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Title: ASSESSING THE CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF THE ERROR CHOICE TEST: A NEW MEASURE OF MENTAL ILLNESS STIGMA
Creator: Michaels, Patrick
Date: 2011-11-16, 2011-12
Description: The stigma of mental illness has been well documented in the United States and remains a worldwide concern. A common methodological necessity...
Show moreThe stigma of mental illness has been well documented in the United States and remains a worldwide concern. A common methodological necessity is to accurately assess attitudes and behaviors without the adverse impact of social desirability. An inexpensive method is to develop and administer an error choice (EC) test to measure opinions. An EC test is presented as a knowledge test, but actually measures prejudice. The current study evaluated the construct validity and reliability of a new EC test on mental illness stigma by administering questionnaires to assess cognitive, affective, behavioral, and knowledge domains in a community sample (N = 203). Results indicated that EC test total score was not related to demographic characteristics, but was related to cognitive, behavioral, and affective domains. The EC test only accounted for a significant amount of unique variance when predicting appropriate personal goals for people with mental illness, R2 change = .054, F(1, 200) = 14.96, p < .001. Both the Attribution Questionnaire and EC test were significant predictors of the personal goals total score, β = .433, p < .001, β = .235, p < .001, respectively. In terms of implications, further evaluation of the EC test would be beneficial given that it is inexpensive, easy to administer, and averts social desirability while discretely measuring prejudice. The use of an EC test could prove to be a useful adjunct to the use of direct attitudinal assessment tools in mental illness stigma studies.
M.S. in Psychology, December 2011
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Title: THE IMPACT OF EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT ATTITUDES COMPRISING MENTAL ILLNESS STIGMA ON TAKING PSYCHOTROPIC MEDICATIONS AS PRESCRIBED
Creator: Michaels, Patrick
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: Research suggests mental illness stigma adversely impacts psychotropic medication use. Few studies have examined stigma and psychotropic...
Show moreResearch suggests mental illness stigma adversely impacts psychotropic medication use. Few studies have examined stigma and psychotropic medication use with a naturalistic design. This study assessed the independent impact of attitudes toward psychiatric medication, cognitive insight, explicit and implicit attitudes of public stigma and self-stigma on psychotropic medication use for people with serious mental illnesses. Medication use was examined in this one-month longitudinal study via self-reported medication use, desire to take medication as directed, pill count use rates over a onemonth period, and pharmacy records including maximum continuous gap, number of gaps, and medication possession ratios. The primary expectation that explicit and implicit attitudes would independently explain lower psychotropic medication use was mostly not supported. On average participants took 82% of psychotropic medication as prescribed, indicating medication was taken at a therapeutic level despite stigma. The most consistent association across time was a positive relationship among desire to take medication and self-application of negative stereotypes. The second finding was that attitudes toward psychotropic medication may be associated with self-reported use, maximum continuous gap, and medication possession. Implications for clinical practice recommend providers are aware, discuss, and intervene in consumer’s experiences with stigma, which can improve medication use and psychological stability. Future research should specifically enroll participants who concurrently take suboptimal doses of medication (<80% of medication) to study stigma and non-adherence. Research should seek to understand how internalized stigma and psychotropic medication stigma are related to suboptimal medication use behaviors among people with mental illness in longitudinal non-intervention studies.
Ph.D. in Psychology, July 2015
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Title: MODELING AND NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE IN RAINY CONDITIONS USING A MULTIPHASE FLOW APPROACH
Creator: Cai, Ming
Date: 2012-04-25, 2012-05
Description: Wind energy is becoming one of the key renewable sources of energy in the United States and the world due to its environmental and economic...
