Digital Commons Network^™

Protein Responsive Synthetic Materials For Biomedical Applications, Youyou Zheng

Doctoral Dissertations

"The production of synthetic materials with molecular recognition abilities towards biomacromolecules has been widely researched because of its potential applications in separations, sensing, therapeutics, etc. While molecular imprinting has become a commercially viable method for the production of synthetic materials with molecular recognition abilities towards small molecules, little success has been recorded towards protein targets. Proteins are difficult to imprint as they present a number of epitopes for imprinting, are difficult to remove from the completed material, and are incompatible with the densely crosslinked structures required. As a result, a novel surface molecular imprinting technique was developed to synthesize polymeric …

Rational Construction By Molecular Dynamics Modeling And Simulations Of Porous Adsorbent Media For Bioseparation, Enrico Riccardi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Ion-exchange chromatography employing porous adsorbent particles or monoliths in which charged ligands are immobilized onto polymeric extender molecules grafted on the pore surfaces of a base matrix has become a very important method for bioseparations. In this dissertation, a novel fundamental and systematic methodology has been developed that uses the molecular dynamics (MD) modeling and simulation approach to rationally design, construct, and characterize polymeric porous adsorbent media and study the transport and adsorption of a charged biomolecule (desmopressin) in a representative adsorbent medium. The MD results have also been utilized in a macroscopic model to study the large-scale dynamic behavior …

A Study Of The Beneficial Role Of Thiol Antioxidant Supplementation In Various Forms Of Glutathione Deficiency, Linu Sara Abraham

Doctoral Dissertations

"Oxidative stress plays a major role in the pathology of numerous disorders afflicting humans, ranging from neurodegenerative diseases, to cancer, and heavy metal toxicity. Scientists are on the constant lookout for new and better antioxidants that have the ability to slow, if not stop the harmful degenerative effects of free radicals in oxidative stress related disorders. Both synthetic and naturally occurring compounds are being constantly screened for their antioxidant properties. This study attempted to evaluate the abilities of a thiol antioxidant, N-Acetylcysteine amide (NACA), to protect cells from the harmful effects of glutathione depletion in two different models of oxidative …

Applications Of Sensor Arrays In Acoustic And Seismic Signal Processing, Peng Xie

Doctoral Dissertations

"This work investigates the applications of sensor arrays in the areas of acoustic and seismic signal processing. It comprises three papers.

The first paper explores the problem of blind source separation (BSS) for convolutive acoustic signals. It concentrates on the well known permutation and amplitude problems in frequency-domain BSS and proposes a new hybrid approach to solve them. This approach connects the separation processes across all frequency bins, and relies on a novel permutation control unit. This framework could greatly reduce computational load and improve separation performance. Synthesized and real-world experiments demonstrate its efficiency.

The second paper investigates a new …

Systematic Functional And Object-Oriented Product Design Frameworks, Jen-Chi Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

"The existing co-design methods of mechatronic products focus on co-design of mechanical and electronic components or co-design of computer hardware and software components. There exist no effective co-design methods for mechanical, electronic and software components at the concept design stage. The research objective of this dissertation work is to develop more effective systematic product design approaches for co-design of mechatronic products. Three innovative functional and object-oriented integrated design frameworks and one virtual prototyping application, which leverages on these three design frameworks, have been developed for co-design of mechatronic products. The three frameworks are: I) Hierarchical Object-Oriented Functional Modeling Framework, 2) …

Information Archival And Reuse: Drawing Conclusions From The Past, Matt R. Bohm

Doctoral Dissertations

"Over the last few decades design researchers have put forward theories and proposed methodologies that increase the chance that a design team will reliably arrive at the optimal solution to a given design problem. Studies, however, bear out that theories and methodologies alone will not guarantee an optimal or even good design solution. Instead, a breadth of knowledge across multiple engineering domains and the time and tools to thoroughly evaluate the design space are as important as any prescriptive design method. This work presents a set of underlying engineering technologies to define, archive and reuse product design knowledge to provide …

A Phenomenographic Study Of Introductory Physics Students: Approaches To Problem Solving And Conceptualisation Of Knowledge., Laura Walsh

