Honors Theses

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2152/13341

This is a collection of undergraduate honors theses completed by UT Austin students. There is not a requirement for students to submit their thesis to Texas ScholarWorks, so the collection only includes those students who have opted in. If you are interested in submitting your honors thesis to this collection, please complete this form and send it along with the file for your thesis to tsw@utlists.utexas.edu. Please make sure to remove any signatures from your document before sending it.

If you are looking for a Plan II honors thesis, please see the Plan II Honors Theses collection.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 657

3D Printing and Structural Testing of Quick Connection
(2018-05) Jung, Kee Young; Clayton, Patricia
3D printing technology allows three-dimensional solid objects to be created from a digital file. It is an additive manufacturing process that creates objects by laying down successive layers of material in one continuous process. The use of 3D printing has been explored in many different industries due to its potential to revolutionize the manufacturing process. The construction industry is not an exception to this trend as it is going through a major change associated with the automation of the construction process. 3D printing offers the construction industry a possibility of creating construction elements of unique, complex geometry that can be custom-made and mass-produced. This study aims to utilize the benefits of the 3D printer by printing connection members of complex geometry inspired from Japanese woodworking and the modern proprietary connection from the ConXTech. The connection models will be tested for its strength and serviceability and their performance will be analyzed to assess the connection’s potential for structural and non-structural application. By combining the “fastener-free” and the “quick and easy to connect” abilities of the wooden joineries and the ConXTech connections with the benefit of the 3D printing technology, the study will explore the process of innovation that can result from interdisciplinary research.
A Review of Community-Based Interventions and Educational Initiatives for Overdose Prevention & Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in the United States
(2024) Kulkarni, Sachi; Gonzalez, Sonia K.
Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a major health challenge facing the United States today, with 80,411 people dying from opioid-involved overdoses in 2021, accounting for 75.4% of overdose deaths. OUD disproportionately affects American Indian/Alaska Natives, people who live in rural areas, and young people ages 18-25. Each of these groups requires a distinct approach to reduce overdose deaths and OUD. This literature review included 22 papers to elucidate the specific aspects of successful community-based interventions and educational initiatives for overdose prevention deployed in the United States. Cultural sensitivity, peer involvement, and advancements in technology such as telehealth were found to be crucial next steps and key aspects of successful interventions.
Acoustic Klein tunneling in topological nanoscale phononic crystals
(2022-11) Jahanbani, Shahin; Lai, Keji
The knowledge of emergent many-body phenomena in phononic systems has important implications for our fundamental understanding of the quantum origins of matter as well as technological applications of acoustic devices in quantum acoustics and quantum information processing platforms. In this work, the theoretical foundation for investigating the acoustic version of a many-body phenomenon in nanoscale phononic crystals known as Klein tunneling is presented. The advantage of such an exploration in acoustic systems is that they would provide a natural platform for studying the Dirac pseudospin fields, manifested as acoustic modes in the crystals, with unprecedented details, which is superior to performing experiments at ultra-low-temperatures to explore similar effects in many-body electron systems. The analysis outlined in this work is supplemented with a comprehensive study of the analytic mechanical band structures in topological phononic crystals, along with finite-element modeling of the simulated designs in COMSOL Multiphysics software. Furthermore, the nanoscale-resolution imaging of the transmission mode of Microwave Impedance Microscopy of the propagated acoustic waves in some of the designed phononic crystals will be showcased.
