Digital Commons Network^™

Optimized Microbial Recombinant Production Of Hiv-1 Anti-Envelope Antibody Fragments With Applications To Single Particle Tracking Of Virus Assembly, Merissa Michelle Bruns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In my findings, I have established a set series of protocols to recombinantly produce, purify and apply various fluorescent probes in vitro for the fluorescent labeling and study of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope (Env) protein during HIV viral assembly. There remains insufficient knowledge about the molecular dynamics and interactions of HIV-1 Env protein with its counterpart, Gag, on the inner host cell surface during assembly of a mature virus particle. There also remains an insufficient amount of data for the understanding and clarification of the mechanism of action of a known host cell HIV-1 restriction factor, …

Competition In Economic Theory And The Skew In U.S. Corporate Wealth Creation, Marc H. Pentacoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historical studies of U.S. capital markets show a dramatic skew in the distribution of corporate wealth. This thesis investigates the evolution of economic thought related to realistic models of competition, seeking to find the most suitable theory of competition to explain this skew in U.S. corporate wealth creation. The incorporation of realistic elements into the static theories of competition leads to theoretical difficulties in the early 20th century. Another line of thought developed non-equilibrium dynamic models of competition, culminating in Schumpeter. In Schumpeter, firms seek to manage the uncertainty f rom rapid change induced by innovation and increasing returns by …

Math Achievement Of Low-Socioeconomic Status Students: A Comparative Study Of Public-School Settings, Alexander Ohene Ansah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, falling standards in the American public-school system have elicited public concern and criticism, leading to several public-school reforms. One such reform is the charter-school movement. Charter schools provide a public option for parents in search of an alternative to traditional public schools. At the same time, the achievement gap continues to widen, with students of low socioeconomic status on the losing end. Since the beginning of the charter school movement, research has focused on comparisons in achievement between students in charters and traditional public schools. Results have been mixed.

Focusing on low-SES student populations in Colorado, this …

Children’S Health And Maternal Work Activities, Termeh Tavangar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I estimate the effect of poor child health on maternal labor force participation. Mothers of health-impaired children may decide not to work and stay at home to take care of their children. Alternatively, mothers may choose to enter the labor force to pay for these children’s additional resources. Which action dominates is the empirical question I answer in this paper. I control for the potential endogeneity of a child’s health status by using an instrumental variables approach. I find that if mothers have a child in poor health, the probability that the mother works is decreased by thirteen percentage points, …

Deep Learning Methods For Fingerprint-Based Indoor And Outdoor Positioning, Fahad Alhomayani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Outdoor positioning systems based on the Global Navigation Satellite System have several shortcomings that have deemed their use for indoor positioning impractical. Location fingerprinting, which utilizes machine learning, has emerged as a viable method and solution for indoor positioning due to its simple concept and accurate performance. In the past, shallow learning algorithms were traditionally used in location fingerprinting. Recently, the research community started utilizing deep learning methods for fingerprinting after witnessing the great success and superiority these methods have over traditional/shallow machine learning algorithms. The contribution of this dissertation is fourfold:

First, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based method for …

Rab35 Centered Membrane Trafficking Pathway Directs Apical Constriction During Drosophila Gastrulation, Hui Miao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Force generation in epithelial tissues is often pulsatile, with actomyosin networks generating high-tension contractile forces at the cell cortex before cyclically disassembling. This pulsed nature of cytoskeletal forces implies that there must be cellular processes to extract unidirectional changes that drive processive transformations in cell shape. During Drosophila melanogastergastrulation, the invagination of the prospective mesoderm is driven by the pulsed constriction of apical surfaces. Here, we address the mechanisms by which the irreversibility of pulsed events is achieved while also permitting uniform epithelial behaviors to emerge. We use MSD-based analyses to identify contractile steps and find that when a …

Wind Turbine Parameter Calibration Using Deep Learning Approaches, Rebecca Mccubbin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inertia and damping coefficients are critical to understanding the workings of a wind turbine, especially when it is in a transient state. However, many manufacturers do not provide this information about their turbines, requiring people to estimate these values themselves. This research seeks to design a multilayer perceptron (MLP) that can accurately predict the inertia and damping coefficients using the power data from a turbine during a transient state. To do this, a model of a wind turbine was built in Matlab, and a simulation of a three-phase fault was used to collect realistic fault data to input into …

Assessing The Variations Of Educational Attainment At National And Subnational Levels Using Hierarchical Linear Models, Bingxin Qi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Education is a human right, and equal access to education is not only crucial for an individual’s well-being, but also essential for eradicating poverty, ensuring long-term prosperity for all, transforming the society, and achieving sustainable development. Measuring education development, especially the variations of educational attainment, in a timely and accurate manner can help educators, practitioners, scientists, and policymakers compare and evaluate various education indicators at both subnational and national levels. This research presents an approach that combines multi-source and multidimensional data including population distribution, human settlement, and education data to assess and explore educational attainment trajectories at both national and …

