Digital Commons Network^™

Spatial Transcriptomics Unravels Palmitoylation And Zonation- Dependent Gene Regulation Of Aeg-1 In Mouse Liver, Alissa Saverino

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity-induced metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) leads to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Astrocyte-elevated gene-1/Metadherin (AEG-1/MTDH) plays a key role in promoting MASH and HCC. AEG-1 is palmitoylated at residue cysteine 75 (Cys75) and a knock-in mouse representing mutated Cys75 to serine (AEG-1-C75S) showed activation of MASH- and HCC-promoting gene signature when compared to wild-type littermates (AEG-1-WT). The liver consists of 3 zones, periportal, midlobular, and pericentral, and zone-specific dysregulated gene expression impairs metabolic homeostasis in the liver, contributing to MASH and HCC. Here, to elucidate how palmitoylation influences AEG-1-mediated gene regulation in regards to hepatic zonation, we performed spatial transcriptomics (ST) in …

Sense Make Before Book, Bradley Sinanan

Theses and Dissertations

“Sense Make Before Book” is an Indo-Caribbean turn of phrase which refers to common sense being more important than book smarts. My sister sent me a post the other day on Instagram of an Trinidadian woman using this phrase, saying it was one of Indo-Caribbean origin. I was interested and asked my mom about it. My mom says that when she was younger my grandpa said it often around their house in Princes Town, Trinidad and Tobago. This adage feels charged thinking about the history of indenture and its effects on the Indo-Caribbean diaspora.

The written word of archival history …

Revealing The Elusive Mechanism Of Action Of The Lipid Chaperone Fatty Acid Binding Protein 4, Abdul J. Castillo Ibanez

Theses and Dissertations

Fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) are pivotal in orchestrating lipid trafficking within cells. This dissertation aims to reveal the mechanism of action of adipocyte FABP (FABP4) by meticulously detailing steps for producing uniformly isotopically labeled protein, understanding dynamics and structural changes in aqueous conditions, analyzing protein-membrane interaction with membrane mimicking models, and revealing its membrane-bound state through novel NMR structural elucidation. Chapter 1 provides an overview of FABP4's indispensable role in lipid trafficking, emphasizing its significance in maintaining cellular homeostasis and metabolic regulation. Chapter 2 delves into the optimization of FABP4 protein expression and proposes a high yield recovery and …

The Neural Mechanisms Of Inter-Friend Aggression, Wyatt Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Decades of research concerns intimate partner aggression (IPA). While important to understand and prevent, investigations of IPA largely ignore another vital social relationship: close friendships. To investigate aggression between close friends – inter-friend aggression (IFA) – functional neuroimaging analyses enable to assessment of neural activity and mental representations of aggression in different social relationships. As such, 98 participants completed the well-validated Taylor Aggression Paradigm modified for a magnetic resonance environment against their current romantic partner, a close friend, and a stranger. Univariate analyses assessed the differences in the degree of neural activity and the role of Narcissism and negative urgency …

Large Language Models, Prompting, And Synthetic Data Generation For Continual Named Entity Recognition, Charles I. Cutler

Theses and Dissertations

With the ever-growing amount of textual data, the task of Named Entity Recognition (NER) is vital to Natural Language Processing (NLP), a field which focuses on enabling computers to understand and manipulate human language. NER enables the extraction of information from unstructured text. Accurate information extraction is crucial for applications ranging from information retrieval to systems for question-answering. To ensure that NER models are robust to changes in data distributions and capable of recognizing new entity types, one may consider expanding the capabilities of an existing model. Continual learning is a paradigm within machine learning. It studies the objective of …

The Role Of Hdac6 In Periodontal Inflammation, Hannah S. Lohner

Theses and Dissertations

Periodontal disease is a polymicrobial infection-induced chronic inflammatory disease and results in irreversible tissue damage and bone loss. While bacteria play a large role in the initiation of this disease, excessive and prolonged inflammatory immune responses are fundamental for its progression, making host directed therapy (HDT) a possible and potentially valuable treatment. Histone Deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is an enzyme that removes acetyl groups from both histone and non-histone proteins, giving it a potential role in regulating inflammation initiated by pathogenic oral bacteria. Previous studies indicated that HDACs act as a bivalent regulator in inflammatory responses; however, the role that HDAC6 …

Repeated-Measures Latent Profile Analyses Of Intervention Fidelity To A Teacher-Delivered Intervention Program For Children At Elevated Risk For Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Katrina A. Markowicz

