Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Barriers And Drivers Influencing The Growth Of E-Commerce In Uzbekistan, Madinakhon Tursunboeva

Theses and Dissertations

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has become a major retail channel for businesses in developed countries. However, it is still considered an innovation in developing countries. Specifically, e-commerce in Uzbekistan is in the early stages of emergence despite its advance in recent years in terms of Internet penetration, a strong retail sector, new national regulations, and a young population. The study aimed to identify barriers and drivers influencing e-commerce growth in Uzbekistan. A Delphi research design was utilized to answer the research questions of the study, which categorized and ranked factors that Uzbekistani entrepreneurs are facing when engaging in e-commerce processes. A …

Impacts Of Land-Use Change On The Menominee River In Jo Daviess County, Illinois, Preston J. Konop

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses land-use changes in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, and their effects on the Menominee River. The Menominee River flows north to south through Jo Daviess County, and southern Grant County, Wisconsin. Many of the surrounding properties are agricultural and have undergone developmental and land-use changes that may affect the flood flashiness of the Menominee River. The concern with increasing flood flashiness of the Menominee River include more frequent flooding events, undercutting of riverbanks, and increased amounts of sediment transport from upstream locations into the Mississippi River. Increases in impermeable surfaces have led to greater amounts of runoff during …

Privacy And The Digital Divide: Investigating Strategies For Digital Safety By People Of Color, Denavious Hoover

Theses and Dissertations

People of color are becoming increasingly concerned with digital privacy. They are concerned about the obfuscated data collection and sharing practices of major social media plat- forms and the strong entitlement of other users in the online space to their content. This study examines how people of color conceptualize and behave to produce safety in the online space, or, in other words, digital privacy. This study challenges notions that people are not purposeful about privacy in the online space and highlights the voices of people of color, whom are not of- ten included in theorizing or decision making about the …

Aqueous Kinetics Of Α-Hydroxyhippuric Acid Derivatives Bearing Electron-Withdrawing Groups As A Function Of Ph And Buffer Catalysts, Mohamad Imad Rafie

Theses and Dissertations

It has been shown that carbinolamides are intermediates in the enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of -amidated peptides. Although carbinolamides are important intermediates in the production of these hormones and have roles in other biological venues, little attention has been given to their mechanisms of reaction in water, and, thus, it is difficult to speculate how their reaction would be enzymatically catalyzed. The purpose of the work presented here was to synthesize structural analogs of the biological intermediates and study their mechanism of breakdown in water. -Hydroxyhippuric acid, a substrate for the enzymatic system, provides an easily modified template for the study of …

The Development Of A New Entry Point Into Enantiomerically Enriched Sulfinyl Derivatives, Jessica Shaw

Theses and Dissertations

Optical probes may be used as reliable tools for detecting and imagining the inside of cells for medical diagnostics. Among available options, the use of thiol probes is of interest as thiols are present in nearly all cells and their levels are tightly regulated, thus any variation is associated with disease. A proper thiol bioimaging probe must have a thiol cleavage group/reactive group and a fluorophore. It is found that novel sulfinate aryl ester (phenoxysulfinate esters) probes selectively cleave thiols at physiological pH and show much promise as effective tools for bioimaging.

In this context, the synthesis of the related …

An Investigation Of Gene Regulatory Network State Space Variability, Sara Faye Liesman

Theses and Dissertations

Genes are segments of DNA that provide a blueprint for cells and organisms to effectively control processes and regulations within individuals. There have been many attempts to quantify these processes, as a greater understanding of how genes operate could have large impacts on both personalized and precision medicine. Gene interactions are of particular interest, however, current biological methods can not easily reveal the details of these interactions. Therefore, we infer networks of interactions from gene expression data which we call a gene regulatory network, or GRN. Due to the robust behavior of genes and the inherent variability within interactions, models …

A Study Of The Efficacy Of Machine Learning For Diagnosing Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease In Non-Diabetic Patients, Demond Larae Handley

Theses and Dissertations

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 18.2 million adults age 20 and older have Coronary Artery Disease in the United States. Early diagnosis is therefore of crucial importance to help prevent debilitating consequences, and principally death for many patients. In this study we use data containing gene expression values from peripheral blood samples in 198 non-diabetic patients, with the goal of developing an age and sex gene expression model for diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease. We employ machine learning methods to obtain a classification based on genetic information, age and sex. Our implementation uses feed forward …

Perceptions Of A Small Midwestern Food Cooperative: A Case Study, Rebecca Forsythe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to illuminate how individuals form perceptions of cooperatives, specifically of Green Top Grocery, a cooperative located in Bloomington Illinois, using the Bourdieu-sian habitus and notions of capital as a frame. Green Top Grocery suffers from fiscal instability since they opened in 2017. They also struggle to gain support of lower income individuals, a key demographic they sought to help since their inception based on their stated values. By conducting qualitative interviews of three sample groups: Green Top Grocery board members and leadership, local food access experts, and West Bloomington residents, and non-participant observations, this …

Rapid Vertical Flow Assay On Aunp Plasmonic Paper For Sers-Based Point Of Need Diagnostics, Richard Frimpong

