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Nanofabrication Through Molding, Naijia Liu

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The development of today’s nanotechnology relies on the capabilities of nanofabrication techniques. An ideal nanofabrication method would cover a broad range of length scales, control of geometries, and a versatile material and composition choice. However, most of the existing nanofabrication methods are limited in some of these aspects. Molding is a fabrication method used for materials that can be realized in a soft state. Molding forms materials by deforming them with an applied bias, typically a pressure gradient, and drive the materials against a hard mold with pre-defined geometries. By using molds of nanoscale patterns, molding has been achieved down …

Trim71/Lin-41 Links An Ancient Mirna Pathway To Human Congenital Hydrocephalus, Duy Phan

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The let-7 target TRIM71/LIN-41 is a phylogenetically conserved RNA-binding protein best known as a heterochronic regulator of epidermal stem cell fate in C. elegans. I now show that TRIM71 is a novel marker of neuroepithelial cells, the earliest neural stem cells (NSCs) of the prenatal mammalian brain. Trim71 deletion in prenatal mouse NSCs (Nestin-Trim71fl/fl and Emx-Trim71fl/fl), or knock-in of a human congenital hydrocephalus-associated missense mutation that disrupts the regulation of target RNAs (Trim71R595H/+), causes severe cortical thinning and associated ventriculomegaly due to defective NSC self-renewal without altering ependymal cilia- driven cerebrospinal fluid flow. Strikingly, Trim71R595H/R595H mice exhibit anencephaly and embryonic …

Tyrosine Mediated Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Reactions, Clorice Rose Reinhardt

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Tyrosine residues can be redox active and play a role in enzymes such as photosystem II, cytochrome c oxidase, and ribonucleotide reductase. The large size of these enzymes and high potentials needed to oxidize tyrosine prohibits extensive experimental characterization of tyrosine redox potentials in their native protein environment. Tyrosine oxidation at typical biological pH is coupled to proton-transfer and thus proceeds via a proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reaction to form a neutral tyrosine radical. Radical intermediates can be transient and reactive and thus difficult to isolate. This precludes understanding the role of the solvated protein environment and electronic effects on …

Understanding Charge Transport Control In Water Splitting Dye-Sensitized Photoelectrochemical Cells, Jacob Alan Spies

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Understanding the dynamics of the charge transfer processes that underlie the operation of solar energy conversion devices is crucial for the development of next generation materials. This dissertation focuses on materials used for photoelectrochemical water splitting, namely the water splitting dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cell (WS-DSPEC). In a prototypical WS-DSPEC, water oxidation is driven at a photoanode and proton reduction occurs concurrently at a dark cathode to form hydrogen, a reduced chemical fuel. WS-DSPECs accomplish visible light-driven water-splitting by functionalizing wide bandgap semiconductors (i.e., metal oxides) with visible light harvesting dyes and catalysts. The modular nature of components comprising a WS-DSPEC makes …

Drosophila Chemoreception And Threats Of The Anthropocene, Shuke Xiao

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The term ‘odorant-binding proteins (Obps)’ is used to refer to a large family of insect proteins that are exceptional in their number, abundance and diversity. The name derives from the expression of many family members in the olfactory system of insects and their ability to bind odorants in vitro. However, an increasing body of evidence reveals a much broader role for this family of proteins. Recent results also provoke interesting questions about their mechanisms of action, both within and outside the olfactory system. Here we describe the identification of the first Obps and some cardinal properties of these proteins. We …

Privacy-Preserving Formal Methods, Ning Luo

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Software and hardware can often exhibit undesirable behaviors, leading to catastrophic consequences. Formal methods techniques offer a vast collection of techniques to analyze and verify these systems mathematically to ensure the correctness, robustness, and safety of software and hardware systems against a specification. Despite the significant success of formal methods, privacy requirements are not considered in their design. However, formal methods are often used to verify the critical components of systems, which is valuable intellectual property. In some settings, the verification requirements are often imposed by outside parties, such as regulatory agencies or software marketplaces, that the system owners do …

Symptom Cluster Profiles Following Traumatic Orthopaedic Injuries, Stephen Thomas Breazeale

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Traumatic orthopaedic injuries (TOIs), musculoskeletal injuries that result from physical trauma, affect millions of Americans, and cost more than cancer, diabetes, or heart disease annually. Post-injury symptoms of anxiety, depression, pain, sleep disturbance, and stressor-related disorders are common and associated with negative long-term outcomes. Individuals rarely experience a single symptom, but often experience them in clusters of 2 or more co-occurring symptoms. Symptom clusters can be phenotypically characterized by symptom cluster profiles that describe the common ways a group experiences a set of symptoms. Symptom cluster profiles may share biological underpinnings, yet research examining biological underpinnings of symptom cluster profiles …

