Digital Commons Network^™

Cardiorespiratory Function In Young Adults With A History Of Covid-19 Infection, Danielle Arcidiacono

Theses - ALL

Objective. Respiratory complications may persist several months into the recovery period following COVID-19 infection. This study evaluated respiratory function and oxygen saturation variability between young adults with a history of COVID-19 infection and controls. Associations between cardiorespiratory function with potential biobehavioral correlates of COVID-19 infection were also explored.Methods. 57 adults ages 18 to 65 participated in this study (24 COVID+, 33 Control). Spirometry was used to assess pulmonary function volumes of forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC and peak expiratory flow (PEF). Exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) was measured using the NiOX VERO, a handheld …

A Brief Treatise On Bayesian Inverse Regression., Debashis Chatterjee Dr.

Doctoral Theses

Inverse problems, where in a broad sense the task is to learn from the noisy response about some unknown function, usually represented as the argument of some known functional form, has received wide attention in the general scientific disciplines. However, apart from the class of traditional inverse problems, there exists another class of inverse problems, which qualify as more authentic class of inverse problems, but unfortunately did not receive as much attention.In a nutshell, the other class of inverse problems can be described as the problem of predicting the covariates corresponding to given responses and the rest of the data. …

High-Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy Structure Of Photosystem Ii From The Mesophilic Cyanobacterium, Synechocystis Sp. Pcc 6803, Christopher J. Gisriel, Jimin Wang, Jinchan Liu, David A. Flesher, Krystle M. Reiss, Hao-Li Huang, Ke R. Yang, William H. Armstrong, M. R. Gunner, Victor S. Batista, Richard J. Debus, Gary W. Brudvig

Publications and Research

Photosystem II (PSII) enables global-scale, light-driven water oxidation. Genetic manipulation of PSII from the mesophilic cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 has provided insights into the mechanism of water oxidation; however, the lack of a highresolution structure of oxygen-evolving PSII from this organism has limited the interpretation of biophysical data to models based on structures of thermophilic cyanobacterial PSII. Here, we report the cryo-electron microscopy structure of PSII from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 at 1.93-Å resolution. A number of differences are observed relative to thermophilic PSII structures, including the following: the extrinsic subunit PsbQ is maintained, the C terminus of the …

Benzodiazepine Use And Dependence In Relation To Chronic Pain Intensity And Pain Catastrophizing, Emma Carnes Lape

Theses - ALL

Benzodiazepines (BZDs), a class of sedative-hypnotic drugs, are at the center of an emerging prescription drug crisis. From approximately 1995-2015, overdose deaths involving BZDs quadrupled and average dose equivalents more than tripled. Specific concern has centered on elevated rates of BZD use among individuals with chronic pain, given that BZDs are generally not indicated for pain management. Consistent with negative reinforcement and motivational models of substance use, desire for pain alleviation may be a salient motivator of BZD use, particularly as individuals commonly report using BZDs for negative affect alleviation. The present study tested cross-sectional associations between pain intensity and …

A Tale Of Three Resources: The Influence Of Multiple Resources On Plant-Herbivore Interactions, Neha Mohan Babu

Dissertations - ALL

Although studies indicate that plant growth can be co-limited by multiple resources, particularly water, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P), the role of co-limiting resources in driving plant-herbivore interactions remains poorly understood. Evidence indicates that the resources that limit plant and herbivore growth may differ which likely influences trophic interactions. In this dissertation, I explored how multiple resource limitation of plants affects herbivore abundance, herbivore impact on plant biomass, and plant traits, using both theoretical and empirical methods. As none of the existing hypotheses account for the effects of multiple resource limitation, I developed a novel theoretical model to predict the …

A Portrait Of Postsecondary Stem Teaching: Examining The Roles Of Organizational Climate And Professional Identity, Sule Aksoy

Dissertations - ALL

Many empirical studies on the factors associated with the use of evidence-based instructional practices have examined the individual and contextual characteristics. However, little attention has been afforded to the role of context and practice on teacher identity. This dissertation consists of three-article style papers that examine the relationship between contextual factors, teacher identity, and instructional practices to fill this gap in the literature. Chapter 1 provides a deep understanding of organizational climate in STEM departments concerning teaching practices. Significant differences in organizational factors such as leadership, resources, and respect for teaching were found between graduate instructors and the faculty. Similarly, …

Buckling Patterns And Mechanics Of Thin Interfacial Polymer Films, Monica M. Ripp

Dissertations - ALL

Thin elastic solids are easily deformed and will readily collapse into complex buckling modes. They can also transition between distinct buckling modes when the confining forces evolve over time, forming a variety of robust and striking patterns. Here we explore how thin interfacial films and the buckling modes they present couple with evolving macroscopic forces and how multi-scale features of the systems give rise to patterns.