Doctoral

This phenomenographic study presents a description of the approaches to problem solving and conceptualisation of physics knowledge of introductory physics students, specifically in the context of the Irish higher education system. Much research has been carried out that has shown that physics students are not developing the conceptual knowledge necessary to become adept problem-solvers. This may be due to the traditional physics education assumption that students will develop an understanding of the conceptual nature of physics by repetitively solving quantitative problems. However, research has shown that this is not the case and that education and the curriculum needs to explicitly …

Holographic Liquid Crystal Devices, Kotakonda Pavani

Doctoral

Liquid crystals have become natural candidates for use in electro-optic devices for their ability to change the orientation of the director with the application of an electric field, and exhibiting large range of refractive index. The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to fabricate liquid crystal optoelectronic devices such as electrically switchable liquid crystal diffraction gratings and polarization rotators by exploiting the holographic surface relief effect in photopolymer and by developing novel polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs). Alignment of liquid crystals is commercially achieved by creating grooves on a conducting layer such as polyimide or indium tin …

Application Of Ground Penetrating Radar (Gpr) For Bridge Deck Condition Assessment: Using A 1.5 Ghz Ground-Coupled Antenna, Amos Wamweya

Masters Theses

"This study is a GPR-based assessment of three bridge decks, two with a hot bituminous wearing surface and one with a bare concrete slab. The primary objectives of this study were: 1) to assess the integrity of the three bridge decks using a 1.5 GHz ground-coupled GPR antenna, and 2) to evaluate the utility of the 1.5 GHz ground-coupled antenna for bridge deck investigations. Core control (chloride ion concentration data and core integrity data) and visual inspection were used as interpretive constraint. The acquired GPR data were interpreted, and two plan view maps were generated. One depicts the magnitude of …

The Challenge Of Democratic Lawyering, Ascanio Piomelli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Insects Associated With Sweetpotato, Ipomoea Batatas (L.), In Mississippi, J. T. Reed, D. E. Fleming, T. L. Schiefer, D. Bao, C. S. Jackson

Midsouth Entomologist

Seventy-two species or genera of insects collected from or observed in commercial sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas [L.]) fields or research plots during a five-year period are listed. Twenty-two species are known to damage sweetpotato storage roots, 13 species are recognized as serious pests of sweetpotato, and 43 species have the potential for feeding on sweetpotato foliage. The primary root-damaging pests are beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Brentidae, Curculionidae, Elateridae and Scarabeidae), and noctuid moth larvae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Other insects from the orders Hemiptera (8 species), Lepidoptera (9 species), Orthoptera (1 species), and Thysanoptera (3 species) are listed. Thrips, aphids, and several beetle species …

The Violent Bear It Away: Emmett Till & The Modernization Of Law Enforcement In Mississippi, Anders Walker

All Faculty Scholarship

Few racially motivated crimes have left a more lasting imprint on American memory than the death of Emmett Till. Yet, even as Till's murder in Mississippi in 1955 has come to be remembered as a catalyst for the civil rights movement, it contributed to something else as well. Precisely because it came on the heels of the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Till's death convinced Mississippi Governor James P. Coleman that certain aspects of the state's handling of racial matters had to change. Afraid that popular outrage over racial violence might encourage federal intervention in …

Regulating Physician Behavior: Taking Doctors’ 'Bad Law' Claims Seriously, Sandra H. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

Physician behavior is a key target of government regulation intended to improve the efficiency, quality, and accessibility of health care. Yet according to physicians’ "bad law" claims, the legal effort to promote patient health and well-being has actually caused significant harm. These "bad law" claims - that malpractice litigation prompts defensive medicine, that patients’ rights policies prompt doctors to provide futile care, that controlled substance laws cause physicians to undertreat patients in pain - have diminished in significance due to the deconstruction of professionalism. Claims are often discarded as the cries of "bad apple" doctors or in the interest of …

The Precarious Situation Of Human Rights In The United States In Normal Times And After September 11, 2001 (La Situación Precaria De Los Derechos Humanos En Estados Unidos En Tiempos Normales Y Después Del 11 De Septiembre De 2001) (Spanish), Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

The paper criticizes the impact of U. S. American criminal law and procedure on the human rights of U. S. citizens in normal times and the changes that have occurred since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It deals with racial profiling, the death penalty, Draconian prison sentences in normal times, and the use of unlimited detention, torture and expanded powers of wiretapping and evidence gathering since the attacks of 9-11.