Theses and Dissertations

SERS based immunoassays for point-of-care diagnostics is a promising tool to facilitate biomarker detection for early disease diagnosis and control. The technique is based on a sandwiched system in which antigen is first captured by a selective substrate and then labeled by an extrinsic Raman label (ERL). Here, we report on the use of gold nanoparticle modified filter paper as a novel capture membrane in a vertical flow format. This vertical flow configuration affords reproducible flow of sample and label through the capture substrate to overcome diffusion limited kinetics and significantly reduced assay time. The filter paper was selected due …

Adsorption Behavior Of Chemically / Charged Modified Antibodies On Gold Nanoparticles, Samuel Okyem

Theses and Dissertations

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been exploited in the various domains of science such as drug delivery, bio-sensing, immunoassays and environmental sensors, due to their optical properties and intriguing surface chemistry. Different scientific procedures have been used to effectively immobilize antibodies onto AuNPs. Although acceptable outcomes have been achieved in the immobilization of antibodies onto AuNPs, the sensitivity of these immobilized antibodies to target antigen or binding sites is limited due to improper orientation of the antibodies. Also, the possibility of nanoparticle aggregation when exposed to proteins limits its biomedical applicability.

There is some evidence that the surface charge of antibodies …

Investigating The Reversibility Of Protein Adsorption On Gold Nanoparticles And The Role Of Free Thiol, Awosiji Olatunde Awotunde

Theses and Dissertations

Protein-gold nanoparticle (AuNP) bioconjugates have many potential applications in nanomedicine. A thorough understanding of the interaction between the protein and AuNP is critical to engineering these functional bioconjugates with desirable properties. In this work, we investigate the role of free thiols presented by the protein on the stability of the protein-AuNP conjugate. Human serum albumin (HSA) was modified with 2-iminothiolane (Traut’s reagent) to introduce additional thiols on the protein surface, and three variants of HSA were synthesized to present 1, 5, and 20 free thiols by controlling the molar excess of the chemical modifier. Protein exchange studies on AuNPs were …

Oxadiazinones As Chiral Auxiliaries: Chiral Templates For Asymmetric Conjugate Addition In The Synthesis Of ( R )-( + )-Tolterodine, Fatima Olayemi Obe

Theses and Dissertations

The stereoselective formation of carbon-carbon bonds through the process of conjugate addition has proven to be a very important methodology in synthetic organic chemistry. In this context, oxadiazinones are chiral auxiliaries that have been applied in the asymmetric aldol addition reaction to synthesize valuable synthetic fragments such as the aldol side chain of the multi-drug resistance medicinal agent, hapalosin. This thesis describes efforts that were directed towards employing oxadiazinones as chiral scaffolds for the process of asymmetric conjugate addition with the ultimate objective of using this methodology in the preparation of medicinal agents such as Tolterodine. Preliminary efforts focused on …

Nitrate Transport In The Unsaturated Zone, Patience Bosompemaa

Theses and Dissertations

Abundance of nitrate in the soil is a basic issue in agricultural land-use regions, causing eutrophication and pollution of water bodies. The study focuses on the role of a saturated buffer zone (SBZ) to remove nitrate from the groundwater resulting from agricultural activities. The study area is herbaceous SBZ located in central Illinois (40.614382ºN, -89.023542ºW), which lies between a stream and a farm located upgradient. The SBZ has been outfitted with an agricultural runoff treatment system that diverts tile drainage into the subsurface of the SBZ rather than discharging into the stream. Within the SBZ three experimental areas composed of …

Reliability Improvement On Feasibility Study For Selection Of Infrastructure Projects Using Data Mining And Machine Learning, Xi Hu

Theses and Dissertations

With the progressive development of infrastructure construction, conventional analytical methods such as correlation index, quantifying factors, and peer review are no longer satisfactory in support for decision-making of implementing an infrastructure project in the age of big data. This study proposes using a mathematical model named Fuzzy-Neural Comprehensive Evaluation Model (FNCEM) to improve the reliability of the feasibility study of infrastructure projects by using data mining and machine learning. Specifically, the data collection on time-series data, including traffic videos (278 Gigabytes) and historical weather data, uses transportation cameras and online searching, respectively. Meanwhile, the researcher sent out a questionnaire for …

The Role Of Floating Gardens To Alter The Water Quality Of The Chicago River: Chicago, Il, Emmett Andrew Spooner

Theses and Dissertations

The pollution of heavy metals within surface water is a rising global concern. As heavy metals are transported through rivers, they can bioaccumulate through the food web, leading to harmful concentrations within waterways. In urban areas such as the city of Chicago, Illinois, the use of road salts is a concern as elevated concentrations of chloride (Cl–) can reduce surface water quality. Since surface waters can carry heavy metals and Cl– salts over a large distance, methods of in-situ phytoremediation are of growing importance. Through a pilot project, a floating garden system has been installed along a portion of the …

The Water Is Always Running: Vaporwave, Fluxus, And The Role Of Defamiliarization In Music-Led Virtual Realities, Zachary William Buckley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how a Fluxus approach to participatory music can leverage environmental metaphors and affordances, heighten user awareness of their interactions through a making-strange approach to musical interaction, and balance functional and creative user experiences in a meaningful and participatory musical interaction. This research has been conducted using the virtual reality experience The Water Is Always Running. This work presents an unusual music-making environment, a 3D kitchen with dishwashing simulation, to explore how a making-strange approach to musical interaction and participation can heighten the awareness of process for the user. To create this work, ideas have been leveraged from …