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Insecticides in the diamide class have a novel mode of action and have become a key component for management of agriculturally important lepidopteran pests since their introduction in 2008. Corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie); and the armyworm complex including fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith); and Spodoptera exigua (Hübner); are significant pests of agroecosystems in the Mid-southern and Southeastern regions of the United States. They have developed resistance to, and/or inconsistent control has occurred with most chemical classes. The objectives of this study were to establish susceptibility levels of field populations of H. zea, S. frugiperda, and S. exigua collected in the Mid-southern and Southeastern regions of the United States to flubendiamide and chlorantraniliprole. To achieve equivalent levels of mortality for each species, a higher concentration of flubendiamide was required compared to chlorantraniliprole. Furthermore, two experiments were conducted to determine the systemic and residual efficacy of chlorantraniliprole and flubendiamide against H. zea on vegetative and reproductive structures of soybean. Chlorantraniliprole moved systemically and had significantly greater control than flubendiamide in the systemic and residual study out to 31 DAT. Flubendiamide did not move systemically but provided significant residual control out to 31 DAT compared with the untreated control. Neither insecticide was detected in reproductive structures. Finally, to determine the risk of resistance development, a S. exigua colony, originating from a field collection in 2013, was separated into three cohorts that were independently selected with three concentrations (0.016, 0.020, and 0.025 ppm) of flubendiamide incorporated into a meridic diet. These concentrations were chosen from the LC30, LC60 and LC90 of the original colony. Resistance ratios never increased past 2.11old. The highest resistance ratios occurred after 18 generations for the LC30 colony, 19 generations for the LC60 colony, and 13 and 15 generations for the LC90 colony. After reaching their highest point of resistance, the colonies began to decline in egg production and larval survivability and did not recover. After 22 generations the selected colonies were terminated. The results from this portion of the study suggest that the potential for resistance development of beet armyworm to flubendiamide is unclear.

In this report, we describe a case of a 61-year-old male patient who had the bacterium growing in a blood culture. It was susceptible to ampicillin, ceftriaxone, levofloxacin, and vancomycin but was intermediately resistant to erythromycin. The patient did not have a negative outcome as a consequence of this bacterium, which retrospectively could have been predicted based on the epidemiological data within the patient's profile.

According to differential susceptibility theory (DST), some children may be more sensitive to both positive and negative features of the environment. However, research has generated a list of widely disparate temperamental traits that may reflect differential susceptibility to the environment. In addition, findings have implicated these temperament × environment interactions in predicting a wide variety of child outcomes. This study uses a novel evolutionary model of temperament to examine whether differential susceptibility operates in a domain-general or domain-specific manner. Using a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 243 preschoolers and their parents (56% female; 48% African American), we examined the interactions between maternal and paternal parenting quality and two evolutionary informed temperament profiles (i.e., Hawks and Doves) in predicting changes in teacher-reported conduct problems and depressive symptoms from preschool to first grade. Results suggest that differential susceptibility operates in a domain-specific fashion. Specifically, the "Hawk" temperament was differentially susceptible to maternal parenting in predicting externalizing problems. In contrast, the "Dove" temperament was susceptible to both paternal and maternal parenting quality in predicting changes in depressive symptoms. Findings provide support for an integrative framework that synthesizes DST with an evolutionary, function-based approach to temperament.

Moisture damage in asphalt pavement has always been a problem for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate moisture susceptibility of Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) and to investigate mitigation techniques using different antistripping agents. Three types of antistripping agents were used in this research investigation. Two of which are chemical based and the other is hydrated lime. The two types of liquid antistripping agents used in this study include Arr Maz CC LOF-6500 and Arr Maz CC XL-9000. These two liquid antistripping agents were tested at 0.25%, 0.50%, and 0.75%. Hydrated Lime was tested at 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%. The binder used in this study is Asphalt Performance Grade (PG) 64-16 provided by Oxnard Refinery. The crushed stone aggregate used in this study was provided by Cal Portland. This study follows the guidelines of standardized AASHTO, ASTM, and SuperPave mix design for all preparation and test procedures. A total of 120 4-inch by 2.83-inch core specimens with void ratios between 6 to 8 percent were created to test for moisture susceptibility in accordance with the Modified Lottman Test, which tested for Indirect Tensile Strength and Immersion Compression Test, which tested for Compression Strength and Elasticity. During the test, half of these specimens were placed in a hot water bath for 24 hours to condition the sample to represent field performance and the other half were unconditioned. Based on the results, the best liquid antistripping agent is XL-9000 at 0.50% and hydrated lime is most efficient at a dosage rate of 1.5%. The best performing antistripping additive for the value is hydrated lime at 1.5%.

