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University of Louisville

Theses/Dissertations

2018

Articles 1 - 27 of 27

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The Regional Distribution And Molecular Interactions Of Phospholipids And Glucose In Mammalian Vitreous Humors., Abigail Nicole Schnepf Dec 2018

The Regional Distribution And Molecular Interactions Of Phospholipids And Glucose In Mammalian Vitreous Humors., Abigail Nicole Schnepf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The vitreous humor (VH) is located in between the lens and the retina. It is composed of 98% water, hyaluronan (HA), collagen, proteins, phospholipids (PLs), and other metabolites. With aging, the VH undergoes liquefaction, a process that causes the gel-like structure of the VH to turn into a liquid and can lead to serious ocular diseases, including retinal detachment, vitreal detachment, and macular hole formation. The liquefaction process is expedited in diabetic VHs. This project focuses on understanding the molecular changes that lead to liquefaction and the reasons for which this process is accelerated with diabetes. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/mass …

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Innate Immunity, The Hepatic Extracellular Matrix, And Liver Injury: Mathematical Modeling Of Metastatic Potential And Tumor Development In Alcoholic Liver Disease., Shanice V. Hudson Dec 2018

Innate Immunity, The Hepatic Extracellular Matrix, And Liver Injury: Mathematical Modeling Of Metastatic Potential And Tumor Development In Alcoholic Liver Disease., Shanice V. Hudson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goals of the current work are to fill key gaps in the current understanding of alcohol consumption and the risk of metastasis to the liver. Considering the evidence this research group has compiled confirming that the hepatic matrisome responds dynamically to injury, an altered extracellular matrix (ECM) profile appears to be a key feature of pre-fibrotic inflammatory injury in the liver. This group has demonstrated that the hepatic ECM responds dynamically to alcohol exposure, in particular, sensitizing the liver to LPS-induced inflammatory damage. Although the study of alcohol in its role as a contributing factor to oncogenesis and …

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Framing Climate Change As National Security: A Survey-Experiment On Climate Change Perceptions., Adam Lyons Dec 2018

Framing Climate Change As National Security: A Survey-Experiment On Climate Change Perceptions., Adam Lyons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The issues surrounding climate change continue to have polarizing effects on many Americans. In this thesis I offer a potential bridge to this divide with a comprehensive study on how issue frames can impact how individuals shape their opinions on environmental issues. Focusing on a national security frame, I ask the central research “Will the public perceive issues of climate change differently when they are framed as threats to national security?” For this thesis I design an original experimental survey to measure the impact security framing has on participants’ perception of both climate change and environmental policy options. The survey …

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Computational Prediction, Characterization, And Methodology Development For Two-Dimensional Nanostructures: Phosphorene And Phosphide Binary Compounds., Congyan Zhang Dec 2018

Computational Prediction, Characterization, And Methodology Development For Two-Dimensional Nanostructures: Phosphorene And Phosphide Binary Compounds., Congyan Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a comprehensive computational simulation was carried out for predicting, characterizing, and applications of two-dimensional (2D) materials. The newly discovered GaP and InP layers were selected as an example to demonstrate how to explore new 2D materials using computational simulations. The performance of phosphorene as the anode material of Lithium-ion battery was discussed as the example of the application of 2D material. Furthermore, the semi-empirical Hamiltonian for phosphorous and lithium elements have been developed for our future work on the application of phosphorus and lithium-based systems. The novel 2D materials of GaP and InP binary compounds were found …

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Investigating The Unique Reactivity Of Novel Hx (X=Cl, Br) Reagents With Alkenes And Alkynes., Rene E. Ebule Dec 2018

Investigating The Unique Reactivity Of Novel Hx (X=Cl, Br) Reagents With Alkenes And Alkynes., Rene E. Ebule

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The addition of hydrogen halides to carbon-carbon unsaturated systems is a classic synthetic transformation that gives rise to a variety of halogenated products as well as building blocks.1 The different routes to achieve hydrohalogenation make use of the hydrogen halides either in the gaseous form2 or in solution3, or their surrogates4. Only second to dihalogens, hydrogen halides are the most atom efficient source of halogenation. However, hydrogen halides are reactive gases at ambient temperature, posing a major challenge in their application. Handling gaseous hydrogen halide reagents requires expert knowledge and specialized equipment. We have …

