Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Design And Synthesis Of Chiral And Achiral Benzodiazepines And Imidazodiazepines As Α–Subtype Selective Gabaar Positive Modulators To Treat Schistosomiasis, Epilepsy, Asthma And Some Mental Disorders, Md Yeunus Mian

Theses and Dissertations

Part I: Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of non-sedating anti-schistosomal agents

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic flatworm infection with only one drug therapy currently on the market, praziquantel. An old lead identified by Roche, meclonazepam (US Patent 4031078A) displayed antiparasitic efficacy but was not pursued due to dose-limiting sedation in human clinical trials (S. Afr. Med J. 1979 Apr 14;55(16):617-8, PMID: 380021). However, given the superior spectrum of activity meclonazepam displays relative to praziquantel (which is unable to cure immature parasites within the host) and advances in the understanding of benzodiazepine SAR at human GABAARs, the study of this benzodiazepine was …

Understanding The Transition From General To Organic Chemistry, Hannah Chan

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Organic chemistry is commonly known to have high failure rates and regarded as one of the most difficult courses offered in undergrad. This study assessed whether a modified general chemistry curriculum allowing for more time focused on foundational organic chemistry concepts in general chemistry can improve students’ grade outcome and/or self efficacy when transitioning from general to organic chemistry courses. Two separate variables were tested: grade outcome and self efficacy. Using an independent sample t-test, a comparison of the two groups (modified versus traditional general chemistry) was performed. Grades were assessed by giving students four questions (out of 4 points …

Changes In Western U.S. Streamflow Extremes Under Climate Change, Rama Bedri

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

We are analyzing streamflow extremes in Western U.S. rivers due to climate change. Global warming causes natural disasters to reach extreme points and affects river volumes, snowfall, and precipitation amounts. We analyze the data for 17 stations in the Colorado River Basin, whose rivers provide Southern California’s drinking water supply. Disruptions in streamflow due to climate change affect the region’s water availability and make it difficult to predict future trends. We compared historical streamflow data to eight possible climate scenarios. The different scenarios are Warm Dry, Cool Wet, Average, and Other at emission levels of RCP 4.5 and 8.5. First, …

The One Who Won, Jeanna Polisini

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

I am an adopted Asian American with an Italian last name who was raised in the Jewish faith. While I am one of the lucky ones, the One-Child Policy is responsible for how my life turned out. My intention is to confront the inhumanity of this horrific policy with my adoption story. Until policies personally affect someone’s life, many people do not think twice about the other country’s problems and their repercussions on a global level. For my senior exhibition, I created an autobiographical installation to explore my adoption story and how China’s inhumane dictatorship. The full immersive installation will …

Black Carbon Dominated Dust In Recent Radiative Forcing On Rocky Mountain Snowpacks, Kelly E. Gleason, Joseph R. Mcconnell, Monica M. Arienzo, Graham Sexstone, Stefan Rahimi

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The vast majority of surface water resources in the semi-arid western United States start as winter snowpack. Solar radiation is a primary driver of snowmelt, making snowpack water resources especially sensitive to even small increases in concentrations of light absorbing particles such as mineral dust and combustion-related black carbon (BC). Here we show, using fresh snow measurements and snowpack modeling at 51 widely distributed sites in the Rocky Mountain region, that BC dominated impurity-driven radiative forcing in 2018. BC contributed three times more radiative forcing on average than dust, and up to 17 times more at individual locations. Evaluation of …

Near-Inertial Wave Energetics Modulated By Background Flows In A Global Model Simulation, Keshav J. Raja, Maarten J. Buijsman, Jay F. Shriver, Brian K. Arbic, Oladeji Siyanbola

Faculty Publications

We study the generation, propagation, and dissipation of wind-generated near-inertial waves (NIWs) in a global 1/25° Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) simulation with realistic atmospheric forcing and background circulation during 30 days in May–June 2019. The time-mean near-inertial wind power input and depth-integrated energy balance terms are computed for the total fields and the fields decomposed into vertical modes to differentiate between the radiative and (locally) dissipative components of NIW energy. Only 30.3% of the near-inertial wind input projects onto the first five modes, whereas the sum of the NIW energy in the first five modes adds up to 58% …

