When engineering integrated approaches for extracting medical diagnostic information from test samples, the main scientific problem is translating a biomolecular mixture into quantitative data. How does the secondary structure of RNA modify the hybridization thermodynamics of an identifying probe? How can conformation dependent biomolecular binding and reaction be integrated into transport models? How can the kinetic rate of in-vitro transcription by RNA polymerase be optimized in a continuous flow microreactor? These are some of the basic scientific and application development problems, which present hurdles for the biomedical field. This thesis addresses these challenges through focused investigation of microscale reactions applied to disease diagnosis. This dissertation presents the development of an integrated viral diagnostic microdevice for isolation, amplification and identification of the influenza subtype. Rapid viral classification enables a proper public health response in combating emerging infections. This compact device is designed for portable field use using non-PCR amplification methods. Microfluidic devices were designed and fabricated to study fundamental properties of proteins, RNA and DNA in diagnostic applications. New methods for measuring protein conformation, studying enzyme kinetics, amplifying RNA and sequence detection were integrated in a microfluidic platform. New parameters were defined to identify regimes for mass transport limited or reaction rate limited operation for determining reaction kinetics on immobilized templates in a continuous flow microfluidic device. New termination sequences were discovered that strongly regulate full-length transcription of pathogenic human H5 RNA. Lastly, the dependency of thermodynamic responses of dual labeled fluorescent probes to RNA and DNA targets on secondary structure of targeted RNA, temperature and salt conditions were determined. These new insights can be applied to diagnostics of other RNA or DNA sequences.
“A vast, beguiling...postmodern novel of ideas, misread intentions, and robots, told in words, pictures, symbols, and even blank pages” by the author of Well (Kirkus). Rooted in the western United States in the decade after 9/11, Matthew McIntosh’s epic and elliptical novel follows a young writer and his wife as he attempts to write the follow-up to his first novel. He desperately searches for a form that will express the world as it has become, even as it continually shifts all around him. Pop-up ads, search results, web chats, snippets of conversation, lines of code, and film and television stills mix with alchemical manuscripts, classical works of literature—and the story of a man who wakes up one morning having lost his memory. His only clue to his own identity is a single blank document on his computer called theMystery.doc. From text messages to The Divine Comedy, first love to artificial intelligence, the book explores what makes us human—the stories we tell, the memories we hold on to, the memories we lose—and the relationships that give our lives meaning. Part love story, part memoir, part documentary, part existential whodunit, theMystery.doc is a modern epic about the quest to find something lasting in a world where everything—and everyone—is in danger of slipping away. “McIntosh is a slacker Proust, writing about the underclass of Spokane rather than the upper classes of Paris as he attempts to convert memories and experience into art...a remarkable achievement.”—Steven Moore, Washington Post
J. Matthew Ward’s Garden of Ruins serves as an insightful social and military history of Civil War–era Louisiana. Partially occupied by Union forces starting in the spring of 1862, the Confederate state experienced the initial attempts of the U.S. Army to create a comprehensive occupation structure through military actions, social regulations, the destabilization of slavery, and the formation of a complex bureaucracy. Skirmishes between Union soldiers and white civilians supportive of the Confederate cause multiplied throughout this period, eventually turning occupation into a war on local households and culture. In unoccupied regions of the state, Confederate forces and their noncombatant allies likewise sought to patrol allegiance, leading to widespread conflict with those they deemed disloyal. Ward suggests that social stability during wartime, and ultimately victory itself, emerged from the capacity of military officials to secure their territory, governing powers, and nonmilitary populations. Garden of Ruins reveals the Civil War, state-building efforts, and democracy itself as contingent processes through which Louisianans shaped the world around them. It also illustrates how military forces and civilians discovered unique ways to wield and hold power during and immediately after the conflict.
Canadians are told that provincial premiers wield considerable sway. Critics decry premiers as autocrats and dictators, while supporters label them as altruists and great leaders. In Newfoundland and Labrador the premier is expected to be the province's overlord, a patriotic defender of provincial interests, and the decision-maker who brokers competing policy priorities. But does a premier have as much power over government policy decisions as is popularly believed? First among Unequals, a detailed enquiry into the administration of Premier Danny Williams and the first year of his successor Kathy Dunderdale, suggests that the power of the premier is exaggerated by the media, critics, political parties, the public service, and the leaders themselves. With perspectives from economics, education, geography, health policy, history, and political science, contributors explore how dominant Williams was and test theories to show how power operates in provincial governments. They examine politics and government through case studies of the healthcare sectors, education, the fisheries, rural and regional development, hydroelectric projects, and the labour market. Focusing on an era of political populism and rapid economic growth, First among Unequals reasons that there is not enough evidence to suggest that the Premier's Office - even with someone like Danny Williams at the helm - independently shapes public policy. Contributors include Karlo Basta (Memorial), Sean Cadigan (Memorial), Angela Carter (Waterloo), Christopher Dunn (Memorial), Jim Feehan (Memorial), Gerald Galway (Memorial), Ryan Gibson (Memorial), James Kelly (Concordia), Royce Koop (Manitoba), Mario Levesque (Mount Allison), Maria Mathews (Memorial), John Peters (Laurentian), Michelle Porter (Memorial), Kate Puddister (McGill), Valérie Vézina (UQAM), and Kelly Vodden (Memorial, Grenfell).
During the American Civil War, the western Trans-Mississippi frontier was host to harsh environmental conditions, irregular warfare, and intense racial tensions that created extraordinarily difficult conditions for both combatants and civilians. Matthew M. Stith's Extreme Civil War focuses on Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory to examine the physical and cultural frontiers that challenged Confederate and Union forces alike. A disturbing narrative emerges where conflict indiscriminately beset troops and families in a region that continually verged on social and political anarchy. With hundreds of small fights disbursed over the expansive borderland, fought by civilians— even some women and children—as much as by soldiers and guerrillas, this theater of war was especially savage. Despite connections to the political issues and military campaigns that drove the larger war, the irregular conflict in this border region represented a truly disparate war within a war. The blend of violence, racial unrest, and frontier culture presented distinct challenges to combatants, far from the aid of governmental services. Stith shows how white Confederate and Union civilians faced forces of warfare and the bleak environmental realities east of the Great Plains while barely coexisting with a number of other ethnicities and races, including Native Americans and African Americans. In addition to the brutal fighting and lack of basic infrastructure, the inherent mistrust among these communities intensified the suffering of all citizens on America's frontier. Extreme Civil War reveals the complex racial, environmental, and military dimensions that fueled the brutal guerrilla warfare and made the Trans-Mississippi frontier one of the most difficult and diverse pockets of violence during the Civil War.
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