Theses and Dissertations

Teachers have difficulty delivering Tier-2 intervention programs for preschoolers at elevated risk for socioemotional and behavioral disorders with high intervention fidelity (Durlak, 2010; Sutherland et al., 2018). Several proximal factors that impact program fidelity have been identified, which may undermine program effects (Domitrovich et al., 2008; McLeod et al., 2022; Sutherland et al., 2018). Therefore, researchers have identified strategies, such as practice-based coaching, to improve intervention fidelity and support teachers (Hemmeter et al., 2015; Synder et al., 2015). Most of the field's knowledge of these topics is limited to variable-centered approaches (Fettig et al., 2022; Low et al., 2016). However, …

Towards Effective Developer Communication In Open Source Software Via Emotional Awareness, Mia Mohammad Imran

Theses and Dissertations

Emotions play an integral yet understudied role in open-source software development, profoundly shaping critical collaborative processes such as knowledge sharing, decision-making, and team dynamics. However, accurately detecting and analyzing emotions in developer communications poses significant challenges due to the lack of visual and auditory cues in text-based interactions. This dissertation investigates techniques to enhance the understanding and modeling of emotions within the textual artifacts of open-source projects. We conduct an extensive evaluation of existing emotion classification tools using a novel dataset of annotated GitHub comments. An error analysis reveals deficiencies in handling implicit emotional expressions and figurative language. We demonstrate …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Section 1983 Filings By Incarcerated Plaintiffs, Hollie Macdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was a “watershed moment" in human history, transcending its role as a mere health crisis to reveal deeper fissures within societies. The present retrospective longitudinal study examined COVID-19 as an “era” of complexity utilizing it as an intermediate construct that delineates “pre-COVID” and “post-COVID.” In order to understand the impact of the COVID-19 era, the design of the study and hypotheses stem from an assumption of the interconnectedness of issues related to health, social justice, racial justice, politics, and information dissemination.

This study utilized both manifest and latent content analysis to explore the most …

Effect Of Social Anxiety On Trial-By-Trial Changes In Attentional Biases To Emotional Faces, Nina Plotnikov

Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive research suggests that many anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder, are associated with an increased attentional bias toward potentially threat-related stimuli. However, inconsistent findings suggest the effect of anxiety on attentional bias to threat is not direct and that other factors, including emotion, perceptual load, and time on-task, impact the relationship between social anxiety and attentional biases to facial stimuli. In the present study, 157 undergraduate students completed a computerized letter search task identifying one of two target letters (N or X) from a circular arrangement of different letters (high load) or dots (low load). In 20% of trials, …

Exploring Emerging Adults' Consideration Of Future Cancer Risk Reduction: Opportunity For Shifting Prevention Paradigms?, Jacqueline Knight Wilt

Theses and Dissertations

Background
Early onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) among individuals younger than age-based population prevention screening guidelines has been linked to lifestyle-related risk factors. Emerging adulthood (18-25 years) is when elevated autonomy can alter health behaviors with implications for future health. Greater consideration of future consequences for behavior predicts several lifestyle health behaviors. Future consideration is sensitive to resource availability, and thus may differ between students who are first-generation and/or from low-income households (FGLI) compared to Non-FGLI. This dissertation study aimed to (1) characterize college students’ consideration of future cancer risk (CFC-Cancer), perceived colorectal cancer (CRC) risk and associations with EOCRC risk …

Mathematical Analysis Of Eukaryotic Pericentromere, Puranjan Ghimire

Theses and Dissertations

The centromere is crucial for chromosomal stability and their proper segregation during cell division in eukaryotes. Surrounding the centromere are pericentromeres, made of repetitive DNA elements called pericentromeric repeats, varying from 10 in fission yeast to thousands in humans. These repeats form densely packed heterochromatin, where genes are usually silenced. The silencing mechanism across different pericentromeric repeats remains unclear.

