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DNA nanotechnology is a rapidly evolving field that exploits the remarkable properties of DNA molecules to create complex and functional nanostructures. One of the key techniques in DNA nanotechnology is self-assembly, wherein DNA molecules are designed to interact and assemble into specific structures with precise control over their size, shape, and composition. This dissertation focuses on the self-assembly of plasmonic, fluorescent, and magnetic nanoparticles in both 2D and 3D using DNA as a programmable scaffold, and explores their applications in various areas, including biosensing and magnetic metamaterials.Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive overview of DNA nanotechnology, self-assembly techniques, and DNA origami. The principles of DNA self-assembly are discussed, including the design rules for creating DNA nanostructures with precise control over their shape and size. The versatility of DNA as a programmable scaffold is highlighted, allowing for the assembly of diverse nanoparticles with unique functionalities. The chapter also discusses the fundamentals of DNA origami, a powerful technique that utilizes the folding of a long single-stranded DNA template to create complex nanostructures with high precision. In Chapter 2, a novel ligand exchange method is presented, which allows for the functionalization of quantum dots (QDs) with DNA to form self-assembled heterodimers. The heterodimers serve as probes for detection, with one QD acting as a reporter and the other AuNP (gold nanoparticle) as a quencher. The chapter elaborates on the design The biosensor is designed based on the change in PL signal upon target DNA binding, allowing for sensitive and selective detection. The chapter provides details on the fabrication and characterization of the biosensor, including the optimization of xvi experimental parameters such as probe design and concentration, and target DNA concentration. The performance of the biosensor is also evaluated using different target DNA concentrations. The kinetics of the DNA displacement process in the biosensor are also investigated, shedding light on the dynamics of target DNA binding and release from the heterodimers. In Chapter 4, a novel method for the self-assembly of gold-coated magnetic nanoparticles in 3D using DNA as a scaffold is presented. The chapter discusses the fabrication of DNA-modified magnetic nanoparticles and their subsequent self-assembly into 3D structures by exploiting the programmable base-pairing interactions of DNA molecules. The chapter highlights the unique capabilities of this 3D self-assembly approach and discusses the future prospects and potential directions for further research in this area. In conclusion, this dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation into the use of DNA nanotechnology for the self-assembly of plasmonic, fluorescent, and magnetic nanoparticles in 2D and 3D. The methods and findings presented in this dissertation contribute to the advancement of DNA nanotechnology and demonstrate the potential of self-assembled nanostructures for various applications, including biosensing, nucleic acid detection, DNA data storage and magneto-plasmonic measurements.and fabrication of the QD-AuNP heterodimer. The changes in photoluminescence (PL) signals upon binding of the heterodimers to target DNA molecules are investigated. Chapter 3 focuses on the application of the heterodimer probes in the development of a biosensor for nucleic acid detection. The biosensor is designed based on the change in PL signal upon target DNA binding, allowing for sensitive and selective detection. The chapter provides details on the fabrication and characterization of the biosensor, including the optimization of xvi experimental parameters such as probe design and concentration, and target DNA concentration. The performance of the biosensor is also evaluated using different target DNA concentrations. The kinetics of the DNA displacement process in the biosensor are also investigated, shedding light on the dynamics of target DNA binding and release from the heterodimers. In Chapter 4, a novel method for the self-assembly of gold-coated magnetic nanoparticles in 3D using DNA as a scaffold is presented. The chapter discusses the fabrication of DNA-modified magnetic nanoparticles and their subsequent self-assembly into 3D structures by exploiting the programmable base-pairing interactions of DNA molecules. The chapter highlights the unique capabilities of this 3D self-assembly approach and discusses the future prospects and potential directions for further research in this area. In conclusion, this dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation into the use of DNA nanotechnology for the self-assembly of plasmonic, fluorescent, and magnetic nanoparticles in 2D and 3D. The methods and findings presented in this dissertation contribute to the advancement of DNA nanotechnology and demonstrate the potential of self-assembled nanostructures for various applications, including biosensing, nucleic acid detection, DNA data storage and magneto-plasmonic measurements.