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A Transfer Learning Approach For Sentiment Classification., Omar Abdelwahab Dec 2018

A Transfer Learning Approach For Sentiment Classification., Omar Abdelwahab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The idea of developing machine learning systems or Artificial Intelligence agents that would learn from different tasks and be able to accumulate that knowledge with time so that it functions successfully on a new task that it has not seen before is an idea and a research area that is still being explored. In this work, we will lay out an algorithm that allows a machine learning system or an AI agent to learn from k different domains then uses some or no data from the new task for the system to perform strongly on that new task. In order …

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Electrochemical And Morphological Properties Of Chloride-Doped Lithium Argyrodite Solid Electrolytes., William Richard Arnold Dec 2018

Electrochemical And Morphological Properties Of Chloride-Doped Lithium Argyrodite Solid Electrolytes., William Richard Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, much attention has been devoted to the development of solid electrolytes to be used in all-solid-state-batteries. One group of promising solid electrolyte (SE) materials are lithium argyrodites, a class of superconductors which are noted for their high ionic conductivities. In particular, halogen doping has been shown to increase both conductivity and stability. The majority of research has focused on material synthesis through solid state reactions, but a novel liquid synthesis method for the preparation of Cl-doped Li7PS6 solid electrolyte provides the advantages of a homogenous product and a rapid, economic synthesis. Here this thesis focuses on the liquid synthesis …

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Plasma Based Synthesis And Surface Modification Of Graphene., Rong Zhao Aug 2018

Plasma Based Synthesis And Surface Modification Of Graphene., Rong Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Graphene, an atom thick layer of carbon, has attracted intense scientific interest due to its exceptional electrical, mechanical and chemical properties. Especially, it provides a perfect platform to explore the unique electronic properties in absolute two-dimension. Pristine graphene possesses zero band gap and weakens its competitiveness in the field of semiconductors. In order to induce a band gap and control its semiconducting properties, functionalization and doping are two of the most feasible methods. In the context of functionalization, large area monolayer graphene synthesized by chemical vapor deposition was subjected to controlled and sequential fluorination using radio frequency plasma while monitoring …

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Bayesian Analytical Approaches For Metabolomics : A Novel Method For Molecular Structure-Informed Metabolite Interaction Modeling, A Novel Diagnostic Model For Differentiating Myocardial Infarction Type, And Approaches For Compound Identification Given Mass Spectrometry Data., Patrick J. Trainor Aug 2018

Bayesian Analytical Approaches For Metabolomics : A Novel Method For Molecular Structure-Informed Metabolite Interaction Modeling, A Novel Diagnostic Model For Differentiating Myocardial Infarction Type, And Approaches For Compound Identification Given Mass Spectrometry Data., Patrick J. Trainor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metabolomics, the study of small molecules in biological systems, has enjoyed great success in enabling researchers to examine disease-associated metabolic dysregulation and has been utilized for the discovery biomarkers of disease and phenotypic states. In spite of recent technological advances in the analytical platforms utilized in metabolomics and the proliferation of tools for the analysis of metabolomics data, significant challenges in metabolomics data analyses remain. In this dissertation, we present three of these challenges and Bayesian methodological solutions for each. In the first part we develop a new methodology to serve a basis for making higher order inferences in metabolomics, …

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Information Theoretic Thresholding Techniques Based On Particle Swarm Optimization., Surina Surina Aug 2018

Information Theoretic Thresholding Techniques Based On Particle Swarm Optimization., Surina Surina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we discuss multi-level image thresholding techniques based on information theoretic entropies. In order to apply the correlation information of neighboring pixels of an image to obtain better segmentation results, we propose several multi-level thresholding models by using Gray-Level & Local-Average histogram (GLLA) and Gray-Level & Local-Variance histogram (GLLV). Firstly, a RGB color image thresholding model based on GLLA histogram and Tsallis-Havrda-Charv'at entropy is discussed. We validate the multi-level thresholding criterion function by using mathematical induction. For each component image, we assign the mean value from each thresholded class to obtain three segmented component images independently. Then we …

