College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Chemistry

11771

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Chemistry

As an inorganic chemist, I generally work with the heavier elements, in particular the transition metal atoms such as iron or copper. These materials can be very interesting magnetically as a result of their electronic structure, which often leaves electrons unpaired. I am particularly interested in the study of what are called “single-molecule magnets (SMMs).” These are materials whose magnetic behavior depends entirely on the properties of one molecule, rather than the “traditional” magnet, the magnetic behavior of which depends on long-range ordering between atoms in an extended chain. SMMs are currently of interest for their potential applications in new computing and information storage technologies, and I am therefore attempting to broaden our understanding of the subject while at the same time making available new and interesting materials as building blocks for the aforementioned applications. My project centers on taking two or more individual single-molecule magnets and connecting them with enough strength such that they can interact with one another, but not strongly. This proximity of one SMM to another can cause the phenomenon known as exchange biasing, wherein one SMM senses and responds to the small magnetic field produced by a neighboring SMM. I have made several new molecules that display this property while maintaining the important properties of the starting materials. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 17.7)

11767

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Anthropology

"How does one use dance participation as a tool for anthropological research? Is “immersion” in a dance space an effective method for collecting ethnographic data? What is the importance of “self-reflexivity” and “positionality” in how we analyze our data? In this presentation, I will discuss my methodological and analytical approaches to field research on the bèlè cultural movement in Martinique. My dissertation addresses questions around the political, economic, emotional, spiritual, and educational functions of bèlè dance practice in contemporary Martinique, and how bèlè has become an important source of “cultural citizenship” (Rosaldo 1994) for its practitioners.

By immersing myself as a student of bèlè, I was able to overcome a number of difficulties associated with ethnographic research in a foreign country. My dancing enabled me to: 1) establish a good rapport with potential research participants; 2) enhance my understanding of the Kréyòl language, which comprises the bèlè music and dance vocabulary and is primarily spoken in bèlè settings; 3) discover and interpret a range of local attitudes, manners, and expressions communicated through bèlè; and 4) access a complex system of embodied knowledge and values that hold great importance for an increasing number of Martinicans. Employing the notions of “positionality” and “self-reflexivity,” this presentation considers the different ways in which my identity as a dancer and a Black American woman influenced the research process, both methodologically and analytically. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 22.7)"

11765

Isoform selective inhibition of tumor-associated carbonic anhydrase IX using carbohydrate-based sulfamates for the treatment of several cancers.

Carbonic Anhydrase IX (CA IX) is an enzyme that is found to be present in many aggressive and metastatic tumors and not in normal human tissues. It has previously been used as a prognostic marker for breast, lung, prostate, kidney, and colorectal cancer patients. Recently CA IX activity has shown to be important for promoting the survival of tumors and therefore has been established as a drug target. However designing drugs to target CA IX has been challenging since it highly resembles other carbonic anhydrases that are necessary for normal tissue function. Therefore a drug that targets CA IX must only block CA IX activity and not that of other CAs. This work focuses on utilizing structure-based drug design to design novel and selective CA IX drugs that have been derived from natural products. Here we will present recently published data along with newly acquired data that shows how a series of natural product based drug-candidates binds to CA IX and block its activity. This information will further be used to design more potent and selective drugs that block CA IX activity and further increase our ability to treat highly malignant cancers. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 13.8)

11752

Analogies and metaphors in Galen’s work on De tremore, palpitatione, convulsione et rigore

This paper is an outcome of my dissertation project. My research has grown out of an interest in the study of the function and diseases of the nervous system in the history of medicine. I focus especially on Galen’s doctrines and observations of abnormal movements the skeletal muscle (as paralysis, tremors, palpitations). Galen was a Greek physician, writer, and a philosopher who exercised a dominant influence on medical theory and practice in Europe from Middle-Ages until the mid-17th century. His authority in the Byzantine world and in the Muslim Middle East was similarly long-lived. Galen was a prolific writer: about 300 titles of works are known, of which 150 survive wholly or in part. My initial investigation into the history of the description of these discordant motions led me to discover Galen’s De tremore, rigore, palpitatione, et convulsione liber (“On Tremor, Rigor, Palpitation, and Spasm”). This treatise is one of the most influential texts about these movements, which are involuntary and beset the human body and limbs. The objectives of this dissertation are to reconstruct, to illuminate and to make accessible to scholars this treatise that has been often neglected in the bibliography of the Galenic bibliography. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 15.1)

