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Co(II), Fe(II), and Ni(II) Complexes for paraCEST Applications and a New Class of Fe(III) Macrocyclic Complexes as T1 MRI Contrast Agents
No full textPh.D.There is renewed interest in the development of MRI contrast agents which utilize first-row transition metal ions as alternatives to Gd(III)-based agents used in the clinic. Metal complexes of Co(II), Fe(II), and Ni(II) have shown favorable magnetic properties for utilization as paraCEST agents for MRI, while Fe(III) complexes increase the T1 relaxation of water protons, which is essential for T1-weighted MR imaging. Co(II) and Fe(II) complexes were prepared which utilize 4,10-Diaza-15-crown 5-Ether (N2O3) and triazole pendent groups. One of these complexes, Co(L3) produced exceptionally large paramagnetically shifted bulk water 1H resonances with a shift of 0.051 ppm/mM. Then, a series of Co(II) and Ni(II) azamacrocyclic complexes with either pendent alcohol or pendent amide groups, some of which contained a coordinated water ligand, were prepared. Complexes which contain a water ligand and those with alcohol pendent groups, were more effective in changing the water proton shift of bulk water 1H resonances in ppm/mM of complex for CEST agent applications. Furthermore, Co(II) analogs were superior to their Ni(II) analogs as shift agents, although the stability of the Ni(II) complexes was greater. Fe(III) complexes which contain two alcohol donor pendents on the 1,4,7-triazacyclononane macrocycle were studied as T1 MRI contrast agents. These complexes are remarkably stable under biologically relevant conditions as shown by the highly negative reduction potentials and minimal dissociation of the complex in the presence of 25 mM carbonate and 0.4 mM phosphate or in 100 mM HCl. One of these Fe(III) complexes produces more intense contrast in mice kidneys and liver at 30 minutes post injection than does a commercially used Gd(III) agent. MRI studies in mice show large in vivo differences between the Fe(III) complexes studied that correspond, in part, to their r1 relaxivity in phantoms. Furthermore, changes in overall charge of the complex and lipophilicity can modulate in vivo pharmacodynamic properties. Remarkably, the high T1 relaxivity of these complexes arises from second-sphere water exchange while complexes with comparable T1 relaxivity rely primarily on inner-sphere water exchange.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Archival Description of Notated Music
No full textAppendix B, Guidelines for Archival Description of Notated Music, contains extensions to rules for archival description found in Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) and examples of their application for the description of notated music. These guidelines are endorsed by the Society of American Archivists as an external standard and supplement to DACS and the most recent version is available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/9h2n-vx81.A guide to archival description of notated music, co-published by the Music Library Association and Society of American Archivists (SAA). Intended for use in conjunction with SAA’s Describing Archives: A Content Standard. Includes a broad overview of music description in an archival context, an extensive discussion and bibliography of related resources and companion standards, a glossary featuring music and archives terminology, and examples drawn from existing collections and finding aids
Periodontal Disease, Edentulism, Systemic Inflammation, and the Oral Microbiome: Risk Factors for Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women?
