Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Legacy Of Mining In Southwest Missouri: Past And Present Conditions Of The Tri-State Mining District, Anastasia M C Mcclanahan

MSU Graduate Theses

The historic Tri-State Mining District (TSMD) of southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma has a history of lead and zinc mining that extended over a hundred years. During the district’s peak production period, the TSMD was one of the world’s largest producers of lead and zinc. The mining activities in the TSMD produced economic growth that supported the local communities and were essential to the victory of the Allied Forces during World War I and World War II. Beginning in the 1920s, the mining activities in the district slowly began to cease due to depletion of metal ores and …

The Assessment Of Co2 Exposures, Workload Demands, And Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk On Heart Rate For Select Craft Brewery Job Tasks, David L. Huizen

Dissertations

Americans have embraced craft beer, and the ensuing demand has resulted in an ever-increasing number of craft breweries opening over the past 20 years. Craft brewers are generally small employers and, as such, lack the resources necessary to address the safety and health of their employees adequately. Brewers face many safety and health hazards in their work environment. These hazards include exposures to carbon dioxide (CO₂), workload demand, and MSD risk. It is essential to evaluate these hazards in craft breweries as they handle carbon dioxide (CO₂) differently than large breweries by having the CO_{2 …}

Statistical Methods For Resolving Intratumor Heterogeneity With Single-Cell Dna Sequencing, Alexander Davis

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Tumor cells have heterogeneous genotypes, which drives progression and treatment resistance. Such genetic intratumor heterogeneity plays a role in the process of clonal evolution that underlies tumor progression and treatment resistance. Single-cell DNA sequencing is a promising experimental method for studying intratumor heterogeneity, but brings unique statistical challenges in interpreting the resulting data. Researchers lack methods to determine whether sufficiently many cells have been sampled from a tumor. In addition, there are no proven computational methods for determining the ploidy of a cell, a necessary step in the determination of copy number. In this work, software for calculating probabilities from …

Characterization Of Treatment Planning System Photon Beam Modeling Errors In Iroc Houston Phantom Irradiations, Mallory Glenn

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

In radiation therapy, proper commissioning of the treatment planning system’s (TPS) dose calculation algorithm is critical because any errors in this process impact all treatment plans prepared in the system. Previously, TPS errors have been identified as a major cause for poor phantom irradiation performance, which may also mean that patients are treated suboptimally. The purpose of this work was to investigate the TPS beam modeling developed by the radiotherapy community to understand where inconsistencies may arise, which variables are most susceptible to variations, and in what way changing these variables can alter dose calculations.

Using the Imaging and Radiation …

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Transmission Potential, Iran, 2020, Kamalich Muniz-Rodriguez, Isaac Fung, Shayesteh R. Ferdosi, Sylvia Ofori, Yiseul Lee, Amna Tariq, Gerardo Chowell

Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

To determine the transmission potential of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in Iran in 2020, we estimated the reproduction number as 4.4 (95% CI 3.9–4.9) by using a generalized growth model and 3.5 (95% CI 1.3–8.1) by using epidemic doubling time. The reproduction number decreased to 1.55 after social distancing interventions were implemented.

Combating Covid On College Campuses: The Impact Of Structural Changes On Viral Transmissions, Jared Knofczynski, Aria Killebrew Bruehl, Ben Warner, Ryne Shelton

altREU Projects

One of the most significant issues in the COVID-19 pandemic is the reopening of schools while minimizing the transmission of coronavirus. Opportunities for evaluating the effectiveness of policies that might be utilized at such institutions are limited, as the necessary empirical data has not been gathered yet. Agent-based modeling, where various entities within an environment are simulated as agents, offers an opportunity to examine the effectiveness of various policies in a way that drastically minimizes the health and economic risks involved. Agent-based modeling is common within biology, ecology and other fields; and has seen some use within the coronavirus literature. …

Directed Evolution Of Macrocyclic Peptides For Inhibition Of Autophagy, Joshua Gray