Show moreWind energy is becoming one of the key renewable sources of energy in the United States and the world due to its environmental and economic advantages and absence of water requirements. The performance of a wind turbine is largely affected by surrounding environments and the total power output of a wind farm is closely related to meteorological phenomena such as rain and icing. Investigating the effects of these phenomena is necessary to improve the design and performance of the wind turbines. In this research, we focused on the study of wind turbine performance in rainy conditions as the stepping stone to the future study of icing. We applied Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technology to investigate the impact of rain on wind turbines. A novel model coupling the Lagrangian method with the Eulerian method was developed. The rain droplet was tracked in the Lagrangian frame due to its discrete nature, and the film formed on the wind turbine was simulated with the Eulerian Volume of Fluid Model (VOF). The performance loss and impact on the flow field were also studied. Numerical studies have been conducted on 2-Dimensional S809 airfoils and 3- Dimensional Horizontal Axial Wind Turbines (HAWT). The performance loss under heavy rain conditions was observed and the flow field was analyzed. The impact of air moisture content on wind turbine performance was also studied using our 3-D model. Due to the lack of experimental data on wind turbine performance under heavy rain conditions, our coupled two phase flow model was applied to a NACA 64-210 airfoil to compare with the experimental data in rainy conditions. Simulation results using our model showed good agreement with the experimental data.
M.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering, May 2012
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Title: ASSESSING THE VARIABILITY IN ETHNIC GROUP DIFFERENCES ON A POLICE OFFICER SELECTION TEST
Creator: Lee, Mirinae
Date: 2014, 2014-05
Description: Aggregating data across several test administrations is a useful strategy for increasing the statistical power of adverse impact analysis....
Show moreAggregating data across several test administrations is a useful strategy for increasing the statistical power of adverse impact analysis. Typically, before such an analysis is conducted, a test of homogeneity is conducted to ensure that the degree of adverse impact is consistent across samples. An alternative approach would be to use hierarchical linear modeling to estimate the average and variability in adverse impact. The current study explored the patterns of variability of adverse impact in a police officer selection test across test administrations, departments, and geographic regions. Significant mean test score differences were found between African-American and White test takers. Further, the size of mean group differences varied significantly across test administration and departments, but not between geographic regions. The implications of these findings for scientists and practitioners alike are discussed.
M.S. in Psychology, May 2014
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Title: AN EXPERIENCE SAMPLING STUDY OF COGNITIVE PREDICTORS OF SEASONAL DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS
Creator: Meyers, Katherine
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: According to the Dual Vulnerability Model of Seasonal Depression, the combination of a physiological vulnerability toward vegetative symptoms...
Show moreAccording to the Dual Vulnerability Model of Seasonal Depression, the combination of a physiological vulnerability toward vegetative symptoms in the winter and a psychological vulnerability toward responding negatively to the vegetative symptoms results in seasonal depressive episodes. In particular, coping and response mechanisms such as rumination, acceptance, and distraction in reaction to vegetative symptoms may act as risk or protective factors in the development of seasonal depressive symptoms. By increasing our understanding of the relationship between coping strategies and the development of mood symptoms we can enhance our understanding of the psychological mechanisms of Seasonal Affective Disorder and inform psychological interventions. Using experience sampling methodology, which has been shown to reduce reliance on memory and increase ecological validity, we prospectively examined the effect of different coping mechanisms (rumination, acceptance, and distraction) in response to vegetative symptoms (hunger and fatigue) on subsequent mood. This is the first study to use experiencing sampling method to investigate how psychological symptoms develop in Seasonal Affective Disorder. Results suggest that rumination in response to hunger is a risk factor for mood deterioration. In contrast, acceptance of both fatigue and hunger appeared to protect against lower mood. The relationship between hunger and mood depended on distraction focused on reducing negative experiences (“negative distraction”), with higher levels of distraction strengthening that relationship. However, distraction focused on increasing positive experiences (“positive distraction”) did not appear to affect subsequent mood. We also examined the relationships between acceptance and other coping responses, with rumination and both forms of distraction showing a negative relationship with acceptance. The implications of these findings for understanding the development of Seasonal Affective Disorder, as well as future directions for research, are discussed.
