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Study Of Particle Swarm For Optimal Power Flow In Ieee Benchmark Systems Including Wind Power Generators, Mohamed A. Abuella

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Mohamed A. Abuella, for the Master of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, presented on May 10, 2012, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE:STUDY OF PARTICLE SWARM FOR OPTIMAL POWER FLOW IN IEEE BENCHMARK SYSTEMS INCLUDING WIND POWER GENERATORS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. C. Hatziadoniu, The aim of this thesis is the optimal economic dispatch of real power in systems that include wind power. The economic dispatch of wind power units is quite different of conventional thermal units. In addition, the consideration should take the intermittency nature of wind speed and operating constraints as …

Understanding Reading Through The Eyes Of Third-Grade Struggling Readers, Christine Elizabeth Wiggs

Dissertations

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF CHRISTINE E. WIGGS, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in EDUCATION, presented on October 19, 2012, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: UNDERSTANDING READING THROUGH THE EYES OF THIRD-GRADE STRUGGLING READERS MAJOR PROFESSORS: Dr. Marla H. Mallette / Dr. Lynn C. Smith Within the vast research base on struggling readers, very few studies address the nature of struggling readers from their own perspectives; that is, how struggling readers experience reading instruction. The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to gain a deeper understanding of how three third-grade struggling readers viewed themselves as …

The Capacity Of A Southern University To Promote And Support Health Literacy Among College Students: A Case Study Approach, Alison Burton Epperson

Dissertations

The primary purpose of this case study was to determine if the university under study had adequate health-related programs, services, and supports in place to develop health-literate young adults. A secondary purpose was to identify strengths and gaps in these university health-related programs, services, and supports, which, if addressed, could increase the likelihood that college graduates would be health-literate. This research study served to answer three broad research questions: 1) What are the health-related needs and concerns among selected university undergraduates? 2) What is the level of awareness and utilization of health-related programs, services, and supports by university undergraduate students? …

Image Bodies, Avatar Ontologies: Rendering The Virtual In Digital Culture, Adam M. Davis

Dissertations

In 2009 five avatar-themed films were released, one of which became the highest grossing film to date, signaling that in addition to their popularity in videogames and virtual worlds, avatars are culturally salient figures which demand scholarly attention. Avatars, virtual environments, and user behavior have evolved significantly since virtual reality captured public and academic attention at the close of the twentieth century, and this dissertation is an attempt to theorize the avatar in contemporary digital culture. By interlacing new media philosophy and analyses of cinematic texts I situate the avatar at the nexus between digital images and interactive bodies, with …

2012 Manufacturers Safety Management System Pilot Project Report Design And Manufacturing Organizations, Jeff Duven, Linda Navarro, David Hempe, Alan J. Stolzer

Publications

In October, 2009, the Aircraft Certification Service (AIR) chartered a team to conduct the Manufacturers' Safety Management Systems (MSMS) pilot project. The pilot project began in January, 2011, and encourages voluntary implementation of Safety Management Systems (SMS) among aviation Design and Manufacturing (D&M) organizations in order to allow the FAA to assess how to provide oversight of these systems. Eleven companies representing the breadth of organizations that AIR oversees participated.

The MSMS pilot project culminated in December, 2012. Information, results, and lessons learned from the pilot project were captured via the MSMS Teams' final deliverable to AIR-150. The report was …

Sensitivity Of The Wolf’S And Rosenstein’S Algorithms To Evaluate Local Dynamic Stability From Small Gait Data Sets: Response To Commentaries By Bruijn Et Al., Fabien Cignetti, Leslie M. Decker, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Assessing gait stability using the Largest Lyapunov Exponent (λ₁) has become popular, especially because it may be a key measure in evaluating gait abnormalities in patient populations. However, clinical settings usually involve having small gait data sets and accurate determination of λ₁ estimates from such sets is difficult. In an effort to address this issue, Cignetti et al.2 recently identified that λ₁ estimates using the algorithm of Wolf et al.9 (W-algorithm) were more sensitive than those using the algorithm of Rosenstein et al.7 (R-algorithm) in order to capture age-related …

Peripheral Arterial Disease Affects The Frequency Response Of Ground Reaction Forces During Walking, Denise Mcgrath, Timothy N. Judkins, Iraklis Pipinos, Jason Johanning

Journal Articles

Background—Walking is problematic for patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency domain of the ground reaction forces during walking to further elucidate the ambulatory impairment of these patients.

