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Surviving Under The Reign Of El Niño Southern Oscillation: An Analysis Of The Effects Of Extreme El Niño Events On The Oceanographic And Biological Environment Of The Galápagos Islands, Ava Mcilvaine

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is commonly known as the atmospheric and oceanographic powerhouse of the Southern Pacific Ocean. From phytoplankton to apex predators, ENSO controls the stability of species’ populations within this biodiverse ocean environment. El Niño’s 9-15 month alteration of the heat storage in the tropical Pacific drastically shifts the temperature, nutrient, and circulation gradient its marine life is accustomed to. A single degree change in the ocean’s surface layer temperature can have large consequences for marine species, and El Niño is commonly associated with Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies (SSTAs) between 2°- 6° Celsius. The potential danger El …

Climate Change Effects On Volcanoes In The Tropics: A Review Of The Deglaciation Of Antisana And Its Effects On Subsequent Water Streams And Rivers Over 20 Years, Callie C. Rominger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Located in the Northern end of Ecuador lies the stunning glacier of Antisana which attracts many tourists and whose runoff provides a significant amount of water supply for Quito. Climate change is posing threats to many ecosystems world wide but will have a more substantial impact on the volcanoes in the tropics because they do not have a seasonally altered climate. Small changes in the air temperature can have larger impacts on these areas that are adapted to constant temperatures with seasonal precipitation changes. Climate change, in recent years, had caused an increase in the glacial retreat of the Antisana …

Fibration Symmetries Uncover The Building Blocks Of Biological Networks, Flaviano Morone, Ian Leifer, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

A major ambition of systems science is to uncover the building blocks of any biological network to decipher how cellular function emerges from their interactions. Here, we introduce a graph representation of the information flow in these networks as a set of input trees, one for each node, which contains all pathways along which information can be transmitted in the network. In this representation, we find remarkable symmetries in the input trees that deconstruct the network into functional building blocks called fibers. Nodes in a fiber have isomorphic input trees and thus process equivalent dynamics and synchronize their activity. Each …

Synthesis And Antitumor Activity Of Potentially Tumor Targeting Analogues Of The Tetrahydrofuran Containing Acetogenins, Patricia Gonzalez Periche

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The tetrahydrofuran containing acetogenins (THF-ACGs) are a naturally occurring class of compounds with potent toxicity against a broad range of tumors, including multidrug resistant (MDR) strains. However, the equally high toxicity to normal cells presents a hurdle for their clinical advancement. This study entails synthetic and tumor targeting strategies that are relevant to their therapeutic development.

Chapter 1 presents a review of the synthesis and biological activity of the THF-ACGs. Chapter 2 covers a modular approach for the synthesis of libraries of THF-ACGs. This strategy is illustrated in the synthesis of C-10 epimers of 4-deoxyannonomontacin (4-DAN), one of the more …

The Bioethical Significance Of “The Origin Of Man’S Ethical Behavior” (October 1941, Unpublished) By Ernest Everett Just And Hedwig Anna Schnetzler Just, Theodore Walker Jr.

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Abstract –

E. E. Just (1883-1941) is an acknowledged “pioneer” in cell biology, and he is perhaps the pioneer in study of egg cell fertilization. Here we discover that Just also made pioneering contributions to general biology and evolutionary bioethics.

Within Just’s published contributions to observational cell biology, there are substantial fragments of his theory of ethical behavior, a theory with roots in cell biology. In addition to such previously available fragments, Just’s fully developed theory is now available. This recently discovered unpublished book-length manuscript argues for the biological origins of ethical behavior (evolving from cells to humans, within a …

Exploring The Scope And Limitations Of The Oxidative Deamination Of N-Acetyl Neuraminic Acid, Mohammed Bakr Hawsawi

Wayne State University Dissertations

Sialic acids are molecules of importance in the fields of carbohydrate chemistry and glycoscience, and their diversity make them even more attractive to scientific research. Modifications of sialic acid derivatives may lead to several biological and chemical features that can be utilized for medicinal purposes. The modern drug therapy is dependent on the chemical discoveries of potent and effective molecules. N-Acetyl neuraminic acid is the parent and most common molecule in sialic acid family that received considerable attention in glycochemical research. This dissertation explores the scope as well as the limitations of the Zbiral oxidative deamination of N-acetyl neuraminic acid …

In Silico Adme Predictions And In Vitro Antibacterial Evaluation Of 2-Hydroxy Benzothiazole-Based 1,3,4-Oxadiazole Derivatives, Afnan Ahmed Alghamdi, Mohammad Mahboob Alam, Syed Nazreen