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

In recent decades it has become increasingly clear that induction of autophagy plays an important role in the development of treatment resistance and dormancy in many cancer types. Chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), two autophagy inhibitors in clinical trials, suffer from poor pharmacokinetics and high toxicity at therapeutic dosages. This has prompted intense interest in the development of targeted autophagy inhibitors to re-sensitize disease to treatment with minimal impact on normal tissue. We utilized Scanning Unnatural Protease Resistant (SUPR) mRNA display to develop macrocyclic peptides targeting the autophagy protein LC3. The resulting peptides bound LC3A and LC3B—two essential components of …

Machine-Learning-Based Prediction Of Sepsis Events From Vertical Clinical Trial Data: A Naïve Approach, Tyler Michael Gaddis

Theses and Dissertations

Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition characterized by a dysregulated, disproportionate immune response to infection by which the afflicted body attacks its own tissues, sometimes to the point of organ failure, and in the worst cases, death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Sepsis is reported to kill upwards of 270,000 Americans annually, though this figure may be greater given certain ambiguities in the current accepted diagnostic framework of the disease.

This study attempted to first establish an understanding of past definitions of sepsis, and to then recommend use of machine learning as integral in an …

A Mathematical Model Of The Opioid Epidemic In The State Of Maine, Cole Butler

Honors College

For the past two decades the United States has been embroiled in a prescription drug epidemic that has since grown in magnitude and complexity. The ripples of this epidemic have been especially apparent in the state of Maine, which has fought hard to mitigate the damage caused by addiction to pharmaceutical and illicit opioids. Us- ing data from state and federal sources, we construct a mathematical model capturing the dynamics of the opioid epidemic in the state of Maine, specifically as it pertains to pharmaceutical opioids and heroin. Parameter fitting is performed followed by an uncertainty analysis to quantify potential …

Active Magnetic Radiation Shielding For Long-Duration Human Spaceflight, Kristine Ferrone

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Exploration of interplanetary space presents dramatic hazards to human survival.

Space radiation hazards outside the protection of the Earth’s magnetosphere can

produce both acute and chronic health risks and thus become limiting factors for

NASA’s planned mission to Mars by the 2030s. Radiation exposure on a Mars mission

is delivered primarily by high energy ions from galactic cosmic rays and moderate

energy protons from solar particle events. The chronic radiation dose due to galactic

cosmic rays on a typical Mars mission is on the order of 1 Sv, and additional acute

radiation dose from solar flares can reach over 4 …

Countermovement Jump Assessment For Monitoring Prolonged Fatigue In Collegiate Female Soccer Players, Jeffrey A. Wilkins

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Females are 4 to 6 times more likely to sustain an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury than their male counterparts during running and cutting sports, such as soccer. This sex disparity is thought to result from altered lower limb neuromuscular control that females present when fatigued at the end of practice or games. Yet, current fatigue monitoring techniques typically vary in their reliability, applicability and efficiency. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of the countermovement jump (CMJ) to quickly and reliably monitor fatigue in female soccer athletes. Methods: Twenty-two (age: 19.3 ± 1.1 yrs, …

Using Natural Language Processing And Sentiment Analysis To Augment Traditional User-Centered Design: Development And Usability Study, Curtis L. Petersen, Ryan Halter, David Kotz, Lorie Loeb, Summer B. Cook, Dawna M. Pidgeon, Brock Christensen, John A. Batsis

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: Sarcopenia, defined as the age-associated loss of muscle mass and strength, can be effectively mitigated through resistance-based physical activity. With compliance at approximately 40% for home-based exercise prescriptions, implementing a remote sensing system would help patients and clinicians to better understand treatment progress and increase compliance. The inclusion of end users in the development of mobile apps for remote-sensing systems can ensure that they are both user friendly and facilitate compliance. With advancements in natural language processing (NLP), there is potential for these methods to be used with data collected through the user-centered design process.

