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Flexible Mueller Matrix Polarimetric Endoscope for Advanced Cancer Screening: Prototype 1 Optomechanics and Miniaturization
No full textThis thesis presents the design and miniaturization of an imaging fiber-based polarimetric endoscope. Building upon prior work that demonstrated a linear Stokes analyzer through a flexible coherent imaging fiber bundle, this work focuses on translating the system into a compact 5 mm diameter form factor, integrating both the polarization state analyzer (PSA) and the polarization state generator (PSG).For the polarization state generator, two distinct illumination architectures were explored: an on-tip printed circuit board (PCB) design with discrete LEDs arranged around the optical axis, and a fiber-coupled illumination approach. The polarization state analyzer incorporates a pixelated polarizer array aligned with a coherent imaging fiber and micro-lens, forming a compact PSA capable of resolving spatial polarization information in a single snapshot. The design and fabrication process is described in detail, including mechanical tolerances, polarization alignment, and trade-offs in component mounting. The prototype was assembled and evaluated through imaging tests using polarization tar- gets and resolution standards. Results demonstrate the feasibility of polarization-resolved imaging in a miniaturized format and highlight areas for future improvement such as custom lens development and improved mechanical designs. This work establishes a technical foundation for the development of clinically translatable polarization endoscopes and contributes practical design guidelines for optomechanical integration at millimeter scales
Do Investors React Differently to Interim Target Disclosures for Emissions Reduction Goals Depending on the Difficulty of the Target?
No full textRegulators are mandating interim target disclosures for firms disclosing long-term emissions reduction goals. I examine how interim target disclosure affects investors’ perceptions of a firm’s commitment to its long-term emissions reduction goal and subsequent investment decisions. I predict that the difficulty of the interim target moderates the effect of interim target disclosure on investors’ perceptions of the firm’s goal commitment. I find consistent results testing these predictions using a 2 × 3 between-participants experiment where I manipulate the presence and difficulty of an interim target. Specifically, goal commitment perceptions increase in response to an interim target disclosure when the target appears difficult. However, this effect backfires and goal commitment perceptions decrease if the interim target does not appear difficult. I also predict and find that this effect on perceptions of goal commitment ultimately affects investment decisions. The finding that interim target disclosures can backfire, and thus mandates can be counterproductive to investors’ interests, is important for regulators and improves theoretical understanding of investors’ decision making
Arizona Geology Newsletter v.46 no.1 - Summer 2025
No full textThe summer Arizona Geology newsletter includes the following: The 2025 earthquake swarm near Scenic, AZ by Jeri Y. Ben-Horin and Chad Kwiatkowski; an update on current research and investigations at the Arizona Geological Survey by Phil Pearthree, Calvin Mako, Carson Richardson, Ann Youberg, and Brian Gootee; an update on the new Arizona Mine Data Repository by Andrew Zaffos; and details on recent AZGS publications and external publications by AZGS geologists.Documents in the AZGS Documents Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact [email protected]
Endangered Species Protection Bulletins Part 1: What are they and when do you need them?
Get PDFThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must ensure that the use of a pesticide will not jeopardize federally listed threatened or endangered species, nor damage their critical habitats. When required on a pesticide label, online Endangered Species Bulletins provide geographic-specific protections for listed species while allowing full labeled use of the pesticide in other areas. They are obtained through EPA’s Bulletins Live! Two, an interactive web-based app. An increasing number of pesticide products, though not all, require users to view and download Endangered Species Bulletins prior to making an application.