Admixture Correction in the Outgroup-f3 Statistic
(2018-05) Tunga, Nita; Austin, Jennifer Mann
Genetic inheritance can be studied within a purely genetic scope. However, this eliminates part of the picture. The field of genetics is often thought of as a natural science with little in common with fields of social science. However, in human genetics and the genetics of the organisms which humans impact, the role of cultural and societal forces cannot be ignored. For instance, lactase is an enzyme used to digest lactose in milk. As such, it is an enzyme whose activity reduces significantly after weaning. Nonetheless, as humans have begun to ingest more dairy products into adulthood, lactase persistence has evolved to enable humans to digest these dairy products. My research involves mathematically representing the genetic similarity of two populations accurately via the f3 statistic. The outgroup-f3 statistic is useful in understanding a population’s genetic history and how genetically related two populations are. It shows how close two populations are compared to a third population that is equally distant genetically from the first two. However, if two populations share a recent genetic interaction with another population, the outgroup-f3 statistic could show those two populations as being closer together than they truly are. This genetic interaction of two or more previously isolated populations interbreeding is referred to as admixture. Admixture skews, or even inhibits, an understanding of those populations’ genetic histories. To avoid this problem, I have attempted to devise a modified version of the outgroup-f3 statistic to ensure an accurate representation of genetic relatedness. For my project, artificial admixture was introduced in six unadmixed human populations. Depending on the relationship between increased contamination and the f3 statistic, we proposed and adjusted solutions for a corrected f3 accordingly. I tested my proposed corrections by applying it to populations that contain individuals with and without recent histories of genetic admixture. After correcting for the proportion of admixture in the population, I compared this corrected outgroup-f3 statistic to the outgroup-f3 value calculated for the original unadmixed population. The goal of this work is to have a corrected statistic that one can apply to two populations, independent of admixture proportions. Ultimately, this will help us to better understand the evolutionary histories of populations. Moreover, a corrected statistic will aid other researchers as they analyse demographic histories further in the past.
Advances in a C. elegans model of Alzheimer's disease for drug screening against neurodegeneration
(2015-04) Zuniga, Gabrielle; Pierce-Shimomura, Jon
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, yet no treatment effectively prevents, halts or reverses the disease. Progress in developing treatments is hampered by the extensive time required for traditional mouse models of AD to age before displaying histological hallmarks of AD. We set out to test whether a novel transgenic model of AD using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans may be used to more rapidly determine efficacy of candidate treatments through high throughput screening of behaviors. Our lab previously showed that antagonists for the conserved Sigma-2 receptor (Sig2R) are protective against age- dependent degeneration of cholinergic neurons caused by the human plaque protein, amyloid precursor protein (APP), in this model. To investigate how inhibition of Sig2R protects neurons, we tested whether knockdown of Sig2R via RNA interference prevented decline of two behaviors that depend on these cholinergic neurons. We found that RNAi treatment normalized one of the two behaviors in this AD model suggesting that the antagonists act against the Sig2R in vivo for neuroprotection. The success of this study suggests that this behavioral readout might be used to screen for additional pharmaceutical and genetic modifiers of Sig2R on neurodegeneration. In addition to developing this high throughput behavioral screening, we also built transgene components to generate an improved second generation C. elegans model of AD that conveniently tags the APP protein with mCherry for in vivo fluorescent visualization. Our results set the stage for further drug discovery using our C. elegans models of AD.
Aesthetic image rating (AIR) algorithm
(2008-05) Reaves, David; Alan Bovik
Rapidly advancing technologies o er a greater volume of people the possi- bility to both create and consume information. And, with this widening of opportunity, the volume of digital information has increased in mammoth proportion. Indeed, this age of information is marked by quantity, but what of quality? It has become necessary to formulate a systematic method to sift through the vast amount of data. This paper presents an algorithm that seeks to emulate the manner by which a human might judge an image's aesthetic value. The notion that a machine could imitate human thought processes is not necessarily novel, and, as such, a fair amount of work has been done regarding algorithmic aesthetic digital image rating. Most of these proposed algorithms, however, have been unable to satisfactorily mimic ac- tual human ratings. This paper builds on these past works and yet goes further by signi cantly improving on these prior accomplishments. The re- sult of our focus on the discovery of an optimal vector of image features is a highly accurate emulation of human ratings.
AGB stars in the early universe I: Towards a portable chemical and thermal evolution model
(2012) Liao, Andy Sha; Milosavljevic, Milos
Stars in the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) are in the penultimate stage of their lives as low- mass dwarfs. During this stage, they produce in their cool, bloated envelopes vast quantities of dust composed from metals forged deep in their interiors from nuclear reactions. They expel these dust grains in shells blown out from the star by strong winds powered by radiation pressure. In order to better understand the role of asymptotic giants as sources of metal and dust enrichment in the early, metal-poor universe, we create a portable chemical and thermal network considering physics on all the major primordial species including H; H+; H−; H2; H+2 ; He; He+; He++; D; D+; HD; e− as well as the most important metal coolants C, Si, O and their singly ionized state C+, Si+, O+. We involve in our code all of the important heating and cooling processes including atomic lines, molecular lines, continuum radiation and absorption, metal fine structure lines, and collisional heating and cooling including that between dust grains and gas particles. We test our reaction network by numerically solving chemical and thermal rate equations in a one-zone freefall model. Our results show that the presence of dust and metals in a cloud creates at lower densities a significant excess of molecular hydrogen, an important coolant, compared with dust and metal-free clouds.