Despite variations in sequence and length, pericentromeric repeats are conserved across eukaryotes, indicating their functional importance. This dissertation presents mathematical models to quantify gene silencing in fission yeast and humans. In fission yeast, my model predicts that silencing occurs only with …

A Complexity Aware Overlay Architecture For High Integrity Fpga Based Systems, Richard Dwight Hite Jr

Theses and Dissertations

Cyber-Physical systems are becoming more and more prevalent in our society and are simultaneously becoming more complex due to evolving technological capabilities in both hardware and software. This complexity exacerbates verification and validation activities thereby negatively impacting important system attributes like design assurance, system reliability, development costs and trust. These facts necessitate the need for computing architectures that constrain complexity for the sake of assurance. Traditional software and hardware development for safety-critical systems have been demonstrated in previous safety-critical systems and the established development methodologies are well understood. However, both technologies have their strengths and limitations. Processor-based technology (SW based …

Voltage Control Of Interfacial Magnetism For Energy-Efficient Skyrmion-Based Memory And Neuromorphic Computing, Md Mahadi Rajib

Theses and Dissertations

The data generated annually has reached unprecedented levels, necessitating the integration of energy-efficient computing systems to achieve high performance and sustain our society’s computing needs. Specifically, energy-efficient computing, once considered advantageous, has now become essential in managing this exponential data growth. For example, the energy used solely by Google was equivalent to the energy consumed by a country with population >20 million in 2019 and this energy need is increasing exponentially [1]. Therefore, high-performance computing systems with energy-efficient, faster operability, and scalable computing units are necessary to address present and future computing challenges.

Apart from traditionally used conventional von Neumann …

Muscle-Nerve Signaling And Its Role In Myogenesis, Synaptogenesis, And Regeneration, James T. Redden

Theses and Dissertations

Despite only comprising 0.1% of the myofiber surface area, a healthy motor endplate is densely packed with acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) responsible for mediating activity between the connected motor neuron and skeletal muscle via the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Loss of the endplate, known as fragmentation, is caused by car crashes, deep lacerations, and other traumatic injuries to the innervating nerve or direct injuries to the limb muscle(s) with intramuscular denervation as a common comorbidity. In both cases, endplate fragmentation begins within a week of injury proceeding muscle atrophy causing decreased mobility, paralysis, and quality of life. Endplate fragmentation of intact muscle fibers …

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury In Yucatan Minipigs: Assessing Changes In Approachability And Mechanical Nociception Following Diffuse Central Fluid Percussion Injury, Mark D. Pavlichenko

Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major healthcare concern affecting millions. Symptoms of TBI include sensory sensitivity and social changes that may persist long-term. Due to similarities in cytoarchitecture, metabolism, and inflammation, higher order minipig models are advantageous for translational TBI research, however, there remains a shortage of information regarding their behavioral and sensory sequelae following injury. Therefore, in this study, we assessed changes in sociability and somatosensation in adult male and female Yucatan minipigs for up to one-week following a sham or central fluid percussion injury (cFPI). Specifically, the voluntary human approach task (VHAT) and the forced human approach …

Supported Metal Nanoparticle Synthesis: Precursor Deposition And Agglomeration At Support Surfaces, Edward H. Chandler Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Catalysis is a critical component of the chemical manufacturing industry. For example, it has been estimated to be essential to more than 90% of the major industrial processes developed during the middle years of the 20^th century.¹ Heterogeneously supported transition metal catalysts in particular have many benefits such as easy separability from the reaction mixture and high thermal stability. One method of synthesizing these is wet impregnation, wherein a metal solution is brought into contact with an oxide- or carbon-based powder. Given optimal environmental conditions, a metal will adhere to the surface through electrostatic means in a process …

Applying X-Ray Fluorescence With Monte Carlo Methods For Analysis Of Surface Defects On Coated Zr4, James Tyler Cahill

Theses and Dissertations

Chromium-coated Zircaloy-4 cladding represents a novel solution for creating nuclear cladding that has passive safety features. This and related developments aimed at improving nuclear safety are broadly categorized as accident-tolerant fuel and cladding. However, implementing this material presents practical challenges such as the vulnerability that cladding has to surface damage such as fretting wear. This research aims to determine if the pre-existing technique of X-ray fluorescence analysis is applicable for detecting these defects on the surface of the cladding. This was done by developing Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport models of a handheld device, the XL-5, alongside experimental measurements using this …

Machine Learning Assisted Optimization For Calculation And Automated Tuning Of Antennas, Lauren Linkous

Theses and Dissertations

The Antenna Calculation and Autotuning Tool (AntennaCAT) software suite represents a significant advancement in the field of antenna design by automating the entire design, CAD, simulation, and optimization process compatible with several EM simulation software suites. It is the first comprehensive implementation of machine learning in this context. In particular, this work includes the capability to create and export structured datasets from the aforementioned EM software for iterative improvement and includes an expandable selection of optimizers.

