The Autumn Leaves Swirl in Crisp October Wind

Title from PDF of title page, viewed June 14, 2023Thesis advisor: Paul RudyVitaThesis (M.M.)--UMKC Conservatory. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2023The Autumn Leaves Swirl in Crisp October Wind is a programmatic work for wind ensemble consisting of five sections. Each section of the work takes the listener on a journey through my own childhood memories of autumn in Michigan. The first section is titled “Bursting with Color”, featuring the brass and percussion; this segment represents the vivid color changing of leaves during the fall season. The second section, “Steady, Rhythmic”, expresses the excitement and fun of Halloween night, beginning with a layered percussion groove with more instruments adding in over time. The third “Brisk” section features various sections in the ensemble and signifies a change in weather, with temperatures dropping and cold winds nipping at one’s skin. The constant sound of the temple block and steady brass ostinato represent the urge to get indoors on a cold, November day. The fourth section is the melancholic “Autumnal Chorale”, initiated by a French horn soli. This portion of the work indicates the end of the fall season as winter takes over. Finally, a “Vivid” section concludes the piece, as flourishing woodwinds and flashy percussion dance around the brass, who expand upon the melodic material from “Bursting with Color”

Continuous Synthesis of Zn2Al-CO3 Layered Double Hydroxides for the Adsorption of Reactive Dyes from Water

A novel pilot scale approach to continuous synthesis of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) was used to produce Zn2Al-CO3. The Zn2Al-CO3 was calcined and used in the adsorption of Reactive Black 5 (RB5) and Reactive Orange 16 (RO16) from water. The specific surface area of the LDH was 50.1 m2 g-1, while the surface area of the calcined LDH (MMO) was 57.8 m2 g-1. X-ray diffraction indicated complete breakdown of the LDH at 500 °C for 4 hours, with amorphous Al2O3 or AlOOH alongside ZnO. Reaction variables in the adsorption system; temperature, adsorbent dose, pH, initial concentration and the effect of competing anions were investigated across four temperatures from 10 °C to 40 °C. Maximum adsorption capacity calculated from the Langmuir isotherm was 895 mg g-1 and 589 mg g-1 at 20 °C, for RB5 and RO16, respectively. Intercalation of dye molecules was the main mode of adsorption, as indicated by shifts in (003) reflection from 11.5° to 4.5° and 3.2° for RB5 and RO16 respectively. Adsorption was best modelled by the pseudo 2nd order kinetic model. The intra-particle diffusion model indicated multiple stages of adsorption; surface adsorption occurs initially, followed by, intra-particle diffusion of dye molecules into the interlayer region. Regeneration through calcination resulted in an adsorption equal to 99 ± 2%

The alternate GNB3 splice variant, Gβ3s, exhibits an altered signalling response to EGF stimulation, which leads to enhanced cell migration

It has recently been reported that the duplication of the GNB3 gene has been shown to be directly linked to an obesity phenotype, both in humans and also in a humanised mouse model. Moreover, the common human GNB3 c.825C>T polymorphism (rs5443) causes this ubiquitously expressed gene to be aberrantly spliced approximately 50% of the time leading to the production of both a normal Gβ3 protein and a truncated, possibly less stable subunit, known as Gβ3s. The presence of the GNB3 825T allele has previously been shown to be associated with predisposition to hypertension, obesity, various cancers, Alzheimers, age related cognitive function, erectile dysfunction as well as a marker for pharmacogenetic drug action. Great controversy, however, currently exists as to whether these phenotypes associated with the 825T allele are a) mainly due to the presence of the smaller, possibly more active, Gβ3s subunit or b) merely down to the haploinsufficiency of the normal GNB3 transcript, due to its frequent aberrant splicing. In order to try and address these two conflicting hypothesis, we report on the identification and characterisation of signalling alterations unique to the presence of Gβ3s protein subunit. Moreover we also show the physiological consequences associated with altered signalling, directly induced by the Gβ3s subunit. For this, we used both an EBV transformed lymphoblast cell line homozygote for GNB3 825T/825T (TT) and a stable Gβ3s expressing recombinant COS-7 clone. In both of these cell lines that express the Gβ3s subunit, we found enhanced cytosolic calcium influx upon stimulation with EGF, TGFα and VEGF ligands, as compared to “normal” GNB3 controls with the 825C/825C (CC) genotype. This aberrant calcium influx also led to an increase in ERK, but not AKT1, phosphorylation. Despite the lack of AKT1 activation, we paradoxically observed a significant increase in phosphorylation of its downstream substrates, namely mTOR and p70S6k (KS6B2). Moreover we observed a decrease in phospho FoxO3a only in Gβ3s expressing cells, but not in the “normal” GNB3 (CC) control cell line. The presence of the Gβ3s subunit also appeared to alter the distinct localisation patterns of both Foxo3a and AKT1, while also increasing the colocalisation of mTOR and p70S6K. Subsequent growth factor stimulation studies revealed that EGF treatment, of Gβ3s expressing cells, appeared to cause a significant decrease in cAMP levels, which, in turn resulted in both enhanced caveolin-1a phosphorylation, and an increase in actin stress fibre formation. The identification of these distinct Gβ3s specific signalling alterations were indicative of a more aggressive migratory phenotype. This led us to further investigate and confirm that the presence of the Gβ3s subunit also appears to cause significantly enhanced migration and robust scratch wound healing kinetics, as compared to cells harbouring only the normal copy of the gene. These data therefore present convincing evidence that the Gβ3s subunit is stable, functional and its presence can significantly alter signalling pathways, in different cell types

Application of photosynthetic N(2)-fixing cyanobacteria to the CELSS program

The feasibility of using photosynthetic microalgae (cyanobacteria) as a subsystem component for the closed ecological life support system program, with particular emphasis on the manipulation of the biomass (protein/carbohydrate) was addressed. Using factors which retard growth rates, but not photosynthetic electron flux, the partitioning of photosynthetically derived reductant may be dictated towards CO2 fixation (carbohydrate formation) and away from N2 fixation (protein formation). Cold shock treatment of fairly dense cultures markedly increases the glycogen content from 1 to 35 percent (dry weight), and presents a useful technique to change the protein/carbohydrate ratio of these organisms to a more nutritionally acceptable form

A multimodal analysis of emancipatory discourse: A study of AWARE'S social awareness postcards.