In the indentation of a circular film floating on a liquid bath three buckling modes arise: wrinkling, crumpling, and folding. This work shows that striking transitions between these states accompany four regimes in the …

Exploration Of Carbon-Oxygen And Carbon-Nitrogen Bond Formation Utilizing Trichloroacetimidates And Investigations Of New Reactions Mediated By Oxoammonium Salts, Rowan Meador

Dissertations - ALL

Mono-O-alkylated 1,1′-bi-2-naphthols (BINOLs) are often used as the source of chirality for catalysts or ligand systems that are employed in asymmetric organic transformations. However, these BINOLs can be hard to synthesize. The O-alkylation of BINOL can be accomplished with primary and secondary alkyl halides or under Mitsunobu conditions, the yields of these alkylations with tertiary halides or alcohols are very low. A new protocol was developed utilizing trichloroacetamide electrophiles to install bulky groups onto one of the phenolic oxygens. Trichloroacetimidates are also shown to be useful reactions for the synthesis of esters. These reagents proceeded through a symbiotic activation pathway. …

The Poverty Of Simplicity: Austerity, Alienation, And Tiny Houses, Brian Richard Hennigan

Dissertations - ALL

Tiny houses – stand-alone, fully functional dwellings generally between 100 and 400 square-feet – are increasingly popular in the United States. The degradation of working class life wrought through neoliberal policy and then punctuated by the Great Recession propels this popularity. Next to traditional houses, tiny houses are significantly cheaper. Those among the middle stratum of the working class have sought out tiny houses as a means to ease their financial anxiety. Rather than merely a newer form of cheaper housing, an entire lifestyle movement has emerged around tiny houses. Anti-consumerism is the keystone to this lifestyle movement. For enthusiasts, …

The Phase Behavior Of Ubqln Proteins And Implications For Protein Quality Control, Yiran Yang

Dissertations - ALL

The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy are essential pathways for maintaining protein quality control (PQC) in cells. Misfolded proteins and large aggregates are cleared by UPS and autophagy signaled by ubiquitin (Ub) or polyubiquitin (polyUb) chains. Shuttle proteins facilitate cargo transporting by interacting with both ubiquitin and degradation machineries. Previously, our lab discovered that the shuttle protein Ubiquilin-2 (UBQLN2) is recruited to stress granules in cells and undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) in vitro. LLPS is a biophysical process by which proteins separate themselves from the surrounding aqueous solution by forming protein-rich droplets. The overarching goals of this work are …

Analysis Of Multiple Degree-Of-Freedom Oscillatory Aquatic Propulsion, Seth Alan Brooks

Dissertations - ALL

Propulsive performance and flow field data were experimentally measured for a two degree-of-freedom fish platform. The fish platform was designed and constructed based on the yellowfin tuna (\textit{Thunnus albacares}) that is known to be both fast and efficient. This work extends the current understanding of oscillatory aquatic propulsion to a three-dimensional fish platform with full volume flow field data and propulsive performance. A parametric sweep of trailing-edge amplitude of the caudal fin ($A$), heave-to-pitch ratio ($h^*$), and phase offset between the two degrees-of-freedom ($\phi$) was used to explore a parameter space that encompasses and extends beyond the known biological domain. …

Review Of Key Elements Of Green Chemistry, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

Open Educational Resources - Reviews

No abstract provided.

