University at Albany, State University of New York
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The Effects Of Aggregation Of Tetrafluoro(Trifluoromethyl-Λ6-Sulfanyl) Ethanes On The Secondary Structure Stabilization Of Melittin: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study
Get PDFIntroduction of novel tetrafluoro(trifluoromethyl-λ6-sulfanyl) (CF3SF4) functional group has garnered substantial interest because of its increased hydrophobicity. This super fluorinated group attributed to increased lipophilicity, decreased heat of vaporization, and lowered dielectric constants. The highly electronegative nature of this group can profoundly influence the reactivity of compounds containing the CF3SF4 moiety. The hypervalency associated with this new group presents an exciting platform to explore the fundamental understanding of molecular interactions, reactivity patterns, and electronic behaviors. This dissertation investigates the molecular properties and behaviors of tetrafluoro(trifluoromethyl-λ6-sulfanyl) ethanes (CF3SF4-ethanes), with a specific emphasis on 2-tetrafluoro(trifluoromethyl)-λ6-sulfanylethan-1-ol (CF3SF4-ethanol) and 2-tetrafluoro(trifluoromethyl)-λ6-sulfanylethanamine (CF3SF4-ethanamine). Utilizing ab initio calculations combined with geometry optimization, force field parameterization, and molecular dynamics simulations, we sought to derive an in-depth understanding of electronic structures, bonding dynamics, and other inherent molecular properties of these hypervalent sulfur-containing compounds in chapter 1. In chapter 2, our study further investigates the aggregation mechanisms of these compounds in aqueous environments due to their hydrophobic interactions imparted by fluorine by molecular dynamic simulation and dynamic light scattering experiments. We validated our findings by comparing with well-known fluorinated alcohols such as 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE) and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP). The higher propensity of aggregation by CF3SF4-ethanol at much lower concentration (8 % (v/v)) than TFE (40 % (v/v)) and HFIP (30 % (v/v) makes it a good substitute. We evaluated the aggregation phenomenon of CF3SF4-ethanamine to understand the potential of the compound as cosolvent. The CF3SF4-ethanamine being a green solvent emphasizing its utility as a biodegradable alternative unlike fluoroalcohols. Additionally, the utility of these compounds as cosolvents for enhancing protein folding stability was explored, further examination of the interactions with peptide backbones and their impact on peptide intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Our study was conducted on melittin which has stable helix in lipid membrane but becomes random coil in water. Our study demonstrated the stabilization of secondary structure of melittin in CF3SF4-ethanol and CF3SF4-ethanamine (8 % (v/v) for both), imparted by highly hydrophobic functional group CF3SF4 in comparison to TFE (40 % (v/v). The correlation of molecular dynamics simulations with experimental data from far UV circular dichroism measurements provides a comprehensive overview of the role of these fluorinated cosolvents in influencing peptide structures and interactions
Do You Think This Is Some Kind Of Game? An Examination Of The Validity Of The Trust Game
Get PDFAlthough we have a familiarity with trust that begins at infancy, we still struggle to agree on what trust is. Even after decades of trusting others, trying to be trustworthy, and experiencing betrayal, we form definitions of trust that only scratch the surface. Turning to scholars in order to improve our understanding of trust has offered limited guidance; some refer to trust as an emotional state, some think of it as a belief, and others label trust as a kind of prediction or calculation. Regardless of the sheer complexity of trust and its neighboring ideas – i.e., betrayal, expectation, reliance – the manner in which trust has been simplified for the purposes of economic research has weakened our grasp on the idea. The ‘trust game’ was developed in order to study trust and reciprocity from an economic perspective (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995). Although this paradigm has garnered a great deal of attention, I suggest that it is predicated on a flawed sense of trust and ultimately lacks ecological validity. Where behavioral research is concerned, ecological validity can be understood as the generalizability or ‘real-world’ legitimacy of research findings. To say that a behavioral study is ecologically valid, or has high ecological validity, is to say that the behaviors of participants are reflective of their behaviors in reality. Likewise, to say that a behavioral study is ecologically invalid, or has low ecological validity, is to claim that there is a significant difference between behavior in the context of research and real-life behavior. The trust game is played just once between two strangers, preserving anonymity through the use of computers. Berg et al. (1995, p. 123) claim that this basic design is meant to “eliminate mechanisms which could sustain investment without trust;” Trust is inferred from a behavior performed in a synthesized and stylized context – analytically, the trust game fails to capture what trust is. Furthermore, I contend that the trust game does not allow for participants to experience trust; it lacks ecological validity because the important nuances of trust are banished. If this measure of trust is devoid of real-world application, then its utility is jeopardized. Subsequent research using the trust game manages to address a number of concerns, but the methodological design largely remains the same. In its many forms, the trust game is riddled with problematic features, making it difficult to determine whether or not it captures authentic trust, and whether it even offers real insight as to how and why trust forms in a variety of settings
