Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ultra-Rapid Electrophilic Cysteine Arylation Using Pyridinium Salts, Bradley M. Lipka

Open Access Dissertations

Small molecule-based bioconjugation enables in vitro and in vivo functionalization of proteins and peptides, significantly expanding the chemical space of biomacromolecules. Among these transformations, nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S_NAr) of cysteine residues is a widely employed strategy for protein bioconjugation.

Although many reagents facilitate cysteine arylation, they are disadvantageous in two crucial aspects - limited synthetic modularity and undesired hydrophobicity. First, conventional cysteine arylating reagents are frequently activated by multiple electron-withdrawing groups (EWGs) on a single aromatic ring, leaving few synthetic handles to derivatize the reagents for advanced applications. Second, these labeling reagents are generally hydrophobic in nature and …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2025, 145th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Biological and Medical Sciences

Biology

Chemistry

Earth Sciences

Science Education

Anthropology

Applied Science and Technology

Physics and Engineering

Forensic Sciences

Ecology, Sustainability, and Environmental Science

Maiben Lecture: Mary Ann Vinton, "State of the Academy"

Friends of Science Awards: David Crouse and Daniel Sitzman

Predicting Lung Cancer Severity Using Machine Learning Algorithms: Enhanced By Statistical Analysis, Esin Bilgin

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Cancer is a serious and severe cause seen in every region of the world and severely affects the quality of life and life span. Among the various types of cancer, lung cancer is one of the most critical, having a fatal impact on life. While medical imaging techniques, laboratory results, and biomarkers play a significant role in diagnosis and prognosis, clinical studies are also crucial in monitoring the progression of cancer and identifying diagnostic and prognostic factors. The findings demonstrate satisfactory accuracy, and the analysis incorporates statistical data with machine learning techniques. These findings play a pivotal role in supporting …

Quantifying The Vulnerability Of Smooth Dogfish And Winter Skate To Electromagnetic Fields From Offshore Wind Transmission Cables In The Mid-Atlantic Shelf, Rachel A. Sechrist

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The development of offshore wind structures in the northeastern U.S. will contribute to renewable energy goals, but will overlap with many marine species as well as economically important fisheries. High voltage transmission cables from offshore wind farms emit electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that elasmobranchs may detect using sensory organs known as ampullae of Lorenzini. However, sensitivity to EMFs varies by species due to differences in the number and arrangement of pores, the length of subdermal canals within the ampullae of Lorenzini sensory network, and the habitats they reside and regions they forage. For species who reside or forage in benthic regions, …

Quantitative Preventive Approaches To Diabetes: Mathematical Modeling And Analysis, Rushi P. Bhatt

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The rising prevalence of diabetes presents a pressing global health concern, necessitating effective control strategies. This study aims to construct a mathematical model to analyze the influence of diverse factors on blood sugar levels, with a focus on identifying optimal methods for maintaining healthy glucose levels. Employing ordinary differential equations (ODE), the model investigates variables including leptin resistance, fat mass, glucose, insulin resistance, beta cell mass, daily physical activity, and dietary intake. Utilizing parameter estimates from existing literature, the model’s framework is established, and simulation results elucidate the intricate interplay between lifestyle choices and blood glucose dynamics. Furthermore, the model …

Exploring Coupled Land Use -- Climate Change Impacts In The Northeast United States From 2020-2025 With Implications For Bombus Habitat Suitability, Archana Prasad

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The combined impacts of land use and climate change pose significant challenges to bumblebee populations in the Northeast United States (NEUS), a region characterized by dense urbanization, diverse landscapes, and exposure to climate extremes. As urban and suburban areas expand, the loss of agricultural lands and open spaces alters habitat availability for bumblebees, which rely on grasslands, meadows, and forest edges for nesting and foraging. Simultaneously, the NEUS is experiencing an increase in extreme climate events, including prolonged heatwaves, heavy precipitation, and shifts in temperature patterns. Using CMIP6 climate model projections, we analyzed trends in nine climate indices. Our results …

Data Injustice In Global Justice, Asaf Lubin, Cherry Tang

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In May 2020, the United Nations Secretary-General unveiled a sweeping “Data Strategy for Action by Everyone, Everywhere,” seeking to unlock the UN’s “full data potential.” The International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor followed suit, declaring in 2023 its intent to acquire advanced cyber forensic tools so as to hold the “widest range of digital evidence globally.” Across international institutions, data-driven governance has become the norm, with humanitarian agencies and tribunals transforming into “data hubs and information clearinghouses.” This Article critiques the unfettered datafication of global justice by international courts and organizations. These entities have aggressively expanded their data-driven operations …

Zinc Or Swim: Investigating Zinc Pollution From Restoration Materials, Megan R. Jensik

