Comparative Chemical Characterization of Lunasin-enriched Preparations and Modifications of the Inflammasomes \u3ci\u3eIn Vitro\u3c/i\u3e

Soybean (Glycine max) is one of the most cultivated crops in the world providing the population with large amounts of protein and oil. In addition to its nutritional composition, soybean also contains biologically active compounds with potential health-promoting properties. The presence of these bioactives may be responsible for the lower incidence of chronic diseases in populations that consume a significant portion of soybeans in their diet. One group of soybeanderived bioactives are bioactive peptides and proteins including lunasin, Bowman-Birk inhibitor (BBI) and Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor (KTI). The overall objective of this research was to develop a method of preparing lunasin-enriched material and evaluate the ability of lunasin-enriched material to inhibit activation of the inflammasomes in vitro. Lunasin-enriched materials were prepared using calcium chloride and pH precipitation methods and compared with two commercially-available lunasin-enriched products. The stability of lunasin against pepsin-pancreatin hydrolysis was evaluated in these materials and the effect of BBI and KTI concentrations were analyzed. Lunasin concentrations ranged from 8.5 to 71.0 μg [microgram]/g pre-hydrolysis and 4.0 to 13.2 μg/g after hydrolysis. In all products tested, lunasin concentration after pepsin-pancreatin hydrolysis (PPH) significantly correlated with BBI and KTI concentrations. One lunasinenriched preparation was evaluated for its ability to modify activation of the inflammasomes in vitro using THP-1 human macrophages. Aberrant activation of the inflammasomes is associated with development of human diseases such as cancer, diabetes and inflammatory bowel diseases. The activation of the inflammasomes in THP-1 human macrophages was accomplished by priming with lipopolysaccharide followed by adenosine triphosphate. Lunasin-enriched material was added during the priming step at concentrations ranging from 0.0625 to 0.25 mg/mL. Addition of lunasin-enriched preparation led to reduction of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) which correlated with reduction in the amount of pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β(beta) and interleukin-18. These results indicate that ROSs play an integral role in lunasin’s ability to inhibit inflammation and inflammasomes’ activation. This research is the first to report on the role of Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor on the stability of lunasin against PPH and potential of lunasin-enriched preparations as chemopreventive agent against diseases associated with aberrant activation of the inflammasomes

Landmark Enforcement and Principal Component Analysis for Improving GAN-Based Morphing

Facial Recognition Systems (FRSs) are a key target for adversaries determined to circumvent security checkpoints. Morph images threaten FRS by presenting as multiple individuals, allowing an adversary to swap identities with another subject. Although morph generation using generative adversarial networks (GANs) results in high-quality morphs without possessing the spatial artifacts caused by landmarkbased methods, there is an apparent loss in identity with standard GAN-based morphing methods. In this thesis, we examine landmark-based and GAN-based morphing methods to fuse the advantages of both methodologies. We propose a novel StyleGAN2 morph generation technique by introducing a landmark enforcement method. Considering this method, we aim to enforce the landmarks of the morph image to represent the spatial average of the landmarks of the bona fide faces. Loss in visual quality of images projected into the latent space of the StyleGAN2 model reduces the potential quality of the morphs. We compare previous image inversion methods to derive a novel method to improve the latent space representation of an image. To further improve the perceptual quality of the morphs, we examine the noise inputs of our model. Trainability of the noise input is evaluated to learn reconstruction information the latent codes cannot represent. Further exploration of the latent space of our model is conducted using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to pronounce the effect of the bona fide faces on the morphed latent representation. This work’s contributions include a novel GAN-based morphing method to attack FRS at higher success rates than alternative GAN-based methods. We improve image inversion into the latent space by exploring the model’s noise input while enforcing the balance of latent identities through PCA

Migration Creation, Diversion, and Retention: New Deal Grants and Migration: 1935-1940

During the 1930s the federal government embarked upon an ambitious series of grant programs designed to counteract the Great Depression. The amounts distributed varied widely across the country and potentially contributed to population shifts. We estimate an aggregate discrete choice model, in which household heads choose among 466 economic subregions. The structural model allows us to decompose the effects of program spending on migration into three categories: the effect of spending on keeping households in their origin (retention), the effect of pulling non-migrants out of their origin (creation), and the effect of causing migrants to substitute away from an alternative destination (diversion). An additional dollar of public works and relief spending increased net migration into an area primarily by retaining the existing population and creating new migration into the county. Only a small share of the increase in net migration rate was caused by diversion of people who had already chosen to migrate. AAA spending contributed to net out migration, primarily by creating new out migrants and repelling potential in migrants. A counterfactual analysis suggests that the uneven distribution of New Deal spending explains about twelve percent of the internal migration flows in the United States between 1935 and 1940.

Investigating the potential impact of 1.5, 2 and 3 °C global warming levels on crop suitability and planting season over West Africa

