Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have generated considerable excitement and considerable skepticism since their recent inception (e.g., Kim, 2014; Perna et al., 2014). By fall 2015, approximately 35 million people had participated in 4200 courses offered by over 550 institutions (Shah, 2015). In addition to MOOCs’ potential for expanding access...
The observed and calculated structural parameters of three systems
of phosphatidylcholine bilayers in fully-hydrated multilamellar
vesicles (MLVs) were determined using x-ray diffraction techniques.
The analysis used the x-ray reflections from the low-, intermediateand
wide-angle regions of the diffraction patterns in the subgel, gel,
rippled and fluid phases to determine the...
Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters are ubiquitous membrane proteins that play a central role in the ion homeostasis of cells. In this study, we examined the possible role of Na⁺/H⁺ antiport in Yersinia pestis virulence and found that Y. pestis strains lacking the major Na⁺/H⁺ antiporters, NhaA and NhaB, are completely attenuated in...
The focus of this thesis is to design, characterize, and apply novel computational methods and molecular systems to interrogate heterogeneous human gut microbiome-related phenomena. In Chapter 2, I design, implement, and characterize a method for embedding co-occurrence patterns derived from massive 16s amplicon datasets. I use this method to 1....
The Inmaculada Mine is located in the Miocene belt of epithermal deposits that extends from southern Peru to northern Chile and Bolivia. This belt is known for its silver-rich epithermal veins that have been worked since colonial times. The Inmaculada Mine belongs to a mining district that includes, from north...
Mineral dust particles have been shown to act as cloud condensation nuclei, and they are known to interact
with developing tropical storms over the Atlantic downwind of the Sahara. Once present within liquid
droplets, they have the potential to act as freezing ice nuclei and further affect the microphysics, dynamics,...
Latino students are among the fastest growing demographic groups in the nation, particularly in California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Within California in 2014, over 70,000 students are involved in Agricultural Education programs, and Latino students now account for over 50% of the total enrollment - and the percentage of...
Fusion reactions with radioactive neutron-rich projectiles have been the subject of much recent theoretical and experimental interest. Predictions of enhancement of the cross section due to the use of a neutron-rich projectile may have implications for synthesis of heavy nuclei. In this work, the fusion-fission excitation functions were measured for...
Detection and treatment of bacterial kidney disease (BKD)
was investigated. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the
quantitative, fluorescent antibody technique (QFAT) that is used
to detect, identify, and quantify both typical and 'bar form'
Renibacterium salmoninarum cells. Smears of kidney tissue from
naturally and artificially infected salmonids, both with and...