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Zinc is an essential nutrient, but can be toxic at high concentrations, negatively affecting various biological functions. Gabions are galvanized metals coated in zinc that are used for many human purposes, including coastal restoration efforts attempting to avoid using plastic materials. However, gabions can degrade in marine environments, potentially leaching metal into the water and soil. There is a knowledge gap regarding the occurrence and impacts of zinc pollution in the areas where these gabions are deployed, including the Indian River Lagoon (IRL). To address this, sediment samples were collected from the IRL and analyzed for their physical and chemical …

Archival Stellar Flare Follow-Up In Evryscope Observations, Tyler J. Thomas

Honors Undergraduate Theses

M dwarfs, the most abundant stars in the galaxy, are prime targets in the search for habitable exoplanets. However, their high flare activity may compromise planetary atmospheres, with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) increasing this risk. Despite this, the relationship between M dwarf flares and CMEs is not well understood. This study uses archival data from Evryscope North and South, crossmatched with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Gaia data, to investigate this relationship. This crossmatching demonstrated an abundance of stars within the 20 arcsecond Evryscope uncertainty. The analysis also revealed a modest excess of K1 and F9 type stars but …

‘Waves Of Imagination’ Unconditional Spectogram Diffusion Using Diffusion Architecture., Rahul Vanukuri

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The swift evolution of wireless communication technologies,particularly in the field of rf signals or in CBRS bands,demands increasingly sophisticated signal processing techniques to ensure efficient transmission, reception, and spectrum management.Traditional approaches to signal generation and reconstruction, although effective in controlled environments, often struggle to cope with the challenges presented by real-world noisy conditions, hardware constraints, and limited access to large-scale datasets. In response to these limitations, this thesis explores the application of diffusion models—a class of generative models known for their ability to produce high-fidelity samples—to the domain of spectrogram generation for communication signals.

Different from conventional strategies to simulate …

Proximal Seismic Tracking Of Pyroclastic Density Currents At Volcán De Fuego, Guatemala, Jacob A. Krier

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Pyroclastic Density Currents (PDCs) are deadly flows of ash, tephra, gas, and solidified magma which predominantly occur when an ash plume collapses during a volcanic eruption. PDCs are also able to form when large deposits of ash at the summit of a volcano are displaced during an eruption and flow downslope. This is typically the mechanism behind PDCs that occur at Volcán de Fuego such as one that occurred in 2018 killing at least 430 people. The purpose of this paper is to track the propagation of PDCs that occurred at Fuego seismologically in order to better understand how they …

Analyzing Political Sentiment On Micro-Blogging Data: A Lexicon And Machine Learning Approach To The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, Ava Grey

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the trends in sentiment towards U.S. presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump through micro-blogging social media text during the five months leading up to the election. Two datasets of varying sizes and origins were used to contextualize and validate analysis findings. The analyses include both a lexicon-based approach and a machine learning predictive method. Common sentiment analysis techniques like term frequency, term frequency inverse, various lexicons, and n-grams were utilized during the lexicon approach. During the modeling, a random forest was utilized in addition to the methods used during the lexicon approach. Results showed that overall …

Neural Correlates Of Attentional Biases In Dietary Choice: Role Of Childhood Socioeconomic Status, Justine Jamie N. Gotico

CMC Senior Theses

Childhood poverty has been shown to increase adult risk for obesity above and beyond its direct effects on adult socioeconomic status (SES). One proposed mechanism of these effects is by shifting behavioral patterns of dietary consumption and choice, for example by increasing rapid attention to high-calorie unhealthy foods. Yet, whether such neural mechanisms can explain observed differences in dietary behavior based on childhood SES remains an open question. Here we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine early attentional correlates of low childhood SES during a dietary choice task, based on research suggesting that early attentional biases toward high-calorie foods emerge …

The Relevance Of Dnajb1 Protein Dimerization Against The Human Neurodegenerative Diseases, Erina Kotreli, Trang Le, Szymon Ciesielski

Dean's Leadership Council Library Research Prize

All biological functions in living organisms depend on the activity of proteins, long molecules that must twist and fold into specific shapes to become functional. A subset of proteins known as molecular chaperones is essential for maintaining cellular health by assisting other proteins in folding correctly and refolding those damaged by stress. When proteins misfold and clump together, they can form toxic aggregates linked to many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the leading causes of death in the United States. In AD, these protein aggregates form organized, elongated structures referred to as amyloid-like fibrils, which damage neurons …

William Albert Noyes Jr. And A Systemic Study Of The Near Ultraviolet Photochemical Decomposition Of Acetone, Zildjan Bonita

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

Prior Knowledge

• Chemists observed that acetone vapor decomposes under UV light producing CO and hydrocarbons. The problem with their data was that it was inconsistent due to uncontrolled experimental variables (Herr and Noyes 2052–2053).
• Quantum yield data varied widely, pressure, temperature, and light intensity had never been systematically analyzed (Herr and Noyes 2052–2053).
• Noyes and Herr wanted to create a quantitative, controlled measurements to clarify the mechanisms of acetone photolysis (Herr and Noyes 2052–2053).