Plantation Economy Model As Developed By Lloyd Best And Kari Polanyi Levitt: The Case Of Jamaica, Paula-Leone Samuda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lloyd Best and Kari Polanyi Levitt created the Theory of the Plantation Economy as an analytical tool for understanding the causes of underdevelopment in the Caribbean region. The theory provides a break from the classical understanding of developing economies as simply pre-industrialized societies. Instead, the theory tracks uneven development through analysis of metropole-hinterland relations, which account for the legacy of slavery, colonialism, and mercantilism on the structure of the global economy. In doing so, Plantation Theory is able to draw a clear link between underdevelopment in the hinterland and development in the metropole. Examining the usefulness of the Theory of …

Fxs-Causing Point Mutations In Fmrp Disrupt Neuronal Granule Formation And Function, Emily L. Starke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the disruption of Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP) function in neurons, affecting nearly 1 in 7,500 individuals. Although FXS typically occurs from a complete loss of FMRP expression due to a CGG trinucleotide expansion within the 5’UTR of the FMR1 gene, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the KH domains of FMRP have been shown to severely disrupt FMRP function. FMRP is an RNA-binding translation repressor that interacts with ~4% of the neuronal transcriptome. Many target mRNAs encode for proteins important for regulating synaptic processes and modulate synaptic plasticity. It …

Student Expressions Of Aesthetic Learning Experiences, Jodie L. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aesthetic learning experiences are grounded in qualities influenced by the arts: perceptive, sensorial, imaginative, and creative. While the concept of aesthetic experience has been applied broadly within education, student expressions of such experiences have been neglected. This poses a problem of equity both ethically in that the suppression of student voice is perpetuated and pragmatically in that the range and form of aesthetic learning expressed by students is insufficiently attended to and acted upon.

Theoretically guided by John Dewey’s explications of an aesthetic experience and conceptually supported by three interpretive frames—Eisner’s dimensions of schooling, Uhrmacher et al.’s instructional arc, and …

The Role Of Vps54 In Drosophila Melanogaster Neuronal Development And Age Progressive Neurodegeneration, Emily Wilkinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vps54 is a subunit of the Golgi-associated retrograde protein (GARP) complex, which is involved in tethering endosome-derived vesicles to the trans-Golgi network (TGN). The “wobbler” mouse is the phenotypic result of a destabilizing point mutation in Vps54. This mutation causes neurodegeneration and is subsequently used as a model for human motor neuron disease. Presently, it is unclear how disruption of GARP complex function leads to motor neuron degeneration. To better understand the role of Vps54 in motor neuron development, function, and age-related neurodegeneration, we disrupted expression of the Vps54 ortholog in Drosophila and examined the impact on larval neuromuscular junction …

We All Want To Change The World: How Behavioral Insights Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions, Thomas C. Gifford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The world is in the midst of an unprecedented environmental crisis driven primarily by human behavior. As the world has globalized, countries have developed, and standards of living have improved, global pollution has skyrocketed and has resulted in a wide range of environmentally destructive outcomes. All paths to environmentally sustainable development involve a dramatic cut in carbon emissions from current day levels. In this thesis, I explore how the omission of behavioral factors from mainstream neoclassical models has contributed to, and can aid in reducing unsustainably high levels of carbon emissions. Throughout the history of economic thought, classical economists such …

Compressible Hydrodynamics Of Few Body Optical Vortices, Jasmine M. Andersen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubiquity of vortices nearly rivals that of the innumerable fluids and spaces in which they live. Not only do they exist in systems such as superfluids, superconductors, optical fields, or cold atomic gases, for example, but they also exist in our atmospheres, oceans, and even in our veins. This makes understanding and accurately predicting the dynamics of vortices in various systems a relevant and meaningful endeavor.

From a typical hydrodynamic perspective, vortices move within a given fluid because of the background fluid density and phase gradients at the vortex location. However, we find that these gradients alone are insufficient …

A. B.A.L.A.N.C.E.: A Well-Being Research Study, Reggie Gwinn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study has been to investigate the impact of a well-being intervention, using a well-being curriculum, known as A. B.A.L.A.N.C.E.. The method of educational criticism and connoisseurship was used as the qualitative method. Educational criticism is rooted in the process of expressing the specific qualities of one’s observations, while educational connoisseurship is rooted in the process of appreciation. The intervention will be conducted by an interventionist, myself, who gave the 10-lesson intervention to six 6th grade (11 – 12 years old) participants over a two-week period. This was orchestrated over a technological platform known as Zoom. It …

