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Characterization of M11-like and OC125-like monoclonal antibody binding to CA125 tandem repeats (Dataset)
No full textThe CA125 epitope within the MUC16 tandem repeat region is detected via the CA125 II test for ovarian cancer surveillance. This test utilizes the M11 and OC125 antibodies. A revised model of MUC16 with 19 tandem repeats has recently been identified, including splice variants that exclude entire repeats. Additionally, OC125 has exhibited gaps in coverage of the tandem repeat region. To identify antibodies that bind more repeats and are suitable for spliceoform detection, more antibodies must be characterized using the revised model. This study characterized the binding of two M11-like and two OC125-like antibodies against the updated tandem repeat numbering system. 16 individual tandem repeats were expressed and purified. Binding interactions between each of the antibodies and recombinant repeats were examined by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The M11-like antibodies displayed different binding patterns when compared to each other, while the two OC125-like antibodies exhibited similar binding patterns. M11-like clone M77161 bound to all 16 repeats tested, indicating that it may be suitable for accurate detection of CA125. These findings demonstrate how different antibodies vary in their binding to CA125, contributing to ongoing development of improved clinical and research tools for ovarian cancer
Reinforced Concrete Coupling Beams with High-Strength Steel Bars
No full textEleven large-scale reinforced concrete coupling beam specimens were tested under reversed cyclic displacements of increasing magnitude. The main variables included yield stress (fy) of the primary longitudinal reinforcement (Grade 80, 100, or 120 ksi [550, 690, or 830 MPa]), span-depth (aspect) ratio (1.5, 2.5, or 3.5), and layout of the primary longitudinal reinforcement (diag¬onal [D] or parallel [P]). Specimens had the same nominal concrete strength (8000 psi [55 MPa]) and cross section (12 x 18 in. [310 x 460 mm]) and were designed for nominal shear stresses of 8 √ __ f c′ psi (0.67 √ __ f c′ MPa) for D-type beams and 6√ __ f c′ psi (0.5 √ __ f c′ MPa) for P-type beams. Transverse reinforcement was Grade 80 (550) in all but one beam (D120-2.5), which had Grade 120 (830) reinforcement.
Test results show that, on average, D-type beams had chord rota¬tion capacities in excess of 5%, 6%, and 7% for beams with aspect ratios of 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5, respectively. P-type beams with Grade 80 or 100 (550 or 690) longitudinal bars, tested only for an aspect ratio of 2.5, had chord rotation capacities of approximately 4%. Based on these results, the authors recommend permitting the use of high-strength steel, Grade 80 (550) and higher, in D-type and P-type coupling beams for earthquake-resistant design. The spacing of confining reinforcement should be limited to 5db for fy = 80 ksi (550 MPa) and 4db for fy = 100 or 120 ksi (690 or 830 MPa). Consis¬tent with prior findings, the results show that deformation capacity is correlated with span-depth ratio and more sensitive to spacing of the confining reinforcement than to uniform elongation of the longi¬tudinal reinforcement. Finally, the test results illustrate the effects of reinforcement grade on stiffness and energy dissipation of pseudo-statically loaded coupling beams
The Urgent Need for Increased Robustness of Buildings in Highly Seismic Regions
No full textACI Committee 133, Disaster Reconnaissance, was established to report on the effects of major disasters on concrete construction worldwide and to identify potential design issues requiring code changes. The committee's work has been described by Laughery et al. Previous reconnaissance completed or supported by the committee includes Shah et al, Abrahamczyk et al, Sim et al, Villalobos et al, Alcocer et al, and Pujol et al. The latest reconnaissance effort was completed after the Pazarcik and Elbistan Turkey Earthquake Sequence of 2023. The implications of the latest field observations, as informed by previous data, are discussed in relation to the future of reinforced concrete (RC) practice. A historical background is provided first to support the discussion that follows
Behavior of Earthquake-Resistant Rectangular Walls with Mechanically Spliced Grade 100 Steel Bars
No full textThree large-scale reinforced concrete (RC) rectangular slender structural walls were subjected to cyclic displacement demands to establish whether, and under what conditions, mechanical splices can be used with Grade 100 (690) bars where yielding is expected.
