In the 20th century, rigid laparoscopes revolutionized surgery such that minimally invasive procedures are now the norm. However, these systems only provide surgeons with a two-dimensional (2D) view of the operative field and are subject to two major optical limitations: (1) the absence of binocular vision results in restricted depth perception and (2) the field of view (FOV) is restricted to the local operating region to ensure high image spatial resolution. Performing surgery through a monitor without depth perception is challenging and requires extensive training. Meanwhile, surgical accidents that occur outside of the limited FOV and have gone unnoticed may cause unnecessary trauma to the patient. In this dissertation, two novel optical designs were developed to address the two limitations and further advance this technology. The conceptualization, lens design, prototyping, calibration, and processed results are discussed for both designs. The first design is a programmable aperture light field laparoscope. It was used to investigate and explore the requirements of three-dimensional depth information extraction in a monocular form factor. Compared to state-of-the-art dual objective stereoscopic laparoscopes, this form factor preserves more design volume for transmitting more of the object scene’s light field. A programmable aperture is used to preserve the laparoscope’s conventional high resolution 2D imaging and upon demand, capture the light field. The light field information enables this system to view the object scene from different viewing angles, digitally refocus, and generate depth maps for surgical guidance in post processing. A second-generation design called a tri-aperture monocular laparoscope was then developed to address the depth perception and FOV limitations simultaneously. This system uses two displaced apertures and a custom prism to capture the stereoscopic views simultaneously, which can then be processed to generate absolute depth maps. Meanwhile, a wide FOV for situational awareness is captured via a central third aperture. It provides 2D vision over an area 2x as large as that of the stereoscopic views. Such a system may pave the way towards restoring the binocular and large, foveated FOV qualities of human vision within the minimally invasive surgical setting.

Novice public-school principals face tremendous external pressures (e.g., high-stakes accountability, market forces, legitimization) and internal pressures (e.g., identity (re)construction, identity verification, authenticity) in the enactment of their role as a novice principal. These pressures converge in the dissonance of competing values, exacerbated by shifting roles and identities from teacher to leader. This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study on the lived experiences of five novice principals in southern Arizona investigates the meaning-making and sense-making processes of navigating the transition into the principalship at the tension points of neoliberal accountability regimes and social justice values. Informed by frameworks of hermeneutical phenomenology, sociological identity theory, neoliberalism, and social justice leadership, this study uses a hermeneutic phenomenological research design with methodological procedures modeled on interpretive phenomenological analysis, IPA. Additionally, a hermeneutic circle is woven throughout, charting a path of my journey and work as a researcher and participant. The five study participants, representing a variety of identities, personal histories, and lived experiences, provided experiences, values, and motivations that led to several key findings: Novice principals are largely motivated by their personal values of supporting those around them, specifically the importance of student-centered leadership and practice. Novice principals in this study held values that reflected current neoliberal accountability frameworks of monolithic student achievement over social justice leadership values. Novice principal motives, judgments, and experiences shed light on inadequacies of principal preparation programs and district mentoring efforts, which are exacerbated by neoliberal policy and practices.