Felix Frankfurter, Collector Of People, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

Felix Frankfurter engaged, intensely, with people—they were the treasures that he hunted down, evaluated, and collected. This essay, written on the great occasion of Brad Snyder’s Frankfurter biography, considers some of Frankfurter’s most treasured people. One group is people who made Frankfurter, including Frankfurter himself, Henry L. Stimson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Another group is Justice Frankfurter’s three great U.S. Supreme Court colleagues: Justices Hugo L. Black, Robert H. Jackson, and William O. Douglas. A third group is biographers who Frankfurter admired and pushed: Harlan Buddington Phillips, Mark DeWolfe Howe, Jr., McGeorge Bundy, Alexander Bickel, Andrew L. Kaufman, and Philip …

Current Developments In Tax Malpractice: Basics And Beyond, Jacob L. Todres

Faculty Publications

It was always assumed that “tax malpractice” referred to a situation in which an error occurred with respect to some tax provision or in a tax-related administrative or legal proceeding. However, several recent cases have expanded this thinking, introducing the possibility that tax malpractice may also occur where damages include an increase in taxes—irrespective of whether there was an error that directly involved tax law. Beginning with a discussion of the evolving definition of that term as seen in the New York cases of Serino v. Lipper and Bloostein v. Morrison Cohen LLP and whether these cases may have returned …

What The Warhol Court Got Wrong: Use As An Artist Reference And The Derivative Work Doctrine, Jessica Silbey, Eva E. Subotnik

Faculty Publications

In Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, the Supreme Court conflated “use as an artist reference” with preparing a “derivative work." It did so on the erroneous assumption that permission to use a copyrighted work as an artist reference is a license to prepare a derivative work. But copyright law does not necessarily deem all uses of references for making new art to be the preparation of a derivative work. In other words, not all adaptations of an original work are infringing. Some may be neither derivative works nor substantially similar copies, and some may …

The Stories We (Don’T) Tell: Using Case Briefing To Explore Bias And Oppression In The Law, Ashley B. Armstrong

Faculty Publications

Traditional case briefing focuses on the text of the opinion—how courts frame and resolve legal issues. This Essay explores how to teach case briefing to investigate bias and oppression in the law. By discussing socio-historical context during class or assigning reimagined judicial opinions alongside the original opinion, teaching case briefing this way asks students to consider the stories that judges don’t tell (and why). This Essay proffers two examples that illustrate these approaches: United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218 (1973) and Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co., 350 F.2d 445 (1965).

Distorted Narratives In The Treatment Program Complex, Evelyn Lia Malavé

Faculty Publications

Problem-solving courts and alternatives to incarceration have been both celebrated as successful attempts to address the factors that lead to defendants’ involvement in the criminal legal system and critiqued as ineffective reforms that worsen mass incarceration. Specifically, critiques of the “treatment program complex” have tended to focus on how it harms defendants by exposing them to higher levels of incarceration if they fail to complete court mandates. But these critiques have failed to account for another way the treatment program complex harms defendants: by suppressing their voices regarding what kind of help they need and how they are affected by …

Early Supplier Involvement Framework For Reducing Construction Waste During The Design Process, Ayman Ahmed Ezzat Othman, Yomna Abdelghany El-Saeidy

Architectural Engineering

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to facilitate early supplier involvement (ESI) as an approach for reducing construction waste (CW) generated during the design process. Design/methodology/approach – A research methodology consists of literature review, case studies and survey questionnaire was designed to achieve the abovementioned aim. First, the literature review was used to investigate CW, CW generated during the design process, the design process and ESI. Second, two construction projects were analysed to investigate the role of ESI towards reducing CW generated during the design waste. Third, a survey questionnaire was carried out with …

Mathematical Formulae For Neutron Self-Shielding Properties Of Media In An Isotropic Neutron Field, Elsayed Salama, Elsayed K. Elmaghraby, Ateia W. Mahmoud, A. Elghazaly, S. A. El-Fiki

Basic Science Engineering

In the current study, an ab initio derivation of the neutron self-shielding factor to solve the complex neutron transport problem of the decrease of the neutron flux as it penetrates into a material placed in an isotropic neutron field having equal flux in all directions. The theory of steady-state neutron transport was employed, starting from Stuart’s formula, to derive simple analytical formulae based on the integral cross-section parameters. The formulae could be adopted by the user according to various variables, such as the neutron flux distribution and geometry of the simulation at hand. The concluded formulae of the self-shielding factors …