Objective: This study aims …

Activation Of Trpa1 Nociceptor Promotes Systemic Adult Mammalian Skin Regeneration, Jenny J. Wei, Hali S. Kim, Casey A. Spencer, Donna Brennan-Crispi, Ying Zheng, Nicolette M. Johnson, Misha Rosenbach, Christopher Miller, Denis H. Y. Leung, George Cotsarelis, Thomas H. Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

Adult mammalian wounds, with rare exception, heal with fibrotic scars that severely disrupt tissue architecture and function. Regenerative medicine seeks methods to avoid scar formation and restore the original tissue structures. We show in three adult mouse models that pharmacologic activation of the nociceptor TRPA1 on cutaneous sensory neurons reduces scar formation and can also promote tissue regeneration. Local activation of TRPA1 induces tissue regeneration on distant untreated areas of injury, demonstrating a systemic effect. Activated TRPA1 stimulates local production of interleukin-23 (IL-23) by dermal dendritic cells, leading to activation of circulating dermal IL-17–producing γδ T cells. Genetic ablation of …

An Evaluation Of Bird And Bat Mortality At Wind Turbines In The Northeastern United States, Daniel Y. Choi, Thomas W. Wittig, Bryan M. Kluever

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wind energy offers substantial environmental benefits, but wind facilities can negatively impact wildlife, including birds and bats. Researchers and managers have made major efforts to chronicle bird and bat mortality associated with wind facilities, but few studies have examined the patterns and underlying mechanisms of spatial patterns of fatalities at wind facilities. Understanding the horizontal fall distance between a carcass and the nearest turbine pole is important in designing effective search protocols and estimating total mortality. We explored patterns in taxonomic composition and fall distance of bird and bat carcasses at wind facilities in the Northeastern United States using publicly …

Estimation Of Wildlife Damage From Federal Crop Insurance Data, Sophie Mckee, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Aaron M. Anderson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

BACKGROUND: Wildlife damage to crops is a persistent and costly problem for many farmers in the USA. Most existing estimates of crop damage have relied on direct assessment methods such as field studies conducted by trained biologists or surveys distributed to farmers. In this paper, we describe a new method of estimating wildlife damage that exploits federal crop insurance data. We focused our study on four crops: corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton, chosen because of their economic importance and their vulnerability to wildlife damage.

RESULTS: We determined crop-raiding hot spots across the USA over the 2015–2019 period and identified the …

Pre-Testing Of The Who’S Educational Video: “How To Protect Yourself Against Covid-19”, Hilyatul Fadliyah, Manendra Muhtar, Munih Munih, Sylviasari Risgiantini, Weny Wulandary, Hadi Pratomo

Kesmas

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared a public health emergency in many countries, including Indonesia. The World Health Organization (WHO) released an educational video, entitled "How to Protect Yourself Against COVID-19", which explained how to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This study is a qualitative study that aims to pre-test this video, based on the Information, Education, Communication (IEC) theory, by analyzing teenagers’ perceptions of the video. The design used was a Rapid Assessment Procedure (RAP), and the data were collected by conducting in-depth interviews with participants, through …

Impact Of Lockdown In India: A Case Study Comparing Kanataka With International Model, Stelvin Sebastian, Aby Paul, Jeeva Joseph, Joel Joby, Sanjo Saijan, Jobin Kunjumon Vilapurathu

Kesmas

The COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and a global health emergency by WHO, prompting various countries to implement early and stringent social distancing protocols through lockdown, to flatten the epidemic curve. The objective of the present study was to assess the impacts and effectiveness of the lockdown protocol in Karnataka and Punjab, compared with the implementation of this method in Australia and the UK. This study involved the collection of data from different authorized databases, in two phases. The first phase included the time starting with the first-reported index case through the 14th day after the declaration of lockdown, for …