Understanding Biogeochemical And Physical Controls On Methane Air-Sea Exchange Fluxes In The Pacific Ocean, Sarah Raney

Master's Theses

Methane and trace element samples were collected on GEOTRACES GP15 Pacific Meridional Transect (PMT) cruise conducted between the Aleutian Islands (57 °N) and Tahiti (20 °S) from September to November 2018. Uncertainty in methane air-sea exchange fluxes was determined using a propagation of errors approach. Fluxes ranged from -0.88 to 4.9 µmol CH₄ m^-2 d^-1. Average CH₄ flux along the Alaskan margin was 2.2 ± 2.9 µmol CH₄ m^-2 d^-1. Methane fluxes decreased moving southward and increased to their open ocean maximum around 20 °N before declining in equatorial waters. Near …

Physics Of Electromagnetic Counterparts Of Binary-Neutron-Star Mergers, Shunke Ai

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Binary neutron star (BNS) mergers are supposed to be the sources of a variety of astrophysical transients, including both gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) signals. The types and properties of the post-merger central product contain crucial information for many unsolved physical problems. Since the current GW detectors are not sensitive enough in kHz, only GWs from the inspiral phase can be detected, so that one cannot directly study the central products from GWs. EM signals can serve as probes to infer the type and properties of the central product. When a long-lived neutron star (NS) is formed after the …

Dust-Gas Dynamics Driven By The Streaming Instability With Various Pressure Gradients, Stanley Antedio Baronett

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The radial pressure gradient (RPG), along the midplane of gaseous protoplanetary disks (PPD) – planetary nurseries – poses a severe obstacle to planet formation. Micron-sized dust grains, embedded in the disc, must quickly grow to kilometer-sized planetesimals – the building blocks of planets – before fatally drifting inwards, by RPG-induced gas drag, into a central host star. However, the RPG simultaneously powers one of the most robust processes to overcome this radial-drift barrier: the streaming instability (SI). Spontaneously triggered, the SI aerodynamically concentrates drifting dust via drag-induced, coupled interactions and feedback with the surrounding gas. In particular, the non-linear phase …

The Effects Of Winds On Accretion Disks And Spectra Of X-Ray Binaries And Active Galactic Nuclei, Shalini Ganguly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and X-ray binaries (XRBs) contain at their cores supermassive black holes (SMBH), and stellar mass black holes or neutron stars, respectively. These objects bind matter gravitationally, leading to the formation of accretion disks. The accretion of matter leads to efficient conversion of gravitational potential energy into radiation. When the force and/or energy imparted by this radiation on matter exceeds the attractive force due to the local gravitational field, it leads to the launching of matter in the form of outflows or winds. These outflows produce blueshifted (and occasionally redshifted) emission or absorption components in the spectra …

The Dissolution And Recovery Of Critical Materials (Li2co3 And Uf6) From Ionic Liquid, Cassara Higgins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lithium and uranium are critical materials in both the energy industry and for national security. Lithium is necessary for the next generation of batteries and 6Li is valuable for the production of tritium necessary for both fusion energy and to maintain our nuclear stockpiles. Uranium is a fuel source or precursor fuel source for commercially operating nuclear fission power. The monitoring of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) enrichment at foreign facilities is important for the monitoring of nuclear safeguards and enforcement of non-proliferation treaties. Recovery methods for lithium at the end of life of batteries are necessary to ensure abundance of the …

A Survey Of The Br´Ezis-Nirenberg Problem And Related Theorems, Edward Huynh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations on bounded domains arise in several different areas of mathematics that include geometry, mathematical physics, and the calculus of variations. The Br ́ezis-Nirenberg problem is concerned with a boundary-value problem that is intimately connected to the existence of positive solutions of the Yamabe problem, of non-minimal solutions to Yang-Mills functionals, and of extremal functions to several important inequalities. Results on existence and uniqueness have been obtained in cases when the exponent is sub-critical, but such results have not been obtained when the exponent is critical due to a lack of compactness. The earliest results obtained …

