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Towards a Quantum Steganographic Capacity of Lossy Bosonic Channels

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Raman, Vignesh

Quantum steganography is the extension of steganography to the quantum setting, wherein a quantum protocol (e.g.: a quantum error-correcting code) is used to hide classical or quantum information. Because of the unique nature of quantum states and channels, quantum steganography can be stronger than classical steganography. A lot of effort has been devoted to characterizing how much information can be embedded into various quantum channels with or without noise, and recently, several quantum steganography protocols have been developed and analyzed that improve on earlier work by exploiting a concept known in information theory as channel resolvability. This paper first provides a concise background survey of specific topics from relevant disciplines in classical as well as quantum information theory, and then presents a formulation of the problem concerning the characterization of the steganographic capacity for a specific type of quantum channel called the lossy bosonic channel.
An investigation of the mechanism behind Adjuplex and its effect in adjuvant combinations

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Vogel, Gabriela Maria

This research thesis contributes to the field of biomedical engineering, specifically to the following topics: immunotherapy, drug delivery, and adjuvant-vaccine work. By utilizing RAW-Blue cells to observe IFN-β production, NF-κB production, and overall activation of TLRs, we were able to show the effects dosage and combinations of adjuvants have on immune activation. While investigations summarized in this thesis show that Adjuplex in combination with other common adjuvants such as MPLA and CpG decreases the production of IFN-β, this did not indicate that Adjuplex suppresses the immune response that known adjuvants normally induce. Additionally, Luminex assays, ELISA assays, and flow cytometry experiments were performed to learn more about the mechanism behind Adjuplex’s ability to produce an immune response and more in depth on how Adjuplex interacts with other adjuvants in combination. Results showed that there was synergy between Adjuplex and GLA when looking at cytokines produced through the inflammasome pathway. Therefore, future work should expand on this finding and experiments should focus on further validating this finding by looking at other markers in the inflammasome pathway. Characterization of the type of adaptive immune response Adjuplex produces as an adjuvant is of critical relevance to the development of synergistic or suppressive adjuvant combinations and the optimization of vaccines.
Biofilm Matrix Properties in Pseudomonas aeruginosa under Bacteriophage Treatment

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Butler, James H.

Biofilms are a specialized structural formation that some bacterial species form when growing in certain environments. One such environment is the human lung, where the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa forms biofilms that infect the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. Techniques used to destroy biofilms have been studied previously, and one promising technique involves the use of bacteriophage. Phage are small, bacteria-targeting viruses that when introduced to biofilms cause the lysis, or destruction of bacterial cells and in some cases, the subsequent destruction of the biofilm. While the impact of phages on biofilms is well known, the changes in physical properties such as extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) distribution and pH distribution in biofilms treated with phage has not been examined in detail. This study seeks to establish pH distribution in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms using confocal microscopy and the pH sensitive molecular probe CSNARF4, as well as SYPRO ruby biofilm for the staining of all EPS proteins. Both phage-treated and untreated biofilm samples with the separately added stains of CSNARF4 and SYPRO ruby biofilm matrix were imaged using confocal microscopy and evaluated with a microtiter plate reader, respectively. It was discovered that biofilms treated with phage exhibited little reduction in average pH across all depths into the biofilm, while there was a pronounced increase in protein release into the EPS upon cell death. These results provide greater insight into the effect phages have when being used to treat biofilms and elucidates points of improvement in biofilm treatment.
Alginate Core-Shell Scaffolds for CAR T cell Manufacturing

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Mousavi Karimi, Zahra

Cancer patients with advanced-stage disease develop resistance to traditional therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, leading to the necessity of a novel technology that is both specific and efficient to the patient’s cancer. Genetically engineered T cell receptors can recognize and bind to antigens expressed on tumor cells and kill them. As a result, T cell immunotherapies have been established as a new strategic cancer therapy. The promising success of T cell immunotherapies for treatment of cancer and other diseases demonstrate the need for scalable manufacturing processes for product commercialization. Unlike traditional chemotherapies, cell-based immunotherapies are composed of living entities, and hence they are different in their development, properties and regulatory pathways in comparison to traditional drugs, which are simple chemicals. Current T cell manufacturing techniques are complicated processes that do not account for the complexity of the lymph nodes, where T cells expand rapidly in response to disease. Consequently, it is difficult to produce enough cells for quality control assays and meet the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guidelines. Thus, we hypothesize that creating a novel microenvironment that can mimic the lymph nodes will enhance expansion of T cells and allow this promising treatment to reach more patients in the clinic. To do so, we proposed using alginate which has been widely used for cell encapsulation. We prepared and optimized alginate core-shell scaffolds to provide an environment for close cell-cell contact and communication as well as protect T cells against stress for CAR T cell signaling and expansion. After expansion, the scaffolds were dissolved through both enzymatic and physical dissociation. This method will eventually allow the modified T cells to be placed in a bioreactor, allowing this technique to be commercialized by companies in the cell manufacturing industry.
Christendom v. Clericus: The Punishment of Clerical Necromancers During the Period 1100-1500 CE

