Digital Commons Network^™

I. Synthesis Of Aryl C-Nucleosides And Retinoid Analogs Ii. Investigation Into Docking Studies Of Bisabosqual Analogs, Erik Stolarzewicz

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Currently, there are three major approaches used for the synthesis of aryl C-2-deoxyriboses. The first approach uses a common sugar derivative developed by Kool, 1,2-dideoxy-3,5-O-p-toluoyl-alpha-1-chloro-D-ribofuranose. The second approach uses Woski's 2-deoxyribonolactone glycal. The third approach uses a functionalize sugar involving tin reagents developed by Daves. All three methods have certain drawbacks. In efforts to finding a more efficient and alternative approach to making aryl C-deoxynucleosides, we developed a nine step synthetic route from commercially available inexpensive starting materials. In humans, epidermal keratinocytes are unique in their ability to convert Vitamin A1 (retinol) into Vitamin A2 (3,4-didehydroretinol). Each of these alcohols …

Efficient Datalog Queries With Time And Space Complexity Guarantees, Tuncay Tekle

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Many complex analysis problems can be most clearly and easily specified as logic rules and queries, where rules specify how given facts can be combined to infer new facts, and queries select facts of interest to the analysis problem at hand. However, it has been extremely challenging to obtain efficient implementations from logic rules and understand their time and space complexities, particularly for answering queries of interest without inferring all facts.This dissertation focuses on Datalog---an important class of rules for applications in databases, program analysis, security, semantic web, and many other areas. We describe a systematic method for precisely analyzing …

Enhancing Solar Disinfection: The Effect, Robert J Wallace

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Escherichia coli contamination is a continuing issue in the developing world. Lack of funding and difficulty in instituting new projects makes it necessary to discover an affordable, low-cost alternative to traditional methods of sanitation. Recent studies have shown that the hydroxyl radical, which is known to be produced from iron-bearing minerals through the Fenton reaction, can be damaging to both single-celled and multi-cellular organisms. Using hydroxyl radicals produced from low-cost, common materials would be a viable solution to the problem of contamination. It is proposed that using inexpensive, wide-spread, iron-rich materials to produce the hydroxyl radicals could lead to a …

Chromatin Protein Hmgb2 In Neural Progenitor Cells And Adult Neurogenesis, Ariel Benjamin Abraham

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Neural stem cells (NSCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are distinct groups of cells present in the embryonic and adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS). Proliferation of NSCs and NPCs is regulated by several molecular factors including the cyclin dependant kinase inhibitors (CDKI), such as p16Ink4a, and negative regulators of cell cycle, such as p19Arf. Chromatin proteins, including chromatin protein high mobility group A2 (HMGA2), regulate the expression of p16Ink4a and p19Arf in NSCs and NPCs, demonstrating the critical regulatory role that chromatin proteins play in NSC and NPC proliferation. In addition to HMGA2, it is likely that other chromatin …

Correlation Between Structure And Thermoelectric Properties: Searching For Better Thermoelectric Materials, Qing Jie

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The wide-spread application of thermoelectric devices is important for effective utilization of energy and environment. The market share of thermoelectric devices could potentially reach billions of dollars per year and urgently needs new materials with high energy conversion efficiency, which depends primarily on the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT). ZT = S2T/(ΡΚ), where S, Ρ, Κ, T are Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity and absolute temperature, respectively, and S2/Ρ is the power factor (P.F.). ZT could be enhanced by either decreasing the thermal conductivity or increasing the power factor of the material under study. In this work, the relationship …

Determining Ligand-Binding Induced Conformational Changes In H-Nox Domains, Farzan Mirza Gorgani

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Nitric Oxide (NO) has diverse and important roles in prokaryote and eukaryote biology. In addition to its role as a powerful toxin used to kill pathogens and tumor cells, NO also functions as a signaling molecule that mediates mechanisms such as vasodilatation, neurotransmission and biofilm formation. Our objective is to elucidate the role of NO in bacterial biofilm formation. Due to their resistance to antibiotics, biofilms are known to plague hospitals and immune compromised patients. As a first step in this objective, we are interested in characterizing the bacterial NO sensor Heme-Nitric oxide/OXygen binding domain (H-NOX). We predict that H-NOX …

The Devil's Belt, Kathleen Powers-Vermaelen

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The Devil's Belt is a historical novel. Its protagonist, Thomas Dorset, is a Long Island native who is sent to England in 1767 to complete his general and medical education. When he returns in 1777, he finds his childhood hometown of Mattituck, New York, much changed by the British occupation. A faithful subject, he clings to his belief that the colonies shouldn't separate from England until the number of abuses suffered by neighbors, friends and family at the British army's hands become too great to ignore. He then joins in the fight to secure American independence.

