Modern wireless System-on-Chips (SoCs), such as mobile handsets, sensor networks, and mm-wave systems, integrate an entire RF system on a single CMOS chip. Such highly complex systems require significant on-chip digital signal processing to help improve the performance of highly sensitive analog/RF components. The IC
market being competitive, the ability...
The study was carried out in a village named MGR Thittu in the vicinity of the Pichavaram mangroves in the state Tamil Nadu in India. The objectives of the study were to review the current status of mangroves in Tamil Nadu, study the fisherfolk’s perceived role of mangroves on their...
A scheme is presented for retrieving aerosol properties for ocean regions from reflected sunlight at both the visible and near infrared wavelengths measured by the NOAA advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR). For the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), aerosols were presumed to be a mixture of a continental haze that...
In previous papers by Awrejcewicz in 1986 and Narayanan and Jayaraman in 1991, it was claimed that the nonlinear oscillator with dry friction exhibited chaos for several forcing frequencies. The chaos determination was achieved using the characteristic exponent of Lyapunov which requires the right-hand side of the differential equation to...
This dissertation delves into understanding, characterizing, and addressing dataset shift in deep learning, a pervasive issue for deployed machine learning systems. Integral aspects of the problem are examined: We start with the use of counterfactual explanations in order to characterize the behavior of deep reinforcement learning agents in visual input...
Every year, from December to April, anthropogenic haze spreads over most of the North Indian Ocean, and South and Southeast Asia. The Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) documented this Indo-Asian haze at scales ranging from individual particles to its contribution to the regional climate forcing. This study integrates the multiplatform observations...
The Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) had as a primary objective
determining the radiative forcing due to anthropogenic aerosols over
climatologically significant space and time scales: the Indian Ocean during the
winter monsoon, January-March. During the winter monsoon, polluted, low-level
air from the Asian subcontinent blows over the Arabian Sea and...
A new approach to the discovery of high absorbing semiconductors for solar cells was taken by working under a set of design principles and taking a systemic methodology. Three transition metal chalcogenides at varying states of development were evaluated within this framework. Iron pyrite (FeS₂) is well known to demonstrate...
The atmospheric radiative transfer model MOCARAT was developed and is presented in this thesis. MOCARAT employs a Monte Carlo Technique for the accurate modeling of band radiances and reflectances in an atmospheric system with a ruffled ocean surface as a lower boundary. The atmospheric radiative transfer is modeled with consideration...
The effect of ultra-high pressure on the thermal emf of a
chromelialumel thermocouple is investigated using an indirect
method which does not require a direct knowledge of the temperature
of the pressurized junction. The unknown temperature is written
parametrically as a function of a directly measured quantity, the
electrical power...
Escherichia coli 16S-like ribosomal RNAs from
eubacterial, archaebacterial and eukaryotic organisms have
several universally conserved sequence zones which are
proposed to be single-stranded. A clear function for all
of these regions has not yet been defined. To evaluate the
roles of these sequence zones in protein synthesis,
knowledge of their...
Dimensional stability of wood-based composites with changing moisture content remains an important challenge in the industry for many applications. Wood modification technologies have shown significant improvement in dimensional stability by altering the chemistry of the wood substrate, or by filling the available space in the wood microstructure that otherwise would...
Goats were the first livestock species to be domesticated by humans and continue to function as a key source of protein and economic value for many communities. In the sixteenth century, Spanish colonists brought goats to the Americas. Unlike other nations, the United States did not maintain a significant market...
Purpose: Model-based dose calculation algorithms (MBDCAs) have become clinically available within the past several years in commercially available brachytherapy planning systems. This work investigates the application of a 510(k) approved MBDCA Acuros™ BV and establishes a reproducible method of validation. The research is broken into three primary research goals. The...
The in vitro effects of cortisol in regulating salmonid B cell functions were
investigated. B cells at three distinct stages of differentiation were examined for
cortisol sensitivity. B lymphocyte responses were examined 1) during the early stage
of the precursor, 2) during the intermediate stage of differentiation associated with
clonal...
Electric power needs will only grow over the next decades as more humans ascend from poverty into the middle class. Currently, the majority of electric power is generated by burning fossil fuels. To help mitigate the undesirable effects of burning fossil fuels research is being done to increase the efficiency...
In this dissertation, the spectroscopic properties and thermodynamic stability of a class of materials known as metal oxo and hydroxo clusters are studied. In aqueous solutions, many metals can aggregate into discrete clusters of metals bridged by oxo or hydroxo ligands. These clusters are of particular interest to us for...
