Digital Commons Network^™

On Cellular Automata Representation Of Submicroscopic Physics: From Static Space To Zuse’S Calculating Space Hypothesis, Victor Christianto, Volodymyr Krasnoholovets, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In some recent papers (G. ‘t Hooft and others), it has been argued that quantum mechanics can arise from classical cellular automata. Nonetheless, G. Shpenkov has proved that the classical wave equation makes it possible to derive a periodic table of elements, which is very close to Mendeleyev’s one, and describe also other phenomena related to the structure of molecules. Hence the classical wave equation complements Schrödinger’s equation, which implies the appearance of a cellular automaton molecular model starting from classical wave equation. The other studies show that the microworld is constituted as a tessellation of primary topological balls. The …

Multispecialty Opioid Risk Reduction Program Targeting Chronic Pain And Addiction Management In Veterans, Ivana A Vaughn, Rebecca Beyth, Mary Lynn Ayers, Joseph E Thornton, Rajiv Tandon, Ted Gingrich, Stephen A Mudra

Project ECHO Bibliography

A primary care pain clinic and telehealth program manages veterans at high-risk for noncancer chronic pain and addiction, offering education and support to multidisciplinary health care providers to reduce dependence on high-level opioids.

A Comparison Of Cave Microbial Communities To Cave Roosting Bat Microbiota In El Malpais National Monument, Usa, Nicole A. Caimi

Biology ETDs

The arrival of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a devastating fungal disease, has highlighted the need to better understand bat microbiota and how bats acquire their microbiota. To address this need, we investigated how bat microbiota compare to microbiota from the cave walls in two El Malpais National Monument caves. The external surfaces of six roosting bats from each cave, representing four different bat species, and their associated microbial mats were sampled. One to three air samples were taken in each cave. Samples were sequenced using Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene for bacterial diversity and the ITS region for …

Organic/Inorganic Interfacial Interactions Affecting Metal Reactivity: Water Treatment And Sensor Applications, Mohamed Nabil Shaikh

Civil Engineering ETDs

The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the interactions occurring at the organic – inorganic interface between solid media and aqueous contaminants for water treatment and sensor applications. The gaps in current literature on these interfacial organic-inorganic interactions must be bridged in order to develop advanced water treatment and monitoring technologies for improving water quality and thus, restore and protect the contaminated water resources. As a part of this dissertation, manganese oxides-based composites and electrospun polymer mats were developed and investigated for gaining mechanistic insights of organic (bisphenol A and acetaminophen) and inorganic (uranium) contaminants removal, respectively. These reactions …

Assessment Of The Biocompatibilty, Stability, And Suitability Of Natural And Synthetic Polymers And Drugs In The Fda Approval Process, Phuong Anh Hoang Nguyen

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Regulation of the development, production, marketing, and sales of medical pharmaceuticals and devices in the United States fall under the regulatory functions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The current FDA approval process takes an average of 10 years from start to completion, and costs over $100 million. As a result, companies use many different methods to find additional use of their drugs through marketing directly to the physician, or recycling of previously approved drug moieties. In this work, an evaluation of the in vitro and ex vivo biocompatibility of polymers and drugs in different phases of FDA approval …

Optimal Control Strategies For Complex Biological Systems, Afroza Shirin

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

To better understand and to improve therapies for complex diseases such as cancer or diabetes, it is not sufficient to identify and characterize the interactions between molecules and pathways in complex biological systems, such as cells, tissues, and the human body. It also is necessary to characterize the response of a biological system to externally supplied agents (e.g., drugs, insulin), including a proper scheduling of these drugs, and drug combinations in multi drugs therapies. This obviously becomes important in applications which involve control of physiological processes, such as controlling the number of autophagosome vesicles in a cell, or regulating the …

Detection And Remodeling Of Toxic Amyloid Aggregates By Novel Conjugated Polyelectrolytes, Adeline Marianne Fanni

