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Engineering The Optical Properties Of Gold Nanostructures For Biomedical Applications, Leslie Au
Engineering The Optical Properties Of Gold Nanostructures For Biomedical Applications, Leslie Au
All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)
This research investigated the synthesis and optical properties of Au nanostructures with an aim to use them as imaging agents and photothermal transducers for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. I have produced Au nanocages with hollow interiors and porous walls using the galvanic replacement reaction between Ag nanocubes and AuCl4-. I have engineered these Au nanocages to have localized surface plasmon resonance: LSPR) peaks in the near-infrared region with strong absorption. These optical properties allow for the imaging of biological tissues at deeper penetration and the photoablation of cancer. By replacing AuCl4- with AuCl2 …
Essays On The Role Of Law In Judicial Decision Making, Ryan Black
Essays On The Role Of Law In Judicial Decision Making, Ryan Black
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Forty years ago C. Herman Prichett: 1969) observed that "[P]olitical scientists who have done so much to put the `political' in `political jurisprudence' need to emphasize that it is still `jurisprudence.'" In this dissertation project I seek to help correct this imbalance by providing three fresh approaches to understanding how legal factors influence the choices judges and justices make. Essay 1 focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court's agenda setting decisions. Drawing from the archival papers of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, I analyze the extent to which considerations such as legal conflict among the circuit courts motivate justices to deviate from …
Placing Federal District Courts In The Judicial Hierarchy, Christina Boyd
Placing Federal District Courts In The Judicial Hierarchy, Christina Boyd
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Over forty years after Richardson and Vines: 1967) complained that federal courts have seldom been investigated as a system of interactions," the same problem continues to plague judicial scholarship, particularly concerning federal district courts. Viewed as the sum of its three essays, this dissertation project seeks to remedy this deficit. The project relies on the collection and coding of thousands of case dockets, opinions, and other court documents across multiple years: 2000-2006 for essay 1, 2000-2004 for essays 2 and 3), nearly 30 district courts, and numerous issues areas that together account for about 40 percent of federal district court …
Mechanisms Of Feedback In The Visual System, Adam Eggebrecht
Mechanisms Of Feedback In The Visual System, Adam Eggebrecht
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Feedback is an ubiquitous feature of neural systems though there is little consensus on the roles of mechanisms involved with feedback. We set up an in vivo preparation to study and characterize an accessible and isolated feedback loop within the visual system of the leopard frog, Rana pipiens. We recorded extracellularly within the nucleus isthmi, a nucleus providing direct topographic feedback to the optic tectum, a nucleus that receives the vast majority of retinal output. The optic tectum and nucleus isthmi of the amphibian are homologous structures to the superior colliculus and parabigeminal nucleus in mammals, respectively. We formulated a …
Advances In Computational Solvation Thermodynamics, Matthew Wyczalkowski
Advances In Computational Solvation Thermodynamics, Matthew Wyczalkowski
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The aim of this thesis is to develop improved methods for calculating the free energy, entropy and enthalpy of solvation from molecular simulations. Solvation thermodynamics of model compounds provides quantitative measurements used to analyze the stability of protein conformations in aqueous milieus. Solvation free energies govern the favorability of the solvation process, while entropy and enthalpy decompositions give insight into the molecular mechanisms by which the process occurs. Computationally, a coupling parameter λ modulates solute-solvent interactions to simulate an insertion process, and multiple lengthy simulations at a fixed λ value are typically required for free energy calculations to converge; entropy …
Solar Wind Helium, Neon, And Argon In Genesis Aluminum Collectors, Jennifer Mabry
Solar Wind Helium, Neon, And Argon In Genesis Aluminum Collectors, Jennifer Mabry
All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)
The Genesis mission collected samples of solar wind: SW) for 853 days and returned them to Earth for analysis. There are several processes that have the potential to significantly alter the composition between the time when SW ions are accelerated away from the sun, to the time the laboratory measurements are made. This work attempts to constrain these sources of fractionation and present the best estimate of the isotopic composition of SW helium, neon, and argon implanted into two different aluminum SW collectors on board the Genesis Mission. We have conducted a diffusion experiment on a similar time scale as …
Optical Measurements In Gas-Liquid Stirred Tanks, Sean Mueller
Optical Measurements In Gas-Liquid Stirred Tanks, Sean Mueller