Protein bioconjugation is an essential tool for the deeper understanding of protein behavior and localization. New bioconjugation tools are constantly being developed, increasing the scope of what residues can be targeted and under which conditions, ultimately reporting on the chemical environment of the system. Although many different amino acid residues can be targeted through tailored probes, the most commonly targeted residues are cysteine and lysine due to their high nucleophilic character. Lysine is much more abundant on the surface of proteins, making it an attractive target for robust protein labeling, but can also be problematic when looking to conjugate to other nucleophilic residues. We initially looked for compounds that would act as a reversible lysine probe that could be utilized as a protecting group, masking reactivity in situations where lysine is competing with another residue. In this search, we came across a Meldrum’s acid derivative, equipped with a Michael acceptor that showed reversibility when a single amine was attached. When testing this compound for our own purposes, we found an unexpected, irreversible side reaction at pH 10, which was evident by the loss of our protein band of interest in our gel analyses. Switching to small molecules to identify this side reactivity, we found the Meldrum’s acid derivative was not only capable of accepting one amine but was accepting two amines in high pH environments. This showed that the loss of our protein band was due to oligomerization by the addition of two lysine residues to the probe backbone. We were intrigued by this new reactivity and began characterizing the second amine addition further. Herein, this dissertation will discuss the characterization of the double amine addition through kinetics, water stability, and resilience against reducing agents and other nucleophiles. Our kinetic studies have shown the reaction rate of this second amine addition increases with increasing pH (fastest at pH 10), leading to use of these compounds to label proteins in basic environments within minutes. Furthermore, the single and double amine adducts have shown to be stable across a wide range of pH values, showing excellent stability of both compounds in aqueous systems. Therefore, we envisioned using this reactivity to our advantage and add a single amine equipped with our cargo of choice to the backbone and allow the second amine addition to be a pH dependent reaction with lysine residues, forming a stable, permanent covalent linkage of our cargo to the surface of the protein. We call this series of probes MaMa (Meldrum’s acid amine-reactive Michael acceptor) and these compounds have shown to be easily functionalized with different types of cargo. This dissertation will discuss the design and synthesis of many different MaMa probes, including ones equipped with fluorophores, click handles, and even a fluorogenic system, along with their pH reactivity profiles with proteins. Due to the ease of functionalization and stability, our MaMa probes overcome the limitations of currently existing lysine technologies. To test these probes in a larger system, we chose mosquito larvae, as their midguts have aunique pH gradient ranging from pH 7-11. As our MaMa probes are activated at high pH, we sought to use our probes as a tool to find new protein drug targets to help overcome the resistance mosquitoes are gaining against current control methods. This dissertation will highlight the use of a MaMa probe already equipped with a fluorophore, a fluorogenic system, and our click-ready probes in the mosquito midgut for fluorescent labeling. We have found the importance of using a bright fluorophore for optimal visualization and the need to choose fluorophores that do not cross cellular membranes. Preliminary data does show promise for the use of these probes in mosquito larvae midguts to shed light on new protein drug targets for tailored insecticide development. Finally, this dissertation will discuss attempts at altering the optimal pH necessary for the double amine addition. Since the reactivity of these probes are dependent on the pKa of both the MaMa probe and lysine, we sought to manipulate the pKa of the N-H bond on the MaMa backbone by conjugating aniline compounds equipped with varying substituents of varying degrees of electron donating and withdrawing character. This dissertation discusses the synthesis of this class of aniline probes along with small molecule kinetic data showing reactivity at various pH values. Some of these compounds have shown optimal pH conditions at lower pH values than the first class of MaMa probes, showing promise for labeling at a wider range of aqueous conditions. Additionally, the tuning of the pKa with a MaMa probe containing a propargyl linker will be discussed, as it deviates slightly from the initially determined kinetic trend. Finally, the attempt at altering pKa of the MaMa probes with other nucleophiles, such as hydrazines and hydroxylamines will be discussed. Overall, the MaMa probe series has shown promise for use in many different environments and experimental setups, including in vivo and in vitro. The story of the development and design of these probes along with their uses will be highlighted throughout this dissertation.

A model for describing the ground and excited states of a hydrogen atom (or amolecule) confined to a soft-wall cuboidal potential energy trap, which allows a small part of the wave function to leak across the boundary, is proposed and implemented. Explicitly Correlated Gaussian (ECG) functions are used to expand these wave functions that are symmetry adapted with respect to the trapping potential. These quantum systems are studied without assuming the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, to achieve highly accurate results. Both the electronic and nuclear densities of all the states are visualized using density plots. This novel method to understand the behavior of a trapped hydrogen atom (or a molecule), when extended to multiple hydrogen molecules, has potential for predicting the cage occupancy of different clathrate molecules used for hydrogen storage, because current data regarding these are highly contested. Since the cage occupancy directly corresponds to the % hydrogen by weight, the work described in the thesis can potentially be used to advance the field of hydrogen storage in clathrates. In addition, the studies shed more light on the confinement of small quantum systems subjected to a partially penetrable potential, which can, when developed further, help in the understanding of several response properties such as polarizability, hyperpolarizability, dipole moment etc under these confinement conditions.

