Digital Commons Network^™

Lipid-Based Self-Assembled Nps: The Effects Of Morphology And Targeting Molecules On The Cellular Uptake Using In Vitro Tumor Model, Wafa Aresh

Doctoral Dissertations

While the usage of nanoscale materials for therapeutics and diagnostics is growing rapidly, there remain many challenges to understanding the expected controlling parameters (e.g., size, shape and chemical properties) that significantly affect the performance of the nanomaterials due to complicated in vivo environments. Therefore, a strong interest in the knowledge of the nano–biointeractions and how they contribute to tissue accumulation has been developed. To date, researchers have relied on monolayer cell cultures and animal models to study such nano–biointeractions. However, currently, there is a big gap between the result of the over-simplified in vitro cell response and the complex animal …

The Role Of One-Carbon Metabolism In The Development And Prevention Of Colorectal Cancer, Matthew P. Hanley

Doctoral Dissertations

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 3^rd most common form of cancer in the United States, and the 2^nd most common cause of cancer-related death. CRC incidence has declined over the past several decades, however, there is a continued need for improved methods of CRC detection and prevention. Methyl group homeostasis, which is dysregulated in CRC and impacts several fundamental biological processes, represents a promising target for novel CRC detection and prevention strategies. DNA methylation is influenced by methyl group homeostasis and is known to be frequently dysregulated in CRC. However, less is known about the extent of aberrant …

Robert Ward’S The Crucible: Politics And Personal Relationships In An Operatic Adaptation, Ryan F. Burns

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Robert Ward’s The Crucible:

Politics and Personal Relationships in an Operatic Adaptation

Ryan Francis Burns, DMA

University of Connecticut, 2017

American composer, Robert Eugene Ward (1917-2013), made a significant contribution to the world of musical composition. His most enduring legacy is likely to remain his award-winning operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which premiered in 1961 by the New York City Opera. In politics, the personal can often be secondary, but for Ward’s opera, with political content at its very core, it is essential. By analyzing John Proctor’s relationship with his wife, Elizabeth, and his former …

Influence Of Mutation Frequency On Mutation Profile In Colon Cancer, Michael J. Gooch

Doctoral Dissertations

Archival abstract submitted

Sorption And Metabolism Of Explosives In Sediment Of Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Thivanka S. Ariyarathna

Doctoral Dissertations

The lack of knowledge on fate and transport of explosive compounds, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) in marine ecosystems limits the ability to predict toxicological impacts and natural attenuation of these suspected carcinogens in contaminated coastal sites. This study focuses on improving our understanding of the sorption and transformation of TNT and RDX in coastal ecosystems by using stable nitrogen isotopes.

Abiotic and biotic bench-top experiments using sediment slurries evaluated sorption kinetics and anaerobic biotransformation. Marine silt showed higher compound-uptake rates (> ~100) than freshwater silt for both compounds though equilibrium partition constants (Kp’s) were on the same order of …

Design And Synthesis Of Next Generation Propargyl-Linked Antifolates, Eric Scocchera

Doctoral Dissertations

Antibiotic resistance is an ever-present problem that reduces the arsenal of antibiotics human’s possess to fight pathogenic infections. New generations of antibiotics are therefore always required. Recent history has seen few novel classes of antibiotics, instead structural modifications of previous classes are often the source of new antibiotics. Antifolates are a colloquial name given to various compound classes that are capable of inhibiting the bacterial production of folate or enzymes that require folate for proper cellular function. Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is a crucial enzyme in this pathway, and is inhibited in bacteria only by trimethoprim (TMP). TMP is used clinically …

Assessing Epigenetic Features Of Gaba(A) Receptor Genes In Ipscs, Ipsc-Derived Neuroepithelial Cells, And Ipsc-Derived Neural Cell Cultures, Maegan Watson

Doctoral Dissertations

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) affect approximately 13.9% of the population in the United States. Many groups have found a correlation between AUDs and a synonymous SNP in exon 5 of the GABRA2 gene (rs279858 T to C; C allele associated with AUDs). However, the biological effects of this and other SNPs in this region are unknown.

Our lab has been using iPSC technology for the past few years to study AUDs. The lab has shown, using qPCR of mRNA, that a cluster of GABA_A receptor subunit genes on chromosome 4p12 is expressed at minimal levels in neural cells derived …

Short Branch Attraction, The Fundamental Bipartition In Cellular Life, And Eukaryogenesis, Amanda A. Dick Phd

Doctoral Dissertations

Short Branch Attraction occurs when BLAST searches are used as surrogate for phylogenetic analysis. This results from branch length heterogeneity. The short branches, not the long, are attracting.