Alcohol consumption promotes breast cancer development in female mice
(2008) Fan, Betty; Nomeli Nunez
Backgrounds: Epidemiological studies show that alcohol consumption increases breast cancer risk. However, the mechanism by which alcohol causes this effect is not known. Therefore, our objective is to generate an animal model to find the mechanism by which alcohol increases breast cancer risk. Methods: To determine the effects of alcohol consumption on breast cancer development, 65 female FVB/N mice were randomized (30-water, 35-alcohol) to have free access to water or 20% alcohol. All mice were given the same diet and placed in similar living conditions. Eleven weeks into the study, mice were injected with Met-1 mammary cancer cells subcutaneously in their backs. We measured body weight, food, liquid consumption, and tumor growth rate throughout the study. To determine body composition, mice were scanned using a GE Lunar Piximus Densitometer, which measures percent body fat, percent lean body mass, and bone mineral density. Results: Results showed that tumor development is exacerbated in the alcohol consuming mice. Alcohol consuming mice developed tumors earlier than water consuming mice. Furthermore, tumors in the alcohol consuming mice were larger in volume. Body weights, caloric consumption, and body composition showed no significant difference between the alcohol and water consuming mice. Conclusion: We present a suitable animal model where we can elucidate the mechanism by which alcohol consumption promotes mammary tumor development.
Alcove walks and spherical Whittaker functions
(2021) Huynh, Matthew; Raskin, Sam
Labeled minimal walks in the path model correspond bijectively with points of the affine flag variety $G/I$. By using the folding algorithm introduced in \cite{prs09}, we can use folded labeled walks to describe points of triple intersections $U^-vI \cap IwI \cap U^+ v'I$ in the affine flag variety. We demonstrate how to simplify the calculation of what steps can be folded, and use this to prove a result about the maximum number of folds allowed for a minimal walk. Finally, we explain how to compute the spherical Whittaker function using alcove walks following \cite{beaz13}, and for $G = \mathrm{SL}_3$ we prove a result about the alcove walks that contribute non-trivially to this computation.
All Mutual Aid is Speculative Fiction: Critical Fabulation and its Role in Achieving Abolition
(2021) Alvarez, Adaylin; Rivera-Dundas, Adena
Through the practice of critical fabulation, authors of speculative fiction can practice mutual aid with the goal of achieving abolition. Critical fabulation within speculative fiction allows authors to use their imagine to create worlds free of prisons, war, and capitalism. Both critical fabulation and speculative fiction, in practicing mutual aid, then become tools that work within the confines of and against the white supremacist, colonial archive, the prison industrial complex, and the non-profit industrial complex—those tools help authors and readers imagine a world of abolition. Through a literary analysis of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, this paper aims to find instances of mutual aid within those works of speculative fiction in order to prove that all mutual aid is speculative fiction. The combination of Adaylin’s personal experiences in practicing mutual aid and her literary analysis of works of speculative fiction then allows her to describe her process in applying both to write her own speculative fiction story.
Alterations on rodent ultrasonic vocalizations and consequent effects on mate selection
(2009-05) Chen, Eric; Timothy Schallert
In this study, the effects of altering different components of a rodent’s mating calls and their consequent effects on mate selection were explored. Rodents have become an established animal model in laboratory studies due to their inexpensive cost and common mammalian attributes shared with humans. While amphibian studies examined female selection of male mates based on acoustic features, to this date no mammalian model has been used to investigate these questions. From previous research, we know that unilateral dopamine depletion in the nigro-striatal pathway within the brain results in a drop in intensity and bandwidth of its calls. This is seen commonly in patients that suffer from Parkinson’s Disease: soft voice with monotonic pitch. My project seeks to go one step farther and ask whether it is the intensity, bandwidth, or both which modulates a female’s preferential behavior towards a mating call. To answer this question, our lab constructed an experiment involving two new sets of stimuli (only intensity reduced: -4dB and only bandwidth reduced) to be tested on two sets of rats: sexually-experienced and sexually-naïve. Using a T-maze setup to track our female rats’ preferential behaviors, we observed that both sexually experienced and inexperienced female rodents show a high preference for the normal intensity calls over those of low intensity. However, when given a choice between normal calls and low-bandwidth altered calls, the sexually experienced rats preferred the normal calls whereas the sexually-naïve rats seemed to exhibit no such preference. These results help us to conclude that sexually-experienced female rats prefer normal, or relatively higher, intensities and bandwidths of calls. However, the results from testing these calls on sexually-naïve female rats broaches a new question of the role of sexual experience in determining preference in mating calls. Further research can be conducted investigating whether the preference would differ had the females undergone sexual experience with Parkinson’s diseased rats who produce low intensity and low bandwidth calls which could elucidate the role of sexual experience in discerning mating calls.