Women as the Way Forward attempts to make sense of the mistakes and successes of the last several decades of policymaking, as well as what needs to be done now to prevent further disaster in Afghanistan. This is all examined through a lens of Afghan women's past and future centrality in sustainable and effective policymaking—from security to stability to economics to addressing humanitarian challenges. While the report's historical review aims to prevent the repetition of past mistakes, the core of the paper is its recommendations for the way forward. Clearly, Western governments have made assumptions about points of leverage with the Taliban that have been incorrect and overall failed to develop a coherent Afghanistan policy. Gaining a better understanding of the Taliban's ideology and goals, which I explore in this paper, is key to formulating more effective and grounded policy. Having completed high school in the same kind of extremist Pakistani madrassas that the Taliban were shaped in, I understand firsthand the extent of their radicalism.

The issue of selectivity remains a highly contested notion in the debate on the legitimacy of military humanitarian intervention (MHI). In short, selectivity can be understood as the practice of global powers intervening in certain humanitarian crises when it benefits them to do so yet refraining from armed intervention in others when it would not seem to advance its strategic interests. Though the scholarship has been largely ubiquitous in accepting a practice of selectivity from global powers, it has debated its ascription as ‘problematic’. Critics have correctly pointed to this practice as a problem of ‘double-standards’ or ‘hypocrisy’ on the part of Global North actors, while defenders of MHI (or of its modern iteration in the responsibility to protect ‘R2P’ doctrine) have argued for the necessity of a selective practice of MHI and have construed it as unproblematic, unavoidable, and even pragmatic. However, an overarching characterization of the debate from both camps has rested on a key premise of selectivity as a problem of global power ‘inaction’ in ‘nonintervened’ crises – what I term as a paradigm of ‘bystander complicity’. In contrast, I argue that the selectivity issue must be reinterpreted as a problem of ‘active complicity’ from Global North actors to better understand its practice as problematic. Under the active complicity paradigm, I provide a much-needed decolonization of the selectivity issue to problematize the existing scholarship’s understanding of its practice as an issue of global powers simply ‘standing by’ as onlookers to disassociated, faraway crises, and instead reinterpret it a problem of Global North actors typically enabling and producing these crises in the first place through their foreign policies and actions. Upon an application of this reinterpretive paradigm towards previous cases of humanitarian crises, I find that the historical experiences of both ‘intervened’ and ‘nonintervened’ crises, as the existing selectivity paradigm wo

Current digital mental healthcare solutions conventionally take on a reactive approach, requiring individuals to self-monitor and document existing symptoms. These solutions are unable to provide comprehensive, wrap-around, customized treatments that capture an individual's holistic mental health model as it unfolds over time. Recognizing that each individual requires personally tailored mental health treatment, we introduce the notion of Personalized Mental Health Navigation (MHN): a cybernetic goal-based system that deploys a continuous loop of monitoring, estimation, and guidance to steer the individual towards mental flourishing. We present the core components of MHN that are premised on the importance of addressing an individual's personal mental health state. Moreover, we provide an overview of the existing physical health navigation systems and highlight the requirements and challenges of deploying the navigational approach to the mental health domain.

This work aims to reframe how we think of subjectivity by approaching queerness from the context of the Islamic world, which historically embraced rather than eschewed homoerotics in practice and poetry. While much of queer theory takes the opposition of “hetero” and “homo” for granted and, after Foucault, treats sexuality as the privileged site of identity as defined by the state and individual, I build upon recent work that “provincializes” Western queerness to interrogate such foundational assumptions. Analyzing women’s homoerotics and gender play in a multilingual corpus of Iranian feminist literature and documentary and feature films from 1966 to present, produced both domestically and in diaspora, I theorize queerness as deviance, as female masculinity, and as anti-respectability politics. This study uses practical and theoretical questions of translation to think through such politically urgent issues as how gender and sexuality are deployed in service of state and class power and how whiteness functions locally and globally. I resist claims of untranslatability, which too often foreignize non-Western Others, and instead argue for an ethical translation that attends to, rather than erases, difference. If transnational queerness is an oxymoron because of the way it divorces the subject from her geographic and historical context, then translating queerness, I argue, becomes all the more crucial in a globalized world.