Ph.D. in Psychology, July 2015
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Title: SELF-POWERED DC SOLID STATE CRICUIT BREAKERS
Creator: Miao, Zhenyu
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: Dc power systems are better system solutions than ac power systems in application areas such as data centers, electric ships and dc micro...
Show moreDc power systems are better system solutions than ac power systems in application areas such as data centers, electric ships and dc micro-grids. But the lack of fast and cost effective dc circuit breakers impedes the development and application of dc power systems. This thesis introduces a new type of self-powered dc solid state circuit breakers (SSCB) which are inactive during normal operation but can be triggered and powered up by a short circuit event. The design of a unidirectional solid state circuit breaker and a bidirectional solid state breaker are proposed. The solid state circuit breakers are consisted of normally-on SiC JFETs as main power switches and gate drivers featuring fast start-up forward-flyback converters. The operation principles of the circuit breakers are analyzed in details. Prototypes are built and verified in short circuit tests. The circuit breaker prototypes can interrupt short circuit currents up to 180 amperes at a dc bus voltage of 400 volts within 1 microsecond. Chapter 1 introduces the safety considerations of dc power systems, characteristics of conventional ac circuit breakers, and the development of solid state circuit breakers. Chapter 2 introduces the concepts of the proposed self-powered SSCBs and operation principle of a fast start-up forward-flyback converter. Chapter 3 introduces the schematic design of a unidirectional self-powered SSCB, its operation principle and experimental results. Chapter 4 introduces the schematic design of a bidirectional self-powered SSCB, its operation principle and experimental results. Chapter 5 concludes the thesis and looks forward to future work.
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, July 2015
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Title: MARKOV SWITCHING MODELS OF POPULAR FOREIGN EXCHANGE CARRY TRADE STRATEGIES
Creator: Miller, Larissa J.
Date: 2016, 2016-07
Description: The nature of the carry trade produces periods of steady profitability and periods of extreme terror. The 1980s proved to be a particularly...
Show moreThe nature of the carry trade produces periods of steady profitability and periods of extreme terror. The 1980s proved to be a particularly profitable time period. However, during market crashes in the either equity or bond market, the carry trade is marked with short periods of substantial losses (Menkhoff, Saro, Schmeling, Scrimpf 2012). The global financial crisis of 2007 – 2008 was associated with large losses to carry trades. History repeatedly suggests these two bull and bear states in the economic environment (Fabozzi, Francis 1977). An additional state of market neutrality or stability could also be considered. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a model of the carry trade with multiple states using the Markov switching methodology. To accomplish this, we use two different popular carry trade strategies: (a) logistic regression and (b) mean-variance optimization. As a benchmark, we include an equally weighted portfolio of long positions in foreign currencies against the dollar. We develop a single state model as well as a normal mixture model for each of the two carry trade strategies. The mixture models assume a static probability of the economy being in either state. However, the financial markets are not static. Applying a Markov chain allows us to build a dynamic model, which allows for new information to determine the probability of the next state. We applied a Markov chain to determine the probability of the current state and the next state to improve trading results. We found the application of a Markov chain did not improve trading performance. The portfolio consists of 12 different currencies including both mature and emerging markets. The training period for determining the weights is 1998 through 2002. Using daily data from 2002 through 2015, we evaluate the performance of each strategy using cumulative returns. These results demonstrate the periods of profitability followed by short periods of terror. Next we evaluate the performance of each strategy with an applied mixture-model. The mixture-model improves the results of each strategy. Applying a Markov chain allows for better determination of both the bear and bull states. We use only the two state environment as the three state environment was unstable.
Ph.D. in Management Science, July 2016
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Title: Micro-structure of certain high-speed steels
Creator: Pulsifer, H. B.
Date: 2009, 1915
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/microstructureof00puls
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology; Bibliography: leaves 3-6

Title: THE EFFECTS OF PARTNER-TYPE, AND SELF-EFFICACY ON SAFE SEX PRACTICES IN A SAMPLE OF HOMELESS WOMEN
Creator: Mikrut, Cassandra
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: Homeless women tend to engage in a variety of behaviors that put them at risk for HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Some of...