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

In the present work, a library of fifteen 2-hydroxy benzothiazole-linked 1,3,4 -oxadiazole derivatives have been synthesized and confirmed using different analytical techniques. All of the synthesized compounds have been tested for antibacterial and in silico pharmacokinetic studies for the first time. From the ADME predictions, compound 4 showed the highest in silico absorption percentage (86.77%), while most of the compounds showed more than 70% absorption. All of the compounds comply with the Lipinski rule of 5, suggesting that the compounds possess good drug likeness properties upon administration. Furthermore, all of the compounds follow the Veber rule, indicating good bioavailability and …

New Sandwich-Type Polymeric Potassium-Dicyanoargentate(I) Complex: Synthesis, Characterization And Enzymatic Activity, Nesri̇n Korkmaz

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Coordination compounds containing dicyanoargentate(I) have remarkable biological potential due to their therapeutic antibacterial, antifungal, antibiofilm, and anticancer properties. In this study, a new dicyanoargentate(I)-based complex was synthesized and characterized by various procedures (elemental, thermal, FT-IR for complex) involving crystal analysis of the complex. In addition, the biological activity of this new compound on the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme, an important enzyme for the nervous system, was investigated. When the infrared (IR) spectrum of the complex is examined, the OH vibration peak resulting from H$_{2}$O molecules in the structure at 3948-3337 cm$^{-1}$ and at 2138 cm$^{-1}$, along with a CN peak coordinated …

Computational And Biological Studies Of Novel Thiazolyl Coumarin Derivatives Synthesized Through Suzuki Coupling, Shaista Parveen, Saima Kalsoom, Rifhat Bibi, Ambreen Asghar, Abdul Hameed, Waqar Ahmed, Abbas Hassan

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

The current investigation presents the synthesis, computational molecular-docking and biological activity studies of arylated thiazole coumarins. Aryl substituted thiazolyl coumarin derivatives were synthesized via Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. A detailed reaction condition optimization revealed that the Pd-PEPPSI-IPent precatalyst in only 2 mol% loading resulted in the desired product with high yield. The aim of this study was to examine the antimicrobial behavior of thiazole coumarin derivatives through in vitro and in silico studies. All the compounds showed activity against both antibacterial strains, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, except 5d. Similarly, the compounds 5a, 5b, and 5d were found to be active …

Biophysical And X-Ray Structural Studies Of The (Gggtt)3ggg G-Quadruplex In Complex With N-Methyl Mesoporphyrin Ix, Linda Yingqi Lin , '20, S. Mccarthy, Barrett M. Powell , '18, Yanti Manurung , '20, Irene M. Xiang , '18, W. L. Dean, B. Chaires, Liliya A. Yatsunyk

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

The G-quadruplex (GQ) is a well-studied non-canonical DNA structure formed by G-rich sequences found at telomeres and gene promoters. Biological studies suggest that GQs may play roles in regulating gene expression, DNA replication, and DNA repair. Small molecule ligands were shown to alter GQ structure and stability and thereby serve as novel therapies, particularly against cancer. In this work, we investigate the interaction of a G-rich sequence, 5’-GGGTTGGGTTGGGTTGGG-3’ (T1), with a water-soluble porphyrin, N-methyl mesoporphyrin IX (NMM) via biophysical and X-ray crystallographic studies. UV-vis and fluorescence titrations, as well as a Job plot, revealed a 1:1 binding stoichiometry with an …

Distribution, Density, Movement, And Support For Management Of Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus Jordani, In The Black Hills Of South Dakota, Seth J. Fopma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus jordani, is a cold-water species native to the Intermountain West. Fringe populations of Mountain Sucker have experienced declines in recent decades. The population of Mountain Sucker found in the Black Hills of South Dakota represents the eastern fringe of the species’ native range. Recognized as both an indicator of biologic health and as a species of greatest conservation need in South Dakota, recent studies have suggested significant declines in both distribution and abundance. Despite the recent study of Mountain Sucker in the region, increased understanding of Mountain Sucker ecology is needed to effectively manage for the conservation …

The Roles And Benefits Of Using Undergraduate Student Leaders To Support The Work Of Summit-P, Janet Bowers, Bryan D. Poole, Caroline Maher-Boulis, Ashley Schwartz, Angelica Bloomquist, Erica Slate Young

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

The article by Poole, Turner, and Maher-Boulis (2020) describes one way in which undergraduates have been used to support the SUMMIT-P goal of investigating examples of how mathematics and statistics are applied in partner discipline courses. Two other universities in the SUMMIT-P consortium, San Diego State University and Oregon State University, also use undergraduates in different ways to support the work of integrating science applications into math classes. In this article, we compare and contrast these three uses to further highlight this somewhat untapped resource.