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

The abnormal misfolding and aggregation of intrinsically disordered proteins into ordered fibrillar amyloid aggregates is recognized as a common pathological event in neurodegenerative disorders (ND) such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The key role of fibrillar and pre-fibrillar aggregates in ND makes them ideal biomarkers to better understand disease progression but also for early disease detection and therapeutic intervention. The work described herein was conducted to gain a better understanding of amyloid interaction to lipid membrane and its role in peptide toxicity. This research was also focused on evaluating the fluorescent probe, oligomeric p-phenylene ethynylene (OPE), as an amyloid …

Eutherian Biogeography During The Puercan North American Land Mammal Age (Paleocene, Earliest Danian): Problems And Potential Solutions, Jason Sterling Silviria

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Puercan North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA) is the earliest major North American terrestrial biochron of the Cenozoic era, spanning roughly the first one million years of the Paleogene period (Paleocene epoch, Danian stage; ~66.04-65.12 Ma). It is typified by the explosive ecomorphological diversification of the mammalian clade Eutheria (particularly our subclade, Placentalia), following the annihilation of non-avian dinosaurs and “archaic” mammal groups during the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event. The spatiotemporal mode and tempo of Puercan eutherian diversification has long been the subject of debate, with disagreements over biogeographic zonation. The traditional model – based largely on well-sampled, …

Genetically Modified Salmon And The Future Of Food: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Twitter, Margaret Markham Siebert

Communication ETDs

This dissertation is a qualitative content analysis of the ongoing online debate on Twitter regarding the AquAdvantage Salmon™, the first genetically engineered animal, fish, and meat product approved by the FDA for sale and consumption in the US. On Twitter, Topics can be discussed by any account user creating a public sphere and forum of discussion. In a time when the anthropogenic impacts on the environment are observable and at times detrimental, it remains in question how we will produce our food; this study problematizes whether or not genetic engineering is the solution and the future of our food, and …

Self-Assembly, Integration, Characterizations And Applications Of Plasmonic And Excitonic Nanomaterials, Bijesh Kafle

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Plasmon on metal nanoparticles can efficiently confine, amplify light at the nanoscale. This property is beneficial for different applications such as harvesting energy of the broad solar spectrum, highly sensitive spectroscopy, photocatalysis, and many other optoelectronic applications. For plasmonic applications, it is necessary to understand the fundamental physical properties of the individual, coupled plasmonic nanomaterials, and their interaction with the surrounding environment, which is not fully understood yet. In this dissertation, the chemical and optical interaction in plasmonic interfaces has been investigated. Plasmon-enhanced photochemistry of p-aminothiophenol as a model molecule is investigated using highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The …

Reducing Threading Dislocation In Gasb Epilayer Grown On Gaas Substrate For Photovoltaic And Thermophotovoltaic Application, Ahmad Mansoori

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

GaSb based photovoltaic devices have been demonstrated on GaAs substrates by an inducing interfacial array of 90° misfit dislocations. Despite the beneficial qualities of the highly stable 90° misfit dislocation, there is a significant density of residual threading dislocations in the GaSb layer, resulting in the degradation of the electrical performance of such photovoltaic cells compared to lattice matched devices. We aim to reduce threading dislocation density by optimizing growth temperature and by using an AlSb dislocation filtering layer. The growth temperature optimization results in a reduction of the threading dislocation density to 1.3 × 10⁸ cm⁻². …

Female Protagonist Mega-Archetypes: A Study In Medieval European Romances, Doaa Omran

English Language and Literature ETDs

Despite the claim that structuralism has sung its swan song, my research offers new insights in the field of structuralism through archetypal criticism by exploring four female hero mega-archetypes as narrative structures inspired by the Qur’an and the Bible. These scriptural narratives offer tenets, based on narratives and motifs, that, as structural units, create and identify mega-archetypes. This study posits how, rather than being extensions of existing structuralist taxonomies on the male hero monomyth, the female mega-archetypes enrich that monomythical narrative. This work details the structure of the mega-archetypes Zulaikhah (Potiphar’s wife), Sarah and Hagar, the Virgin Mary, and Queen …