The root of cellular life is on the bacterial branch, meaning the Archaea and eukaryotic nucleocytoplasm form a clade. This split, the realm, is the first in the cellular tree of life. I name the clade containing the Archaea and eukaryotic nucleocytoplasm the Ibisii based on shared characteristics involved in information processing and translation. The Bacteria are members of the other realm, the Bacterii.

Eukaryogenesis is the study of how the Eukarya …

Role Of Wettability In Fuel Cells, Jaehyung Park

Doctoral Dissertations

Fuel cells have received significant attention as a promising candidate for efficient and emission-free power in automotive, stationary, and portable applications. This work is focused on sophisticated schemes for surface wettability impact on fuel cell performance are required by using proper wettability characteristics for the fuel cell components.

Foreign cations are shown to cause mass transport losses, in particular due to wettability changes in the gas diffusion media (GDM) and have a major impact on the durability and the performance of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). The effects of cationic impurities on fuel cell system performance, especially on the water …

Selection And Robustness In Bacterial Genome Evolution, Seila Omer

Doctoral Dissertations

The research presented in this thesis attempts to address research questions related to the role of natural selection in the evolution of bacterial genes not expressed for function and in building mutational tolerance to translational errors. Studies on evolution of protein coding DNA sequences have provided the evidence for a current paradigm in evolutionary biology: only functional genes are undergoing selection against the deleterious effects of allele variants (purifying selection). I provide evidence that similar footprints of selection can be detected in genes that are not normally expressed for function during the bacterial life cycle. Using simulations for DNA sequence …

Cultural Trauma, History Making, And The Politics Of Ethnic Identity Among Afghan Hazaras, Melissa S. Kerr Chiovenda

Doctoral Dissertations

Based on 18 months of fieldwork in Bamyan and West Kabul, Afghanistan among ethnic Hazara civil society activists, I examine civil society groups’ protests and memorialization activities as social and political acts of collective and cultural trauma generation and dissemination. The activists’ protests seek to secure greater rights, security and infrastructural development in Hazara populated areas, and memorialize past rights violations and atrocities against Hazaras. Through protests, literature and social media, the retelling of traumatic events inculcates and spreads collective trauma. And the framing of these past events as a present existential threat merges with a widespread sense that Hazara …

A High Level Framework For Solver Independent Model Manipulation And Generation Of Hybrid Solvers, Daniel Fontaine

Doctoral Dissertations

Many critical real world problems, including problems in areas such as logistics, routing and scheduling are very difficult to solve computationally (often NP-hard). Various programming and algorithmic paradigms have been developed to deal with these problems, including Constraint Programming (CP), Integer Programming (IP) and Local Search (LS). These technologies are largely declarative in nature and rely on vastly different underlying mathematical and algorithmic approaches. Hence, each paradigm has inherent strengths and weaknesses making it more or less suitable to a given problem. For particularly difficult problems, it can often be beneficial to leverage a sophisticated “hybrid solver” technique. Such techniques …

Extension Of L1 Adaptive Control With Applications, Jiaxing Che

Doctoral Dissertations

Adaptive control is the control method used by a controller which adapt to a system with unknown or varying parameters. As a newly developed technique, L1 adaptive control has drawn increased attention in past decades. The key feature of L1 adaptive control architecture is guaranteed robustness in the presence of fast adaptation. With L1 adaptive control architecture, fast adaptation appears to be beneficial both for performance and robustness, while the trade-off between the two is resolved via the selection of the underlying filtering structure. The latter can be addressed via conventional methods from classical and robust control. Moreover, the performance …

Physiological, Behavioral, And Knowledge Assessment Of Runners’ Readiness To Perform In The Heat, Yuri Hosokawa

Doctoral Dissertations

Many intrinsic and extrinsic factors may contribute to exertional heat stroke (EHS) susceptibility. Despite many plausible risk factors for EHS in runners, much remains unknown about how risk factors contribute to EHS risk and how education to modify behavior may reduce EHS risk. Therefore, this study investigated: (1) the differences between runners’ planned and actual hours of sleep, hydration strategies, and intake of medication and supplements at the 2016 Falmouth Road Race (FRR) and their current knowledge on heat safety and hydration, (2) effectiveness of educational video intervention in improving runner’s knowledge on heat safety and hydration, (3) effectiveness in …

The Interaction Of Mercury And Methylmercury With Reduced Sulfur: Implications For The Transformation Of Mercury And Methylmercury In The Environment, Nashaat M. Mazrui

Doctoral Dissertations

Archival abstract submitted

An Experimental Investigation Of The Factors Supporting The Emergence Of Spatial Agreement In Nicaraguan Sign Language, Emily Carrigan