Fluorescence Microscopy With Tailored Illumination Light, Jialei Tang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Fluorescence microscopy has long been a valuable tool for biological and medical imaging. Control of optical parameters such as the amplitude, phase, polarization and propagation angle of light gives fluorescence imaging great capabilities ranging from single molecule imaging to long-term observation of living organisms. While numerous fluorescence imaging techniques have been developed over the past decades, there is always an inevitable tradeoff among the spatial resolution, imaging speed, contrast, photodamage and the total cost when it comes to choose the appropriate microscope. A main goal of my dissertation research is to develop state-of-the-art microscope systems that exhibit unprecedented performance in …

Protein/Peptide Characterization Using Mass Spectrometry And Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Ahmad Kiani Karanji

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mass spectrometry (MS) based-techniques and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been used to characterize protein/peptide structure as well as their interactions with lipid vesicles and detergents. Chapter 1 introduces an introduction to the concepts and tools that were used in this work. In Chapter 2, the dominant gas-phase conformer of [M+3H]3+ ions of the model peptide Acetyl-PSSSSKSSSSKSSSSKSSSSK are examined with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), gas-phase hydrogen deuterium exchange (HDX), and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques. This section furthers the development of a protein structural prediction tool by providing information about gas-phase ion conformers of two model peptides having different solution conformational …

Heparan Sulfate. A Ligand For Coordination Compounds., Eric Ginsburg

Theses and Dissertations

Heparan sulfate (HS), a type of glycosaminoglycan (GAG), has been identified as a ligand for interactions with polynuclear platinum complexes (PPCs). HS is involved in numerous biological processes, and often considered to be extracellular DNA. PPCs interact with HS through the formation of a “sulfate clamp”, where multiple anionic sulfate groups cluster around the cationic PPC. The masking of HS results in the inhibition of enzymatic activity, protein-HS interactions, and other biological processes. PPCs use HS proteoglycans as an method of cellular internalization. By targeting sulfated-GAGs, PPCs can offer precision medicine not currently observed with the FDA approved platinum therapies. …

Synthesis And Encapsulation Of 1,3,5-Triazine Derivatives As Anticancer Agent, Monnaya Chalermnon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The 1,3,5-triazine scaffold is known for its versatile biological activities especially as an anticancer agent, but a limitation of 1,3,5-triazine is the ability to reach cancer cells thus affecting its anticancer potency. In this work, the anticancer activity of twelve 1,3,5-triazine derivatives was evaluated against two colon cancer cell lines along with an investigation of a drug delivery system (DDS) using calcium citrate nanoparticles (CaCit NPs). Results from the biological evaluation showed that there was a variation in the anticancer activity of 1,3,5-triazine derivatives which some of them exhibited comparable activity to the reference drug cisplatin. Compound 2a and 3d …

Hydromorphological Changes Of Chi River, Mueang District, Khon Kaen Province, Pawat Wattanachareekul

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This thesis focuses on the analysis of hydrology coupled with geomorphology for river management such as flood mitigation and river restoration. Morphological Quality Index (MQI) is used for assessing hydro-morphological conditions from part of the Chi River (67 km long) at Khon Kaen province, a major river in north-eastern Thailand. This study area has been suffering from unexpected and repeated flooding. MQI is applied to evaluate the degree of hydro-morphological alteration in terms of relative scores (from 0 to 1). Basically, in case that MQI score equals 1, it means the area has no any alteration. On the other hand, …

The Poisson Topp Leone Generator Of Distributions For Lifetime Data: Theory, Characterizations And Applications, Faton Merovci, Haitham M. Yousof, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematical and Statistical Science Faculty Research and Publications

We study a new family of distributions defined by the minimum of the Poisson random number of independent identically distributed random variables having a Topp Leone-G distribution (see Rezaei et al., (2016)). Some mathematical properties of the new family including ordinary and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, mean deviations, order statistics, reliability and entropies are derived. Maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters is investigated. Some special models of the new family are discussed. An application is carried out on real data set applications sets to show the potentiality of the proposed family.