Importance of Acetone IV

• Serves as a fundamental model for photochemical bond cleavage (Journal of the American Chemical Society).
• Tests core photochemical laws (absorption → excitation …

Stephen J. Lippard: Chemistry Meets Medicine, Radwa Elrouby

Natural Sciences Student Research Presentations

Key Study

In "DNA Sequence Context Modulates the Impact of a Cisplatin 1,2-GpG Intrastrand Cross-Link", Pilch, Todd, and Lippard found that the DNA sequence around the binding site influences how tightly cisplatin binds (Pilch, Todd, and Lippard).

Biophysical techniques like melting temperature and circular dichroism showed that some sequences stabilize DNA more strongly after drug binding (Pilch, Todd, and Lippard).

This explains why cisplatin is more effective in some tumor genomes (Todd and Lippard).

Understanding The Challenges And Satisfaction Among The Medical Professional Preceptors, Cornelia Ko

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This study evaluates the Penn Medicine Family Medicine Clerkship program through a mixed-methods approach, exploring the challenges and factors influencing the satisfaction of medical professional preceptors when precepting students. A quantitative survey with 54 preceptor participants reveals the top challenges preceptors face: workload, conflicts with patient care, and limited clinical space. Despite this, there is strong support for the program, with 89% of preceptors enjoying the role and 85% expressing willingness to continue to precept for the next three years. Finally, data analysis shows no statistical correlation between preceptor motivation with gender, ethnicity, age group, years of serving, or total …

A Personal Interview With William Patry: His Thoughts On Music, Ai, And Copyright

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Noaa Oceanic And Atmospheric Research Ocean Carbon Observing Science Plan Fy25 To Fy35, United States National Oceanographic And Atmospheric Administration

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: Technical Reports and Related Materials

United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration oceanic and atmospheric research ocean carbon observing science plan for fiscal years 2025 through 2035.

Experiment 1--Density, Measurement And Significant Figures, Kevin Mark, Phil Mercier

Open Educational Resources

Lab objectives:

• To identify an unknown metal by measuring and calculating its density
• To determine the density of an unknown liquid by graphing mass and volume data
• To compare the accuracy and precision of water mass using measurements from a beaker and burette

Csc36000 - Modern Distributed Computing Assignment 2, Saptarashmi Bandyopadhyay

Open Educational Resources

This assignment is designed to help the student identify and mitigate common errors in Distributed Computing such as race conditions and reaching consensus, as well as reflecting on how Distributed Computing concepts apply to their class project.

Nebraska Water Center Annual Report 2025

Nebraska Water Center: Administrative Materials

Training Nebraska's future water professionals, research publications, water sciences laboratory impact and know your well curriculums and community impact

Impact Of An Herbicide Treatment In An Annual Grass Invaded Sagebrush Steppe, Jordan Dino Santia

Undergraduate Scholarship

Globally, rangelands are being threatened by invasive annual grasses (IAGs) that alter fire regimes, drive vegetation type conversion, and alter ecosystem function. This study evaluates vegetation responses to an Imazapic treatment applied in 2020 to control a population of Taeniatherum caput-medusae, an IAG, that flourished following a severe wildfire in 2013. The site, located on a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing allotment east of Klamath Falls, Oregon, has been monitored annually using the Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) protocol since the Summer of 2022. Over this period, very little T. caput-medusae has been detected while bare ground has …

Igc Oral Presentation Summary: Xxv Igc Congress, S. Ray Smith, Echo Elizabeth Gotsick, J. R. Weinert-Nelson, Alayna Jacobs, Christopher D. Teutsch, Will Fleming, D. R. Woodfield, James L. Klotz, Jeff Lehmkuhler, Greg S. Halich, Brittany Davis, Brittany Hendrix, Krista Lea

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

This paper will give an overview of the XXV International Grassland Congress thematic, keynote, and plenary sessions. The theme of the XXV IGC Congress meeting was “Grasslands for Soil, Animal, and Human Health.” We had many people attending, presenting, and participating in all these sessions. Within a month after the conclusion of the Congress, the proceeding’s papers presented at the meeting will be available on the IGC app. By the end of 2023 all papers will be available for download through any search engine at internationalgrasslands.org.