No full textPh.D.Periodontal disease, hypertension and inflammation are conditions that might share common etiologic pathways. Essential hypertension is a chronic condition responsible for tremendous burden of disease worldwide. There are multiple known risk factors for hypertension, such as aging, obesity, physical inactivity, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance, but precise etiological mechanisms remain unclear. Inflammation has been increasingly posited as a pathway through which several of the established risk factors might confer pathogenicity for hypertension. Periodontal disease is a chronic infection of the gingiva and supporting tissues around the teeth, that has strong inflammatory components to its onset and progression. A major oral health consequence of periodontal disease is loss of all natural teeth, or edentulism. Cross sectional studies have suggested an association between periodontal disease and hypertension, but prospective studies are limited. Edentulism has been found to be associated with elevated systolic blood pressure in a cross-sectional study. Additionally, prospective studies have evaluated prospective associations between missing teeth and hypertension. Although these studies have included the edentulous, edentulism as a separate entity from general tooth loss has not been evaluated as a risk factor for hypertension in prospective studies...The focus of this dissertation was to assess the role of periodontal disease, oral health, oral bacteria and systemic inflammation in the prevalence and incidence of hypertension in postmenopausal women.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Eugenic Discourse: Reproduction, Disability, and Literature in Twentieth-Century America
No full textPh.D."Eugenic Discourse: Reproduction, Disability, and Literature in Twentieth-Century America" assesses historical and literary scholarship on the American Eugenics Movement as well as related figures, texts, and events. From an interdisciplinary perspective inspired by intersectional feminism and Disability Studies, this dissertation traces the Movement's influence on social understandings of health, reproduction, and disability in domains such as biology, medicine, psychology, literature, and social work. The core argument that strings together these assessments is the following: Technological and scientific innovations at the turn of the twentieth century provoked a new, specifically eugenic, understanding of the body, reproduction, and health. Diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in particular acquired an inflated biological, social, and political value. They were widely popularized and utilized to protect the nation, bolster the economy, and improve individual health. The assumptions underlying these techniques solidified into cultural facts and ways of seeing. Outside the botanist’s laboratory, eugenic strategies were used to diagnosis and treat (often through forced separation or surgical mutilation) anyone deemed "unfit" in spaces as diverse as prisons, hospitals, schools, almshouses, state fairs, and private residences. These techniques were able to function in so many different places on so many different types of people largely because they identified and evaluated potential rather than actual qualities. Eugenic methods of diagnosis and treatment continue to be practiced up until today, not in their original paper-based forms, but in the social understanding and political decision-making applied to issues of health, reproduction, and identity. In addition to its contributions to Disability Studies and the history of eugenics, this dissertation adds to recent, valuable discussions in cultural studies, philosophy of science, American Studies, literary criticism, Women and Gender Studies, and biopolitics. It places into context contemporary debates concerning reproduction, health, disability, and identity, all of which have been marked by America's eugenic heritage. The dissertation concludes by underscoring the American Eugenics Movement’s deep commitment to eliciting cooperation from a willing public in addition to its better-known coercive strategies. Such cooperative strategies formed the basis for eugenics' perseverance throughout the second half of the century and into today. As reproductive and genetic technologies rapidly change popular conceptions about what a person is, can be, and should be, it is more vital than ever to locate these perspectives and decisions in their historical context. This task is necessary for keeping the evolution of social attitudes in-step with technological innovation. In this way, this dissertation is more than a history of eugenics; it is also, to borrow a phrase from Gertrude Stein, a history of us.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Readability, Complexity, and Representations: A Holistic Analysis of New York State Algebra Exams
No full textPh.D.The State of New York has experienced three major changes in state algebra standards and assessments since 2002. Readability, context, and cognitive complexity have been studied separately as important variables that affect algebra success. Mathematical representation and the subsequent relationships among representations have been an integral part of international, national, and statewide algebra standards movements. The current study aimed to establish a holistic approach to consider trends in the New York state algebra exam items using the coding categories of readability, context, complexity, representations, and representation relationships. Results indicated higher reading levels, more context items, more variability in complexity, and increased levels of representations and representational relationships for exams and item types (constructed response and multiple choice).**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
