Modeling of the Engineered Production of Curcumin in \u3ci\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/i\u3e

Curcumin is the major bioactive natural product in turmeric (Curcuma longa), which is commonly used as a food additive (flavor and colorant) and traditional medicine for thousands of years. This polyphenol has a variety of biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-Alzheimer’s effects. The current production process of this promising natural product is not environmentally friendly or cost-effective. However, microbial production represents a great alternative because of the significantly reduced production time and reproducible production process. Our group has previously introduced the required enzymes into Escherichia coli to construct an artificial curcumin production pathway in the bacterium. To enable industrial production of curcumin, it is necessary to continuously improve the yield in engineered strains. While testing various parameters in lab experiments are often time-consuming and labor-intensive, this work aims to establish a computer model in the PRISM language to simulate the production of curcumin in E. coli, based on which we could identify the limiting factors in the pathway for experimental optimization

Targeted Violence on Campus: A Comparison of Exposure and Response to Bias and Otherwise Motivated Potential Pre-Incident Behavior on a College Campus

Acts of targeted violence are of great concern to college administrators. Additionally, targeted violence motivated by bias (e.g., racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc.) is occurring at an increasing rate on campuses across the country. Previous research has identified potential pre-incident behaviors which may serve as indicators that an individual is escalating towards violent action. However, very limited research has been conducted which examines pre-incident behaviors which occur in bias motivated violence or aggression. With an undergraduate population (n = 1342), this study utilized a survey asking about exposure and response to both otherwise and biased motivated potential pre-incident behaviors on a college campus in order to make an initial attempt to compare events with differing motivations, and to provide initial estimates of the prevalence of these bias motivated pre-incident behaviors on a college campus. When compared to a no assault group, individuals who reported that the behaviors escalated to eventual physical or sexual assault witnessed more types of pre-incident behavior, higher numbers of pre-incident behavior, and increased repetitive unwanted contact, stalking behavior, threatening messages, and unwanted sexual advances. When compared to a group who reported non-bias motivation, those reporting behaviors motivated by some form of bias reported increased rates of disparaging, offensive or crude remarks, and threats. When reporters and non-reporters were compared, those who reported indicated witnessing a higher number of pre-incidents behavior. These findings suggest that while rarer than otherwise motivated events, bias motivated pre-incident behaviors occur on campus, can escalate to violent behavior, and are reported at a lower rate. Overall, it was found that increased pre-incident behavior is correlated to heightened risk of violence on campus in both bias and otherwise motivated events. The current study had multiple implications for managing bias motivated pre-incident behavior and improving reporting rates including improved community outreach, implementation of a threat assessment model, and further research to better understand bias motivated behavior on a college campus. Advisor: Mario J. Scalor

A system for measuring bubble voidage and frequency around tubes immersed in a fluidized bed of particles

Journal ArticleGas-solid fluidized beds are common in chemical processing and energy production industries. These types of reactors frequently have banks of tubes immersed within the bed to provide heating or cooling, and it is important that the fluid dynamics within these bundles is efficient and uniform. This paper presents a simple, low-cost method for quantitatively analyzing the behavior of gas bubbles within banks of tubes in a fluidized bed cold flow model. Two probes, one containing an infrared emitter and one containing an infrared (IR) detector, are placed into adjacent glass tubes such that the emitter and detector face each other. As bubbles pass through the IR beam, the detector signal increases due to less solid material blocking the path between the emitter and detector. By calibrating the signal response to known voidage of the material, one can measure the bubble voidage at various locations within the tube bundle. The rate and size of bubbles passing through the beam can also be determined by high frequency data collection and subsequent analysis. This technique allows one to develop a map of bubble voidage within a fluidized bed, which can be useful for model validation and system optimization

Boston Marathon athlete with gluteal tendinopathy: a case report

This case report demonstrates the importance of progressive loading in our older adult athletes who deal with gluteal tendinopathy. This condition most often affects people ages 40 and older. As the demographics of the nation are shifting towards an older population, the prevalence of this condition might also increase. Despite some goals not being met, this case study shows that common goals such as strength do not always translate into improvement in function and quality of life. As a profession, physical therapists need to be prepared to deal with the sport-specific goals that our older athletes have, while managing the challenges of an often-slow rehabilitation process. The patient is a 55 year old Boston Marathon participant. During training he started to experience right lateral hip pain described as achy and sometimes sharp. He performed in the Boston Marathon, however he was unable to finish the race without walking intermittently due to the pain. The patient was seen for 8 sessions, which comprised of gluteal isometric and isotonic strengthening exercises, followed by neuromuscular control exercises. The patient continued to run and increased his volume while receiving treatment. The patient was able to reduce pain from 7/10 to 3/10 while increasing their volume. They improved in pain, and function as seen in two self-reported outcome measures (Lower Extremity Functional Scale, and Hip Outcome Score). The patient decreased in strength according to data collected by a handheld dynamometer, but he achieved his sport-specific goal of decreasing pain while increasing running distance

Optimization of Endoscope Bending Section

Current endoscope bending sections are unable to resist strong compressive forces. The purpose of this design is to optimize an endoscope backbone that meets the following requirements: Bending requirement of 60° articulation Size requirements of 35 mm in length and an outer diameter of 19.5 French (~6.5 mm)

