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Development Of Colorimetric And Fluorescent Antibiotic Biosensors And Synthesis Of Drug-Related Biomimetic Molecules For Calcium Carbonate Polymorph Control And Stabilization, Shan Hazoor

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

Polydiacetylene (PDA) polymers are conjugated macromolecules with desirable sensing properties. The presence of alternate double and triple bonds (en-yne subunits) generates electron delocalization in the PDA backbone, yielding a characteristic blue color, which changes to red upon environmental perturbations to the conjugated backbone structure. In chapter 1 PDA polymers containing a functional monomer 10,12- pentacosadiynoic acid-vancomycin conjugate (PCDA-Van) were prepared. Syntheses of different monomers containing different polar head groups were carried out to investigate a compatible monomer with PCDA-van stability. Gram-positive bacterial cell wall sequencing oligopeptides (OP) D-Ala-D-Ala and L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala were synthesized as a model for bacterial sensing. The PCDA-Van …

Probing Short-Range Structural Distortion Of Stereochemically Active Lone Pairs In Extended Solid-State Materials, Uyen Phuong Dang

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

The structural and electronic effects of the lone pairs play an important role in magnetic, photocatalytic, and semiconducting behaviors of materials. Investigating the role of stereochemically active ns2 lone pairs derived from p-block cations in solid-state materials is important to phenomena associated with polarizable bonding, e.g., ferroelectricity. The effect of lone pairs in ferroelectric polarization has been studied on the lead metaniobate in which the covalency between Pb and O stabilizes the in-plane polarization which leads to orthorhombic symmetry. PbTiO3 has been widely studied for ferroelectric polarization associated with the off-centering of Ti in TiO6 due to the characteristic 6s2 …

Intelligent Fluorescence Image Analysis Of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles Using Convolutional Neural Network, Il Hyung Lee, Sam Passaro, Selin Ozturk, Juan Ureña, Weitian Wang

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Background: Fluorescence image analysis in biochemical science often involves the complex tasks of identifying samples for analysis and calculating the desired information from the intensity traces. Analyzing giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) is one of these tasks. Researchers need to identify many vesicles to statistically analyze the degree of molecular interaction or state of molecular organization on the membranes. This analysis is complicated, requiring a careful manual examination by researchers, so automating the analysis can significantly aid in improving its efficiency and reliability. Results: We developed a convolutional neural network (CNN) assisted intelligent analysis routine based on the whole 3D z-stack …

Single-Cell Approach Reveals Intercellular Heterogeneity In Phage-Producing Capacities, Sherin Kannoly, Gabriella Oken, Jonathan Shadan, David Musheyev, Kevin Singh, Abhyudai Singh, John J. Dennehy

Publications and Research

Bacteriophage burst size is the average number of phage virions released from infected bacterial cells, and its magnitude depends on the duration of an intracellular progeny accumulation phase. Burst size is often measured at the population level, not the single-cell level, and consequently, statistical moments are not commonly available. In this study, we estimated the bacteriophage lambda (ƛ) single-cell burst size mean and variance following different intracellular accumulation period durations by employing Escherichia coli lysogens bearing lysis-deficient ƛ prophages. Single lysogens can be isolated and chemically lysed at desired times following prophage induction to quantify progeny intracellular accumulation within individual …

Liberty And Justice For Y’All: Allowing Legal Paraprofessionals To Practice Law To Reduce The Effects Of Legal Deserts In Rural Georgia, Amanda Claxton

Mercer Law Review

The lack of attorneys in rural America is not merely a social or cultural problem—it is a legal problem that officers of the courts cannot continue to ignore. Legal deserts are geographical areas where legal services are widely unavailable. Particularly in rural Georgia, legal deserts are a substantial issue. Attorneys and nonprofit organizations have attempted to ease the detrimental effects of legal deserts in a variety of ways; for various reasons, those efforts have been insufficient, and rural counties struggle to attract lawyers. Still, there is one method of resolving legal deserts that Georgia has yet to attempt: creating an …

Determining The Role Of Environmental Variability On Marine Megafauna Abundance Trends: A Case Study Of Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Julia Saltzman

