Digital Commons Network^™

Hydromorphological Changes Of Chi River, Mueang District, Khon Kaen Province, Pawat Wattanachareekul

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This thesis focuses on the analysis of hydrology coupled with geomorphology for river management such as flood mitigation and river restoration. Morphological Quality Index (MQI) is used for assessing hydro-morphological conditions from part of the Chi River (67 km long) at Khon Kaen province, a major river in north-eastern Thailand. This study area has been suffering from unexpected and repeated flooding. MQI is applied to evaluate the degree of hydro-morphological alteration in terms of relative scores (from 0 to 1). Basically, in case that MQI score equals 1, it means the area has no any alteration. On the other hand, …

Pharmacokinetic And Metabolomic Studies Of Standardized Extract Of Centella Asiatica (Eca 233) Capsule In Thai Healthy Volunteers, Phanit Songvut

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

A well-characterized standardized extract of Centella asiatica (ECa 233) being developed as a phytopharmaceutical product for human use was explored in this clinical study. The first objective of this research was to understand changes in disposition kinetics after oral administration of both the original-formula capsule and a newly-modified enhanced-dissolution capsule of ECa 233. Secondly, this study aimed to investigate alteration of human metabolomes following administration of the modified capsule of ECa 233, using an NMR-based metabolomics approach. For pharmacokinetics, the study involved a phase I clinical trial in twelve healthy Thai volunteers, who each received 250 and 500 mg of …

The Poisson Topp Leone Generator Of Distributions For Lifetime Data: Theory, Characterizations And Applications, Faton Merovci, Haitham M. Yousof, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematical and Statistical Science Faculty Research and Publications

We study a new family of distributions defined by the minimum of the Poisson random number of independent identically distributed random variables having a Topp Leone-G distribution (see Rezaei et al., (2016)). Some mathematical properties of the new family including ordinary and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, mean deviations, order statistics, reliability and entropies are derived. Maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters is investigated. Some special models of the new family are discussed. An application is carried out on real data set applications sets to show the potentiality of the proposed family.

Network-Based Analytics For Discovering Gene Modules And Biomarkers In Complex Diseases, Zongliang Yue

All ETDs from UAB

With rapidly increasing novel discoveries of associations between genomic data and complex disease phenotypes, the translation of those associations into knowledge and the identification of critical molecular mechanisms are essential to guild clinical decisions such as the diagnosis of symptomatic individuals, the prediction of disease risk, reproductive genetic counseling, and determining pharmacogenetic profiles for treatment. To decipher the genome of complex diseases, gene-centric analyses focus on detecting molecular mechanisms lead by driver genetics variants, abnormally expressed genes and high-abundance proteins through gene module construction. Additionally, the gene module construction approaches implement systems biology analysis to reveal the causative co-expressed gene …

Novel Hiv Adaptation Strategy Against Host Cd8 T Cell Immunity, Kai Qin

All ETDs from UAB

Since the 1980s, HIV infection has caused millions of death and tremendous economic losses worldwide. Despite great scientific advances, the only effective therapy to date, antiretroviral therapy (ART), merely delays disease progression yet cannot eradicate viral infection. Therefore, an effective HIV vaccine that can prevent the acquisition of infection would be a desirable alternative. The critical role of CD8 T-cell immunity in HIV infection has been well documented and therefore not surprisingly a great deal of effort has been focused on developing an effective CD8 T-cell based HIV vaccine. However, by far, such CD8 T-cell based HIV vaccine trials have …

Application Of A Brain-Inspired Spiking Neural Network Architecture To Odor Data Classification, Anup Vanarse, Josafath Israel Espinosa-Ramos, Adam Osseiran, Alexander Rassau, Nikola Kasabov

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Existing methods in neuromorphic olfaction mainly focus on implementing the data transformation based on the neurobiological architecture of the olfactory pathway. While the transformation is pivotal for the sparse spike-based representation of odor data, classification techniques based on the bio-computations of the higher brain areas, which process the spiking data for identification of odor, remain largely unexplored. This paper argues that brain-inspired spiking neural networks constitute a promising approach for the next generation of machine intelligence for odor data processing. Inspired by principles of brain information processing, here we propose the first spiking neural network method and associated deep machine …

Age At Diagnosis And Lung Cancer Presentation, Marida Gingras

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States because of its lack of symptoms until late stages. It is noted that a 5-year relative survival rate can be improved by earlier cancer detection. The currently recommended age of screening by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force may not be optimal, and the recommendations are only for smokers. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between the stages of presentation of lung cancer and age at diagnosis using quantitative research. Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER-18) database, 63,107 records were …