Doctoral Dissertations

Studies of natural language emergence provide unique opportunities for examining the learner-internal and environmental factors underlying language development, but lack the control of factors necessary to test hypotheses about language development. By ‘language development,’ I intend to encompass both language acquisition and modern-day language change/emergence, which I argue are driven by many of the same factors. Researchers of Nicaraguan Sign Language, an emerging language, have proposed that intergenerational transfer and particularly child language-learning mechanisms (e.g. the propensity to ‘reanalyze’ and systematize inconsistent input) shape the development of the language. We observe this potential pattern in the emergence of the systematic …

Mixed-Integer Optimization Problems With Applications To Manufacturing Scheduling And Distributed Energy System Operation, Bing Yan

Doctoral Dissertations

Archival abstract submitted

An Efficient Solution Methodology For Mixed-Integer Programming Problems Arising In Power Systems, Mikhail Bragin

Doctoral Dissertations

For many important mixed-integer programming (MIP) problems, the goal is to obtain near-optimal solutions with quantifiable quality in a computationally efficient manner (within, e.g., 5, 10 or 20 minutes). A traditional method to solve such problems has been Lagrangian relaxation, but the method suffers from zigzagging of multipliers and slow convergence. When solving mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problems, the recently adopted branch-and-cut may also suffer from slow convergence because when the convex hull of the problems has complicated facial structures, facet-defining cuts are typically difficult to obtain, and the method relies mostly on time-consuming branching operations. In this thesis, the …

The Role Of Prospective And Retrospective Cognition In Adolescent Mental Health, Gabriel F. Byer-Alcorace

Doctoral Dissertations

This study attempted to replicate the methods of Miles, MacLeod, and Pote (2004) who attempted to extend the application of a theory proposed by Andrew MacLeod and colleagues in the late 1990s. Only the aforementioned study has examined this theory with adolescents ages 14 to 19 year olds enrolled in public schools and 18 to 19 year olds enrolled universities. In the present study 169 students were asked to complete an assessment battery containing measures of depression, anxiety, stress, hope, and demographic information, as well as completing a positive and negative cognition task. It was hypothesized that a strong negative …

Population And Trophic Dynamics Of Striped Bass And Blueback Herring In The Connecticut River, Justin P. Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

Case studies of the ramifications of predator management for prey population dynamics can play a valuable role in developing ecosystem fisheries management. My dissertation focuses on the predator-prey interaction between Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis), an abundant predatory finfish, and an imperiled prey population of anadromous Blueback Herring (Alosa aestivalis). Annual returns of Blueback Herring to the Holyoke Dam on the Connecticut River in southern New England collapsed during the 1980-2000s, coincident with Striped Bass recovery. I studied the abundance and demography of both species in the Connecticut River during 2005-08, measured predation levels, and surveyed the …

Micro-Mixing In Turbulent Premixed Flames, Michael Joseph Kuron

Doctoral Dissertations

Accurate turbulent combustion models are key to establishing a predictive capability for combustion simulations at the device level. The transported probability density function (TPDF) methods provide an elegant solution to the challenge of closing the mean chemical source term in turbulent combustion modelling as it appears in closed form in the TPDF equations and thus the turbulence-chemistry interaction can be solved for without aggressive assumptions. This is crucial for predicting low temperature combustion, turbulent flames with the presence of local limit phenomena, and pollutant emissions. Despite some reported success in the literature, challenges remain when applying the TPDF method to …

The Effects Of Message Virality And Message Source On Facebook Users’ Perceptions Of Source Credibility, Norms, Attitudes, Emotional Responses, And Behavioral Intentions, Anne M. Borsai

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study explored the effectiveness of an anti-alcohol PSA in the context of Facebook. The study analyzed the effects of message source and message virality (i.e., high shares and likes vs. low shares and likes) on user’s perceived trustworthiness of the post, depth of processing, social norms, attitudes, emotional responses, and behavioral intentions regarding alcohol consumption. Participants viewed an anti-binge drinking PSA developed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted on a mock Facebook profile page in a 2 (message source: CDC post vs. peer-repost) x 2 (virality: high likes and shares vs. low likes and …

Investigating Environmental Inequities In Terms Of Street Greenery Using Google Street View, Xiaojiang Li

Doctoral Dissertations

As an important component of the urban ecosystem, the urban greenery provides a series of benefits to urban residents and plays an important role in maintaining the urban sustainability. Unequal access to urban greenery represents environmental disparities when some urban residents are deprived of the benefits provided by urban greenery. As an important component of the urban greenery, the street greenery provides a series of benefits to urban residents, such as energy saving, provision of shade and aesthetic values. In addition, the street greenery is a kind of publicly financed amenity and the spatial distribution of the street greenery is …