Simulation is a powerful analytical tool for designing or experimenting with complex systems. Simulation has been defined as the process of designing a model of a real system and conducting experiments with this model either to understand the system’s behavior or to evaluate various strategies for operating it (Pegden et...
The effective radius of water cloud droplets is retrieved using remotely sensed passive microwave and visible data collected by aircraft during the Indian Ocean Experiment. The purpose of this study is to assess the aerosols’ effect on cloud microphysical and radiative properties. To study this effect, we investigate the relationships...
Empirical estimates of the aerosol indirect radiative forcing often rely on threshold cloud retrievals applied to multispectral satellite imagery data. In such retrievals, pixels having radiances that surpass prescribed thresholds are assumed to be overcast even if they are only partially cloud covered. This assumption leads to cloud visible optical...
The immune system is a complex network of cellular processes working in harmony to guard us against pathogenic attack. Of utmost importance is the ability of the immune system to discriminate between “self” and “non-self” and diseased versus healthy. Recognition of antigens complexed to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules is...
Autoinduction (AI), the response to self-produced chemical signals,
is widespread in the bacterial world. This process controls
vastly different target functions, such as luminescence, nutrient
acquisition, and biofilm formation, in different ways and integrates
additional environmental and physiological cues. This diversity
raises questions about unifying principles that underlie all
AI...
The potential for nanomedicine to reduce toxicity and improve therapeutic response to radiation is vast. Clinically, this potential has thus far only begun to be realized with the recent success of the radioenhancing nanoparticle, NBTXR3 by Nanobiotix. Radioenhancing nanoparticles, however, represent only a small class of nanomaterials that may be...
Retrievals of cloud properties from satellite imagery often invoke the assumption that the fields of view are overcast when cloud-contaminated, even though a significant fraction are only partially cloud-covered. The overcast assumption leads to biases in the retrieved cloud properties: cloud amounts and droplet effective radii are typically overestimated, while...
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 4-km data collected over the northeastern Atlantic off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula for May to August 1995 were used to investigate the feasibility of empirically deriving estimates of the aerosol indirect radiative forcing. A retrieval scheme was used to derive cloud visible...
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 4-km data were collected over the northeast Atlantic for May–August 1995–1999. Aerosol optical depth at 0.55 μm was retrieved in pixels identified as being cloud-free ocean. In pixels identified as containing clouds from single-layered, low-level cloud systems over oceans, the following cloud properties were...
A time history of the calibration coefficients for channels 1 and 2 of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA-12 and NOAA-15 spacecraft is presented. The history is based on reflectances observed for the interior zones of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets previously obtained with the...
Reproductive and endocrine disruption is commonly reported in aquatic species exposed to complex contaminant mixtures. We previously reported that Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) from the chronically contaminated Newark Bay, NJ, exhibit multiple endocrine disrupting effects, including inhibition of vitellogenesis (yolk protein synthesis) in females and false negative vitellogenin biomarker responses...
Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) uses a suite of instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites combined with analyzed weather data and information on surface conditions to estimate surface radiative fluxes. CERES estimates for the Terra satellite were compared with measurements of the surface radiative fluxes collected...
Visible and near infrared reflectances from NOAA-14 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) daytime passes are used to derive optical depths at 0.55 μm, an index of aerosol type, continental or marine, and the direct effect of the aerosol on the top of the atmosphere and surface solar radiative fluxes...
Observed declines in native pollinator species worldwide has generated concern and focused research into the disturbances, past and present, which may have contributed to these losses. In grasslands, for example, habitat degradation and fragmentation from historical and current crop production and livestock grazing has left only a few remnants of...
Complex organic transformations, such as the addition of pyrrole to ketene using planar chiral organocatalyst (*PPY), the four-component anhydride- Manniach reactions, and the site-selective desymmetrization of meso-1,2-diol, are remarkable synthetic reactions that provide high yield and high selectivity. However, the exact mechanism and origins of stereocontrol for theses synthetic organic...
Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are dominant peroxide-reducing enzymes with two important roles: they protect all organisms from oxidative damage induced by peroxides, and in eukaryotes, they participate in hydrogen peroxide signaling pathways. This dissertation presents studies aimed at the biophysical characterization of select Prxs and a Prx reductase to elucidate their structure-function...