Master's Theses and Capstones

Despite being economically, ecologically, and culturally important many species of marine megafauna are threatened with extinction. The reasons for the imperiled state of many marine megafauna include overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are often proposed as a management tool for marine megafauna. However, it is difficult to monitor the efficacy of marine protected areas when it is unclear if abundance trends are due to management or environmental variability. Indeed, many studies to date on the efficacy of MPAs fail to account for environmental variability, or account for limited covariates. In this thesis, I examine …

Phenylboronic Ester-Modified Polymeric Nanoparticles For Promoting Trp2 Peptide Antigen Delivery In Cancer Immunotherapy, Qiyan Wang, Zhipeng Dong, Fangning Lou, Yunxue Yin, Jiahao Zhang, Hanning Wen, Tao Lu, Yue Wang

Dermatology Articles

The tremendous development of peptide-based cancer vaccine has attracted incremental interest as a powerful approach in cancer management, prevention and treatment. As successful as tumor vaccine has been, major challenges associated with achieving efficient immune response against cancer are (1) drainage to and retention in lymph nodes; (2) uptake by dendritic cells (DCs); (3) activation of DCs. In order to overcome these barriers, here we construct PBE-modified TRP2 nanovaccine, which comprises TRP2 peptide tumor antigen and diblock copolymer PEG-b-PAsp grafted with phenylboronic ester (PBE). We confirmed that this TRP2 nanovaccine can be effectively trapped into lymph node, uptake by dendritic …

Transcriptomic Profiling Of Trypanosoma Congolense Mouthpart Parasites From Naturally Infected Flies, Sara Silva Pereira, Kawira Mathenge, Daniel Masiga, Andrew Jackson

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Background: Animal African trypanosomiasis, or nagana, is a veterinary disease caused by African trypanosomes transmitted by tsetse flies. In Africa, Trypanosoma congolense is one of the most pathogenic and prevalent causes of nagana in livestock, resulting in high animal morbidity and mortality and extensive production losses. In the tsetse fly, parasites colonise the midgut and eventually reach the mouthparts, from where they can be transmitted as the fly feeds on vertebrate hosts such as cattle. Despite the extreme importance of mouthpart-form parasites for disease transmission, very few global expression profile studies have been conducted in these parasite forms. Methods: Here, …

The Effect Of Climate Variability In The Efficacy Of The Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium Acridum Against The Desert Locust Schistocerca Gregaria, Samuel F. Kamga, Frank T. Ndjomatchoua, Ritter A. Guimapi, Ingeborg Klingen, Clément Tchawoua, Anne Grete Roer Hjelkrem, Karl H. Thunes, Francois M. Kakmeni

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Despite substantial efforts to control locusts they remain periodically a major burden in Africa, causing severe yield loss and hence loss of food and income. Distribution maps indicating the value of the basic reproduction number R0 was used to identify areas where an insect pest can be controlled by a natural enemy. A dynamic process-based mathematical model integrating essential features of a natural enemy and its interaction with the pest is used to generate R0 risk maps for insect pest outbreaks, using desert locust and the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum (Synn. Metarhizium anisoliae var. acridum) as a case study. This …

The Possibilities Of Explicit Striga (Striga Asiatica) Risk Monitoring Using Phenometric, Edaphic, And Climatic Variables, Demonstrated For Malawi And Zambia, Emily Kimathi, Bester Tawona Mudereri, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman, Saliou Niassy, Henri E.Z. Tonnang, Tobias Landmann

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Food insecurity continues to affect more than two-thirds of the population in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly those depending on rain-fed agriculture. Striga, a parasitic weed, has caused yield losses of cereal crops, immensely affecting smallholder farmers in SSA. Although earlier studies have established that Striga is a constraint to crop production, there is little information on the spatial extent of spread and infestation severity of the weed in some SSA countries like Malawi and Zambia. This study aimed to use remotely sensed vegetation phenological (n = 11), climatic (n = 3), and soil (n = 4) variables to develop a …

Supporting Us Army Next-Generation Ground Vehicle Simulation Modeling Using An Integrated Ontology Suite, Edward Louis

All Theses

The development of the US Army’s next-generation of ground vehicle systems is supported by simulations that predict vehicle performance and inform engineering design choices in the design and acquisition process. In this paper, we describe the development of an Integrated Ontology Suite to support modeling and simulation of next generation military ground vehicles. The ontology suite is intended to address model reuse challenges and increase the shared understanding of ground vehicle system simulations. It is intended to function in a Model Library structure that stores, documents, assembles, and executes vehicle simulations. The ontology suite consists of four domain ontologies: Vehicle …