Positive Solutions To Semilinear Elliptic Equations With Logistic-Type Nonlinearities And Harvesting In Exterior Domains, Eric Jameson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Existing results provide the existence of positive solutions to a class of semilinear elliptic PDEs with logistic-type nonlinearities and harvesting terms both in RN and in bounded domains U ⊂ RN with N ≥ 3, when the carrying capacity of the environment is not constant. We consider these same equations in the exterior domain Ω, defined as the complement of the closed unit ball in RN , N ≥ 3, now with a Dirichlet boundary condition. We first show that the existing techniques forsolving these equations in the whole space RN can be applied to the exterior domain with some …

Miocene Ichnofaunas And Mammalian Communities In The Great Basin Region, Nevada And California, Annmarie R. Jones

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation is to document and interpret three new ichnofaunas and two fossil assemblages from the Neogene of Nevada and California. Ichnofossils are important for understanding behavior and geographical range of animals in the distant past and are key to locating and preserving sensitive material for future studies. I examined ichnofauna at three localities: two within the Mio-Pliocene Muddy Creek Formation of Nevada, and one within the Miocene China Ranch Beds of California. My research focuses primarily on (1) camelid and ursid ichnotaxa and how these new localities help in understanding the evolutionary history of these taxa …

Revisiting The Chemistry Of Uranium And Rhenium Fluorides: Implication To Fuel Cycle And Nuclear Forensics Science, James Amos-Aimé Louis-Jean

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Fluorine plays a major role in the nuclear industry where F2(g) and HF(g) are critical to the preparation of UF6 and UF4. These materials are prepared for uranium enrichment to increase the isotopic concentration of 235U. During separation efforts, the isotope 99Tc (a high yield fission product, 6.1% from 235U) is extracted along with uranium and can be converted to binary technetium fluorides (i.e., TcF4, TcF6) during re-enrichment of used uranium material. This provides a route for 99Tc to reenter the reactor environment and affect the nuclear properties of fuel pellets made with reprocessed uranium. The objective of this work …

Viability Of Energy And Fuel Sources For Interstellar Travel; Design And Feasibility Of The Construction Of Manned Interstellar Space Shuttles, Lukas Mittelman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The importance of proving the viability of interstellar transport and addressing its potential hazards and pitfalls is immense. If we do not look toward the future and examine what could be waiting for us, we are doing our children, our children’s children, and so on, a disservice. Here we must attempt to lay the groundwork for our future scientists, engineers, and adventurers. Asking and answering questions like, which propulsion and energy systems must we incorporate to send us through the cosmos? Will we utilize technologies known today, such as fossil fuel rockets, fission or fusion rockets, and antimatter drives (pion …

Some Graph Laplacians And Variational Methods Applied To Partial Differential Equations On Graphs, Daniel Anthony Corral

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation we will be examining partial differential equations on graphs. We start by presenting some basic graph theory topics and graph Laplacians with some minor original results. We move on to computing original Jost graph Laplacians of friendly labelings of various finite graphs. We then continue on to a host of original variational problems on a finite graph. The first variational problem is an original basic minimization problem. Next, we use the Lagrange multiplier approach to the Kazdan-Warner equation on a finite graph, our original results generalize those of Dr. Grigor’yan, Dr. Yang, and Dr. Lin. Then we …

Mmekg: Multi-Modal Event Knowledge Graph Towards Universal Representation Across Modalities, Yubo Ma, Zehao Wang, Mukai Li, Yixin Cao, Meiqi Chen, Xinze Li, Wenqi Sun, Kunquan Deng, Kun Wang, Aixin Sun, Jing Shao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Events are fundamental building blocks of realworld happenings. In this paper, we present a large-scale, multi-modal event knowledge graph named MMEKG. MMEKG unifies different modalities of knowledge via events, which complement and disambiguate each other. Specifically, MMEKG incorporates (i) over 990 thousand concept events with 644 relation types to cover most types of happenings, and (ii) over 863 million instance events connected through 934 million relations, which provide rich contextual information in texts and/or images. To collect billion-scale instance events and relations among them, we additionally develop an efficient yet effective pipeline for textual/visual knowledge extraction system. We also develop …