The analysis of high-dimensional data, albeit challenging owing to various computational and statistical aspects, often provides opportunities to uncover hidden signals by leveraging inherent structure in the data. In the context of genomics, where molecular markers are probed at ever-increasing resolution and throughput, large sets of features that follow specific patterns, in conjunction with large sample sizes, allow us to implement richer and more sophisticated models than before in attempt to extract signal that is not immediately evident from the data. Particularly, genomic markers are often affected by multiple genetic and environmental factors, they may differ in their regulation and presentation in different tissues, cell types, conditions, or over time, and some markers may affect multiple biological processes; unveiling those signals is likely to be pivotal in advancing our understanding of complex biology and disease. This dissertation introduces novel computational methodologies and theory that address several key challenges faced in the analysis of high-dimensional genomic data coming from heterogeneous sources ("bulk" genomics) with a particular focus on DNA methylation data. Through a range of simulations and the analysis of multiple data sets, we demonstrate that our proposed methods provide opportunities to conduct powerful and statistically sound population-level studies at an unprecedented resolution and scale.

Wireless system-on-chip devices are emerging as the most promising solution for future wireless sensing with applications in medical implants and the Internet of Things (IoT). On one side, energy extraction from ambient sources facilitates permanent powering techniques required for long-term operation. On the other side, the high integration capability of commercial CMOS technology opens the opportunity for high-resolution sensing and data communication with a compact form-factor. In this dissertation, My research builds a foundation for joint wireless power delivery, low-power sensing, and wireless communication in such highly integrated systems yielding a paradigm shift in the design and development of future ubiquitous low-power wireless systems.This thesis presents the design, implementation, and experimental evaluation of integrated wirelessly powered solutions for next-generation medical implants and IoT devices. To this end, First, I leverage the high integration capabilities of CMOS technology and try to develop integrated systems for power delivery, environmental sensing, and wireless data communication. The small power budget available for an integrated solution severely limits its functionality and operating range. Hence, individual wirelessly powered solutions may not be able to satisfy the application requirements of future medical implants and IoT devices. To address this problem, I leverage another important feature of a commercial CMOS technology that is the low fabrication cost. I show how complex tasks such as localization and be realized using a swarm of millimeter-sized integrated chips.In this dissertation, I introduce the challenges of wireless power transmission to fully integrated systems on CMOS technology and present two types of RF power receiver systems for near-field and far-field electromagnetic region. I propose a comprehensive optimization algorithm for maximizing the power transfer efficiency and choosing the optimum frequency for wi

Traditionally, the regime of mental healthcare has followed an episodic psychotherapy model wherein patients seek care from a provider through a prescribed treatment plan developed over multiple provider visits. Recent advances in wearable and mobile technology have generated increased interest in digital mental healthcare that enables individuals to address episodic mental health symptoms. However, these efforts are typically reactive and symptom-focused and do not provide comprehensive, wrap-around, customized treatments that capture an individual's holistic mental health model as it unfolds over time. Recognizing that each individual is unique, we present the notion of Personalized Mental Health Navigation (MHN): a therapist-in-the-loop, cybernetic goal-based system that deploys a continuous cyclic loop of measurement, estimation, guidance, to steer the individual's mental health state towards a healthy zone. We outline the major components of MHN that is premised on the development of an individual's personal mental health state, holistically represented by a high-dimensional cover of multiple knowledge layers such as emotion, biological patterns, sociology, behavior, and cognition. We demonstrate the feasibility of the personalized MHN approach via a 12-month pilot case study for holistic stress management in college students and highlight an instance of a therapist-in-the-loop intervention using MHN for monitoring, estimating, and proactively addressing moderately severe depression over a sustained period of time. We believe MHN paves the way to transform mental healthcare from the current passive, episodic, reactive process (where individuals seek help to address symptoms that have already manifested) to a continuous and navigational paradigm that leverages a personalized model of the individual, promising to deliver timely interventions to individuals in a holistic manner.