11750

Finding a Link between Brownfield Revitalization and Equitable Development

"Brownfields are property that has perceived or real contamination; development is hindered and surrounding neighborhoods experience economic and social difficulties. The circumstance of surrounding neighborhoods is represented by degraded environmental settings, low economic viability and the lack of social capital. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides basic planning strategies, funding programs and technical supports to revitalize brownfields by solving such environmentally and socioeconomically disproportionate conditions. However, there is a gap among the agency, regional and local stakeholders, involved in brownfield reuse, in terms of overall understandings of brownfield revitalization – goals, impacts and processes.

In fact, most brownfield remediation and redevelopment processes are led by federal or state government agencies; thus, it is important to connect the agencies to local communities which are directly affected by such governmental action. This study identifies this gap from existing brownfield literature, and contributes to the decrease of this gap by finding out the common characteristics of communities near brownfields and suggesting guidance for best partnership development in brownfield revitalization process. To conduct the research, statistical and archival research methods are used. Statistical method is logistic regression modeling that compares two different dependent variables – neighborhoods near brownfields and those far from brownfields – with independent variables containing demographical information – race, ethnicity, income and homeownership – of the two different dependent variables. Through this comparison, the study finds out differences between these two groups, and analyzes general characteristics of brownfield neighborhoods. Second, there are best brownfield redevelopment practices identified by EPA in terms of their remarkable partnership development and its positive impact on the result of brownfield redevelopment. The research analyzes these best practices by examining EPA reports with comparative research framework. This part of the research will identify common partnership development strategies used in best brownfield redevelopment practices. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 18.9)"

11745

College of Journalism and Communications - Advertising

"My proposal was selected to receive the award for the Dissertation Proposal Competition. The committee will announce the award for my project at the AAA Conference.

My dissertation will inquire about the effect of health promotional message strategies by constructing a theoretical design. The purpose of this study is to understand the health-related decision process by examining the factors that influence the impact of framed messages. This study focuses on how the framed message strategies, severity, temporal outcome and response efficacy affect both health behavior intentions and attitudes toward heath campaigns, with the aim of shedding light on health-related decisions. This study will employ an experimental design with a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial experimental design.

Since other studies show inconsistent results about framed message strategies, this study will contribute to understanding the message strategies and moderating variables for health decision-making. The study will then suggest that health behavior change motivated by health communication, conveyed by framed messages, is a result of social-cognitive processes. Therefore, the study will present the health decision framework including other possible variables that affect health message strategies.

This study will test a series of hypotheses positing that the moderating factors will regulate the effect of message framing. In addition, the experimental method will contribute to identifying the factors that can moderate and mediate the framing effect regarding health-related decisions. The current study applies theoretical background from the prospect theory and PMT (Webster & Sell, 2007) as well as the empirical evidence from several empirical studies. In addition, the laboratory experiment should yield similar phenomenon and generalize when the experiment was conducted within an environment related to the natural settings (Babbie, 2010). Thus, in health communication interventions, the findings of this study may guide and facilitate the application of effective message strategies.

(Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 16.2)"

11740

Plasmon-Enhanced Cu2O Photocathodes for Solar Water Splitting

"Sunlight represents a promising source of energy capable of sustainably satisfying escalating global energy demands in the face of ever-dwindling fossil fuel reserves. However, the capture of this energy presents unique challenges that must be overcome before this nearly unlimited energy resource can become a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Due to the diffuse nature of sunlight, the design of devices capable of efficiently capturing sunlight is very complicated and requires special materials, increasing the cost of a solar device. Furthermore, the diurnal variation in sunlight (night/day) requires a means of storing this energy in a medium (such as a battery, or chemical fuel) so that the energy can be used when needed. The production of a chemical fuel from sunlight, such as H2 gas, is akin to the process of natural photosynthesis in plants, whereby sunlight is used to create sugars (chemical fuels) that the plant can use at a later time.

