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The goal of this project was to design and create a genetic construct that would allow for <br/>tumor growth to be induced in the center of the wing imaginal disc of Drosophila larvae, the <br/>R85E08 domain, using a heat shock. The resulting transgene would be combined with other <br/>transgenes in a single fly that would allow for simultaneous expression of the oncogene and, in <br/>the surrounding cells, other genes of interest. This system would help establish Drosophila as a <br/>more versatile and reliable model organism for cancer research. Furthermore, pilot studies were <br/>performed, using elements of the final proposed system, to determine if tumor growth is possible <br/>in the center of the disc, which oncogene produces the best results, and if oncogene expression <br/>induced later in development causes tumor growth. Three different candidate genes were <br/>investigated: RasV12, PvrACT, and Avli.
ContributorsSt Peter, John Daniel (Author) / Harris, Rob (Thesis director) / Varsani, Arvind (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been widely used to measure the retinotopic organization of early visual cortex in the human brain. Previous studies have identified multiple visual field maps (VFMs) based on statistical analysis of fMRI signals, but the resulting geometry has not been fully characterized with mathematical models. This thesis explores using concepts from computational conformal geometry to create a custom software framework for examining and generating quantitative mathematical models for characterizing the geometry of early visual areas in the human brain. The software framework includes a graphical user interface built on top of a selected core conformal flattening algorithm and various software tools compiled specifically for processing and examining retinotopic data. Three conformal flattening algorithms were implemented and evaluated for speed and how well they preserve the conformal metric. All three algorithms performed well in preserving the conformal metric but the speed and stability of the algorithms varied. The software framework performed correctly on actual retinotopic data collected using the standard travelling-wave experiment. Preliminary analysis of the Beltrami coefficient for the early data set shows that selected regions of V1 that contain reasonably smooth eccentricity and polar angle gradients do show significant local conformality, warranting further investigation of this approach for analysis of early and higher visual cortex.
ContributorsTa, Duyan (Author) / Wang, Yalin (Thesis advisor) / Maciejewski, Ross (Committee member) / Wonka, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
In blindness research, the corpus callosum (CC) is the most frequently studied sub-cortical structure, due to its important involvement in visual processing. While most callosal analyses from brain structural magnetic resonance images (MRI) are limited to the 2D mid-sagittal slice, we propose a novel framework to capture a complete set of 3D morphological differences in the corpus callosum between two groups of subjects. The CCs are segmented from whole brain T1-weighted MRI and modeled as 3D tetrahedral meshes. The callosal surface is divided into superior and inferior patches on which we compute a volumetric harmonic field by solving the Laplace's equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We adopt a refined tetrahedral mesh to compute the Laplacian operator, so our computation can achieve sub-voxel accuracy. Thickness is estimated by tracing the streamlines in the harmonic field. We combine areal changes found using surface tensor-based morphometry and thickness information into a vector at each vertex to be used as a metric for the statistical analysis. Group differences are assessed on this combined measure through Hotelling's T2 test. The method is applied to statistically compare three groups consisting of: congenitally blind (CB), late blind (LB; onset > 8 years old) and sighted (SC) subjects. Our results reveal significant differences in several regions of the CC between both blind groups and the sighted groups; and to a lesser extent between the LB and CB groups. These results demonstrate the crucial role of visual deprivation during the developmental period in reshaping the structural architecture of the CC.
ContributorsXu, Liang (Author) / Wang, Yalin (Thesis advisor) / Maciejewski, Ross (Committee member) / Ye, Jieping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Sparsity has become an important modeling tool in areas such as genetics, signal and audio processing, medical image processing, etc. Via the penalization of l-1 norm based regularization, the structured sparse learning algorithms can produce highly accurate models while imposing various predefined structures on the data, such as feature groups or graphs. In this thesis, I first propose to solve a sparse learning model with a general group structure, where the predefined groups may overlap with each other. Then, I present three real world applications which can benefit from the group structured sparse learning technique. In the first application, I study the Alzheimer's Disease diagnosis problem using multi-modality neuroimaging data. In this dataset, not every subject has all data sources available, exhibiting an unique and challenging block-wise missing pattern. In the second application, I study the automatic annotation and retrieval of fruit-fly gene expression pattern images. Combined with the spatial information, sparse learning techniques can be used to construct effective representation of the expression images. In the third application, I present a new computational approach to annotate developmental stage for Drosophila embryos in the gene expression images. In addition, it provides a stage score that enables one to more finely annotate each embryo so that they are divided into early and late periods of development within standard stage demarcations. Stage scores help us to illuminate global gene activities and changes much better, and more refined stage annotations improve our ability to better interpret results when expression pattern matches are discovered between genes.