These tests were conducted because ACI 318-19 prohibits both lap splices and mechanical splices for high-strength longitudinal
reinforcement (Grade 80 [550] and higher) in special structural walls where yielding is expected. Three mechanical splices were
used that differed in connection type (one type per wall) and overall splice length. All longitudinal bars were mechanically spliced
starting 2 in. (50 mm) from the wall base. Mechanical splices satisfying the specified minimum tensile strength criterion of ACI
318-19 Type 2 mechanical splices resulted in better wall behavior than reported for lap splices, but satisfying Type 2 requirements
alone did not prevent bar fractures at the mechanical splice. Thus, Type 2 mechanical splice requirements are not recommended as the sole qualification criteria where yielding is expected. Test results also showed that mechanical splices with a strength not less than
the actual bar tensile strength, such that bars systematically fail in direct tension tests away from the splice and therefore develop their actual uniform elongation, perform well and are recommended for use where yielding is expected in special structural walls
Well-posedness of a higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the interval
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at the The Thirteenth International Conference on Nonlinear Evolution Equations and Wave Phenomena: Computation and Theory held in Athens, Georgia on April 14, 2025.The higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger (HNLS) equation is a more accurate alternative to the standard NLS equation when studying wave pulses in the femtosecond regime. It arises in a variety of applications ranging from optics to water waves to plasmas to Bose-Einstein condensates. In this talk, we consider the initial-boundary value problem for HNLS on a finite interval in the case of a power nonlinearity. We establish the local well-posedness of this problem in the sense of Hadamard (existence and uniqueness of the solution as well as its continuous dependence on the data) for initial data in the Sobolev space on a finite interval and boundary data in suitable Sobolev spaces determined by the regularity of the initial data and the HNLS equation.
The proof relies on a combination of estimates for the linear problem and nonlinear estimates, which vary depending on whether or . The linear estimates are established by using the explicit solution formula obtained via the unified transform method of Fokas. This is a joint work with Dionyssis Mantzavinos and Türker Özsarı
Characterizing the Aggregation Propensity of an Anti-HIV-1 Bispecific Antibody in Two Different Formulation Buffers During Agitation Stress (Dataset)
No full textThere is growing interest in administering bispecific, broadly neutralizing antibodies as a therapeutic strategy to control and prevent HIV-1 infection. Bispecific antibody (BsAb) candidates can be challenging to formulate as stable dosage forms since they are generally more prone to aggregation compared to widely commercialized monospecific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The anti-HIV-1 bispecific antibody 10E8.4/iMab is a promising BsAb candidate in clinical trials that is designed to block HIV-1 viral entry into cells. During initial formulation development, visible particles were observed upon storage under certain conditions. In this case study, we evaluated the physical stability of 10E8.4/iMab to better understand the aggregation and particle formation profiles before and after exposure to agitation stress. First, key structural attributes of the unstressed BsAb were determined including primary and higher-order structure, size, and conformational stability. Second, a combination of analytical methods was used to monitor the formation of soluble aggregates, subvisible particles, and visible particulates during agitation studies in Buffer 1 containing a salt (20 mM NaAc, 100 mM NaCl, pH 5.5) and Buffer 2 containing a sugar and a nonionic surfactant (20 mM NaAc, 6.5% sucrose, 0.02% PS80, pH 5.5 . Third, the particulates generated during agitation of 10E8.4/iMab in Buffer 1 were shown to contain structurally altered protein. It was observed that Buffer 2 not only minimized aggregation and particle formation during agitation but also increased the conformational stability of the BsAb compared to Buffer 1. The results from this case study are discussed in the context of enabling future developability and formulation studies with other aggregation-prone BsAb candidates
Modulational Instability of Small Amplitude Wave Trains in the Novikov Equation
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at The Thirteenth International Conference on Nonlinear Evolution Equations and Wave Phenomena: Computation and Theory on 04/15/2025.We study the spectral stability of smooth, small-amplitude periodic traveling wave solutions of the Novikov equation, which is a Camassa-Holm type equation with cubic nonlinearities. Specifically, we investigate the L^2(R)-spectrum of the associated linearized operator, which in this case is an integro-differential operator with periodic coefficients, in a neighborhood of the origin in the spectral plane. Our analysis shows that such small-amplitude periodic solutions are spectrally unstable to long-wavelength perturbations if the wave number if greater than a critical value, bearing out the famous Benmajin-Feir instability for the Novikov equation. On the other hand, such waves with wave number less than the critical value are shown to be spectrally stable. Our methods are based on applying spectral perturbation theory to the associated linearization
International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, Volume 8 Growth, Development, and Poverty (6th Revised Edition)
No full textThis book is Volume Eight of an Eight-Volume set. All of the Volumes are available in KU ScholarWorks. Links to all eight volumes are available in the Abstracts file in this record.
About the Author:
Born in Toronto of Indian and Celtic heritage, Rakesh (Raj) Kumar Bhala is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen prominent in the fields of International Trade Law, Islamic Law (Sharī‘a), and Law and Literature. Raj is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, School of Law (KU Law). He is published widely world-wide – authoring over 100 scholarly articles and 13 books, including the International Trade Law Textbook, which has been used at over 100 law schools around the globe. Ingram’s Business Magazine designated him as one of “50 Kansans You Should Know.”