Altering the oligomerization state of GFP-like purple protein to enhance protein taggin ability
(2009) Kuhn, Samantha; Scott Stevens
Since its discovery and purification in the 1960s, Green Fluorescent Protein has quickly become an extremely useful scientific tool for analyzing protein expression and dynamics. GFP was originally discovered in a species of jellyfish, Aequorea victoria, apparent only in response to a blue flash of bioluminescence. Upon examining its structure, scientists soon found that the source of GFP’s color was an autocatalytically formed chromophore at the center of its β-barrel structure. Because of this autocatalytic mechanism of fluorescence, the GFP gene alone can be attached to proteins of interest and used to track expression and movement in vivo. While GFP itself was a breakthrough in the biotechnology world, it is hardly the end of the line as far as fluorescent proteins go. In recent years, scientists have been searching for and finding more members of the GFP-family that have the same autocatalytic property but display different colors. The introduction of new colors to the library of fluorescent proteins offers great advantages in multiple protein tagging and studying protein interactions. However, most fluorescent proteins that have been found to date have been tetramers, consisting of four identical subunits. This quaternary structure makes them ineffective as protein tags. Researchers have recently been exploring ways to alter the oligomer ization state of fluorescent proteins and create dimeric and monomeric forms the can be useable tags. In my experiment, I attempted to do so in a GFP family protein from species Galaxea fascicularis and Montipora efflorescens known as purple protein. There is not a protein tag that emits is colored purple currently, and so my goal was to reduce the oligomerization state of purple protein, assuming that it is a tetramer, while maintaining its purple color. To do this, I used site-directed mutagenesis techniques to change specific amino acids in the protein that were predicted to be involved in formation of tetramers. All three mutations made in the sequence affected the spectral qualities, as the cells they that the mutants were transformed into showed no purple expression. One mutation resulted in a protein that migrated at half the relative molecular weight of the wild type protein in a gel filtration column, and thus we were successful in reducing the oligomerization state of the purple protein through that mutation. While it is not currently useful as tag, the successful mutant should be used in future experiments to isolate a functional monomer of the purple protein, adding to the library of protein tag colors.
America's Second Southern Border? Mexico's 2014 Programa Frontera Sur and the Widening of North American Immigration Cooperation
(2019-05) Doran, Jeremy; Greene, Kenneth
This study seeks to answer whether Mexico’s 2014 Programa Frontera Sur (PFS) represents a widening of US/Mexico immigration cooperation and a shift toward what may become a multilateral North American immigration posture. Beginning in 2011, the US noted a steady increase in the number of irregular migrants arriving at the southern border after transiting from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador via Mexico. In response, Mexico’s President Peña Nieto announced Programa Frontera Sur (“The Southern Border Program”) which aimed to protect vulnerable migrants entering via Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala and more effectively enforce the physical and technological infrastructure of that border. There is considerable evidence that the US pressured Mexico to introduce the program early and provided much of its funding. This thesis outlines the purpose of PFS within the context of Mexico’s previous immigration policies concerning the southern border. It then analyzes the program’s immediate effects on immigration and migrant human rights to understand whether it met its two primary short-term objectives before discussing the present-day state of US/Mexican immigration cooperation. This thesis finds that PFS represented an unprecedented step toward bilateral immigration cooperation. It argues that contemporary instances of cooperation would not be possible without the bedrock that PFS established in 2014. It concludes that greater US/Mexico immigration cooperation should be expected in the future.