Video Games, Grief, And The Character Link System, Nam Nguyen

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Grief can encompass more than just the loss of real-life people. It can be felt with the loss of a pet, changes in daily structure, and even the loss of video game characters. The topic of grief related to video games and video game characters comes at a time when games as a service (GaaS) continue to increase in popularity and the phenomenon where these games also inevitably terminate service. To combat this unique form of grief, the Character LINK System was created as a tool that uses simple natural language processing (NLP) techniques to offer support to the bereaved …

Levee Seepage Identification From Aerial Images Using Machine Learning, Sofiane Benkara

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Levees protect from natural disasters that can threaten human health, infrastructure, and biological systems by protecting low-lying lands near or below sea level from flooding. However, seepage in those levees undermines their structural integrity, leading to failures. Today the United States has approximately over a hundred thousand miles of levee, many of which are reaching or have surpassed their initial design life. Given the concern, there is a need to develop reliable, rapid, and non-intrusive levee monitoring systems to detect the presence of seepage. This study explores the use of Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) integrated with Discrete Cosine Transform …

Assessing The Influence Of Health Policy And Population Mobility On Covid-19 Spread In Arkansas, Tayden Barretto

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a major crisis across the world since its start in 2019, and its influence on every realm of society is undeniable. Globally, more than 500 million cases have been recorded since March 2020, with almost 6 million deaths. In the wake of this crisis, many governments and health organizations have taken steps and precautions to mitigate its spread. These steps involve public mandates of information, reducing frequency of personal contact, and use of masks to minimize the risk of transmission. Current access to mobility data released from Google detailing population movements has provided a …

The Effects Of An R103q Mutation On The Chemical And Physical Properties Of The Enzyme Cytochrome C Nitrite Reductase (Ccnir), Shahama Alam

Theses and Dissertations

Cytochrome c Nitrite Reductase (ccNiR) is a periplasmic homodimeric decaheme enzyme that catalyzes the reduction of nitrite to ammonium in a process that involves six electrons and eight protons. The project described herein explored the properties of the Shewanella oneidensis R103Q ccNiR variant and compared them to the properties of the wild type enzyme. Under standard assay conditions, which use the strong reducing agent methyl viologen monocation radical (MVred) as an electron source, the R103Q variant still catalyzes reduction of nitrite to ammonium, albeit with an MVred turnover rate that is 20% of the wild type’s (780 ± 50 s-1 …

The Activity Of Qh Ii 66 And It’S Analogs In Medulloblastoma, Melanoma And Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cell Lines., Taukir Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

GABAARs (gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptors) are transmembrane pentameric ligand-gated chloride ion channels that respond to GABA, the central nervous system's principal inhibitory neurotransmitter (CNS). The benzodiazepines (BZDs) bind between the GABAAR α+γ2-subunits at their extracellular interface. The binding of ligands to distinct subunits of GABAA receptors, notably the α1-6β2/3γ2 ion channels, can have a wide range of effects on brain activities. The sedative, ataxic, amnesic, anticonvulsant, and addictive actions of GABAARs' α1-subtype selective ion channels should be avoided, except for the anticonvulsant and anxiolytic effects, while creating ligands for this BZ allosteric modulatory site. Many studies have linked the …

Baseflow Variability Due To Changes In Climate, Basin Characteristics, And Groundwater Withdrawals In The State Of Wisconsin, Usa, Susan Borchardt

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

BASEFLOW VARIABILITY DUE TO CHANGES IN CLIMATE,BASIN CHARACTERISTICS, AND GROUNDWATER WITHDRAWALS IN THE STATE OF WISCONSIN, USA

bySusan Borchardt The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2022 Under the Supervision of Professor Woonsup Choi

In Wisconsin, the number of high-capacity wells has increased substantially, and concerns have been raised about their impact on both groundwater levels and streamflow. At the same time Wisconsin’s climate has been changing, and both the annual precipitation (5%) and temperature (1.5oC) have been trending upward over the last 68 years and both are predicted to increase into the future. This study attempted to demonstrate the simultaneous effects …