Both international and national studies show that adolescents with a migration background are more often truant than adolescents without a migration background. This cross-sectional study investigated the phenomena that can explain the link between migration background and truancy by exploring how perceived discrimination and social support mediate this association. Furthermore, we investigated if the impact of immigration varies for boys and girls. Data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study (HBSC, 2017) was used. 6,718 adolescents from secondary education participated in the study (Mage = 13.8, SD = 1.4). Logistic Regression Analyses revealed that immigrant adolescents reported higher levels of truancy than non-immigrant adolescents after controlling for age and education level. Our findings indicate that the higher levels of perceived discrimination and slightly lower levels of teacher support could explain the impact of migration on immigrant adolescents' truancy compared to those of non-immigrant adolescents. No relationship was found between classmates’ support and truancy. Furthermore, our results found an effect of immigration on truancy for immigrant girls. The current findings highlight the importance of interventions aimed at reducing perceived discrimination among adolescents with a migration background and the need for social support from teachers to reduce truancy among adolescents with a migration background.

High costs and technical limitations of cell sorting and single-cell techniques currently restrict the collection of large-scale, cell-type-specific DNA methylation data. This, in turn, impedes our ability to tackle key biological questions that pertain to variation within a population, such as identification of disease-associated genes at a cell-type-specific resolution. Here, we show mathematically and empirically that cell-type-specific methylation levels of an individual can be learned from its tissue-level bulk data, conceptually emulating the case where the individual has been profiled with a single-cell resolution and then signals were aggregated in each cell population separately. Provided with this unprecedented way to perform powerful large-scale epigenetic studies with cell-type-specific resolution, we revisit previous studies with tissue-level bulk methylation and reveal novel associations with leukocyte composition in blood and with rheumatoid arthritis. For the latter, we further show consistency with validation data collected from sorted leukocyte sub-types.

Et si penser le monde de demain puisait ses sources dans les racines de l'humanité ? Non comme un retour nostalgique à des origines lointaines, mais comme une source d'inspiration pour insuffler de nouveaux modèles de société, plus respectueux de la nature et des hommes. À partir de récits inédits recueillis auprès 19 représentants de peuples racines venus de tous les continents de la planète, ce livre réunis la voix de ces peuples. Ils sont Papou, Massaï, Maori, Pygmée, Peul, Touareg, Sami, Kanak, Kayapo, Kogis, Mapuche?, ils témoignent tous d'une sagesse et d'une volonté d'agir en faveur de la nature et des cultures.

The tissue engineering field has developed in response to the shortcomings related to the replacement of the tissues lost to disease or trauma: donor tissue rejection, chronic inflammation and donor tissue shortages. The driving force behind the tissue engineering is to avoid the mentioned issues by creating the biological substitutes capable of replacing the damaged tissue. This is done by combining the scaffolds, cells and signals in order to create the living, physiological, three-dimensional tissues. A wide variety of skin substitutes are used in the treatment of full-thickness injuries. Substitutes made from skin can harbour the latent viruses, and artificial skin grafts can heal with the extensive scarring, failing to regenerate structures such as glands, nerves and hair follicles. New and practical skin scaffold materials remain to be developed. The current article describes the important information about wound healing scaffolds. The scaffold types which were used in these fields were classified according to the accepted guideline of the biological medicine. Moreover, the present article gave the brief overview on the fundamentals of the tissue engineering, biodegradable polymer properties and their application in skin wound healing. Also, the present review discusses the type of the tissue engineered skin substitutes and modern wound dressings which promote the wound healing.

We introduce a Bayesian semi-supervised method for estimating cell counts from DNA methylation by leveraging an easily obtainable prior knowledge on the cell-type composition distribution of the studied tissue. We show mathematically and empirically that alternative methods which attempt to infer cell counts without methylation reference only capture linear combinations of cell counts rather than provide one component per cell type. Our approach allows the construction of components such that each component corresponds to a single cell type, and provides a new opportunity to investigate cell compositions in genomic studies of tissues for which it was not possible before.