Life After Beanbag Genetics: Theoretical And Empirical Studies On Epistasis And Penetrance, Joseph Lachance

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Population genetics reduces the description of a population to a set of genotype frequencies. Because of this, it has been called"beanbag genetics.". However, greater complexity and biological realism can be incorporated into this framework. Two examples of this include interactions between different genes (epistasis) and individuals with the same genotype that have different phenotypes (incomplete penetrance). During the course of my Ph.D. work, both of these topics were investigated using theoretical population genetics and Drosophila genetics. One unifying theme was that genes do not exist in isolation: they occur within genetic and environmental contexts. In turn, these contexts were found …

The Body Star, Erin P. White

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

A collection of original poetry, both formal and informal, concerning the human condition.

Solid State Nmr And Pair Distribution Function Studies Of Silicon Electrodes For Lithium-Ion Batteries, Baris Key

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The universally used negative electrode material in a LIB is carbon, because of its moderate capacity (372 mAhg-1 for graphite), cyclability and high rate capability. However, new, low cost, safe electrode materials with higher capacities are still urgently required for both portable and transportation applications. Silicon anodes are particularly attractive alternatives to carbon with extremely high gravimetric energy densities (3572 mAhg-1). Compared to graphite, silicon has a massive volumetric capacity of 8322 mAhcm-3 (calculated based on the original volume of silicon) which is approximately ten times that graphite. At room temperature, upon electrochemical lithiation, silicon undergoes a crystalline to amorphous …

The Specificity Of Vesicle Trafficking During Prospore Membrane Formation In Yeast, Hui-Ju Yang

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This research focuses on the production of new plasma membranes during gametogenesis in yeast. The initiation of these membranes is started by vesicle fusion at spindle pole bodies (SPBs) during Meiosis II. I have asked how these vesicles specifically fuse at SPBs but not at other locations, and demonstrated that binding interactions between soluble NSF attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) confer one layer of specificity to vesicle fusion at SPBs. Furthermore, I showed that SPBs can actively regulate a Rab GTPase, suggesting a role for SPBs in vesicle docking. My work highlights the ancestral dual roles of centrioles in microtubule organization …

Kings, Evil Courtiers, And The Intended Audience Of The Historia Langobardorum, Edward Currie

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The Historia Langobardorum (History of the Langobards) was written by Paul the Deacon in the 780s-790s. It is an important work of historiography, but little attention has been paid to the power of the text as political propaganda. This study sets out to analyze how Paul promotes harmony between Carolingians and Langobards, uplifts the image of the old Langobardic king Grimoald I, and encourages an agreeable view of the contemporary prince of Benevento, Grimoald III, who rebelled against Charlemagne in 791.

Moi Et Plus Que Moi : Absence And Presence In · La Recherche Du Temps Perdu, Carlie Marie Anglemire

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

For Marcel Proust's narrator of · la recherche du temps perdu, the"moi et plus-que-moi," this excess of being of friends, family, and lovers, is an essential element of life that he does not want to escape as long as an exploration of the creative depth of his personal identity is not irrevocably barred. Although he expresses a longing to abscond from others in order to have aesthetically rich experiences and articulates the cynical view that we are mere caricatures of ourselves with friends and in relationships, he also expresses the anxiety of waiting for someone to arrive, the feeling of …

Statistical Models For Snp Detection, Shengnan Cai

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Variations in DNA sequences of humans have a strong association with many diseases. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) is the most common type of DNA variations. Our research is to detect SNPs from the data generated by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and next generation sequencing methods. In the first part of the study, we had a relatively small data set with fewer known SNPs as the training data. We developed a classification model based on the cross validation method. From the first part of the research, we gained knowledge of the properties of the data. In the next phase, we obtained …

Repression Of Meiotic Gene Expression By Regulated Rna Stability And By Antisense Transcription In Schizosaccharomyces Pombe, Huei-Mei Chen