Part 1 in this series explains how to determine when an Endangered Species Bulletin is required, where and how to obtain a bulletin, and what type of information is provided.Documents in the Arizona Pest Management Center collection are made available by the Arizona Pest Management Center (APMC) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact https://acis.cals.arizona.edu/about-us/arizona-pest-management-center
BOUND ON THE NUMBER OF SIMULTANEOUSLY BAND- AND TIME-LIMITED QUASI-MONOCHROMATIC FREQUENCY MODES
No full textBased on insight from three seminal papers by Landau, Pollock and Slepian,
which introduce the prolate-spheroidal wave functions as an optimal basis for
almost completely capturing the degrees of freedom of a certain class of simultaneously
time and band limited functions, we introduce an alternative set of narrow-band
functions and discuss how the properties of the optimal prolate-spheroidal basis
impose a bound on their number in terms of the time-bandwidth product.Master's report provided by College of Optical Sciences
The Journey Toward Implementing Trauma-Informed Practices to Support Patrons and Staff in an Academic Library Setting
No full textThe University of Arizona Libraries (UAL) has engaged in learning and applying trauma-informed concepts since 2020. These efforts followed conversations about how to compassionately uphold the libraries' Code of Conduct (CoC). Conversations occurred against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a national racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd and a series of local incidents including border control, racial aggression, insecure access to basic needs and mental health services, and the recent on-campus homicide of a faculty member. In response, the library's Diversity, Social Justice, and Equity Council (DSJEC) began working to identify resources for trauma-informed services and leadership. UAL has interrogated the ways in which the CoC serves both as a response to expressions of trauma and a potential perpetuating source of trauma for patrons and staff. Moreover, many staff members have experienced trauma that occurred either within or outside the workplace that affects their work experience. UAL contracted with relational healing and life coach Nisha Mody to deliver a series of webinars introducing trauma-informed concepts and connecting them to academic library work.
A result of trauma-informed training was a deeper knowledge of trauma-informed principles and their connection to systemic inequity and power. For this reason, UAL and other academic libraries may encounter challenges when applying trauma-informed practices within the administrative and cultural context of higher education.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]
Editorial Foreword
No full textEditorial ForewordThis material published in Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy is made available by the James E. Rogers College of Law, the Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library, and the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact the AJELP Editorial Board at https://ajelp.com/contact-us
Xenobiotic-Induced Lung Toxicity in Mouse Models and the Possible Roles of Macrophage CYP19A1
No full textMacrophages are innate immune cells that are critical in maintaining tissue homeostasis. Macrophages are highly plastic and perform a variety of functions including surveillance, inflammation, tissue remodeling, and defending against pathogens. Lung macrophages are adapted to the lung microenvironment and regulate tissue remodeling and microbial clearance in response to pulmonary toxicants or pathogens that enter the lung. Because the lung is continuously exposed to environmental agents and susceptible to injury, proper macrophage function is essential to maintain lung health and prevent the development of chronic inflammatory diseases. This dissertation examines two factors that influence macrophage function and lung tissue repair, 1) macrophage CYP19A1 and 2) arsenic. Arsenic is an environmental pollutant present in contaminated soil and groundwater. CYP19A1 is a cytochrome P450 enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of androgens to estrogens. CYP19A1 is expressed not only in reproductive organs, but also in extragonadal tissues, including the brain, bone, and adipose, as well as in macrophages from multiple sites. While many studies have demonstrated that circulating estrogen regulates macrophage function and inflammation, the functional role of macrophage CYP19A1 in inflammation and lung diseases is unknown. The objectives of these studies were to determine 1) the role of macrophage CYP19A1 in LPS-induced lung inflammation, 2) whether or not macrophage CYP19A1 plays a role in NNK-induced lung carcinogenesis, and 3) whether chronic treatment with arsenic, a chemical known to impair macrophage function and lung epithelial repair at the cellular level, impacts lung tissue repair and carcinogenesis in vivo. Using a novel myeloid-specific CYP19A1-null (Cyp19a1-null) mouse, we observed for the first time that macrophage CYP19A1 is involved in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and recruitment of neutrophils to the lung in response to LPS. Inflammation has implications in many diseases, including lung cancer; thus, a mouse model of NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis was used to ascertain the role of macrophage CYP19A1 in lung tumorigenesis. No differences were observed in lung tumor incidence or multiplicity between wild-type (Cyp19a1-lox) and Cyp19a1-null mice. In that connection, the NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis model and a naphthalene (NA)-induced airway injury model were used to determine whether cotreatment with arsenic impacts lung tumor formation and tissue repair, respectively. These studies revealed for the first time that following NA-induced airway injury, arsenic treatment inhibits club cell regeneration in the distal airways of mice. However, co-treatment with arsenic did not affect NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis. Overall, the results of these studies provide insights on novel factors that influence macrophage function and lung tissue repair.Release after 09/01/203