Methods—Nineteen bilateral peripheral arterial disease patients and nineteen controls were included in this study. Subjects were matched for age and gait speed. Participants walked over a force plate sampling at 600Hz. PAD patients were tested before (pain-free condition) after the onset of claudication symptoms (pain). We calculated median frequency, frequency bandwidth, and frequency containing 99.5% of the signal for the vertical and …

Molecular Phylogeny Of Microhylid Frogs (Anura: Microhylidae) With Emphasis On Relationships Among New World Genera, Rafael O. De Sá, Jeffrey W. Streicher, Relebohile Sekonyela, Mauricio C. Forlani, Simon P. Loader, Eli Greenbaum, Stephen Richards, Célio F.B. Haddad

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Over the last ten years we have seen great efforts focused on revising amphibian systematics. Phylogenetic reconstructions derived from DNA sequence data have played a central role in these revisionary studies but have typically under-sampled the diverse frog family Microhylidae. Here, we present a detailed phylogenetic study focused on expanding previous hypotheses of relationships within this cosmopolitan family. Specifically, we placed an emphasis on assessing relationships among New World genera and those taxa with uncertain phylogenetic affinities (i.e., incertae sedis).

Results: One mitochondrial and three nuclear genes (about 2.8 kb) were sequenced to assess phylogenetic relationships. We utilized an …

Genetic Analysis Of The Hippo Pathway In Mouse Liver, Li Lu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Cancer therapy and tumor treatment remain unsolved puzzles. Genetic screening for tumor suppressor genes in Drosophila revealed the Hippo-signaling pathway as a kinase cascade consisting of five core components. Disrupting the pathway by deleting the main component genes breaks the balance of cell proliferation and apoptosis and results in epithelial tissue tumorigenesis. The pathway is therefore believed to be a tumor suppressor pathway. However, a corresponding role in mammals is yet to be determined. Our lab began to investigate the tumor suppression function of the potent mammalian Hippo pathway by putting floxed alleles into the mouse genome flanking the functional-domain-expressing …

Fibulin-2 Stabilizes Tumor Extracellular Matrix And Drives Malignant Progression Of Lung Adenocarcinoma, Brandi N. Baird

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The ECM of epithelial carcinomas undergoes structural remodeling during periods of uncontrolled growth, creating regional heterogeneity and torsional stress. How tumors maintain ECM integrity in the face of dynamic biophysical forces is still largely unclear. This study addresses these deficiencies using mouse models of human lung adenocarcinoma. Spontaneous lung tumors were marked by disorganized basement membranes, dense collagen networks, and increased tissue stiffness. Metastasis-prone lung adenocarcinoma cells secreted fibulin-2 (Fbln2), a matrix glycoprotein involved in ECM supra-molecular assembly. Fibulin-2 depletion in tumor cells decreased the intra-tumoral abundance of matrix metalloproteinases and reduced collagen cross-linking and tumor compressive properties resulting in …

Simultaneous Induction Of Nkg2d And Nkg2d Ligand For Promoting Immune Surveillance By Il-12 Plus Doxorubicin Treatment, Jiemiao Hu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

NKG2D (natural killer group 2, member D) and its ligands interaction in tumor microenvironment directs tumor infiltrating immune cells to recognize tumor cells, stimulate cytotoxic effector immune cells, and therefore eradicate tumor cells. IL-12, a cytokine produced by antigen presenting cells, has remarkable antitumor effect by activating innate and adaptive immunity. Doxorubicin, a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent also boosts the host antitumor immune response to cause tumor cell death. Our previous publication suggests that IL-12 plus doxorubicin enhances NKG2D function-dependent inhibition of tumor progression and promotes CD8⁺T cells infiltrating into tumors. The purpose of this study is to …

Post-Transcriptional Regulation Of Mammalian Gene Expression In Non-Coding Region Of Target Rna, Jing Lin

