The Role Of Fatty Acid Metabolism In The Pathogenesis Of Trypanosoma Brucei, Nava Poudyal

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Trypanosoma brucei is the protozoan parasite that causes African Sleeping Sickness in humans and nagana, a wasting disease in cattle. T. brucei completes its life cycle in two hosts, mammals and the tsetse fly insect vector. Due to the geographical restriction of the tsetse fly, the disease is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Both the insect and mammalian forms of the parasite need fatty acids to anchor their surface proteins. We worked on three projects on fatty acid metabolism and its role in immune evasion strategies of T. brucei. First, we assessed the role of T. brucei surface proteins in …

Enhancing The Performance Of Poly(3-Hexylthiophene) Based Organic Thin-Film Transistors Using An Interface Engineering Method, Eyob Negussie Tarekegn

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An original design and photolithographic fabrication process for poly(3-hexylthiophene-2, 5-diyl) (P3HT) based organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) is presented. The structure of the transistors was based on the bottom gate bottom contact OTFT. The fabrication process was efficient, cost-effective, and relatively straightforward to implement. Current–voltage (I-V) measurements were performed to characterize the primary electronic properties of the transistors. The measured mobility of these transistors was significantly higher than most results reported in the literature for other similar bottom gate bottom contact P3HT OTFTs. The higher mobility is explained primarily by the effectiveness of the fabrication process in keeping the interfacial layers …

Machine Learning Models For Human Synapse Genomics, Anqi Wei

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In the central nervous system, synapses are essential junctions that connect neurons and play important roles in neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity. While there are many challenges in human synapse genomics, machine learning techniques, which are capable of mining and interpreting large amounts of genomic data, may be utilized to facilitate the functional studies of human synapses. In this study, we have developed machine learning models for human synapse genomics to address several biological problems.

RNA localization plays an important role at the synapse, allowing local protein synthesis required for synaptic plasticity during brain development. Previous studies were conducted in mice …

Mechanics Modeling Of Non-Rigid Origami: From Qualitative To Quantitative Accuracy, Jiayue Tao

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Origami, the ancient art of paper folding, has recently evolved into a design and fabrication framework for various engineering systems at vastly different scales: from large-scale deployable airframes to mesoscale biomedical devices to small-scale DNA machines. The increasingly diverse applications of origami require a better understanding of the fundamental mechanics and dynamics induced by folding. Therefore, formulating a high-fidelity simulation model for origami is crucial, especially when large amplitude deformation/rotation exists during folding.

The currently available origami simulation models can be categorized into three branches: rigid-facet models, bar-hinge models, and finite element models. The first branch of models assumes that …

The Effect Of Freezing Rates And Storage On Atlantic Salmon And Peaches, Wesam Aljeddawi

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The effect of long-term frozen storage of Atlantic salmon and sliced peaches was studied to determine methods to optimize quality. The first experiment was conducted to determine the quality changes in Atlantic salmon stored at different freezer temperatures over 12 months. Fresh and pre-frozen salmon were placed in five different freezers set at –7°C, –12°C, –18°C, –29°C and –77°C and evaluated for quality at 30, 90, 180, 270 and 360 days of storage. In general, higher quality was retained to a greater extent in salmon held at –29°C and –77°C for 360 days compared to the other storage temperatures. No …

Etiology And Epidemiology Of Mini-Ring In Ultradwarf Bermudagrass Putting Greens, Lukas Dant

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Mini-ring is a disease in ultradwarf bermudagrass (UDBG) [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. × C. transvaalensis (Burtt-Davy)] putting greens caused by Waitea zeae (Voorhees) J.A. Crouch & Cubeta, (formerly Rhizoctonia zeae). Symptoms typically resemble frog-eye patches that are 10 to 40 cm in diameter with a bronze to orange outer ring and green center. In the southeastern United States, mini-ring symptoms appear in late-summer and generally persist until UDBG dormancy in late-fall. Mini-ring is often problematic in UDBG when nitrogen (N) fertility is reduced to manage organic matter production and improve putting green performance and perceived green speed. While …

Learning Graphical Models Of Multivariate Functional Data With Applications To Neuroimaging, Jiajing Niu

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This dissertation investigates the functional graphical models that infer the functional connectivity based on neuroimaging data, which is noisy, high dimensional and has limited samples. The dissertation provides two recipes to infer the functional graphical model: 1) a fully Bayesian framework 2) an end-to-end deep model.