Ligand activation of the aryl hydrocarbon (AHR) has profound effects upon the immunological status of the gastrointestinal tract, establishing and maintaining signaling networks, which facilitate host-microbe homeostasis at the mucosal interface. However, the identity of the ligand(s) responsible for such AHR-mediated activation within the gut remains to be firmly established....
Full Text:
. Lee, J., Jayaraman, A. & Wood, T. K. Indole is an inter-species biofilm signal mediated by SdiA. BMC
Observations of sunlight reflected from regions of sun glint are used to check the relative calibration of spectral radiances obtained with imaging radiometers. Reflectances at different wavelengths for sun-glint regions are linearly related. Provided that the atmosphere is reasonably transparent at the wavelengths, the aerosol burden is reasonably light, 0.64-μm...
Research suggests that entrepreneurs tend to seek to maximize utility when considering whether to pursue a new venture opportunity. However, when choosing whether to persist with their current venture or not, utility maximization may not be of primary importance. Using a conjoint experiment, we examine the difference between policies in...
Imaging Ca²⁺ dynamics in living systems holds great
potential to advance neuroscience and cellular biology. G-GECO1.1
is an intensiometric fluorescent protein Ca²⁺-biosensor with a Thr-Tyr-Gly chromophore. The protonated chromophore emits green
upon photoexcitation via excited-state proton transfer (ESPT). Upon
Ca²⁺ binding, a significant population of the chromophores becomes
deprotonated. It...
The advent of scientific shrimp farming in India during 1990-91 was a turning point of shrimp production
in the country. Though scientific shrimp farming system renders higher level of production than the
existing traditional farming system, it is subject to certain criticisms especially for generating negative
environmental externalities. The conversion...
The gut microbiome has been previously implemented in a number of diseases. Of note is its substantial role in metabolic syndrome, which encapsulates a group of conditions that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke. Understanding the causal relationships between the gut microbiome and host processes...
A water-soluble complex containing ergosterol together with
a component of yeast has been isolated. The complex can be isolated
from commercial yeast extract to which ergosterol has been
added or directly from whole yeast cells. The complexing agent
from yeast extract is also capable of solubilizing cholesterol and
a long...
Structure-specific synthesis processes are of key importance to the growth of polymorphic functional compounds such as TiO₂, where material properties strongly depend on structure as well as chemistry. The robust growth of the brookite polymorph of TiO₂, a promising photocatalyst, has been difficult in both powder and thin-film forms due...
The purposes of this study were to assess mental
health counselors' knowledge of AIDS and to determine the
effect of various independent variables upon knowledge. The
variables used were gender, professional contact with PWAs,
personal contact with PWAs, age, sexual preference, AIDS
training, and personal acquaintance with a person who...
Sepsis, caused by bacterial release of endotoxin, is a serious blood infection that causes uncontrolled systemic immune response. In North America alone, sepsis kills between 220,000 and 380,000 people each year, more than prostate cancer, breast cancer, and HIV/AIDS combined. Sepsis treatment is complicated and often requires prolonged hospital stays,...
The purpose of this research was to examine the feasibility of carbon dioxide (CO2) laser perforation and its potential utilization as a novel skin pretreatment for the sugar infusion process of IQF (individually quick frozen) blueberries. In the first study, IQF blueberries were treated with varying degrees of laser perforation...
Fluorescent proteins (FPs) are luminescent biomolecules that emit characteristic hues upon irradiation. A group of calmodulin (CaM)-green FP (GFP) chimeras have been previously engineered to enable the optical detection of calcium ions (Ca²⁺). We investigate one of these genetically encoded Ca²⁺ biosensors for optical imaging (GECOs), GEM-GECO1, which fluoresces green...
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a ligand activated transcription factor that is a member of the basic helix-loop-helix PER-ARNT-SIM (bHLH/PAS) protein family of cellular sensors. The AHR is conserved across multiple animal phyla and is required for proper vertebrate development. A structurally diverse group of chemicals, including polycyclic aromatic...
Melanocytes are dendritic, pigment-producing cells located in the skin and are responsible for its protection against the deleterious effects of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR), which include DNA damage and elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS). They do so by synthesizing photoprotective melanin pigments and distributing them to adjacent skin cells (e.g.,...
Xanthan gum, a naturally produced polysaccharide, is biocompatible, and it is commonly used as a food additive. When combined with trivalent ions, such as chromium (III), a gel can form. Various concentrations of xanthan gum and chromium (III) nitrate were combined to evaluate the sol-gel transition of this system. Samples...
