Digital Commons Network^™

Structure–Activity Relationship-Based Chemical Classification Of Highly Imbalanced Tox21 Datasets, Gabriel Idakwo, Sundar Thangapandian, Joseph Luttrell, Yan Li, Nan Wang, Zhaoxian Zhou, Huixiao Hong, Bei Yang, Chaoyang Zhang, Ping Gong

Faculty Publications

The specificity of toxicant-target biomolecule interactions lends to the very imbalanced nature of many toxicity datasets, causing poor performance in Structure–Activity Relationship (SAR)-based chemical classification. Undersampling and oversampling are representative techniques for handling such an imbalance challenge. However, removing inactive chemical compound instances from the majority class using an undersampling technique can result in information loss, whereas increasing active toxicant instances in the minority class by interpolation tends to introduce artificial minority instances that often cross into the majority class space, giving rise to class overlapping and a higher false prediction rate. In this study, in order to improve the …

Physiological And Anatomical Responses Of Douglas-Fir And Lodgepole Pine To Bark Beetle Attack And Blue-Stain Fungi Inoculations, Robert Walker

Master's Theses

Bark beetles are important native insect pests to conifer forests in North America and their irruptive beetle populations are of serious concern both ecologically and economically. As bark beetles bore into the phloem of a host tree to excavate brood galleries, they simultaneously deposit spores of blue-stain fungi. Both the partial girdling of the tree’s phloem by beetles and the blockage of xylem by fungi can overcome the tree’s defenses and cause its death. To combat colonization by insects and pathogens, conifers allocate large amounts of metabolic resources into defense mechanisms, of which, resin ducts play important roles. As resin …

Dignity And Respect In The Salsa Dance Classroom: Fostering Healthy Self-Esteem To Promote Compassion, Diana Sanchez

Master's Theses

Many students that have attempted to take salsa dance classes often express their disillusionment in the way in which they are treated by salsa dance instructors. Salsa dance classes have the possibility to function to awaken in the student greater integration with the society in which people live, while stimulating actions, improving self-esteem, and self-confidence, improving vocabulary, awakening sensitivity, attenuating shyness, as well as increasing communicative and social skills. If the content of a course is well designed and delivered with an intentional student-centered approach, it can positively contribute to greater and more sincere learning. In this sense, the objective …

Strictly Ballroom: Examining How The Culture Of Collegiate Ballroom Dance Influences Body Image Perceptions, Rachel Neil

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence that collegiate ballroom dance programs have on participants’ body image perception and self-esteem and to identify what sort of effect those perceptions have on performance satisfaction. In this project the researcher surveyed twenty-four students, ten males and fourteen females, who were presently involved in a collegiate ballroom dance program with a goal of identifying what sort of influence the culture of their ballroom dance programs had on each participant’s body image and self-esteem. The research instrument used in this study was an electronic survey that included yes or no questions, …

Desire And The Power Of Practice: Queer Sexual Perspectives, Philip W. Kemp

Master's Theses

This research provides a theoretical analysis of the lived experiences of 17 queer individuals, ages 19 to 66, regarding their sexual desires and practices. Queer Theory is incorporated to inform on sex, gender performance and sexuality as social constructs, to inform grounded theoretical concepts, and to identify expressed social behavior by each participant. Social Exchange Theory is used to analyze participant responses. Modified grounded theory is incorporated to posit a particular social exchange that I refer to as the queer exchange; in which particular costs/benefits are considered before queer individuals engage in social exchanges due to their potentially (un)perceived queerness. …

Discovery, Validation And Sequencing Of Urinary Peptides For Diagnosis Of Liver Fibrosis—A Multicentre Study, Ayman S. Bannaga, Jochen Metzger, Ioannis Kyrou, Torsten Voigtländer, Thorsten Book, Jesus Melgarejo, Agnieszka Latosinska, Martin Pejchinovski, Jan A. Staessen, Harald Mischak

School of Medicine Publications

Background

Liver fibrosis is a consequence of chronic inflammation and is associated with protein changes within the hepatocytes structure. In this study, we aimed to investigate if this is reflected by the urinary proteome and can be explored to diagnose liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease.