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Tumor Suppressor Candidate 2 (TUSC2) is a novel tumor suppressor gene located in the human chromosome 3p21.3 region. TUSC2 mRNA transcripts could be detected on Northern blots in both normal lung and some lung cancer cell lines, but no endogenous TUSC2 protein could be detected in a majority of lung cancer cell lines. Mechanisms regulating TUSC2 protein expression and its inactivation in primary lung cancer cells are largely unknown. We investigated the role of the 5’- and 3’-untranslated regions (UTRs) of the TUSC2 gene in the regulation of TUSC2 protein expression. We found that two small upstream open-reading frames (uORFs) …

Prostate Cancer Stem Cells: Drug To Lerance, Experimental Reconstitution And Castration Resistance, Xin Chen

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading malignancies affecting men in the Western world. Although tremendous effort has been made towards understanding PCa development and developing clinical treatments in the past decades, the exact mechanisms of PCa are still not clearly understood. Emerging evidence has postulated that a population of stem cell-like cells inside a tumor, termed ‘cancer stem cells (CSCs)’, may be the cells responsible for tumor initiation, progression, recurrence, metastasis and therapy resistance. Like CSC studies in other cancer types, it has been reported that PCa also contains CSCs. However, there remain several unresolved questions that need …

Mutations In Stat3 Associated With Human Hyper Ige Syndrome Enhance Nfκb And Mapk-Mediated Gene Expression, Nathaniel Greeley

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Hyper IgE syndrome (HIES) is a multisystem disorder resulting in bone and immune system abnormalities. It is associated with mutations in STAT3, which disrupt protein domains responsible for transcriptional function. Patients with HIES display osteoporosis and enhanced inflammatory cytokine production similar to hematopoietic Stat3-deficient mice. Since osteoclast and inflammatory cytokine genes are NFκB targets, these observations indicate a possible deregulation of NFκB signaling in both mice and humans with STAT3-deficiency. Here, we sought to examine the role of STAT3 in the regulation of NFκB-mediated gene expression through analysis of three HIES STAT3 point mutations in both hematopoietic and non- hematopoietic …

Fancm And Faap24 Maintain Genomic Stability Through Cooperative And Unique Functions, Yucai Wang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare recessive genetic disease with an array of clinical manifestations including multiple congenital abnormalities, progressive bone marrow failure and profound cancer susceptibility. A hallmark of cells derived from FA patients is hypersensitivity to DNA interstrand crosslinking agents such as mitomycin C (MMC) and cisplatin, suggesting that FA- and FA-associated proteins play important roles in protecting cells from DNA interstrand crosslink (ICL) damage. Two genes involved in the FA pathway, FANCM and FAAP24, are of particular interest because they contain DNA interacting domains. However, there are no definitive patient mutations for these two genes, and the …

Development And Characterization Of Novel Ras Inhibitors, Lakiesha Debose

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Ras genes are mutated in 15% of human cancers. Ras GTPases operate as molecular switches regulating cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The three main isoforms of Ras – H-Ras, K-Ras, and N-Ras – inhabit distinct nanodomains of the plasma membrane and intracellular compartments including the Golgi. However, the role of single endogenous Ras isoforms on these compartments remains unclear as most studies have utilized ectopically expressed and mutant forms of Ras proteins. In an effort to develop novel tools that will allow us to abrogate individual endogenous Ras isoforms, we targeted the catalytic domain of p120RasGAP to the …

Anti-Tumor Effects Of The Notch Pathway In Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors, Amaury G. Dumont

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST) are sarcomas driven by gain-of-function mutations of KIT or PDGFRA. Although, the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors has dramatically changed the history of this disease, evidences emerge that inhibition of KIT or PDGFRA are not sufficient to cure patients. The developmental pathway Notch has a critical role in the cell fate, regulating cell proliferation and differentiation. Dysregulation of Notch pathway has been implicated in a wide variety of cancers functioning as a tumor promoter or a tumor suppressor in a cell context dependent manner.