Carotid atherosclerosis, one of the leading causes of ischemic stroke worldwide, can induce severe narrowing or even occlusion of the vessel, restricting blood flow to the brain and resulting in perfusion deficits. The plaque that has a high probability of undergoing rapid progression or future ruptures is defined as “vulnerable plaque”. Identifying vulnerable plaque is of great importance in clinical carotid atherosclerosis imaging. To date, a multi-contrast magnitude-based MR approach with blood suppression technique has been widely used to detect vulnerable plaque features. However, due to the limitations of magnitude-based methods, developing new MR techniques that have better sensitivity to hemorrhage and calcification is of great interest. Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) is a technique that utilizes the MR phase information and has been widely used for quantifying the tissue susceptibility in the brain. The susceptibility contrast is extremely sensitive to hemorrhage and calcium which makes QSM a potential tool for carotid plaque imaging to identify intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) and calcification. However, existing QSM methods have not been successfully implemented in the neck due to several challenges. The presence of air/tissue interface, plaque that has high susceptibility, and fat surrounding the carotid arteries can cause severe phase aliasing and other problems that will induce errors in the resultant susceptibility maps. To overcome these challenges and thus, develop a robust method for carotid QSM, a protocol that includes both data acquisition strategy and post-processing methods is proposed. For data acquisition, four echoes including two water/fat in-phase echoes and two water/fat out-of-phase echoes were collected. For data post-processing, temporal domain algorithm Catalytic Multiecho Phase Unwrapping Scheme (CAMPUS) was used to unwrap the phase images and local QSM was proposed. This protocol is able to properly unwrap the phase images even with the presence of high susceptibility plaque and eliminate the water/fat chemical shift effect in QSM reconstructions which will generate reliable susceptibility maps. From our results, the proposed QSM protocol has demonstrated the ability to generate reliable susceptibility maps and excellent sensitivity to IPH and calcification. Combining QSM with existing magnitude-based methods will lead to a major improvement in the diagnosis of carotid atherosclerosis. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance is among the largest concerns in the world today. One method under development to combat this issue is the encapsulation of microbes in microfluidic droplets for single-cell testing. This method may be able to circumvent the need for a traditional positive cell culture which consumes the majority of the testing time using current diagnostic methods. This dissertation presents a method by which to deterministically encapsulate microbes using an artificial intelligence object detection algorithm and a Droplet-On-Demand microfluidic device. To accomplish this, the Droplet-On-Demand microfluidic device was first developed using a unique 3D-printing manufacturing method. An annular Channel-in-Channel droplet generator was developed which produced droplets within the hydrophobic 3D-printed polymeric microfluidic device. Supporting microfluidic unit operations were also developed including pumps, a 3-way flow-thru valve, and a detection window used for visualizing microfluidic particles. Control software was developed using python which controlled pneumatically-actuated membranes within the microfluidic device, the imaging system, and the object detection algorithm. 20-μm and 2-μm test particles were used as non-biological test particles while red blood cells and fluorescent E.coli baceria were used as biological test particles. All test particles were identified and encapsulated and show the flexibility of the system overall and the ability to identify a variety of particles of interest in microfluidic systems. Growth tests were conducted using E.coli bacteria encapsulated within microfluidic droplets with a fluorescent metabolic indicator. The fluorescence of droplets containing actively growing encapsulated bacteria was quantified using a unique first-principles model paired with an image processing protocol to provide relative concentration data to quantify the growth of the E.coli over time. These growth results indicated that bacterial growth in droplets could be detected and quickly quantified in 4 hours and thus provide practical results to clinicians on the susceptibility of bacteria to an antibiotic. This Droplet-On-Demand technology has the capability of providing clinically applicable data from the most basic and fundamental biological source, an individual cell; and that can be done with low concentrations and on any cell that can be visually identified.

Moisture susceptibility of hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements continues to be a major pavement distress. Past research has primarily focused on HMA stripping prevention through material component evaluation/testing and addition of preventative additives. Stripping is caused by traffic, water, and high in-place service temperatures. Today, agencies use various methods to evaluate HMA moisture susceptibility with varying degrees of success. The study objective was to evaluate a prototype stripping simulator?s ability to predict HMA moisture susceptibility. The simulator evaluates moisture susceptibility by measuring conditioning water turbidity. Boil test and indirect tensile strength testing were also conducted for comparison purposes. Stripping simulator results indicate further refinement is required before it can be used for moisture susceptibility prediction.

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