Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Antifungal Amphiphilic Aminoglycoside K20: Bioactivities And Mechanism Of Action, Sanjib K. Shrestha, Cheng-Wei Tom Chang, Nicole Meissner, John Oblad, Jaya P. Shrestha, Kevin N. Sorensen, Michelle M. Grilley, Jon Y. Takemoto

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

K20 is a novel amphiphilic antifungal aminoglycoside that is synthetically derived from the antibiotic kanamycin A. Reported here are investigations of K20′s antimicrobial activities, cytotoxicity, and fungicidal mechanism of action. In vitro growth inhibitory activities against a variety of human and plant pathogenic yeasts, filamentous fungi, and bacteria were determined using microbroth dilution assays and time-kill curve analyses, and hemolytic and animal cell cytotoxic activities were determined. Effects on Cryptococcus neoformans H-99 infectivity were determined with a preventive murine lung infection model. The antifungal mechanism of action was studied using intact fungal cells, yeast lipid mutants, and small unilamellar lipid …

The Fierce Green Fire: Vol 5 Issue 11, Wofford College Environmental Studies Program

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2014, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Analysis Of Drug Interactions With Lipoproteins By High Performance Affinity Chromatography, Matthew R. Sobansky

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) are lipoproteins previously shown to bind many basic and neutral hydrophobic drugs in serum. These interactions impact the distribution, delivery, metabolism, and excretion of drugs and are important in determining drug activity, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity in the human body. Information about drug-lipoprotein interactions and the strength of these interactions can be useful in determining the distribution of drugs following administration.

The research presented in this dissertation uses high performance affinity chromatography (HPAC) and packed columns to study binding of the drug propranolol to immobilized lipoproteins such …

Comparing Disease Prevalence In Hard Corals At Four Different Reefs Near The Island Of Narganá In The Guna Yala Comarca Of Panamá, Connor Hinton

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Coral reefs harbor much of the world’s known marine biodiversity. For a number of reasons, coral reefs are becoming increasingly threatened. Large portions of the world’s reefs have already been lost, and the number of degrading reefs is constantly on the rise. One cause for the destruction of coral reefs are coral diseases, ultimately causing coral mortality. With the death of corals, a key species is lost, endangering the entire reef ecosystem. Documenting the presence of such diseases could be useful in assessing current reef health and ameliorating the growing threat of coral diseases. In this project, 18 40m2 belt …

Farmers Markets In Urban Us Counties: The Relationship Between Income, Obesity, And Access, Mia El-Hamaki

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

In the last decade there has been a convergence of factors that have contributed to an increase in food deserts, obesity, and income inequality in the US. Two-thirds of US adults are overweight or obese. This prevalence disproportionately affects low income areas with high minority populations (Ruelas et al., 2012). Simultaneously, research shows that grocery stores are tending to move away from low income, inner city communities and towards affluent urban and suburban areas. In order to combat the growing food deserts and obesity rates as a result of this shift, farmers markets have been proposed and utilized as a …

Wing And Fin Outfitters: Using Gis To Determine The Ideal Location For A Tackle Shop In Charleston, Sc, Matt Giordano

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

A few years down the road I hope to open a tackle shop in Charleston, South Carolina with my current college roommate. I have been fishing my entire life and since coming down to school I have spent many breaks down in Charleston. My interest in the area really blossomed during the summer of 2013 which I spent in Charleston fishing and working around the water. During my time in Charleston I have realized that many local shops are in good locations but they do not provide excellent service. Shops seem to get by on reputation rather than actual service. …

Urban Garden Survival, Phoebe Ferguson, Rachel Martin

Biology Presentations

Urban gardens are community led plots designated for agricultural purposes in residential and urban areas. Greenville County has seen a recent growth in urban gardens with the assistance of non-profit groups like Gardening for Good. The current total in Greenville County stands at 79 with new gardens added every year. While the growth is encouraging, some gardens have failed. This study uses GIS to explore the social and ecological factors that correlate with urban garden survival in an effort to provide garden managers with information that will help them develop gardens that thrive and persist.