Route Exploration And Synthesis Of The Reported Pyridone-Based Pdi Inhibitor Stk076545, Eric Greve, Sergey V. Lindeman, Christina Scartelli, Lin Lin, Robert Flaumenhaft, Chris Dockendorff

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

The enzyme protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is essential for the correct folding of proteins and the activation of certain cell surface receptors, and is a promising target for the treatment of cancer and thrombotic conditions. A previous high-throughput screen identified the commercial compound STK076545 as a promising PDI inhibitor. To confirm its activity and support further biological studies, a resynthesis was pursued of the reported β-keto-amide with an N-alkylated pyridone at the α-position. Numerous conventional approaches were complicated by undesired fragmentations or rearrangements. However, a successful 5-step synthetic route was achieved using an aldol reaction with an α-pyridone allyl …

Arsenic Speciation And Its Dna Fractionation In The Rice Plant Oryza Sativa, Me Foulkes, Ba Sadee, Sj Hill

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The transport of arsenic from soil through to edible crop is important when assessing the potential health risks from a food source.

Isolation And Semi-Synthesis Of Marine Diterpenoids, Paul D. Scesa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Natural products play a historical role in the discovery of medicine but present unique challenges for chemical isolation, identification and production. In this work we describe the identification of twenty novel diterpenoids. These were isolated by use of chromatography, and the structures determined by spectroscopic methods, primarily 1D and 2D NMR. Six of these possess unprecedented diterpenoid skeletons and two of them show significant growth inhibitory effects on cancer cell lines in vitro (GI50 < 10 μM). The biomimetic semisynthesis of diterpendoids and analogues is also presented. Access to the bielschowskyane carbon skeleton by dearomatization of a furanocembranoid precursor is described. Highlights include a stereoselective alkene epoxidation, a novel kinetic furan dearomatization method, and an efficient [2+2] photochemical cycloaddition. The role of conformational steering was studied spectroscopically using VT 1H-NMR and NOESY as well as quantum chemical calculations at the DFT level of theory. We also disclose a biomimetic synthesis of providencin using a photochemical Norrish-Yang cyclization. This provided the absolute configuration by chemical correlation with the precursor bipinnatin E, the latter determined by x-ray diffraction. An unexpected, regioisomeric byproduct was observed and a possible mechanism is proposed. A biomimetic synthesis of the diterpene alkaloid aceropterine is also described, using an epoxidation-rearrangement cascade. This work led to a revised structure of aceropterine, formulated by spectroscopic methods. Finally, the isolation and structure elucidation of a novel, cyclic lipopeptide from Pseudomonas sp. is described. The compound was obtained using a unique antibiotic crowd sourcing approach and the structure determined by spectroscopic methods and advanced Marfey’s analysis.

Heterogeneous Multi-Layered Network Model For Omics Data Integration And Analysis, Bohyun Lee, Shuo Zhang, Aleksandar Poleksic, Lei Xie

Faculty Work

Advances in next-generation sequencing and high-throughput techniques have enabled the generation of vast amounts of diverse omics data. These big data provide an unprecedented opportunity in biology, but impose great challenges in data integration, data mining, and knowledge discovery due to the complexity, heterogeneity, dynamics, uncertainty, and high-dimensionality inherited in the omics data. Network has been widely used to represent relations between entities in biological system, such as protein-protein interaction, gene regulation, and brain connectivity (i.e. network construction) as well as to infer novel relations given a reconstructed network (aka link prediction). Particularly, heterogeneous multi-layered network (HMLN) has proven successful …

Customer And Employee Social Media Comments/Feedback And Stock Purchasing Decisions Enhanced By Sentiment Analysis, Drew Mikel Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warns professional investors that sentiment analysis tools may lead to impulsive investment decision-making. This warning comes despite evidence showing that aided social sentiment investment decision tools can increase accurate investment decision-making by 18%. Using Fama's theory of efficient market hypothesis, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine whether customer Twitter comments and employee Glassdoor feedback sentiment predicted successful investing decisions measured by business stock prices. Two thousand records from 3 archival U.S. public NASDAQ 100 datasets from March 28, 2016, to June 15, 2016 (79 days) of 53 companies with …

Effects Of Dietary Guar Meal With Or Without Beta-Mannanase On Performance And Eggquality Traits In Laying Hens, Süleyman Çalişlar

