Catalysts are utilized in 80% of all chemical synthesis operations. The industrial catalysts primarily used in oxidation reactions are highly polluting and expensive metal catalysts. Enzymes and whole cell biocatalysts are used to a lesser extent. Nowadays, several industrial sectors are developing bio-based technologies to reduce the high costs and environmental impact of traditional chemical processes. However, these applications are limited by the challenge of developing economically competitive biologically based systems. The key for adopting these sustainable advancements is the development of novel process designs, which assure robustness, simplicity, and sustainabile operations compatible with the current development of chemical reactions. In this regard, filamentous fungi may be considered good biocatalysts due to their natural biodiversity and their broad heterogeneous enzymatic pattern. The great selectivity of fungal catalysis is now well recognized for the production of commercially valuable steroids in the pharmaceutical industry. Although this inherent capacity is mainly used for functionalization of unactivated carbons, it can be further exploited for the oxidiation of heteroatoms, such as sulfur. Focusing on the oxidation of sulfur compounds, the widely used industrial processes are produced by an organometallic catalyst. This PhD project aims to overcome low substrate conversion and enzymatic expression by proving that exposure of cells to insecticides and hydrocarbons increases cell's oxidative capacity expressed as higher substrate conversion and CYP450 content. This study is focused in the application of pest management strategies, designed to enhance the biopesticide's efficacy, to induce and improve Beauveria bassiana oxidation. B. bassiana has a very flexible metabolism and is widely used as a biocontrol agent. It can metabolize hexadecane as a sole carbon source. In addition, it shows a synergistic effect over pest control efficacy when it is applied with low pesticides (carbaryl and/or imidacloprid) concentrations. A biocatalytic system was optimized to increase the conversion of organosulfur compounds under different fermentation conditions. Phenothiazine was used as our model substrate. Phenothiazine conversion was followed by GC-MS and HPLC. By NMR and MS fragmentation pattern product, phenothiazine metabolites were identified as (R)-hydroxyl metabolites (63% enatiomeric excess) and sulfoxide, the latter being the main metabolite. Phenothiazine conversions with growing cells resulted in 65±1.4% conversion with initial phenothiazine concentration of 500 ppm and final 325 ppm after 7 days. The highest conversion, 74±1 % was achieved with resting cells at the lowest cell concentration, 0.78 mg cell dry weight (cdw) /mL. Furthermore, the use of insecticides as inducers was an effective way to increase phenothiazine conversion from 47% to 64±3%. The major enzymes involved in catalysis of xenobiotic are heme-binding monooxygenases, in particular cytochrome P450. Heme positive proteins were identified by an SDS benzidine assay as well as the content of CYP450 by the CO difference spectrum. The P450 enzymes content was 12.3±1 pmol/µg protein for hexadecane adapted cells and 8.1± 1 pmol/µg protein for insecticides, respectively. The heme-positive proteins were characterized by MALDI-ToF and their peptide mass fingerprint compared to the available sequences on the SwissProt/Universal Protein Resource catalog of information on proteins (UniProtKB). Hemoproteins were found, including a cluster of catalase-peroxidase, alkane hydroxylase, and chloroperoxidase. The results from this project helped bridge the progress from agricultural biotechnology strain development into industrial biotechnology biocatalyst improvement. The success of this project helps us expand B. bassiana's catalysis and make it a better candidate for industrial biocatalysis.

This document will chronicle the theatrical design work of Josh Christoffersen at the University of Iowa from August of 2012 through the spring of 2015. The bulk of the images included will be production photos of realized productions--both large-scale mainstage and smaller independent productions--as well as draftings, paint elevations, and sketches to illuminate the process of the artist. The intent is that this document will stand as a record of the various techniques and tactics used throughout my graduate career to tell a story through design

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world and provide economic value as well as biodiversity stability. Yet, these ecosystems are threatened from human degradation and climate change. Phylogenetic reconstructions can help identify which species have a potential to undergo greater amounts of change in the near future and also aids in determining evolutionary distinctiveness, which are critical components of conservation management. However, traditional Scleractinia morphological characters have been shown to have limited taxonomic use. Therefore, this study attempts to discover soft tissue characters to produce more robust phylogenies. Eight coral species from the Indo-Pacific families Merulinidae and Lobophylliidae were mail ordered and prepared for histological analysis under light microscopy. A character matrix was analyzed and the results were compared to phylogenies based on skeletal and molecular data. A total of seven MPTs of length 35, C.I. 0.60 and R.I. 0.58 were found. In addition, a detailed description of the histology is included. The topology of MPTs was inconsistent, but several were broadly similar to previous phylogenies based on molecular and skeletal data. Still, using only a small number of characters, the results do promise that histological characters in conjunction with skeletal characters could better delineate species and their evolutionary history. Future results could aid in making conservation decisions based on improved phylogenies.