Raj has testified before the U.K. Parliament, House of Commons, International Trade Committee, on trade and human rights. Media frequently call upon Raj. Across 65 consecutive months (from January 2017-October 2022), “On Point” was his column on International Law and Economics, which Bloomberg Quint / BQ Prime (Mumbai) published and distributed to approximately 6.2 million readers globally.
Raj is a Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate (Cum Laude). As a Marshall Scholar, Raj earned two Master’s degrees, from the London School of Economics (LSE) in Economics, and from Oxford (Trinity College) in Management (Industrial Relations). His undergraduate degree is from Duke (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar and double-majored in Economics and Sociology. After HLS, Raj practiced at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he twice won the President’s Award for Excellence thanks to his service as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), along with a Letter of Commendation from the U.S. Department of State. He is a member of the State Department’s Speaker Program.
Raj has served in officer positions at the International Bar Association (IBA) and Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), on the Executive Board of Directors of the Carriage Club of Kansas City (including as Treasurer), and been on the Alumni Association Board of the University School of Milwaukee (USM), his high school alma mater. He is grateful to his USM teachers for a liberal arts education that made all good things possible. Raj loves fitness training, has finished 115 marathons, including the “Big Five” of the “World’s Majors” (Boston twice, New York twice, Chicago twice, Berlin, and London). He enjoys studying Shakespeare and (especially since becoming Catholic at Easter Vigil 2001) Theology – and watching baseball.Does participation in cross-border importation, exportation, and direct and portfolio investment enhance human well-being? In particular, does international trade stimulate economic growth and development, and does it alleviate poverty? These hotly debated controversies are the heart of Volume Eight.
To engage in this debate, it is necessary to understand Development Economics. That is the subject of Part One. How are “growth,” “development,” and “poverty” defined and measured? Armed with clear answers, this Part describes the classic theoretical models of economic growth, development, and poverty reduction. They include Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth, and the Fei-Ranis Labor Surplus Model. The potential role of trade in them is highlighted. Equally importantly, this Part also reviews the empirical record of the contribution of trade to growth, development, and poverty across the half-century following the end of the Second War and de-colonization. Thus, the records of countries that pursued export-oriented versus import-substitution policies are contrasted.
Part Two spells out and critically analyzes the leading programs in International Trade Law designed to benefit developing and least developed countries: the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a GATT-WTO exception to the most-favored nation (MFN) obligation. This Part also highlights one among many national-level, targeted preference schemes, namely, the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Unfortunately, GSP and AGOA have underrealized their full potential to help poor countries. This Part explains why they have not done so.
Volume Eight, and thus the eight-Volume set, conclude with a review and evaluation of the trade laws and policies of India. India is the world’s most populous country, the world’s largest democracy, and the world’s most religiously pluralistic country. Its trade regime, characterized by import substitution and protectionism in the decades after the 15 August 1947 British Partition of the Indian Sub-Continent, pivoted in 1991 to openness. But, the pivot is partial: India’s trade liberalization is inchoate, and its free trade agreement (FTA) program is only modestly ambitious. What might the future hold for India and, therefore, the world?
Overall, Volume Eight clearly manifests the interdisciplinary nature of International Trade Law through the pressing questions of inequality and injustice in the world trading system. Like the other seven Volumes of International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, this Volume is available Open Access, and thus freely, quickly downloadable
International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, Volume 2 Fundamental Multilateral Obligations (6th Revised Edition)
No full textThis book is Volume Two of an Eight-Volume set. All of the Volumes are available in KU ScholarWorks. Links to all eight volumes are available in the Abstracts file in this record.
About the Author:
Born in Toronto of Indian and Celtic heritage, Rakesh (Raj) Kumar Bhala is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen prominent in the fields of International Trade Law, Islamic Law (Sharī‘a), and Law and Literature. Raj is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, School of Law (KU Law). He is published widely world-wide – authoring over 100 scholarly articles and 13 books, including the International Trade Law Textbook, which has been used at over 100 law schools around the globe. Ingram’s Business Magazine designated him as one of “50 Kansans You Should Know.”
Raj has testified before the U.K. Parliament, House of Commons, International Trade Committee, on trade and human rights. Media frequently call upon Raj. Across 65 consecutive months (from January 2017-October 2022), “On Point” was his column on International Law and Economics, which Bloomberg Quint / BQ Prime (Mumbai) published and distributed to approximately 6.2 million readers globally.