The effects of oligoribonucleotides of identical or similar sequences to a
ribosomal protein binding site, specifically S8, on prokaryotic 30S ribosomal assembly
were investigated in Escherichia coli. The oligoribonucleotides were expected to bind to
the target protein S8 and block its incorporation into the 30S subunit, resulting in a nonfunctional...
Described herein is the synthesis of an uncharged stereoregular oligonucleotide
analog consisting of cytosine bases linked at specific intervals to a polyamide backbone
derived from (L)-glutamic acid. Preparation of this analog entailed borane reduction of
(L)- pyroglutamic acid to give optically pure lactam alcohol 9. Tosylation and alkylation
with cytosine...
Aquaculture remains as a suitable avenue in India for augmenting fish production, which is easy, cost effective and sustainable at the same time. It provides livelihoods to rural people through generating income and employment and reduces poverty by developing and strengthening community based approaches. The expansion of farmed fishery development...
Aerobic organisms have evolved many sensory mechanisms that allow
response to oxidants in the environment. One area of interest is the relationship
between the activity of the tumor suppressor protein p53 and the redox state of
thioredoxin. Human p53 activity is severely compromised in budding yeast lacking
thioredoxin reductase. Evidence...
From June 2009 to July 2010, we conducted 27 continuous-flow surveys of surface water CO₂ partial pressure (pCO₂) along the longitudinal axis of the Neuse River Estuary (NRE), North Carolina ranging from the tidal freshwater region to the polyhaline border with the Pamlico Sound. Lateral transects were also conducted at...
The study examines economic efficiency of aquaculture production in Edo State. The data for the analysis were obtained from the fish farmers through the administration of structured questionnaire, using multistage sampling technique and leading to the selection of 100 respondents. Data were analyzed, using stochastic frontier production function as in...
This study investigates what leads managers to allocate constrained cognitive effort toward new versus familiar aspects of a business. Specifically, we explore advice giving by venture capital firms (VCs) to their portfolio companies, distinguishing between business topics on which a VC has advised other ventures in the past and topics...
In a process called quorum sensing (QS), the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses small diffusible signals to coordinate cooperative behaviors via secreted “public goods”. Under QS-dependent growth conditions, social cheaters arise with mutations in lasR, the gene for the primary QS signal receptor. These cheaters do not produce public goods....
Reporter gene transactivation by human p53 is inhibited in budding yeast lacking the TRR1 gene encoding thioredoxin reductase. Thioredoxin reductase specifically catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of thioredoxin. Thioredoxin provides a source of electrons for disulfide reduction in various cellular processes. Reduction of disulfides within the cell can be accomplished by...
Introduction: Swim-up has been considered a preferred method for separating non-motile sperm in an ejaculate. However, the long incubation time and equipment necessary for swim-up make this process clinically impractical. It was hypothesized that these problems could be avoided for canine applications with a shorter incubation time at room temperature...
Femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) is a powerful ultrafast technique which can track photoinduced excited state structural events on femtosecond (fs) to picosecond (ps) timescales. In addition to high temporal and spectral resolutions, FSRS provides a broad spectral window from ca. 100—2000 cm-1 for detection, enabling the direct mapping of...
There is little, if any, direct fossil evidence of the cardiovascular, respiratory, reproductive or digestive biology of dinosaurs. However, a variety of data can be used to draw reasonable inferences about the physiology of the carnivorous theropod dinosaurs (Archosauria: Theropoda). Extant archosaurs, birds and crocodilians, possess regionally differentiated, vascularized and...
In high volume automated discrete item batch production systems, the batches or lots are typically fixed quantity (i.e., size), with setups incurred between the different production lots. Processing times for the fixed-size lots are relatively constant when the workstation is operating however, random workstation disruptions cause variability in the lot...
Femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) is an ultrafast vibrational technique which allows rapid collection of Raman spectra with simultaneously high temporal and spectral resolution. With the recent development of FSRS methodology, three FSRS techniques (conventional, tunable, and anti-Stokes) have been implemented in our laboratory to dissect the excited state structural...
Maternally-derived transcripts and proteins support early bovine and ovine embryo development until the 8- to 16-cell stage, at which time embryonic transcripts become essential for continued development. One purported mechanism for the switch from maternal to zygotic control of development (maternal to zygotic genome activation; MZGA) is the appearance of...
