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For many pre-health and graduate programs, organic chemistry is often the most difficult prerequisite course that students will take. To alleviate this difficulty, an intelligent tutoring system was developed to provide valuable feedback to practice problems within organic chemistry. This paper focuses on the design and use of an intelligent input parser for nomenclature questions within this system. Students in Dr. Gould's Fall 2014 organic chemistry class used this system and their data was collected to analyze the effectiveness of the input parser. Overall the students' feedback was optimistic and there was a positive relationship between test scores and student use of the system.
ContributorsHusarcik, Edward Andrew (Author) / Gould, Ian (Thesis director) / VanLehn, Kurt (Committee member) / Beerman, Eric (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
With higher than normal levels of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and sexually transmitted diseases within the Deaf community, it is clear that the current level of medical care is failing. This can stem from many different issues, from the mistrust of doctors to the fact that scientific education in the Deaf community is introduced at a later time in comparison to the hearing population. Similarly, there is a distinct lack of Deaf and hard of hearing medical staff. All of this culminates in the fact that the system needs to change. The addition of more Deaf staff in the medical environment, more staff interpreters, and doctors that have experience with the Deaf community engenders the metamorphosis of this group from unhealthy to healthy. Extra exposure for doctors during clinical rotations to deaf patients as well as training in Deaf Culture will further increase the comfort level of Deaf community members utilizing health services. As a result, the overall state of medical care for the Deaf population will improve with these modifications to the current system.
ContributorsBrar, Serbnoor Singh (Author) / Quinn, Paul (Thesis director) / Howard, Pamela (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The Dorrance Center for Rare Childhood Disorders is a unique research division at TGen (The Translational Genomics Research Institute) that provides personalized care to children and young adults facing rare, undiagnosed diseases. TGen scientists believe that the answers to these enigmatic disorders can often be found in a person's genetic code. They aim to solve these genetic mysteries using whole exome sequencing, a method that prioritizes the protein-coding portion of the genome in the search for disease-causing variants. Unfortunately, a communication gap sometimes exists between the TGen scientists and the patients they serve. I have seen, first hand, the kind of confusion that this study elicits in the families of its participants. Therefore, for my thesis, I decided to create a booklet that is meant to provide some clarity as to what exactly The Dorrance Center for Rare Childhood Disorders does to help diagnose children with rare disorders. The purpose of the booklet is to dispel any confusion regarding the study by providing a general review of genetics and an application of these lessons to the relevant sequencing technology as well as a discussion of the causes and effects of genetic mutations that often times are linked to rare childhood disorders.
ContributorsCambron, Julia Claire (Author) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Huentelman, Matt (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the current atmosphere of genetic patent law and use economic theory to construct models which describe the consequences of the legal code. I intend to analyze the four specific cases of Diamond v. Chakrabarty, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, the Alzheimer's Institute of America v. Jackson Laboratory, and the harm caused by PGx Health's monopoly over the LQTS gene.
ContributorsVolz, Caleb Richard (Author) / DeSerpa, Allan (Thesis director) / Silverman, Daniel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Characterization of a Lipid Coating on the Surface of Silk Produced by the Embiid Antipaluria urichi
Description
Insects of the order Embiidina spin sheets of very thin silk fibers from their forelimbs to build silken shelters on bark and in leaf litter in tropical climates. Their shelters are very stiff and hydrophobic to keep out predators and rain. In this study, the existence of an outer lipid coating on silk produced by the embiid Antipaluria urichi is shown using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, FT-IR, and water drop contact angle analysis. Subsequently, the composition of the lipid layer is then characterized by 1H NMR and GC-MS.
ContributorsOsborn Popp, Thomas Michael (Author) / Yarger, Jeffery (Thesis director) / Holland, Gregory (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a prevalent genetic disease in Africa, and specifically in Kenya. The lack of available relevant disease education and screening mean that most don't understand the importance of getting testing and many children die before they can get prophylactic care. This project was designed to address the lack of knowledge with supplemental educational materials to be partnered with an engineering capstone project that provides a low cost diagnostic test.
