A direct proof of the functional Santalo inequality

We give a simple proof of a functional version of the Blaschke-Santalo inequality due to Artstein, Klartag and Milman. The proof is by induction on the dimension and does not use the Blaschke-Santalo inequality.Comment: 4 pages, file might be slighlty different from the published versio

The Children of Cain: Melville\u27s Use of the Abject Lineage from the Bible

This study looks at how the abject lineage--consisting of Cain, Ishmael and Esau--has played an influential role in the works of Herman Melville. While many critics have exploredthe relationship between Melville and these characters in the past, my study proposes that the author was intimately aware of the differences between these characters and their relationship to God and used these differences to compose his works. Ultimately, Melville struggled with the need for an abject lineage, and this struggle manifests itself most prominently in the evolving silence of Christ from Mardi to Bartleby

Statistical Learning for Structured Models: Tree Based Methods and Neural Networks

In this thesis, estimation in regression and classification problems which include low dimensional structures are considered. The underlying question is the following. How well do statistical learn- ing methods perform for models with low dimensional structures? We approach this question using various algorithms in various settings. For our first main contribution, we prove optimal convergence rates in a classification setting using neural networks. While non-optimal rates ex- isted for this problem, we are the first to prove optimal ones. Secondly, we introduce a new tree based algorithm we named random planted forest. It adapts particularly well to models which consist of low dimensional structures. We examine its performance in simulation studies and include some theoretical backing by proving optimal convergence rates in certain settings for a modification of the algorithm. Additionally, a generalized version of the algorithm is included, which can be used in classification settings. In a further contribution, we prove optimal con- vergence rates for the local linear smooth backfitting algorithm. While such rates have already been established, we bring a new simpler perspective to the problem which leads to better understanding and easier interpretation. Additionally, given an estimator in a regression setting, we propose a constraint which leads to a unique decomposition. This decomposition is useful for visualising and interpreting the estimator, in particular if it consits of low dimenional structures

INTERREGIONAL COMPETITION IN THE U.S. SWINE-PORK INDUSTRY: AN ANALYSIS OF OKLAHOMA'S AND THE SOUTHERN STATES' EXPANSION POTENTIAL

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Pseudotyping exosomes for enhanced protein delivery in mammalian cells.

Exosomes are cell-derived nanovesicles that hold promise as living vehicles for intracellular delivery of therapeutics to mammalian cells. This potential, however, is undermined by the lack of effective methods to load exosomes with therapeutic proteins and to facilitate their uptake by target cells. Here, we demonstrate how a vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSVG) can both load protein cargo onto exosomes and increase their delivery ability via a pseudotyping mechanism. By fusing a set of fluorescent and luminescent reporters with VSVG, we show the successful targeting and incorporation of VSVG fusions into exosomes by gene transfection and fluorescence tracking. We subsequently validate our system by live cell imaging of VSVG and its participation in endosomes/exosomes that are ultimately released from transfected HEK293 cells. We show that VSVG pseudotyping of exosomes does not affect the size or distributions of the exosomes, and both the full-length VSVG and the VSVG without the ectodomain are shown to integrate into the exosomal membrane, suggesting that the ectodomain is not required for protein loading. Finally, exosomes pseudotyped with full-length VSVG are internalized by multiple-recipient cell types to a greater degree compared to exosomes loaded with VSVG without the ectodomain, confirming a role of the ectodomain in cell tropism. In summary, our work introduces a new genetically encoded pseudotyping platform to load and enhance the intracellular delivery of therapeutic proteins via exosome-based vehicles to target cells

Sweetheart Time

Contains advertisements and/or short musical examples of pieces being sold by publisher.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/7153/thumbnail.jp

DEVELOPMENT OF AN IONIC LIQUID FERROFLUID ELECTROSPRAY SOURCE AND MODE SHAPE STUDIES OF A FERROFLUID IN A NON-UNIFORM MAGNETIC FIELD

An electrospray source has been developed using a novel new fluid that is both magnetic and conductive. Unlike conventional electrospray sources that required microfabricated structures to support the fluid to be electrosprayed, this new electrospray fluid utilizes the Rosensweig instability to create the structures in the magnetic fluid when an external magnetic field was applied. Application of an external electric field caused these magnetic fluid structures to spray. These fluid based structures were found to spray at a lower onset voltage than was predicted for electrospray sources with solid structures of similar geometry. These fluid based structures were also found to be resilient to damage, unlike the solid structures found in traditional electrospray sources. Further, experimental studies of magnetic fluids in non-uniform magnetic fields were conducted. The modes of Rosensweig instabilities have been studied in-depth when created by uniform magnetic fields, but little to no studies have been performed on Rosensweig instabilities formed due to non-uniform magnetic fields. The measured spacing of the cone-like structures of ferrofluid, in a non-uniform magnetic field, were found to agree with a proposed theoretical model