Digital Commons Network^™

Lens: A Novel Image Processing-Based Approach For Low-Cost Segmentation Of Computed Tomography Scans Of Lungs, Monica Hinga

Computer Science ETDs

A staggering amount of data has been collected and analyzed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of that data, however, particularly computed tomography (CT) scans of lungs, are difficult to analyze computationally. Segmentation of COVID-19 lesions provides researchers with insights into where lesions form, their volume, and in the case of time course data, how lesions grow as disease progresses. Spatial information, which has received little attention in the literature, has the potential to provide valuable insight to within-host viral and immune dynamics. Unfortunately, state-of-the-art supervised deep learning methods require labeled data, which can be prohibitively expensive to …

Spatial Single-Cell Identification Of Cell Layers Within Mouse Brain Using A Novel Spatially Resolved Transcriptomics Technology, Radha Swaminathan

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Spatially resolved transcriptomics technologies investigate gene expression in the context of a tissue. While imaging-based technologies enable gene expression quantification at a single-cell level, only two NGS-based technologies are currently capable of single-cell resolution. Both Stereo-seq and Seq-Scope involve two rounds of sequencing: one to sequence the location of spatial barcodes and the other to obtain sequence of cDNA. Thus, the objective of the research study is to develop a technology that can capture transcripts from every cell of a tissue without the need for two rounds of sequencing. To this end, a capture surface or barcoded array (similar to …

Evaluation Of Antibacterial Potential Of Artemisinin Extracts Of Artemisia Annua In Vivo And In Vitro, Arsalan Khan, Akhtar Ali, Imtiaz Ali Shah, Umm-E- Aimen, Waseem Ullah, Imtiaz Khan

Journal of Bioresource Management

To ensure universal health care, the World Health Organization recognized the significance of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and recommended the use of natural herbs and plants bearing therapeutic potential and fewer adverse effects. Therefore, Artemisia annua herb was evaluated for its antibacterial potential and therapeutic efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus and Escherichia coli both in vitro and in vivo. Artemisinin was extracted from Artemisia annua by chemical treatment. Subsequently, the culture sensitivity tests were performed on MHA by disk diffusion method to determine the antibacterial potential of the Artemisinin extracts against the test bacteria (in vitro phase). …

Cryptic Population Structure And Differentiation In Three Species Of Alaska Claytonia, Robert W. Gabbitas

Biological Sciences

Beringia is an extensive geographic region noted for high levels of taxonomic complexity among closely related species. Three such species distributed across Beringia (Claytonia arctica, C. scammaniana, and C. sarmentosa,) exhibit low morphological differentiation between the species, while C. scammaniana includes two additional described morphologies of questionable taxonomic standing, C. "noatakensis" and C. "porsildii". Taxonomic boundaries within this group have been historically disagreed upon and are susceptible to confounding factors such as isolation-by-distance (IBD), discontinuous sampling of continuous variation, and low sequence divergence and morphological differentiation. To assist in species delimitation, multiple approaches combining phylogenomics and spatially explicit population genetics …

Exploring The Evolution Of Fishes At High Latitudes, Anna S. Rix

Biological Sciences

Fish species found in high latitude waters are especially vulnerable to climatic changes due to their inability to regulate body temperature and long evolution in cold, oxygen-rich aquatic environments. Antarctic notothenioid fishes have evolved to thrive in an extremely stable, cold, oxygen-rich environment. Likewise, lake trout live in a cold, oxygen-rich environment, but commonly experience a wider range of temperatures than notothenioids. Millions of years of evolution in the cold have shaped the genetics of these fishes, but the effects on their biology remain largely unexplored. This dissertation seeks to learn from the past evolution of these two evolutionarily distant …

Length-Weight Relationships Of The Bream Abramis Brama (Linnaeus, 1758) In Beni- Haroun Dam Of Mila City (North-East Of Algeria), Tolba Mounia, Hadjab Ramzi, Chikara Bouziani Mohamed, Berrouk Houda, Kaouachi Nouha

Journal of Bioresource Management

The study of fish growth is a valuable tool in providing good understanding on the general biology and growth of fish populations, in addition to the comparison of the same fish species populations living in remote geographic areas. Thus, the present work was designed to study the age and growth of Abramis brama species newly introduced in Beni-Haroun dam (Mila department, Northeast Algeria). Here, the study was conducted on sampling of 141 individuals from July 2015 to October 2016. The age of fishes was determined according to scalimetric method, since the fish sex was determined by macroscopic method, showing that …

