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Atpase Regulation In The Maltose Transporter, Alister D. Gould

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigates the mechanism of activity-coupling in the maltose transporter of Escherichia coli (MalFGK₂); the way ATP hydrolysis is prevented in the absence of maltose, and then enabled to drive maltose transport. Like other ATP binding cassette importers, MalFGK₂ requires substrate to be presented by a peripheral substrate-binding protein, in this case the maltose binding protein (MBP). MBP predominantly adopts an ‘open’ resting state, but undergoes a rotation of its two domains to a ‘closed’ state after maltose binding. In the closed state MBP is able to activate MalFGK₂ to stimulate ATP hydrolysis and maltose …

Nanoplasmonic Sensors Based On Periodic Arrays Of Gold Nanoparticles, Hao Jiang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Nanoplasmonic sensors use the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of metal nanostructures to sense the refractive index change in a surface-bound layer caused by biomolecular interactions or changing chemical environment. In this thesis, four types of sensor configurations based on gold nanoparticle arrays are thoroughly investigated.

The first configuration is a periodic array of gold nanoparticles excited by the evanescent field of an optical waveguide mode. Since light carried by a waveguide mode propagates along the same plane of the periodicities, the coupling of nanoparticles are strongly affected by the photonic crystal lattice. This configuration is investigated both in simulations …

Molecular Dynamics Studies Of Interactions Of Phospholipid Membranes With Dehydroergosterol And Penetrating Peptides, Amir Mohsen Pourmousa Abkenar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We have performed molecular modeling of membrane and peptide systems by employing the classical molecular dynamics method and force field parameterizations. In this thesis, our main interest is the interaction of sterols as well as peptides with membranes. The thesis consists of three related projects. The first project focuses on cholesterol (CHOL) and dehydroergosterol (DHE) interacting with palmitoyl-oleoyl phosphatidylcholine (POPC) lipid bilayers. We study the effects of both sterols on the bilayer and compare them with each other. We first study the condensing and ordering effect of these sterols. Then, we study their orientations within the bilayer and relate them …

Touching Bodies/Bodies Touching: The Ethics Of Touch In Victorian Literature (1860-1900), Ann M.C. Gagne

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tactility becomes a marked preoccupation in mid-Victorian literature. The description of how characters touch one another and negotiate their surroundings through tactility reinforces the ethics of intersubjectivity in Victorian England. I argue that touch becomes representative of embodied experience in Victorian literature. As well, touch goes beyond the explicit moral taxonomies found in etiquette books to provide implicit guiding principles for the negotiation of both the public and the private. The Contagious Diseases Acts (CDAs) serve as a point of departure for an analysis of tactility in Victorian literature for the CDAs emphasized and reinforced the importance of legislating touch. …

The Effects Of Leg Length Discrepancy On Gait And Balance, Colin E. Dombroski

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Leg length discrepancy is a condition shown to affect 25-70% of the general population. The ubiquitous nature of leg length discrepancy can prove frustrating to many clinicians, particularly due to lack of consensus surrounding the amount of discrepancy that necessitates treatment.

The present research is intended to address the uncertainty surrounding diagnostic and treatment thresholds, through three related studies. In the first study, leg length discrepancy was manipulated in a sample of 15 healthy young adults, using a novel heel-to-toe lift (creating discrepancies of 5mm, 20mm, and 30mm), and the effects of this new discrepancy was observed on the spatial-temporal …

Effects Of Internals Configurations On Heat Transfer And Hydrodynamics In Bubble Columns - With And Without Solid Particles, Anil Kumar Jhawar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Internals of different types are required in a number of industrial applications of bubble columns to achieve the desired mixing or to remove the heat of reaction to maintain desired temperature and isothermal conditions of operation. Some of these applications include Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, methanol synthesis, and production of dimethyl ether (DME). The presence of internals however can alter the column hydrodynamics and mixing patterns which could influence reactor performance. A fast response probe capable of capturing bubble dynamics, as well as detecting flow direction is used to study the effect of internals on local heat transfer and column hydrodynamics in …