Algorithm Hardware Codesign For High Performance Neuromorphic Computing, Haowen Fang

Dissertations - ALL

Driven by the massive application of Internet of Things (IoT), embedded system and Cyber Physical System (CPS) etc., there is an increasing demand to apply machine intelligence on these power limited scenarios. Though deep learning has achieved impressive performance on various realistic and practical tasks such as anomaly detection, pattern recognition, machine vision etc., the ever-increasing computational complexity and model size of Deep Neural Networks (DNN) make it challenging to deploy them onto aforementioned scenarios where computation, memory and energy resource are all limited. Early studies show that biological systems' energy efficiency can be orders of magnitude higher than that …

Direct Single Molecule Imaging Of Enhanced Diffusion For Enzymes And Enzyme-Conjugated Dna Origami, Mengqi Xu

Dissertations - ALL

Enzymes have been shown to diffuse faster in the presence of their substrates. Recently, we revealed new insights into this process of enhanced diffusion using single-particle tracking (SPT) with total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy. We found that the mobility of individual enzymes was enhanced three-fold in the presence of the substrate, and the motion remained Brownian. We showed that the relative increase in diffusion is independent of the total enzyme concentrations; and the oligomerization state of enzymes did not change during the catalytic turnover. These experiments ruled out the possibility that the enhanced enzyme diffusion was caused by the …

A Graduatte Level Immersive-Simulattion Program For Teaching And Assessing Fundamental Skills In Entry Level Clinical Perfusionists., Bruce Searles

Dissertations - ALL

Background: The clinical perfusionist is a member of the open-heart-surgery team and responsible for operating the life support equipment that replaces the function of the patient's heart and lungs and arrests and restarts the patient's heart in the course of a Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB) procedure. In the perfusionists scope of practice, the consequence of unskilled actions, inaccurate understanding or delayed decision making may result in significant patient morbidity or even death. Historically, perfusion students have learned and practiced their skills within a clinical preceptorship program in which an experienced clinician allows the novice student to operate the life support equipment …

2012 December University Of Memphis Commencement Program

Commencements

Program for the Fall convocation of the 101st commencement of the University of Memphis at Memphis, Tennessee, held at the FedEx Forum on December 16, 2012.

Photochemistry Of Rna, Rna Monomers, And Plausible Prebiotic Precursors, Sean J. Hoehn, Naishka E. Caldero-Rodríguez, Carlos E. Crespo-Hernández

Faculty Scholarship

Sunlight is the primary source of energy to promote change on Earth. In this context, ultraviolet radiation can be thought as a catalyst of chemical change to refine chemical feedstocks and facilitate their transformations into the building blocks of life. To establish reasonable environmental constraints for the chemical origins of life, it is central to understand how the photochemical reactivity or photochemical resistance of prebiotic molecules might have supported the formation of the RNA monomers on the Earth's surface and particularly in aqueous solution. In this chapter, the photochemistry of the RNA monomers and several conceivably important prebiotic precursors are …

Predicting Drug-Induced Liver Injury With Artificial Intelligence, Ting Li

Theses and Dissertations

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is an undesirable side effect to the liver caused by the common use of drugs, which is of great concern to the patients, physicians, the pharmaceutical industry, and government regulators. The current animal testing models do not present reliable results on the human DILI risk prediction during the preclinical phase. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternative methods to improve the human DILI risk prediction during the early stage of development. Utilizing the accumulated high-throughput transcriptomics profiles from L1000, we constructed an 8-layer deep neural network for human DILI prediction based on the largest …

Intralocus Sexual Conflict Over Optimal Nutrient Intake And The Evolution Of Sex Differences In Life Span And Reproduction, Michael Hawkes, Sarah M. Lane, Scott K. Sakaluk, John Hunt, Clarissa M. House, Kim Jensen, James Rapkin

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

1. Despite widespread variation in life span across species, three clear patterns exist: sex differences in life span are ubiquitous, life span is commonly traded against reproduction, and nutrition has a major influence on these traits and how they trade-off. One process that potentially unites these patterns is intralocus sexual conflict over the optimal intake of nutrients for life span and reproduction. If nutrient intake has sex-specific effects on life span and reproduction but nutrient choice is genetically linked across the sexes, intralocus sexual conflict will occur and may prevent one or both sexes from feeding to their nutritional optima.
2. Here …

