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Modern Assessment Of The High-Energy Background Environment At Small Atmospheric Depths Using The X-Calibur X-Ray Polarimeter And Its Implications, Rashied Baradaran Amini

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Since the discovery of cosmic rays, Earth's upper atmosphere at depths of 1-10 g cm2 has been used for balloon-borne observations probing the high-energy universe. However, the interaction of cosmic rays with the earth atmosphere generates numerous particles, each with their own flux and interaction physics that contribute to instrument background. In Fall 2014, the X-Calibur X-ray polarimeter designed and built at Washington University in St. Louis was launched from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico. While no astrophysical observation was performed as a result of a failure in telescope mechanisms, X-Calibur was able to record hours of instrument background with an …

The Second Quantized Approach To The Study Of Model Hamiltonians In Quantum Hall Regime, Li Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The study of model Hamiltonians, whose exact ground states are well known quantum Hall states, have been investigated solely in the literature from the point of view of first quantized approach in the last few decades. However, a second quantized approach to such Hamiltonians has not been taken in the same measure. In this dissertation, we study Haldane pseudopotential, which is the parent Hamiltonian of 1/M Laughlin state, and Trugman-Kivelson pseudopotential, which is the parent Hamiltonian of 2/5 unprojected Jain state. We find that the study of these Hamiltonians in their second quantized forms not only reproduces all properties of …

Courtly Love And Its Counterparts In The Medieval Mediterranean, Robin William Girard

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

At least since Stendhal's De l'Amour, scholars have argued that the theories of courtly love expressed in the Old French literature of the High Middle Ages were inspired by or drew upon elements of Islamicate culture. In this dissertation, I explore the theories of love represented in works of literature, lover's manuals and medical treatises composed in and around the late twelfth–century court of Marie de Champagne, which I read in conjunction with contemporaneous works from the Islamicate world, ranging from Al‑Andalus to Persia, in order to show how these works reflect the common cultural orientation of the medieval Mediterranean. …

The Violence Of Abstraction: Learning To Live With Type-2 Diabetes In Everyday Life, Jenny Epstein

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The impetus for this project grew out of my experience working as a pharmacist in a federally-funded ambulatory-care clinic In Tacoma, WA. Many people seen at the clinic struggled with type-2 diabetes (T2DM) and over time, I began to see this condition not only as a biological disorder, but also as a complex symptom of both macro-level social history and micro-level daily activities. I also began to see how the emphasis on medical abstraction in the form of measuring, monitoring and scheduling into daily routines, while necessary to control T2DM, created a gap between lived experience and the broader social …

New Techniques And Optimizations Of Short Echo-Time 1h Mri With Applications In Murine Lung, Jinbang Guo

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Although x-ray computed tomography (CT) is a gold standard for pulmonary imaging, it has high ionizing radiation, which puts patients at greater risk of cancer, particularly in a longitudinal study with cumulative doses. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) doesn't involve exposure to ionizing radiation and is especially useful for visualizing soft tissues and organs such as ligaments, cartilage, brain, and heart. Many efforts have been made to apply MRI to study lung function and structure of both humans and animals. However, lung is a unique organ and is very different from other solid organs like the heart and brain due to …

The Dynamic Brain In Action: Cortical Oscillations And Coordination Dynamics, Mahmood Hoseini

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Cortical oscillations are electrical activities with rhythmic and/or repetitive nature generated spontaneously and in response to stimuli. Study of cortical oscillations has become an area of converging interests since the last two decades and has deepened our understanding of its physiological basis across different behavioral states. Experimental and modeling work has taught us that there is a wide diversity of cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying the generation of cortical rhythms. A wildly diverse set of functions has pertained to synchronous oscillations but their significance in cognition should be better appraised in the more general framework of correlation between spike times …

Structure, Dynamics, And Regulation Of Collective Cell Migration, Andrew J. Loza

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Collective migration is the process by which cells organize individual motions to productively migrate as a group and plays a fundamental role in organism development, tissue regeneration, and cancer invasion. In development, coordinated migration facilitates the formation of complex organ structures and is required for proper dissemination of neural crest cells throughout an organism. After injury, this process allows breaches in epithelial layers to be repaired while maintaining tissue integrity, and in cancer, collective behavior enhances invasion of tumor cells into the surrounding tissue. Chapter 1 provides an introduction for the role of collective migration across an organism’s lifespan, the …

Genetic Mechanisms For The Maintenance Of Behavioral Mating Barriers In Drosophila, Kathleen M. Mortland