This work focuses on improving the capture and conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels in semiconductor-based devices. By incorporating gold (Au) nanoparticles (~20 nm in diameter) into cuprous oxide-based (Cu2O) solar devices, we were able to increase the light-harvesting capability of the Cu2O material by 3 times. Our studies demonstrate that this enhancement is due to the unique optical properties of the Au nanoparticles. Such a substantial increase in light absorption indicates that the introduction of only a small amount (~1 wt%) of metal nanoparticles into semiconductor-based devices may dramatically improve the efficiency of these materials for solar fuel production. Moreover, our investigations have revealed general design principles that have implications for a variety of solar materials beyond those studied here, contributing to the broader field of solar device design.

11717

Identification and Characterization of Tocotrienols in Muscadine Grape Seed Oil and their Inhibitory Effects on Adipogenesis and Inflammation

Tocotrienols are unsaturated forms of vitamin E having many health benefits. Previously, tocotrienols were thought to be only found in a limited variety of vegetable oils. In this study, we found that muscadine grape seed oils (MGSOs), which are byproducts for the winery industry, contain high levels of tocotrienols. Most of the fatty acids in MGSOs are unsaturated. To test if MGSOs can reduce adipogenesis and obesity-induced inflammation, MGSOs and other edible oils were used to treat differentiating human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) for 10 days. The oil red O staining results revealed that the accumulation of triglyceride in MGSOs-treated hASCs was lower than that of cells treated with other edible oils. Next, the tocotrienols rich fraction (TRF) from MGSOs was prepared by solid phase extraction and used to treat hASCs. The MGSOs-derived TRF significantly reduced the mRNA and protein expression of genes that are crucial to adipogenesis. Furthermore, TRF from MGSOs markedly reduced LPS-induced inflammation in mature adipocytes at the mRNA and cytokine levels. Taken together, our results demonstrated that MGSOs are a good source for tocotrienols and can be used to reduce adipogenesis and obesity-induced inflammation. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 13.8)

11675

Anatomical Characterization of Phrenic Afferent Projections following Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

Difficulty in breathing is a major health concern for persons with cervical spinal cord injury. This breathing difficulty arises due to the paralysis of diaphragm muscle, the primary muscle for inspiration. In most cases individuals with diaphragm muscle weakness develop a lifelong dependency on mechanical ventilator for their breathing needs. Prolonged use of mechanical ventilation has immense negative health and economic consequences for the individual and their family. Using a novel therapeutic approach known as diaphragm pacing, investigator has shown that independent breathing can be restored in individuals with spinal cord injury. Diaphragm pacing is a technique through which implanted electrodes on the diaphragm muscle can be used to stimulate breathing. However, clinical studies on diaphragm pacing were not able to explain the mechanistic basis of the observed recovery in breathing. In this preclinical study we aimed to understand the neuronal substrate that could form the basis of breathing recovery observed with diaphragm pacing. We postulated that the sensory fibers from the phrenic nerve, that controls the diaphragm muscle, is playing a critical role in restoring breathing control after spinal cord injury. The method for this study involved injecting various anatomical dyes with specific neuronal transport properties to the rat’s phrenic nerve. Using immuno-histochemical reactions and subsequent florescent microscopic imaging we were able to map the incoming sensory projections from the phrenic nerve into the spinal cord and its connecting inter-neuronal network. The results show substantial remodeling in the phrenic sensory projections within the spinal cord. In the upcoming Experimental Biology Meeting in Boston I plan to present the important findings from this study to the scientific community. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 15.7)

11670

Groundwater Development in Semi-Arid South India: Trends and Status

Growing number of studies have indicated declining groundwater levels in the semi-arid southern region of India, however, the statistical significance of the change in the level has not been analyzed. This study attempts to determine whether the semi-arid southern India is experiencing significant decline by analyzing the long term (1990-2012) groundwater levels data for three districts (administrative division in a state) with diverse land uses. Nonparametric trend tests showed that 21-36% of the wells had a statistically significant declining trend in the mean annual groundwater levels. Trend tests for rainfall and rainfall adjusted groundwater levels showed that rainfall variability could not fully explain the declining trends in groundwater levels. Increase in numbers of irrigation wells as well as the irrigated area, were the main factors causing the decline in groundwater levels. The number of closed drilled wells increased from 61,236 in 1994 to 297,601 in 2007, an increase of almost 400%. The growth in number of drilled wells has caused abandonment of many traditional open (dug) wells and reduced the productivity (area irrigated per well) of drilled wells. Continued increase in groundwater-based irrigated areas is likely to increase the groundwater level declines and well drying occurrences in the future. Supply and demand management of groundwater along with a transition to resource efficient techniques such as drip irrigation could reverse this decline and increase the water availability in the region. Low storage capacity of these shallow weathered fractured aquifers would continue to play an increasingly important role in planning, design and management of groundwater resources of the region. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 16.1)