The American West through Representations of the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup
(2019-05) Wilson, Sylvia; Seriff, Suzanne
The Sweetwater Jaycees’ World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup includes a pageant; a carnival; community dances; guided hunts; bus tours of rattlesnake dens; a gun, coin and knife show; cook-offs; and a flea market, all in addition to the main event—the rattlesnake pits. As the rattlesnakes cycle through the coliseum, they are weighed, milked of their venom, draped over participants’ shoulders for photographs, and finally slaughtered. The Roundup is known globally for its provocative handling of rattlesnakes and resulting imagery which has positioned the event as a captivating subject for photography, film, and television. This project seeks to analyze the ways in which three media representations of the Roundup uphold, construct, and challenge myths of the American West. First, I examine Richard Avedon’s In the American West photography series which tells a story of American isolation, hopelessness, and frightening beauty as depicted in the faces of individuals he encountered at the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. Next, I investigate the Simpsons’ “Whacking Day” episode, which was inspired by the Roundup in Sweetwater and uses parody to comment on issues of virility, groupthink, education, religion, and environmental justice in the West, and more broadly, rural, working-class America. Finally, I analyze the Miss Snake Charmer documentary, directed by Rachael Waxler and EmaLee Arroyo, as it depicts coming of age as a woman in the American West. In primarily focusing the film on the preparatory process for the pageant, rather than competition night itself, the documentary emphasizes the ways in which girls are molded into the “ideal” Western woman. Through this work, I investigate how a single event comes to serve as a tool for artists wishing to uphold, build upon, or challenge myths of the American West. Furthermore, as myths of the American West have come to define parts of American national identity, representations of the Rattlesnake Roundup not only sustain or dispute heritage narratives of the West, but of the United States more broadly.
Analysis of Dimension Expansion in Spatial Modeling of American Voter Behavior
(2018-05) Parrott, Zachary; McIver, John; Jessee, Stephen
Understanding voter behavior has the potential to give us key insights and reflections on election outcomes and even serves useful in managing campaigns and predicting election outcomes. Yet political scientists have yet to create an accurate model of voting behavior. In fact, the most popular theories assert that there isn’t much political sophistication to understand or interpret. Spatial Theory however, asserts that there is political sophistication but in the form of an underlying ideological framework, or an Ideology. Spatial Theory seeks to understand and predict voter behavior by relying on ideological similarities between candidates and voters. But spatial theory isn’t perfect either. Spatial models may be one of the most predictive models of voter behavior, but it is undeniably missing out on some predictive feature that affects voting behavior. The goal of this research is to attempt to find these missing features and to see if they can be adjusted for. If these features exists and can be accurately adjusted for, they may complete the model. The most obvious of these potential features are common demographical features that have been known and empirically shown to have different voting behaviors as populations. I hypothesize that these demographic features affect a voter’s world view and value systems. I believe that if I adjust for the effects of these features in my measurement of ideology, my model will get closer to more accurately reflecting voter behavior.
Anchors away: Determining the role of outer membrane proteins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa vesicle formation
(2010) Liew, Jean; Marvin Whiteley
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that causes chronic infections in the lungs of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). Like many Gram-negatives, P. aeruginosa produces outer membrane vesicles (MVs), which have been shown to package numerous factors including antimicrobial quinolone molecules, toxins, DNA, antibiotic resistance determinants, and cell-cell signaling molecules. The mechanism for the formation of MVs has not been fully elucidated. The Gram-negative outer membrane (OM) contains associated proteins, which anchor it to the peptidoglycan, and keep the OM stable. We hypothesized that peptidoglycan-associated outer membrane lipoproteins OprF, OprL, and OprI contribute to MV formation in P. aeruginosa. In this study, we quantified MVs harvested from oprF, oprL, and oprI mutants. The MV levels produced by the oprL and oprI mutants were not significantly different from those produced by the wild type; however, the oprF mutant showed a three-fold increase in MV production. These data indicate that OprF plays a significant role in anchoring the outer membrane to the peptidoglycan and that, in its absence, more MVs are formed.
An Anthropology of Waste: The University of Texas’s Zero Waste Goal
(2020-05) Micek, Amanda; Cons, Jason
This is an examination of how we define waste and, subsequently, how waste is used as a weapon by the power structures in place. First, this paper provides a definition to the broad term “waste” and continues on to examine who creates these definitions, who these definitions aim to serve, and how these definitions affect people. I argue that there is a link between race, socioeconomic standing, and one’s visibility of and proximity to waste. I take these ideas and situate them within the city of Austin and more specifically at the University of Texas’ home football games. My research looks at the zero waste policy being pursued by Texas Athletics and who shoulders the burden of such an ambitious goal.