Master'sMASTER OF ART

Development of a petrographic technique to assess the spontaneous combustion susceptibility of Indian coals

Petrographic studies are commonly used categorise the potential utilisation of coals. Eleven coal samples from the jharia coalfield (JCF), india, were studied using petrographic techniques to investigate maceral content, reflectance, and textural characteristics. Multiple test samples of each coal were slowly oxidised under controlled laboratory conditions from an ambient temperature of 30°c to 300°c to investigate the morphology of oxidised coals. The petrographic characterisation of the coals before and after oxidation showed important changes in both morphology and vitrinite reflectance. The oxidation of the coal particles produced three predominant textural changes: particles with homogeneous change of reflectance (HCv), particles with oxidation rims (ORv), and particles with no changes were observed (Uv) respectively. These textural characteristics were used to indicate how particles had interacted with oxygen at low temperatures during the early stages of oxidation. The morphological classification developed provides an alternative method to confirm the susceptibility of a coal to spontaneous combustion. Conventional thermal parameters such as crossing point temperature (CPT) were unable to identify the coals prone to spontaneous combustion. However, certain petrographic parameters could be combined with CPT values to provide a much more accurate measure for susceptibility to spontaneous combustion

Tunable microwave signal generator with an optically-injected 1310nm QD-DFB laser

Tunable microwave signal generation with frequencies ranging from below 1 GHz to values over 40 GHz is demonstrated experimentally with a 1310nm Quantum Dot (QD) Distributed-Feedback (DFB) laser. Microwave signal generation is achieved using the period 1 dynamics induced in the QD DFB under optical injection. Continuous tuning in the positive detuning frequency range of the quantum dot's unique stability map is demonstrated. The simplicity of the experimental configuration offers promise for novel uses of these nanostructure lasers in Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) applications and future mobile networks. © 2013 Optical Society of America

Application of TG technique to determine spontaneous heating propensity of coals

© 2020, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary. The TG method is applied to eleven coal samples of varying rank collected from across the Jharia coalfield, India, to determine spontaneous heating susceptibility. Previous literature does not agree as to the TG experimental parameter that characterizes the spontaneous heating susceptibility of coal. A series of TG experiments were performed on triplicate samples of each coal to determine the susceptibility of coal to spontaneous heating. Each prepared sample had the following properties: mass–10mg, size distribution − 212µm, and was subjected to a sample gas flow rate of 40mLmin−1 and a balance gas flow rate of 60mLmin−1 under the following four different heating rates: 1, 5, 15 and 30°Cmin−1. The study concludes that the heating rate of 5°Cmin−1 should be used to determine the spontaneous heating susceptibility. The experimental data obtained are subjected to chemo-metric tools, i.e. principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis to establish any linkage between the coal characteristics parameters and spontaneous heating susceptibility indices. These analyses reveal that the self-heating (Tsh) and ignition temperature (Tign) determined from the TG experiment results may indicate the susceptibility of coal to spontaneous heating, which is corroborated by well-established standard experiments as well as with field observations

Towards the Continuous Hydrothermal Synthesis of ZnO@Mg2Al-CO3 Core-Shell Composite Nanomaterials

Core-shell Zinc Oxide/Layered Double Hydroxide (ZnO@LDH) composite nanomaterials have been produced by a one-step continuous hydrothermal synthesis process, in an attempt to further enhance the application potential of layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanomaterials. The synthesis involves two hydrothermal reactors in series with the first producing a ZnO core and the second producing the Mg2Al-CO3 shell. Crystal domain length of single phase ZnO and composite ZnO was 25 nm and 42 nm, respectively. The ZnO@LDH composite had a specific surface area of 76 m2 g−1, which was larger than ZnO or Mg2Al-CO3 when produced separately (53 m2 g−1 and 58 m2 g−1, respectively). The increased specific surface area is attributed to the structural arrangement of the Mg2Al-CO3 in the composite. Platelets are envisaged to nucleate on the core and grow outwards, thus reducing the face–face stacking that occurs in conventional Mg2Al-CO3 synthesis. The Mg/Al ratio in the single phase LDH was close to the theoretical ratio of 2, but the Mg/Al ratio in the composite was 1.27 due to the formation of Zn2Al-CO3 LDH from residual Zn2+ ions. NaOH concentration was also found to influence Mg/Al ratio, with lower NaOH resulting in a lower Mg/Al ratio. NaOH concentration also affected morphology and specific surface area, with reduced NaOH content in the second reaction stage causing a dramatic increase in specific surface area (> 250 m2 g−1). The formation of a core-shell composite material was achieved through continuous synthesis; however, the final product was not entirely ZnO@Mg2Al-CO3. The product contained a mixture of ZnO, Mg2Al-CO3, Zn2Al-CO3, and the composite material. Whilst further optimisation is required in order to remove other crystalline impurities from the synthesis, this research acts as a stepping stone towards the formation of composite materials via a one-step continuous synthesis