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Household-Level Adoption of Modern Sources of Energy for Electrification and Cooking in South Asia
No full textPh.D.The use of modern energy sources is linked to sustainable development, human health improvements, questions of gender equality, and climate change mitigation. The burden of solid fuel use affects disproportionately the poor, women, and children. Although the benefits of modern energy adoption are well known, the use of solid fuels remains prevalent in low- and medium-income countries. Household energy use is explained with a variety of socio-demographic factors within regional contexts. Country-level analysis and regional/local case studies of household energy use are common but not sensitive to regional variation in energy use within a country. The goals of this study are to analyze within-country variation of household energy use and variations in the role of household determinants in different geographical context are. To achieve these goals three studies in South Asia are conducted. The first study uses logistic regression to examine the association between household characteristics and solar adoption (solar home systems) among households without electricity in Bangladesh across regions, both urban and rural. The comparison of patterns of association across regions shows the role of contextual factors in household energy use. Second, the association of household characteristics (household structure, technology access, affordability, solid fuel access) with the use of modern cooking fuel across climate zones in Nepal is analyzed via logistic regression and average marginal effects. This study examines how external context influences the association between household factors and household energy use. Additionally, the role of food security in household energy use is analyzed expanding the existing literature beyond wealth-related vulnerabilities. Third, using pooled panel regression, the relative importance of several indicators of the internal and external environment of the household in determining solid fuel use in India at the sub-national level (state) is analyzed. Results indicate that rurality, household structure, women's access to technology, the share of disadvantaged groups of population, and access to solid fuel explain variation in solid fuel dependence for cooking across India. Results across the studies show that variations exist in the association of household factors with cooking fuel use or solar adoption across regions. Household vulnerabilities beyond wealth further influence household energy choice. This suggests the need to incorporate a contextual understanding of household energy use acknowledging the external household environment and household exposure to risk and uncertainty. Such understanding has the potential to inform targeted regional policy development. The study draws further attention to the importance of focusing on the users of solid fuels such as women and disadvantaged groups in developing programs to promote the use of modern fuels. Access-based policies alone may not be sufficient to promote modern fuel use among population subgroups.**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.*
Developing a Novel Liposomal Adjuvant for Malaria Transmission-Blocking Vaccines
No full textPh.D.Malaria is one of the most severe public health problems, and is caused by Plasmodium parasites. Currently, there is no effective vaccine considered effective enough to lead to malaria eradication. The concept of transmission-blocking vaccines (TBV) is to prevent the spreading of parasites from person to mosquito vector. The ability of TBV to break the cycle of malarial parasite transmission between human to mosquito could be a potent approach for malaria eradication. However, the lack of progress in TBV development is due to the absence of a suitable vaccine which can provide strong immune response with minimal side effects and many TBV antigens suffer from poor immunogenicity. Liposomal adjuvants are important systems in vaccine developments, and the lipid monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA) has been proven in licensed vaccines. Previous studies have shown that liposomes containing cobalt porphyrin phospholipid (CoPoP) facilitate particleization of polyhistidine tag (his-tagged) peptides without covalent conjugation or additional functional group modification. The main goal of the research in this thesis is to evaluate the impact of antigen particleization with CoPoP liposomes for TBV development. At the beginning of this thesis, a general introduction on malaria and the concept of transmission-blocking vaccines is introduced, and the application of different types of adjuvants used for TBV are discussed...Overall, the studies in this PhD thesis have demonstrated the potential for developing an effective vaccine against transmission blocking stage for Plasmodium falciparum, as well as the potential for combining different stage of malaria antigen for vaccine development.**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.*
Chronic Pain and Social Relationships Among Midlife and Older Adults in the United States
No full textPh.D.The prevalence of chronic pain in the over-50 population is approximately 25-35% and has been rising over time in the United States. However, the social consequences of chronic pain in later life are relatively understudied in the social sciences. This dissertation examines whether and how chronic pain impacts social lives among midlife and older adults in the United States. Drawing on data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), I address this research question with three empirical chapters using a variety of statistical models. In the first empirical chapter, I examine the impact of chronic pain on relationship-type-specific support and strain from spouses, children, relatives, and friends. Two competing perspectives — the classic sick role theory versus pain as a threat to social self — were tested. I first use group-based trajectory models to identify four pain trajectory groups, then analyze the associations between relationship-type-specific support and strain and pain trajectory groups with multilevel mixed-effect models. Results suggest that respondents who were consistently experiencing moderate