Show moreHomeless women tend to engage in a variety of behaviors that put them at risk for HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Some of these behaviors include engaging in unprotected sex as well as higher levels of substance use. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of partner-type and condom use self-efficacy on sexual safety practices. Data were derived from 128 homeless women, living in shelters throughout New York City. Somers’ d was used to test the effects of partner-type, “steady” versus “casual,” and condom use self-efficacy on sexual safety practices. Results indicated that there were significant relationships between partner type and condom use as well as self-efficacy and condom use. Specifically, when the participant considered their primary partner to be “steady” they were less likely to use a male condom during sexual intercourse. Furthermore, higher condom use self-efficacy coincided with higher rates of condom use. Based on these results, it would be ideal for future research and interventions to focus on safe sex practices with “steady” partners, as these appear to be the riskier relationship.
M.S. in Psychology, May 2017
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Title: UTILIZING SUSTAIN TO MODEL BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR STORMWATER MANAGEMENT ON THE IIT CAMPUS
Creator: Miller, Patrick
Date: 2013-05-15, 2013-05
Description: As cities expand the amount of impervious surface area increases, which increases the amount of stormwater runoff generated. Urban stormwater...
Show moreAs cities expand the amount of impervious surface area increases, which increases the amount of stormwater runoff generated. Urban stormwater runoff contributes to the degradation and poor biological conditions of rivers and streams throughout the United States (USEPA, 2013). Currently, there are several different tools (i.e. computer software and models) available for stormwater managers to assess the effectiveness of best management practices (BMPs) to meet stormwater quality and quantity goals. In an effort to a create a single model that allows stormwater managers to evaluate the effectiveness of BMPs and associated cost information, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis INtegration (SUSTAIN) (USEPA, 2009). In this study, SUSTAIN is used to determine what BMPs are necessary to meet the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) 2020 Sustainability Plan’s goal of achieving 100 percent capture and retention of all stormwater runoff on the IIT campus by the year 2020. Multiple BMPs were simulated in currently available green space and parking lots to evaluate the level of runoff reduction and associated cost of BMP installation. Although the simulations show that reductions in runoff are possible without affecting the current layout of the campus, 100 percent capture and retention is not possible for the entire IIT campus. While the 2020 goal of 100 percent reduction cannot be met for the entire campus, significant reductions in runoff can still be realized with the use of BMPs in different sections of campus with high associated costs.
M.S. in in Environmental Engineering, May 2013
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Title: SECURE DATA SERVICE OUTSOURCING IN CLOUD COMPUTING
Creator: Wang, Cong
Date: 2012-04-22, 2012-07
Description: Cloud computing economically enables a fundamental paradigm of data service outsourcing, which provides lower up-front capital costs and less...