Note: downloadable document is in Spanish

Shareholders In The Jury Box: A Populist Check Against Corporate Mismanagement, Ann M. Scarlett

All Faculty Scholarship

The recent subprime mortgage disaster exposed corporate officers and directors who mismanaged their corporations, failed to exercise proper oversight, and acted in their self-interest. Two previous waves of corporate scandals in this decade revealed similar misconduct. After the initial scandals, Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission attempted to prevent the next crisis in corporate governance through legislative and regulatory actions such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Those attempts failed. Shareholder derivative litigation has also failed because judges accord corporate executives great deference and thus rarely impose liability for breaches of fiduciary duties.

To prevent the next crisis in …

Publicity, Pressure, And Environmental Legislation: The Untold Story Of Availability Campaigns, Molly J. Walker Wilson

All Faculty Scholarship

The availability heuristic — a cognitive rule of thumb whereby events that are easily brought to mind are judged to be more likely — is employed by decision-makers on a daily basis. Availability campaigns occur when individuals and groups strategically exploit this cognitive tendency in order to generate publicity for a particular issue, creating pressure to effect legislative change. This paper is the first to argue that environmental availability campaigns are more beneficial than they are harmful. Because they result in pressure on Congress, these campaigns serve as a catalyst for the enactment of critical new legislative initiatives. Specifically, these …

National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Legislation: The Subprime Mortgage Crisis Also Hits Renters, Peter W. Salsich

All Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the National Housing Trust Fund, created as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). The Housing Trust Fun represents a new federal housing development policy. The Fund is designed to serve the approximately 18.5 million households who make less than $30,000 per year, roughly half the national median income in 2005. After a review of the housing affordability concerns of extremely low-income households (annual income 30% or less than area median income) and the impact the subprime mortgage foreclosure has had on such households, the article summarizes HERA's regulatory reform and foreclosure relief …

Combined Effects Of Hyperglycemic Conditions And Hiv-1 Nef: A Potential Model For Induced Hiv Neuropathogenesis., Edward A Acheampong, Cassandra Roschel, Muhammad Mukhtar, Alagarsamy Srinivasan, Mohammad Rafi, Roger J Pomerantz, Zahida Parveen

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Hyperglycemic conditions associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) or with the use of antiretroviral therapy may increase the risk of central nervous system (CNS) disorders in HIV-1 infected patients. In support of this hypothesis, we investigated the combined effects of hyperglycemic conditions and HIV-1 accessory protein Nef on the CNS using both in vitro and in vivo models. Astrocytes, the most abundant glial cell type required for normal synaptic transmission and other functions were selected for our in vitro study. The results show that in vitro hyperglycemic conditions enhance the expression of proinflammatory cytokines including caspase-3, complement factor 3 (C3), and …

Functional Interleukin-17 Receptor A Is Expressed In Central Nervous System Glia And Upregulated In Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis., Jayasri Das Sarma, Bogoljub Ciric, Ryan Marek, Sanjoy Sadhukhan, Michael L. Caruso, Jasmine Shafagh, Denise C. Fitzgerald, Kenneth S. Shindler, Am Rostami

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) is the founding member of a novel family of inflammatory cytokines that plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). IL-17A signals through its receptor, IL-17RA, which is expressed in many peripheral tissues; however, expression of IL-17RA in the central nervous system (CNS) and its role in CNS inflammation are not well understood.

METHODS: EAE was induced in C57Bl/6 mice by immunization with myelin oligodendroglial glycoprotein. IL-17RA expression in the CNS was compared between control and EAE mice using RT-PCR, in situ …

Clawbacks: Prospective Contract Measures In An Era Of Excessive Executive Compensation And Ponzi Schemes, Miriam A. Cherry, Jarrod Wong

All Faculty Scholarship

In the spring of 2009, public outcry erupted over the multi-million dollar bonuses paid to AIG executives even as the company was receiving TARP funds. Various measures were proposed in response, including a 90% retroactive tax on the bonuses, which the media described as a "clawback." Separately, the term "clawback" was also used to refer to remedies potentially available to investors defrauded in the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff. While the media and legal commentators have used the term "clawback" reflexively, the concept has yet to be fully analyzed. In this article, we propose a doctrine of …

Front Matter

Michigan Journal of Public Health

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Michigan Journal of Public Health

No abstract provided.