Methods

In a multicentre combined cross-sectional and prospective diagnostic test validation study, 129 patients with varying degrees of liver fibrosis and 223 controls without liver fibrosis were recruited. Additionally, 41 patients with no liver, but kidney fibrosis were included to evaluate interference with expressions of kidney fibrosis. Urinary low molecular weight …

Genetic Correlations And Genome-Wide Associations Of Cortical Structure In General Population Samples Of 22,824 Adults, Edith Hofer, Gennady V. Roshchupkin, Hieab H.H. Adams, Maria J. Knol, Honghuang Lin, Shuo Li, Habil Zare, Marcio Almeida, Joanne E. Curran, John Blangero

School of Medicine Publications

Cortical thickness, surface area and volumes vary with age and cognitive function, and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here we report heritability, genetic correlations and genome-wide associations of these cortical measures across the whole cortex, and in 34 anatomically predefined regions. Our discovery sample comprises 22,824 individuals from 20 cohorts within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium and the UK Biobank. We identify genetic heterogeneity between cortical measures and brain regions, and 160 genome-wide significant associations pointing to wnt/β-catenin, TGF-β and sonic hedgehog pathways. There is enrichment for genes involved in anthropometric traits, hindbrain …

Two Weeks Of Remote Ischemic Conditioning Improves Brachial Artery Flow Mediated Dilation In Chronic Stroke Survivors, Allison S. Hyngstrom, Jennifer Nguyen, Michael Wright, Sergey Tarima, Brian D. Schmit, David D. Gutterman, Matthew J. Durand

Physical Therapy Faculty Research and Publications

Many stroke survivors have reduced cardiorespiratory fitness as a result of their stroke. Ischemic conditioning (IC) is a noninvasive, cost-effective, easy-to-administer intervention that can be performed at home and has been shown to improve both motor function in stroke survivors and vascular endothelial function in healthy individuals. In this study, we examined the effects of 2 wk of remote IC (RIC) on brachial artery flow mediated dilation (FMD) in chronic stroke survivors. We hypothesized that FMD would be improved following RIC compared with a sham RIC control group. This was a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, controlled study. Twenty-four chronic stroke survivors …

A Two-Clone Approach To Study Signaling Interactions Among Neuronal Cells In A Pre-Clinical Alzheimer’S Disease Model, Catherine J. Yeates, Ankita Sarkar, Prajakta Deshpande, Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh

Biology Faculty Publications

To understand the progression of Alzheimer's disease, studies often rely on ectopic expression of amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) throughout an entire tissue. Uniform ectopic expression of Aβ42 may obscure cell-cell interactions that contribute to the progression of the disease. We developed a two-clone system to study the signaling cross talk between GFP-labeled clones of Aβ42-expressing neurons and wild-type neurons simultaneously generated from the same progenitor cell by a single recombination event. Surprisingly, wild-type clones are reduced in size as compared with Aβ42-producing clones. We found that wild-type cells are eliminated by the induction of cell death. Furthermore, aberrant activation of c-Jun-N-terminal …

Does The Presence Of Multiple Β-Lactamases In Gram-Negative Bacilli Impact The Results Of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Tests And Extended-Spectrum Β-Lactamase And Carbapenemase Confirmation Methods?, Fred C. Tenover, Caitlin M. Dela Cruz, Scott Dewell, Victoria M. Le, Isabella A. Tickler

Biology Faculty Publications

Objectives: Many multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli (MDR-GNB) harbour multiple β-lactamases. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of multiple β-lactamase carriage on the accuracy of susceptibility tests and extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemase confirmation methods.

Methods: A total of 50 MDR-GNB, of which 29 carried multiple β-lactamases, underwent broth microdilution (BMD) and disk diffusion (DD) testing as well as confirmation tests for ESBLs and carbapenemases. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was used for β-lactamase gene identification.

Results: Categorical agreement of BMD and DD testing results ranged from 86.5 to 97.7% for 10 β-lactam agents. BMD and DD algorithms for ESBL …

Carbon Sequestration By Reforesting Legacy Grasslands On Coal Mining Sites, James F. Fox, J. Elliott Campbell, Peter M. Acton

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Future carbon management during energy production will rely on carbon capture and sequestration technology and carbon sequestration methods for offsetting non-capturable losses. The present study quantifies carbon sequestration via reforestation using measurements and modeling for recent and legacy surface coal mining grasslands that are re-restored through tree planting. This paper focuses on a case study of legacy coal mining sites in the southern Appalachia the United States. This five million-hectare region has a surface mining footprint of approximately 12% of the land area, and the reclamation method was primarily grassland. The results of the soil carbon sequestration rates for restored …