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Generalized Spatiotemporal Modeling And Causal Inference For Assessing Treatment Effects For Multiple Groups For Ordinal Outcome., Soutik Ghosal Aug 2018

Generalized Spatiotemporal Modeling And Causal Inference For Assessing Treatment Effects For Multiple Groups For Ordinal Outcome., Soutik Ghosal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three projects and can be categorized in two broad research areas: generalized spatiotemporal modeling and causal inference based on observational data. In the first project, I introduce a Bayesian hierarchical mixed effect hurdle model with a nested random effect structure to model the count for primary care providers and understand their spatial and temporal variation. This study further enables us to identify the health professional shortage areas and the possible impacting factors. In the second project, I have unified popular parametric and nonparametric propensity score-based methods to assess the treatment effect of multiple groups for ordinal …

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High Dynamic Range Optical Devices And Applications., Elijah Robert Jensen Aug 2018

High Dynamic Range Optical Devices And Applications., Elijah Robert Jensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of what we know about fundamental physical law and the universe derives from observations and measurements using optical methods. The passive use of the electromagnetic spectrum can be the best way of studying physical phenomenon in general with minimal disturbance of the system in the process. While for many applications ambient visible light is sufficient, light outside of the visible range may convey more information. The signals of interest are also often a small fraction of the background, and their changes occur on time scales so quickly that they are visually imperceptible. This thesis reports techniques and technologies developed …

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Evaluation Of Drug-Loaded Gold Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity As A Function Of Tumor Tissue Heterogeneity., Hunter Allan Miller Aug 2018

Evaluation Of Drug-Loaded Gold Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity As A Function Of Tumor Tissue Heterogeneity., Hunter Allan Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inherent heterogeneity of tumor tissue presents a major challenge to nanoparticle-medicated drug delivery. This heterogeneity spans from the molecular to the cellular (cell types) and to the tissue (vasculature, extra-cellular matrix) scales. Here we employ computational modeling to evaluate therapeutic response as a function of vascular-induced tumor tissue heterogeneity. Using data with three-layered gold nanoparticles loaded with cisplatin, nanotherapy is simulated with different levels of tissue heterogeneity, and the treatment response is measured in terms of tumor regression. The results show that tumor vascular density non-trivially influences the nanoparticle uptake and washout, and the associated tissue response. The drug …

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Factorization In Integral Domains., Ryan H. Gipson Aug 2018

Factorization In Integral Domains., Ryan H. Gipson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We investigate the atomicity and the AP property of the semigroup rings F[X; M], where F is a field, X is a variable and M is a submonoid of the additive monoid of nonnegative rational numbers. In this endeavor, we introduce the following notions: essential generators of M and elements of height (0, 0, 0, . . .) within a cancellative torsion-free monoid Γ. By considering the latter, we are able to determine the irreducibility of certain binomials of the form Xπ − 1, where π is of height (0, 0, 0, . . .), in the monoid domain. Finally, …

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Developments In Multivariate Post Quantum Cryptography., Jeremy Robert Vates Aug 2018

Developments In Multivariate Post Quantum Cryptography., Jeremy Robert Vates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ever since Shor's algorithm was introduced in 1994, cryptographers have been working to develop cryptosystems that can resist known quantum computer attacks. This push for quantum attack resistant schemes is known as post quantum cryptography. Specifically, my contributions to post quantum cryptography has been to the family of schemes known as Multivariate Public Key Cryptography (MPKC), which is a very attractive candidate for digital signature standardization in the post quantum collective for a wide variety of applications. In this document I will be providing all necessary background to fully understand MPKC and post quantum cryptography as a whole. Then, I …

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Efficient Quantum Approximation : Examining The Efficiency Of Select Universal Gate Sets In Approximating 1-Qubit Quantum Gates., Brent A. Mode May 2018

Efficient Quantum Approximation : Examining The Efficiency Of Select Universal Gate Sets In Approximating 1-Qubit Quantum Gates., Brent A. Mode