Given that Notch activation deregulates the morphogenesis of mesenchymal cells in …

Genetic Interactions Of Factors That Regulate Alternative Rna Splicing In The Male Germ Line Of Drosophila, Shanzhi Wang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Alternative RNA splicing is a critical process that contributes variety to protein functions, and further controls cell differentiation and normal development. Although it is known that most eukaryotic genes produce multiple transcripts in which splice site selection is regulated, how RNA binding proteins cooperate to activate and repress specific splice sites is still poorly understood. In addition how the regulation of alternative splicing affects germ cell development is also not well known. In this study, Drosophila Transformer 2 (Tra2) was used as a model to explore both the mechanism of its repressive function on its own pre-mRNA splicing, and the …

Design And Optimization Of Four-Dimensional Cone-Beam Computed To Mography In Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, Moiz Ahmad

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The influence of respiratory motion on patient anatomy poses a challenge to accurate radiation therapy, especially in lung cancer treatment. Modern radiation therapy planning uses models of tumor respiratory motion to account for target motion in targeting. The tumor motion model can be verified on a per-treatment session basis with four-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (4D-CBCT), which acquires an image set of the dynamic target throughout the respiratory cycle during the therapy session. 4D-CBCT is undersampled if the scan time is too short. However, short scan time is desirable in clinical practice to reduce patient setup time. This dissertation presents the …

Differential Activity Of The Kras Oncogene By Method Of Activation: Implications For Signaling And Therapeutic Intervention, Nathan Ihle

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Despite having been identified over thirty years ago and definitively established as having a critical role in driving tumor growth and predicting for resistance to therapy, the KRAS oncogene remains a target in cancer for which there is no effective treatment. KRas is activated b y mutations at a few sites, primarily amino acid substitutions at codon 12 which promote a constitutively active state. I have found that different amino acid substitutions at codon 12 can activate different KRas downstream signaling pathways, determine clonogenic growth potential and determine patient response to molecularly targeted therapies. Computer modeling of the KRas structure …

The Role Of The Arched Helicases In Exosome-Mediated Function, A. Alejandra Klauer

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

RNA processing and degradation are two important functions that control gene expression and promote RNA fidelity in the cell. A major ribonuclease complex, called the exosome, is involved in both of these processes. The exosome is composed of ten essential proteins with only one catalytically active subunit, called Rrp44. While the same ten essential subunits make up both the nuclear and cytoplasmic exosome, there are nuclear and cytoplasmic exosome cofactors that promote specific exosome functions in each of the cell compartments. To date, it is unclear how the exosome distinguishes between RNA substrates. We hypothesize that compartment specific cofactors may …

Induction Of Stronger And Long Lasting Vaccine Immunity To Tuberculosis, Pearl Bakhru

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Tuberculosis is a major cause of death due to an infection in mankind. BCG vaccine protects against childhood tuberculosis although, it fails to protect against adult tuberculosis. BCG vaccine localizes to immature phagosomes of macrophages, and avoids lysosomal fusion, which decreases peptide antigen production. Peptides are essential for macrophage-mediated priming of CD4 and CD8 T cells respectively through MHC-II and MHC-I pathways. Furthermore, BCG reduces the expression of MHC-II in macrophages of mice after infection, through Toll-like receptor-1/2 (TLR-1/2) mediated signaling. In my first aim, I hypothesized that BCG-induced reduction of MHC-II levels in macrophages can decrease CD4 T cell …

Trim24-Regulated Estrogen Response Is Dependent On Specific Histone Modifications In Breast Cancer Cells, Teresa T. Yiu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In this dissertation, I discovered that function of TRIM24 as a co-activator

of ERα-mediated transcriptional activation is dependent on specific histone

modifications in tumorigenic human breast cancer-derived MCF7 cells. In the first

part, I proved that TRIM24-PHD finger domain, which recognizes unmethylated

histone H3 lysine K4 (H3K4me0), is critical for ERα-regulated transcription.

Therefore, when LSD1-mediated demethylation of H3K4 is inhibited, activation of

TRIM24-regulated ERα target genes is greatly impaired. Importantly, I

demonstrated that TRIM24 and LSD1 are cyclically recruited to estrogen

responsive elements (EREs) in a time-dependent manner upon estrogen

induction, and depletion of their expression exert corresponding time-dependent

effect …

Design, Calibration, And Evaluation Of Depth-Of-Interaction-Capable Pet Detector Modules, Chad J. Bircher

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

High-resolution, small-bore PET systems suffer from a tradeoff between system sensitivity, and image quality degradation. In these systems long crystals allow mispositioning of the line of response due to parallax error and this mispositioning causes resolution blurring, but long crystals are necessary for high system sensitivity. One means to allow long crystals without introducing parallax errors is to determine the depth of interaction (DOI) of the gamma ray interaction within the detector module. While DOI has been investigated previously, newly available solid state photomultipliers (SSPMs) well-suited to PET applications and allow new modules for investigation. Depth of interaction in full …