Potassium Supplements Versus Hydrochlorothiazide In Hypertensive African Americans: Noninferiority Trial, Marshall Walters

Yale School of Medicine Physician Associate Program Theses

Hypertension disproportionately affects African Americans. First-line monotherapy for treating mild-to-moderate hypertension in African Americans is with thiazide-type diuretics, particularly hydrochlorothiazide. However, the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical control of blood pressure via potassium supplementation is comparable in this population and has a favorable side effect profile. We hypothesize that daily 80mEq potassium supplementation is non-inferior to 25.0mg hydrochlorothiazide in reducing systolic blood pressure in African American adults. To test this hypothesis, we will conduct a double-blind, randomized controlled trial and measure systolic blood pressure at 3 months and 6 months after initiating daily potassium supplementation versus low-dose hydrochlorothiazide and will evaluate this …

Framing Human Action In Physics: Valid Reconstruction, Invalid Reduction, Shabnam Mousavi, Shyam Sunder

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We propose framing human action in physics before reaching to biology and social sciences, rearranging the order of their usual deployment. As an example, consider efforts to model altruism that start in a frame of psychological or social attributes such as reciprocity, empathy, and identity. Evolutionary roots might also be used by appeal to survival of the species from biology. Only then the modeler abstracts to work on notations, and to establish relationships using mathematical apparatus from physics. This top-down deployment of principles from various scientific disciplines has generated a body of coherent models, partially generalizable theories, and disagreements. In …

Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses In The Himalayan Foothills, Nadia Chana

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Kirin Narayan, Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses in the Himalayan Foothills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016).

Toward A Crip Provenance: Centering Disability In Archives Through Its Absence, Gracen M. Brilmyer

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Using the records that document the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition as a case study, this article discusses the messiness and unknowability of provenance. Drawing attention to how the concept of provenance can emphasize the reconstruction of a fonds when records have been moved, rearranged, and dispersed, this article draws attention to the ‘curative’ and ‘rehabilitative’ orientations of established notions of provenance. Put in conversation with disability studies scholarship, which critiques rehabilitating, curing, and restoring, this article outlines the theoretical scaffolding of a crip provenance: a disability-centered framework of resisting the desire to restore and instead meets records where they are …

Paper Sons And Chosen Families: Blurry Archives And Non-Biological Kinship In The Chong Family Album, Sam Battles

Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections

In the face of Chinese exclusion and Victorian-era morality, this project presents a family photo album as a counter-narrative to racialized and gendered immigration policies. The photo album is from the Chong family who were part of a Chinese American community living in San Francisco around 1915. The paper follows the fluctuating and non-chronological layout of the album and the uncertainties within to analyze Chinese Americans family formations in the context of state control of Asian migrants, including hyper-policing and surveillance around immigration status, queerness, and class. The Chong family album demonstrates how Chinese Americans employed flexible definitions of family …

Mechanisms Of Progestin Resistance In Reproductive-Age Women With Atypical Endometrial Hyperplasia, Katherine Mcmaster Cooke

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

With the rising prevalence of endometrial cancer and its precursor atypical hyperplasia (AH) in reproductive-age women amid the obesity epidemic, understanding the pathogenesis of this disease process is crucial to improving medical management. We sought to identify factors that may contribute to progestin-resistant AH via analysis of clinical data as well as investigation of hormonal regulation of endometrial gene and protein expression. We conducted a retrospective review of women with AH (n=63) compared to those with benign hyperplasia (BH) (n=73), which has a significantly lower risk of progression to malignant disease. Subsequently, we analyzed a sub-cohort of women with progestin-responsive …

The Real Cause Of The Broken Rib: Developments In Pediatricians' Approach To Child Abuse; 1960 - 2020, Sofia Charania

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

In 1962, C. Henry Kempe published his landmark work, The Battered Child Syndrome, and set into motion a new discourse on child abuse within the American pediatrics community. This paper discusses the tension pediatricians felt between longstanding assumptions of parental virtue and the implications of the emerging conversation on child abuse started by Kempe. It also discusses the resistance shown by some pediatricians to accepting the reality of abuse and the slow process by which that resistance was overcome, aided by factors such as pediatricians’ involvement in adoption procedures. As pediatricians began confronting and understanding child abuse more deeply, their …

Atypical Presentation Of Hereditary Hypophosphatemic Rickets With Hypercalciuria Due To Digenic Mutations, Bryan Bo-Ran Ho

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in SLC34A3 cause renal phosphate wasting due to loss of sodium phosphate co-transporter NPT2c, generally presenting in childhood with hereditary hypophosphatemic rickets with hypercalciuria (HHRH). Described here are two individuals with atypical presentations of HHRH due to additional heterozygous mutations in SLC34A1 and NPHP4, genetic causes of idiopathic infantile hypercalcemia type 2 and nephronophthisis, respectively. The first case has a 10-year history of well-controlled ulcerative colitis and atrial fibrillation. He wore braces briefly at age 5 for lower extremity bowing, which resolved spontaneously. He was without fractures until age 41, when he sustained a tibial plateau fracture …