In Vitro And In Vivo Identification And Quantification Of Carmofur And 5-Fluorouracil Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Mohammad Mohiminul Islam

Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive solid tumor of the brain. Prior studies from our lab found that carmofur, also known as 1-hexylcarbanoyl 5-fluorouracil (HCFU) is a promising candidate in suppressing and killing tumor cell lines compared to the FDA-approved drug temozolomide. Originally developed as pro-drug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), carmofur has been in use in clinic for the treatment of colorectal cancer for over four decades in Japan. Having it used in clinics, it has a high probability of repurposing for diseases with no cure such as glioblastoma. Carmofur has also been found effective against other cancers such as head and …

Do State Fairs With Firework Displays Impact Pm2.5 Levels In Nearby Communities?, Victoria Lang

Theses and Dissertations

This study identified state fairs with known firework displays to evaluate whether they impact local air quality. Previous research has shown firework displays are linked with the short-term degradation of local air quality due to increased concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as a result of the display. These studies observed increased PM2.5 concentrations associated with widespread firework displays such as the Lantern Festival in China, Diwali Festival in India, and Independence Day in the United States. However, it has not been investigated whether a signal of increased PM2.5 concentrations from firework displays during a state fair could be observed …

Experimental Investigations On The Conductance Of Lipid Membranes Under Differential Hydrostatic Pressure, Rose Whiting, Pangaea W. Finn, Andrew Bogard, Fulton Mckinney, Dallin Pankratz, Aviana R. Smith, Elen A. Gardner, Daniel Fologea

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The unassisted transport of inorganic ions through lipid membranes has become increasingly relevant to an expansive range of biological phenomena. Recent simulations indicate a strong influence of a lipid membrane’s curvature on its permeability, which may be part of the overall cell sensitivity to mechanical stimulation. However, most ionic permeability experiments employ a flat, uncurved lipid membrane, which disregards the physiological relevance of curvature on such investigations. To fill this gap in our knowledge, we adapted a traditional experimental system consisting of a planar lipid membrane, which we exposed to a controlled, differential hydrostatic pressure. Our electrophysiology experiments indicate a …

A Hybrid Acoustic-Rf Communication Framework For Networked Control Of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: Design And Cosimulation, Saeed Nourizadeh Azar, Oytun Erdemi̇r, Mehrullah Soomro, Özgür Gürbüz Ünlüyurt, Ahmet Onat

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Underwater control applications, especially ones using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have become very popular for industrial and military underwater exploration missions. This has led to the requirement of establishing a high data rate communication link between base stations and AUVs, while underwater systems mostly rely on acoustic communications. However, limited data rate and considerable propagation delay are the major challenges for employing acoustic communication in missions requiring high control gains. In this paper, we propose a hybrid acoustic and RF communication framework for establishing a networked control system, in which, for long distance communication and control the acoustic link is …

Yang-Mills Sources In Biconformal Double Field Theory, Davis W. Muhwezi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is a robust and unifying approach to unraveling the roiling mysteries of the universe. Our most compelling accounts of physical reality at present rest on symmetry arguments that are conspicuously geometrical!

105 years ago, Albert Einstein derived gravity from Riemannian geometry. In the general theory of relativity, the world of our experience is a pseudo-Riemannian manifold whose curvature represents the gravitational field. Encoded in the Einstein field equation is how matter sources (energy-momentum tensor) couple to gravity (spacetime curvature). Schematically, the Einstein equation exhibits a more general structure:

Curvature of Spacetime = Material Sources

On one side of the …

Dynamical Systems Analysis In Adaptive And Metapopulation Ecology With Applications To Conservation Management, Guenchik Grosklos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The ability for a species to persist largely relies on how well they adapt to the environment and their interactions with local and global communities. Specifically, if adaptation occurs quickly enough or nearby communities sufficiently promote growth rates, populations at risk of extinction may persist. In this dissertation, we first develop a method that estimates and compares rates of change in time series data of population densities and measurable traits (phenotypes). Additionally, we compare between genetic (evolutionary) and non-genetic (plastic) trait change to determine whether phenotypes change faster when driven by evolutionary or plastic change. We then focus on metapopulation …