Thermokarst-Pond Plant Community Characteristics And Effects On Icewedge Degradation In The Prudhoe Bay Region, Alaska, Emily Watson-Cook

Biological Sciences

Ice-wedge thermokarst ponds are forming in many areas of the Arctic as a result of climate warming and infrastructure development. Previous research suggests that development of aquatic vegetation within these ponds may create negative feedbacks to the process of ice-wedge degradation by reducing pond-bottom temperatures and thaw depths. The objectives of this research were to characterize thermokarst-pond plant communities and to evaluate the effects of vegetation on within-pond sediment temperatures and thaw depths. Aquatic vegetation was sampled in 39 plots within 29 thermokarst ponds in the Prudhoe Bay region of Alaska. Five floristically distinct plant communities were identified: Calliergon richardsonii …

Medicinal Bismuth: Bismuth-Organic Frameworks As Pharmaceutically Privileged Compounds, Shaila A. Shetu, Luis M. Sanchez-Palestino, Gildardo Rivera-Sanchez, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Historically organometallic compounds have been used to cure certain diseases with limited applications. Although bismuth belongs to the category of heavy metals, many of its derivatives have found applications in modern drug discovery research, mainly because of its low toxicity and higher bioavailability. Being an eco-friendly mild Lewis acid, compounds having bismuth as a central atom are capable of binding several proteins in humans and other species. Bismuth complexes demonstrated antibacterial potential in syphilis, diarrhea, gastritis, and colitis. Apart from antibacterial activities, bismuth compounds exhibited anticancer, antileishmanial, and some extent of antifungal and other medicinal properties. This article discusses major …

Two Studies On Binary Program Stylometry: A White-Box Analysis And A Deep Learning Analysis On Some Crypto Ransomware, Alexander Mitchell

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Computer programmers often leave their individual programming styles in source code. Recent studies show that contrary to a popular belief, many of such programming styles can survive, in controlled environments, code compilation into binary. From the binary programming styles can be effectively retrieved for enhanced binary authorship attribution; such binary authorship attribution is often called binary program stylometry. In this thesis, we first perform a white-box impact analysis of various factors in code compilation on programming styles. For the MS Windows platform, we study the impact of multiple compilers, including gcc, Clang, and MSVC, their optimization levels, symbol stripping, and …

Acoustic And Seismic Signature Of Sustained Volcanic Eruptions, Julia E. Gestrich

Geosciences

Volcanic eruptions of any size can pose a significant risk to the life and livelihood of humans, as well as to infrastructure and the economy. Understanding the dynamics of an eruption is crucial to providing timely and accurate assessments of the eruption and associated hazard. Ideally the monitoring of volcanic unrest and eruption dynamics is done remotely to minimize exposure to volcanologists and maximize the spatial monitoring coverage of instruments. Another important factor is to have real-time data to facilitate rapid analysis and interpretation. Seismic and acoustic (infrasound) waves have proven useful in terms of remote real-time volcano monitoring. However, …

Design And Operation Of Ice Roads, Steven Daly, Billy Connor, Jessica Garron, Svetlana Stuefer, Nathan Belz, Kevin Bjella

AIDC Project Reports

This manual provides for the safe and efficient design, construction, maintenance, and operation of ice roads over freshwater. As such, it provides the parties responsible for the ice road guidelines for ensuring the safe operation of the ice road including route selection, minimum ice thicknesses, repair strategies, maximum vehicle weights and speed, and proper signage. The information provided in the manual represents best practices compiled from existing literature and from those who have experience working on ice roads. While every scenario cannot be foreseen, the information contained in this manual should provide sufficient knowledge to extrapolate safe solutions which are …

Improved Computational Tools For Infrasound Analysis, Jordan W. Bishop

Geosciences

Infrasound describes low frequency (≤ 20 Hz) acoustic waves that can propagate long ranges (≥ 1000 km) through wave guides in the atmosphere. This characteristic makes infrasonic waves a useful monitoring technology for a variety of violent phenomena such as volcanic eruptions. However, source processes may be complex, and infrasound waves are continually modified as they interact with the ground and dynamic atmosphere along their propagation path. Additionally, infrasound still has a data quantity problem: vast amounts of raw data are now continuously generated from permanent arrays distributed around the world, but ground truth information, when possible, may be difficult …

Processes In The Percolation Zone In Southwest Greenland: Challenges In Modeling Surface Energy Balance And Melt, And The Role Of Topography In The Formation Of Ice Slabs, Federico Covi

Geosciences

Increased surface melt in the percolation zone of Greenland causes significant changes in the firn structure, directly affecting the surface mass balance of the ice sheet and the amount and timing of meltwater runoff. Thick impermeable layers, referred to as ice slabs, are preventing melt water percolation and refreezing in the firn favoring lateral movement of water and direct runoff to the oceans. The objective of this dissertation is to enhance the understanding of these processes by modeling the surface energy balance and resulting melt, and investigating the spatial and temporal changes in firn surface properties and associated water movement …

Bright Days Ahead, Editorial Board

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

No abstract provided.

