Rational Design and Synthesis of Novel Firefly Luciferin Analogues for Bioluminescence

Firefly luciferin, also called D-luciferin, is the natural compound that bioluminesces in certain beetles and flies. This small molecule has been used for bioluminescence imaging (BLI), for example in preclinical cancer research. This thesis concerns the synthesis of novel D-luciferin analogues and the investigation of their bioluminescence and photophysical properties to explore the development of red shifted and brighter analogues. Chapter one presents the history and background of D-luciferin, and the synthesis of D-luciferin and its analogues. The second chapter presents basic photophysical principles. The third chapter discusses the synthesis of boron-chelated rigid luciferin analogues. The fourth chapter begins by discussing the concept of excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) and then moves onto the design and synthesis of potential ESIPT type rigid luciferin based on the skeleton of infra-luciferin (iLH2). The fifth chapter starts with a brief introduction of BODIPY and then discusses the development of BODIPY luciferin via a convergent synthetic route. The sixth chapter gives the basic idea of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) and then demonstrates the synthesis of an ICT enhanced 4’,6’-hydroxybenzothiazole luciferin. The seventh chapter begins with the design of novel V-shaped benzo[1,2-d:4,3-d']bis(thiazole) core structure according to our computational study and then describes the synthesis of V-shaped luciferin analogues via an SNAr reaction. The eighth chapter summarises the results and suggests some future work plans. The final chapter includes experimental procedures and characterisation data. The thesis is fully referenced to the primary literature

Purchasing power parity in G-7 countries: Further evidence based on ADL test for threshold cointegration

This study applies a newly-developed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ADL) test for threshold cointegration, proposed by Li and Lee (2010) to test the validity of long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) for G-7 countries over the January 1994 to April 2010. The empirical results indicate that PPP only holds true for Canada and France two countries. Our results have important policy implications for the G-7 countries under study.Purchasing Power Parity; G-7 Countries; ADL Test; Threshold Cointegration

The structure of quality information system in a computer integrated manufacturing environment

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27540/1/0000584.pd

Congestion Control for Machine-Type Communications in LTE-A Networks

Collecting data from a tremendous amount of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices for next generation networks is a big challenge. A large number of devices may lead to severe congestion in Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core Network (CN). 3GPP has specified several mechanisms to handle the congestion caused by massive amounts of devices. However, detailed settings and strategies of them are not defined in the standards and are left for operators. In this paper, we propose two congestion control algorithms which efficiently reduce the congestion. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can achieve 20~40% improvement regarding accept ratio, overload degree and waiting time compared with those in LTE-A

An optimal solution to a dock door assignment problem

This paper addresses issues at the shipping/receiving dock of a shipping company, where trucks arrive from vendors to have their shipments unloaded, sorted, and reloaded onto trucks going to the customers. The assignment of dock doors to incoming and outgoing trucks determines the efficiency of the dock operation. A bilinear programming model is proposed to solve the assignment problem.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29754/1/0000092.pd

Dual database strategy and implementation

In expanding from an application-oriented hierarchical database model information system to a system integrated with information-oriented relational database model, IBM offers its IMS/DB2 dual database strategy. There are also other non-IBM database technologies challenging DB2 as the only alternative for IMS installation. Automobile industries themselves are going through such a transition in developing their fourth-generation information systems. A couple major automobile corporations with IMS-based information systems are brought up as examples. These corporations have developed their design strategies and system architectures. Such an integration has influence upon the operating environment and the decision support for the end-user-driven information retrieval applications.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26914/1/0000480.pd

Functional pathway mapping analysis for hypoxia-inducible factors

Background: Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) are transcription factors that play a crucial role in response to hypoxic stress in living organisms. The HIF pathway is activated by changes in cellular oxygen levels and has significant impacts on the regulation of gene expression patterns in cancer cells. Identifying functional conservation across species and discovering conserved regulatory motifs can facilitate the selection of reference species for empirical tests. This paper describes a cross-species functional pathway mapping strategy based on evidence of homologous relationships that employs matrix-based searching techniques for identifying transcription factorbinding sites on all retrieved HIF target genes. Results: HIF-related orthologous and paralogous genes were mapped onto the conserved pathways to indicate functional conservation across species. Quantitatively measured HIF pathways are depicted in order to illustrate the extent of functional conservation. The results show that in spite of the evolutionary process of speciation, distantly related species may exhibit functional conservation owing to conservative pathways. The novel terms OrthRate and ParaRate are proposed to quantitatively indicate the flexibility of a homologous pathway and reveal the alternative regulation of functional genes. Conclusion: The developed functional pathway mapping strategy provides a bioinformatics approach for constructing biological pathways by highlighting the homologous relationships between various model species. The mapped HIF pathways were quantitatively illustrated and evaluated by statistically analyzing their conserved transcription factor-binding elements

Disordered Fe vacancies and superconductivity in potassium-intercalated iron selenide (K2-xFe4+ySe5)

The parent compound of an unconventional superconductor must contain unusual correlated electronic and magnetic properties of its own. In the high-Tc potassium intercalated FeSe, there has been significant debate regarding what the exact parent compound is. Our studies unambiguously show that the Fe-vacancy ordered K2Fe4Se5 is the magnetic, Mott insulating parent compound of the superconducting state. Non-superconducting K2Fe4Se5 becomes a superconductor after high temperature annealing, and the overall picture indicates that superconductivity in K2-xFe4+ySe5 originates from the Fe-vacancy order to disorder transition. Thus, the long pending question whether magnetic and superconducting state are competing or cooperating for cuprate superconductors may also apply to the Fe-chalcogenide superconductors. It is believed that the iron selenides and related compounds will provide essential information to understand the origin of superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors, and possibly to the superconducting cuprates