Interactive theorem provers are software tools that help users create machine-checked proofs. Although difficult to use, they have been playing an important role in the effort to create highly reliable software. I present several novel user interface ideas for interactive theorem provers, generalizable to other mathematics and programming tools. Prototypes tailored to the Coq interactive theorem prover were developed and tested in an experiment with human participants. The results show promising directions for making interactive theorem provers easier to use.

A knot is an embedding of S1 in three-dimensional space. Generally, it can be thought of as a knotted piece of string with the ends glued together. When we project a knot into the plane, we can create a knot diagram in which we specify which portion of the string lies on top at each place that the string crosses itself. To perform a crossing change on a knot, one can imagine cutting one portion of the string at a crossing, allowing another portion of the string to pass through, and then gluing the cleaved ends back together. We define the distance between two knots, K1 and K2, to be the minimum number of crossing changes one must perform on either K1 or K2 to obtain the other knot. Circular DNA can become knotted during biological processes such as recombination and replication. We can model knotted DNA with a mathematical knot. Type II topoisomerases are the enzymes tasked with keeping DNA unknotted, and they act on double-stranded circular DNA by breaking the backbone of the DNA, allowing another segment of DNA to pass through, and then re-sealing the break. Thus, performing a crossing change on a knot models the action of this protein. Specifically, studying knots of distance one can help us better understand how the action of a type II topisomerase on double-stranded circular DNA can alter DNA topology. We create a knot distance graph by letting the set of vertices be rational knots with up to and including thirteen crossings and by placing an edge between two vertices if the two knots corresponding to those vertices are of distance one. A neighborhood of a vertex, v, in a graph is the set of vertices with which v is adjacent via an edge. Using graph theoretical and topological tools, we examine graphs of knot distances and define a mapping between distance one neighborhoods. Additionally, this idea can also be examined and visualized as performing Dehn surgery on the double branched cover of a knot.

THE FLUTE AND GUITAR DUO: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EQUAL PARTNERSHIP By Lisa Marie Schroeder December 2015 The 21st century flute and guitar duo literature contains equal parts of intricate melodic and harmonic content, challenging both players with standard and contemporary techniques. In the past, beginning with the late seventeen hundreds, the repertoire for this combination consisted of simple flute melodies and sparse, accompanimental guitar parts. When did an equal partnership begin developing between the instruments and how are professional duos guiding this change? For the research of this document, a survey was drafted and sent to 104 professional flute and guitar duos around the globe, resulting in 51 duos completing and returning the questionnaire. Of the 51 duos that returned the survey, 48 duos qualified as professional and three duos were disqualified. The general consensus reached is that the flute and guitar duo has developed into an equal partnership in the last 30 years, accomplished through music with more substantial parts for both instruments, beginning with the legendary Histoire du Tango by Ástor Piazzolla. My hope is that those who read this document will understand the need for more flute and guitar music containing equal parts, thus inspiring commissions. I hope, too, that the lists of pieces revealed by seasoned flute and guitar duos (located in Appendix B and C), will be a useful tool for all flute and guitar duos, especially those starting out in the genre. This document is essential to the university flute and guitar studios and beginning duos in selecting pieces in which both performers will learn and grow as instrumentalists and chamber musicians.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of modeling decisions made by those charged with implementing teacher evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement data; such choices include how growth is to be modeled, whether student characteristics are to be controlled for, how many years of data are to be used, and which test subject is to be selected. Using a three-cohort longitudinal data set from a school district in which reading and mathematics test scores from a vertically-scaled assessment allowed determination of growth in grades three, four, and five, estimated teacher effects were derived from five value-added models, and the resulting rank orderings of the teachers were examined. The models compared were a covariate adjustment model that conditioned on prior achievement only, a covariate adjustment model that conditioned on certain student characteristics as well as prior achievement, a gain score model, the growth model underlying the vertically-scaled assessment, and student growth percentiles. Teacher rank orderings derived under the five models were highly consistent with one another using either one or three classroom years of test scores. Only when the movement of teachers between quartiles was examined did a difference in performance between some models emerge. The high degree of consistency between the two covariate adjustment models suggested that control for student-level characteristics was unnecessary. Using three years of test scores rather than one led to a small decrease in between-model correlations and a small increase in teacher movement between quartiles. Comparison of teacher value-added based on reading scores versus mathematics scores gave mixed results, with between-model correlations in mathematics being slightly higher than those for reading but with reading showing greater consistency in quartile movement between cohorts. The year-to-year change in teacher rank orderings was very striking, as low, and even negative, correlations emerged between years. Movement of teachers between quartiles from one year to the next was far greater than that observed when comparing the modeling conditions. Using a teacher rating scheme in which groups of teachers were distinguished from average effectiveness if they appeared in the extremes of the rankings, nearly half of teachers changed ratings from one year to the next. Such low inter-temporal stability of teacher value-added is a significant result that should be considered by all stakeholders in teacher evaluation.