Treating Children With Physical Disabilities: Development Of A Video-Based Education Resource Using Simulated Participants, Alexandra Kimmel

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Introduction: Children with physical disabilities (CWPD) represent an important population that has historically experienced inadequate and insensitive care across medical settings. A lack of comfort and knowledge about CWPD is common among health professionals and trainees. We created and evaluated a new educational resource enhanced by videotaped clips of a model pediatric outpatient visit for a CWPD and his mother, both portrayed by simulated participants.Methods: We created a curriculum working group composed of multiple stakeholders, including patients with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, and physician experts in treating disabilities. Using recommendations from the curriculum working group, we developed a …

Gender Differences In Outcomes Of Coordinated Specialty Care For Early Psychosis, Seong Im Hong

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

BACKGROUNDThere has been growing interest in early intervention in psychotic disorders. However, gender differences in the outcomes of treatment have not been \studied in a clinical trial.

METHODSPatients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder with less than 6 months exposure to antipsychotics entered a cluster randomized trial of coordinated specialty care in the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early Treatment Program (RAISE-ETP). Secondary analyses examined gender differences in baseline characteristics as well as two-year gender outcomes, and the response to treatment controlling for baseline differences. Blinded evaluators assessed the Quality of Life Scale and the Positive and Negative Syndrome …

Impact Of Single-Family-Room Nicu Design On Infant Neurodevelopment And Breast Milk Provision, Lucille Kohlenberg

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT DESIGN IMPACTING INFANT OUTCOMES AND BREAST MILK PROVISION.

Lucille Kohlenberg and Angela Montgomery, MD, MSEd. Section of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine. New Haven, CT.

Single-family room (SFR) NICUs have gradually replaced open-bay (OB) units over the last three decades. Compared to OB units, SFR units provide increased opportunities for parental rooming and maternal breast milk (MBM) provision; however, they may also present fewer sensory exposures and parental learning opportunities. Due to the presence of potentially beneficial and detrimental effects, it remains uncertain whether the SFR design offers aggregate advantages over the …

Analyzing Trends In Intermittent Exotropia With Adhd Medication Use, Kevin Wang

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

ANALYZING TRENDS IN INTERMITTENT EXOTROPIA WITH ADHD MEDICATION USE.

Kevin K. Wang, Marez M. Megalla, and Martha A. Howard. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.

Objective: This study aims to examine whether ADHD medication usage is associated with changes in intermittent exotropia in children, and whether such ADHD medication use is associated with prevention of strabismus surgery.

Design/Participants: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children with both ADHD and intermittent exotropia seen at the Yale Eye Center between 2005 and 2020 who were taking medications for ADHD.

Methods: A list of …

Leptospiral Proteins As Potential Immunity Targets To Protect Individuals Against Reinfection, Yicong Liu

Public Health Theses

Leptospirosis is a disease caused by pathogenic species of spirochetes of the genus Leptospira. The bacteria are widespread globally and can survive in the environment for weeks after being excreted through the urine of infected animals. Humans get infected through contact with contaminated water or soil. Leptospirosis is a life-threatening disease with a wide range of symptoms. It is believed that after infection, individuals acquire natural immunity against the same infecting serovar. However, there are over 300 serovars of Leptospira that can cause disease in humans and animals, and reinfections are common. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that reinfection caused …

Yale School Of Medicine Facts & Figures 2022-2023, Yale School Of Medicine Office Of Communications

Facts & Figures – annual Yale School of Medicine numbers

Provided by the Office of Communications, the Facts and Figures brochure is produced annually as a way to provide a snapshot of key facts and data related to the School of Medicine as well as the Medical Campus. This includes enrollment data, research activity, financial summaries, and more.

Medicine@Yale May/June 2022 Volume 17, Issue 1, Yale School Of Medicine Office Of Communications

Medicine@Yale - development newsletter

Medicine@Yale : advancing biomedical science, education and health care was a print and online newsletter which published news about academics, research and philanthropy for alumni, donors, faculty, students and the general public. It was initially published 6 times a year and then changed to a quarterly schedule. The first issue came out June/Jul. 2005. The final issue was published in May/June 2022, vol. 17, issue 1. Published by Yale School of Medicine, Office of Communications.