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

In this study, the effects of beta-mannanase supplementation to laying hens? diets with different guar meal (GM) ratios on performance and egg quality traits were investigated. The experimental period lasted 126 days. Ninety-six Lohman Brown hens at the age of 56 weeks were kept in individual cages. They were divided into 8 treatment groups as follows: 0% guar meal (GM0) (control); 0% GM + 0.05% beta-mannanase (GM0E); 8% GM (GM8); 8% GM + 0.05% beta-mannanase (GM8E); 16% GM (GM16); 16% GM + 0.05% beta-mannanase (GM16E); 24% GM (GM24); and 24% GM + 0.05% beta-mannanase (GM24E). A photoperiod of 16.5 h …

Mechanics Of Surface Instabilities Of Soft Nanofibers And Nonlinear Contacts Of Hydrogels, Mojtaba Ahmadi

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

The research of this dissertation is formulated in two fields, i.e., the theoretical and computational studies of circumferential wrinkling on soft nanofibers and the swelling mechanics study of a bi-layered spherical hydrogel containing a hard core. Continuous polymer nanofibers have been massively produced by means of the low-cost, top-down electrospinning technique. As a unique surface instability phenomenon, surface wrinkling in circumferential direction is commonly observed on soft nanofibers in electrospinning. In this study, a theoretical continuum mechanics model is developed to explore the mechanisms of circumferential wrinkling on soft nanofibers under uniaxial stretching. The model is able to examine the …

Viral-Immune Cell Interactions At The Maternal-Fetal Interface In Human Pregnancy, Elaine L Parker, Rachel B Silverstein, Sonam Verma, Indira U Mysorekar

Open Access Publications

The human decidua and placenta form a distinct environment distinguished for its promotion of immunotolerance to infiltrating semiallogeneic trophoblast cells to enable successful pregnancy. The maternal-fetal interface also successfully precludes transmission of most pathogens. This barrier function occurs in conjunction with a diverse influx of decidual immune cells including natural killer cells, macrophages and T cells. However, several viruses, among other microorganisms, manage to escape destruction by the host adaptive and innate immune system, leading to congenital infection and adverse pregnancy outcomes. In this review, we describe mechanisms of pathogenicity of two such viral pathogens, Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and Zika …

Sensitivity Analysis Of Monte Carlo Model Of A Gantry-Mounted Passively Scattered Proton System, Milad Baradaran-Ghahfarokhi, Francisco Reynoso, Michael T Prusator, Baozhou Sun, Tianyu Zhao

Open Access Publications

PURPOSE: This study aimed to present guidance on the correlation between treatment nozzle and proton source parameters, and dose distribution of a passive double scattering compact proton therapy unit, known as Mevion S250.

METHODS: All 24 beam options were modeled using the MCNPX MC code. The calculated physical dose for pristine peak, profiles, and spread out Bragg peak (SOBP) were benchmarked with the measured data. Track-averaged LET (LET

RESULTS: For the physical dose distribution, the MCNPX MC model matched measurements data for all the options to within 2 mm and 2% criterion. The Mevion S250 was found to have a …

Postural Directionality And Head Tremor In Cervical Dystonia, Qiyu Chen, Jeanne P Vu, Elizabeth Cisneros, Casey N Benadof, Zheng Zhang, Richard L Barbano, Christopher G Goetz, Joseph Jankovic, Hyder A Jinnah, Joel S Perlmutter, Mark I Appelbaum, Glenn T Stebbins, Cynthia L Comella, David A Peterson

Open Access Publications

Background: Although abnormal head and neck postures are defining features of cervical dystonia (CD), head tremor (HT) is also common. However, little is known about the relationship between abnormal postures and HT in CD.

Methods: We analyzed clinical data and video recordings from 185 patients enrolled by the Dystonia Coalition. We calculated the likelihood of their HT and HT type ("regular" vs. "jerky") given directionality of abnormal head postures, disease duration, sex, and age.

Results: Patients with retrocollis were more likely to have HT than patients with anterocollis (X

Discussion: We found that HT is more likely for CD patients …

The Marshall-Olkin Exponentiated Generalized G Family Of Distributions: Properties, Applications, And Characterizations, Haitham M. Yousof, Mahdi Rasekhi, Morad Alizadeh, Gholamhossein Hamedani

Mathematical and Statistical Science Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, we propose and study a new class of continuous distributions called the Marshall-Olkin exponentiated generalized G (MOEG-G) family which extends the Marshall-Olkin-G family introduced by Marshall and Olkin [A. W. Marshall, I. Olkin, Biometrika 84 (1997), 641-652]. Some of its mathematical properties including explicit expressions for the ordinary and incomplete moments, generating function, order statistics and probability weighted moments are derived. Some characteristics of the new family are presented. Maximum likelihood estimation for the model parameters under uncensored and censored data is addressed in Section 5 as well as a simulation study to assess the performance of …