What's In A Name? An Assessment Of Degradation Of Women In The Name Of Climbing Routes, Raiza Barahona

Honors Theses

Gendered behavior is reinforced at an early age. In media, women are usually portrayed following gender stereotypical behaviors and are often sexualized, meaning that their worth is often determined by their body shape and clothing type and as such women are often wearing revealing clothing, following gender stereotypical behaviors, and portraying unrealistic body proportions (e.g., Gentlemen’s Quarterly Magazine; Collins, 2011). The representation of women in climbing media is similar to that of the general media. The present study focused on route names within the climbing community and presents a qualitative analysis on the sexism and other derogatory (i.e., overtly sexual) …

Improving Engineering Education Through Cyber-Physical Systems: Instrumentation And Control Of A Unit Operations Laboratory, Shelby Musselman

Honors Theses

A cyber-physical system (CPS) is a network of physical devices that are monitored or controlled by computer-based algorithms. A key enabler for future technology developments, CPS is an interdisciplinary research area that engages a broad spectrum of disciplines and could bring about revolutionary changes in domains such as energy, environment, and healthcare [1, 2] Using CPS to develop smart, connected products through hierarchies such as internet of things (IoT) allows for integration of systems and provides open access to data subsets for digital service applications. This technology has the potential to transform our everyday lives (e.g., smartphones, activity trackers), our …

Radio-Frequency Sensors For High Performance Liquid Chromatography Applications, Duye Ye

All Dissertations

As a fast-developing analytical technique for separation, purification, identification and quantification of components in a mixture, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been widely used in various fields including biology, food, environment, pharmacy and so on. As a critical part in the HPLC system, the detector with the feature of high sensitivity, universal detection and gradient-elution compatibility is highly desired. In this dissertation, two types of radio-frequency (RF) sensors for HPLC gradient applications are presented: a tunable interferometer (TIM) and a modified square ring loaded resonator (SRLR). For the TIM-based sensor, the sensitivity is evaluated by measuring a few common …

Polydiacetylene Biosensors In Food Microbiology Applications, Yueyuan Zhang

All Dissertations

Polydiacetylenes (PDAs) are conjugated polymers which consist of diacetylene monomers (DAs). DAs are colorless and can be polymerized under UV light at 254nm to form blue PDAs. Stimuli such as heat, chemicals, mechanic force and pH change will trigger color change of PDA from blue to red/pink. This chroma property makes PDA an ideal material for sensor development and therefore has received considerable attention in recent years. There has been several reports of generating PDA-based sensors for cations, chemicals, virus, microorganisms, and bacterial toxins detection. However, development of PDA-based sensors for food microbiology applications were limited. The objective of this …

Development Of Cutaneotrichosporon Oleaginosus To Convert Lignin-Derived Phenolics To Oleochemicals, Allison Yaguchi

All Dissertations

Oleaginous yeasts have long been a target for developing industrial-scale biorefineries due to their ability to accumulate high amounts of lipids, synthesize complex chemicals and proteins, and robustly metabolize diverse feedstocks. In parallel, interest in lignocellulosic biomass as a feedstock has grown. While most processes focus on the carbohydrates from cellulose and hemicellulose, the most energy-dense biopolymer, lignin, remains underutilized.

This dissertation describes foundational work describing lignin conversion by Cutaneotrichosporon oleaginosus, a non-model oleaginous yeast known for its metabolism of alternative sugars, including xylose, and tolerance and metabolism toxic lignocellulosic hydrolysate inhibitors such as 5-HMF, furfural, acetic acid. This …

Redefining Creativity To Advance Our Understanding Of Behavior Change And Agency, Philip F. Brunner

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Change is hard, and shifting one’s behavior, even with the support of a counselor, can be challenging. While it has not been common for the field of counseling and therapeutic behavior change to draw on it, creativity studies have much to offer counselors and practitioners as well as individuals who just want to realize change in their lives. The potential contributions of creativity studies to lasting and meaningful behavior change are enhanced especially if we take up a definition of creativity that draws on traditional definitions and theories but that also integrates insights from fields like neuroscience and complex dynamical …

Plasma Resuscitation Attenuates Intestinal Barrier Disturbance Following Hemorrhagic Shock., Jessica E. Schucht