Show moreCloud computing economically enables a fundamental paradigm of data service outsourcing, which provides lower up-front capital costs and less hands-on management. However, outsourcing data services to the commercial public cloud deprives customers' control over the systems that manage their data, raising security and privacy as the primary obstacles to the adoption of the cloud. To address these challenges, in this dissertation we explore the problem of secure and privacy-assured data service outsourcing in cloud computing. We aim at deploying the most fundamental data services including data storage, search, and sharing on the commercial public cloud, with built-in security and privacy assurance as well as high level service performance, usability, and scalability. Our contributions are as follows: Firstly, we focus on privacy-preserving secure cloud storage auditing to maintain strong storage correctness guarantee, given the di culty that data les are no longer locally possessed by data owners. We rst develop a random-masking sampling approach to allow a third party auditor to perform on-demand privacy-preserving storage correctness auditing on behalf of data owners, without violating owners' data privacy. For storage correctness assurance with data dynamics, we further investigate a novel sequence-enforced Merkle Hash Tree and manipulate it with the random sampling approach to support fully dynamic data operations. Secondly, we focus on privacy-assured and e ective cloud data search services with strong privacy-assurance, while enjoying high service-level performance inherently demanded by the large number of data users and huge amount data les. We rst investigate a widely applicable fuzzy/similarity keyword search problem, and develop a brand new symbol-based trie-traverse searching approach, where transformed fuzzy keywords extracted from data les are stored using a multi-way tree structure, while protecting keyword privacy. To enable search result relevance ranking, we further investigate secure ranked search, which facilitates e cient server-side result ranking without leaking any keyword related information. Thirdly, we study how to enable scalable and owner-controlled cloud data sharing services, given the challenge that data no longer resides on owners' trusted domain. We rst associate data with a set of meaningful attributes, use logical composition of attributes to re ect ne-grained data access, and enforce owner's control via attribute-based encryption. For the inherent scalability requirement of cloud system, we further leverage the cloud as a mediated proxy, to which data owners can delegate most cumbersome data/user management workload, without a ecting the underlying data con dentiality.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, July 2012
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Title: Converter steel foundry practice
Creator: Mouat, Harry G.
Date: 2009, 1920
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/convertersteelfo00moua
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology; Bibliography: leaf 78

Title: MINDFULNESS AND HEALTH BEHAVIORS: DOES AUTONOMOUS MOTIVATION MEDIATE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN MINDFULNESS AND HEALTH BEHAVIORS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS?
Creator: Coppersmith, Jody
Date: 2016, 2016-07
Description: College is a critical period for the development of life-long health behaviors, and college students are particularly vulnerable to engaging...
Show moreCollege is a critical period for the development of life-long health behaviors, and college students are particularly vulnerable to engaging in high risk health behaviors, including physical inactivity and poor nutritional habits, that are risk factors for the development of chronic diseases. Current interventions aimed at promoting positive health behaviors in this population have shown limited efficacy. However, prior research suggests that both mindfulness and autonomous motivation are important theoretical constructs in health promotion and disease prevention research and intervention. To date, limited research has been conducted to understand the relationship amongst mindfulness, autonomous motivation, and health behaviors. This study examined the relationship between mindfulness, autonomous motivation, and health behaviors in college students. Based on self-determination theory, it was hypothesized that autonomous motivation would mediate the relationship between mindfulness and health behaviors, specifically physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake. Participants were 187 college students who completed a series of online questionnaires including demographic information, mindfulness, autonomous motivation for physical activity and to eat fruits and vegetables, physical activity, and fruit and vegetable intake. Results indicated that autonomous motivation to eat fruits and vegetables mediated the association between mindfulness and fruit and vegetable intake. Similarly, autonomous motivation for physical activity mediated the association between mindfulness and physical activity. These findings support autonomous motivation as a mechanism through which mindfulness impacts health behaviors. Thus, mindfulness should be incorporated into the self-determination theory of health-behavior change and represents a promising avenue for health behavior intervention in college students.
Ph.D. in Psychology, July 2016
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Title: DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY MEASURE
Creator: Crouch, Sara J.
Date: 2017, 2017-05
Description: This study developed a measure of intercultural sensitivity based on the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett, 1986; 1993...
Show moreThis study developed a measure of intercultural sensitivity based on the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett, 1986; 1993) to be used in a public safety selection context. Experts reviewed the measure that was administered to a large, diverse police officer academy applicant sample and analyses were conducted on the results of the expert review and test administration. Results indicated that after measure refinement, the final 48 item measure closely approximated the underlying theoretical model. In terms of test construction, the measure produced reliable factor scores and reflected individual differences in intercultural sensitivity. We found evidence of racial/ethnic group differences for two of the five factors and also established construct validity for the measure. Practical implications pertaining to the usage of intercultural sensitivity measures in personnel selection and training were discussed.
M.S. in Psychology, May 2017
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Title: Comparative tests of integrating wattmeters
Creator: Schaedlich, Hans, Cutler, E. W.