We first propose a fully Bayesian regularization scheme to estimate functional graphical models. We consider a direct Bayesian analog of the functional graphical lasso proposed by Qiao et al. (2019).. We then propose a regularization strategy via the graphical horseshoe. We compare both Bayesian approaches to the frequentist functional graphical lasso, and compare the …

Effect Of Chlorine Dioxide Gas On The Properties Of Packaging Materials And Effect Of Chlorine Dioxide Gas To Maintain The Quality Of Fresh Strawberries, Duleeka Kuruwita, Duleeka Prasadani Kuruwita Arachchige

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ClO₂ as an antimicrobial gas in the headspace of produce package is a relatively novel approach. Gaseous ClO₂ is more effective than aqueous ClO₂ and can be used in the headspace of fresh food packages. ClO₂ gas can diffuse into product surfaces and films. As an oxidizer, it can react with and change polymeric package components, possibly affecting the product’s shelflife.

This research studied effects of ClO₂ gas treatments on produce packaging materials (APET, two PE types, Nylon). The treatment group (with ClO₂) and the control group (without ClO₂) of packaging …

Microcosm Evaluation Of Natural And Biologically-Enhanced Abiotic Transformation Of Chlorinated Ethenes In Low Permeability Formations, Hao Wang

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Trichloroethene (TCE) is one of the most commonly found hazardous compounds at Superfund sites, especially in groundwater. Its volatility and toxicity pose a threat to drinking water safety and human health. In the past decades, research on the fate of TCE in the environment has shifted to contamination of low-permeability formations, for example fractured bedrock aquifers. TCE back-diffusion from low permeability zones and management of persistent TCE groundwater plumes caused by this long-term source zone pose major challenges for remediation.

Monitored natural attenuation (MNA) is a cost-effective remediation strategy that has gradually gained acceptance by regulators. Compared to extensive active …

Green On The Map - The Influence Of Conservation Easements On The Naturalness Of Landscapes In The United States, Nakisha Fouch

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Large protected areas have long been the cornerstone of conservation biology, however, in an era branded by the human dominance of ecosystems, regional landscape structure and function are often a consequence of accumulated land-use decisions that may or may not include a nod to conservation planning. With underrepresentation of habitats in publicly protected areas, attention has focused on the function of alternative land conservation mechanisms. Private conservation easements (CEs) have proliferated in the United States, yet assessing landscape-level function is confounded by holder and donor intent, national and regional policy, regional landscape contexts, varying extents, resolution, and temporal scale. Over …

Carbon Fibers From Bio-Based Precursors Derived From Renewable Sources, Sagar Kanhere

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Carbon fibers have the highest strength and modulus among all known fibers and are used as reinforcements in high-performance composites [1]. Carbon fibers also have a very low density relative to metals. Therefore, carbon fibers possess ultrahigh specific strength and modulus, which make them desirable for high-performance light-weight composites. A vast majority of commercial carbon fibers are produced from PAN precursors that are expensive, which limits the use of PAN-derived carbon fibers to aerospace applications (e.g., airplanes). However, for costsensitive applications, there is a need for low-cost, moderate performance carbon fibers. Lignin is a low-cost by-product of pulping and biorefining …

Development Of A Tissue Engineered Cardiac Patch, Howard Herbert

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Cardiovascular Disease(CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in the developed world. CVD is most commonly manifested as atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries leading to Myocardial Infarction(MI). After MI, fibrosis of the ventricular wall leads to heart failure(HF), a pandemic affecting 26 million people globally. While therapies are continuously developed to combat HF, the treatment of choice, whole heart transplant, is limited by the availability of donor hearts. It is clear that there is a need to develop a long-term solution to combat HF and its enormous economic burden. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine holds promise as a possible solution …