Messenger RNA (mRNA) therapy has massive potential to treat various genetic disorders by providing effective proteins to the diseased cells and tissues. Its therapeutic applications include protein replacement, genome editing, and immunotherapy. For successful mRNA treatment, mRNA must be delivered to the cytosol of target cells. One of the leading...
The nonlinear dynamic analysis of cable and cable-large
body systems subject to both deterministic and non-deterministic
loading is presented in this study. Nonlinearities
occur due to large displacements, material nonlinearity,
lack of stiffness in compression, and the non-conservative
fluid loading.
A finite element model is used to model the cable...
This study examines the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on merger and
acquisitions (M&A). Using data from Kinder, Lyndeberg, and Domini (KLD) Research
Analytics and Thomson’s Securities Data Corporation’s (SDC) Platinum Database, we
empirically test if CSR scores effect a firm’s propensity to pursue M&A activity.
Specifically, I examine...
Natural resource decisions require consideration at many levels, ranging from how one invertebrate will be affected by a nearby road, to how an entire watershed will be transformed by a massive clearcut. Considerations reach farther than just the local ecological community-human communities, economies, and future impacts on the communities and...
Short-range wireless communications continually attract interest from both industry and academia, and it is changing our life in every aspect in the last decade. The design of wireless transceivers is the bottleneck for variety applications, due to RF modeling inaccuracy, stringent FCC regulations over the transmitted power spectrum, interference, multi-path...
Top-performing approaches to embodied AI tasks like point-goal navigation often rely on training agents via reinforcement learning over tens of millions (or even billions) of experiential steps – learning neural agents that map directly from visual observations to actions. In this work, we question whether these extreme training durations are...
With rising fuel costs and enhanced environmental concerns, the use of renewable energy has been steadily considered and widely expounded as a solution to the challenges of global energy security and climate change. The use of woody biomass, in particular, has received considerable attention for energy production due to the...
Multi-Gigahertz sampling rate Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC) with 5-8 bits resolution are used in many signal communication applications. Unfortunately, the performance of the high speed ADC is limited by the timing accuracy of the sampling clock. A small sampling uncertainty can cause a large error in the sampled voltage and result...
Digitally controlled switching DC-DC converters have recently emerged as an attractive alternative to conventional switching converters based on analog control techniques. This research focuses on eliminating the issues associated with the state of the art switching converters by proposing three novel control techniques: (1) a digitally controlled Buck-Boost converter uses...
The Latino K-12 student population in the United States continues to increase. Estimates are that by 2025, one in every three students in the country will be of Hispanic/Latino origin. The challenges to the educational system from such growth are unprecedented. At no other time in U.S. history has there...
The nonlinear dynamic analysis of cable and membrane structures
is presented in this study. Attention is given to the nonlinearities
arising from large displacements, from nonlinear stress-strain
relationships and from nonconservative loadings.
The finite element method is used to model the cables and
membranes. Curvilinear geometries of the elements are...
OBJECTIVE: In this study, we examined how effectively
people can monitor new stimuli on a peripheral display
while carrying out judgments on an adjacent central display.
BACKGROUND: Improved situation awareness is critical
for improved operator performance in aviation and many
other domains. Given the limited extent of foveal processing,
acquiring...
The enormous success of wireless technology has recently led to an explosive demand for, and hence a shortage of, bandwidth resources. This expected shortage problem is reported to be primarily due to the inefficient, static nature of current spectrum allocation methods. As an initial step towards solving this shortage problem,...
The analysis of oxidative stress-induced post-translational modifications remains challenging due to the chemical diversity of these modifications, the possibility of the presence of positional isomers and the low stoichiometry of the modified proteins present in a cell or tissue proteome. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a multifactorial disease in which...
BACKGROUND: On the basis of the 2014 guidelines for hypertension therapy in the United States,
many eligible adults remain untreated. We projected the cost-effectiveness of treating
hypertension in U.S. adults according to the 2014 guidelines.
METHODS: We used the Cardiovascular Disease Policy Model to simulate drug-treatment and
monitoring costs, costs...
Full Text:
MC, Thanataveerat A, et al. Cost-effectiveness of hypertension therapy accord-
ing to 2014 guidelines
High speed serial links are critical components for addressing the growing demand for I/O bandwidth in next-generation computing applications, such as many-core systems, backplane and optical data communications. Due to continued process scaling and circuit innovations, today's CMOS serial link transceivers can achieve tens of Gb/s per pin. However, most...