Anti-Mexican Violence, Race, and the Myth of Color-Blindness
(2021) Blas, Jacob D.; Vásquez, Antonio
Race and color-blindness have been examined in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies scholarship to explain the United States’ use of power through white supremacy to enact anti-Mexican violence. Anglo Americans have utilized laws, rhetorical strategies, and the manipulation of whiteness to yield fear and xenophobia, exacerbating negative stereotypes of Mexicans and Mexican Americans (e.g., “illegal,” gang members, drug dealers, rapists, criminals, dirty, diseased, mongrel). These attitudes continue to intensify under neoliberal, center, and right-wing U.S. politics and policing to characterize communities of color and immigrants as the “problem.” Neoliberal and liberal politics that use the concept of “color-blindness” do equal harm by erasing histories and ongoing experiences of white supremacy and colonial domination. The purpose of this study is to highlight how the formation of race, which is intrinsically tied to class and gender, is utilized as a mechanism for anti-Mexican violence in historical and contemporary contexts. I also intend to draw connections between this historical legacy and the contemporary period through a discussion about color-blindness and the dangers of white individualism. An examination of white supremacy, and its manifestation throughout U.S. institutions, is critical to understanding these issues because it allows us to critique the systems of power that continue to dominate the bodies of people of color. Racial hierarchies will continue to be reinforced if whiteness dominates U.S. society, academia, and the political apparatus. If we continue to ignore this history and the ongoing subjection, anti-Mexican violence – a critical facet of nation building – will continue unchallenged.
Antibiotic Markers: An Overlooked Design Choice in Synthetic Biology?
(2021) Young, Eleanor; Barrick, Jeffrey E.
Synthetic biology seeks to engineer living systems to enhance human health, improve material synthesis and degradation, and simplify diagnostics. When researchers design synthetic constructs, they rely on predictable host organisms and predictable genetic parts to engineer them. Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes are essential to synthetic designs, but different antibiotics kill cells or inhibit their growth in different ways, and antibiotic resistance genes provide resistance through different mechanisms. In general, we do not know if and how these parts impose additional fitness costs or interfere with desired genetic functions in engineered cells. To test how antibiotic choice affected synthetic devices, I examined seven near-identical plasmids. Each plasmid expressed a fluorescent protein and included a different antibiotic resistance gene. When the strains were cultured with different antibiotic concentrations, some saw a decrease in final cellular density and fluorescence while others maintained normal performance at up to ten times the selection concentration of the antibiotic. When evolved for three weeks under normal selection conditions all strains lost RCP expression by the end of the time period as populations evolved to eliminate burden. The majority of strains began to lose expression around 11 or 12 days, some lost expression as early as day 5 or as late as day 16. Each population was sequenced to reveal that the strains had accrued mutations and adjusted their copy number in different manners over the course of the experiment. Four of the strains had accumulated mutations in their RCP gene and one had mutations in the antibiotic resistant gene, some had developed possible compensatory mutations in the genome, and one of the strains with a more stable expression profile over the course of the experiment had high IS element activity and a relatively high number of mutations possibly indicating activation of the SOS response. Overall, ampicillin (beta lactamase resistance gene) was the most stable in expression while tetracycline (efflux pump resistance gene) was the least stable. These experiments show that antibiotic resistance genes, a basic design choice in synthetic biology, alter the reliability of genetic constructs.
Application of the HEAT Protocol on Select Commonly Studied Chemical Species
(2015-05-13) Lee, Hyunwoo; Stanton, John F.
The High accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry (HEAT) protocol has been applied to a variety of commonly studied chemical species in order to obtain the thermodynamic energy values of their relevant states -- primarily ground states but not necessarily. The work aims to extend the growing list of molecules already treated by the protocol, computed purely from theoretical standpoint without appeal to empiricism, for the purpose of complementing the experimental thermochemical values and predicting thermodynamics where measurement becomes difficult. Among the predictions are that methylene ground state is triplet, lower in energy than the singlet state by 37.6533 kJ/mol; the trans-conformer of formic acid is 16.917 kJ/mol lower in energy than the cis-conformer; and that the true ground state of Si3 is singlet, 1.0008 kJ/mol lower in energy than the triplet state.

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