X-Ray Interrogated Implantable Chemical And Strain Sensors For Monitoring Implant Associated Infections And Fracture Healing, Apeksha Rajamanthrilage

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Bone fracture healing includes complex and sequence of dynamic events to restore the integrity and biomechanical properties of the bone. While most of the fractures heal without any problem, healing is sometimes compromised. Two significant fracture healing complications are orthopedic implant-associated infections and non-unions/delayed union. These can be interrelated causes as well. Implant-associated infection can cause implant loosening, and as a result, it can delay the fracture healing process. Herein, we describe two different types of sensors that can be used in monitoring biochemical and biomechanical processes of fracture healing using X-rays.

We developed a XELCI (X-ray Excited Luminescence Chemical …

Large Genomes Assembly Using Mapreduce Framework, Yuehua Zhang

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Knowing the genome sequence of an organism is the essential step toward understanding its genomic and genetic characteristics. Currently, whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing is the most widely used genome sequencing technique to determine the entire DNA sequence of an organism. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques have enabled biologists to generate large DNA sequences in a high-throughput and low-cost way. However, the assembly of NGS reads faces significant challenges due to short reads and an enormously high volume of data. Despite recent progress in genome assembly, current NGS assemblers cannot generate high-quality results or efficiently handle large genomes …

Scalable Data-Driven Predictive Modeling And Analytics For Cho Process Development Optimization, Sarah Mbiki

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In 1982, the FDA approved the first recombinant therapeutic protein, and since then, the biopharmaceutical industry has continued to develop innovative and highly effective biological drugs for various illnesses¹. These drugs are produced using host organisms that are modified to hold the genetic encoding of the targeted protein¹. Of the many host organisms, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are often used due to capability to perform posttranslational modification (PTM): which allows human-like synthesis of proteins unlikely to invoke immunogenicity in humans ^1,2.

Despite all the positive attributes, many challenges are associated with CHO cell cultures, …

Data-Driven Biomarker Panel Discovery In Ovarian Cancer Using Heterogenous Data Fusion On Exosomal And Non-Exosomal Microrna Expression Data, Paritra Mandal

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Ovarian cancer (OC) is an aggressive gynecological cancer and is currently the 5th leading cause of deaths due to cancer in women. High mortality rates are attributable to the vague pathogenesis and asymptomatic nature of the early stages. The development of a liquid biopsy for routine OC screening could help identify the disease at an earlier stage, making treatments more likely to be effective thereby increasing survival rates. Exosomes, small (~100nm) extracellular vesicles present in body fluids, have been shown to contain cancer-progression, onset, and related factors, making them good candidates for use in liquid biopsies. However, to date, only …

Behavioral Ecology Of The American Alligator (Alligator Mississippiensis) In Human-Dominated Landscapes Of Coastal South Carolina, Anjelika Kidd-Weaver

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When wildlife habitat is developed to accommodate growing human populations, wildlife are forced to move to undisturbed landscapes or to acclimate to a novel, anthropogenic environment. In this dissertation, we investigated the behavior and ecology of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in coastal, residential resort communities with an overarching goal of identifying behavioral patterns of alligators that can inform risk management strategies. In Chapter One, we compared the space use of male and female alligators in primarily wetland versus residential landscapes across three seasons to determine if and how space use behaviors of alligators differ. We found that …

Empowering Older Adults With Their Information Privacy Management, Reza Ghaiumy Anaraky

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Literature depicts a deficit-based narrative around older adults and their technology use, suggesting that older adults are not able to keep up with their younger counterparts in adopting new technologies. In this dissertation, I argue that this view is not necessarily accurate or productive. Instead, I argue that the deficit is in the technology design, which is not inclusive and often caters to the needs of younger adults.