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Meiosis produces haploid gametes from diploid germ cells. Many genes are used only for meiosis and cause harm if they are expressed in vegetative (non-meiotic) cells. My dissertation research focused on mechanisms that keep meiotic functions completely off in vegetative cells in a model organism, the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Early meiotic genes drive a specialized S-phase and meiotic recombination events. I found that at least 30 early meiotic genes in S. pombe are transcribed even in vegetative cells where they are kept off by degradation of their transcripts through a novel mechanism directed by Mmi1, an RNA binding protein. …

The Effects Of Self-Interest And Prejudice On Immigration Attitudes, Marie Courtemanche

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This research investigates the role of self-interest and prejudice in determining immigration attitudes. In regards to self-interest, it is argued that policy preferences are driven both by individual circumstances as well as geographic contexts. Because recent immigrants to the United States have fewer occupational skills they pose greater job related threats to select groups of individuals. The population standing to lose the most from incoming low-skill immigrants is the working class. Consequently, this group should be the most vociferous in their support for immigration restrictions. Furthermore, it makes little sense to say that all working class individuals bear the same …

High Level Describable Attributes For Predicting Aesthetics And Interestingness, Sagnik Dhar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

With the rise in popularity of digital cameras, the amount of visual data available on the web is growing exponentially. Some of these pictures are extremely beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately the vast majority are uninteresting or of low quality. This paper demonstrates a simple, yet powerful method to automatically select high aesthetic quality images from large image collections with performance significantly better than the state of the art. We also show significantly better results on predicting the interestingness of Flickr images, and on a novel problem of predicting query specific interestingness. Our aesthetic quality estimation method explicitly predicts some …

A Spiritual Revisioning: Alice Walker From An Ecofeminist Perspective, Lauren Esposito

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This thesis explores the work of Alice Walker from an ecofeminist perspective in order to demonstrate the connections between black women and the environment. Walker offers a spiritual revisioning that embraces nature while challenging the doctrines of patriarchy and Christianity, and the social justifications that support male and Christian hegemony. Through poetry, literature, and essays, she critiques the cultural and social practices of systems used toenforce dominance over black women and nature. She attempts to dismantle hierarchical relationships that subjugate the position of women and the environment and that deprive both of spirituality and reverence.

Rational Curves In Low Degree Hypersurfaces Of Grassmannian Varieties, Robert Adam Findley

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

We consider two properties of the Kontsevich moduli spaces of genus-0 stable maps to a variety X. The first, irreducibility, implies that certain genus-0 Gromov-Witten invariants are enumerative. The second, existence of very twisting families, implies the existence of sections for a two parameter family with vanishing elementary obstruction. Both of these properties are known to hold for homogeneous varieties, as well as low degree hypersurfaces in projective space.Motivated by these results for projective space, we prove that the Kontsevich moduli spaces are irreducible when X is a low degree hypersurface in a Grassmannian variety. We conjecture a sharp inequality …

The Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project, Jackie Kelly Faherty

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Brown dwarfs are a recent addition to the plethora of objects studied in Astronomy. With theoretical masses between 13 and 75 M_Jupiter, they lack sustained stable Hydrogen burning so they never join the stellar main sequence. They have physical properties similar to both planets and low--mass stars so studies of their population inform on both. The distances and kinematics of brown dwarfs provide key statistical constraints on their ages, moving group membership, absolute brightnesses, evolutionary trends, and multiplicity. Yet, until my thesis, fundamental measurements of parallax and proper motion were made for only a relatively small fraction of …

Tools To Enrich User Experience During"Visual Analysis", Supriya Garg

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Visual Analytics is the integration of interactive visualization with analysis techniques to help answer questions, and find interesting"patterns" in a given dataset. This approach is useful in cases where human knowledge and intuition is required. Further, with the increasing size of data, an interactive visual interface can give the user control over what she wants to see. Towards this end, we develop a Visual Analytics (VA) infrastructure, rooted on techniques in machine learning and logic-based deductive reasoning. This system assists people in making sense of large, complex data sets by facilitating the generation and validation of models representing relationships in …

Mésica Criolla: Cultural Practices And National Issues In Modern Peru. The Case Of Lima (1920-1960), Luis Martin G¢Mez