An Automatic Planning Method for Breast Electronic Tissue Compensation Treatments Based on Breast Radius and Separation
No full textM.S.One of the techniques used for breast radiation therapy employs two electronically compensated tangent fields. This technique has been shown to minimize irradiation of the surrounding pulmonary and cardiac tissue, while improving the homogeneity of the delivered dose within the breast volume. Much work has been carried out to correlate the size and shape of the breast, defined by breast radius and separation, with the amount of tissue compensation needed to deliver the most homogenous dose distribution. These methods so far have assumed either a single or three radius and separation measurements throughout the breast volume (called the one- and three-region breast model), instead of accounting for the variation in radius and separation in the cranio-caudal direction. We developed a semi-supervised algorithm to determine the size and shape of the breast at each axial location using the pre-treatment CT-simulation image data, and correlate it to the optimal level of tissue compensation. Ten treatment plans generated in this manner were compared with the original medical dosimetrist plans for the dose homogeneity throughout the breast volume and for conformity to institutional dose constraints. Additional comparisons were with plans generated using the one- and three-region breast models. We measured statistically non-inferior dose homogeneity from plans generated from our automated framework compared with the medical dosimetrist plans over the collected courses. Additionally, our framework's plans improved on dose homogeneity compared with plans generated using the one- and three-region breast model, indicating that considering the variation in the breast radius and separation in the cranio-caudal direction improves the treatment plans. Compared with the medical dosimetrist plans, our automated algorithm requires much less user input and generates plans in an average of 20 seconds compared with the 30 minutes of full attention it can take a dosimetrist. This work indicates the potential clinical utility for an automated technique for the generation of more homogenous breast electronic compensation treatment plans compared with a one- or three-region breast model. We envision this process attaining a more consistently homogenous starting point for further optimization by the medical dosimetrist compared with the current standard starting point one-region breast model.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Examination of the Variation of Lower Extremity Strength and Power Among Healthy Subjects and Subjects with Previous ACL Reconstruction.
No full textM.S.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine limb symmetry index (LSI) differences during jumping and strength tasks among healthy subjects and subjects with ACL reconstruction in the previous twenty four months who have been cleared for physical activity. Methods: Forty control subjects (16 males, height = 167 cm, mass = 68.9 kg, BMI = 24.6) and ten ACLR subjects (7 males, height = 167 cm, mass = 68.9 kg, BMI = 24.6) completed three hopping tasks [single leg hop (SLH), vertical jump task (VJT), jump landing task (JLT)], novel single leg hop test (SLHP), and one repetition maximum (1RM) leg press. Results: ACLR subjects had lower LSI in SLH test compared to controls (93.2 ± 13.9% vs 101.9 ± 10.1%, P = 0.04). No LSI differences were found in the SLHP (99.4 ± 9.9% vs 94.8 ± 11.8%, P = 0.26) or 1RM (100.4 ± 8.7 % vs 99.7 ± 11.3%, P = 0.75). Two-way ANOVA revealed no test or group effect (F = 0.57, P = 0.52) on LSI. No differences were found between jump height during the vertical jump test (38.7 ± 11.0 cm vs 44.3 ± 13.0 cm, P = 0.18) or the jump landing task (36.4 ± 10.3 cm vs 41.1 ± 12.7 cm, P = 0.28) in control and ACLR groups. Landing Error Scoring System scores were higher in the ACLR group (5.23 ± 1.7 vs 3.7 ± 1.1, P = 0.004). Conclusion: ACLR subjects demonstrated lower LSI in the SLH and higher LESS scores during the jump-landing task. The SLHP test did not demonstrate further asymmetry in ACLR subjects when compared to previously validated tests for ACLR functional assessment. Jump height was not different between groups. Future investigation is needed to determine if the novel single leg hop test is a useful screening tool for identifying leg asymmetry in ACLR patients.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy in an Ex-Vivo Peri-Implantitis Model
No full textM.S.Background: Implant surface disinfection is the most challenging aspect of treating peri-implantitis with no established consensus despite having a lot of research on a host of various techniques ranging from mechanical to chemical to laser treatments. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a promising technique that uses light in the presence of a non-toxic photosensitizer to induce the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for disinfection. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy on 48 hour planktonic and biofilm cultures of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) to investigate the killing efficacy as well as determine the effect of drug incubation time and light dose on the efficacy of this treatment modality. Materials and methods: S. aureus was cultured for 48 hours and then inoculated at an optical density (OD) of 0.1 in phosphate-buffered saline. PDT was carried out using porfimer sodium (Photofrin®) with a 630 nm Diode laser. Light doses of 75 and 100 J/cm2 were used at 150 mW/cm2, and the photosensitizer (125 μg/mL) with incubation times varying from 5, 10, and 15 minutes. The control groups were no light and no drug, drug only, and laser only. Bacterial survival was assessed by CFU count after plating in TSA with a dilution of 1:10000 and incubation of 48 hours. For PDT on biofilm of S. aureus, bovine bone blocks were used. Implants were placed along with a simulated peri-implant defect exposing implant threads. S. aureus was grown in TSA for 48 hours and then incubated in the defect with TSB. Biofilm growth was allowed for two days in the models before proceeding with the experiment. Light doses were 150 and 200J/cm2 at 200 mW/cm2 with photosensitizer (250 μg/mL) incubation times of 30 and 60 minutes used. Bacterial survival was assessed with CFU count, and the retrieval was accomplished by washing the defect three times with TSB. Results: Initial planktonic experiments showed the susceptibility of S. aureus to PDT. The antimicrobial efficacy ranged from 7 to 2 log kill. There was no statistically significant difference in antimicrobial efficacy by incubation time or light dose used except in the 5min/75J combination, which showed no significant difference with the negative control. The biofilm experiment showed good growth of bacteria in control groups and a statistically significant bacterial kill in the experimental groups with no difference in the incubation times or the light dose used. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of PDT in decontaminating a simulated peri-implant defect and on planktonic S. aureus colonies. Further studies are still needed to assess the efficacy of PDT on a multispecies bacterial biofilm and determine optimal light doses, drug concentrations, and incubation time.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Predicting Build Orientation of Additive Manufactured Parts with Mechanical Machining Features Using Deep Learning
No full textM.S.Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a revolutionary development that is being viewed as a core technology for fabricating current and future engineered products. While AM has many advantages over subtractive manufacturing processes, one of the primary limitations of AM is to swiftly evaluate precise part build orientations. Current algorithms are either computationally expensive or provide multiple alternative orientations, requiring additional decision tradeoffs. To hasten the process of finding accurate part build orientation, a data-driven predictive model is introduced by mapping standard machining features to build orientation angles. A combinatory learning algorithm of classification and regression is utilized for the prediction of build orientation. The framework uses 54,000 voxelized standard tessellated language (STL) files as input to train the classification algorithm for eighteen standard machining features using a nine-layer 3D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Additionally, a multi-machining feature dataset of 1000 voxelized STL files are evaluated in parallel by performing quaternion rotations to obtain build orientation angles based on minimization of support structure volume. A regression model is then developed to establish a relationship between the machining features and orientation angles to predict optimal build orientation for new parts.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
The Problem with No Name: Hidden Mechanisms of Sustaining Gender Inequality in the Polish Civil Service
No full textPh.D.This dissertation is one of few studies that explore how gender shapes state governance not in the highest, elected political bodies like the Congress, but on its middle, bureaucratic level: in public administration. It takes the Polish civil service as a case study to analyze how gender, understood as a power structure, organizes its structure, culture, and decision-making. To uncover unequal gender/power relations that underwrite the seemingly egalitarian Polish civil service (sometimes labeled the most women-friendly administration in the world due to 70% of women in its workforce and 50/50 gender ratio in senior positions), this study combines theoretical and empirical analysis. The empirical material comes from archival research, computer-assisted discourse analysis, and qualitative interviews with civil servants. The main finding of this research is that the apparently gender-neutral ideational principles of civil service serve as mechanisms of excluding women from meaningful institutional power. They are largely premised on men's life-experience, champion masculine-coded values, and are underwritten by hundreds of years of men's domination in the public sphere. Together with superficially favorable statistics, the formally egalitarian commitments guiding the civil service institutionalize and render invisible the fact that women are largely represented where power is not. The analysis of the Polish administration leads to the conclusion that increasing women's influence on public policy requires going beyond the narrow focus on numbers and a recognition of the inherently raced, classed, and gendered power relations underpinning administrative policy-making. In addition, the understanding of the gendered character of public administration opens up new ideas for public administration reform and fuels a more inclusive, democratic vision of state governance.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*