Quantization Of The Monotone Poisson Central Limit Theorem, Yungang Lu

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Swosu Fall 2022 Convocation, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Graduation Programs

This is the program for the SWOSU Fall 2022 Convocation Exercises, held at the Pioneer Cellular Events Center on Friday, December 16, 2022, at 6:00 pm. Opening Remarks were presented by President Diana Lovell.

Is The Statistical Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics Ψ-Ontic Or Ψ-Epistemic?, Mario Hubert

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Bio-Based Uv-Curable Films And The Effect Of Bio-Content On The Properties Of The Films, Sahilkumar Chaudhary

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The use of renewable resources in film formation has become a new focal point for industry because it is abundantly available and has less carbon emission during production than traditional ones. This has drawn researchers to investigate the functionality of bio-based raw materials and their end-usage. By modifying their chemical structures, the properties of these films like thermal resistance, impact resistance, and chemical resistance can be increased. In this research, limonene was used as a partial replacement for petroleum-based chemicals in film formation. A two-step chemical process was carried out to modify the limonene and the final product was used …

Interpretable Network Representations, Shengmin Jin

Dissertations - ALL

Networks (or interchangeably graphs) have been ubiquitous across the globe and within science and engineering: social networks, collaboration networks, protein-protein interaction networks, infrastructure networks, among many others. Machine learning on graphs, especially network representation learning, has shown remarkable performance in network-based applications, such as node/graph classification, graph clustering, and link prediction. Like performance, it is equally crucial for individuals to understand the behavior of machine learning models and be able to explain how these models arrive at a certain decision. Such needs have motivated many studies on interpretability in machine learning. For example, for social network analysis, we may need …

Adaptive Microlearning: An Empirical Study Among The Students In The Rural Areas Of China, Jingwei Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through multiple educational reforms, China has pursued developing well-rounded learners with solid content knowledge, higher-order thinking skills, and the ability to transfer knowledge to real-world problem spaces. The imbalance of learning resources between urban and rural China, however, has caused disadvantages for learners in rural China to gain access to quality educational opportunities necessary for becoming well-rounded learners. Luckily, the quickly growing Internet service coverage in rural China makes educational interventions possible. Online intervention aiming for many qualities of well-rounded learners, such as deeper learning, is particularly promising.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of adaptive …

Assessments Of Water Chemistry And Fish Community Structure In The Buffalo Creek Watershed, Tributary To The Allegheny River In Armstrong And Butler Counties, Pennsylvania, Kathleen Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Buffalo Creek watershed has experienced water quality impairments for various reasons, including but not limited to, agricultural influence, abandoned mine drainage (AMD), on-site wastewater malfunction, and stormwater. The source and cause of the most prevalent impaired areas remains unknown. The goal of this study was to analyze water chemistry using state water quality standards and mass ratio analysis, then to conduct fish community analysis. We found toxic metal pollution across the watershed, with iron, cadmium, copper, and selenium frequently exceeding criteria. We determined which streams are polluted by resource extraction activities by conducting mass ratio analysis. We found conventional …

Open Educational Resources Adoption Reduces Textbook Costs Without Sacrificing Student Performance In Business And Economics Courses At A Community College, Dorina Tila, Dawn Levy

Publications and Research

This study analyzed the possibility of saving on textbook costs without sacrificing student performance by using Open Educational Resources (OER) at no cost to students as a replacement for high-priced commercially printed books. Approximately two hundred students enrolled in business and economics courses at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York from Fall 2016 to Fall 2018 were assessed in this study. Using summative assessments and course grades as a measure of students’ performance, the findings showed that students in courses using OER as compared to students in the same subject area using traditional textbooks perform equally …

Possible Overestimation Of Nitrogen Dioxide Outgassing During The Beirut 2020 Explosion, Ashraf Farahat, Nayla El-Kork, Ramesh P. Singh, Feng Jing