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

One of the most successful and diverse systems involved in the maintenance of behavioral barriers between closely related animal species is pheromonal communication. In the fruit fly, contact chemosensation input is especially important during sexual decision-making as it allows for the sensing of sex and species-specific non-volatile cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), which function as insect pheromones. However, how pheromonal systems support the maintenance of mating barriers is puzzling since any change in either pheromone ligands or their cognate receptors would carry a fitness cost, which should be eliminated by stabilizing selection. To resolve this evolutionary conundrum I hypothesized that pleiotropic genes …

A Study On The Role And Regulation Of The Na+-Leak Channel, Non-Selective (Nalcn) In Myometrial Function, Erin Lynn Reinl

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Uterine contractions are tightly regulated throughout pregnancy, remaining relatively quiescent for the majority of pregnancy to promote fetal development, while becoming highly activated at term to effectively expel the fetus. Contractions are coordinated through electrical and mechanical coupling of myometrial smooth muscle cells (MSMCs). Ion channel activity, which alters the electrical activity of MSMCs, can directly affect the contraction profile. Thus there is great interest in the field of reproduction to understand which ion channels regulate uterine excitability, and particularly how they may enable the transition from uterine quiescence to uterine activation for labor. The focus thus far has been …

Regulation Of Mycobacterial Transcription Initiation, Jayan Rammohan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Cellular life relies on gene expression, in which DNA is first transcribed into RNA, which is then translated into protein. Transcription is performed by the protein RNA polymerase (RNAP), which interacts with DNA in three sequential events known as initiation, elongation and termination. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) represents a global burden to public health, and the transcription factors CarD and RbpA are both essential to Mtb. I have studied the effect of CarD and RbpA on transcription initiation in vitro at the Mtb rrnAP3 promoter. I have shown that CarD stabilizes unwinding of promoter DNA by RNAP using a two-tiered kinetic …

Biogenetically Inspired Total Synthesis Of Lingzhiol. Design And Synthesis Of Axially Chiral N-Heterocyclic Carbene Catalysts., Krishna Sharmah Gautam

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

A stereo- and enantio-selective synthesis of lingzhiol has been achieved, mimicking a proposed biogenetic pathway via Brønsted acid-catalyzed semipinacol rearrangement of a 2,3-epoxy alcohol. A new and improved method was developed for alkylation of anilines using a domestic microwave oven. The resulting racemic chiral anilines were resolved via classical resolution and transformed into axially chiral thiazolylidene-based NHC organocatalysts, which were applied to asymmetric benzoin condensation.

Mass Spectrometry And Protein Analysis: Structure, Oligomerization And Interaction, Hanliu Wang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Protein aggregation is common in biological processes including neurodegenerative diseases, as well as artificial development in biopharmaceutical production and protein storage. Therefore, understanding proteins involved in aggregation systems is important. It is generally difficult for high resolution structural methods, such as X-ray or NMR, to interrogate proteins possessing aggregation propensities. On the other hand, techniques that tolerate solution heterogeneities, such as circular dichroism, only provide global or low-resolution information. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods are appropriate and powerful in such applications because they can deal with mixtures. Additionally, primary sequence, post-translational modification, and structural information can be obtained at low sample …

Investigating The Life-Cycle Of Photosystem Ii Using Mass Spectrometry, Daniel Avram Weisz

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Photosystem II (PSII) is a protein complex found embedded in the thylakoid membranes of all organisms that perform oxygenic photosynthesis. PSII converts sunlight into chemical energy, filling our atmosphere with molecular oxygen in the process and supporting nearly all life on Earth. PSII undergoes frequent light-induced damage as an unavoidable result of the electron transfer reactions it catalyzes. When damaged, PSII is disassembled, repaired, and reassembled in an intricate, tightly regulated process. The structure and mechanism of function of active PSII are relatively well-understood, due to the available crystal structures of the active complex and many years of biochemical and …

Discovery And Functional Implication Of Genetic Alterations Associated With Clonal Hematopoietic Expansion, Mingchao Xie

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Cancers, including hematologic malignancies, arise as a result of the stepwise accumulation of mutations. Some early mutations that potentially initiate clonal expansion might exist in patients many years before they develop obvious disease symptoms. Therefore, identifying and characterizing these early mutations are critical to understanding the genetic basis of tumorigenesis. Here, we analyzed blood-derived DNA sequencing data from 2,728 individuals without apparent hematologic malignancies and identified 77 blood-specific mutations in 31 cancer-associated genes. Importantly, 83% of all mutations occurred in 19 genes that have been previously linked to hematological malignancies, such as DNMT3A, TET2, JAK2, and ASXL1. By investigating these …

Morris Once Again Named A "Best College Value" By Kiplinger's Personal Finance, University Relations

Campus News Archive

Kiplinger has recognized Morris for academic quality and affordability nine consecutive times.