ContributorsShawver, Jamie Christine (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / Snyder, Jan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The United States is experiencing an increase in the prevalence and influence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patient healthcare, reflecting the increasingly positive public and professional attitudes on the use of CAM therapies. Despite the growing presence of CAM in U.S. healthcare, there are still many barriers to integration. This study aims to reveal the attitudes of conventional, integrative and CAM practitioners concerning the major challenges of CAM's integration, explore their proposed solutions, and reveal any discrepancies in these attitudes among different types of practitioners. Twenty-eight practitioners were interviewed on the challenges in the five facets of CAM's integration: integration into hospitals, integration into medical schools, insurance coverage for CAM, licensing & regulation of CAM practitioners, and clinical research in CAM. The overall positive attitudes on the benefits of CAM's integration support previous research on the subject; however, the conventional practitioners were unable to extend these benefits to real-world application, and they were unaware of many of the challenges facing CAM's integration. The CAM practitioners attributed many of the problems facing integration to the inability of CAM's philosophy to comply with the current ideology of medical academia, health insurance model, and laws that govern the licensing and regulation of medical practitioners. The CAM and integrative practitioners perceived there to be a large resistance from conventional practitioners, specifically concerning the integration of CAM into education, providing insurance coverage for CAM, and the licensing and regulation of CAM practitioners. They attributed this to a perceived lack of research on safe and effective treatments in CAM. The conventional practitioner responses reflected this weariness of treatment effectiveness in their responses. However, the CAM and integrative practitioners believed these claims to be largely inaccurate, and constructed by the influence and manipulation of large-scale medical corporations and organizations. The participants believed that more evidence-based research in CAM, and increased public awareness in CAM therapies will force conventional practitioners to increase their knowledge in CAM, helping to alleviate their fears and skepticism of CAM therapies. By easing these concerns, dialogue can occur among practitioners of different modalities that will help to ensure a smooth integration of CAM and will raise the quality of patient healthcare by providing safe and effective resources for alternate forms of treatment.
ContributorsJohnston, Shantele Hanna Lee (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-05
DescriptionThis thesis investigates Irish ballads from the 19th and 20th centuries. It examines Catholicism, Anti British sentiment, their native home, and the Irish character as a part of the Irish identity being formed during the Irish revival.
ContributorsIvie, Marissa Daun (Author) / Facinelli, Diane (Thesis director) / Lynch, Jacquelyn Scott (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
ContributorsSavarese, Erica (Author) / Robert, Jason (Thesis director) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / Verrelli, Brian (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a devastating illness that causes the degeneration of both upper and lower motor neurons, leading to eventual muscle atrophy. ALS rapidly progresses into paralysis, with patients typically dying due to respiratory complications within three to five years from the onset of their symptoms. Even after many years of research and drug trials, there is still no cure, and current therapies only succeed in increasing life-span by approximately three months. With such limited options available for patients, there is a pressing need to not only find a cure, but also make new treatments available in order to ameliorate disease symptoms. In a genome-wide association study previously conducted by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) upstream of a novel gene, FLJ10968, were found to significantly alter risk for ALS. This novel gene acquired the name FGGY after publication of the paper. FGGY exhibits altered levels of protein expression throughout ALS disease progression in human subjects, and detectable protein and mRNA expression changes in a mouse model of ALS. We performed co-immunoprecipitation experiments coupled with mass spectrometry in order to determine which proteins are associated with FGGY. Some of these potential binding partners have been linked to RNA regulation, including regulators of the splicesomal complex such as SMN, Gemin, and hnRNP C. To further validate these findings, we have verified co-localization of these proteins with one another. We hypothesize that FGGY plays an important role in ALS pathogenesis, and we will continue to examine its biological function.
ContributorsTerzic, Barbara (Author) / Jensen, Kendall (Thesis director) / Francisco, Wilson (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05