Development Of An Integrated Microfluidic System For Cell Sorting And Trapping—Considering Sorting Efficacy And Cell Viability, Thammawit Suwannaphan

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study is divided into two phases. The first phase is about the investigation of cell viability and damage of white blood cells after sorting in both a spiral microchannel and contraction and expansion array (CEA) at appropriate flow rates for cell separation. Three techniques such as Trypan Blue staining, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Wright-Giemsa staining are employed in the experiments. After flowing the sample through a whole setup of spiral microchannel at 2 ml/min, 85% of cells are viable while 30% of cells are significantly deformed and 2% of cells are seriously damaged in their intracellular structures. In …

Comparative Morphological Analysis Of Diploid And Triploid Oysters, Crassostrea Gigas,Farmed In The Black Sea, Oksana Yurievna Vialova

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Triploid organisms, in particular oysters, are widely used in marine aquaculture. However, the advantage of triploid oysters compared to diploids has not been proven in all cases. Comparative morphological analysis of Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas of different ploidy levels allows evaluating the benefits of raising triploids in the Black Sea. First, the morphological characteristics of diploid and triploid Pacific oysters C. gigas farmed in the Black Sea were studied. Allometric ratios of weight (W, g) and shell height (H, mm) of oysters were obtained, which are described by the equations W$_{2n}$ = 4 × 10$^{-4}$ × H$_{2n}$ $^{2.56}$, R2 = …

Gulls As Sources Of Environmental Contamination By Colistin-Resistant Bacteria, Alan B. Franklin, Andrew M. Ramey, Kevin T. Bentler, Nicole L. Barrett, Loredana M. Mccurdy, Christina A. Ahlstrom, Jonas Bonnedahl, Susan A. Shriner, Jeffrey C. Chandler

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In 2015, the mcr-1 gene was discovered in Escherichia coli in domestic swine in China that conferred resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort used in treating multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in humans. Since then, mcr-1 was found in other human and animal populations, including wild gulls. Because gulls could disseminate the mcr-1 gene, we conducted an experiment to assess whether gulls are readily colonized with mcr-1 positive E. coli, their shedding patterns, transmission among conspecifics, and environmental deposition. Shedding of mcr-1 E. coli by small gull flocks followed a lognormal curve and gulls shed one strain >101 …

Validation Of A Screening Method For The Detection Of Colistin-Resistant E. Coli Containing Mcr-1 In Feral Swine Feces, Jeffrey C. Chandler, Alan B. Franklin, S. N. Bevins, Kevin T. Bentler, Jonas Bonnedahl, Christina A. Ahlstrom, Bledar Bisha, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A method was developed and validated for the detection of colistin-resistant Escherichia coli containing mcr-1 in the feces of feral swine. Following optimization of an enrichment method using EC broth supplemented with colistin (1 μg/mL) and vancomycin (8 μg/mL), aliquots derived from 100 feral swine fecal samples were spiked with of one of five different mcr-1 positive E. coli strains (between 10⁰ and 10⁴ CFU/g), for a total of 1110 samples tested. Enrichments were then screened using a simple boil-prep and a previously developed real-time PCR assay for mcr-1 detection. The sensitivity of the method was determined in …

Specimens Of Opportunity Reveal Novel Information On The Sowerby's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon Bidens), Kerri Jean Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Conservation science requires quickly acquiring information and taking action in order to protect species at risk of extinction. Elusive wildlife, however, present challenges to effective conservation measures because it is often difficult to collect enough data on these species to recognize their conservation needs and implement management plans. As a result, researchers must identify alternative means of gathering sufficient data on these species. Specimens of opportunity, such as museum specimens, provide a way to improve knowledge on these species, and these specimens have already proven valuable by increasing information on biodiversity, habitat and range, and population structure in many species. …

Bio-Inspired Learning And Hardware Acceleration With Emerging Memories, Shruti R. Kulkarni

Dissertations

Machine Learning has permeated many aspects of engineering, ranging from the Internet of Things (IoT) applications to big data analytics. While computing resources available to implement these algorithms have become more powerful, both in terms of the complexity of problems that can be solved and the overall computing speed, the huge energy costs involved remains a significant challenge. The human brain, which has evolved over millions of years, is widely accepted as the most efficient control and cognitive processing platform. Neuro-biological studies have established that information processing in the human brain relies on impulse like signals emitted by neurons called …