Implicit Prosody And Cue-Based Retrieval: L1 And L2 Agreement And Comprehension During Reading, Elizabeth Pratt, Eva M. Fernández

Publications and Research

This project focuses on structural and prosodic effects during reading, examining their influence on agreement processing and comprehension in native English (L1) and Spanish–English bilingual (L2) speakers. We consolidate research from several distinct areas of inquiry—cognitive processing, reading fluency, and L1/L2 processing—in order to support the integration of prosody with a cue-based retrieval mechanism for subject-verb agreement. To explore this proposal, the experimental design manipulated text presentation to influence implicit prosody, using sentences designed to induce subject-verb agreement attraction errors. Materials included simple and complex relative clauses with head nouns and verbs that were either matched or mismatched for number. …

Research Express News, Georgia Southern University

Research & Economic Development

• Georgia Southern faculty continue excellence in 2015

A Moment In A Diner, D. Ferrara

Westview

No abstract provided.

Logan, Anne Oleson

Westview

No abstract provided.

Felt Tongue (156), Guy R. Beining

Westview

No abstract provided.

Camouflage, Terry W. Ford

Westview

No abstract provided.

Closet, Laurie Patton

Westview

No abstract provided.

Freesia In Winter, Suzanne O'Connell

Westview

No abstract provided.

Selective Suppression Of The Α Isoform Of P38 Mapk Rescues Late-Stage Tau Pathology, Nicole Maphis, Shanya Jiang, Guixiang Xu, Olga N. Kokiko-Cochran, Saktimayee M. Roy, Linda J. Van Eldik, D. Martin Watterson, Bruce T. Lamb, Kiran Bhaskar

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Background: Hyperphosphorylation and aggregation of tau protein are the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease and related tauopathies. We previously demonstrated that the microglial activation induces tau hyperphosphorylation and cognitive impairment via activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) in the hTau mouse model of tauopathy that was deficient for microglial fractalkine receptor CX3CR1.

Method: We report an isoform-selective, brain-permeable, and orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of p38α MAPK (MW181) and its effects on tau phosphorylation in vitro and in hTau mice.

Results: First, pretreatment of mouse primary cortical neurons with MW181 completely blocked inflammation-induced p38α MAPK activation and AT8 …

Global Citizenship Certificate Program, Alison C. Meighan

Capstone Collection

In today’s highly globalized and increasingly interconnected world, we face many pressing world problems including poverty, social inequalities, and climate change, to name a few. Reflecting this stark reality and acknowledging that these problems are indeed borderless, it has become vital to rethink education and provide the next generation of worldwide change-makers with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to solve these problems and make our world more equitable and sustainable. One avenue for achieving this shift in education and fostering these global problem-solving skills and attitudes, is global citizenship. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon corroborates this point, stating, …

Contributors, Westview Staff

Westview

No abstract provided.

One For Mirth, Two For Sorrow, Hananah Zaheer

Westview

No abstract provided.

All The Best Strangers Have Mommy Issues, Clio Contogenis

Westview

No abstract provided.

Getting Road Expansion On The Right Track: A Framework For Smart Infrastructure Planning In The Mekong, Andrew Balmford, Huafeng Chen, Ben Phalan, Mingcheng Wang, Christine S. O'Connell, Cath Tayleur, Jianchu Xu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The current unprecedented expansion of infrastructure promises to enhance human wellbeing but risks causing substantial harm to natural ecosystems and the benefits they provide for people. A framework for systematically and proactively identifying the likely benefits and costs of such developments is badly needed. Here, we develop and test at the subregional scale a recently proposed global scheme for comparing the potential gains from new roads for food production with their likely impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Working in the Greater Mekong—an exceptionally biodiverse subregion undergoing rapid development—we combined maps of isolation from urban centres, yield gaps, and the …

Modulation Of Ventral Striatal Activity By Cognitive Effort, Ryan Jessup

Management Sciences

Effort discounting theory suggests that the value of a reward should be lower if it was effortful to obtain, whereas contrast theory suggests that the contrast between the costly effort and the reward makes the reward seem more valuable. To test these alternative hypotheses, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as participants engaged in feedback-based learning that required low or high cognitive effort to obtain positive feedback, while the objective amount of information provided by feedback remained constant. In the low effort condition, a single image was presented with four response options. In the high effort condition, two images …