BackgroundGenetic data are known to harbor information about human demographics, and genotyping data are commonly used for capturing ancestry information by leveraging genome-wide differences between populations. In contrast, it is not clear to what extent population structure is captured by whole-genome DNA methylation data.ResultsWe demonstrate, using three large-cohort 450K methylation array data sets, that ancestry information signal is mirrored in genome-wide DNA methylation data and that it can be further isolated more effectively by leveraging the correlation structure of CpGs with cis-located SNPs. Based on these insights, we propose a method, EPISTRUCTURE, for the inference of ancestry from methylation data, without the need for genotype data.ConclusionsEPISTRUCTURE can be used to infer ancestry information of individuals based on their methylation data in the absence of corresponding genetic data. Although genetic data are often collected in epigenetic studies of large cohorts, these are typically not made publicly available, making the application of EPISTRUCTURE especially useful for anyone working on public data. Implementation of EPISTRUCTURE is available in GLINT, our recently released toolset for DNA methylation analysis at: http://glint-epigenetics.readthedocs.io.

Cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction and stroke, are the primary causes of mortality in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Affected patients frequently have asymptomatic coronary artery disease. Studies have shown heterogeneity in cardiovascular risk among patients with diabetes. Imaging can help categorize risk of future cardiovascular events by identifying those patients with atherosclerosis, rather than relying on risk prediction based on population-based studies. In this article, we will review the evidence regarding use of atherosclerosis imaging in patients with diabetes to predict risk of coronary heart disease and mortality.

From Oliver Twist to Jane Eyre, Becky Sharp to Jude Fawley, the nineteenth-century British literary horizon is replete with orphans. Both their ubiquity and prominence in so many canonical texts raises a question. Namely, how do figures often associated with social and material abjection -- "Please sir, I want some more" -- take center stage in a narrative form profoundly connected to the individuality and agency of the modern subject? My dissertation answers this question by making a case for what I call orphanhood as a central thematic in the history of the novel. Rather than fabricate some key to all orphans, I argue that the figuration of orphanhood crystallizing in the nineteenth-century British novel provided a discursive space to imagine modern individuated life--something made up of an infinite web of affiliations. Taken together, the different narratives and histories I analyze over four chapters highlight how orphans showcase some of the ideal qualities of bourgeois individuality: deracinated, mobile, and above all, blank. In this sense, orphanhood can help us understand the link between literary production and the Empire, an imaginative venture that inscribed Britishness on a blank and colonizable map of the world. Accordingly, I have built my dissertation around three authors who exemplify the formal, geographic, and temporal globality of the nineteenth-century "British" novel: Maria Edgeworth, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling. In my concluding chapter on W.G. Sebald, I show how long after the bond between national languages and literature has been broken, orphanhood remains a perch to view the rise of the global individuality of the refugee as well as the transformations taking place in what is coming to be called the Global English novel.

Permasalahan tersebut jika diamati berdasarkan teori budaya disebabkan oleh nilai-nilai yang dianut oleh seseorang atau masyarakat yang kemudian akan termanifestasi dalam bentuk sikap dan perilaku. Budaya (culture), menurut Brown (2004: 2): “… refers to a set of common values, attitudes, beliefs and norms, some of which are explicit and some of which are not”. Pendapat ini dapat dipahami bahwa budaya menunjuk pada sebuah kumpulan nilai-nilai, sikap, kepercayaan dan norma-norma bersama, beberapa darinya ada yang eksplisit dan ada yang implisit

