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Chitosan-Gallium Nanocomposite: Synthesis, Characterization And Antibacterial Activity, Samjhana Bhandari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of bacteria and the lack of a novel class of antibiotics has become a global health concern. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one common MDR bacteria responsible for nosocomial infections and related mortality worldwide. It has developed resistance against commonly available antibiotics and is in the WHO's priority list of bacteria for which new antibiotics are desperately needed. Currently there is a growing interest in developing metal and non-metal-based nanoparticles to target multidrug-resistant bacteria. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a novel nanocomposite of two non-traditional antimicrobials: a metal (Ga-III) and …

Influence Of Geography On The Healthy Gut Microbiome And The Role Of The Gut Microbiome In Ibd Symptom And Disease Progression, Sayf Al-Deen Hassouneh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The human gut microbiome is believed to play an integral role in host health and disease. In a microbial community, associations between constituent members play an important role in determining the overall structure and function of the community. To understand the nature of bacterial associations at the species level in healthy human gut microbiomes, we analyzed previously published collections of whole-genome shotgun sequence data, from fecal samples obtained from four different healthy human populations. Using a Random Forest Classifier, we identified bacterial species that were prevalent in these populations and whose relative abundances could be used to accurately distinguish between …

Applying Machine Learning Techniques To Improve Safety And Mobility Of Urban Transportation Systems Using Infrastructure- And Vehicle-Based Sensors, Zubayer Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The importance of sensing technologies in the field of transportation is ever increasing. Rapid improvements of cloud computing, Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and intelligent transport system (ITS) enables fast acquisition of sensor data with immediate processing. Machine learning algorithms provide a way to classify or predict outcomes in a selective and timely fashion. High accuracy and increased volatility are the main features of various learning algorithms. In this dissertation, we aim to use infrastructure- and vehicle-based sensors to improve safety and mobility of urban transportation systems. Smartphone sensors were used in the first study to estimate vehicle trajectory using lane …

Genomic And Physiological Bioremediation Characteristics Of The Actinobacteria Frankia, Erik Swanson

Doctoral Dissertations

Introduction: Frankia is a genus of symbiotic, nitrogen fixing actinobacteria found in the soil and root tissue of actinorhizal plants throughout the world. Both Frankia and actinorhizal plants are resistant to a wide range of environmental and chemical stresses including heavy metals, high salinity, and drought. This makes Frankia and the actinorhizal symbiosis an interesting candidate for bioremediation applications. However, the microbial community found in the actinorhizal rhizosphere and surrounding soil has been implicated in some of the symbiotic and resistance traits attributed to Frankia. This necessitates thorough investigation of the genomic and genetic components of any bioremediation traits possessed …

From An Insect To The Classroom: Evolutionary Insights Into The Ecological And Behavioral Impacts Of Experience, Brooke Kathleen Woelber-Kastner

Doctoral Dissertations

Organisms exhibit suites of life history traits which enable them to respond to environmental stimuli and increase fitness. However, the relationship between organism traits and the environment is not unidirectional, rather they are in a state of constant interaction. To further our understanding of the interactions between the environment and organism phenotypes, this dissertation focuses on a group of insect scavengers, the burying beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae: Nicrophorus) which utilize carrion to initiate reproduction and feed developing young. Here I apply ecological and molecular methodologies to demonstrate that behaviors provide an important ecological service by sequestering carrion in forest ecosystems. I …

Becoming Scientists: Undergraduate Students' Literacy Activities In Laboratory Education, Allison Giannotti

Doctoral Dissertations

In laboratory courses across universities, undergraduate students are learning to act, think, and write like professional scientists. Yet, despite the centrality of language and literacy in laboratory experiments, the process of becoming scientifically literate remains ambiguous. Thus, my dissertation examines how university laboratory courses foster undergraduate students’ emergence as literate professionals and competent communicators in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. In particular, it examines undergraduate students’ literate practices, how they change over time, and how they are affected by material and experimental processes in three sequenced, chemistry laboratory courses. Through laboratory observations and interviews with undergraduate students, faculty, …

Carbon Emissions From Streams And Rivers: Integrating Methane Emission Pathways And Storm Carbon Dioxide Emissions Into Stream And River Carbon Balances, Andrew Robison