Morphological Processing in Spanish: Inflection and Derivation in Second Language Learners
No full textThis dissertation investigates how L1 Spanish speakers and L2 Spanish learners (L1 English) process morphologically complex words in Spanish, with particular focus on whether inflection and derivation are accessed and decomposed similarly under varying temporal conditions. This question addresses ongoing theoretical debates about whether inflected and derived forms engage shared or distinct mechanisms during visual word recognition and how these processes may differ between native and non-native speakers. Three visual lexical decision experiments were conducted to test these questions directly: an unmasked priming task designed to assess overt facilitation, a masked priming task targeting early automatic decomposition, and a delayed masked priming task intended to probe whether additional processing time supports morphological access under conditions that limit conscious awareness. Spanish was selected as an ideal test language due to its productive derivational system and systematic inflectional paradigms. The unmasked task provided clear evidence that L1 Spanish speakers benefit from both full-form repetition and morphological relatedness when prime–target relationships are fully visible, with comparable facilitation for inflectional and derivational pairs. In contrast, no reliable facilitation emerged among L2 learners in the unmasked task, with only numerical tendencies suggesting a possible advantage for repeated forms that did not reach statistical significance. This null pattern limits strong claims about morphological processing in the L2 group and is likely attributable to variability in proficiency or task engagement rather than systematic differences in representation. Neither the masked nor delayed masked tasks produced consistent morphological priming effects for the L2 group, highlighting the methodological challenges of detecting early decomposition effects in online testing environments that rely on precise stimulus timing and prime visibility. By contrast, the delayed masked task did elicit clear facilitation for native speakers, with significant reaction time advantages for both identity and derivational primes relative to unrelated controls, while inflectional primes showed no comparable benefit—an asymmetry that does not fully align with classic predictions of automatic inflectional decomposition in L1. This pattern suggests that when minimal additional processing time is provided, subtle morphological and lexical priming effects can be detected in Spanish, but the stronger derivational advantage points to processing dynamics that merit further investigation. Overall, these findings confirm that native speakers reliably engage both inflection and derivation when processing conditions allow for overt access, while inconclusive results for masked paradigms and L2 learners highlight the importance of methodological rigor and participant selection when probing the temporal dynamics of morphological processing in first and second languages.Release after 08/29/202
Effects of Age and Ovarian Hormone Loss on Neurogenesis and Associated E2/P4 Receptor Expression in the Female Brain
No full textNeural stem and progenitor cells (NSPCs) in the adult mammalian brain produce new neurons throughout life. It is known that this neurogenic process is regulated by age and sex-dependent mechanisms, however, these mechanisms are not fully understood. Our previous work in male rats identified a critical period of NSPC regenerative decline, between 13 and 15 months of age, and identified the reduced expression of the redox-sensitive nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)- like 2 (Nrf2) transcription factor as a key mediator of this phenomenon. Based on these findings, this work utilized advancing age groups of intact and ovariectomized (OVX) female F344 rats (2, 6, 9, and 14 months) to better understand the roles of age and the ovarian sex hormones, 17β- estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4), in regulating aging NSPC function. This thesis investigates effects of age and circulating E2/P4 loss on adult neurogenesis and sex hormone receptor expression within the two mammalian NSPC niches – the forebrain subventricular zone (SVZ) and the subgranular zone in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG). Unbiased stereological quantification of BrdU and DCX immunolabeling revealed age-based reductions in SVZ neurogenesis by 14 months with OVX-induced declines observed at 9 months compared to intact animals of the same age. In the DG, BrdU and DCX declined earlier, by 6 months of age. Western blotting was used to assess the relative expression of estrogen receptors (ERα, ERβ) and progesterone receptor (PR), revealing a general increase in ER expression with advancing age, as well as region-specific effects of OVX: a significant increase in ER expression at 9 months in the SVZ and a significant decrease at 6 months in the hippocampus, with unique alterations to PR expression. Collectively, these findings identified a particular period of vulnerability, around 9 months of age, in which adult neurogenesis and sex hormone receptor expression is significantly impacted by OVX, particularly in the SVZ. Given the antibody-based challenges in assessing the cell specificity of ER and PR receptor expression we employed RNA fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to probe more abundant ERβ mRNA transcripts, in the SVZ and DG. Our gene of interests, Nfe2l2, which we had previously discovered to play a key role in the aging of male NSPC aging, was also analyzed. This pilot study provided first information on how Erβ and Nfe2l2 RNA expression may change in the SVZ and DG. Our findings broadly show niche-specific ER and PR responses to advancing age and acute ovarian hormone loss, and demonstrate technical challenges in investigating low-abundance, dynamic protein targets in the brain.Release after 09/03/202