Study Of Malaria Transmission Dynamics By Mathematical Models, Yanyu Xiao

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This Ph.D thesis focuses on modeling transmission and dispersal of one of the most common infectious disease, Malaria. Firstly, an integro-differential equation system is derived, based on the classical Ross-Macdonald model, toemphasize the impacts of latencies on disease dynamics. The novelty lies in the fact that different distributionfunctions are used to describe the variance of individual latencies. The theoretical results of this projectindicate that latencies reduce the basic reproduction number. Secondly, a patch model is derived to examine how travels of human beings affects the transmission and spread of Malaria. Due to coexistence of latency and dispersal, the model turns …

Thermal Plume Transport From Sand And Gravel Pits Potential Thermal Impacts On Cool-Water Streams, Jeffrey M. Markle

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Potential thermal impacts from below-water-table aggregate extraction on a cool-water stream were investigated by monitoring thermal plumes, moving through an unconfined glacial-outwash aquifer, and assessing their subsurface persistence. The growing demand for aggregate and increased pressure to pursue extraction in ecologically sensitive areas has driven the need for this work. During a 10-year period, ground and surface water temperatures were measured monthly, including two periods of intensive monitoring (22 months and 2.5 years). The aquifer hydraulic conductivity (K) is quantified at the laboratory and field scale. The mean K’s from the multi-scale tests depend on test-support volume and …

Understanding The Roles Of Physiotherapists Within Ontario Primary Health Care Teams: A Mixed Methods Inquiry, Sinead P. Dufour

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A mixed methods program of research was undertaken in order to better understand the roles of physiotherapists within Ontario primary health care (PHC) teams. A profile of Ontario PHC teams (Family Health Teams and Community Health Centres) was generated to determine the complement of providers and provision of health programming within each PHC team. This first study provided an important contextual backdrop as well as a means to purposefully sample participants for the two following studies. The second study used qualitative descriptive method to explore the perceptions of family physicians and nurse practitioners related to the inclusion of physiotherapists (PTs) …

The Vatican, American Catholics And The Struggle For Palestine, 1917-1958: A Study Of Cold War Roman Catholic Transnationalism, Adriano E. Ciani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The modern relationship between the Vatican and the state of Israel is rooted in a much deeper history of relations between Judaism and Christianity. In the main, this relationship was fraught with tensions and animosity, as early Christian writers chastised and demonized Judaism, ensconcing a hostility that endured for centuries. The advent of political Zionism in the nineteenth century renewed Roman Catholic fears of a Jewish-dominated Palestine, where religious sites sacred to Catholics would fall under the political jurisdiction of a Zionist state. In 1904, Pope Pius X granted an audience to the prominent Zionist Theodor Herzl, in which he …

Planning, Implementation, And Formative Evaluation Of A Food Literacy Program, Heather M. Thomas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The overall purpose of this dissertation was to examine the planning, implementation, and formative evaluation of a community-based food literacy program for youth. Article 1 provided a summary of the community-based cooking program for at-risk youth. Objectives included the provision of applied food literacy and cooking skills education augmented with fieldtrips to local farms. Eight at-risk youth (five girls and three boys, mean age = 14.6) completed the intervention. Post intervention, five of eight participants completed in-depth interviews about their experiences.

Article 2 was a formative evaluation of the cooking program focused on gaining an understanding of participants’ (i.e., at-risk …

Quantum Coherence And Interference In Metallic Photonic Crystals And Hybrid Systems, Ali Hatef

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the first part of the thesis, we study the absorption coefficient of quantum dots doped in metallic photonic crystals under different circumferences. We study numerically the temporal evolution of the absorption coefficient profile where a probe field is applied to monitor the absorption process in two cases, when quantum dots are embedded lightly and densely. We also studied the effect of a changing plasma frequency on the absorption profile of quantum dots two possible field configurations. We show that the changes in plasma energy can take the system from the absorption region to the transparent and gain region.