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Quantum computation is of current ubiquitous interest in physics, computer science, and the public interest. In the not-so-distant future, quantum computers will be relatively common pieces of research equipment. Eventually, one can expect an actively quantum computer to be a common feature of life. In this work, I study the approximation efficiency of several common universal quantum gate sets at short sequence lengths using an implementation of the Solovay-Kitaev algorithm. I begin by developing from almost nothing the relevant formal mathematics to rigorously describe what one means by the terms universal gate set and covering efficiency. I then describe some …

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Correlation Between Agricultural Land Cover And Groundwater Nitrate Contamination In Big Bat Cave, Kentucky., Brandt T. Coleman May 2018

Correlation Between Agricultural Land Cover And Groundwater Nitrate Contamination In Big Bat Cave, Kentucky., Brandt T. Coleman

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

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Designing Interactive Virtual Environments With Feedback In Health Applications., Yi Li May 2018

Designing Interactive Virtual Environments With Feedback In Health Applications., Yi Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most important factors to influence user experience in human-computer interaction is the user emotional reaction. Interactive environments including serious games that are responsive to user emotions improve their effectiveness and user satisfactions. Testing and training for user emotional competence is meaningful in healthcare field, which has motivated us to analyze immersive affective games using emotional feedbacks. In this dissertation, a systematic model of designing interactive environment is presented, which consists of three essential modules: affect modeling, affect recognition, and affect control. In order to collect data for analysis and construct these modules, a series of experiments were …

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Longitudinal Tracking Of Physiological State With Electromyographic Signals., Robert Warren Stallard May 2018

Longitudinal Tracking Of Physiological State With Electromyographic Signals., Robert Warren Stallard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electrophysiological measurements have been used in recent history to classify instantaneous physiological configurations, e.g., hand gestures. This work investigates the feasibility of working with changes in physiological configurations over time (i.e., longitudinally) using a variety of algorithms from the machine learning domain. We demonstrate a high degree of classification accuracy for a binary classification problem derived from electromyography measurements before and after a 35-day bedrest. The problem difficulty is increased with a more dynamic experiment testing for changes in astronaut sensorimotor performance by taking electromyography and force plate measurements before, during, and after a jump from a small platform. A …

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Network Science Algorithms For Mobile Networks., Heba Mohamed Elgazzar May 2018

Network Science Algorithms For Mobile Networks., Heba Mohamed Elgazzar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Network Science is one of the important and emerging fields in computer science and engineering that focuses on the study and analysis of different types of networks. The goal of this dissertation is to design and develop network science algorithms that can be used to study and analyze mobile networks. This can provide essential information and knowledge that can help mobile networks service providers to enhance the quality of the mobile services. We focus in this dissertation on the design and analysis of different network science techniques that can be used to analyze the dynamics of mobile networks. These techniques …

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Multi Self-Adapting Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (Msapso)., Gerhard Koch May 2018

Multi Self-Adapting Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (Msapso)., Gerhard Koch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The performance and stability of the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm depends on parameters that are typically tuned manually or adapted based on knowledge from empirical parameter studies. Such parameter selection is ineffectual when faced with a broad range of problem types, which often hinders the adoption of PSO to real world problems. This dissertation develops a dynamic self-optimization approach for the respective parameters (inertia weight, social and cognition). The effects of self-adaption for the optimal balance between superior performance (convergence) and the robustness (divergence) of the algorithm with regard to both simple and complex benchmark functions is investigated. This work …

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Long-Range Electrostatic Interactions In Gold Catalysis And Fluorinating Reagent Development., Zhichao Lu May 2018

Long-Range Electrostatic Interactions In Gold Catalysis And Fluorinating Reagent Development., Zhichao Lu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our research focus is on applying two long range electrostatic interactions--coulombic interaction between ion pairs and hydrogen bonding—to two tasks: exploring counterion effects in gold catalysis and utilizing hydrogen bonding for fluorinating reagent development. Cationic gold catalysis is considered one of the most important breakthroughs in organic synthesis over the past two decades. A wealth of empirical information on counterion effects is now available regarding homogeneous gold catalysis. However, the rational understanding of the counterion effect on reactivity is still elusive. We proposed a widely applicable model to rationalize the kinetic effect in gold catalyzed reaction. We first solved the …

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Computational Modeling Of Electronically Excited States In Cobalamin-Dependent Reactions., Brady D. Garabato May 2018