Multiple Objective Function Optimization And Trade Space Analysis, Yifan Xu

All Theses

Optimization can assist in obtaining the best possible solution to a design problem by varying related variables under given constraints. It can be applied in many practical applications, including engineering, during the design process. The design time can be further reduced by the application of automated optimization methods. Since the required resource and desired benefit can be translated to a function of variables, optimization can be viewed as the process of finding the variable values to reach the function maxima or minima. A Multiple Objective Optimization (MOO) problem is when there is more than one desired function that needs to …

Cover Cropping And Organic Amendments To Improve Sandy Soils Under Organic Vegetable Production, Charles Williamson

All Theses

Coastal Plain soils in the Southeastern USA are typically sandy with poor soil structure, low soil organic carbon (SOC) content, and meager soil fertility that pose challenges to organic agriculture. Adding organic inputs is a strategy to improve these soils' physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. Here, we aim to investigate the impacts of Cover Cropping (CC) and manure inclusions on sandy soils under organic vegetable production. The experiment design was a randomized complete block with two treatments of manure application (with and without) and four CC treatments of cereal rye (Secale cereale), hairy vetch (Vicia villosa), …

Utilizing Systematic Design And Shape Memory Alloys To Enhance Actuation Of Modular High-Frequency Origami Robots, Jessica M. Den Haese

All Theses

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) describe a group of smart metallic materials that can be deformed by external magnetic, thermal, or mechanical influence and then returned to a predetermined shape through the cycling of temperature or stress. They have several advantages, such as having excellent mechanical properties, being low cost, and being easily manufactured, while also providing a compact size, completely silent operation, high work density, and requiring less maintenance over time. SMAs can undergo sold-to-solid phase transformations, and it is because of these phase transformations that they can experience shape memory effect (SME); or the ability to recover from a …

Oam-Based Wavelets In A High Speed Optical Probing System For Measuring The Angular Decomposition Of The Environment, Justin Free

All Theses

This thesis presents the theoretical development of orbital angular momentum (OAM) based wavelets for the analysis of localized OAM information in space. An optical probing system for generating and detecting these wavelets is demonstrated; individual wavelets can scan the environment in 10µs or less. The probing system was applied to a three-dimensional atmospheric turbulence distribution to obtain a continuous wavelet transform of the angular information of the turbulent propagation path about a fixed radius. An entire continuous wavelet transform was measured in 3.8ms; the measurements are much faster than the turbulence and give insight into the short time scale of …

Singlish Checker: A Tool For Understanding And Analysing An English Creole Language, Lee-Hsun Hsieh, Nam Chew Chua, Agus Trisnajaya Kwee, Pei-Chi Lo, Yang-Yin Lee, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As English is a widely used language in many countries of different cultures, variants of English also known as English creoles have also been created. Singlish is one such English creole used by people in Singapore. Nevertheless, unlike English, Singlish is not taught in schools nor encouraged to be used in formal communications. Hence, it remains to be a low resource language with a lack of up-to-date Singlish word dictionary and computational tools to analyse the language. In this paper, we therefore propose Singlish Checker, a tool that is able to help detecting Singlish text, Singlish words and phrases. To …

Appearance-Preserved Portrait-To-Anime Translation Via Proxy-Guided Domain Adaptation, Wenpeng Xiao, Cheng Xu, Jiajie Mai, Xuemiao Xu, Yue Li, Chengze Li, Xueting Liu, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Converting a human portrait to anime style is a desirable but challenging problem. Existing methods fail to resolve this problem due to the large inherent gap between two domains that cannot be overcome by a simple direct mapping. For this reason, these methods struggle to preserve the appearance features in the original photo. In this paper, we discover an intermediate domain, the coser portrait (portraits of humans costuming as anime characters), that helps bridge this gap. It alleviates the learning ambiguity and loosens the mapping difficulty in a progressive manner. Specifically, we start from learning the mapping between coser and …

Analysis Of Robert Schumann’S “Fantasy Pieces For Clarinet And Piano”, Opus 73, For A Greater Understanding Of A Standard In Western Classical Solo Repertory, Kaleigh Alwood