Mixing It Up: The Impact Of Episodic Introgression On The Evolution Of High-Latitude Mesocarnivores, Jocelyn P. Colella

Biology ETDs

At high latitudes, climatic oscillations have triggered repeated episodes of organismal divergence by geographically isolating populations. For terrestrial species, extended isolation in glacial refugia – ice-free regions that enable terrestrial species persistence through glacial maxima – is hypothesized to stimulate allopatric divergence. Alternatively, upon glacial recession, divergent populations expanded from independent glacial refugia and often contacted other diverging populations. In the absence of reproductive isolating mechanisms, this biogeographic process may trigger hybridization and ultimately, gene flow between divergent taxa. My dissertation research aims to understand how these episodic periods of isolation and contact have impacted the evolution of high latitude …

Unsettling Indian Health Services: Secularism, Modern Medicine, & The Reproduction Of The U.S. Settler State Through The 1954 Transfer Act, Jillian Elizabeth Grisel

American Studies ETDs

This thesis takes up the role of secularism in modern medicine as a political doctrine that works in service of settler colonialism. I argue the Declaration of Human Rights and the World Health Organization (WHO) globally institutionalized secular ideologies in the post-World War II environment. This thesis links how this global reordering came to inform U.S. health policy by examining how government officials and medical experts drew from the WHO and framed infectious diseases as a security issue to impose a biomedical order in Indian country. By contextualizing modern medicine within a settler political economy and secular political doctrine, I …

Application Of Cation Exchange And Nanofiltration To Treat Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater, Ayush R. Shahi

Civil Engineering ETDs

Application of Cation Exchange and Nanofiltration to Treat Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater

Ayush Raj Shahi

Bachelor’s in engineering in Civil Engineering

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

ABSTRACT

Flue gas emitted from coal-fired power plants is one of the major sources of sulfur and nitrogen oxides emissions to the atmosphere. Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a pollution prevention method that is employed to meet regulatory requirements using scrubbers.

FGD wastewater contains high concentrations of dissolved salts which limit options for recycling and reuse. This thesis focused on treating FGD wastewater with a combination of ion exchange (IX), precipitation, and nanofiltration (NF) …

The History Of Admixture In African Americans, Jessica Marie Gross

Anthropology ETDs

African American admixture has been a focal topic of genetic studies since the mid-20^thcentury. Generally, these studies estimate individual- and population-level African and European ancestry proportions. Some of these studies fit unrealistic admixture models to the patterns of genetic diversity in African Americans to determine both the onset time of admixture between Africans and Europeans, and the per-generation contribution of Europeans.

This research has failed to consider the contribution of the millions of Africans who migrated, either forcibly or by choice, to North America during and after slave importation, and failed to consider how changing social dynamics have …

Role Of Host Cell Β-Catenin During Toxoplasma Gondii Infection, Cameron H. Ranken

Biology ETDs

The microbial pathogen Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular protozoan that actively invades host cells and simultaneously creates a specialized parasitophorous vacuole within which the parasite lives and replicates. The parasite molecular machinery that drives establishment of the intracellular niche is relatively well known. However, it is now emerging that Toxoplasma exploits less well-understood host cell components to enable successful infection. Here, we examined the role of host Wnt/β-catenin during T. gondii infection. Using human fibroblasts and a mouse dendritic cell line, we found that infection with Toxoplasma stimulated both upregulation and nuclear localization of β-catenin. Using a transwell experimental approach, …

Ecological And Morphological Response Of Rodents To Environmental Change Over The Late Quaternary, Catalina Tomé

Biology ETDs

The rapid progression of modern climate change is already altering ecosystems worldwide. By employing the fossil record, we can investigate how animals responded to past climatic changes and biodiversity loss. The paleontological record of the late Quaternary (past ~22000 years) encompasses a period of considerable environmental change in North America. Rising temperatures and climatic fluctuations are coupled with the extinction of the majority of large bodied mammals on the landscape. The combination of climate and extinction events led to changes in vegetation and community structure which likely affected the resources available and interactions between the remaining mammals within communities. Here, …