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

On 4 August 2020, a strong explosion occurred near the Beirut seaport, Lebanon and killed more than 200 people and damaged numerous buildings in the vicinity. As Amonium Nitrate (AN) caused the explosion, many studies claimed the release of large amounts of NO₂ in the atmosphere may have resulted in a health hazard in Beirut and the vicinity. In order to reasonably evaluate the significance of NO₂ amounts released in the atmosphere, it is important to investigate the spatio-temporal distribution of NO₂ during and after the blast and compare it to the average day-to-day background emissions from …

Mitigation Impact Of Statewide Non-Pharmaceutical Policies On Covid-19: An Application Of Infectious Disease Transmission Model And Partially Observed Markov Process To New Mexico, Xingya Ma

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This thesis is an application of epidemiological models for infectious disease transmission and the use of partially observed Markov process (POMP) for model fitting. It focuses on COVID-19 pandemic in the state of New Mexico. The analysis covered March 2020 to June 2021. Daily data of COVID19 cases and deaths and a daily index of eleven statewide government non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) policies were collected from six public sources and were validated. These data were integrated through the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Removed (SEIR) model. Estimated daily transmission rates between the model compartments quantify the impact of the mitigation policies, and show that transmission rates …

Developing A Criteria Framework For The Evaluation Of The Image Of The City Case Study: Mansoura Downtown, Ahmed Mohamed Thabet

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Downtowns are important as the open new horizons of development through contribute to the upgrade of traditional communities. The presence of city centers and downtowns has been approved as a major influential component on the image of the city as it can serve as a unifying force in a city or town through triggering force for community enrichment. Lynch [1] described the environmental image in terms of five structural features which are essentially making sense of cities urban spaces: districts, edges, paths, nodes, and landmarks. These elements face continuous transformations that make their perception more complex and multi-oriented. The urban …

Football Can Save America, Francisco Attie

Capstones

Looking to cure the malaise of our day, I went to the football game, and, in the dying breaths of the match, found something much greater. https://medium.com/@Fran_Attie/football-can-save-america-2bb918f19a97

To Destroy Or Transform? Two Fossil Fuel Transitions Offer Glimpse Into Industry’S Future, Chloe Bennett, Sarah Kerson

Capstones

In 2019, the Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery closed after a dangerous explosion. But for years before the accident, members of the local environmental justice organization Philly Thrive had been advocating for its closure. Neighborhood residents who live near the refinery site had been complaining for years of health problems, ranging from asthma to cancer. “Enough is enough,” says Sylvia Bennett, 79, who lives in the Grays Ferry neighborhood near where the refinery is located. Her two daughters have both been diagnosed with cancer.

What will become of the refinery site remains to be seen as conversations between Hilco and …

Revelations In The Blood: Determination Of Biomarkers And Analytes, Jeremiah Jamrom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Changes in body chemistry have long been utilized as a tool for medical diagnosis. Whether blood panel, toxin level, antigen testing or any of the myriad other tests performed annually, searching for molecules which confer health status is a long-established practice. These tests give physicians more information and allow them to make a more accurate diagnosis, from which appropriate treatment can stem. Awareness of, and the subsequent search for, biomarkers for disease states have grown substantially in the past years as analytical, biochemical, and instrumental techniques have become more precises and powerful. In an era of increasingly personalized medicine, novel …

Speciated Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry In Combination With Thor’S Hammer Metaspike Technology For The Assessment Of Low-Level Biomarkers For Human Health Evaluation, Ashley Ebert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our research team has been focused on quantifying important biological analytes in human blood samples to delineate the biochemical processes underlying certain states of dysfunction and evaluate treatment efficacy. These efforts have been guided by laboratory measurements with the input of medical experts. Speciated isotope dilution mass spectrometry (SIDMS) explained in detail in EPA Method 6800 has been successfully applied in the quantification of an important biomarker analyte for immune function and detoxification processes: glutathione. Past research has proven the molecule a biomarker for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the form of the reduced/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) ratio, and literature has …

Quantum Computations And Molecular Dynamics Simulations: From The Fundamentals Of Antimicrobial Resistance To Neurological Diseases, Angel Tamez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biophysical phenomena are modeled using a combination of quantum and classical methods to interpret and supplement three distinct and diverse problems in this dissertation. In the first project, decarboxylation reactions are ubiquitous across chemical and biological disciplines, yet the origin of non-catalytic solvent effects remains elusive. Specific solvent structure and energetics have not been well described for the monoanion of malonate, nor corrected from the gas-phase charge-assisted intramolecular hydrogen bond model known as “pseudochair”. In the aqueous phase, a low-lying energy conformer known as the “orthogonal conformation” is computed to be preferred by a three-water cluster of hydrogen bonding over …