Building Interaction with an Isolated Population through Social Media: The Deaf Community

The purpose of the study is to discover the effects of social media on the deaf community. Ten individuals, aged from 21 to 29, participated in this study. There was no control for race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. An Internet survey was used to gather data. Results suggest that hearing impaired individuals do use social media and that the ways in which is it used varies as a function of degree of hearing loss

Interdisciplinary Object-Oriented Domain Analysis for Electronic Medical Records

The experience gained during the domain analysis for data models of electronic medical records is discussed. Topics of interest are the way in which the domain is analyzed by means of expert interviews, the observed need for parallelism in the learning process, object-oriented modeling of the results, tool support for rapid evaluation of models with an object-oriented database, and an assessment of the requirements on electronic medical records. The emphasis of this paper is to discuss the process of participatory analysis of the domain for electronic medical records in an interdisciplinary setting. Some extracts of the results of the domain analysis are presented

Scale-up of Polyaniline Cellulose Membranes

Polyaniline coated cellulose membranes show impressive conductive properties that may be used to innovate traditional charged separation techniques, such as electrodeionization. However, these membranes are not sold to consumers, so they cannot be easily integrated into such systems. This research focuses on the scale-up and development of positively charged anion exchange membranes to be used in EDI cells. Novel cellulose membranes were made using lab-specific cellulose. These membranes were then coated using a polyaniline technique adopted from a paper titled, “Flexible Electrically Conductive Nanocomposite Membrane Based on Bacterial Cellulose and Polyaniline. This paper details the methods used to add the polyaniline coating to lab-scale cellulose membranes. Fourier transfer infrared spectrometry (FTIR) was used to determine that the chemical composition of the material was altered. The carboxyl functional groups were most likely altered to imine groups judging by the shifted FTIR peaks. The theoretical chemical analysis performed before the experiment supports this conclusion. More work needs to be done to compile important data on the novel material, but the proof of concept has been shown within this research

Chemical vapor deposition of MoS₂ on distributed Bragg reflector for room temperature polariton condensation

The creation of a room temperature Bose Einstein Condensate has been the goal of much research since the phenomenon was first experimentally realized in 1995. Currently, polaritons stand out as a particularly viable option to achieve this goal as their low effective mass should in theory allow for a high condensation temperature. One proposed system to realize such a condensate is a semiconductor optical microcavity. In a semiconductor microcavity distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) are used to trap photons in the cavity, while a direct band gap semiconductor placed in the cavity would allow for the creation of excitons for those photons to couple with. In this work we explore the growth of crystalline monolayer Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS₂) directly onto the DBR to create such a microcavity. Growth of MoS₂ is well studied, however the DBR substrate presents unique challenges as the surface is inconducive for crystalline growth and the substrate itself warps and deteriorates at high temperatures. We then present techniques to overcome these challenges and recipes by which large area growth of monolayer MoS₂ growth on DBR can be attained.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Thomas Wolfe's Romantic Affinity for Germany

This thesis explores the politics and views of Thomas Wolfe's romantic affinity for Germany

Evolution of late steps in exocytosis:conservation and specialization of the exocyst complex

Background: The eukaryotic endomembrane system most likely arose via paralogous expansions of genes encoding proteins that specify organelle identity, coat complexes and govern fusion specificity. While the majority of these gene families were established by the time of the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA), subsequent evolutionary events has moulded these systems, likely reflecting adaptations retained for increased fitness. As well as sequence evolution, these adaptations include loss of otherwise canonical components, the emergence of lineage-specific proteins and paralog expansion. The exocyst complex is involved in late exocytosis and additional trafficking pathways and a member of the complexes associated with tethering containing helical rods (CATCHR) tethering complex family. CATCHR includes the conserved oligomeric Golgi (COG) complex, homotypic fusion and vacuole protein sorting (HOPS)/class C core vacuole/endosome tethering (CORVET) complexes and several others. The exocyst is integrated into a complex GTPase signalling network in animals, fungi and other lineages. Prompted by discovery of Exo99, a non-canonical subunit in the excavate protist Trypanosoma brucei, and availability of significantly increased genome sequence data, we re-examined evolution of the exocyst. Methods: We examined the evolution of exocyst components by comparative genomics, phylogenetics and structure prediction. Results: The exocyst composition is highly conserved, but with substantial losses of subunits in the Apicomplexa and expansions in Streptophyta plants, Metazoa and land plants, where for the latter, massive paralog expansion of Exo70 represents an extreme and unique example. Significantly, few taxa retain a partial complex, suggesting that, in general, all subunits are probably required for functionality. Further, the ninth exocyst subunit, Exo99, is specific to the Euglenozoa with a distinct architecture compared to the other subunits and which possibly represents a coat system. Conclusions: These data reveal a remarkable degree of evolutionary flexibility within the exocyst complex, suggesting significant diversity in exocytosis mechanisms. </p

Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten : Leitfaden zur Erarbeitung von Studien- und Prüfungsleistungen am Kunsthistorischen Institut der Universität Bonn

Mit diesem Leitfaden möchten wir Ihnen eine Unterstützung beim Erbringen Ihrer Studien- und Prüfungsleistungen für das Fach Kunstgeschichte anbieten. Insbesondere wenn Sie am Anfang Ihres Studiums stehen, sollen Ihnen die Hinweise und Tipps eine Orientierung geben. Hierzu führt der Leitfaden Sie vom allgemeinen wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten über die Themenfindung – bspw. für ein Referat – und die Recherche von Text und Bild bis hin zum Abfassen Ihrer Hausarbeit

PKC Regulates a Farnesyl-Electrostatic Switch on K-Ras that Promotes its Association with Bcl-Xl on Mitochondria and Induces Apoptosis

K-Ras associates with the plasma membrane (PM) through farnesylation that functions in conjunction with an adjacent polybasic sequence. We show that phosphorylation by protein kinase C (PKC) of S181 within the polybasic region promotes rapid dissociation of K-Ras from the PM and association with intracellular membranes, including the outer membrane of mitochondria where phospho-K-Ras interacts with Bcl-Xl. PKC agonists promote apoptosis of cells transformed with oncogenic K-Ras in a S181-dependent manner. K-Ras with a phosphomimetic residue at position 181 induces apoptosis via a pathway that requires Bcl-Xl. The PKC agonist bryostatin-1 inhibited the growth in vitro and in vivo of cells transformed with oncogenic K-Ras in a S181-dependent fashion. These data demonstrate that the location and function of K-Ras are regulated directly by PKC and suggest an approach to therapy of K-Ras-dependent tumors with agents that stimulate phosphorylation of S18