Doctoral Dissertations

River networks play an important role in elemental cycling at watershed, regional, and global scales. They not only serve as pipes that transport elements from land to sea, but also as complex processers that can significantly modify the timing, form, and magnitude of these elemental fluxes. For example, recent studies have shown that river networks contribute significantly to the global carbon cycle by emitting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO¬2) and methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. However, we currently do not fully understand the controls on GHG emissions from river networks, particularly what drives the variability of emissions across space …

Utilization Of Exotic Germplasm In A Cucurbita Breeding Program, Andrew Burkeland Ogden

Doctoral Dissertations

Crops in the Cucurbitaceae plant family are an important part of agricultural systems worldwide. This family includes economically important crops such as watermelon, cucumber, pumpkins, melons, and squash. These crops are plagued by a wide variety of both insect and plant pathogen pests. Breeding for genetic resistance to these pests represents a key component of many cucurbit breeding programs in both public and private sectors. Sources for disease and pest resistance often include wild species and landraces found across the world. Often, such species show poor adaptability to temperate climates. This limits plant breeders’ abilities to utilize exotic germplasm and …

Synthesis Of Thioacids And Dicarboxylic Acids Derived From Open Β-Lactams For Inhibition Of Metallo-Β-Lactamases, Junfu Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

Antibiotics are important substances that have been used in clinical treatment for over 70 years. Because of overuse and misuse of antibiotics, bacteria developed resistance. However, bacterial resistance towards antibiotics, especially the β-lactam antibiotics, is becoming increasingly threat. Currently, the β-lactam antibiotics are seriously threatened by β-lactamases. Metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs), a sub-class of β-lactamases, have been found in several bacteria since they confer resistance to many different β-lactams, and as a result, the bacteria survive in their presence. A potential treatment is to synthesize inhibitors of MBLs, however, there are no inhibitors synthesized in clinical use. The goal of this project …

High Level Learning Using The Temporal Features Of Human Demonstrated Sequential Tasks, Madison Brandywine Clark-Turner

Doctoral Dissertations

Modelling human-led demonstrations of high-level sequential tasks is fundamental to a number of practical inference applications including vision-based policy learning and activity recognition. Demonstrations of these tasks are captured as videos with long durations and similar spatial contents. Learning from this data is challenging since inference cannot be conducted solely on spatial feature presence and must instead consider how spatial features play out across time. To be successful these temporal representations must generalize to variations in the duration of activities and be able to capture relationships between events expressed across the scale of an entire video.

Contemporary deep learning architectures …

Molecular Architecture Of Rod Photoreceptor Phosphodiesterase In Its Nonactivated And G-Protein Activated States, Michael Irwin

Doctoral Dissertations

The photoreceptor phosphodiesterase (PDE6) plays an important role in the G-protein coupled visual signaling pathway which uses cGMP as a second messenger to convert light stimuli into electrical signals. PDE6 is a tetrameric peripheral membrane protein consisting of two catalytic subunits and two inhibitory subunits and is localized to the outer segment membranes of rod and cone photoreceptors. Mutations in this enzyme are one cause of retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerative diseases resulting in blindness or visual dysfunction that lack adequate therapeutic intervention due to inadequate knowledge of PDE6 structure and regulation PDE6 is tightly regulated in the nonactivated …

Biologically Inspired Computer Vision/ Applications Of Computational Models Of Primate Visual Systems In Computer Vision And Image Processing, Reza Hojjaty Saeedy

Doctoral Dissertations

Biologically Inspired Computer VisionApplications of Computational Models of Primate Visual Systems in Computer Vision and Image Processing Reza Hojjaty Saeedy Abstract Biological vision systems are remarkable at extracting and analyzing the information that is essential for vital functional needs. They perform all these tasks with both high sensitivity and strong reliability. They can efficiently and quickly solve most of the difficult computa- tional problems that are still challenging for artificial systems, such as scene segmentation, 3D/depth perception, motion recognition, etc. So it is no surprise that biological vision systems have been a source of inspiration for computer vision problems. In …

The Effect Of Deep-Water Multibeam Mapping Activity On The Foraging Behavior Of Cuvier’S Beaked Whales And The Marine Acoustic Environment, Hilary Suzanne Curran Kates Varghese