Quantification Of Changes With Combined Shape Mode Analysis And Swimming Simulations, Kelli E. Gutierrez, Becca Thomases, Paulo E. Arratia, Robert D. Guy

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

Many different microswimmers propel themselves using flagella that beat periodically. The shape of the flagellar beat and swimming speed have been observed to change with fluid rheology. We quantify changes in the flagellar waveforms of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in response to changes in fluid viscosity using (i) shape mode analysis and (ii) a full swimmer simulation to analyse how shape changes affect the swimming speed and to explore the dimensionality of the shape space. By decomposing the gait into the time‑independent mean shape and the time‑varying stroke, we find that the flagellar mean shape substantially changes in response to viscosity, while …

Circadian Variation In Mgmt Promoter Methylation And Expression Predicts Sensitivity To Temozolomide In Glioblastoma, Maria F. Gonzalez-Aponte, Yitong Huang, William A. Leidig, Tatiana Simon, Omar H. Butt, Marc D. Ruben, Albert H. Kim, Joshua B. Rubin, Erik D. Herzog, Olivia J. Walch

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

Purpose Recent studies show that glioblastoma (GBM) is more sensitive to temozolomide (TMZ) in the morning. In cells, inhibiting O6-Methylguanine-DNA-Methyltransferase (MGMT) abolished time-dependent TMZ efficacy, suggesting that circadian regulation of this DNA repair enzyme underlies daily TMZ sensitivity. Here, we tested the hypotheses that MGMT promoter methylation and protein abundance vary with time-of-day in GBM, resulting in daily rhythms in TMZ efficacy.

Methods We assessed daily rhythms in MGMT promoter methylation in GBM in vitro and retrospectively analyzed MGMT methylation status in human GBM biopsies collected at different times of day. Next, we measured MGMT and BMAL1 protein …

Exploratory Data Analysis (Eda) And Predictive Machine Learning (Ml) For Buildings’ Energy Fault Detection, Akshith Nukala

Theses and Dissertations

Building energy load fault detection is a critical challenge in energy usage analysis. It helps uncover energy wastage, machinery/appliance degradation or inefficiency, and failures or faults in buildings’ HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems. Early identification of machinery failure and energy wastages due to operational maintenance negligence in large sites such as campus buildings is indispensable for achieving energy efficiency. This is crucial for saving patrol and minimizing the response time to restore the building appliances or systems to their optimal state.

Advancements in state-of-the-art AI/ML data-driven algorithms and techniques enabled us to build accurate, efficient and scalable fault …

An Analysis Of Coal Ash Pollution In The State Of Georgia, Mick W. Etchison

Theses and Dissertations

This social science paper will explore the factors contributing to the prevalence of coal ash in specific regions of Georgia and its impact on local ecosystems and human health. It provides an analysis of the current environmental and political issues surrounding the containment and spread of coal ash throughout the State. Coal ash is primarily found in the central, southwestern, and northeastern regions where coal-fired power plants and coal ash storage sites are located. The paper will then discuss the political, economic, and legal reasons behind the lack of effective regulation and mitigation of coal ash spread. Coal ash illustrates …

Spatiotemporal Economic Impact Analysis Of The Taal Volcano Eruption Using Electricity Consumption And Nighttime Light Data, Ma Flordeliza P. Del Castillo, Toshio Fujimi, Hirokazu Tatano

SOSE Affiliate: Manila Observatory

Analyzing the spatiotemporal dimension of the economic impacts of disasters is critical for providing timely and proportionate support. However, traditional economic impact measures often lack spatiotemporal details. Hence, we estimated the daily electricity consumption (EC) loss using high-frequency EC data and analyzed temporal dimensions of the immediate impacts of Taal Volcano’s eruption on January 12, 2020. Subsequently, we computed the nighttime light (NTL) change using high-resolution NTL data to analyze the spatial distribution of these impacts. The temporal analysis revealed two EC loss peaks. The first peak coincided with the power outage and decreased energy demand, followed by a brief …

The Anatomy Of A Reconstruction: From Fourier Space To Image Recovery In Computed Tomography, Charlotte P. Maurer

Honors Theses

This thesis develops the mathematical foundations of computed tomography (CT) reconstruction through the lens of harmonic analysis. Beginning with the Schwartz class, we introduce the Fourier transform and its role in expressing the Radon transform and its inversion via a fractional Laplacian. After constructing the Radon transform in general dimension R^d, we specialize to the cases d = 2 and d = 3, demonstrating explicit inversion formulas and the associated instability in lower dimensions. For its computational advantages, we study filtered back-projection using classical low-pass filters (Ram-Lak, Shepp–Logan, Cosine, Gaussian) and formulate a discrete reconstruction algorithm grounded in …