Evaluating Nuclear Energy As A Component Of U.S. Energy Innovation Systems, Bryce Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear energy is contentious in policy discussions that evaluate its role in the current U.S. clean energy innovation system. OECD nations, on average, have begun to reduce their dependence on nuclear energy. However, the United States has remained invested in its nuclear energy infrastructure and the role that it plays within federal research and development. This thesis examines the Neo-Schumpeterian perspective and the National Innovation System’s approach, the economic history of nuclear energy in the United States, and given insight from these factors, discusses the current role of nuclear energy in the U.S. energy innovation system. The objective is to …

“I Shan't Ever Play Down These Influences”: Poulenc’S Neoclassicism As Musical Legacy, Juliet E. Levy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Leaving behind an abundance of primary documents, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) reveals himself to be a colorful, opinionated composer, with an intriguing mindset regarding the role of twentieth-century composers. Poulenc’s writings place importance on the idea of musical legacy, where engaging with the music of past composers can only enrich compositions of the present, as opposed to the idea that such inspiration makes one’s work less “original.” This idea of compositional heritage stems from Poulenc’s musical education, which was informal, and mainly the product of his robust social network of important musical and artistic figures. Poulenc’s ideology adds a new perspective …

A Grounded Theory Inquiry Into The Pedagogical Socialization Of Graduate Students Within Graduate Quantitative Methods Courses, Amanda Kay Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quantitative methods are one of the most highly technical fields of study within social sciences graduate programs. Although classroom pedagogy is an important factor connected to student success within graduate quantitative methods courses little is known on the pedagogical socialization experiences of masters and doctoral students. The purpose of this grounded theory inquiry was to discover graduate students perspectives on their pedagogical socialization experiences and the norms, values and role expectations transmitted during the teaching and learning of quantitative methods. Narrative data was collected from in-depth interviews among a theoretical sample of 31 masters and doctoral students enrolled in introductory, …

Elucidating The Interfacial Interactions Between Biomacromolecules And Functionalized Pamam-Based Materials For Biomedical Applications, Briana L. Simms

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) is a dendrimer structure with a polypeptide backbone architecture. It has been utilized in a wide variety of applications but has found significant utility in biomedical applications. PAMAM has been studied extensively due to its globular structure that is similar to proteins found in the body. The branched architecture and overall size provide a favorable environment for host-guest interactions and allows for the loading of small molecules for therapeutic delivery. Although PAMAM has many benefits for use in the area of therapeutic delivery, a primary area of concern for this molecular architecture is the terminal amines that serve …

A Spectroscopic And Quantum Chemical Investigation Into The Noncovalent Interactions And Charge Accommodation Of Biomolecules And Their Building Blocks In Various Environments, Ashley Elizabeth Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As optical measurements have grown increasingly more precise with the rage of the technological revolution, the computer’s ability has matched in computing speed to produce accurate quantum chemical predictions of systems ranging from the atomic to multi-molecular levels. Application of spectroscopy in the investigation of the structure and function of biomolecules and their building blocks has a rich literature background, with applications among cancer research, charge transfer and energy storage, and drug design and delivery. The focus of this dissertation is thus a quantum chemical and/or spectroscopic investigation of a series of biomolecules which include the vibrational band positions of …

"Beyond The Lines": A Reassessment Of Civil War Prisons, Beth Kruse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Beyond the Lines”: A Reassessment of Civil War Prisons, challenges the historical interpretations of Civil War military prisons. Specifically, it analyses the political, social, and economic conditions of these systems by not only adding omitted gender, class, and race scholarship but flushing out the power dynamics between these group and military administrations. The re-examination of primary source material by reading against the grain to find overlooked insights reveals these sources not only provide a wealth of information about omitted groups, but that they have been misinterpreted. Additionally, applying the concepts of historical memory establishes how the Lost Cause shaped not …

Dependency-Based Reactive Change Propagation Design Pattern Applied To Environments With High Unpredictability, João Paulo Oliveira Marum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transitional turbulence is a period of chaotic or unreliable variation in the state of a software system that results from changes in the system’s interconnected components. During these periods of instability, an external observer of the system’s state may “see” erroneous results. This is a problem that can affect visual user interfaces such as those in virtual and augmented reality applications and desktop or Web GUIs. In this research, we study two different reactive applications developed in C# on .NET. We reduce the transitional turbulence by augmenting the base applications with a dependency-graph-based event scheduling approach. The first study investigates …

On Domination And Bondage Numbers Of Some Classes Of Graphs, Andrew Pham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given a simple finite graph G=(V,E), a vertex subset D ? V(G) is said to be a dominating set of G if every vertex v ? V(G)-D is adjacent to a vertex in D. The domination number of G, denoted ?(G), is the minimum cardinality among all dominating sets of G. In a network, the domination number determines the minimum number of sites required to dominate the entire network at a minimum cost. The bondage number of a graph G is the minimum cardinality among all edge sets B such that ?(G-B) > ?(G). The bondage number may serve as a …