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

My thesis is a historical analysis of a group of musical forms called m£sica criolla in twentieth-century Peru. I analyze the historical relocation of these musical forms as symbols of Peruvianness during the period 1920 to 1960. I argue that the idea of the existence of a national music called m£sica criolla emerged as a product of the urban modernization that had been transforming the landscape of the city of Lima since the second half of the nineteenth century. Faced with this transformation, early twentieth-century Lime¤o intellectuals asserted that Lime¤os displayed distinctive artistic attitudes in their daily lives. For them, …

Acusmacia, Felix Pastor

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Abstract of the DissertationAcusmacia is a spanish word of Greek origin that denotes an auditory hallucination. A hallucination is the apparent perception of something not present. In the case of sound, what is perceived and what is present can differ tremendously.The perception of pitch is already the result of an extreme filtering of what is present.Acusmacia, the piece, begins with a roll on two snare drums.This sound is perceived as noise: an erratic, intermittent or statistically random oscillation. However, the actual method of production, the roll, is a periodic beating of drumsticks on a drum head.This paradox is the starting …

Local Adaptation Along A Latitudinal Gradient In Pacific Versus Atlantic-Coast Fishes, Elizabeth Ellen Brown

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Understanding how species adapt to spatial climate gradients can provide clues to potential evolutionary responses to climate change. Species distributed across broad environmental gradients, such as those that occur along latitudes or altitudes, often exhibit adaptive genetic variation. However, little attention has been given to how the type of environmental gradient shapes adaptive responses. To provide insight into this, local adaptation is compared in related fish species across two very different environmental gradients: the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. Local adaptation is first examined in the California grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) and then results are compared to previous work …

Modulation Of Monocytic Activation Following Spinal Cord Injury Reduces Secondary Injury And Neurodegeneration, Jaime Ann Emmetsberger

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Spinal cord injury (SCI) sets off a cascade of biochemical and cellular events that destroy neurons, cause demyelination, and trigger an inflammatory immune response. Microglia, the immune-competent cells of the central nervous system, migrate to the site of injury, become activated and are thought to contribute to secondary damage and neurodegeneration following SCI. Conversely, growth factors and cytokines released by activated microglia may promote regeneration. Controversy exists over the neurodegenerative verses the neuroregenerative roles of activated microglia, and which role predominates following SCI. The activation state of microglia determines their neurotoxic and neurotrophic properties that influence the surrounding environment to …

Traffic Scene Understanding Using Sound-Based Localization, Svm Classification And Clustering, Shreyas Kodasara Rajagopal

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The thesis is about an embedded system application aimed at identifying the semantics of traffic based on acoustic data. Sound localization, classification and clustering are used for scene understanding. The report presents a set of experiments used to simulate different traffic scenarios. An alternative implementation for sound localization is also explored, where fixed point representation of rational numbers is used instead of floating point numbers. The results for both the implementations are compared in terms of execution speed and accuracy for a Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC). | 43 pages

Protection Of Inherited Iras, James L. Boring, Richard R. Gans, Meghan E. Gearhart, Nancy Schmidt Roush, Susan B. Slater-Jansen

ACTEC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Seasonal Aggregations Of The Florida Manatee (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris) In The Port Everglades And Intracoastal Regions Of Fort Lauderdale, Florida., Jaime M. Goldman

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris), a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is one of the most endangered marine mammals in United States waters. The Florida manatee is the only manatee that ranges into subtropical and temperate regions. During the winter months manatees adopt a “refuging strategy” where they aggregate at warm-water sources immediately following decreases in the ambient water temperature to below 20° C (68° F) in order to avoid cold stress syndrome (CSS). During the winter manatees aggregate in warm water refuges, including natural warm water springs and the effluent discharges of power plants.

The …

Role Of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 Alpha In Neural Stem/Progenitor Cell Function Following Hypoxia, Kate M. Harms Candelario

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Stroke can be caused by focal ischemia due to cerebral artery occlusion or by global ischemia that occurs when global blood supply to the brain is interrupted. The acute phase of ischemic brain injury is followed by a more prolonged period of revascularization and repair that can last for several months. One hallmark of this repair phase includes an endogenous neural stem/progenitor cell (NSPC) regenerative response that occurs concomitant with angiogenesis. Several studies suggest that the cytogenic response is beneficial for recovery following stroke, however, more studies need to be done to determine whether the beneficial effects are due to …

University Of Dayton Magazine. Winter 2010-11, University Of Dayton Magazine

University of Dayton Alumni Publications

This issue includes the articles "Wine & Family"; "Going My Way?"; and "Citius. Altius. Fortius.".