The transport properties of mayenite-based materials, Ca12Al14O33, were investigated. Systems studied included H-doped/ UV-irradiated Ca12Al14O33, Ca(12-x)MgxAl14O33 (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1) and Ca12Al(14-x)SixO(33+x/2) (x = 1, 2, 3, 4). The as-prepared Ca12Al14O33 exhibited a room temperature electronic conductivity on the order of 10^-10 S/cm, and a high temperature...
There is increasing evidence that links chronic activation of glial cells and the subsequent self-propagating cycle of neuroinflammation to the neurodegenerative progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, attempts to identify currently approved drugs capable of safely attenuating the neuroinflammatory processes in AD have proven disappointing to date, and the development...
Local structure determination in amorphous and disordered systems, which are crystallographically intractable, is critical for gaining an understanding of their properties. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is an excellent tool for local structure determination in amorphous and disordered environmental materials. Amorphous manganese oxides produced by the freshwater bacterium Leptothrix discophora SP6...
This dissertation presents submillimeter polarimetry methods and scientific results. The scientific results focus on revealing the magnetic field structure of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). The basic principles, instrumentation, observing strategy, and data analysis methods of submillimeter polarimetry are introduced. The scientific data were acquired by SPARO during the observing campaign...
In financial risk management, coherent risk measures have been proposed as a way to avoid undesirable properties of measures such as value at risk that discourage diversification and do not account for the magnitude of the largest, and therefore most serious, losses. A coherent risk measure equals the maximum expected...
Following dopaminergic denervation in Parkinson's Disease, firing patterns in several basal ganglia neuron populations are pathologically altered. In the globus pallidus (GP), this manifests as a loss of autonomous, rhythmic, high-frequency pacemaking and an appearance of correlated, oscillatory bursting. This oscillatory bursting is best disrupted through high-frequency stimulation of affected...
Reactivation of latent human cytomegalovirus is of significant concern in immunocompromised transplant patients. However, the mechanisms controlling reactivation of latent CMV have not been understood. It is likely that reactivation is initiated by induction of IE gene expression. In this thesis, I studied molecular mechanisms leading to transcriptional activation of...
The Gram-negative bacterium <em> Vibrio cholerae </em> elicits disease through the export of enterotoxins. The <em> V. cholerae </em> RTX toxin was identified due its ability to cause cell rounding. Characterization of the RTX toxin demonstrated that this cell rounding was due to the depolymerization of the actin cytoskeleton through...
Many methods have been proposed for estimating the number, $m_0$ (or the proportion, $\pi_0$), of the true null hypotheses for adaptively controlling a type I error rate (e.g., the false discovery rate or FDR) using a multiple test procedure. Most of these methods eliminate ``significantly" non-null $p$-values. Then $m_0$ is...
This thesis interprets and critiques what is termed the 'myth of oneness' within the western philosophical and theological tradition, seeking to help transform South Korean Christianity, especially its perspective on other religions, and its attitude toward the reunification of Korea. Whitehead's process philosophy and its resulting theology, and the yin-yang...