Forty Years Of Change In Southwestern Bee Assemblages, Catherine Cumberland

Biology ETDs

Changes in a regional bee assemblage were investigated by repeating a 1970s study from the U.S. Southwest of bees visiting native sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Results showed declines in abundance and species richness of native bees and increases in non-native Apis mellifera. Climate data indicate drought increased over the 40-year period, favoring introduced and generalist species. Experimental placement of A. mellifera in an area of low A. mellifera density in New Mexico reduced native bee visitation, but improved reproduction in H. annuus plants. Meta-analytic models comparing pollination effectiveness in specialist versus generalist, native versus non-native, and native pollinators …

Constraining The Oxygen Values Of The Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway Using Marine Bivalves, Camille H. Dwyer

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Western Interior Seaway (WIS) remains an oceanographic enigma, including its circulation, similarity to the open ocean, and the fidelity of geochemical proxies to reconstruct paleoenvironments. Across the late Campanian and early Maastrichtian I test whether: 1) the WIS had unique δ¹⁸O_VPDB compared to other marine settings, 2) increasing oceanographic restriction changed the stable isotope composition, and 3) biases, e.g., taxonomy or diagenesis, influenced stable isotope compositions. Results indicate distinct δ¹⁸O_VPDB in the WIS compared to other marine settings. δ¹⁸O_VPDB values were stable through time, suggesting insignificant oceanographic restriction and a …

Development Of Ni-Catalyzed Alkene Dicarbofunctionalization Reactions, Shekhar Kc

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Alkenes serve as one of the most important feedstocks for organic synthesis, having two vicinal sites for bond formation. In alkenes, both vicinal sites can be functionalized with two reagents in a process commonly known as alkene difunctionalization, which results in the formation of two new bonds. A number of alkenes difunctionalization reactions, such as diamination, dioxygenation, carboamination and carbooxygenation, are known. However, difunctionalization of alkenes with two carbon-based entities, termed alkene dicarbofunctionalization, is relatively less common. Development of such a process could provide a powerful method to introduce two different carbon fragments across an alkene in a regioselective manner, …

Application Of Cation Exchange And Nanofiltration To Treat Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewater, Ayush R. Shahi

Civil Engineering ETDs

Flue gas emitted from coal-fired power plants is one of the major sources of sulfur and nitrogen oxides emissions to the atmosphere in the world today. Although coal use has decreased, it is still a major contributor to such emissions. The Clean Air Act in the United States established regulations for coal-fired power plants to limit SO_x and NO_x emissions into the atmosphere. To meet regulatory requirements, power plants have been using scrubbers to limit their air emissions. Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a pollution prevention method that is employed to limit sulfur dioxide emissions directly in the environment …

Resaka Kolontsaina Le Raha (It Is About Cultures): Cultures And Foreign Language Teaching In Madagascar, Iarintsambatra Rijasoa Andriamanana Josoa

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

For years, teaching and learning a foreign language (FL) has been equated to exclusively discover and master that target language and its related cultures. There has not been any exploration of other features such as the native language and local cultures in a foreign language classroom. Using a participatory action research, the aim of this study was to tell the story of six Malagasy high school teachers collaborating in a Teacher Learning Community (TLC) to construct and put into practice pedagogical approaches that celebrate and sustain Malagasy students’ identities, cultures, and experiences through classroom activities, and capitalize them for basis …

An Efficient Multiple-Place Foraging Algorithm For Scalable Robot Swarms, Qi Lu

Computer Science ETDs

Searching and collecting multiple resources from large unmapped environments is an important challenge. It is particularly difficult given limited time, a large search area and incomplete data about the environment. This search task is an abstraction of many real-world applications such as search and rescue, hazardous material clean-up, and space exploration. The collective foraging behavior of robot swarms is an effective approach for this task. In our work, individual robots have limited sensing and communication range (like ants), but they are organized and work together to complete foraging tasks collectively. An efficient foraging algorithm coordinates robots to search and collect …