I study older and younger adults' privacy decision-making as a showcase. To study the privacy decision-making process with more granularity, I used a dual-route approach (decision heuristics and privacy calculus) to disentangle …

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Investigating Spatial Heterogeneity In Myocardial Wound Environments To Improve Therapy, Michael Potter

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Heart failure is a broad pathology manifestation categorized by an inability of the heart to successfully pump blood throughout the vast vessel network of the body. Within the United States, heart failure is projected to increase by approximately 46% from 2012 to 2030. Modalities of heart failure are generally related to wall mechanics that are impacted following myocardial infarction events. Interplay exists between the wall mechanics, responding cell populations, and the spatial heterogeneities in the resultant scar. This interplay directs the myocardium towards heart failure modalities governed by overly stiff or compliant states. It is essential to elucidate details underlying …

On Variants Of Sliding And Frank-Wolfe Type Methods And Their Applications In Video Co-Localization, Seyed Hamid Nazari

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In this dissertation, our main focus is to design and analyze first-order methods for computing approximate solutions to convex, smooth optimization problems over certain feasible sets. Specifically, our goal in this dissertation is to explore some variants of sliding and Frank-Wolfe (FW) type algorithms, analyze their convergence complexity, and examine their performance in numerical experiments. We achieve three accomplishments in our research results throughout this dissertation. First, we incorporate a linesearch technique to a well-known projection-free sliding algorithm, namely the conditional gradient sliding (CGS) method. Our proposed algorithm, called the conditional gradient sliding with linesearch (CGSls), does not require the …

Pedagogical Data Literacy With A Multi-Tiered System Of Supports: A Mixed Methods Study Of Teachers Using Data-Driven Reading Instruction In A Title I School, Paula Alexander

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The purpose of this research study was to examine how teachers use pedagogical data literacy methods using the South Carolina Multi-Tiered System of Supports (SCMTSS) framework, and its influence on positive student outcomes in reading achievement for all students and students receiving reading intervention supports in Kindergarten through third grade.

Teachers' pedagogical data literacy, or the intersection of educators' knowledge and skills to transform the data into instructional strategies to meet students' needs, provides a lens to fulfill the SCMTSS framework approach of using data-based problem solving to maximize growth of all students. This research study identified SCMTSS Tier I …

The Impact Of Funds Of Knowledge On Elementary Multilingual Learners’ Perceptions Of Their Connection To Their Teacher And The Classroom, Kelli Lowe

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The U.S. population is rapidly becoming more culturally and linguistically diverse, and the education system is ill-equipped to meet the needs of these diverse learners thus creating large achievement gaps. In South Carolina, two factors contributing to an inadequate education system are the lack of teacher preparation programs that address cultural diversity and a predominantly White teacher workforce for an ever-growing diverse student body. The combination of these two factors is particularly detrimental to multilingual learners in the most critical time of a child’s development. This qualitative study was part of a collaboration and combined improvement science with design thinking …

The Role Of Leisure Engagement In Fostering Cognition In Aging, Karen Wenzel

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Leisure activities are a major component of healthy aging, associated with reduced risk of cognitive decline and enhanced cognitive function. However, there is wide variation in the conceptualization and measurement of leisure. Specific leisure activities or domains have been studied in association with cognition in aging. More recently, researchers have noted that attributes of the activity, rather than the activity itself, may be significant. This study explored the current state of knowledge regarding attributes of leisure activities that foster cognition in aging. A literature review using PRISMA Scoping Review guidelines identified objectively and subjectively measured attributes of leisure engagement in …

Building Teachers’ Cultural Capital In The Classroom: Using Funds Of Knowledge To Support Multilingual Learners, Lindsey Skirtich

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This qualitative study has a collaborative focus and blends improvement science with Design Thinking to first understand teachers’ perceptions of their ability to serve ML students and second, how the utilization of the Funds of Knowledge (FoK) can assist teachers in serving ML students. The purpose of this study is to use the Funds of Knowledge to build the capacity of teachers to connect with students through their lived experiences.

Through collaboration and reflection, this study investigated teachers’ perceptions and focused on increasing teachers’ ability to serve ML students utilizing a framework intended to connect students’ backgrounds to the classroom.