Analyzing Drone Footage To Assess Necessary Streetlight Placement: Where In New Washington Heights And Poe Mill Are Streetlights Most Necessary?, Savannah Jennings, Billy Tutt

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

New Washington Heights and Poe Mill are low income neighborhoods with high crime rates and the people living there feel that more street lights would make the areas more safe at night. In our project, we aimed to answer the question: where are streetlights most appropriate in these neighborhoods? And can footage taken from the recent drone flyover help to improve our ability to accurately model streetlights in these neighborhoods? We will present our findings to the residents of Poe Mill and New Washington Heights in order to aid their efforts in making their streets safer. This question is relevant …

Spartanburg Humane Society Data Analysis: Hotspots And Resource Management, Leigh Robertson

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

A data set from the Spartanburg Humane Society was provided with the hope that the use of GIS could show patterns and hotspots of dog and cat pickup locations. With a better understanding of where the majority of the animals come from, the Humane Society can better distribute their man power and resources to help as many homeless animals as possible. According to Beck (1973) the main reasons for stray and abandoned animals is negligence causing pet releases or escapes, and also breeding. Therefore, finding and targeting areas where there are many strays (potentially as a result of a release, …

Molecular Dynamics Study Of The Opening Mechanism For Dna Polymerase I, Carol A. Parish, Bill R. Miller Iii, Eugene Y. Wu

Chemistry Faculty Publications

During DNA replication, DNA polymerases follow an induced fit mechanism in order to rapidly distinguish between correct and incorrect dNTP substrates. The dynamics of this process are crucial to the overall effectiveness of catalysis. Although Xray crystal structures of DNA polymerase I with substrate dNTPs have revealed key structural states along the catalytic pathway, solution fluorescence studies indicate that those key states are populated in the absence of substrate. Herein, we report the first atomistic simulations showing the conformational changes between the closed, open, and ajar conformations of DNA polymerase I in the binary (enzyme:DNA) state to better understand its …

A Comparison Of Trout Streams: Examining The Reasons For Angler Visitation To Certain Counties Around North Carolina, Rob George

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

Recreational fishing is a popular and profitable sport for states across the country (Ditton et al., 2002). Mountain trout angling provides as much as 174 million dollars annually to the state of North Carolina (NCWRC, 2009). This number shows that recreational trout fishing is an important economic factor for North Carolina. The goal of this project is to determine what variables correlate to the popularity of a county among trout anglers. Through personal experience, academic articles, and interviews with fly fishermen a list of variables was created in order to compare two streams in different counties. These variables include household …

Hf Accelerated Electron Fluxes, Spectra, And Ionization, Herbert C. Carlson, Joseph B. Jensen

All Physics Faculty Publications

Wave particle interactions, an essential aspect of laboratory, terrestrial,and astrophysical plasmas, have been studied for decades by transmitting high power HF radio waves into Earth’s weakly ionized space plasma, to use it as a laboratory without walls. Application to HF electron acceleration remains an active area of research (Gurevich, 2007) today. HF electron acceleration studies began when plasma line observations proved (Carlson et al, 1982) that high power HF radio wave-excited processes accelerated electrons not to ~ eV, but instead to - 100 times thermal energy (10s of eV), as a consequence of inelastic collision effects on electron transport. Gurevich …

Customising Doctor-Nurse Communications, Brian Cusack, Dave Parry

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

Doctor-Nurse communications are critical for patient safety and workflow effectiveness. Our research question was: What further improvements can be made to current communication systems? A variety of mobile and land based communication systems have been used and experimented with. In the study, the pager was found to be most common and more recent attempts to provide broadband capability with systems such as the iBeep. We built an alternative information system using Android phones and a software application that was customised by feedback from the medical professionals. The trial in five wards with 22 doctors and 170 nurses over one month …

Security Of Electronic Health Records In A Resource Limited Setting: The Case Of Smart-Care Electronic Health Record In Zambia, Keith Mweebo

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

This paper presents a case study of security issues related to the operationalization of smart-care, an electronic medical record (EMR) used to manage Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) health information in Zambia. The aim of the smart-care program is to link up services and improve access to health information, by providing a reliable way to collect, store, retrieve and analyse health data in a secure way. As health professionals gain improved access to patient health information electronically, there is need to ensure this information is secured, and that patient privacy and confidentiality is maintained. During the initial stages of the program …