Therapeutic Immunoglobulin G Surface Mobility Promotes Antibody-Dependent Cellular Phagocytosis By Arp2/3 And Syk Mediated Rearrangement Of Fcγ Receptors, Seongwan Jo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Therapeutic antibodies are rapidly growing class of drugs for treating cancers and immunological disorders by targeting specific antigens or blocking certain pathway to inhibit the tumor growth. In cancer immunotherapy, it was found that Fcγ receptor (FcγR) in immune cells play an important role in antibody dependent cell toxicity against tumor cells. Therefore, understanding FcγR activation mechanism, which requires ligation with immunoglobulin (IgG), is crucial to enhance potency of therapeutic antibodies. One crucial immune responses triggered upon FcγR ligation with IgG is phagocytosis which indicates clearing targets by engulfment. It is known that FcγRs form microclusters which gets rearranged during …

The Effects Of Saline Soil On Microbiome And The Isolation Of Root-Associated Microbes To Relieve Salinity Stress, Duncan Jakubowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing levels of salinity in once-viable lands for crop production is a serious and growing problem in the Northern Great Plains. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of saline soil on the microbial composition of plant roots and bulk soil, to measure metabolic changes in plant roots from saline soil, to determine the viability of root-associated microbes as inoculants to increase stress tolerance in plants, as well as determine the impact of saline soil on nitrogen cycling genes linked to greenhouse gas production. This study hypothesizes that high soil salinity levels have a significant impact on …

Analysis Of Volatile Organic Compounds: Petroleum Emissions And Microbial Degradation, A K M Ahsan Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are abundant in nature and can occur in various forms in a wide variety of sources. Petroleum is one of the major sources of VOCs. Petroleum being the most widely used energy resources of the world, often released to the environment due to emission and leakage or accidental spillage during exploration, transportation and manufacturing. Once released to the environment, petroleum poses a serious threat to the environment due to some of its toxic organic components. Therefore, the analysis of petroleum is critical to understand its effect on the environment and remediation. This dissertation is focused on …

College Students Conceptions Of Particulate Nature Of Matter And The Impact On Research Instrumentation, Bridget Klutse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this research was to explore the understanding and conceptions of Particulate Nature of Matter (PNM) with Chem 115 L students as the participants. Conceptions were defined specifically as beliefs and alternative beliefs about topics. The research also assessed the impact of analytical instrumentation in the chemistry laboratory on learning chemistry concepts. Eight questions (8) with multiple choice answers were administered to 10 students at the beginning and after the Fall 2018 semester via selective/purposeful sampling. Data were collected using surveys (pre- and post-surveys) and interviews (pre- and postinterviews), then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The eight questions …

Soil Organic Carbon, Hydro-Physical Properties, Pore Structure And Greenhouse Gas Fluxes Under Integrated Crop-Livestock System, Jashanjeet Kaur Dhaliwal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Integrated crop-livestock system (ICLS) can improve soil organic carbon (SOC), enhance soil hydro-physical properties, and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The objectives of this study were to: (i) investigate the influence of grazing, cover crop (CC), and a combination of grazing and CC on labile soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) fractions and soil enzyme activity, (ii) assess the impacts of short-term (3-4 years) and long-term (>30 years) ICLS on SOC, bulk density, structural quality and water infiltration, (iii) evaluate soil pore structural properties such as porosity, number of pores, pore size, pore shape, fractal dimension, anisotropy and tortuosity …

A Study Of Geographic Information System-Based Watershed Processing For Hydrologic Analysis Of Ungauged Watersheds, Philip Adanbe Adalikwu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasing application of geographic information system (GIS) technology in watershed modeling makes is necessary to further evaluate its impacts on runoff characteristics as a basis for improved hydrologic analysis in ungauged watersheds. Experts in the field of water resources and hydrology have recommended the practice of subdivision when modeling a watershed, and the use of observed data from hydrologically similar watershed to calibrate and validate an ungauged watershed’s model. However, previous studies have failed to adequately address the issues of watershed heterogeneity, spatial and temporal variability in physical parameters, GIS data resolution issues, including artifacts in automated extraction of …

Improved Secure And Low Computation Authentication Protocol For Wireless Body Area Network With Ecc And 2d Hash Chain, Soohyeon Choi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since technologies have been developing rapidly, Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has emerged as a promising technique for healthcare systems. People can monitor patients’ body condition and collect data remotely and continuously by using WBAN with small and compact wearable sensors. These sensors can be located in, on, and around the patient’s body and measure the patient’s health condition. Afterwards sensor nodes send the data via short-range wireless communication techniques to an intermediate node. The WBANs deal with critical health data, therefore, secure communication within the WBAN is important. There are important criteria in designing a security protocol for a …