As …

"Aren't They Keen?" Early Children's Food Advertising And The Emergence Of The Brand-Loyal Child Consumer, Kyle R. Asquith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines how American food advertisers approached children in the early twentieth century and how this conceptualization changed during a critical juncture that lasted from approximately 1928 until 1945. Prior to the late 1920s, national advertisers acknowledged children as “consumers” (that is to say, eaters) of food and celebrated their idyllic innocence; however, advertisers rarely addressed children as active participants in the consumer marketplace. This perspective changed due to new commercial media platforms, such as radio and comic strips, as well as changing attitudes within the business community. By the 1930s, food advertisers began to communicate with children as …

A Collection Of Portfolio Management Issues, Mike Mccausland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis consists of three chapters of interest to a portfolio manager. The first paper examines how the profitability of trading rules depends on volatility. In particular, a question of interest is whether one rule dominates all others regardless of the level of volatility, or whether it is more profitable to vary the choice of trading rule corresponding to volatility. Certain rules, such as the KST indicator using overbought/oversold levels, appear to excel under highly volatile conditions, while exponential moving average rules perform better with low volatility. In the second paper, a Value-at-Risk (VaR) model capable of producing accurate and …

Development Of Novel Nanomaterials For High-Performance And Low-Cost Fuel Cell Applications, Shuhui Sun

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are promising energy converting technologies to generate electricity by mainly using hydrogen as a fuel, producing water as the only exhaust. However, short life-time and high cost of Pt catalyst are the main obstacles for the commercialization of PEMFCs. In the conventional carbon black supported platinum nanoparticle (NP) commercial catalyst, carbon supports are prone to oxidation and corrosion over time that results in Pt NPs migration, coalescence, even detaching from the catalyst support. In addition, Ostwald ripening of the Pt NPs could also occur due to their high surface energy and zero dimensional structural …

Fault Location And Incipient Fault Detection In Distribution Cables, Zhihan Xu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A set of fault location algorithms for underground medium voltage cables, two incipient fault detection schemes for distribution cables and a state estimation method for underground distribution networks are developed in this thesis.

Two schemes are designed to detect and classify incipient faults in underground distribution cables. Based on the methodology of wavelet analysis, one scheme is to detect the fault-induced transients, and therefore identify the incipient faults. Based on the analysis of the superimposed fault current and negative sequence current in time domain, the other scheme is particularly suitable to detect the single-line-to-ground incipient faults, which are mostly occurring …

Overwintering Energetics Of Lepidoptera: The Effects Of Winter Warming And Thermal Variability., Caroline M. Williams

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Winter temperatures are changing rapidly, and although winter warming reduces cold stress for overwintering ectotherms, temperature-mediated increases in metabolic rate can decrease fitness in dormant insects by increasing consumption of energy reserves. Increases in thermal variability also increase energetic demands, due to non-linear thermal response curves. My objective was to quantify the negative effects of winter warming and increases in thermal variability on a range of Lepidopteran species. As overwintering insects rely on lipid catabolism, accurate lipid measurement is central to my dissertation; so I first compared four methods of lipid quantification; concluding thin layer chromatography was the only method …

Rethinking Justice In Transitional Justice: An Examination Of The Mãori Conception And Customary Mechanism Of Justice, Stephanie Vieille

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a relatively young field of academic inquiry, the transitional justice scholarship presents some important difficulties, not least of which is its lack of critical evaluation of the approaches to justice it adopts and promotes. This research argues that the framework used in the transitional justice scholarship is ill-suited to account for, and to think about, the philosophy of justice embodied in customary mechanisms of justice. It explains that the type of “justice” embodied in customary mechanisms of justice is difficult to appreciate by using the retributive, reparative, and the restorative approaches. These Western, individualistic and legally based approaches are …