The Potentials And Challenges Of Big Data In Public Health, Rena N. Vithiatharan

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

The potential to use big data sources for public health increases with the broadening availability of data and improved methods of analysis. Whilst there are some well-known examples of the opportunistic use of big data, such as GoogleFlu, public health has not yet realised the full potential of such data sources. A literature review was undertaken to identify the potential of such data collections to impact public health, and to identify what challenges are currently limiting this potential. The potential include improved real-time analysis, research and development and genome studies. However, challenges listed are poor universal standardisation and classification, privacy …

Byod In Ehealth: Herding Cats And Stable Doors, Or A Catastrophe Waiting To Happen?, Krishnun Sansurooh, Patricia A H Williams

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

The use of personal devices in the work environment has crossed the boundaries of work and socially related tasks. With cyber criminals seriously targeting healthcare for medical identity theft, the lack of control of new technologies within healthcare networks becomes an increasing vulnerability. The prolific adoption of personal mobile devices in the healthcare environment requires a proactive approach to the management of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). This paper analysed the current state of the problem and the challenges that this creates in an environment that has stringent privacy and security requirements. The discourse demonstrates that the issue is not …

3rd Australian Ehealth Informatics And Security Conference, 2014, Edith Cowan University: Conference Details, Security Research Institute, Edith Cowan University

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

No abstract provided.

Access To Hiv Prevention And Care For Hiv-Exposed And Hiv-Infected Children: A Qualitative Study In Rural And Urban Mozambique, Caroline De Schacht, Carlota Lucas, Caterina Mboa, Michelle Gill, Eugenia Macasse, Stelio A. Dimande, Emily A. Bobrow, Laura Guay

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

Background Follow-up of HIV-exposed children for the delivery of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services and for early diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection is critical to their survival. Despite efforts, uptake of postnatal care for these children remains low in many subSaharan African countries. Methods A qualitative study was conducted in three provinces in Mozambique to identify motivators and barriers to improve uptake of and retention in HIV prevention, care and treatment services for HIV-exposed and HIV-infected children. Participant recommendations were also gathered. Individual interviews (n=79) and focus group discussions (n=32) were conducted with parents/caregivers, grandmothers, community leaders and health …

Fresh: Fair And Efficient Slot Configuration And Scheduling For Hadoop Clusters, Jiayin Wang, Yi Yao, Ying Mao, Bo Sheng, Ningfang Mi

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Hadoop is an emerging framework for parallel big data processing. While becoming popular, Hadoop is too complex for regular users to fully understand all the system parameters and tune them appropriately. Especially when processing a batch of jobs, default Hadoop setting may cause inefficient resource utilization and unnecessarily prolong the execution time. This paper considers an extremely important setting of slot configuration which by default is fixed and static. We proposed an enhanced Hadoop system called FRESH which can derive the best slot setting, dynamically configure slots, and appropriately assign tasks to the available slots. The experimental results show that …

Big Data In Healthcare: What Is It Used For?, Rebecca Hermon, Patricia A H Williams

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

Big data analytics is a growth area with the potential to provide useful insight in healthcare. Whilst many dimensions of big data still present issues in its use and adoption, such as managing the volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value, the accuracy, integrity, and semantic interpretation are of greater concern in clinical application. However, such challenges have not deterred the use and exploration of big data as an evidence source in healthcare. This drives the need to investigate healthcare information to control and reduce the burgeoning cost of healthcare, as well as to seek evidence to improve patient outcomes. Whilst …

Avoiding Epic Fails: Software And Standards Directions To Increase Clinical Safety, Patricia A H Williams, Vincent B. Mccauley

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

No abstract provided.

Managing Wireless Security Risks In Medical Services, Brian Cusack, Akar Kyaw

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

Medical systems are designed for a range of end users from different professional skill groups and people who carry the devices in and on their bodies. Open, accurate, and efficient communication is the priority for medical systems and consequently strong protection costs are traded against the utility benefits for open systems. In this paper we assess the vulnerabilities created by the professional and end user expectations, and theorise ways to mitigate wireless security vulnerabilities. The benefits of wireless medical services are great in terms of efficiencies, mobility, and information management. These benefits may be realised by treating the vulnerabilities and …

A Study Of Fe3O4 Magnetic Nanoparticle Rf Heating In Gellan Gum Polymer Under Various Experimental Conditions For Potential Application In Drug Delivery, Gabriel Marcus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have found use in a wide variety of biomedical applications including hyperthermia, imaging and drug delivery. Certain physical properties, such as the ability to generate heat in response to an alternating magnetic field, make these structures ideal for such purposes. This study's objective was to elucidate the mechanisms primarily responsible for RF MNP heating and determine how such processes affect polymer solutions that might be useful in drug delivery. 15-20 nm magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles at 0.2% and 0.5% concentrations were heated with RF fields of different strengths (200 Oe, 400 Oe and 600 …