The service sector represents the dominant part of the U.S. economy, accounting for over 80% of employment as well as GNP (Apte et al. 2011). Although much scholarly work has been done on services, research on professional or white collar services is still in its infancy. What makes these services distinctive is that they are knowledge-intensive and project-based. In addition, they are collaborative by nature; that is, their value is created from the combined effort of individuals (Hopp et al. 2009). For example, IBM Corporation discovered that their Request For Proposal (RFP) process for outsourcing services, instead of being linear, well sequenced, and deterministic, was information-intensive, collaborative, iterative, and stochastic. Improving their understanding of how the work actually took place led them to improve the efficiency of their work processes (Kieliszewski et al. 2010).This dissertation focuses on the study of the dynamics of collaboration in knowledge-based work processes such as new product or service development, management and IT consulting, technical projects, and education. It consists of three chapters respectively addressing the effect of contracting, team organization, and learning incollaboration, so as to generate insights for advancing strategic decision-making both across organizations and within them. In each chapter, collaboration is modeled as a dynamic double moral hazard game. Specifically, these models have the following features in common: (i) the collaborative project is subject to a tight deadline, (ii) the work dynamics are studied with respect to both time and project progress, and (iii) the transitions between states are stochastic and depend on the collective amount of effort exerted.

Activity floating net cage (Karamba Jaring Apung-KJA) in Reservoir Cirata have beenover capacity, so that give the serious problems such as water quality degradation,algae-blooming, and up-welling. The objective of this research is to find the optimuminput cage net without and with cost externality. The objective, was solved by costfunction of KJA (cage net) culture activity with/without externality model. Theexternality of cage net culture to water body of Waduk Cirata has been gived a sedimentaccumulation until 325711 ton/year and make degradate of water quality. For cage netculture, water quality is environment input. Model research involved this externality inmodel of cost function. It is by internalize cost environmet as the one's of costproduction. Input of production factor of KJA culture activity without externality werecost of seed, feed and labour, and with externality was added by cost of recoverysediment by dredging or exploition. Optimal input of seed 46,28 kg/plot, feed 1685,02kg/plot, 122,09 work person daya (wpd)/unit, activity without externality and optimalharvest product 938,16 kg. While for KJA activity with cost environment, seed wassignificant change, 31,66 kg and feed 756,24 kg, 50,92 work person day person/unit,and amount of sediment 15,25 kg/unit with optimal harvest 644,6 kg/plot. Using of theCirata Data Environment and CAD_S tool software, the carrying capacity of ReservoirCirata for KJA culture activity have found was 43.679 ton/year. For activity withoutexternality, amounts optimal of KJA 15585 plots, and seed using 1464,7 kg/plot. Forwith-externality activity 21133 plots KJA, and seed using 756,24 kg/plot. It is mean adecreasing feed costs 44,88%.Keywords: externality, cost, cost function, optimal input, optimal product, carryingcapacity

Budget transparency is believed to be able to develop an effective, efficient, and corruptionfreeorganization system. Implementing it will enable an organization to erase any unnecessarybudget. A more transparent budget also implies stakeholders' consultation in every stepof budgeting to eliminate all sources of manipulation and corruption. In Indonesia markingup budget by posting some irrelevant and fictive activities is still commonly happening. It hasbeen part of commonly used way to corrupt. Based on these situations, this paper will discusshow budget functions and principles, Islamic base value for budgeting, and how controllingsystem on budget should be implemented in order to efficiently anticipate corruption.

The article discusses about the role of public Moslem finance institution viewed in the context of economic public endeavor. This problem emerges in public because the public Moslem finance institution in Indonesia does not take in part proportionally yet to mate public prosperity in Indonesia whereas the research of the language and literature Center in UIN by Syarif Hidayat¬ullah and Ford Foundation results that the potention of funds (Zakat, Infak, Shodaqoh) and donation of Moslems in Indonesia (amount Rp 19.3 billions) managed by the public Moslem finance institution can be used for people prosperity. Besides, it is supported with the big number of Moslems in Indonesia. Therefore, there are two important things to be focused on this article. First, why can't the fund in public Moslem finance institution, like ZIS and donation, in Indonesia be more efficient in a maximum way to realize the prosperity? Then, how to develop the public finance institution in Indonesia?

The Trans-Asia Photography Review: vol. 8, no. 1, (dlps) 7977573.0008.108, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.7977573.0008.108, This work is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact mpub-help@umich.edu for more information.