Music Undergraduate Honors Theses

In a mere two days, Robert Schumann composed a duet that would become a lasting symbol of romanticism in chamber music. “Fantasy Pieces for Clarinet and Piano”, Op. 73 is now a standard in clarinet repertoire. As such, the piece is frequently performed and analyzed. Schumann and his “Fantasy Pieces” are well known and broadly discussed, which leads one to wonder: how does one contribute to and interpret such a standard? To answer this question, it is proposed that research is utilized to examine the history surrounding the composer and the work alongside theoretical analysis to find and interpret key …

St. Louis Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy, Jennifer Kuriloff, Alex Marchok, Megan Ross, Qifeng Tian, Mahek Prakash Vora, Angela Yokley

Sustainability Exchange Projects

This semester the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Team (GHGRT) of the Sustainability Exchange program at Washington University in St. Louis was tasked with initial planning to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the St. Louis area for OneSTL. To do so, GHGRT began by meeting with experts in the field, including Rene Dulle, Tim Michels, and Emily Andrews, to determine the best course of action and get insight into the situation as it stands. Based on this information, we decided to focus on building energy use and resulting carbon emissions. The team then researched energy use in the city of St. Louis …

Esg Framework For Investment Managers Of Wuimc, Morgan Davies, Sammi Fremont, Sophie Kielian, Lauren Michaels, Abree Peterson, Eve Spalding, Jane Whellan

Sustainability Exchange Projects

ESG Framework for Investment Managers for Sustainability Exchange, Washington University in St. Louis, Fall 2022

Crystal Structures Of (Z)-(Ethene-1,2-Di­Yl)Bis­­(Di­Phenyl­Phosphine Sulfide) And Its Complex With PtIi Dichloride, Brain Rawls, Jeremy Cunningham, John E. Bender, Richard J. Staples, Shannon Biros

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

The crystal structures of (Z)-(ethene-1,2-di­yl)bis­(di­phenyl­phosphine sulfide), C₂₆H₂₂P₂S₂ (I), along with its complex with Pt^II dichloride, di­chlorido[(Z)-(ethene-1,2-di­yl)bis­(di­phenyl­phosphine sulfide)-κ²S,S′]platinum(II), [PtCl₂(C₂₆H₂₂P₂S₂)] (II), are described here. Compound I features P=S bond lengths of 1.9571 (15) and 1.9529 (15) Å, with a torsion angle of 166.24 (7)° between the two phosphine sulfide groups. The crystal of compound I features both intra­molecular C—H⋯S hydrogen bonds and π–π inter­actions. Mol­ecules of compound I are held together …

Scaling Investment In Renewable Energy Generation To Achieve Sustainable Development Goals 7 (Affordable And Clean Energy) And 13 (Climate Action) And The Paris Agreement: Roadblocks And Drivers, Mithatcan Aydos, Perrine Toledano, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Ladan Mehranvar, Theodoros Iliopoulos, Sunayana Sasmal

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

The zero-carbon energy transition is the solution to the 2022 energy crisis and a fundamental part of the solution to the global climate crisis. Yet, there are relatively low levels of investment in renewable energy in developing countries, hindering their achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contribution to the Paris Agreement goals.

In 2021, the Asia–Pacific region (excluding China) accounted for less than 8% of investments in energy transition technologies, Latin America and the Caribbean for less than 4%, and Africa and the Middle East for less than 2%. Annual investment in zero-carbon energy in developing economies other …

Conflicts Between Ghg Accounting Methodologies In The Steel Industry, John Biberman, Perrine Toledano, Baihui Lei, Max Lulavy, Rohini Ram Mohan

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Accurate, verifiable, and comparable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data throughout supply chains in the materials sector are necessary to drive decarbonization. This is particularly the case for the steel supply chain, a major source of GHG emissions with untapped potential for reduction. However, emissions accounting methods used by the steel industry suffer from gaps and misalignment, resulting in significant differences in reported GHG emissions. The result is a patchwork reporting landscape vulnerable to manipulation and miscommunication, generating little actionable data for policymakers, producers, customers, and investors. These shortcomings highlight the need for a harmonized carbon accounting framework for the steel …

Scaling Investment In Renewable Energy: Roadblocks And Drivers – Executive Summary, Mithatcan Aydos, Perrine Toledano, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Ladan Mehranvar, Theodoros Iliopoulos, Sunayana Sasmal

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

The zero-carbon energy transition is the solution to the 2022 energy crisis and a fundamental part of the solution to the global climate crisis. Yet, there are relatively low levels of investment in renewable energy in developing countries, hindering their achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and contribution to the Paris Agreement goals.