West African rainfed agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate variability and change. Global warming is projected to result in higher regional warming and have a strong impact on agriculture. This study specifically examines the impact of global warming levels (GWLs) of 1.5°, 2° and 3 °C relative to 1971–2000 on crop suitability over West Africa. We used 10 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase5 Global Climate Models (CMIP5 GCMs) downscaled by Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) Rossby Centre’s regional Atmospheric model version 4, RCA4, to drive Ecocrop, a crop suitability model, for pearl millet, cassava, groundnut, cowpea, maize and plantain. The results show Ecocrop simulated crop suitability spatial representation with higher suitability, observed to the south of latitude 14°N and lower suitability to its north for 1971–2000 for all crops except for plantain (12°N). The model also simulates the best three planting months within the growing season from September-August over the past climate. Projected changes in crop suitability under the three GWLs 1.5–3.0 °C suggest a spatial suitability expansion for legume and cereal crops, notably in the central southern Sahel zone; root and tuber and plantain in the central Guinea-Savanna zone. In contrast, projected decreases in the crop suitability index value are predicted to the south of 14°N for cereals, root and tuber crops; nevertheless, the areas remain suitable for the crops. A delay of between 1-3 months is projected over the region during the planting month under the three GWLs for legumes, pearl millet and plantain. A two month delay in planting is projected in the south, notably over the Guinea and central Savanna zone with earlier planting of about three months in the Savanna-Sahel zones. The effect of GWL2.0 and GWL3.0 warming in comparison to GWL1.5 °C are more dramatic on cereals and root and tuber crops, especially cassava. All the projected changes in simulated crop suitability in response to climatic variables are statistically significant at 99% confidence level. There is also an increasing trend in the projected crop suitability change across the three warming except for cowpea. This study has implications for improving the resilience of crop production to climate changes, and more broadly, to food security in West Africa

The Synthesis and Optimization of Conjugated Polymers for Photovoltaic Applications

Conjugated polymer solar cells have the potential to be a cheap, light weight, robust source of solar power and could contribute to solving the energy problems our future faces. The primary limiting factor for commercialization of these devices is the power conversion efficiency, which is governed by the conjugated polymer semiconductor in the active layer of these devices. However, the current state of the art materials are not optimized, and progress in the design of conjugated polymers must be made for these devices to be financially viable. Synthetic modification of the polymer p-type semiconductor is necessary to fully understand the structure-property relationships that govern the underlying principle performance criteria of these polymer photovoltaic cells. By synthesizing new conjugated polymers with a variety of chemical structures, more insight can be gained into the factors that govern the band gap, oxidation and reduction potential, hole mobility, and phase separation behavior of the conjugated polymer is achieved. The culmination of this knowledge allows for the synthesis of new polymer materials which show exceptionally high photovoltaic efficiency of 7%. Additionally, these polymers are able to form exceptionally thick films and still maintain high efficiencies. The exceptional performance of these materials grants a unique insight that will affect polymer design strategies in the future.Doctor of Philosoph

Estimation of Effective Elastic Thickness in Regions of Reduced Topography: A Case Study in the Permian Basin

The effective elastic thickness (Te) of the lithosphere is a geometric measure of its flexural rigidity and is determined by isostatic forces, crustal composition, thermal properties, and deformation history. As such, Te can be used to constrain mechanical properties of the lithosphere and reflects the tectonic evolution of both continental and oceanic plates. Inverse spectral analysis techniques such as gravitational admittance and coherence utilize gravity and topography data in conjunction with various plate models to estimate Te across a region. 2-D gravitational coherence has been widely used in continental flexural studies, although recent work has revealed that coherence can significantly bias Te estimations in regions of reduced topography. The Delaware and Midland Basins of west Texas are such regions that have undergone significant but poorly quantified magnitudes of erosion, and application of spectral analysis to estimate Te has proved difficult. A revised method of estimating Te is herein provided that utilizes a modified form of the observed 1-D gravitational admittance. The method introduces a topographic regularization parameter (TRP) to account for the reduction of mid-to-high wavenumber spectral power associated with erosion and interpolation of unevenly spaced data. Implementation of the TRP increases the spectral power of the topography, effectively producing artificial, uncompensated low-to-mid wavelength topography which improves inversion results. A 2-D effective elastic thickness map is produced across the Permian Basin using the revised admittance calculation. Spatial resolution of Te estimates increased utilizing multi-trace 1-D admittance over 2-D coherence. The resulting regional variation in Te reported herein correlates with known geology and provides insight into the future development of Te estimation and geologic interpretation of structures in basins worldwide

New High-Altitude GPS Navigation Results from the Magnetospheric Multiscale Spacecraft and Simulations at Lunar Distances

As reported in a companion work, in its first phase, NASA's 2015 highly elliptic Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission set a record for the highest altitude operational use of on-board GPS-based navigation, returning state estimates at 12 Earth radii. In early 2017 MMS transitioned to its second phase which doubled the apogee distance to 25 Earth radii, approaching halfway to the Moon. This paper will present results for GPS observability and navigation performance achieved in MMS Phase 2. Additionally, it will provide simulation results predicting the performance of the MMS navigation system applied to a pair of concept missions at Lunar distances. These studies will demonstrate how high-sensitivity GPS (or GNSS) receivers paired with onboard navigation software, as in MMS-Navigation system, can extend the envelope of autonomous onboard GPS navigation far from the Earth

A Patchwork Safety Net: A Survey of Cliometric Studies of Income Maintenance Programs in the United States in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Social welfare programs in the United States are designed to serve as safety nets for people in hard times, in contrast with the universal approach found in many other developed western nations. In a survey of Cliometric studies of social welfare programs in the U.S., we examine the variation in the safety net in the U.S. across states in the 20th century, the determinants of the variation, and its impact on socioeconomic outcomes. The U.S. has always displayed substantial variation in the extent of the safety net because the features of most public social welfare programs are and were determined by local and state governments, even after the federal government became involved. Differences across states persist strongly for typically a decade, although the persistence weakens with time, and there are some periods when federal intervention led to a re-ordering. The rankings of state benefits differs from program to program, and economic and political factors have different weights in determining benefit levels in panel data estimation of their effects. Variation in benefits across programs during the early 1900s had significant impact on labor markets, economic activity, family formation, death rates, and crime.