USU Student Chapter of AIS Recognized as Best New Student Chapter of 2011

A new student club at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business has been recognized by a global organization as its Best New Student Chapter in 2011.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/huntsman_news/1024/thumbnail.jp

The Gasification of Carbonaceous Materials in Molten Sodium Phosphate

The gasification rates of petroleum coke, char, and residual oil were measured in molten sodium phosphate. Both oxygen and steam were used as oxidants, and a variety of reactor configurations were studied. Reactors consisted of fused ceramic parts sealed into a reactor configuration using castable refractory. The reaction rate of carbon particles in a bubbling molten phosphate slurry was found to depend upon the rate of particle-bubble contacting. Upon contact, direct conversion of carbon particles with the gas phase occurs due to the large carbon-molten sodium phosphate contact angle (136°). The potential flow solution for flow around a bubble where particles are assumed to follow the streamlines gave a consistent picture of bubble-particle contacting. The reactivity of the carbon in the bulk liquid was found to be negligible due to the low solubility of oxygen in the melt. Gas phase (no salt) results were generated to establish base cases and to examine treatment effects on the reactivity of green sponge and green needle cokes. The reactivities of both were favorably affected by toluene extraction and adversely affected by calcination to 1300 K. Extraction decreased the agglomerating nature of the sponge coke. Both extracts were largely aromatic with the needle coke extract being more so. Molten sodium phosphate was found to catalyze the gasification of petroleum coke by steam and by oxygen. Such catalytic effects are limited due to the large carbon-salt contact angle and may be obscured in slurry reactors by the rate of particle-bubble contacting being slow. The steam reforming of residual oil revealed that the carbonized product in the molten salt phase closely resembled sponge petroleum coke (as produced by delayed coking). Cold model experiments employing water and polymeric beads revealed that dilute slurries of small, non-wetting particles decreased the rise velocity of single bubbles and increased the rate of bubble coalescence in swarms. Dilute slurries of wetting particles had no effect in either case.</p

The crust and upper mantle structure of central and West Antarctica from Bayesian inversion of Rayleigh Wave and receiver functions

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 123 (2018): 7824-7849, doi:10.1029/2017JB015346.We construct a new seismic model for central and West Antarctica by jointly inverting Rayleigh wave phase and group velocities along with P wave receiver functions. Ambient noise tomography exploiting data from more than 200 seismic stations deployed over the past 18 years is used to construct Rayleigh wave phase and group velocity dispersion maps. Comparison between the ambient noise phase velocity maps with those constructed using teleseismic earthquakes confirms the accuracy of both results. These maps, together with P receiver function waveforms, are used to construct a new 3‐D shear velocity (Vs) model for the crust and uppermost mantle using a Bayesian Monte Carlo algorithm. The new 3‐D seismic model shows the dichotomy of the tectonically active West Antarctica (WANT) and the stable and ancient East Antarctica (EANT). In WANT, the model exhibits a slow uppermost mantle along the Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) front, interpreted as the thermal effect from Cenozoic rifting. Beneath the southern TAMs, the slow uppermost mantle extends horizontally beneath the traditionally recognized EANT, hypothesized to be associated with lithospheric delamination. Thin crust and lithosphere observed along the Amundsen Sea coast and extending into the interior suggest involvement of these areas in Cenozoic rifting. EANT, with its relatively thick and cold crust and lithosphere marked by high Vs, displays a slower Vs anomaly beneath the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in the uppermost mantle, which we hypothesize may be the signature of a compositionally anomalous body, perhaps remnant from a continental collision.National Science Foundation Grant Numbers: PLR‐1142518, PLR‐1246712, PLR 1246151, PLR‐1246416, PLR‐1744883, PLR‐ 17448832019-03-2

Fall Chiseling for Annual Cropping of Spring Wheat in the Intermountain Dryland Region

Comparisons were made among annual cropping, annual cropping with fall chiseling, and a spring wheat-fallow rotation with chiseling after harvest under a climate with near uniform monthly precipitation of 23 cm. Because cropping season precipitation averaged only 9.1 cm, soil water storage before planting was necessary to ensure crop production. "Annually cropped" plots averaged 15.0 cm stored available water per 180-cm depth at planting, whereas "annually cropped-fall chiseled," and "cropped-fall chiseled-fallowed" plots averaged 21.3 and 22.9 cm, respectively. Soil water storage from the spring of the summerfallow year until the spring of the crop year was dependent upon the previous over-winter storage (r² = 0.65). When this initial storage was less than 23.9 cm per 180-cm depth, water in storage was increased by summer-fallowing. However when the initial storage exceeded 23.9 cm, summer-fallowing resulted in a soil water loss. As crop yields were dependent on soil water storage at planting time (r² = 0.68), it was possible to estimate in the spring what yields would be with annual cropping, and also what extra water might be stored by fallowing as an alternative practice. Nonfertilized, "annually cropped" and "annually cropped-fall chiseled" plots contained approximately the same amount of soil NO?-N at planting, but only the chiseled plots with their extra stored water produced a yield response from fertilizer N. In comparison, nonfertilized followed plots contained 1½ times as much NO?-N, and no yield response was obtained with fertilizer N