This dissertation introduces a novel machine-learning method in deep learning for medical imaging for a signal estimation task of an adaptive Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) system. In SPECT, estimation tasks aim to measure or quantify features of the object that has been imaged. Currently, several algorithms exist that estimate the parameters used to describe the signal. Our approach to this problem is to apply a deep convolutional neural network that learns and estimates the signal parameters from a given SPECT image dataset. The developed machine learning model learned and extracted essential features from the input image through supervised learning techniques that minimize the mean-squared error (MSE) loss for the estimation task. The SPECT system used in this work is the modeled adaptive SPECT system called AdaptiSPECT. The image data for the neural network model is acquired from the modeled AdaptiSPECT system's diversity imaging. We vary the imaging data by combining data from all camera positions at once, giving the impression that the cameras in AdaptiSPECT are moving while we collect data. The object data consists of digitally simulated Mouse Whole-Body (MOBY) phantom objects containing variations of spherical lesions (signals). The estimation task is set up to demonstrate realistically with the signal and the object's attributes being variable, as in clinical settings. In summary, we developed and trained a deep convolutional network for a signal estimation task, which is a good estimator across the signal parameters. Root mean-squared Error (RMSE) is the figure of merit used to assess how well the model predicts the parameters that define the signal. The results indicate that this supervised learning network accurately predicts the signal parameters of interest. It also demonstrates that deep convolutional neural networks are practical for adaptive SPECT imaging systems.

Regular participation in physical activity induces remarkable health benefits that are associated with immediate (e.g. improved sleep quality, reduction in subjective stress) and long-term effects (e.g. decreased risk and incidence of cardiovascular disease/cancer). Emerging evidence has also determined that physical activity lowers the risk of infection and mortality caused by virus’ such as SARS-CoV-2. Indeed, there is a compelling link between physical activity and the body’s defense system that has prompted the investigation of immune modulation via exercise. Over the last few decades, it has been established that both chronic and acute exercise act as an immune system adjuvant that improves defense mechanisms to reduce the incidence of disease and boost anti-viral activity. One mechanism by which exercise enhances systemic immune function is through the redistribution of leukocytes with each exercise bout; a response that is driven by catecholamines and purported to increase host immune surveillance. The robust exercise-induced mobilization of responsive immune cells (e.g. natural killer cells, CD8+ T-cells) display favorable phenotypes associated with enhanced lytic function against tumor and virus cells, increased trafficking ability, greater response to cytokines, and augmented response to cognate antigens. Technological advances in system biology analysis (e.g. transcriptomics) would provide a greater comprehensive phenotype of exercise responsive cells, including preferentially mobilized T-cell subsets. Therefore, assessment of the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire, is vital to deepen our understanding of the beneficial effect of acute exercise on immune cell phenotype and function. Furthermore, utilizing multimodal sequencing analysis would elucidate the transcriptomic changes induced by acute exercise at an individual cell level. In addition, our lab has proposed that exercise-mobilized cells may provide excellent precursors for the isolation and manufacture of several cell therapeutics used to treat hematological cancers. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the capacity by which exercise has application across different cell products utilized for immunotherapy. Consequently, the summation of effects induced by acute exercise over time, may improve immunosurveillance against viral pathogens, providing beneficial anti-viral effects. While exercise has been shown to promote anti-viral immunity, the mechanisms by which exercise can ameliorate symptoms and enhance synthetic immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is still under investigation. Herein, this dissertation explores the effects of acute exercise in humans on T-cell diversity and function, the manufacturing of adoptive cell therapeutic CIK cells, and the COVID-19 vaccine induced immune response. Cumulatively, these data enhance our understanding of the exercise-induced immune changes that occur within T-cells at the clonal and transcriptional level, and provides insight for the translational potential of acute exercise to improve immune responses to viruses and cancer in a clinical setting.

Through a non-traditional approach, the author completed this dissertation with the following components: 1) an introduction to the problem examined, 2) a literature review, 3) a manuscript prepared for submission to a peer reviewed journal, and 4) a reflection of her experiences completing doctoral studies during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. Although the pandemic changed the process to complete this dissertation, the research began prior to and persisted throughout the pandemic to examine the effect a systematically organized morphosyntax intervention on deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students’ production of English single sentences and connected language. The author begins by introducing the barriers DHH students face when accessing morphosyntax knowledge (Chapter 1). In the next chapters, the paucity of morphosyntactical interventions for deaf and hard of hearing students (Chapter 2) provides a rationale for the study described in the following chapter (Chapter 3). The final chapter (Chapter 4) is in the format of a lesson plan, describing the author’s educational experiences while reflecting on her journey as a student, researcher, administrator, and mother to complete the requirements of her doctoral program.  