Review Of Trial Therapies And Treatment For Covid-19: Lessons For Indonesia, Halma Zahro Mukhlida, Hilma Hasro Maulida, Gunanti Khairunnisa, Margaretha Josephine Mantrono, Risky Kusuma Hartono, Rindu Rindu, Eka R W Purnamasari, Rizky Fajar Meirawan

Kesmas

The infectious disease from Coronavirus Disease 2019, or COVID-19, has quickly spread world-wide since 2019. Therapies for managing COVID-19 have yet to be confirmed as medication for the severe sickness that the disease may cause. This study aimed to review the previous research of the efficacy of trial therapy and treatment to the patients in the hospital with COVID-19. Using PRISMA guidelines as a method for conducting a systematic literature review, a total of 67 articles were collected from several online journal databases. Various therapies were found that are effective in the treatment and management of COVID-19. In accordance with …

Computational And Pharmacological Evaluation Of Carveol For Antidiabetic Potential, Muhammad Shabir Ahmed, Arif Ullah Khan, Lina Tariq Al Kury, Fawad Ali Shah

All Works

© Copyright © 2020 Ahmed, Khan, Kury and Shah. Background: Carveol is a natural drug product present in the essential oils of orange peel, dill, and caraway seeds. The seed oil of Carum Carvi has been reported to be antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, and hepatoprotective. Methods: The antidiabetic potential of carveol was investigated by employing in-vitro, in-vivo, and in-silico approaches. Moreover, alpha-amylase inhibitory assay and an alloxan-induced diabetes model were used for in-vitro and in-vivo analysis, respectively. Results: Carveol showed its maximum energy values (≥ -7 Kcal/mol) against sodium-glucose co-transporter, aldose reductase, and sucrose-isomaltase intestinal, whereas it exhibited intermediate energy …

Hypergraph Analysis Of Structure Models, Cliff A. Joslyn, Teresa D. Schmidt, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Theoretical discussion on the analysis of hypergraph networks; application of analysis methods to hypergraph networks derived by applying Reconstructability Analysis to health care data (the PhD dissertation work of Teresa Schmidt).

Ecu-Ioht, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Surender Byreddy, Anush Nutakki, Leslie F. Sikos, Paul Haskell-Dowland

Research Datasets

In recent times, cyberattacks on Internet of Health Things (IoHT) have continuously been growing, and so it is important to develop robust countermeasures. However, there is a lack of publicly available datasets reflecting cyberattacks on IoHT, mainly due to privacy concerns. To strengthen the cyber security of IoHT, we have developed the dataset, named ECU-IoHT, that is built upon an IoHT environment having different attacks performed that exploit various vulnerabilities. This dataset was designed to help the healthcare security community in analyzing attack behaviour and developing robust countermeasures. To the best of our knowledge, no other publicly available datasets have …

Sars-Cov-2 Viral And Serological Testing When College Campuses Reopen: Some Practical Considerations, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, Chi-Ngai Cheung, Andreas Handel

Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic prompted universities across the United States to close campuses in Spring 2020. Universities are deliberating whether, when, and how they should resume in-person instruction in Fall 2020. In this essay, we discuss some practical considerations for the use of 2 potentially useful control strategies based on testing: (1) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing followed by case-patient isolation and quarantine of close contacts, and (2) serological testing followed by an “immune shield” approach, that is, low social distancing requirements for seropositive persons. The isolation of case-patients and …

Statement Of World Aquatic Scientific Societies On The Need To Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based On Scientific Evidence [Dear Colleague Letter], Scott A. Bonar, Brian R. Murphy, Leanne H. Roulson, Jesse T. Trushenski, Douglas J. Austen, Michael Edward Douglas

United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Publications

Dear Colleague Letter from the American Fisheries Society to fellow scientific societies, July 25, 2020, about the urgent need for responsive collective action to mitigate impending radical climate change. Includes the Statement of World Aquatic Scientific Societies on the Need to Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based on Scientific Evidence, emphasizing the importance of aquatic ecosystems. Includes extensive citations and notes.