Regulation Of The Heat Shock Response By Thiol-Reactive Compounds In The Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Yanyu Wang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Cells govern their activities and modulate their interactions with the environment to achieve homeostasis. The heat shock response (HSR) is one of the most well studied fundamental cellular responses to environmental and physiological challenges, resulting in rapid synthesis of heat shock proteins (HSPs), which serve to protect cellular constituents from the deleterious effects of stress. In addition to its role in cytoprotection, the HSR also influences lifespan and is associated with a variety of human diseases including cancer, aging and neurodegenerative disorders. In most eukaryotes, the HSR is primarily mediated by the highly conserved transcription factor HSF1, which recognizes target …

Exploring The Impact Of Decreased Ampk Pathway Activity On Brain Injury Outcome, Julia L. Hill

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Each year, 150 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). TBI results in life-long cognitive impairments for many survivors. One observed pathological alteration following TBI are changes in glucose metabolism. Altered glucose uptake occurs in the periphery as well as in the nervous system, with an acute increase in glucose uptake, followed by a prolonged metabolic suppression. Chronic, persistent suppression of brain glucose uptake occurs in TBI patients experiencing memory loss. Abberant post-injury activation of energy-sensing signaling cascades could result in perturbed cellular metabolism. AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) is a kinase that senses low ATP levels, and promotes efficient cell …

Cellular Uptake Of Neutrohpil Elastase Links Inflammation To Adaptive Immunity, Elizabeth A. Mittendorf

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Many tumors arise from sites of inflammation providing evidence that innate immunity is a critical component in the development and progression of cancer. Neutrophils are primary mediators of the innate immune response. Upon activation, an important function of neutrophils is release of an assortment of proteins from their granules including the serine protease neutrophil elastase (NE). The effect of NE on cancer has been attributed primarily to its ability to degrade the extracellular matrix thereby promoting invasion and metastasis. Recently, it was shown that NE could be taken up by lung cancer cells leading to degradation of insulin receptor substrate-1 …

Characterization Of A Novel Role For The To Usled- Like Kinase In Kinetochore Assembly And Function In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Jessica M. De Orbeta

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Chromosome segregation is a critical step during cell division to avoid aneuploidy and promote proper organismal development. Correct sister chromatid positioning and separation during mitosis helps to achieve faithful transmission of genetic material to daughter cells. This prevents improper chromosome partitioning that can potentially result in extrachromosomal fragments, increasing the tumorigenic potential of the cells. The kinetochore is a protenaicious structure responsible for the initiation and orchestration of chromosome movement during mitosis. This highly conserved structure among eukaryotes is required for chromosome attachment to the mitotic spindle and failure to assemble the kinetochore results in aberrant chromosome segregation. Thus elucidating …

Evaluation Of Polymer Gel Dosimeters For Measurements Of Dose And Let In Proton Beams, Kevin M. Vredevoogd

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

This project assessed the effectiveness of polymer gel dosimeters as tools for measuring the dose deposited by and LET of a proton beam. A total of three BANG® dosimeter formulations were evaluated: BANG®-3-Pro-2 BANGkits™ for dose measurement and two BANG®-3 variants, the LET-Baseline and LET-Meter dosimeters, for LET measurement. All dosimeters were read out using an OCT scanner. The basic characteristics of the BANGkits™ were assessed in a series of photon and electron irradiations. The dose-response relationship was found to be sigmoidal with a threshold for response of approximately 15 cGy. The active region of the dosimeter, the volume in …

Characterization Of Selective Inhibition Of Adenylyl Cyclase Activity By Small Molecule Inhibitor Nky80, Cameron S. Brand

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The nine membrane-bound isoforms of adenylyl cyclase (AC), via synthesis of the signaling molecule cyclic AMP (cAMP), are involved in many isoform specific physiological functions. Decreasing AC5 activity has been shown to have potential therapeutic benefit, including reduced stress on the heart, pain relief, and attenuation of morphine dependence and withdrawal behaviors. However, AC structure is well conserved, and there are currently no isoform selective AC inhibitors in clinical use.

P-site inhibitors inhibit AC directly at the catalytic site, but with an uncompetitive or noncompetitive mechanism. Due to this mechanism and nanomolar potency in cell-free systems, attempts at ligand-based drug …