Self Hypnosis For School Success: Empowering Adolescents With Anxiety And Stress, Nilani Shankar

Doctoral Dissertations

Self-hypnosis is a treatment that has been utilized to address the social-emotional concerns of adolescents with high levels of anxiety and stress. In this study, a multiple baseline design across three high school-aged participants was implemented to examine whether self-hypnosis could decrease symptoms of anxiety and stress and help to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The results of the study indicated that the treatment resulted in decreases in trait and state anxiety for two out of three participants, improvements in stress levels for two out of three participants, and improvements in HRQoL for all three participants. Participants reported that …

Effect Of Enhanced Patient Education On Patient Satisfaction And 30-Day Readmission Rates After Cardiac Arrhythmia Ablation, Kristin A. Bott

Doctoral Dissertations

Patient satisfaction and 30-day hospital readmission rates are metrics used to assess quality of patient care. Dissatisfied patients pose a high risk of readmission (Boulding, Glickman, Manary, Schulman, Staelin, 2011) and during the vulnerable discharge period, 1 in 7 patients may experience an unavoidable readmission within 30-days post-procedure (Jencks, Williams, &Coleman,2009). Successful patient education programs have been linked to improved patient satisfaction and subsequently reduced unnecessary readmissions (Murdock& Griffin, 2013; Hansen et al., 2011). In an effort to increase satisfaction and reduce readmissions much of the healthcare community’s attention has turned to interventions that have these primary aims. Increased patient …

Novel Methods Of Chromatography And Mass Spectrometry For Quantitative Investigation Of Bacteria-Derived Lipopeptides And Their Relationship With Human Disease, Reza Nemati Josheghani

Doctoral Dissertations

Diseases such as periodontal disease, chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune disease are reported to be associated with changes in the bacteria populations in specific locations of the body, particularly the gastrointestinal tract and the oral cavity. Because oral and gastrointestinal microbiomes do not typically invade tissues in the host with chronic inflammatory disease, considerable work has instead focused on virulence factors produced by these organisms and their role in triggering innate immune responses that may promote chronic inflammatory diseases. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are innate immune receptors that recognize specific structural moieties shared among microbes of different classes. My work …

Structural Insight Into The Mechanisms Of Activation And Substrate Specificity Of Human Deubiquitinating Enzyme Usp7, Alexandra Pozhidaeva

Doctoral Dissertations

The major part of this thesis describes studies of human ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7), a deubiquitinating enzyme that regulates cellular levels of key oncoproteins and tumor suppressors. Inactivation of USP7 has recently emerged as a new approach to treatment of malignancies. However, design of potent and specific small-molecule compounds requires detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of USP7 substrate recognition and regulation of its catalytic activity. The goal of this work was to explore these mechanisms using solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in combination with other methods. In our studies of USP7 substrate recognition, we structurally characterized its interaction with …

The Development Of An Online Divergent Thinking Test, Jiajun Guo

Doctoral Dissertations

Divergent thinking (DT) tests are the most frequently used types of creativity assessment and have been administered in traditional paper and pencil format for more than a half century. With the prevalence of computer-based testing and increasing demands for large-scale, faster, and more flexible testing procedures, it is necessary to explore and test the usability of computer-based divergent thinking tests. Yet few studies have focused on the use of technologies in the assessment of creativity, including divergent thinking tests.

The purpose of the present study was to design and test the feasibility of an online divergent thinking (DT) test. The …

Impacts Of Effluent And Stormwater Runoff Sources On Metal Lability And Bioavailability In Developed Streams, Hongwei Luan

Doctoral Dissertations

Urban streams receive Cu from both treated wastewater and stormwater runoff sources. Both sources have significant quantities of organic matter (OM), which is known to control Cu speciation and bioavailability. Individual and mixed water samples from wastewater treatment plant effluents, stormwater runoff, and streams from developed areas were characterized with respect to OM concentration and spectral properties and metal concentration and size distribution. In addition, asymmetric flow-field flow fractionation coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to measure concentration, size distribution and association of metals in the colloidal size range. Results reveal that Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Transition Metal Oxide Catalysts For Environmental And Energy Storage Applications, Wenqiao Song

Doctoral Dissertations

Nowadays, environmental concerns and the global energy crisis have become two of our greatest challenges. The main purpose of this dissertation research is to design highly active mesoporous materials that can efficiently catalyze environmental and energy related reactions. Surface properties can be easily tuned by thermal treatment and cation doping, resulting in improved catalytic activities. Synthesis and characterization of the materials, catalytic activities for carbon monoxide oxidation, oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, and mechanistic studies are covered in this thesis.

The first part describes the synthesis of mesoporous cobalt oxides through an inverse micelle route for low temperature carbon …