Platelet Micrornas Inhibit Primary Tumor Growth Via Broad Modulation Of Tumor Cell Mrna Expression In Ectopic Pancreatic Cancer In Mice, Jeremy G.T. Wurtzel, Sophia Lazar, Sonali Sikder, Kathy Q Cai, Igor Astsaturov, Andrew S Weyrich, Jesse W Rowley, Lawrence E. Goldfinger

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

We investigated the contributions of platelet microRNAs (miRNAs) to the rate of growth and regulation of gene expression in primary ectopic tumors using mouse models. We previously identified an inhibitory role for platelets in solid tumor growth, mediated by tumor infiltration of platelet microvesicles (microparticles) which are enriched in platelet-derived miRNAs. To investigate the specific roles of platelet miRNAs in tumor growth models, we implanted pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells as a bolus into mice with megakaryocyte-/platelet-specific depletion of mature miRNAs. We observed an ~50% increase in the rate of growth of ectopic primary tumors in these mice compared to controls …

Investigating The Behavioral And Social Context Of Sound In The Surface Foraging Strategies Of Humpback Whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae), Sarah Weiss

Theses - ALL

Humpback whales are known for the plastic and variable nature of their acoustic communication, social interactions, and foraging behaviors. Distinct foraging strategies are used to capture different prey types at the surface and on the seafloor. Sounds produced during foraging are thought to facilitate intraspecific social communication. Previous studies have identified specific sound types produced by humpbacks associated exclusively with benthic foraging strategies, suggesting functions related to foraging behavior. In this study, we use suction cup acoustic tags (DTAGs) deployed on humpbacks in the western North Atlantic from 2006-2009 to investigate the social sound production associated with surface foraging ecology, …

Fine Scales, Broad Consequences: Drivers And Effects Of Microclimatic Variation In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Jordan Rebecca Stark

Theses - ALL

Climate is highly variable at scales that are not captured by most weather and climate models due to local effects of topography and living systems. This variation in microclimate has been noted for many decades but has been difficult to incorporate into quantitative understanding of ecological systems and processes due to the large amount of data and complex models required to adequately describe fine-scale patterns across complex landscapes. In recent years, models of thermal microclimate variation have been developed using low-cost temperature sensors, but few of these models have been used to predict the effects of microclimatic variation on ecological …

Developing Novel Molecular Detection Techniques For Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges Tsugae), Meg Sanders

Masters Theses

Hemlock forests in eastern North America face a deadly threat: the invasive insect, hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), Adelges tsugae. Early detection of this pest remains a key focus for management groups to ensure rapid response to control and stop the spread of HWA. In Chapter II, our goals were to develop an affordable, easy-to-use trap that is compatible with airborne eDNA sampling techniques and assess its efficiency as a monitoring tool for HWA. We tested three potential trap designs (i.e., passive trap, funnel trap, and motorized trap) against a standard sticky trap. Our passive, funnel, and motorized traps estimated …

Responses To Environmental Change, Lisa Reyes Mason, Susan P. Kemp, Lawrence A. Palinkas, Amy Krings

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Communities worldwide are facing environmental crises such as air pollution, water shortages, climate change, and other forms of environmental change and degradation. While technical solutions for environmental change are essential, so too are solutions that consider social acceptability, value cultural relevance, and prioritize equity and social justice. Social work has a critical and urgent role in creating and implementing macrolevel social responses to environmental change. The key concepts of environmental change, environmental and ecological justice, social vulnerability, and social responses are discussed. A description of the roles and skills unique to macro social workers for this effort is given, followed …

The Effects Of Cannabidiol And Analgesic Expectancies On Experimental Pain Reactivity In Healthy Adults: A Balanced Placebo Design Trial, Martin De Vita

Dissertations - ALL

Experimental pain trials have been unable to determine whether cannabinoid analgesia is attributable to intoxication, analgesic expectancies, and/or pharmacological action. One approach to resolving this issue involves testing the effects of analgesic expectancies and cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid, on human pain reactivity using a balanced placebo design. Despite its frequent use for pain relief, no experimental research has tested the analgesic effects of CBD in humans. Using a within-subjects 2 x 2 balanced placebo factorial design, we experimentally tested the effects of CBD and expectancies for receiving CBD on pain reactivity (i.e., pain threshold, tolerance, intensity, unpleasantness, conditioned pain …