Investigations Of Transesterification Of Canola Oil With Methanol And Ethanol For A New Efficient Method Of Biodiesel Production, Krupal Pal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Transesterification of vegetable oil to biodiesel is a multistep process affected by mass transfer, mixing and chemical reaction equilibrium. Attempts have been made in this study to overcome these limitations by gradually feeding oil into a pool of alcohol. This approach provided large excess of alcohol to allow reaction to proceed further as well as allowed easy dispersion of oil into the alcohol. As a result improved conversion of feed, higher yield and better product quality were achieved. Comparisons have been made with other methods to show the differences and highlight improvements. Reactions were conducted at various reaction conditions for …

High Power Systems For Dynamic Field Control And Shielding In The Mr Environment, Dustin W. Haw

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis addresses several aspects of gradient and shim coil design and fabrication. New design techniques are coupled with experimental construction methods to expand small animal insert gradient and shim technology. The design techniques are also applied to other areas of magnetic resonance hardware.

A custom 2-axis gradient insert coil is designed and fabricated for the purpose of eddy current characterization. The construction tolerances were examined via bench top inductance measurements and eddy currents measurement inside a 7.0 T head-only MR system. A great deal of freedom is available when positioning shielding coils with respect to their corresponding primary coils …

Development Of A Cohesion Inventory For Children's Sport Teams, Luc J. Martin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The general purpose of this dissertation was to develop an inventory designed to measure cohesion in children’s (ages 9-12) sport teams. To this end, three studies were conducted. In Study 1, children became active agents in the process of test construction. More specifically, children (N = 167) participated in focus groups and completed open-ended questionnaires in order to provide information on their perceptions of cohesion as well as motives for participating, continuing, and ceasing involvement on sport teams. Study 2 involved the use of the information obtained from Study 1 to develop potential items for the questionnaire. In addition, the …

Vulnerability Of Adolescents To Hiv/Aids In Malawi, Paul Mkandawire

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis aims at examining vulnerability to HIV/AIDS among adolescents in Malawi. The study uses mixed methods that combine quantitative and qualitative techniques in order to better understand whether there are significant variations in the pattern of sexual behaviour between adolescent orphans and non-orphans. Results of a quantitative analysis (n=1214) revealed that orphans are less likely to undertake voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV/AIDS, that they tend to experience their first sexual intercourse earlier in life, and that they are generally more likely to engage in high risk sexual behavior than non-orphans. In addition, female orphans in particularly are …

Morpho-Physiological Analysis Of Interneuronal Populations In The Rat Piriform Cortex Before And After Kindling Induced Epilepsy, Cezar Gavrilovici

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The piriform cortex (PC) is involved in olfactory sensory processing, associative learning tasks and is highly seizurogenic. Understanding how interneurons participate in these behaviours, especially their contribution in epileptogenic mechanisms, is hampered by an incomplete understanding of their functional and morphological diversity. The hypothesis in this work is that kindling-induced epilepsy alters the firing properties of PC interneuronal populations. Altered/impaired interneuronal firing could lead to abnormal processing in the PC and epileptogenesis. Therefore it was important to first identify and describe interneuronal morpho-functional properties in the unkindled brain and then to assess the electrophysiological parameters following kindling.

Based on interneuronal …

Fatigue And Mobility Post-Stroke, Svetlana Knorr

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Fatigue post-stroke is a disabling and persistent symptom affecting many stroke survivors. Despite its high prevalence, the pathophysiology underlying this phenomenon remains obscure. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to study the neuromuscular basis underlying fatigue post-stroke and its association with self-reported fatigue and with the performance of tasks incorporating balance and mobility components.

Community-dwelling stroke survivors who had mild to moderate deficits in functional balance and mobility participated in a series of investigations. Chapter 2 describes the initial validation of the Community Balance and Mobility (CB&M) scale for use in persons with chronic stroke. Chapter 3 reported the …

Structure And Dynamics Of The Membrane Protein Bacteriorhodopsin Studied By Mass Spectrometry, Yan Pan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Membrane proteins continue to represent a major challenge for most analytical techniques. Using bacteriorhodopsin (BR) as model system, this work aims to develop mass spectrometry (MS)-based approaches for exploring the structure, dynamics and folding of membrane proteins.