or severe pain perceived less support and more strain from all types of relationships. Therefore, the classic sick role hypothesis is not supported, but the pain as a "threat to the social self" hypothesis is supported by my findings. The second empirical chapter investigates the association between chronic pain and marital quality among older heterosexual couples using dyadic analysis of Actor–Partner Interdependence Models. Results indicate that an actors' moderate pain is marginally associated with perceiving more support from their partners, while partners' moderate and severe pain is significantly associated with actor’s perceptions of less spousal support. Also, an individual’s moderate pain and his/her partner's moderate and severe pain are associated with more strain from the partner. The relationship between partners’ pain and spousal support varies by gender in that wives whose husbands experience pain perceive less spousal support, but not vice versa. In the final empirical chapter, I examine how onset of chronic pain is associated with two aspects of friendship in later life, using linear regression with a lagged dependent variable approach. Results show that the onset of moderate pain is marginally associated with reporting more friends and more frequent meet-ups, which is similar to the effects of life-threatening disease (e.g., cancer) on friendship. This association can be interpreted by both classic sick role theory and the social network activation perspective. However, different from life-threatening diseases, more severe condition, i.e., onset of severe pain, does not necessarily predict more friends or more frequent meetings, indicating that both timing and severity of pain matter in predicting friendship in later life. Overall, my dissertation integrates sociological theories in aging, health, and social relationships/networks, and uses advanced statistical methods to explore the social consequences of chronic pain.**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.*
Scheduling Spatially Distributed Jobs with Degradation: Light, Medium and Heavy Traffic Cases
No full textPh.D.This dissertation studies scheduling spatially distributed jobs with degradation rates. To better address these problems we categorize them based on queue traffic concept. Light, medium and heavy traffic cases are studied in this dissertation. The first part of the dissertation focuses on light and medium traffic situations. In this part we study optimal server positioning and response strategies. For both light and medium traffic cases we consider the assumption of spatially distributed jobs with degradation rates. We show that the -median solution provides the optimum server locations for the light traffic case and no server cooperation is needed in this case. In the medium traffic case, we develop an extended hypercube queuing model that addresses the spatially distributed jobs with degradation rates. Then we study the performance measures of servers. Cases with two and three servers are developed and solved with our model. To solve large problems, the area is divided to sub regions. Based on the performance measurements, we seek an appropriate set of preferred servers assigned to each sub region while considering degradation rate. The results are presented for different size instances. To demonstrate applicability of the model, a case study of a city in USA is presented. The main finding for the medium traffic case is that the degree of server cooperation is related to the rate of degradation; the higher the degradation rate the lower the cooperation rate. The second part of the dissertation concentrates on heavy traffic volume situations. Heavy traffic volume is a queuing system with a large number of jobs wherein all servers are busy till the time that all jobs are completed. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model is presented to address cases with linear degradation rate in which no new job arrives. To address limit of the exact model in solving large instances of problem, three heuristics are developed: enhanced greedy, chronological decomposition and simulated annealing. To identify the best heuristic, numerical results are conducted. We solve large problem instances and provided lower bounds to evaluate our model quality. To demonstrate applicability of the model, a case study is presented based on a pothole repair scenario from Buffalo, New York, USA. Equity consideration and continuously arriving jobs are incorporated in the case study as well.**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.*
Promoting Human Oligodendrocyte Differentiation and Myelination
No full textPh.D.Following pathological insult to the central nervous system (CNS) resulting in the loss of myelin from neuronal axons, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) can infiltrate the demyelinated region and differentiate into new myelin-producing oligodendrocytes to remyelinate denuded axons. Though remyelination is typically efficient, it often fails in multiple sclerosis (MS) due to factors not entirely understood. Thus, identifying pathways that can be exploited to promote and accelerate remyelination represents an important milestone in the development of regenerative treatment for demyelinating disease. Here, by employing transcriptional analysis of differentiating oligodendrocyte, we identify three genes with modulatory roles in oligodendrocyte differentiation. Muscarinic receptor antagonists act as potent inducers of oligodendrocyte differentiation and accelerate remyelination. However, which receptor subtype specifically mediates the inhibitory signaling in OPCs has not been identified. Transcriptional analysis identified the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M3 (CHRM3), as a highly and differentially expressed muscarinic receptor during oligodendrocyte differentiation. Therefore, we hypothesized that M3 is the functional receptor mediating oligodendrocytic muscarinic signaling. Here we report that lentiviral M3 knockdown in human primary CD140a+/PDGFRα+ OPCs resulted in enhanced differentiation in vitro and increased myelin gene expression. Importantly, following transplantation in hypomyelinating shiverer/rag2 mice, M3 knockdown improved differentiation and remyelination by human OPCs. Together, these data demonstrate that M3 signaling delays human OPC differentiation and myelination. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) of CD140a+/PDGFRα+ human OPCs during initial oligodendrocyte commitment identified G protein subunit β 4 (GNB4; Gβ4) as a differentially expressed gene associated with OPC commitment, with a cross-species conserved expression profile. Gβ subunits participate as part of the heterotrimeric G protein complex to transduce signals from G protein-coupled receptors. Lentiviral Gβ4 overexpression induced human oligodendrocyte differentiation and was associated with increased basal signaling through the ERK and JNK pathways. Gβ4 knockdown resulted in rapid oligodendrocyte death in vitro. Following xenograft in hypomyelinating shiverer/rag2 mice, Gβ4 overexpression augmented myelin synthesis and the ability of human OPCs to ensheath host axons, establishing Gβ4 as functionally important in human myelination. WGCA additionally identified extracellular sulfatase 2 (SULF2) as a differentially expressed gene, with conserved downregulation early in oligodendrocyte differentiation. SULF2 modifies extracellular heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPG) to modulate cell signaling. Here, we show that SULF2 is the predominant extracellular sulfatase produced and actively secreted by human OPCs. Knockdown of SULF2 abrogates WNT and BMP signaling in human OPCs and promoted oligodendrocyte differentiation even in the presence of inhibitory BMP signaling. Additional experiments showed that pharmacological inhibition and conditional knockout accelerated myelin repair after toxin-induced demyelination. Together, the data show that SULF2 is a potent regulator of extracellular signaling and modulator of oligodendrocyte differentiation.**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.*
Exploring Relations Among Perceived Religious Discrimination, Religious Commitment, Acculturation, and Collective Self-Esteem in Muslim Americans in the Trump Era
No full textPh.D.The aims of this study were to examine the impact of the Trump era on the perceived religious discrimination among Muslim Americans, and explore relations among perceived religious discrimination, acculturation, religious commitment and collective self-esteem in Muslim Americans in the Trump era. The participants were 198 Muslim Americans who communicate in English, have been living in the US for at least five years, and are 18 years or older. Data was collected via an online survey in six months in 2019 which composed of the following five instruments: a Personal Data Form, the Perceived Religious Discrimination Scale (Rippy and Newman, 2006), the Acculturation Scale for Muslim Americans (Bagasra, 2010), the Muslim Religious Commitment Scale (Bagasra, 2010), and the Collective Self-Esteem Scale (Luhtenen, & Crocker, 1992). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired sample t-test, and multiple linear regressions. The associations between variables highlighted statistically significant correlations. Results of the paired samples t-test revealed that all three variables (religious commitment, acculturation, collective self-esteem) predicted perceived religious discrimination significantly. Additionally, a step-wise multiple linear regression analysis results showed that participants with American citizenship, and who reported experiencing any type of Muslim religious discrimination in the Trump era reported higher level perceived religious discrimination than their counterparts. Moreover, three separate multiple linear regressions results suggested that all seven of the demographic variables predicted religious commitment, specifically, participants who reported any discrimination during the Trump era, and participants who are older, reported a higher level of religious commitment than their counterparts. This study is the first to examine these variables together in the Trump era.**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.*
Multi-Objective Optimization of Big Data Transfers
No full textPh.D.The amount of data moved over dedicated and non-dedicated network links has been increasing at a much faster rate than the increase in the network capacity. However, the existing solutions fail to guarantee even the promised achievable transfer throughput. High throughput data transfers require increased utilization of the underlying resources with side effects such as high-energy consumption at the end systems and network infrastructure. As a result, the global data movement over the Internet generates an energy footprint of 100 terawatt-hours per year, costing billions of dollars to the world economy. Although a considerable amount of research has rendered power management techniques for the hardware-level networking infrastructure, there has not been much prior work focusing on the joint optimization of data transfer throughput and energy consumption at the end systems. In this dissertation, we propose a novel approach for multi-objective optimization of big-data transfers and high-speed packet processing...**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.*
Continuous Video Stream Pixel Sensor: Deep Learning Architectures for Structural Health Monitoring
No full textPh.D.Structural health monitoring (SHM) refers to the implementation of the damage detection strategies for engineering structures. Recently modal analysis has emerged as a globally accepted SHM method to formulate and optimize the behavioral functions of engineering structures. Modal analysis and appropriate interpretation assist in assessing structural failure and help lay out a plan for their maintenance and repair. The conventional modal analysis involves physically-attached sensors, non-contact laser-based, and computer vision-based vibration measurement techniques. However, the low resolution, high cost, and intricate pre-processing work of the conventional modal analysis limit the development of the SHM. In this dissertation, novel computer vision-based deep learning architectures are proposed to predict a vibrating structure's dynamic characteristics with significant precision. The key idea is to use each pixel of an image taken from the camera, encapsulating the Spatio-temporal information, like a sensor to capture the modal features of a vibrating structure. The non-contact 'pixel-sensor' does not alter the system's dynamics and is relatively low-cost, agile, and provides measurements with very high spatial resolution. Specifically, this dissertation outlines (1) a convolutional neural network, long short-term memory (CNN-LSTM) deep learning architecture for computer vision-based modal frequency detection (2) a state-of-the-art computer vision-based deep learning architecture for the mode shape prediction of vibrating structures, and (3) the CNN-LSTM and temporal convolutional networks (TCN) based deep learning architecture for damage determination and localization.**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.*