Route Exploration And Synthesis Of The Reported Pyridone-Based Pdi Inhibitor Stk076545, Eric Greve, Sergey V. Lindeman, Christina Scartelli, Lin Lin, Robert Flaumenhaft, Chris Dockendorff

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

The enzyme protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is essential for the correct folding of proteins and the activation of certain cell surface receptors, and is a promising target for the treatment of cancer and thrombotic conditions. A previous high-throughput screen identified the commercial compound STK076545 as a promising PDI inhibitor. To confirm its activity and support further biological studies, a resynthesis was pursued of the reported β-keto-amide with an N-alkylated pyridone at the α-position. Numerous conventional approaches were complicated by undesired fragmentations or rearrangements. However, a successful 5-step synthetic route was achieved using an aldol reaction with an α-pyridone allyl …

Heterogeneous Multi-Layered Network Model For Omics Data Integration And Analysis, Bohyun Lee, Shuo Zhang, Aleksandar Poleksic, Lei Xie

Faculty Work

Advances in next-generation sequencing and high-throughput techniques have enabled the generation of vast amounts of diverse omics data. These big data provide an unprecedented opportunity in biology, but impose great challenges in data integration, data mining, and knowledge discovery due to the complexity, heterogeneity, dynamics, uncertainty, and high-dimensionality inherited in the omics data. Network has been widely used to represent relations between entities in biological system, such as protein-protein interaction, gene regulation, and brain connectivity (i.e. network construction) as well as to infer novel relations given a reconstructed network (aka link prediction). Particularly, heterogeneous multi-layered network (HMLN) has proven successful …

Customer And Employee Social Media Comments/Feedback And Stock Purchasing Decisions Enhanced By Sentiment Analysis, Drew Mikel Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warns professional investors that sentiment analysis tools may lead to impulsive investment decision-making. This warning comes despite evidence showing that aided social sentiment investment decision tools can increase accurate investment decision-making by 18%. Using Fama's theory of efficient market hypothesis, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine whether customer Twitter comments and employee Glassdoor feedback sentiment predicted successful investing decisions measured by business stock prices. Two thousand records from 3 archival U.S. public NASDAQ 100 datasets from March 28, 2016, to June 15, 2016 (79 days) of 53 companies with …

The Marshall-Olkin Exponentiated Generalized G Family Of Distributions: Properties, Applications, And Characterizations, Haitham M. Yousof, Mahdi Rasekhi, Morad Alizadeh, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematical and Statistical Science Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, we propose and study a new class of continuous distributions called the Marshall-Olkin exponentiated generalized G (MOEG-G) family which extends the Marshall-Olkin-G family introduced by Marshall and Olkin [A. W. Marshall, I. Olkin, Biometrika 84 (1997), 641-652]. Some of its mathematical properties including explicit expressions for the ordinary and incomplete moments, generating function, order statistics and probability weighted moments are derived. Some characteristics of the new family are presented. Maximum likelihood estimation for the model parameters under uncensored and censored data is addressed in Section 5 as well as a simulation study to assess the performance of …

Gulls As Sources Of Environmental Contamination By Colistin-Resistant Bacteria, Alan B. Franklin, Andrew M. Ramey, Kevin T. Bentler, Nicole L. Barrett, Loredana M. Mccurdy, Christina A. Ahlstrom, Jonas Bonnedahl, Susan A. Shriner, Jeffrey C. Chandler

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In 2015, the mcr-1 gene was discovered in Escherichia coli in domestic swine in China that conferred resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort used in treating multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in humans. Since then, mcr-1 was found in other human and animal populations, including wild gulls. Because gulls could disseminate the mcr-1 gene, we conducted an experiment to assess whether gulls are readily colonized with mcr-1 positive E. coli, their shedding patterns, transmission among conspecifics, and environmental deposition. Shedding of mcr-1 E. coli by small gull flocks followed a lognormal curve and gulls shed one strain >101 …

Validation Of A Screening Method For The Detection Of Colistin-Resistant E. Coli Containing Mcr-1 In Feral Swine Feces, Jeffrey C. Chandler, Alan B. Franklin, S. N. Bevins, Kevin T. Bentler, Jonas Bonnedahl, Christina A. Ahlstrom, Bledar Bisha, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A method was developed and validated for the detection of colistin-resistant Escherichia coli containing mcr-1 in the feces of feral swine. Following optimization of an enrichment method using EC broth supplemented with colistin (1 μg/mL) and vancomycin (8 μg/mL), aliquots derived from 100 feral swine fecal samples were spiked with of one of five different mcr-1 positive E. coli strains (between 10⁰ and 10⁴ CFU/g), for a total of 1110 samples tested. Enrichments were then screened using a simple boil-prep and a previously developed real-time PCR assay for mcr-1 detection. The sensitivity of the method was determined in …