11662

Localization of gut microbiota along longitudinal and radial axes in the healthy neonatal piglet

"Bacteria (bugs) live within the gut and are important for human health. Stool is the sample of choice when it comes to studying bugs, because stool is easily collected. Stool samples were used in major studies that have linked these bugs to human health. These studies suggest that bugs in the stool are representative of the bugs living at different parts of the gut. However, we are learning that the stool may not be as representative of the gut as previously thought.

We studied bugs living at different parts of the gut to see how they differed from the bugs that would be found in stool. We took thirteen different samples of gut contents from baby piglets. These samples came from the top of the gut all the way to the bottom of the gut (close to where stool is formed). We identified as many bugs as possible.

We found more bugs in samples collected from the higher parts of the gut, compared with samples collected from the lower parts of the gut. In the same set of experiments, we collected gut tissue samples at the same locations as the contents. These samples were also different from ‘top to bottom,’ like the gut contents samples. Interestingly, at almost every location, the gut tissue was more diverse than the corresponding contents sample.

These studies suggest that studying stool is not sufficient to learn about bugs living at different parts of the gut, and that bugs at different parts of the gut may play important unstudied roles in health. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.4)"

11640

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - English

This paper looks at the relationship between artistic style and reader reception in Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby. Cruse’s semi-autobiographical graphic narrative centralizes a man’s experience in the 1960’s American south as he grapples with severe racial tension and his struggle to come out as gay. Cruse uses a unique cross-hatching pattern in his illustrations, creating the illusion of velvet on the page. In this way, the reader engages with the textual and visual elements in a particularly pseudo-synesthetic way. Therefore, I use research from comics, visual rhetoric, and neuropsychological scholarship to examine the way this element of synesthesia effects the representation of (racially and sexually) marginalized identities. Further, many comics scholars have optimistically commented on the collaborative relationship between author and reader of comics texts, claiming that the reader has to do just as much authorial “work” to form juxtaposed images into narrative. The “texture” that Cruse creates in his art, I argue, greatly influences this collaborative process, straining the optimism of most scholars. Overall, I use my analysis of synesthesia and comics to show how the graphic medium’s ability to mix sensory modalities can provide it with unique potential for representing queer and racial identities. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 17.6)

11619

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences - Entomology and Nematology

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are invasive mosquitoes that evolved in separate geographic areas for thousands of years. Aedes aegypti is native to Africa and was widely dispersed in the XV through XVIII centuries. Aedes albopictus evolved in Asia and has spread to many other regions particularly during the last three decades. Invasions by Ae. albopictus have been associated with some declines of Ae. aegypti. Reproductive interference has been suggested as a possible mechanism for this decline, based on the detection of interspecific mating in nature between these two species and the discovery that injected accessory gland extracts from Ae. albopictus males induced mating refractoriness in virgin Ae. aegypti females. Through a series of experiments we showed that a high percentage of Ae. aegypti females are rendered refractory to further mating with conspecifics after exposure to Ae. albopictus males and we demonstrated that females may become unreceptive, even if Ae. albopictus sperm are not transferred to their spermathecae (Sperm storage organs of female insects). Preliminary evidence was based upon an experiment, in which it was obtained low production of viable eggs by Ae. aegypti females being caged to conspecifics after exposure to Ae. albopictus males. Using stable isotopes to detect semen transfer, we found that most Ae. aegypti females mated with 15N-labeled Ae. albopictus males, were not able to achieve further mating with 13C-labeled Ae. aegypti males, and laid viable eggs. In a subsequent cage experiment, Ae. aegypti females exposed to 15N-labeled Ae. albopictus males were positive for 15N, including many that didn’t store heterospecific sperm in the spermathecae. In a final experiment, we demonstrated that Ae. albopictus males may render Ae. aegypti females refractory to further mating with conspecifics even if sperm are not transferred to spermathecae. These results help explain the rapid effects of reproductive interference in nature. (Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 12.7)

11617

College of Veterinary Medicine - Veterinary Medical Sciences