585 research outputs found
UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024
The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp
UMSL Bulletin 2022-2023
The 2022-2023 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1087/thumbnail.jp
Analytical validation of innovative magneto-inertial outcomes: a controlled environment study.
peer reviewe
Modelling the genomic structure, and antiviral susceptibility of Human Cytomegalovirus
Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is found ubiquitously in humans worldwide, and once acquired, the
infection persists within the host throughout their life. Although Immunocompetent people rarely are
affected by HCMV infections, their related diseases pose a major health problem worldwide for those
with compromised or suppressed immune systems such as transplant recipients. Additionally,
congenital transmission of HCMV is the most common infectious cause of birth defects globally and
is associated with a substantial economic burden.
This thesis explores the application of statistical modelling and genomics to unpick three key areas of
interest in HCMV research. First, a comparative genomics analysis of global HCMV strains was
undertaken to delineate the molecular population structure of this highly variable virus. By including
in-house sequenced viruses of African origin and by developing a statistical framework to deconvolute
highly variable regions of the genome, novel and important insights into the co-evolution of HCMV
with its host were uncovered.
Second, a rich database relating mutations to drug sensitivity was curated for all the antiviral treated
herpesviruses. This structured information along with the development of a mutation annotation
pipeline, allowed the further development of statistical models that predict the phenotype of a virus
from its sequence. The predictive power of these models was validated for HSV1 by using external
unseen mutation data provided in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency.
Finally, a nonlinear mixed effects model, expanded to account for Ganciclovir pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics, was developed by making use of rich temporal HCMV viral load data. This model
allowed the estimation of the impact of immune-clearance versus antiviral inhibition in controlling
HCMV lytic replication in already established infections post-haematopoietic stem cell transplant
Evolution from the ground up with Amee – From basic concepts to explorative modeling
Evolutionary theory has been the foundation of biological research for about a century
now, yet over the past few decades, new discoveries and theoretical advances have rapidly
transformed our understanding of the evolutionary process. Foremost among them are
evolutionary developmental biology, epigenetic inheritance, and various forms of evolu-
tionarily relevant phenotypic plasticity, as well as cultural evolution, which ultimately led
to the conceptualization of an extended evolutionary synthesis. Starting from abstract
principles rooted in complexity theory, this thesis aims to provide a unified conceptual
understanding of any kind of evolution, biological or otherwise. This is used in the second
part to develop Amee, an agent-based model that unifies development, niche construction,
and phenotypic plasticity with natural selection based on a simulated ecology. Amee
is implemented in Utopia, which allows performant, integrated implementation and
simulation of arbitrary agent-based models. A phenomenological overview over Amee’s
capabilities is provided, ranging from the evolution of ecospecies down to the evolution
of metabolic networks and up to beyond-species-level biological organization, all of
which emerges autonomously from the basic dynamics. The interaction of development,
plasticity, and niche construction has been investigated, and it has been shown that while
expected natural phenomena can, in principle, arise, the accessible simulation time and
system size are too small to produce natural evo-devo phenomena and –structures. Amee thus can be used to simulate the evolution of a wide variety of processes
Methode zur Bewertung der Zuverlässigkeit der elektrischen Energieversorgung in der automobilen Vorentwicklung
Mit der Einführung hoch automatisierter Assistenzsysteme in Personenkraftwagen nehmen die Anforderungen an die Zuverlässigkeit der elektrischen Energieversorgung deutlich zu. In dieser Arbeit wird eine Methode zur Bewertung der Zuverlässigkeit der elektrischen Energieversorgung in der automobilen Vorentwicklung vorgestellt und angewendet. Als Ergebnis konnte gezeigt werden, dass die klassische elektrische Energieversorgung nicht zur Versorgung hoch automatisierter Assistenzsysteme geeignet ist
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