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IIRI) following resuscitated hemorrhagic shock (HS/RES) leads to endothelial damage, microcirculatory dysfunction and intestinal barrier breakdown, increasing intestinal permeability. This pathologic process contributes pathophysiology of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in some trauma patients. Although vascular smooth muscle machinery remains intact, microvascular vasoconstriction occurs secondary to endothelial cell damage, resulting in further ischemia and organ injury. Used separately, resuscitation with Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) or Direct Peritoneal Resuscitation (DPR) improves the intestinal microcirculation and alleviates organ injury. Further examination of these effects individually or combined could aid in the resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock. Methods: Sprague Dawley …

Characterization Of Adiposity And Inflammation Genetic Pleiotropy Underlying Cardiovascular Risk Factors In Hispanics., Mohammad Yaser (Anwar)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The observed overlap between genetic variants associated with both adiposity and inflammatory markers suggests that changes in both adiposity and inflammation could be partially mediated by common pathways. The pervasive but sparsely characterized “pleiotropic” genetic variants associated with both adiposity and inflammation have been hypothesized to provide insight into the shared biology. This study explored and characterized the genetic pleiotropy underpinning adiposity and inflammation using genetic and phenotypic observations from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC). A total of 3,313 samples and >9 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were examined in this study. Mixed model genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were …

A Phenomenological Study Of Kindergarten Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Students In The Age Of Kindergarten Readiness., Adam Nelson Stephens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kindergarten has changed dramatically from a play-based, social experience a generation ago to the literacy- and numeracy-based curricula of today. With this shift in academic expectations, children now take a kindergarten readiness assessment at the beginning of the school year to determine their likelihood of success based on their pre-kindergarten preparation. While previous studies have examined teachers’ perceptions of current kindergarten practices, expectations, and students, few use teachers’ descriptions as the data (Abry et al., 2015; Hustedt et al., 2018). This phenomenological study reports how kindergarten teachers at three Central Kentucky elementary schools describe their attitudes about their own kindergarten …

Investigating The Disorder And Compaction Of Designed Minielastin Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance., Ma Faye Charmagne Aquino Carvajal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Minielastins are elastin-based proteins with alternating hydrophobic and cross-link modules similar to tropoelastin. Tropoelastin is the ~70 kDa soluble monomeric precursor of elastin. The extracellular matrix protein, elastin provides elasticity to tissues and organs such as lungs, arteries and ligaments. The elastic properties of natural elastin are believed to be entropic in origin. In vivo, the elastin matrix is approximately 50% water by weight. Without water, elastin is brittle and hard. Minielastins, like tropoelastin, undergo a liquid-liquid phase transition upon an increase in temperature. Factors such as hydrophobicity, chain length and concentration affect the coacervation temperature, T_c. The …

Design, Synthesis And Application Of Janus Gold Nanoprisms For Directed Self-Assembly., Md. Emtias Chowdhury

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Colloidal Janus particles that possess more than one type of surface chemistry or functionalities have drawn significant interest due to their enormous potential in bottom-up synthetic strategies for complex superstructures. Moreover, the property of molecular recognition, tunability, and predictability of the DNA-mediated interactions enable a high degree of control over particle assembly to generate highly ordered nanostructures with emergent applications. In this dissertation, we present our works on the synthesis of Janus particles from anisotropic gold nanoprisms, and DNA- mediated assembly of nanoprisms and polymer beads in four major areas: 1) Facet selective asymmetric functionalization of gold nanoprisms for Janus …

Undergraduate Students Use Moral Reasoning And Belief In Genetic Determinism In Response To A Crispr/Cas9 Socioscientific Issue., Katie M. Seiter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how students reason about genetic engineering socioscientific issues (SSIs) related to a recently developed, powerful genome editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9. It is divided into three chapters. Chapter One describes an exploratory study that characterized students’ moral reasoning using a sociocultural theoretical framework. I used content analysis and logistic regression to investigate how academic and social factors influenced moral reasoning. Students generally opposed the use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology for non-medical enhancements, and the moral considerations used were influenced by genetics knowledge level and demographic variables such as gender and socio-economic status. Further investigation of moral perspectives for students …

The Use Of Nanoparticles And Electrospun Fibers For Intravaginal Delivery To Treat Viral And Bacterial Infections And Electrophysiological Measurements Of Synthetic Chloride Channels., Farnaz Minooei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Female reproductive viral and bacterial infections affect millions of women worldwide. Given the diversity and magnitude of these unmet reproductive health challenges, topical administration of antiretrovirals (ARVs) and antibiotics have emerged as promising approaches to maintain and restore reproductive health. However, currently available intravaginal dosage forms often suffer from low user adherence and the need for frequent, daily administration to achieve therapeutic effect. To address these challenges, the broad goal of this research was to focus on the development of new localized nanoparticle (NP) and electrospun fiber dosage forms to prolong the delivery and enhance the efficacy of active agents …

