Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Effect Of Disulfide Bond Scrambling On Protein Stability, Aggregation, And Cytotoxicity, Colina Dutta

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Proteins are nano-machines that carry out majority of the cellular functions. Thermodynamically they are functional and stable within a very narrow range (1 kcal/mol). External perturbations in the form of pH change, thermal, or oxidative/reducing stress can destabilize the protein resulting in misfolding and aggregation. Prolonged environmental stress can affect the cells adaptive response resulting in loss of ability to refold or recycle proteins. This can lead to accumulation of misfolded or aggregated proteins within the cell. Such accumulation of aggregated proteins have been associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s disease. There …

Assessing The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Surface Temperature Of Inland Lakes In Michigan, Kaitlin Reinl

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The aim of this study was to validate and apply a lake model for predicting the susceptibility of small inland lakes in Michigan to changes in thermal regime and increased cyanobacteria growth as a result of future climate conditions. The Freshwater Lake Model was selected, tested for sensitivity to various inputs, and validated through comparison to observed conditions. The sensitivity analysis showed that the lake model was most sensitive to solar radiation, air temperature, and air humidity. Comparison of predicted climate data with observed conditions revealed highly variable climate model error. The lake model validation was conducted using 10 lakes …

Effects Of Wildfire And Post-Fire Salvage Logging On Rill Networks And Sediment Delivery In California Forests, Will Olsen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Wildfires can increase soil erosion by orders of magnitude over rates in unburned forests and negatively impact aquatic resources. Rill erosion is a dominant erosion and sediment transport mechanism in burned forests, and hydrologically connected rills can form networks on burned hillslopes. At the swale scale (< 10,000 m²), little is known about how rill networks develop under different burn severities over time, their relationship with sediment yields, and the effect of post-fire salvage logging on rill networks and sediment yields.

The first study assessed rill networks and sediment yields in three burn severities in the inland Coast Range of …