Human creationism and experimentation in science-fiction: a case study of Frankenstein and Flowers for Algernon
Get PDFAs a genre, science-fiction has the ability to operate within historical and scientific contexts in order to present stories that include speculative elements of reality, while still maintaining an aspect of empiricism. Science-fiction allows for the exploration of themes and concepts that are unknown to the current epoch of knowledge and provides an inquisitive look on the human condition. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of human creationism and experimentation within two science-fiction texts. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon, two texts that were written in different scientific eras, both provide similar tales of creationism through human experimentation. Both navigate the process of creationism with a foundation in the Judeo-Christian mythos through John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and eventually with what was considered revolutionary science. This paper seeks to discuss the similarities between Frankenstein and Flowers for Algernon, while simultaneously demonstrating science-fiction’s dynamism in literature. As science has developed, so has the fiction to accompany it, and we are able to understand this through studying the historical context of when each novel was written
Counterfactual thoughts and their relationship with justice perceptions
Get PDFJustice perceptions have been shown to be important to work outcomes, but their cognitive precursors are less understood. Fairness Theory offers a potential mechanism to help explain how they are formed. An experiment with 292 student respondents was conducted to study the effects of justice (i.e., just, ambiguous, unjust) and target (i.e., supervisor, organization) manipulations on counterfactual thought generation (i.e., mental simulations of plausible alternative realities) with the objective of elucidating the mechanism by which justice perceptions are formed. Findings suggest that negative counterfactual thoughts are prevalent explanatory vehicles that are used by individuals to make sense of justice-related situations. Additionally, negative ‘could’ counterfactual thought frequency and negative counterfactual strength were found to be negatively related to justice perceptions. Targets, which individuals direct blame or credit towards (i.e., individuals or entities deemed responsible) and valence of situations (i.e., affectively positive or negative situations) are important precursors that can exacerbate or attenuate the counterfactual generation process
An Evaluation Of High-Resolution Model Simulations Of Orographic Precipitation, Snowpack, Atmospheric Rivers, And Their Climate Sensitivities In The Southern Andes
Get PDFOrographic precipitation and snowpack are important for water resources and hydrometeorological hazards in the Andes Mountain range. As the climate warms, South American atmospheric rivers (ARs) are expected to increase in frequency and intensity, leading to increased orographic precipitation. Improved understanding of orographic precipitation and snowpack, and their association with ARs, in a warming climate is needed to provide a foundation for understanding future hydroclimate change over the Andes. The goal of this research is to evaluate how well variations in high-resolution regional climate simulations over the southern Andes (30-55°S), agree with observations of (1) orographic precipitation and (2) snowpack and (3) the AR impacts. The response of these variables to climate warming is also assessed
Comedy, Contagion, and Confinement in Bo Burnham’s Inside
Get PDFBo Burnham’s Inside was filmed by the former YouTube star, stand-up comedian, and director entirely alone in his guest house during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and released on Netflix. The comedy special is a mixture of skits, songs, and monologues loosely stitched together that question the role of comedy, provide a critique of the current socio-cultural moment, and give the viewer a glimpse into Burnham’s mind. Inside and The Inside Outtakes both engage with the themes associated with outbreak narratives and explore current social questions regarding privilege, accountability, consumption, and capitalism. Like other works of comedy, Inside takes a snapshot of the cultural climate while extending the traditions of outbreak narratives into new media forms. Inside spans many genres and media categories, a fulfills multiple roles for both Burnham and the viewer. It is a manifestation of the restlessness of quarantine, a critique of capitalism and the creator economy, a commentary on political and social issues, a realization of privilege, a warning about the power of technology and media, and an exploration of the existential crisis born from these conditions. Inside and The Inside Outtakes exist within a very specific temporal moment, and the interior space Burnham creates allows for an analysis of how cultural changes to comedy, societal movements, the digital age, and the individual are all intertwined. The consideration of how each of these elements relates to each other then allows for an exploration of the potential way forward from the current moment
Are Right-Wing Populists and Right-Wing Populist Parties in America Buoyed by Mass Self-Deception?