The Chaotic Domestic: Tracing Affect In Representations Of Nation, Class, And Gender In Eighteenth-Century Laboring-Class Women’S Writing, Kelly J. Hunnings

English Language and Literature ETDs

My dissertation traces a term I call the “chaotic domestic” in the writing of a collection of eighteenth-century women laboring-class writers: Mary Barber, Mary Collier, Mary Leapor, Ann Yearsley, and Janet Little. The chaotic domestic in the hands of these writers is multi-layered and affect-driven, focusing as they do on issues regarding nation, class, and gender. As both a poetic trope and the seeming natural and dynamic state of the domestic sphere, the image of the domestic that this set of writers represents and defines is turbulent, unruly, and one that deals with the tangled web of local and global, …

A Deep Learning Approach To Uncertainty Quantification, Mst Afroja Akter

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

In this thesis we consider ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with random parameters. We focus on Monte Carlo (MC) sampling for computing the statistics of some quantities of interest (QoIs) given by the solution of the ODE problems. We use the 4th order accurate Runge-Kutta (RK4) method as the deterministic ODE solver. We then develop a hybrid MC sampling method that combines RK4 with neural network models to efficiently compute the statistics of QoIs within a desired accuracy. We present several numerical examples to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed hybrid method compared to classical MC sampling. The hybrid …

Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry: Developmental Origins And Implications For Long-Term Health, Katelyn Marie Rusk Phd

Anthropology ETDs

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), characterized by random left-right deviations from perfect symmetry in anatomical structures, is a form of bilateral asymmetry that is thought to reflect underlying developmental instability (DI). DI refers to an organism’s relative ability to buffer against stochastic fluctuations in environmental conditions throughout development. FA is commonly used within evolutionary biology and anthropology as a cumulative indicator of chronic stress exposure during development and its consequences for long-term health. While the FA literature is extensive, there are two primary areas of inquiry that remain incomplete: assessing the full breadth of health correlates of FA across the human life …

Cyclic Amp Efflux Inhibition As A Potential Therapeutic Target For Acute Leukemia: Small Molecule Discovery And Validation, Dominique R. Perez

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Evasion of apoptosis and resistance to chemotherapy are major therapeutic challenges for acute leukemias. Presumably as a means to promote cell survival, multiple elements of the cyclic AMP (cAMP) pathway are aberrantly regulated in acute leukemias. Furthermore, increased intracellular cAMP (icAMP) is known to induce apoptosis. Therefore, modulation of icAMP has long been a target in leukemias. The central hypothesis of this dissertation is that malignant cells produce and remove excess intracellular cAMP to evade apoptosis and promote survival. Consequently, inhibition of cAMP efflux could selectively trigger leukemia cell death. We designed a novel assay to assess icAMP efflux from …

Computational Investigation Of The Interactions Between Bioactive Compounds And Biological Assemblies, Tye D. Martin

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Small, biologically active molecules with unique properties and applications are potential solutions to a wide range of threats to global health including infectious agents and neurodegenerative disease. Experimental studies on a class of oligomeric p-phenylene ethynylenes (OPEs) have shown potential both as bioactive antimicrobials and fluorescent sensing agents for tracking amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregates found in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). A second type of small molecule with potential applications in AD therapy, curcumin, has been found to interfere with Aβ fibril growth. Curcumin also attenuates Aβ-membrane interactions and Aβ toxicity. Our goal has been to use computational techniques to better understand the …

An Assessment Of A Video On The Link Between Diabetes And Peridontal Disease To Educate Native American Populations., Valerie E. Long

Dental Hygiene ETDs

As the Native American population of the Navajo Nation, becomes affected with diabetes dental offices across the Navajo Reservation must ensure that evidence based research is being presented n the oral systemic link of diabetes and periodontal disease. The purpose of this study was to bring awareness to the important topic of the bi-directional link of diabetes and periodontal disease with Native American dental patients. This topic seems to not be valued during oral hygiene education time and so that addition of a culturally-specific educational video on the topic should add value to the message. This topic was investigated via …