"Water is the most important natural resource on Earth as it is vital for life. Aquatic ecosystems, freshwater or marine, provide multiple benefits to human society, such as provisioning of oxygen, food, drinking water, genetic resources; regulation …

Odu Professors Focus On Hurricane Planning During A Pandemic, Sherry Dibari

News Items

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Freshwater Crayfish On Influenza A Virus Persistence In Water, J. Jeffrey Root, Jeremy W. Ellis, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Several investigations have recently assessed the ability of some aquatic invertebrates to act as tools for avian influenza A virus (IAV) surveillance as well as their potential role(s) in IAV ecology. Because of this, as well as the high IAV seroprevalence rates noted in select mesocarnivores that commonly inhabit aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats, we evaluated the effects that freshwater crayfish have on IAV in water at three dose levels and monitored for the presence of IAV in crayfish tissues (gill and green gland) and haemolymph at multiple time points. At relatively high, medium 432 and low (approximately 10 , 10 …

"A Comparison Of Variable Selection Methods Using Bootstrap Samples From Environmental Metal Mixture Data", Paul-Yvann Djamen

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

In this thesis, I studied a newly developed variable selection method SODA, and three customarily used variable selection methods: LASSO, Elastic net, and Random forest for environmental mixture data. The motivating datasets have neuro-developmental status as responses and metal measurements and demographic variables as covariates. The challenges for variable selections include (1) many measured metal concentrations are highly correlated, (2) there are many possible ways of modeling interactions among the metals, (3) the relationships between the outcomes and explanatory variables are possibly nonlinear, (4) the signal to noise ratio in the real data may be low. To compare these methods …

Depaul Discoveries Volume 9 Cover, Steven Reese

DePaul Discoveries

No abstract provided.

Utility Of Inflammatory Markers To Predict Adverse Outcome In Acute Pancreatitis: A Retrospective Study In A Single Academic Center, Mohamad Mubder, Banreet Dhindsa, Danny Nguyen, Syed Saghir, Chad Cross, Ranjit Makar, Gordon Ohning

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Background/Aim: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a commonly encountered emergency where early identification of complicated cases is important. Inflammatory markers like lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) are simple and readily available markers. In this study, we evaluated the utility of these markers in the early identification of patients with complicated AP. Patients and Methods: All patients with a diagnosis of AP admitted to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas/Nevada between August 2015 and September 2018 were identified using ICD-10 codes. Medical records were reviewed retrospectively. Epidemiological measures and their associated confidence intervals were calculated …

Covid-19: In The Absence Of Vaccination – ‘Mask-The-Nation’, Roy D. Sleator, Steven Darby, Alan Giltinan, Niall Smith

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

“In the absence of a vaccine, or effective antiviral, one of our only remaining strategies for controlling COVID-19 is to physically block the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community”

Plasma And Serum Proteins Bound To Nanoceria: Insights Into Pathways By Which Nanoceria May Exert Its Beneficial And Deleterious Effects In Vivo, D. Allan Butterfield, Binghui Wang, Peng Wu, Sarita S. Hardas, Jason M. Unrine, Eric A. Grulke, Jian Cai, Jon B. Klein, William M. Pierce, Robert A. Yokel, Rukhsana Sultana

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Nanoceria (CeO2, cerium oxide nanoparticles) is proposed as a therapeutic for multiple disorders. In blood, nanoceria becomes protein-coated, changing its surface properties to yield a different presentation to cells. There is little information on the interaction of nanoceria with blood proteins. The current study is the first to report the proteomics identification of plasma and serum proteins adsorbed to nanoceria. The results identify a number of plasma and serum proteins interacting with nanoceria, proteins whose normal activities regulate numerous cell functions: antioxidant/detoxification, energy regulation, lipoproteins, signaling, complement, immune function, coagulation, iron homeostasis, proteolysis, inflammation, protein folding, protease inhibition, adhesion, protein/RNA …