As the first step, BR in its native lipid environment was exposed to hydroxyl radicals, which were produced by laser photolysis of hydrogen peroxide. It was found that the resulting methionine (Met) labeling pattern was consistent with the known BR structure. This finding demonstrates that laser-induced oxidative Met labeling can provide structural information on membrane proteins. In subsequent experiments, the effects of different …

The Other Sides Of Billy Joel: Six Case Studies Revealing The Sociologist, The Balladeer, And The Historian, A. Morgan Jones

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The failure of music critics to recognize Billy Joel’s tendency towards writing songs about issues greater than himself, issues such as the Vietnam War, the Cold War, struggling American industries and the effect of mass media on popular culture, particularly on two albums, The Nylon Curtain and Storm Front, has led to a pronounced lacuna in serious scholarship on Joel and his music. Relegated to adult contemporary radio stations due to the success of romantic pop ballads such as “Just the Way You Are,” “She’s Always a Woman” and “Uptown Girl,” and derided as a drunken egomaniac by many …

The Effect Of Biomechanical And Biochemical Factors On Endothelial Cells: Relevance To Atherosclerosis, Qiuquan Guo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Microscale technologies create great opportunities for biologists to unveil cellular or molecular mechanisms of complex biological processes. Advanced measuring techniques, like atomic force microscope (AFM), allow detecting and controlling biological samples at high spatial and temporal resolution. Further integration with microsystems, such as microfluidic platforms, gives the ability to get detailed insight into basic biological phenomena. Highly integrated microdevices show great promise for biomedical research and potential clinical applications.

It is hypothesized that biomechanical factors play a significant role in the development of vascular diseases like atherosclerosis. To explore effects of biomechanical and biochemical stimuli on endothelial cells (ECs), AFM, …

The Moderating Effect Of Reciprocity Beliefs On Work Outcomes, Stephanie Hastings

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Researchers have long assumed that employees’ reactions to treatment by their organization are guided by reciprocity norms. Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, and Sowa (1986) developed a measure to assess how sensitive employees were to reciprocity obligations, focusing in particular on their beliefs that work effort should depend on treatment by the organization. Since then, research has found that this Exchange Ideology (EI) predicts variables such as organizational citizenship but cannot predict negative outcomes such as workplace deviance. Insight into why this is the case can be found by examining the related construct of reciprocity orientation. Positive (PRO) and Negative Reciprocity Orientation …

Corporeal Returns: Theatrical Embodiment And Spectator Response In Early Modern Drama, Caroline R. Lamb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Taking its cue from the many Renaissance playwrights who emphasized their spectators’ participation, this dissertation develops a model of audience response based on what texts from the period reveal about early modern spectators’ active engagements with staged bodies and stage space. Discussing plays by Shakespeare, Peele, Beaumont, Marston, Ford, Middleton, and Tourneur, I establish an analytical arc that travels gradually deeper into the body, moving from performances that depict the superficial violation of the body to those that represent its violent penetration onstage, thereby encouraging spectators to contemplate the body’s physiological recesses. Early modern anatomical science and its exploration of …

Immediacy And Aesthetic Remediation In Television And Digital Media: Mass Media’S Challenge To The Democratization Of Media Production, Michael S. Daubs

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation, Immediacy and Aesthetic Remediation in Television and Digital Media: Mass Media’s Challenge to the Democratization of Media Production, analyzes North American television’s aesthetic remediation of user-produced media forms. I argue that the use of the aesthetics of user-produced media in television production is more indicative of the television industry’s hegemonic influence over cultural creation and discourse than of the democratization of media production. It includes a semiotic analysis of television and user-produced reality-based media such as television news, citizen journalism, video blogs, and reality programming. This is followed by another case study on animation centering on television’s …