Evaluating The Progress Of A Mangrove Reforestation Project On Isla Galeta, Colon, Abigail Hope Outterson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Just off the Atlantic coast of Panama, a dynamic and self-renewing ecosystem takes advantage of the tropical climate and swampy conditions. Guarding Punta Galeta’s shores since before it was a U.S. navy base in the 1930’s, mangroves that have persisted here for centuries now draw scientists and tourists alike from all over the world to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center. Once viewed as unproductive, distasteful environments, mangroves are increasingly recognized worldwide as critical habitat for endangered and commercially significant species, as well as for their ecological and aesthetic value. Uniquely adapted to survive in saline environments, mangroves combine methods of …

A Partner-Matching Framework For Social Activity Communities, Chunyu Ai, Wei Zhong, Mingyuan Yan, Feng Gu

Publications and Research

A lot of daily activities require more than one person to participate and collaborate with each other; however, for many people, it is not easy to find good partners to engage in activities with one another. With the rapid growth of social network applications, more and more people get used to creating connections with people on the social network. Therefore, designing social network framework for partner-matching is significant in helping people to easily find good partners. In this paper, we proposed a framework which can match partners for an active community. In order to improve the matching performance, all users …

Optical Characterization And Distribution Of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter (Cdom) In Soil Porewater From A Salt Marsh Ecosystem, Catherine D. Clark, Paige Aiona, Jason K. Keller, Warren J. De Bruyn

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

To characterize chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in marsh porewaters and its contribution as a carbon source, optical properties (absorbance, fluorescence indices, 3-dimensional excitation-emission matrices [EEMs]) of soil porewater and surface water were measured in a southern Californian salt marsh. Absorption coefficients and fluorescence intensities were higher in porewater than in overlying surface waters, consistent with higher CDOM concentration at depth. Humic-type peaks A and C were observed in EEMs in all samples, and peak M was observed in surface waters and shallow porewater to -5 cm depth. Fluorescence:absorbance (flu:abs) ratios and spectral slopes (S) decreased across the surface interface, …

Nucleation At The Contact Line Observed On Nanotextured Surfaces, C W. Gurganus, J. C. Charnawskas, A. B. Kostinski, R. A. Shaw

Department of Physics Publications

It has been conjectured that roughness plays a role in surface nucleation, the tendency for freezing to begin preferentially at the liquid-gas interface. Using high speed imaging, we sought evidence for freezing at the contact line on catalyst substrates with imposed characteristic length scales (texture). Length scales consistent with the critical nucleus size and with δ∼τ/σ, where τ is a relevant line tension and σ is the surface tension, range from nanometers to micrometers. It is found that nanoscale texture causes a shift in the nucleation of ice in supercooled water to the three-phase contact line, while microscale texture does …

Polynomials With Prescribed Bad Primes, David P. Roberts

Mathematics Publications

We tabulate polynomials in ℚ[t] with a given factorization partition, bad reduction entirely within a given set of primes, and satisfying auxiliary conditions associated to 0, 1, and ∞. We explain how these polynomials are of particular interest because of their role in the construction of nonsolvable number fields of arbitrarily large degree and bounded ramification.

2014 Fall Engr333 Student Seminar Presentation, John Sherwood, Jonathan Crow, Nicolaas Ourensma, Zak Devries, Andy Frandsen, Jack Kregel, Ryan Rhodes, Connor Vandongen, Schieffer Kwong, Jee Myung Kim, Matthew Deyoung, Jeff Demaagd, Tyler Devries, Doug Faber, Garrick Hershberger, Jake Derooy, Dustin Brouwer, David Evenhouse, Patrick Anderson, Thomas Brown, Ed Smit, Joel Smith, Thane Symens, Kaitlyn Weinstein, Seth Koetje, Nick Memmelaar, Austin Juza, Matt Ramaker, Ryan Demeester, Jordan Newhof, Wes Richards, Josh Vanderbyl

ENGR 333

File for student presentation, given by students in the Fall 2014 class of ENGR333.