As the demand for real-time information in engineering and health care systems keeps increasing, the need for wireless sensor nodes is also continuously increasing. As a result, the cost and effort involved in installing and maintaining batteries to power the numerous sensor nodes is growing exponentially. Providing a cost effective...
Ultra-high-speed (>10GS/s), medium-resolution (5~6bit), low-power (<50mW) analog-to-digital converter can find it application in the areas of digital oscilloscopes and next-generation serial link receivers. There are several challenges to enable a successful design, however. First, the time-interleaved architecture is required in order to achieve over 10GS/s sampling rate, with the trade-off...
Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio has become an attractive alternative for wireless communications due to the robustness to multipath fading, low power transmission, mostly-digital implementation, and low cost. Furthermore, short-range, high data-rates applications are possible with UWB radios due to the wide spectral
allocations at 3.1 - 10.6 GHz.
This thesis presents...
Continues-Time (CT) Delta-Sigma (ΔΣ) Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) have one important constrain, namely the excess loop delay. Most previous excess lop delay compensation methods need to know the exact value of the excess loop delay in advance. However, the value of the excess loop delay is a uniformly distribution random variable....
Experiments on a novel, microscale hydrogen combustor heat exchanger (µCHX) are presented in this thesis. The µCHX has been designed to efficiently transfer thermal energy to a heat transfer fluid for use in desorption of hydrogen from a metal hydride storage system of a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle. The experimental...
Alcoholic off-flavor and accompanying volatile compounds produced by bananas (Cavendishii spp) held at 20°C and subjected to aerobic (air control treatment) or anaerobic conditions (nitrogen treatment) were compared by solid phase micro extraction (SPME), a newly developed method for volatile separation. In general, volatile production was suppressed under anaerobic conditions...
Pseudomonas syringae are plant pathogenic bacteria that cause disease by rapidly multiplying within the aboveground tissues of host plants. Growth of P. syringae within plant host tissues requires the disarmament of host immune defenses that limit microbial growth. To combat host defenses, P. syringae deploys a type III secretion system...
Miniaturized and portable microfluidic analytical platforms have been widely explored in the broad field of chemical analysis. The concept of microfluidics offer a number of important advantages, including low reagent consumption, low-cost detection, high sample throughput, and shorter analysis time. Semiconductor nanocrystals or quantum dots have been extensively utilized in...
Tolerance analysis is a major link between design and
manufacturing. An assembly or a part should be designed
based on its functions, manufacturing processes, desired
product quality, and manufacturing cost. Assembly tolerance
analysis performed at the design stage can reduce potential
manufacturing and assembly problems. Several commonly used
assembly tolerance...
Early embryo development is dependent on maternally derived RNA and protein synthesized during oogenesis. In the bovine embryo this dependence lasts until the 8-16 cell stage, at which time embryonic transcripts become essential for continued development. One proposed mechanism for this transition from maternal to zygotic control of development (maternal...
Innovation is critical for firm growth and survival. Thus, how much value firms create and capture from their innovative activities has been an interest of scholars. This dissertation explores three important questions on this topic to which extant literature has paid little attention. First, I examine how the external threat...
The cytolytic properties of the mosquitocidal 25 Kd protein deltaendotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) was studied using the human erythrocyte as a target cell. Both a fixedtime and a kinetic hemolytic bioassay were developed in order to screen a variety of treatments for their influence on the toxinerythrocyte...
In this thesis work, a design of 14-bit, 20MS/s segmented digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is presented. The segmented DAC uses switched-capacitor configuration to implement 8 (LSB) + 6 (MSB) segmented architecture to achieve high performance for minimum area. The implemented LSB DAC is based on quasi-passive pipelined DAC that has been...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most widely known and studied environmental contaminants, originating from a range of natural and anthropogenic sources. PAHs are known to occur in the environment as complex mixtures, containing both unsubstituted PAHs, as well as a range of PAH derivatives. Among the less-studied of...
We use femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) to illuminate the choreography of intermolecular excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) of photoacid pyranine (8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid, HPTS) in water. The multidimensional reaction coordinate responsible for photoacidity is revealed to involve sequential activation of characteristic skeletal motions during the ca. 1 ps preparation stage preceding...
Interbody fusion cages are increasingly used in the treatment of spinal disease and injury in order to stabilize movement and promote arthrodesis of the vertebral bodies, but the micro-mechanics of the interaction between the cage and the adjacent host bone is not fully understood. This information has bearing on post-surgical...