Epr Study Of Irradiated Starch: Induced Radicals And Dose Assessment, Elsayed Salama, Ahmed M. Maghraby, Samy A. Anwer, M. El-Sayed

Basic Science Engineering

Irradiation of starch is of much importance to get rid of microbes and for disinfection. EPR study of the ionizing radiation-induced radicals can lead to the assessment of radiation doses delivered during irradiation. The EPR spectra properties, microwave power saturation behavior, short- and long-term temporal dependencies, and other significant factors are studied. Response of EPR spectra of irradiated starch over the range (0.5–10 kGy) was investigated. The time dependence study of the radiation-induced signal radicals of starch showed that variation of the EPR signal can be noticed within ±7.7% relative to the average value over 38 days following irradiation. Results …

Synthesizing And Using Iron Oxide Nanoparticles As Nanocomposite In Cotton Fabrics Nanofinishing, Hoda Sharouf, Ziad Saffour

Baghdad Science Journal

Metal oxide nanoparticles, including iron oxide, are highly considered as one of the most important species of nanomaterials in a varied range of applications due to their optical, magnetic, and electrical properties. Iron oxides are common compounds, extensive in nature, and easily synthesized in the laboratory. In this paper, iron oxide nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation of (Fe+2) and (Fe+3) ions, using iron (II and III) sulfate as precursor material and NH4OH solution as solvent at 90°C. After the synthesis of iron oxide particles, it was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These …

ความท้าทายในการทำหนังสือแสดงเจตนาไม่ประสงค์จะรับบริการสาธารณสุขที่เป็นไปเพื่อยืดการตายในวาระสุดท้ายของชีวิต (Living Will) ในผู้ที่เป็นมะเร็ง, อธิพงศ์ มุณีโน, รัตติยา ไชยชมภู

Journal of Nursing Research, Innovation, and Health

ในช่วงสุดท้ายของชีวิต ผู้ป่วยอาจไม่สามารถสื่อสารหรือตัดสินใจเองได้ การตัดสินใจเกี่ยวกับการดูแลรักษามักตกไปอยู่กับผู้อื่น ซึ่งอาจไม่ใช่สิ่งที่ผู้ป่วยปรารถนา จะดีกว่าหรือไม่หากผู้ป่วยมีการวางแผน
และเลือกแนวทางการดูแลรักษาในช่วงสุดท้ายของชีวิตไว้ล่วงหน้าด้วยการทำหนังสือแสดงเจตนาไม่ประสงค์จะรับบริการสาธารณสุขที่เป็นไปเพื่อยืดการตายในวาระสุดท้ายของชีวิต (living will) ซึ่งนับว่ามีความท้าทายเป็นอย่างมากในกลุ่มผู้ที่เป็นมะเร็งที่แตกต่างออกไปจากกลุ่มโรคอื่นเป็นอย่างมาก บทความนี้นำเสนอ ผ่านการทบทวนวรรณกรรม มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่ออธิบายถึงความท้าทายในหลากหลายแง่มุม อุปสรรคของผู้ที่เป็นมะเร็งที่มีผลต่อการทำหนังสือแสดงเจตนาฯ และอธิบายถึงบทบาทของผู้ให้บริการด้านการดูแลสุขภาพ หนึ่งในนั้นคือบทบาทของพยาบาล ในการสนับสนุนการตัดสินใจเลือกแนวทางการดูแลตนเอง
ล่วงหน้าของผู้ที่เป็นมะเร็ง ด้วยพื้นฐานของข้อมูลการเจ็บป่วย ความรู้ ความเข้าใจที่ถูกต้องเกี่ยวกับการ ทำหนังสือแสดงเจตนาฯ เพื่อสนับสนุน อำนวยความสะดวกให้ได้รับการรักษา การพยาบาล และการดูแลจากครอบครัว ตามเจตนาของผู้ป่วย อันจะนำไปสู่การพัฒนาขับเคลื่อนประเด็นการทำหนังสือแสดงเจตนาฯในการรักษาในวาระสุดท้ายของชีวิต ให้เป็นที่ยอมรับในวงกว้างของบุคคลในสังคมต่อไป และเกิดประโยชน์สูงสุดกับทุกชีวิต

Farewell To Cultural Superiority: Resolving The Alleged Chinese Misappropriation Of Korean Cultural Heritage Through Unesco's 2005 Convention For The Protection And Promotion Of The Diversity Of Cultural Expressions, Daniel Hyungtae Kim

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

No abstract provided.