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This dissertation outlines the development of novel, in-situ and relatively inexpensive optical measurement techniques for use in opaque multiphase reactors at elevated temperature: 350 ┬░C) and pressure: 180 bar) environments where conventional measurement techniques either cannot be used or are difficult or expensive to implement. Important parameters: such as gas holdup, specific interfacial area, bubble velocity, bubble chord lengths, liquid level, and phase transition) in opaque, multiphase reactors at industrially relevant conditions are lacking in the literature. A miniaturized 4-point probe is developed and methodology outlined that can simultaneously capture local gas holdup, interfacial area, size, and velocities of bubbles …
Mandeville's Intolerance: The Contest For Souls And Sacred Sites In The Travels Of Sir John Mandeville, Robert Patterson
Mandeville's Intolerance: The Contest For Souls And Sacred Sites In The Travels Of Sir John Mandeville, Robert Patterson
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As the first medieval text to combine the matter of the East with the matter of the Holy Land, The Travels circulated widely in over 300 manuscripts, making it an important text when studying medieval Christian attitudes toward non-Christians. Although many scholars point to The Travels as a tolerant text ahead of its time, a historicized approach reveals that Mandeville's project is better understood in terms of his intolerant universalism. I argue that in casting non-Christians as proto-Christians who stand as evidence of Christianity's global spiritual hegemony, the author appropriates and consumes them in service of his universalist agenda. I …
Computational And Experimental Investigation Of Allosteric Communication In The Transcriptional Regulator Nikr, Michael Bradley
Computational And Experimental Investigation Of Allosteric Communication In The Transcriptional Regulator Nikr, Michael Bradley
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The Ni2+ and DNA binding protein NikR is involved in nickel regulation in Escherichia coli through transcriptional repression of the NikABCDE nickel permease. NikR is a homotetramer and each chain contains both a DNA binding ribbon-helix-helix: RHH) domain and a Ni2+ binding regulatory ACT: aspartokinase, chorismate mutase, TyrA) fold. Work herein combines computational modeling of NikR structure with experimental studies aimed at understanding allosteric communication between the ACT and RHH domains. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry shows a Ni2+ specific NikR conformational change relative to bound Cu2+, Co2+, and Zn2+. Concurrent coordination geometry and in vivo repressor function studies show that …
Targeting The Dimerization Of Erbb Receptor Tyrosine Kinases, Rob Yang
Targeting The Dimerization Of Erbb Receptor Tyrosine Kinases, Rob Yang
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The epidermal growth factor receptor: EGFR) is a membrane receptor tyrosine kinase whose over-activation has been implicated to cause many human cancers. Novel strategies to inhibit the activation of EGF receptors other than the conventional antibody-based and tyrosine kinase inhibitors are virtually non-existent but could provide benefits both in the laboratory and clinical settings. In an effort to expand the current approaches, this thesis focused on targeting the homodimerization of the EGF receptors themselves and the heterodimerization of EGF receptors with the related ErbB2 receptor. Three sub-projects were completed in the process. The first project explored the feasibility of inhibiting …
Runx1 In Primitive Hematopoiesis And Characterization Of Hematopoietic Stem Cells In A Mouse Chronic Inflammatory Arthritis Model, Yunglin Ma
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Hematopoietic cells are essential for growth and survival throughout adult life. Two different aspects of hematopoiesis are addressed in this dissertation. I. The regulation of primitive hematopoiesis by Runx1 and TGF-beta signaling. Primitive hematopoiesis, occurring exclusively in the yolk sac, is characterized by its transient nature. As the primitive hematopoiesis declines in the yolk sac, definitive hematopoietic progenitors generated in the yolk sac and/or embryo take over in blood cell production. Whether the transition from primitive to definitive hematopoietic program reflects a mere shift in hematopoietic sites or whether it is an actively regulated process is currently unknown. Runx1 is …
Subunit Compositions Of Arabidopsis Dna-Dependent Rna Polymerases And The Roles Of The Plant-Specific Rna Polymerases Iv And V In Gene Silencing, Thomas Ream
All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)
In addition to RNA polymerases I, II and III, the essential RNA polymerases present in all eukaryotes, plants have two additional nuclear RNA polymerases, abbreviated as Pol IV and Pol V, that play non-redundant roles in siRNA-directed DNA methylation and gene silencing. Using a combination of affinity purification and protein identification by mass spectrometry, my studies show that Arabidopsis Pol IV and Pol V are composed of subunits that are paralogous or identical to the twelve subunits of Pol II. Four subunits of Pol IV are distinct from their Pol II paralogs, six subunits of Pol V are distinct from …