Traditional disease surveillance systems are instrumental in guiding policy-makers' decisions and understanding disease dynamics. The first study in this dissertation looks at sentinel surveillance network design. We consider three location-allocation models: two based on the maximal coverage model (MCM) and one based on the K-median model. The MCM selects sites that maximize the total number of people within a specified distance to the site. The K-median model minimizes the sum of the distances from each individual to the individual's nearest site. Using a ground truth dataset consisting of two million de-identified Medicaid billing records representing eight complete influenza seasons and an evaluation function based on the Huff spatial interaction model, we empirically compare networks against the existing volunteer-based Iowa Department of Public Health influenza-like illness network by simulating the spread of influenza across the state of Iowa. We compare networks on two metrics: outbreak intensity (i.e., disease burden) and outbreak timing (i.e., the start, peak, and end of the epidemic). We show that it is possible to design a network that achieves outbreak intensity performance identical to the status quo network using two fewer sites. We also show that if outbreak timing detection is of primary interest, it is actually possible to create a network that matches the existing network's performance using 42% fewer sites. Finally, in an effort to demonstrate the generic usefulness of these location-allocation models, we examine primary stroke center selection. We describe the ineffectiveness of the current self-initiated approach and argue for a more organized primary stroke center system. While these traditional disease surveillance systems are important, they have several downsides. First, due to a complex reporting hierarchy, there is generally a reporting lag; for example, most diseases in the United States experience a reporting lag of approximately 1-2 weeks. Second, many regions of the world lack trustworthy or reliable data. As a result, there has been a surge of research looking at using publicly available data on the internet for disease surveillance purposes. The second and third studies in this dissertation analyze Wikipedia's viability in this sphere. The first of these two studies looks at Wikipedia access logs. Hourly access logs dating back to December 2007 are available for anyone to download completely free of charge. These logs contain, among other things, the total number of accesses for every article in Wikipedia. Using a linear model and a simple article selection procedure, we show that it is possible to nowcast and, in some cases, forecast up to the 28 days tested in 8 of the 14 disease-location contexts considered. We also demonstrate that it may be possible in some cases to train a model in one context and use the same model to nowcast or forecast in another context with poor surveillance data. The second of the Wikipedia studies looked at disease-relevant data found in the article content. A number of disease outbreaks are meticulously tracked on Wikipedia. Case counts, death counts, and hospitalization counts are often provided in the article narrative. Using a dataset created from 14 Wikipedia articles, we trained a named-entity recognizer (NER) to recognize and tag these phrases. The NER achieved an F1 score of 0.753. In addition to these counts in the narrative, we tested the accuracy of tabular data using the 2014 West African Ebola virus disease epidemic. This article, like a number of other disease articles on Wikipedia, contains granular case counts and deaths counts per country affected by the disease. By computing the root-mean-square error between the Wikipedia time series and a ground truth time series, we show that the Wikipedia time series are both timely and accurate.

New woman, a new word and concept put forth during the New Culture Movement beginning from 1919, when China was in the process of political, economic and cultural transformation which strongly influenced almost every aspect of society, was loaded with nationalistic connotations from the beginning and soon became a public venue to venture various discourses. Much research has been done on this topic, from the historical perspective of women’s emancipation, by studying it in the context of China’s modernization, from the angle of gender norms and sexuality, and so on. What sets my research apart is that I use New Woman--a 1934 film made in Shanghai which is especially dedicated to the image of new woman-- as my primary text and single out major themes in the film, such as “new woman” and nationalism, new woman’s struggles. In my research, I combine fictionalized narratives about new woman in literary works and films with historical discourses on new woman, and real life experiences of new woman such as Qiu Jin and Ruan Lingyu. My particular interest is to grasp the major sentiments expressed in the film and to investigate of the social and cultural context that had given rise to these sentiments. With no intention to be complete or exhaustive, this paper would consider its goal fulfilled by being able to grasp the main sentiments surrounding new woman and her place in Chinese society in the 1920s and 30s.

The history of Mozambique has been punctuated by episodes of warfare and natural calamities. This study looks at the history of the civil war that affected Mozambique from 1976 to 1992 beyond the framework of national state and global politics. It attempts to make the voices of villagers who suffered the hardship of war more audible through the exploration of histories of life. It offers a more complex discussion of social relationships and social change during the war by looking at villagers and their environments beyond victimization narratives. It contends that apart from being the major targets of the war, villagers and their environments had agency in the conflict. It argues that environmental factors influenced the course of war and exacerbated the harmful effects of war on local people and natural resources. It observes that the civil war affected an agrarian society which was particularly dependent on a rich and diverse yet disrupted ecosystem therefore, studying the civil war with focus on the environmental context shows the true cost of warfare, and how it was experienced by rural society. It shows that humans and wildlife were in times of peace interconnected in symbiotic relationship which included episodes of cooperation and conflict. Elephants, hippos, monkeys, bush pigs, and birds invaded farms in search of food. Humans relied on wild animals and plants to improve their diet and to mitigate the impact of drought and disease. These symbiotic relationships were heavily disturbed by warfare and drought as villagers were displaced from lands about which they had micro-geographical knowledge to mitigate the effects of recurrent droughts.