Amyloid Proteins And Fibrils Stability, Farbod Mahmoudinobar

Dissertations

Compared to globular proteins that have a stable native structure, intrinsically disordered peptides (IDP) sample an ensemble of structures without folding into a native conformation.One example of IDP is the amyloid-beta(Abeta) protein which is the main constituent of senile plaques in the brain of Alzheimer's patients.Understanding the process by which IDPs undergo structural changes to form oligomers that eventually aggregate into senile plaques/amyloid fibrils may significantly advance the development of novel therapeutic methods to treat neurodegenerative diseases, for which there is no cure to date. This dissertation has two main objectives. The first one is to investigate and identify structural …

Quantitative Detection Of Levofloxacin Hydrochloride By Differential Pulse Stripping Voltammetry With Electrodeposited Bismuth Film Electrodes, Zi-Ying Guo, Zuo-Peng Li, Jiang Li, Jian-Guo Zhao, Feng Feng

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this study, differential pulse stripping voltammetry was developed for the quantitative detection of levofloxacin hydrochloride indirectly. Levofloxacin hydrochloride contains organic amine, which can be precipitated upon interaction with Zn(SCN)₄^2-. By means of differential pulse stripping voltammetry, the concentration of Zn²⁺ can be determined using an in-situ formed bismuth film electrode, which allows determining indirectly the amount of levofloxacine hydrochloride. The linearity equation, I = 1.1401c - 0.5309 with the correlative coefficient R = 0.9979, was presented in the experiment. The results showed that this approach is very sensitive, having a limitation of detection of 3.18 …

The Values Of Warm-Season Native Perennial Grasses Grown For Pasture Or Biofuel In The Southern Great Plains, Usa, James K. Rogers, Bryan Nichols, Jon T. Biermacher, Jagadeesh Mosali

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The Renewable Fuel Standard under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandated the production of 136 billion liters of cellulosic biofuel by 2022. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) has been identified as a primary feedstock because it is a perennial, produces high yields and is adapted to a wide environmental range. Development of the cellulosic biofuel industry has been slow. A reason for this slow development is lack of available feedstock driven by lack of a developed market. Rather than considering switchgrass only as a dedicated biofuel feedstock, we examined its potential both for grazing and biofuel feedstock. …

Generalized Matrix Decomposition Regression: Estimation And Inference For Two-Way Structured Data, Yue Wang, Ali Shojaie, Tim Randolph, Jing Ma

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Analysis of two-way structured data, i.e., data with structures among both variables and samples, is becoming increasingly common in ecology, biology and neuro-science. Classical dimension-reduction tools, such as the singular value decomposition (SVD), may perform poorly for two-way structured data. The generalized matrix decomposition (GMD, Allen et al., 2014) extends the SVD to two-way structured data and thus constructs singular vectors that account for both structures. While the GMD is a useful dimension-reduction tool for exploratory analysis of two-way structured data, it is unsupervised and cannot be used to assess the association between such data and an outcome of interest. …

An Investigation Of The Potentials Of 2-[(2-Hydroxyphenyl) Methylidene] Hydrazine-1-Carbothioamide And Its Mn(Ii) And Zn(Ii) Complexes As Antimicrobial Agents, Umar Sani, Musbahu Yahaya, Dailami S. Adam

Tanzania Journal of Science

Antibiotic resistance as a result of misuse, overuse or abuse of drugs is an issue of serious concern world over. The quest for more active and robust antimicrobial agents remains a scientific challenge and requires multimillion-dollar investment in the area of drug design and development. Here in, we report the synthesis and characterisation of a tridentate thiosemicarbazone (2-[(2-hydroxyphenyl)methylidene]hydrazine-1-carbothioamide) (HL) from salicylaldehyde and thiosemicarbazide. Its complexes with Mn(II) and Zn(II) were prepared following similar technique and characterised by melting point, FT-IR, UV –visible spectrophotometry, and elemental analysis. The Mn(II) complex showed paramagnetism with a magnetic moment value of 5.80 BM while …

Nanomaterials For Biosensing Lipopolysaccharide, Palak Sondhi, Helal Maruf, Keith Stine

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are endotoxins, hazardous and toxic inflammatory stimulators released from the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, and are the major cause of septic shock giving rise to millions of fatal illnesses worldwide. There is an urgent need to identify and detect these molecules selectively and rapidly. Pathogen detection has been done by traditional as well as biosensor-based methods. Nanomaterial based biosensors can assist in achieving these goals and have tremendous potential. The biosensing techniques developed are low-cost, easy to operate, and give a fast response. Due to extremely small size, large surface area, and scope for surface modification, nanomaterials …