Introduction: Garbage burning is an issue that affects two billion people worldwide, contributing to air pollution. Few studies have characterized and quantified the PAHs, VOCs, PM 2.5, and dioxins present in the smoke component in a communal setting. This dissertation aims to characterize the pollutants emitted by garbage burning and to estimate the risk of cancer for those who practice it or are exposed to the smoke produced by burning garbage in rural areas. Methods: Air samples from the smoke component produced by different garbage types were measured in a chamber for PM 2.5 PAHs, dioxins, and VOCs. Cancer risk at multiple distances from the source was estimated using a Gaussian plume model. Ambient air samples were collected as part of the San Carlos Apache Tribe Stop Burning Project. Backyard burning measurements of concentrations of PM 2.5 PAHs, dioxins, and VOCs were measured for the length of the burn. The contribution of garbage-type dioxins and PAH species was assessed via partial least squares regression. Results: The burning of plastics, cardboard, adult diapers and paper increases the likelihood of developing cancer over a lifetime due to the inhalation of PM 2.5 up to 20 meters away from the burning source in rural areas. Using PLSR, I identified the burning of plastics as the main contributor to the presence of 1,2,3,7,8 pentachlorodibenzofuran, 2,3,4,7,8-pentachlorodibenzofuran 1,2,3,4,7,8 hexachlorodibenzofuran, and 1,2,3,6,7,8 hexachlorodibenzofuran. The PAHs associated with plastic burning is of 1-methylnaphthalene, acenaphthylene, phenanthrene, and anthracene. These compounds increase the risk of cancer over a lifetime. Conclusion: I have addressed a gap in the literature regarding the use of real-time monitors and the pollutants produced by garbage burning at the source. Communal garbage burning studies are limited and represent a challenge for environmental health professionals due to many factors that affect the outcome and cannot be easily measured by a sampler. Garbage burning is an issue with sociopolitical ramifications that cannot be addressed by science alone.

A growing body of literature has attempted to explore the ban on Mexican American Studies in Tucson Unified School District located in Tucson, Arizona (Acosta et al., 2014). While education researchers and practitioners in Arizona have attempted to understand the implications of the Ethnic Studies ban for multicultural educators nationwide (Acosta et al., 2014), little is known regarding how the local and regional Spanish media framed this ethnic studies controversy. The objective of this Critical Discourse Analysis was to explore how the local Spanish media covered the issue of the ethnic studies ban in Arizona in 2010, with a specific focus on the Tucson Unified School District. Secondary data from media publications were obtained from the library and the Internet. Critical Discourse Analysis was conducted to identify the main themes emerging from the Spanish media reporting of the Mexican American ethnic studies ban controversy. Findings showed that the Spanish media employed various discourses when framing the Mexican American ethnic studies controversy including: the ethnic studies ban was racially motivated, defending ethnic studies and student rights, concerns about constitutionality of banning Mexican American Studies, especially regarding censorship of the freedom of expression. Additional discourses included ethnic studies ban hindering culture and ethnic diversity, feelings of persecution, apartheid, and potential efforts attempted at suppressing Mexican American history. The discourses employed by the Spanish language media largely emphasize the value of Mexican American ethnic studies as the media projects an image that ethnic studies educate learners about their cultural roots, values, and history. Spanish language media discourses also centered how ethnic studies enhance student engagement in school, reduce dropouts, and contribute to examination scores. Through student protests and public demonstrations, the Spanish language media helped create awareness about ethnic studies, with the movement attracting national interest in support of ethnic studies included in the educational curriculum. Future studies may improve on the current findings by collecting primary data using surveys, interviews, and focus groups to supplement the obtained data, and corroborate the current findings.

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to educate providers on the STOPP/START criteria in order to increase their willingness to implement the criteria and promote medication deprescribing in older adults. Background: In older adults, aged 65 and older, 50% take four or more medications. This increases their risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). Utilizing tools such as the STOPP/START criteria to routinely review medication lists in older patients with polypharmacy can be useful in guiding the deprescribing process to prevent risk of PIMs and ADRs. Methods: This QI project took place during a one-hour lunch at the clinic and involved an in-person educational presentation on the STOPP/START criteria and its importance in medication deprescribing in older adults. This presentation was followed by a post-survey assessing provider willingness to implement the criteria and look for opportunities to deprescribe. Data collection and analysis were done using Qualtrics. Results: This project took place during the lunch hour at the clinic site, Sonoran Medical Centers in Glendale, Arizona. There were a total of eight participants who took part in the educational presentation and the post-survey. Five of the eight participants (62.5%) responded that they would be “likely” or “extremely likely” to implement the STOPP/START criteria and to look for opportunities to deprescribe. Conclusions: Overall, the participants responded they would be willing to utilize the criteria in their practice. However, it may be more likely to be implemented if it were more easily accessible for providers, such as a phone app, instead of an online PDF.