Date: 2009, 1906
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/comparativetests00scha
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: Complete tests of the Willis straightline watthour meter and the Columbia shunted astatic watthour meter
Creator: Goldberg, I, Sackheim, S
Date: 2009, 1911
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/completetestsofw00gold
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1911 Bibliography: leaf 73 B.S. in...
Show morehttp://www.archive.org/details/completetestsofw00gold
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology, 1911 Bibliography: leaf 73 B.S. in Electrical Engineering, 1911
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Title: Construction and comparative test of a four cycle gasoline engine arranged to operate with and without an augmented charge of air
Creator: Stump, Dan Monroe
Date: 2009, 1913
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/constructioncomp00stum
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: Complete design of a reinforced concrete street-crossing for track elevation
Creator: Dierking, F. C.
Date: 2009, 1912
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/completedesignof00dier
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: MULTILEVEL ALGORITHMS FOR PHASE RETRIEVAL
Creator: Tanoue, Cullen
Date: 2015, 2015-05
Description: Phase retrieval is an important optimization problem that arises in di raction imaging, where the original structure of an object needs to be...
Show morePhase retrieval is an important optimization problem that arises in di raction imaging, where the original structure of an object needs to be reconstructed from its measured di raction data that does not have information concerning the phase of the object. Multilevel algorithms can be used to compute solutions to the standard phase retrieval optimization problem by constructing a hierarchy of problems using a series of restriction and prolongation operations. The coarser problems have a quarter of the variables as the ner problems, and hence, there are much less linear algebra requirements for solving the coarser problems. Further, the prolongation of the solutions computed for the coarser problems yield good starting points for the ner problems. We can also use an approach that alternates between solving the coarse and ne problem. Parameters for these methods include the number of levels, prolongation and restriction operations, and the number of iterations to perform at each level. We study the solutions to the standard phase retrieval optimization problem that result from exploring these parameters and compare them to the results obtained from using single-level methods.
M.S. in Applied Mathematics, December 2014
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Title: AN EFFORT TO DISCOVER NOVEL BACTERIAL DSZ GENES TO HELP IMPROVE THE BIODESULFURIZATION OF CRUDE OIL
Creator: Salazar, Joelle Krieger
Date: 2011-04-25, 2011-05
Description: In this thesis study, soil samples were procured from various locations thought to contain high petroleum content, such as gas stations. Those...
Show moreIn this thesis study, soil samples were procured from various locations thought to contain high petroleum content, such as gas stations. Those samples were enriched for those that contained bacteria that were able to metabolize sulfur-containing compounds, such as DBT. The bacteria were then subjected to various experiments to determine if they possess any or all of the genes (dsz) encoding the three enzymes of the dibenzothiophene desulfurization pathway, as compared with R. erythropolis IGTS8. This feat was accomplished by using both growth experiments on medium containing dibenzothiophene as the sole sulfur source and genomic DNA extraction followed by PCR with dszABC universal primers. The resultant amplified DNA was then ligated to pGEM®-T Easy vector and transformed into electrocompetent E. coli cells. The transformants were subsequently screened and sent for sequencing. Using Blast, the sequences were analyzed. No obvious dsz homologies were identified although homologues in some cases to enzymes involved in sulfur metabolism were found. Several isolates were found to have dsz-like activity via the growth experiments as well as the Gibbs assay, which measures accumulation of the end product of the dsz-encoded pathway, 2-HBP Soil sample #32 showed promise in growth experiments in that the culture grew well in M9 with DBT as the sole sulfur source at temperatures of 30 °C, 37 °C, 45 °C, and 55 °C. Streaking the culture discovered two colonies with distinct morphology that were designated 32-W and 32-Y, for white and yellow colonies. 32-W and 32-Y also grew independently in M9 with DBT. Positive Gibbs Assays were obtained from the cultures 32-mixed, 32-W, and 32-Y.
M.S. in Biology, May 2011
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