Bio-Inspired Learning And Hardware Acceleration With Emerging Memories, Shruti R. Kulkarni

Dissertations

Machine Learning has permeated many aspects of engineering, ranging from the Internet of Things (IoT) applications to big data analytics. While computing resources available to implement these algorithms have become more powerful, both in terms of the complexity of problems that can be solved and the overall computing speed, the huge energy costs involved remains a significant challenge. The human brain, which has evolved over millions of years, is widely accepted as the most efficient control and cognitive processing platform. Neuro-biological studies have established that information processing in the human brain relies on impulse like signals emitted by neurons called …

Amyloid Proteins And Fibrils Stability, Farbod Mahmoudinobar

Dissertations

Compared to globular proteins that have a stable native structure, intrinsically disordered peptides (IDP) sample an ensemble of structures without folding into a native conformation.One example of IDP is the amyloid-beta(Abeta) protein which is the main constituent of senile plaques in the brain of Alzheimer's patients.Understanding the process by which IDPs undergo structural changes to form oligomers that eventually aggregate into senile plaques/amyloid fibrils may significantly advance the development of novel therapeutic methods to treat neurodegenerative diseases, for which there is no cure to date. This dissertation has two main objectives. The first one is to investigate and identify structural …

Quantitative Detection Of Levofloxacin Hydrochloride By Differential Pulse Stripping Voltammetry With Electrodeposited Bismuth Film Electrodes, Zi-Ying Guo, Zuo-Peng Li, Jiang Li, Jian-Guo Zhao, Feng Feng

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this study, differential pulse stripping voltammetry was developed for the quantitative detection of levofloxacin hydrochloride indirectly. Levofloxacin hydrochloride contains organic amine, which can be precipitated upon interaction with Zn(SCN)₄^2-. By means of differential pulse stripping voltammetry, the concentration of Zn²⁺ can be determined using an in-situ formed bismuth film electrode, which allows determining indirectly the amount of levofloxacine hydrochloride. The linearity equation, I = 1.1401c - 0.5309 with the correlative coefficient R = 0.9979, was presented in the experiment. The results showed that this approach is very sensitive, having a limitation of detection of 3.18 …

The Values Of Warm-Season Native Perennial Grasses Grown For Pasture Or Biofuel In The Southern Great Plains, Usa, James K. Rogers, Bryan Nichols, Jon T. Biermacher, Jagadeesh Mosali

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The Renewable Fuel Standard under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandated the production of 136 billion liters of cellulosic biofuel by 2022. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) has been identified as a primary feedstock because it is a perennial, produces high yields and is adapted to a wide environmental range. Development of the cellulosic biofuel industry has been slow. A reason for this slow development is lack of available feedstock driven by lack of a developed market. Rather than considering switchgrass only as a dedicated biofuel feedstock, we examined its potential both for grazing and biofuel feedstock. …

Generalized Matrix Decomposition Regression: Estimation And Inference For Two-Way Structured Data, Yue Wang, Ali Shojaie, Tim Randolph, Jing Ma

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Analysis of two-way structured data, i.e., data with structures among both variables and samples, is becoming increasingly common in ecology, biology and neuro-science. Classical dimension-reduction tools, such as the singular value decomposition (SVD), may perform poorly for two-way structured data. The generalized matrix decomposition (GMD, Allen et al., 2014) extends the SVD to two-way structured data and thus constructs singular vectors that account for both structures. While the GMD is a useful dimension-reduction tool for exploratory analysis of two-way structured data, it is unsupervised and cannot be used to assess the association between such data and an outcome of interest. …

Aglycon Modifications Of Ipomoeassin F: Synthetic Route Development And Analog Synthesis To Enable Further Sar Studies, Eric Barber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ipomoeassin family of resin glycosides were discovered to have a high potency against numerous cancer cell line, with ipomoeassin F being the most potent among the family of natural products. Interestingly, one of the few differences between ipomoeassin F and the other compounds is the length of the fatty-acid derived aglycon. As the mechanism of action for this family of resin glycosides is unknown and didn’t have any significant COMPARE correlation with the recorded anticancer agents in the National Cancer Institute (NCI), further SAR studies are needed. Drawing on the differences between ipomoeassin F and the other ipomoeassins, it …