Impacts Of Environmental And Hydrologic Factors On Urban Stream Water Quality., Jason Patrik Ingram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urban streams can be impacted by a multitude of hydrologic and environmental factors, making maintaining these water sources difficult. Urbanization can exacerbate these impacts creating new challenges in preserving suitable urban stream water quality. Urbanization is the development of city landscape and suburban living within an otherwise natural region. For this environmental impact study, the effects of city development on urban stream water quality was monitored for Mill Creek in Louisville, Kentucky. To study the effects of urbanization on Mill Creek, this project was completed utilizing the BACI method for comparing impacts. The results of the water quality monitoring were …

Seasonal Patterns In Stable Isotope And Fatty Acid Profiles Of Southern Stingrays (Hypanus Americana) At Stingray City Sandbar, Grand Cayman, Lisa A. Hoopes, Tonya M. Clauss, Nicole E. Browning, Alexa J. Delaune, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Mahmood Shivji, Jessica C. Harvey, Guy C.M. Harvey

Biology Faculty Articles

Ecotourism opportunities in the marine environment often rely heavily on provisioning to ensure the viewing of cryptic species by the public. However, intentional feeding of wildlife can impact numerous aspects of an animals’ behavior and ecology. Southern stingrays (Hypanus americana) provisioned at Stingray City Sandbar (SCS) in Grand Cayman have altered diel activity patterns and decreased measures of health. This study looked at seasonal changes in stable isotope (SI) and fatty acid (FA) profiles of provisioned stingrays at SCS. Plasma δ15N was higher in male stingrays (11.86 ± 1.71‰) compared to females (10.70 ± 1.71‰). Lower values for δ15N in …

Statistics Of Branched Populations Split Into Different Types, Thierry E. Huillet

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Some population is made of n individuals that can be of P possible species (or types) at equilibrium. How are individuals scattered among types? We study two random scenarios of such species abundance distributions. In the first one, each species grows from independent founders according to a Galton-Watson branching process. When the number of founders P is either fixed or random (either Poisson or geometrically-distributed), a question raised is: given a population of n individuals as a whole, how does it split into the species types? This model is one pertaining to forests of Galton-Watson trees. A second scenario that …

Estimation Of Transmission Dynamics Of Covid-19 In India: The Influential Saturated Incidence Rate, - Tanvi, Rajiv Aggarwal, Ashutosh Rajput

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

A non-linear SEIR mathematical model for coronavirus disease in India has been proposed, by incorporating the saturated incidence rate on the occurrence of new infections. In the model, the threshold quantity known as the reproduction number is evaluated which determines the stability of disease-free equilibrium and the endemic equilibrium points. The disease-free equilibrium point becomes globally asymptotically stable when the corresponding reproduction number is less than unity, whereas, if it is greater than unity then the endemic equilibrium point comes into existence, which is locally asymptotically stable under certain restrictions on the parameters value in the model. The impact of …

A Mathematical Model Of Avian Influenza For Poultry Farm And Its Stability Analysis, Abdul Malek, Ashabul Hoque

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

This paper aims to estimate the basic reproduction number for Avian Influenza outbreak in local and global poultry industries. In this concern, we apply the SEIAVR compartmental model which is developed based on the well-known SEIR model. The SEIAVR model provides the mathematical formulations of the basic reproduction number, final size relationship and a relationship between these two phenomena. The developed model Equations are solved numerically with the help of Range-Kutta method and the values of initial parameters are taken from the several literatures and reports. The calculated result of basic reproduction number shows that it is locally and globally …

Impulse Effect On The Food-Limited Population Model With Piecewise Constant Argument, Fatma Karakoç

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The qualitative study of mathematical models is an important area in applied mathematics. In this paper, a version of the food-limited population model with piecewise constant argument under impulse effect is investigated. Differential equations with piecewise constant arguments are related to difference equations. First, a representation for the solutions of the food-limited population model is stated in terms of the solutions of corresponding difference equation. Then using linearized oscillation theory for difference equations, a sufficient condition for the oscillation of the solutions about positive equilibrium point is obtained. Moreover, asymptotic behavior of the non-oscillatory solutions are investigated. Later, applying the …