Doctoral Dissertations

Sound can propagate great distances underwater and is an important mode for marine life to obtain information. Human activities in the ocean such as global shipping, coastal construction, gas and oil exploration, and mapping navigation routes intentionally and unintentionally emit sound into the ocean, potentially interacting with marine life. Therefore, it is essential that the effects of anthropogenic noise on marine life and the ambient marine acoustic environment be understood. Most of the work, to date, has focused on the impact of low-frequency (<1 kHz) sources such as shipping noise, which is ubiquitous in the ocean, and mid-frequency (1-10 kHz) sources such as naval sonar, to which many marine mammals have shown to be sensitive. The effect of these sources can be as salient as a mass stranding event or as benign as an animal swimming away from a source of noise with no other effect. Less work has focused on higher frequency sources (>10 kHz), including ocean-mapping sonar systems. However, most marine mammals, namely toothed whales (odontocetes), are capable …

Ligand Design In C-Functionalized Cobalt Cyclams For Hybrid Photocatalytic Co2 Reduction, Ethan Edward Jarvis

Doctoral Dissertations

Global climate change is one of the most significant risks to both the planet and all life on it. The largest contributor to this ever-growing threat is CO2 and its continued emission into the atmosphere. As a result, many scientists are researching CO2 reduction processes to help slow and potentially reverse the climate change by reducing the atmospheric levels of CO2. Ideally, these reduction processes convert CO2 into useful materials such as hydrocarbon-based fuels such as methanol or ethanol, which could also help remove our dependence on finite natural energy resources. CO2 reduction is challenging to do efficiently however, due …

The Banner - V. 156, No. 1 - (January 2021), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

No abstract provided.

Mental Health Care Disparity: The Highs And Lows Of Parity, Julie Gabella

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Outstanding Note of the Year (2020)

2021-2022 Halmos College Of Arts And Sciences Graduate Program Catalog, Nova Southeastern University

Halmos College of Arts and Sciences Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Naturally Occurring Rock Type Influences The Settlement Of Fucus Spiralis L. Zygotes, William G. Ambrose, Paul E. Renaud, David C. Adler, Robert L. Vadas

Marine Science

The settlement of spores and larvae on hard substrates has been shown to be influenced by many factors, but few studies have evaluated how underlying bedrock may influence recruitment. The characteristics of coastal rock types such as color, heat capacity, mineral size, and free energy have all been implicated in settlement success. We examined the influence of naturally occurring rock types on the initial attachment of zygotes of the brown alga Fucus spiralis Linnaeus 1753. We also assessed the dislodgment of zygotes on four bedrock types after initial attachment in laboratory experiments using wave tanks. Settling plates were prepared from …

Effect Of Histone H4 Tail On Nucleosome Stability And Internucleosomal Interactions, Tommy Stormberg, Sridhar Vemulapalli, Shaun Filliaux, Yuri L. Lyubchenko

Journal Articles: Pharmaceutical Sciences

Chromatin structure is dictated by nucleosome assembly and internucleosomal interactions. The tight wrapping of nucleosomes inhibits gene expression, but modifications to histone tails modulate chromatin structure, allowing for proper genetic function. The histone H4 tail is thought to play a large role in regulating chromatin structure. Here we investigated the structure of nucleosomes assembled with a tail-truncated H4 histone using Atomic Force Microscopy. We assembled tail-truncated H4 nucleosomes on DNA templates allowing for the assembly of mononucleosomes or dinucleosomes. Mononucleosomes assembled on nonspecific DNA led to decreased DNA wrapping efficiency. This effect is less pronounced for nucleosomes assembled on positioning …

Patient-Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Models For Phenotypic Screening In The Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses, Ahmed Morsy, Angelica V. Carmona, Paul C. Trippier

Journal Articles: Pharmaceutical Sciences

Batten disease or neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) is a group of rare, fatal, inherited neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorders. Numerous genes (CLN1-CLN8, CLN10-CLN14) were identified in which mutations can lead to NCL; however, the underlying pathophysiology remains elusive. Despite this, the NCLs share some of the same features and symptoms but vary in respect to severity and onset of symptoms by age. Some common symptoms include the progressive loss of vision, mental and motor deterioration, epileptic seizures, premature death, and in the rare adult-onset, dementia. Currently, all forms of NCL are fatal, and no curative treatments are available. Induced pluripotent stem …

Differential Diagnosis Of Abnormal Muscle Gross Anatomy Of A Male Cadaver, Audrey V. Broffman, Carley R. Carpenter

