Meditation – Yeezy’s (Impossible) Love in Fugitivity’s Strings: A Meditation on “Runaway”

Kanye's debut trilogy of music- The College Dropout (2004), Late Registration (2005), and Graduation (2007) - modeled his ascension to the pinnacle of Hip Hop on truancy, a turning away from America's expected path of formal education. Black folks enter professional machineries of all sorts to make it up and over mountains of struggle, but once enduring the fires of training, whether in College, or in other networks, what awaits us on the other side of financial and commercial success can resemble more of a nightmare than a dream - a dark twisted fantasy. The symphonic feel of "Gone," supplicated by powerful lines from Cam'ron and Consequence, concludes with Kanye, lifted by strings, admitting his consideration to leave the rap game behind: "I'm ahead of my time, sometimes years out / So the powers that be won't let me get my ideas out / And that make me wanna get my advance out / And move to Oklahoma and just live at my aunt's house / Yeah, I romance the thought of leaving it all behind / Kanye step away from the lime / Light." [...]he realizes that assuming the role of a sensei in the rap game would be contributing to the mechanistic production of replaceable Hip Hop artists, and also depriving the world of his irreplaceable talent

Maximal Denumerant of a Numerical Semigroup With Embedding Dimension Less Than Four

Given a numerical semigroup $S =$ and $s\in S$, we consider the factorization $s = c_1 a_1 + c_2 a_2 +... + c_t a_t$ where $c_i\ge0$. Such a factorization is {\em maximal} if $c_1+c_2+...+c_t$ is a maximum over all such factorizations of $s$. We show that the number of maximal factorizations, varying over the elements in $S$, is always bounded. Thus, we define \dx(S) to be the maximum number of maximal factorizations of elements in $S$. We study maximal factorizations in depth when $S$ has embedding dimension less than four, and establish formulas for \dx(S) in this case.Comment: Main results are unchanged, but proofs and exposition have been improved. Some details have been changed considerably including the titl

Cancerphobia: Electromagnetic Fields and Their Impact on Residential Loan Values

This article provides a matrix representation of the adjustment grid estimator. From this representation, one can invoke the Gauss-Mrkov theorem to examine the efficiency of ordinary least squares (OLS) and the grid estimator that uses OLS estimates of the adjustments (the "plug-in" grid method). In addition, this matrix representation suggests a generalized least squares version of the grid method, labeled herin as the total grid estimator. Based on the empirical experiments, the total grid estimator outperformed the plug-in grid estimator, which in turn outperformed the OLS.

Applications of Metal-Organic Frameworks in Catalysis and Separations

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of porous coordination polymers that has been the subject of intense investigation since there discovery almost 30 years ago. The combination of organic linker and metal node in a 3-dimensional framework leads to materials that are tunable, have high surface area and in most cases are highly porous. The applications of these materials spans from gas storage to catalysis. Chapter 2 describes the utilization of MOFs to catalyze the carbonation of propylene oxide to propylene carbonate. The design and construction of a packed-bed flow reactor was undertaken to allow systematic investigation. This systematic investigation of co-catalyst, catalyst synthesis, catalyst activation, node metal and node geometry resulted in high yielding conditions with low CO2 pressure (1-10 bar) and no added co-catalyst, conditions that previously, under batch conditions, lead to poor yields. These studies eventually resulted in the identification of a new catalyst, MIL-100(Sc), for this reaction. Chapter 3 investigates post-synthetic modification of MIL-101-SO3X through cation exchange. MIL-101-SO3X was treated with various potassium salts resulting in substitution at the sulfonate and establishing a relationship between conjugate acid pKa and MOF degradation. The exchange process demonstrated allow for rapid and complete conversion between protonated (–SO3H) and alkali metal exchanged (–SO3X) through brief (10 min) treatment with bicarbonate base followed by alkali chloride salt treatment for 1 h or by the utilization of high equivalents of alkali chloride salt relative to incorporated sulfonate. The exchange process was successful in generating previously unreported MIL-101-SO3X loaded with K, Rb, and Cs. Chapter 4 expands upon post-synthetic modification by investigating the conversion of aminated MOFs (IRMOF-3, UMCM-1- NH2, MIL-53(Al)-NH2, and UiO-66-NH2) into sulfonated MOFs by reaction with 1,3-propanesultone. This process can be performed both neat and in solvent leading to 26 and 61% loading of sulfonate. This mild procedure was used on a wide variety of aminated MOFs containing different node metals (Zn, Zr, Al) and organic linkers (2-aminoterephtalic acid and benzene tribenzoic acid) to generate sulfonates that would otherwise be difficult to access. Loading of Ir, Pd and Rh cationic catalyst was attempted resulting in improved loading in sulfonated MOFs. Further evaluation of cationic loading into post-synthetically modified MOFs is necessary to elucidate the primary contributed factors for exchange in these materials.PHDChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146126/1/bryjames_1.pd

Oligo(ethylene glycol) chains: applications and advancements in biosensing

Oligo(ethylene glycol) groups have been used as substituents in poly(p-phenyleneethynylene)s (PPEs) to provide solubility, and to boost quantum yield. Properties such as water-solubility and increased quantum yield in aqueous solution make these conjugated systems promising for biosensory applications. In this thesis, a PPE containing a branched ethylene glycol side chain is synthesized as part of a polymer array for glycan biosensing. I also report that the same side chain can be put to use in a red-emissive polymer to lend water solubility. Another monomeric unit, containing ethylene glycol chains, is incorporated into a PPE to create an ampiphilic polymer. The versatility of these polymers allows them to be used for a variety of purposes, some of which will be described herein.M.S.Committee Chair: Uwe Bunz; Committee Member: David Collard; Committee Member: Stefan Franc