ContributorsYuan, Lei (Author) / Ye, Jieping (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Yalin (Committee member) / Xue, Guoliang (Committee member) / Kumar, Sudhir (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The contemporary architectural pedagogy is far removed from its ancestry: the classical Beaux-Arts and polytechnic schools of the 19th century and the Bauhaus and Vkhutemas models of the modern period. Today, the "digital" has invaded the academy and shapes pedagogical practices, epistemologies, and ontologies within it, and this invasion is reflected in teaching practices, principles, and tools. Much of this digital integration goes unremarked and may not even be explicitly taught. In this qualitative research project, interviews with 18 leading architecture lecturers, professors, and deans from programs across the United States were conducted. These interviews focused on advanced practices of digital architecture, such as the use of digital tools, and how these practices are viewed. These interviews yielded a wealth of information about the uses (and abuses) of advanced digital technologies within the architectural academy, and the results were analyzed using the methods of phenomenology and grounded theory. Most schools use digital technologies to some extent, although this extent varies greatly. While some schools have abandoned hand-drawing and other hand-based craft almost entirely, others have retained traditional techniques and use digital technologies sparingly. Reasons for using digital design processes include industry pressure as well as the increased ability to solve problems and the speed with which they could be solved. Despite the prevalence of digital design, most programs did not teach related design software explicitly, if at all, instead requiring students (especially graduate students) to learn to use them outside the design studio. Some of the problems with digital design identified in the interviews include social problems such as alienation as well as issues like understanding scale and embodiment of skill.
ContributorsAlqabandy, Hamad (Author) / Brandt, Beverly (Thesis advisor) / Mesch, Claudia (Committee member) / Newton, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Over 2 billion people are using online social network services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Users update their status, post their photos, share their information, and chat with others in these social network sites every day; however, not everyone shares the same amount of information. This thesis explores methods of linking publicly available data sources as a means of extrapolating missing information of Facebook. An application named "Visual Friends Income Map" has been created on Facebook to collect social network data and explore geodemographic properties to link publicly available data, such as the US census data. Multiple predictors are implemented to link data sets and extrapolate missing information from Facebook with accurate predictions. The location based predictor matches Facebook users' locations with census data at the city level for income and demographic predictions. Age and relationship based predictors are created to improve the accuracy of the proposed location based predictor utilizing social network link information. In the case where a user does not share any location information on their Facebook profile, a kernel density estimation location predictor is created. This predictor utilizes publicly available telephone record information of all people with the same surname of this user in the US to create a likelihood distribution of the user's location. This is combined with the user's IP level information in order to narrow the probability estimation down to a local regional constraint.
ContributorsMao, Jingxian (Author) / Maciejewski, Ross (Thesis advisor) / Farin, Gerald (Committee member) / Wang, Yalin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation investigates the condition of skeletal muscle insulin resistance using bioinformatics and computational biology approaches. Drawing from several studies and numerous data sources, I have attempted to uncover molecular mechanisms at multiple levels. From the detailed atomistic simulations of a single protein, to datamining approaches applied at the systems biology level, I provide new targets to explore for the research community. Furthermore I present a new online web resource that unifies various bioinformatics databases to enable discovery of relevant features in 3D protein structures.
ContributorsMielke, Clinton (Author) / Mandarino, Lawrence (Committee member) / LaBaer, Joshua (Committee member) / Magee, D. Mitchell (Committee member) / Dinu, Valentin (Committee member) / Willis, Wayne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This document presents a new implementation of the Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics algorithm using DirectX 11 and DirectCompute. The main goal of this document is to present to the reader an alternative solution to the largely studied and researched problem of fluid simulation. Most other solutions have been implemented using the NVIDIA CUDA framework; however, the proposed solution in this document uses the Microsoft general-purpose computing on graphics processing units API. The implementation allows for the simulation of a large number of particles in a real-time scenario. The solution presented here uses the Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics algorithm to calculate the forces within the fluid; this algorithm provides a Lagrangian approach for discretizes the Navier-Stockes equations into a set of particles. Our solution uses the DirectCompute compute shaders to evaluate each particle using the multithreading and multi-core capabilities of the GPU increasing the overall performance. The solution then describes a method for extracting the fluid surface using the Marching Cubes method and the programmable interfaces exposed by the DirectX pipeline. Particularly, this document presents a method for using the Geometry Shader Stage to generate the triangle mesh as defined by the Marching Cubes method. The implementation results show the ability to simulate over 64K particles at a rate of 900 and 400 frames per second, not including the surface reconstruction steps and including the Marching Cubes steps respectively.