Laughing Upward: Comic Violence in Eighteenth-Century British Literature
No full textPh.D."Laughing Upward: Comic Violence in Eighteenth-Century British Literature" argues that four marginalized writers of eighteenth-century Britain used the disruptive physical comedy emblematized by the Punch and Judy show and the commedia dell'arte as a rhetorical means to laugh "upward" at social, cultural, political, and moral hierarchies. The controversy inherent to laughing at violence meant that it could perform a kind of political work and solicit a readerly investment that other approaches—like the sentimental appeal—could not achieve. Approaching this material through rhetorical, rather than aesthetic, ethical, or affective means, allows us to identify comic violence as a form of rhetoric rather than a readerly response. It also posits that such material has a rhetorical end instead of an affective byproduct. Laughter as political rhetoric undermined the power of the period's dominant institutions and the aristocratic, patriarchal, and racist paradigms of thought that occasioned so much of the era's violence because it denied their political legitimacy and their ability to control through fear. Furthermore, a laughter at violence—rather than a laughter as violence—suggests an alternative to the Hobbesian laughter "downward" that characterized much of the eighteenth century's comedy because it operates according to a different set of theoretical criteria, including the annulment of its participants' suffering. Nietzsche's phrase "not by wrath does one kill but by laughter," then, does not apply to these writers' laughter "upward." Rather, the intellectual contribution of their comic violence is to envision a means of political, social, and cultural defiance that works to repudiate violence rather than reproduce its cruel form as a means of retaliation. To make this argument, this dissertation draws from both classic theories of comedy and contemporary research on laughter as well as work on the grotesque, recuperative feminism, and racial performativity, all of which contributes to its understanding of how eighteenth-century writers used comic violence to successfully laugh "upward" at the prevalent hierarchies of eighteenth-century Britain.**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 Association Between Carbohydrate Intake and the Oral Microbiome in Postmenopausal Women
No full textM.S.Objective: Oral health is an important marker of quality of life, and oral diseases have been shown to be associated with risk of systemic diseases. The oral microbiome is essential to the progression of oral diseases such as periodontal disease and dental caries, and is influenced by host factors such as diet, of which carbohydrates generally comprise a substantial portion. We examined whether there is an association between carbohydrate intake and the relative abundance of certain oral bacteria. Methods: Data from the Osteoporosis and Periodontal Disease (OsteoPerio) study, a WHI ancillary study which consisted of postmenopausal women, was used for the analysis (n=1204). Carbohydrate intake, assessed from a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and glycemic index (GI) and glycemic (GL) load were estimated. All carbohydrate variables and GI/GL were energy-adjusted using the nutrient density method. Subgingival plaque samples were taken from participants and the 16s rRNA gene was sequenced to determine the composition of the oral microbiome in the plaque. This compositional data of the oral microbiome was transformed using a central-log transformation (CLR-transformation). The association between alpha diversity measures (Shannon Index, Chao1 Index, OTU count) and carbohydrate intake was examined using linear regression. The mean relative abundance of each bacteria (S. mutans, S. salivarius, B. dentium, P. gingivalis) by quartile of intake of carbohydrates and glycemic index/load was compared using ANOVA. Associations between carbohydrate intake and glycemic index/load and the mean relative abundance of each bacteria were also examined using linear regression. Both ANOVA and regression models were examined with and without adjustment for age, body mass index (BMI), smoking, antibiotic use, oral hygiene (including dental visits, brushing, flossing), and diabetic status. We also examined the association between carbohydrate intake and GI/GL and the CLR-transformed relative abundance of carbohydrate-metabolizing pathways (Starch and Sucrose Metabolism, Citrate Cycle, Pyruvate Metabolism, Fructose/Mannose Metabolism, Glycolysis/Gluconeogenesis), as determined by Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt), using linear regression. Analyses were conducted with SAS® 9.4.Results: We observed decreased alpha diversity with increasing intake of total carbohydrates, glycemic load, dietary lactose, dietary starch, and dietary sucrose. In multivariable models, we observed significant positive associations between intake of total carbohydrate, GL, starch, maltose, lactose, and sucrose and the relative abundance of S. mutans and/or S. salivarius. We also observed positive associations between intake of GL, lactose, and sucrose and the relative abundance of B. dentium, and between intake of GI and the relative abundance of P. gingivalis. PICRUSt analyses showed a positive association only between GI and the citric acid cycle pathway in multivariable models. Conclusion: Associations exist between dietary intake of carbohydrates and the relative abundance and alpha diversity of the oral microbiome. Our findings suggest that carbohydrate intake impacts the subgingival microbiome.**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.*