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The ability of healthcare providers to carefully consider all presentations of illness and injury, draw upon research and knowledge to develop a list of potential diagnoses, and further investigate systems expected to be impacted by these diagnoses, is crucial for accurate identification of a condition and subsequent treatment plans to improve the welfare of patients. In order to determine a possible cause for unusual anatomic changes in multiple regions of the male cadaver used in the University of Montana’s Anatomy and Physiology lab, we performed a differential diagnosis.This research is exempt from IRB approval because the individual is no longer …

Unshackling Plea Bargaining From Racial Bias, Elayne E. Greenberg

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, [but] if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Dr. Maya Angelou

When an African American male defendant tries to plea bargain an equitable justice outcome, he finds that the deep-rooted racial bias that casts African American men as dangerous, criminal and animalistic, compromises his justice rights. Plea bargaining has become the preferred process used to secure convictions for upwards of 97 percent of cases because of its efficiency. This efficiency, however, comes at a cost. The structure and process of plea bargaining makes it more likely that the historical racial …

Blue Light And Adult Sleep Outcomes, Andrew Caddas

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

This study investigated the effects blue light from self-luminous devices has on adult sleeping patterns. We investigated sleep quality and duration qualitatively with a randomized, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled design with a wash-out period. Participants wore blue light blocking lenses or placebo lenses whenever they were using a self-luminous device throughout each day for one week. Each morning, participants filled out a survey to report their number of hours slept, time to fall asleep, and amount of time spent on self-luminous devices. Participants took the Pittsburgh Insomnia Rating Scale (PIRS) at the end of the one week trial (See Appendix A). …

Bulletin Of Yale University School Of Nursing 2021-2022, Yale School Of Nursing

Yale School of Nursing Bulletins and Catalogues

Series 117, Number 15

September 5, 2021

The Utility Of A Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Model For Ixodes Scapularis In Predicting The Public Health Risk Of Lyme Disease In Ontario, Canada, Holly Alexandra Burrows

Public Health Theses

Introduction: Lyme disease is an emerging public health threat in Ontario, Canada due to the range expansion of the tick vector, Ixodes scapularis. Tick abundance and density are important predictors of human Lyme disease risk and are typically measured using active tick surveillance (dragging). New cost-effective tools are needed to augment current surveillance activities.Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of a Maximum entropy species distribution model to predict I. scapularis density and abundance in three regions of Ontario – Ottawa, Kingston, and southern Ontario – in order to determine its utility in predicting the public …

Too Fast, Too Furious: Slaughterhouse Line Speeds In The Era Of Covid-19, Zoe Novic

Public Health Theses

Since 1998, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has allowed meat companies to increase slaughter line speeds in order to increase production of meat and poultry. The USDA grants approvals known as “line speed waivers” that bypass the requirements of current speed and inspection regulations. During the Covid-19 pandemic, slaughterhouses became epicenters of Covid-19 outbreaks, which called into question safety regulations established at these facilities. The USDA continued to grant line speed waivers despite evidence that faster line speeds result in increased worker injuries, animal welfare violations, environmental protection violations, food safety violations, and higher risk of Covid-19.

In …

A Prescription For America's Prescriptions, Haley Gintis

Emory International Law Review

The issue of prescription drug costs has dominated the U.S. political discussion, both at the federal and local levels, as the amount individuals must pay to receive the medicines they need continues to increase. In this context, the debate over how best to determine a reasonable drug price and which existing drugs should be subject to such prices has spurred multiple legislation proposals. However, the implementation of a reasonable price mandate to control the cost of prescription drugs is not a novel idea. The U.K, India, and Germany have all established reasonable drug price schemes. This Comment examines why past …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Treatment Of Transgender Prisoners: What The United States Can Learn From Canada And The United Kingdom, Stephanie Saran Rudolph

Emory International Law Review

The treatment of transgender people while incarcerated is an issue that was catapulted into the national spotlight in 2019 when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of providing a transgender inmate gender confirmation surgery. This decision created a circuit split within the United States regarding the medically necessary treatment a state is legally required to provide an inmate with gender dysphoria. This Comment examines the legal and policy approaches of the United Kingdom and Canada to inform the current circuit split and provide suggestions for improvements that could be made in the United States. Through exploration and …

Modeling Long-Term Intentions And Narratives In Autonomous Agents, C. Kronsted, Z. Neemeh, S. Kugele, S. Franklin

CCRG Papers

No abstract provided.

Learning In Lida, S. Kugele, S. Franklin

CCRG Papers

No abstract provided.