Computational Modeling Of Electronically Excited States In Cobalamin-Dependent Reactions., Brady D. Garabato

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current understanding of the photolytic properties of Vitamin B12 derivatives or cobalamins are summarized from a computational point of view. The focus is on two non-alkylcobalamins, cyanocobalamin (CNCbl) and hydroxocobalamin (HOCbl), two alkylcobalamins, methylcobalamin (MeCbl) and adenosylcobalamin (AdoCbl), as well as the stable cob(II)alamin radical. Photolysis of alkylcobalamins involves low-lying singlet excited states where photo-dissociation of the Co-C bond forms singlet-born alkyl/cob(II)alamin radical pairs (RPs). Potential energy surfaces (PESs) of low-lying excited states as functions of both axial bonds provide the most reliable tool for analysis of photochemical and photophysical properties. Due to the size limitations associated with the …

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Region Based Gene Expression Via Reanalysis Of Publicly Available Microarray Data Sets., Ernur Saka May 2018

Region Based Gene Expression Via Reanalysis Of Publicly Available Microarray Data Sets., Ernur Saka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A DNA microarray is a high-throughput technology used to identify relative gene expression. One of the most widely used platforms is the Affymetrix® GeneChip® technology which detects gene expression levels based on probe sets composed of a set of twenty-five nucleotide probes designed to hybridize with specific gene targets. Given a particular Affymetrix® GeneChip® platform, the design of the probes is fixed. However, the method of analysis is dynamic in nature due to the ability to annotate and group probes into uniquely defined groupings. This is particularly important since publicly available repositories of microarray datasets, such as ArrayExpress and NCBI’s …

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Photonic Tools For Advanced Sensing And Imaging At The Nanoscale., Jafar Hamed Ghithan May 2018

Photonic Tools For Advanced Sensing And Imaging At The Nanoscale., Jafar Hamed Ghithan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports a novel bio-sensing strategy based on single-mode, electro-active, integrated optical waveguide (SM-EA-IOW) platforms. It also reports the development of a super-resolved far-field optical imaging tool to enable optical, electronic, and spectroelectrochemical investigations at the nanoscale. SM-EA-IOW platforms with its outstanding sensitivity for spectroelectrochemical interrogation was combined with a sandwich bioassay for the development of a novel immunosensing based strategy for label-free detection of infectious pathogens. The strategy begins with the functionalization of the electroactive waveguide surface with a capturing antibody aimed at a specific target analyte. Once the target analyte is bound to the photonic interface, it …

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Potential For Developing Run-Of-River Systems In Eastern Kentucky : A Gis Approach To Site Suitability., Thomas Jeffords May 2018

Potential For Developing Run-Of-River Systems In Eastern Kentucky : A Gis Approach To Site Suitability., Thomas Jeffords

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coal has a questionable future with the potential exhaustion of available coal. Alternate sources of energy production should be considered, such as hydropower dams, or the more environmentally friendly, Run of River (RoR) hydropower system. This study seeks to answer the question: What is the potential for RoR hydroelectric systems in Eastern Kentucky counties with significant decreases in coal production and employment? I hypothesize that GIS will identify suitable sites within Pike County for RoR systems. Site suitability for Eastern Kentucky was assessed and determined that Pike County did not have a suitable physical environment for RoR systems. The power …

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Assessing The Curve Number Method For Modeling Urban Watershed Stormwater Runoff Across Louisville, Ky., Garrett J. Seay May 2018

Assessing The Curve Number Method For Modeling Urban Watershed Stormwater Runoff Across Louisville, Ky., Garrett J. Seay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to the US EPA when a watershed reaches 75% impervious land cover, surface runoff accounts for 55% of precipitation input losses compared to 10% for a ‘natural cover’ watershed, exacerbating urban flooding during extreme rainfall events. This research modeled historical rainfall-runoff processes for six urban watersheds within the city of Louisville, KY for a series of these extreme rainfall events. Precipitation and resultant runoff discharge events were collected in the field over the spring and summer of 2016. Surface biophysical data in the form of gridded elevation, land cover and soil type were also collected and processed for each …

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