The Experience Of Severe Food Allergy At Residential Camp, Alexsandra Dubin

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Severe food allergy is an emerging issue in public, educational, and recreational spaces, as the condition rises in prevalence and severity (Capucilli et al., 2019). Nearly all camps serve children with food allergies (Schellpfeffer et al., 2020). Research focusing on documenting rates of food allergy, anaphylaxis management, and food allergy management in summer camps has been foundational to ensuring a safe experience for youth attending camp (Gonzalez-Mancebo et al., 2019; Schellpfeffer et al., 2020). However, less research has focused on the socio-emotional impacts of attending camp with a food allergy or exploring how children with food allergy experience summer camp …

Statistical Methods For Modern Threats, Brandon Lumsden

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More than ever before, technology is evolving at a rapid pace across the broad spectrum of biological sciences. As data collection becomes more precise, efficient, and standardized, a demand for appropriate statistical modeling grows as well. Throughout this dissertation, we examine a variety of new age data arising from modern technology of the 21st century. We begin by employing a suite of existing statistical techniques to address research questions surrounding three medical conditions presenting in public health sciences. Here we describe the techniques used, including generalized linear models and longitudinal models, and we summarize the significant associations identified between research …

Design, Fabrication, And Characterization Of Conjugated Polymeric Electrochemical Memristors As Neuromorphic/Integrated Circuits, Benjamin Grant

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Organic materials are promising candidates for future electronic devices compared to the complementing inorganic materials due to their ease of processability, use, and disposal, low cost of fabrication, energy efficiency, and flexible nature toward implementation as flexible and non-conformal devices.With that in mind, electrochemical materials have been widely demonstrated with commercial use as sensors, displays, and a variety of other electronic devices. As Moore's law predicts the increase in the density of transistors on a chip, the requirement to create either smaller transistors or the replacement of the transistor device entirely is apparent. Memory resistors, coined ``memristor", are variable resistive …

The Role Of Vsmc Mir-33a Expression On Apoa-I Mediated Cholesterol Efflux And Macrophage-Like Cell Transdifferentiation, Ikechukwu Esobi

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Atherosclerosis is a condition caused by cholesterol accumulating in arterial intimal cells and is a disease that kills more people in the United States and globally than any other disease. Atherosclerosis is commonly recognized to arise from arterial intimal macrophage cholesterol accumulation, but cell lineage tracing technology has shown that a large majority of cholesterol-laden intimal cells found in atherosclerotic arteries are actually vascular smooth muscle cells that have switched phenotypes to a macrophage-like cell. This vascular smooth muscle cell to macrophage-like cell phenotypic switch is known as transdifferentiation and can be triggered by vascular smooth muscle cell cholesterol accumulation. …

A New Comprehensive And Practical Taxonomy Of Demands Healthcare Professionals Experience: The Development Process And Testing Using Machine Learning, Phoebe Xoxakos

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Given the complex (Ratnapalan & Lang, 2020) and high stress environment of healthcare organizations (Freshwater & Cahill, 2010), a better understanding of the conditions in which healthcare professionals work is important. Although previous research has resulted in somewhat limited categories of the demands on healthcare professionals (Borteyrou et al., 2014; Shanafelt et al., 2020), a comprehensive taxonomy that covers the breadth and depth of demands is lacking. Using longitudinal data collected over 28 measurement waves spanning two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the present studies outline the development of a taxonomy based on an in-depth literature review of related workplace …

Increasing Classroom Teachers' Use Of Linguistically Responsive Strategies To Support English Language Learners: A Mixed-Methods Study, Christie Shealy

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With the dawn of the new decade, English Language Learner (ELL) populations began to grow in states without structures and professional learning to equip teachers to face the changing demographic of the classroom. In response to the growth of the knowledge gap between classroom teachers in South Carolina and their diverse classrooms, I conducted a study based on improvement science principles. As a long-standing ELL program coordinator, I experienced the need to increase linguistic responsiveness in classroom teachers on a daily basis. The application of the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle utilized mixed methodology to gather data to increase classroom teachers’ use …