In 2021, the Asia–Pacific region (excluding China) accounted for less than 8% of investments in energy transition technologies, Latin America and the Caribbean for less than 4%, and Africa and the Middle East for less than 2%. Annual investment in zero-carbon energy in developing economies other …

College Of Graduate Programs And Honors Studies Newsletter - December 2022, College Of Graduate Programs And Honor Studies, Wright State University

College of Graduate Programs and Honors Studies Newsletter

A six page newsletter created by the College of Graduate Programs and Honors Studies at Wright State University. This newsletter includes a upcoming events, message from the dean, and more.

Rational Design Of Precisely Tailored Electrocatalysts For Efficient And Durable Electrocatalytic Devices, Mohmed Sanad Noufal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Due to their superior conversion efficiency, high power density, and green nature, sustainable energy technologies such as Fuel cells and Zinc-air batteries, once installed to produce green hydrogen fuel as well as energy storage devices, are expected to play an essential role in reducing the environmental effect of human transportation by replacing fossil fuels. However, the current bottleneck for the low-temperature polymer membrane fuel cells that dominate the fuel cell vehicle market is the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode. The slow ORR kinetics significantly reduce the efficiency of chemical-electrical energy conversion. Similarly, hydrogen production …

Phosphate Mineralogy And Paragenesis Of The Fletcher Pegmatite, North Groton, New Hampshire, Susanna T. Kreinik

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Investigation of phosphate assemblages selectively collected at the Fletcher Mine pegmatite, North Groton, New Hampshire, yielded eighteen discrete secondary phosphate species. Secondary phases were formed via metasomatic (high temperature) and hydrothermal (low temperature) alteration of primary triphylite and fluorapatite. Mineral associations bear proximal phases known to occur under contrasting conditions, both oxidizing and reducing, suggesting the formation of microenvironments during concomitant mineral generation. Late-stage hydrothermal fluids provide ions taken up in low temperature secondary phases with calcium and magnesium most prevalent in these suites. High iron to manganese ratios in analyzed specimens establish the relative evolution of the pegmatite host. …

The Human Natural Resource Endowment Of Limestone For Cement Manufacturing, Vanya Marie North

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the total per-capita allocation of limestone globally. Termed the Human Natural Resource Endowment (HNRE), it is calculated by subtracting the cumulative annual production from the ultimately recoverable reserve (URR) of limestone and dividing the difference by global population. HNRE represents a unique way of visualizing resource depletion by asking how much of a given resource can be allocated to each person on earth, and how long that allocation can last given multiple population and usage scenarios. The average American, born in 2021, will use approximately 23,930 kgs of cement in their lifetime, with similar demands globally. Demand …

Assessment Of Novel Protein Ingredient Arthrospira Platensis (Microalgae) And Soybean Genotype Amino Acid And Oil Selection Improvements On Broiler Performance, Savannah Wells Crafton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two experiments were conducted to assess the efficiency of including novel protein ingredient Arthrospira platensis or improved soybean meal in a broiler diet. The first experiment aimed to determine the feeding value of soybean meal produced from varieties of soybeans bred for increased amino acid content (SBAA) improved oil content (SBO) compared to a conventional soybean variety in an ANOVA design fed to Cobb 500 female broilers for 28-42d of age. The SBAA and SBO soybeans contained overall higher amino acid content and lower oligosaccharide content compared to the conventional soybean variety in addition to improved oil quality. The second …

Divide-And-Conquer Distributed Learning: Privacy-Preserving Offloading Of Neural Network Computations, Lewis C.L. Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning has become a highly utilized technology to perform decision making on high dimensional data. As dataset sizes have become increasingly large so too have the neural networks to learn the complex patterns hidden within. This expansion has continued to the degree that it may be infeasible to train a model from a singular device due to computational or memory limitations of underlying hardware. Purpose built computing clusters for training large models are commonplace while access to networks of heterogeneous devices is still typically more accessible. In addition, with the rise of 5G networks, computation at the edge becoming …