02-14) Shamshiri, HosseinOptimization of waterflooding sweep efficiency has been widely applied in reservoir engineering to improve hydrocarbon recovery while delaying water breakthrough and minimizing the bypassed oil in reservoirs. We develop a new framework to optimize flooding sweep efficiency in geologic formations with heterogeneous properties and demonstrate its application to waterflooding and geological CO2 sequestration problems. The new method focuses on equalizing and delaying (under constant total injected volume) the breakthrough time of the injected fluid at production wells. For application to CO2 sequestration where producers may not be present, we introduce the concept of pseudo production wells that have insignificant production rates (with negligible effect on the overall flow regime) for quantification of hypothetical breakthrough curves that can be used for optimization purpose. We apply the new method to waterflooding and CO2 sequestration optimization using two heterogeneous reservoir models. We show that in water flooding experiments, the proposed method improves the sweep efficiency by delaying the field breakthrough and equalizing breakthrough times in all production wells. In this case, the optimization results in increased oil recovery and decreased water production. We apply a modified version of the proposed algorithm to geologic CO2 sequestration problems to maximize the storage capacity of aquifers by enhancing the residual and dissolution trapping. The results from applying the proposed approach to optimization of geologic CO2 storage problems illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in improving residual and solubility trapping by increasing the contact between available fresh brine and the injected CO2 plume through a more uniform distribution of CO2 in the aquifer.