A Nonsense Mutation In Gsdmc Is Associated With Cancer Mortality In Dogs, Hang Li

Public Health Theses

Over 400 distinct canine breeds today were result from artificial selection during the last centuries. And due to the selection pressure from human interest and the founder effects, the difference among individual genomes from one same breed is less than the difference between breeds. 446 samples were included in this study to recognize the cancer-associated nonsense mutations in canine genome. 17 of the 446 samples were lab-recruited dogs, and the other 429 samples were downloaded from Sequence Read Archive. One nonsense mutation in GSDMC protein is found significantly associated with cancer risk in dogs. Since nonsense mutations could provide premature …

Pet Imaging Reveals Reduced Synaptic Density In People With Well-Controlled Hiv Infection, Julian Joseph Weiss

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Background: Synaptic injury is a pathological hallmark of neurological impairment in people living with HIV (PLWH), a common complication despite viral suppression with antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, there are no biomarkers sensitive to neurocognitive impairment in PLWH. Measurement of synaptic density in living humans may allow better understanding of HIV neuropathogenesis and provide a dynamic biomarker for therapeutic studies. We applied novel synaptic vesical protein 2A (SV2A) positron emission tomographic (PET) imaging to investigate synaptic density in the frontostriatalthalamic region in PLWH and HIV-uninfected (HIV-) participants.

Methods: In this cross-sectional pilot study,13 older male PLWH on ART underwent neurocognitive assessments, …

A Scoping Review Comparing Sustainable Diet Indices, Natalie Henning

Public Health Theses

Interest in environmentally sustainable diets (i.e., diets beneficial for both human and planetary health) has increased as the role of food systems in climate change and population health has become better understood. Sustainable diet indices have been proposed as a holistic approach to assessing diets around the world with regards to human and planetary outcomes. The aim of this scoping review was to summarize and compare sustainable diet indices and their applicability to various populations.A literature search of three databases (Scopus, PubMed, and the Climate Change and Human Health Literature Search Portal) was conducted to identify articles that developed, validated, …

Comprehensive West Nile Virus Phylogenetic Analysis: Europe And Beyond, Robert T. Koch

Public Health Theses

ABSTRACT West Nile virus (WNV) inhabits a unique position in the infectious disease landscape. It is both the most widespread arbovirus in the world, and yet is one of the least known. WNV is spread by mosquitoes and has high morbidity and mortality in birds, humans are dead-end hosts of the virus but can develop a serious neuroinvasive form of the disease (WNND). The incidence of such cases is on the rise around the world. To explore WNV, we created a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis with all available WNV genomes in genbank database using Nextstrain to identify use cases for increasing …

Identification Of An In Vitro Medium For Leptospira Spp. As A Surrogate For Host Environment, Using Rna-Seq Transcriptome Analysis, Zitong Lin

Public Health Theses

Pathogenic Leptospira species causes millions of leptospirosis cases around the world and is an urgent public health issue that needs to be properly addressed. The infection leads to clinical manifestations ranging from self-limiting febrile illness to severe life-threatening symptoms. Currently, there is a lack of sensitive assay for early diagnosis of leptospirosis, and there is no FDA-approved vaccine for human use in the United States. Despite the worldwide occurrence of this zoonotic disease, low and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by it. A better understanding of the pathogenesis of Leptospira is a crucial step for the development of better diagnostic …

Melissa: Monitoring The Environment With Living Investigatory Sentinel Species Apis Mellifera, Brady Rowe

Public Health Theses

Without the ability to meaningfully detect an environmental contaminant, public health efforts can get behind the curve, and people suffer for it. Industrial polluters are the major source of environmental contamination. Despite regulation, industrial compliance efforts are often limited by the difficulty of getting samples to analyze due to cost and logistical challenges. The current method requires a compliance officer to gather a sample or rely on self-reported measures from the potential polluters. This process can be remarkably costly both in capital and human labor. These issues can be remedied by relying on the domesticated honeybee to gather the “samples.” …

Interactions Between Diabetes And Covid-19: A Scoping Review, Vani Topkar

Public Health Theses

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic that started in March 2020 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus introduced an incredible number of unknowns that ongoing research aims to investigate. One such unknown is the relationship between diabetes and COVID-19. Existing literature has identified diabetes as a risk factor for poor health outcomes in COVID-19 patients, however, other information is limited and inconclusive.

Objective: There are two primary goals of this scoping review. First, to consolidate existing literature about both associations between COVID-19 and diabetes, and the biological mechanisms of how diabetes and COVID-19 may interact. This includes consolidating information about diabetes as …

Demographic Representation In Clinical Trials Of Pharmacotherapy Fertility Treatments In Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (Pcos): A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Kendall Watanabe

Public Health Theses

ABSTRACT: Background: While Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a medical condition that impacts women of childbearing age, prior research has shown that women of color are at a disproportionately higher risk. The goal of this meta research project is to closely model a systematic process to assess demographic characteristics of participants recruited and enrolled in clinical trials and RCTs in PCOS-related research studies. Methods: An exhaustive electronic database search was performed through Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid Embase, and Web of Science to identify studies that focused on PCOS-related infertility. Out of the 2,883 records identified in the initial search …