Get PDFThe recent rise of right-wing populist candidates and parties in America and around the globe has (unsurprisingly) been associated with a concomitant growth in scholarship on the causes of individuals voting for right-wing populist candidates and joining the movements with which those candidates associate. Much of the scholarship in this area appeals to economics or culture as reasons why individuals side with right-wing populists or right-wing populist parties and movements. This thesis will begin by examining the significant literature in those two areas. Then, I will raise two questions that the literature has scarcely addressed: (1) What is the psychological phenomenon/belief-formation process motivating an individual\u27s voting for a right-wing populist candidate or joining a right-wing populist movement? (2) Why, despite the wealth of evidence that suggests that right-wing populists in power do not heed the concerns of their constituencies, do individuals continue to lend their support to them? I conjecture that recourse can be made to a psychological phenomenon that interested those such as Sigmund Freud and Jean-Paul Sartre and continues to interest psychologists and philosophers alike in the present day—self-deception—to get at answers to these two questions. To give a brief account of self-deception, when individuals engage in it, they believe a false proposition or belief, even against the preponderance of evidence available to them at the time suggesting that the contrary proposition is true. Drawing upon the account of self-deception provided by Alfred Mele (2001) in Self-Deception Unmasked, I demonstrate how self-deception is a plausible phenomenon that perhaps lies beneath individuals voting for right-wing populist candidates or joining right-wing populist parties and movements for purported \u27economic\u27 or \u27cultural\u27 reasons. The paper concludes by suggesting that despite the ease with which individuals can deceive themselves, because of the nature of self-deception and what we must assume when we assert that one deceives themselves, there remains hope that we can move beyond i
Analyzing the Market Cap Responsiveness to Capital Discipline Policies for Us Oil and Gas Producers
Get PDFIn this paper, the effect of specific capital discipline policies, capital structure and capital expenditures, is measured. Financial data from 2014 to 2022 are used to measure the impact of capital discipline policies on market cap. Capital structure measured through the debt-to-equity ratio and capital expenditures were both regressed against market cap to determine correlation. The regressions were sorted according to correlation strength and then grouped based off certain firm characteristics: Market cap, Resource produced, Geographical diversity, and level of integration. The results show little to no relationship between the studied characteristics and the level of market responsiveness to the studied capital discipline policies
Sleep aid use during early pregnancy and the risk of birth defects
Get PDFThis dissertation examines the validity of maternal self-reported medication exposures and then explores the associations between self-reported sleep aid use, including zolpidem specifically, and birth defects using data from three population-based case-control studies conducted within the United States. The first aim of this dissertation was to explore agreement between two sources of prescription medication use in early pregnancy: medical records and self-reported interview data from the Birth Defects Study To Evaluate Pregnancy exposureS (BD-STEPS). We observed that agreement of prescription data between self-report and medical records varies by whether the medication is used chronically or episodically. While self-reported medication information for medications used chronically were found to have substantial to near perfect agreement and high sensitivity (89%) and specificity (94%), agreement and sensitivity (51%) for medications used episodically were lower. We did not observe differences in agreement across any of the explored maternal or interview characteristics. Based on our findings, future analyses exploring self-reported medication use would benefit from estimates of its accuracy and validity. Analyses that seek to assess the impact of exposure misclassification on the observed estimates of the effects of early pregnancy medication use on the risk of birth defects or other pregnancy outcomes could rely on estimates of the specificity and sensitivity from this dissertation.Very few studies have examined the associations between sleep aids and birth defects and this dissertation helps address this gap in the literature. Using data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) and the Birth Defects Study (BDS), we calculated estimates of the association between early pregnancy zolpidem use and specific birth defects. Early pregnancy zolpidem use was rare, reported by 84 (0.2%) case and 46 (0.2%) control participants. The main analysis included 47 specific birth defects, and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were \u3c1.0 for cleft lip, pulmonary valve stenosis, and secundum atrial septal defect, and were greater than 1.8 for cleft palate, anorectal atresia, gastroschisis, and tetralogy of Fallot. All of the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) included the null. Three sub-analyses were conducted to explore the impact of potential biases, including additional confounding adjustment via propensity scores, comparison of early pregnancy zolpidem use to late pregnancy zolpidem use to control for factors prompting treatment with zolpidem, and an exposure misclassification bias analysis. In all of these analyses, results were largely similar in terms of direction and magnitude. The adjusted OR for the four defects with the most elevated results in the main analysis (cleft palate, anorectal atresia, gastroschisis, and tetralogy of Fallot) remained elevated and moved further from the null in the sub-analyses; however, the CIs were wide in all analyses. The third aim of this dissertation was to explore the use more generally of sleep aid medications in early pregnancy and calculate estimates of the association with birth defects using data from BD-STEPS. Given that BD-STEPS is ongoing, these results are preliminary and might change if results are updated with additional years of data prior to publication in a scientific journal. We found largely null results for the nine defects that had five or more exposed cases, which adjusted ORs ranged from 0.64 for gastroschisis to 1.46 for anotia/microtia and all of the corresponding 95% CI included the null. The results from two sub-analyses that explored confounding by indication and the impacts of exposure misclassification were of similar magnitude and in the same direction as results that adjusted only for confounding
Labor market and inequality
Get PDFThis dissertation primarily centers its attention on the issue of income inequalitieswithin the labor market of Japan. The overarching theme of the three chapters revolves around the disparity in income among households. Each chapter initiates its analysis from a macroeconomic structural perspective. The first chapter scrutinizes whether part-time employment functions as a mechanism for adjusting labor supply during business cycles. The second chapter delves into the retirement decisions undertaken by elderly workers, while considering factors such as the social security system, taxation, and the transition from full-time to part-time employment. Lastly, the third chapter presents empirical studies that utilize regression equations derived from the textbook Solow-Swan model, incorporating international data, with the goal of substantiating the relationship between the aggregate saving rate and income inequality. ii