Raj is a Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate (Cum Laude). As a Marshall Scholar, Raj earned two Master’s degrees, from the London School of Economics (LSE) in Economics, and from Oxford (Trinity College) in Management (Industrial Relations). His undergraduate degree is from Duke (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar and double-majored in Economics and Sociology. After HLS, Raj practiced at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he twice won the President’s Award for Excellence thanks to his service as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), along with a Letter of Commendation from the U.S. Department of State. He is a member of the State Department’s Speaker Program.
Raj has served in officer positions at the International Bar Association (IBA) and Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), on the Executive Board of Directors of the Carriage Club of Kansas City (including as Treasurer), and been on the Alumni Association Board of the University School of Milwaukee (USM), his high school alma mater. He is grateful to his USM teachers for a liberal arts education that made all good things possible. Raj loves fitness training, has finished 115 marathons, including the “Big Five” of the “World’s Majors” (Boston twice, New York twice, Chicago twice, Berlin, and London). He enjoys studying Shakespeare and (especially since becoming Catholic at Easter Vigil 2001) Theology – and watching baseball.Volume Two, Fundamental Multilateral Obligations, provides in-depth coverage of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organization (WTO). International Trade Law springs from, and operates at, three levels: multilateral trade treaties, i.e., GATT-WTO rules; regional trade agreements, i.e., rules arising from free trade agreements (FTAs) and customs unions (CUs); and national measures, e.g., rules specific to one country, such as America or India. Volume Two is all about this first level. Subsequent Volumes deal with the other levels. But, across all eight Volumes, GATT-WTO rules are of special, if not pre-eminent, importance – at least if there is anything to the international rule of law.
Part One lays out the architecture of multilateral trade treaties. Special emphasis is on the 1986-1994 Uruguay Round. It produced the largest and most complex of trade treaties in human history, and birthed the WTO. Also discussed here is how countries became contracting parties to GATT, and how they accede as Members to the WTO.
Part Two studies the luster and blemishes on the “crown jewel” of the GATT-WTO regime, namely, its adjudicatory system. How did this system evolve since 1947 into today’s sophisticated set of procedures for resolving trade disputes among WTO Members? What problems do WTO Panels and the Appellate Body face? Does stare decisis operate, in a de facto sense, in this system? Why did the Appellate Body – loosely akin to a Supreme Court of International Trade – collapse in December 2019, and what replaced it? Can it be said, under Positivist Legal Theory, that International Trade Law is truly “law,” unlike, perhaps, Public International Law?
Part Three sets the foundation for the remaining two Parts, Three and Four. All GATT- WTO disputes necessarily begin with a basic question: what is the relationship between or among (1) an imported product, and either (2) an allegedly aggrieved other imported product or (3) domestically-produced product? If (1) an imported product bears no “likeness” either to (2) another imported product or (3) a domestically-produced product, then that imported product cannot be said to cause harm to the other merchandise. Part Three elucidates the legal tests for “likeness,” which derive from considerable GATT-WTO jurisprudence.
Part Four then identifies each of the five most important rules in the entire multilateral trading system – the “Five Pillars.” They are most-favored nation (MFN) treatment, national treatment (for both fiscal and non-fiscal measures), tariff bindings, quantitative restrictions (QRs), and transparency. To know these rules well is to know a lot about International Trade Law. They, or their analogs, are reincarnated countless times not only in WTO treaties that deal with, for example, IP and services, but also and in FTAs. Part Four untangles the text of each of these rules, and the leading GATT-WTO cases that apply
them in a wide array of provocative circumstances
Course-Based Research Assignment: Literature Review and Theoretical Expectations (POLS 469)
No full textThis assignment was the product of a Research-Intensive Course Grant through KU’s Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships. These grants provide financial support and advising for instructors who want to incorporate larger research and creative projects into their classes.
Each file is made available in both an editable format (docx or pptx) and pdf format.This assignment was created for POLS 469, an upper-level political science course focusing on authoritarian propaganda. The mini-assignment serves as a critical component of a larger course project where students develop an original research report investigating the production, dissemination, or effects of authoritarian propaganda. Students are given multiple approaches to their final project: they can examine specific propaganda sources (news outlets, TV shows, social media accounts), analyze propaganda's impact on public opinion or behavior, or pursue other approved topics.
This mini-assignment specifically focuses on developing the literature review and theoretical framework portions of the research paper. The primary objective of the assignment was to provide students with an understanding of different approaches to specifying social science theories and research contributions. For the assignment, students need to identify several relevant academic studies, identify their key insights and the larger debate they are a part of, and determine a possible gap in the literature that their paper might address. Building on this preliminary literature analysis, students should identify the variation of interest and the specific social and political variables they might examine and develop concrete testable expectations about the relationship between these variables