ContributorsFigueroa, Gustavo (Author) / Farin, Gerald (Thesis advisor) / Maciejewski, Ross (Committee member) / Wang, Yalin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
In the middle of the 20th century, juried annuals of Native American painting in art museums were unique opportunities because of their select focus on two-dimensional art as opposed to "craft" objects and their inclusion of artists from across the United States. Their first fifteen years were critical for patronage and widespread acceptance of modern easel painting. Held at the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa (1946-1979), the Denver Art Museum (1951-1954), and the Museum of New Mexico Art Gallery in Santa Fe (1956-1965), they were significant not only for the accolades and prestige they garnered for award winners, but also for setting standards of quality and style at the time. During the early years of the annuals, the art was changing, some moving away from conventional forms derived from the early art training of the 1920s and 30s in the Southwest and Oklahoma, and incorporating modern themes and styles acquired through expanded opportunities for travel and education. The competitions reinforced and reflected a variety of attitudes about contemporary art which ranged from preserving the authenticity of the traditional style to encouraging experimentation. Ultimately becoming sites of conflict, the museums that hosted annuals contested the directions in which artists were working. Exhibition catalogs, archived documents, and newspaper and magazine articles about the annuals provide details on the exhibits and the changes that occurred over time. The museums' guidelines and motivations, and the statistics on the award winners reveal attitudes toward the art. The institutions' reactions in the face of controversy and their adjustments to the annuals' guidelines impart the compromises each made as they adapted to new trends that occurred in Native American painting over a fifteen year period. This thesis compares the approaches of three museums to their juried annuals and establishes the existence of a variety of attitudes on contemporary Native American painting from 1946-1960. Through this collection of institutional views, the competitions maintained a patronage base for traditional style painting while providing opportunities for experimentation, paving the way for the great variety and artistic progress of Native American painting today.
ContributorsPeters, Stephanie (Author) / Duncan, Kate (Thesis advisor) / Fahlman, Betsy (Thesis advisor) / Mesch, Claudia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
While exercising mammalian muscle increasingly relies on carbohydrates for fuel as aerobic exercise intensity rises above the moderate range, flying birds are extraordinary endurance athletes and fuel flight, a moderate-high intensity exercise, almost exclusively with lipid. In addition, Aves have long lifespans compared to weight-matched mammals. As skeletal muscle mitochondria account for the majority of oxygen consumption during aerobic exercise, the primary goal was to investigate differences in isolated muscle mitochondria between these species and to examine to what extent factors intrinsic to mitochondria may account for the behavior observed in the intact tissue and whole organism. First, maximal enzyme activities were assessed in sparrow and rat mitochondria. Citrate synthase and aspartate aminotransferase activity were higher in sparrow compared to rat mitochondria, while glutamate dehydrogenase activity was lower. Sparrow mitochondrial NAD-linked isocitrate dehydrogenase activity was dependent on phosphate, unlike the mammalian enzyme. Next, the rate of oxygen consumption (JO), electron transport chain (ETC) activity, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production were assessed in intact mitochondria. Maximal rates of fat oxidation were lower than for carbohydrate in rat but not sparrow mitochondria. ETC activity was higher in sparrows, but no differences were found in ROS production between species. Finally, fuel selection and control of respiration at three rates between rest and maximum were assessed. Mitochondrial fuel oxidation and selection mirrored that of the whole body; in rat mitochondria the reliance on carbohydrate increased as the rate of oxygen consumption increased, whereas fat dominated under all conditions in the sparrow. These data indicate fuel selection, at least in part, can be modulated at the level of the mitochondrial matrix when multiple substrates are present at saturating levels. As an increase in matrix oxidation-reduction potential has been linked to a suppression of fat oxidation and high ROS production, the high ETC activity relative to dehydrogenase activity in avian compared to mammalian mitochondria may result in lower matrix oxidation-reduction potential, allowing fatty acid oxidation to proceed while also resulting in low ROS production in vivo.
ContributorsKuzmiak, Sarah (Author) / Willis, Wayne T (Thesis advisor) / Mandarino, Lawrence (Committee member) / Sweazea, Karen (Committee member) / Harrison, Jon (Committee member) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012