Formation Of Pyrroloindolines And Alkylation Of N-Heterocycles With Trichloroacetimidates And Synthesis Of Quinoline Based Small Molecule Inhibitors Of Ghrelin O-Acyltransferase (Goat), Bhaskar Joshi

Dissertations - ALL

Pyrroloindolines and related systems are present in a large number of complex natural products. These core structures have generated considerable synthetic interest, as many of the compounds possess challenging, elaborate structures and interesting biological properties. Recently we have focused on using trichloroacetimidates for the synthesis of these fascinating molecules. Trichloroacetimidates can be used an electrophilic source of an alkyl group to form the pyrroloindoline directly from tryptamine derivatives. In this manner trichloroacetimidates provide a flexible solution to accessing highly functionalized pyrroloindoline core structures, needing only a catalytic amount of a Lewis acid to effect the requisite transformations.

Isatin (1H-indol-2,3-dione) based …

Rational Design Of Supported Metal Catalysts For Carbonyl Reduction During Biomass Upgrading, Xin Gao

Dissertations - ALL

Ketone hydrogenation:A model system of carbonyl (ketone) hydrogenation, acetone hydrogenation over supported Pt catalysts in the gas-phase fixed bed reactor was investigated to understand both the mechanism and rate controlling steps in a fundamental level. The experiments and outcomes include the detailed macro- and micro-kinetic analysis of hydrogenation of acetone. The apparent reaction orders of hydrogen and acetone, apparent activation energies, and observed kinetic isotope effects over a large range of temperatures and concentrations (compound partial pressures) are reported in this document. Generally speaking, the ketone hydrogenation over metal surfaces in vapor phase comply with the mechanism that hydrogen atoms …

Improved Bathymetry Leads To >4000 New Seamount Predictions In The Global Ocean – But Beware Of Phantom Seamounts!, C Yesson, Tb Letessier, A Nimmo-Smith, P Hosegood, As Brierley, M Hardouin, R Proud

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Seamounts are important marine habitats that are hotspots of species diversity. Relatively shallow peaks, increased productivity and offshore locations make seamounts vulnerable to human impact and difficult to protect. Present estimates of seamount numbers vary from anywhere between 10,000 to more than 60,000. Seamount locations can be estimated by extracting large, cone-like features from bathymetry grids (based on criteria of size and shape). These predicted seamounts are a useful reference for marine researchers and can help direct exploratory surveys. However, these predictions are dependent on the quality of the surveys underpinning the bathymetry. Historically, quality has been patchy, but is …

Effects Of Nitrogen Fertilization On The Production Of Panicum Maximum Cv. Ipr 86 Under Grazing, S. M. B. Lugão, L. R. De A. Rodrigues, E. B. Malheiros, J. J. Dos S. Abrahão, A. De Morais

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The experiment was conducted at the Experimental Station of Paranavaí/IAPAR-PR-Brazil, from October 1998 to May 1999, to evaluate the effects of N fertilization on Panicum maximum cv. IPR 86 pastures. Four doses of N (0; 150; 300; and 450 kg.ha^-1.year^-1) were applied to pastures under rotational grazing with grazing cycles (GCs) of 40 days (5 days-grazing and 35 days-rest). It was used a randomized complete block design, with split-plots, and two replications per treatment, being the N-doses studied in the main plots and the GCs in the sub-plots. In all GCs the variables dry matter of …

Effects Of Management Strategies On Seed Production And Seedling Recruitment In Birdsfoot Trefoil-White Clover Mixtures, W. Ayalá, M. Carámbula, D. F. Risso, J. Hodgson, Peter D. Kemp

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The effects of grazing management on seed production, seed bank size and seedling emergence patterns of Trifolium repens cv. Zapicán (WC) and Lotus corniculatus cv. San Gabriel (BFT) oversown swards were evaluated. A complete randomized block design with 4 replicate blocks was used, in which 4 grazing strategies (grazing all year (SI), summer spelling for seed production (S2), winter rest plus summer spelling (S3) and autumn rest plus summer spelling (S4)), were combined with two defoliation severalties (4 and 10 cm height post-grazing residuals). Plots of 110 m² were grazed monthly by sheep. Seed production, soil seed bank and …