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) McManus-Viana, Kayla

“The power of Christ compels you!” is probably the most infamous line from the 1973 film The Exorcist. The movie, as the title suggests, follows the journey of a priest as he attempts to excise a demon from within the body of a young girl. These types of sensational pop culture depictions are what inform the majority of people’s conceptions of demons and demonic magic nowadays. Historically, however, human conceptions of demons and magic were more nuanced than those depicted in The Exorcist and similar works. Demons were not only beings to be feared but sources of power to be exploited. Necromancy, a form of demonic magic, was one avenue in which individuals could attempt to gain control over a demon. During the period this thesis explores, 1100-1500 CE, only highly educated men, like clerics, could complete the complicated rituals associated with necromancy. Thus, this study examines the rise of the learned art of clerical necromancy in conjunction with the re-emergence of higher learning in western Europe that developed during the period from 1100-1500 CE. By examining stories of allegations of necromancy against popes and regular clergy, this thesis attempts to add to the body of existing literature on demonic magic by expanding our understanding of how clerical necromancers were punished for their foray into demonic magic (as necromancy and other forms of magic were deemed “heretical,” or banned, in the eyes of the Catholic Church). The findings suggest that allegations of clerical necromancy were often part of a “common toolbox of accusations” lodged against an opponent, often personally or politically motivated, and did not stem from true concerns over clerics attempting magic. Moreover, if one was accused of necromancy, the punishment one received was often positively correlated to the amount of political power one possessed or had access to.
Developing a Luminal Perfusion System for Human Intestinal Organoids

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Slyman, Raleigh James Hudson

Human intestinal organoids (HIOs) are 3-dimensional aggregates of cells that can replicate the structure and function of the human gastrointestinal system. HIOs generally resemble fetal tissue, so efforts have been made to mature them such that they replicate adult gastrointestinal physiology. Previous studies have shown HIO maturation following an injection of E. coli into the HIO lumen but did not attempt to regulate E. coli populations thereafter. This thesis presents a perfusion system which has the potential to modulate a luminal bacteria population through fluidic transfer. The system consists of a double-barrel glass capillary connected to a pressure-based pump, which allows for high temporal control of fluid flow. The system has been shown to regulate the concentration of diffusible dye molecules in the lumen and partially regulate E. coli distributed heterogeneously in the lumen. If volumetric flow control and incubator compatibility are implemented, the new proposed system may enable long-term study of HIO-E. coli interaction.
Mutual Information Analysis Reveals Millisecond Level Precision Across Flight Muscles in Manduca sexta

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Niebur, Tobias

Motor control has long been thought to be primarily encoded in spike rate, however recent work has highlighted the importance of spike timing. Despite possessing a good understanding of spike timing precision in sensory systems, the same understanding has not been established for their motor counterparts. We utilize EMG and motor output recordings from the flight system of the hawkmoth Manduca sexta to characterize the level of spike timing precision in the motor system. We show through two complementary information theoretic methods, including a novel noise corruption method, that the scale of temporal precision in all muscle activations is on the millisecond-scale, comparable to many sensory systems. Additionally, we establish that the novel method is capable of resolving precise precision values in systems that traditional methods struggle to characterize. This indicates that this precision must arise within the circuit.
Dissociable Effect of Stimulus Fluency on Accuracy and Confidence in Perceptual Decision Making

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Webber, Alexis Kaitlyn

Perceptual decision making relies on collecting evidence from stimuli to make an accurate judgement. The decision is accompanied by a sense of confidence based on the same evidence. Although the accuracy and confidence of a decision are often correlated, it is important to understand cases when they are dissociable. The goal of this study was to investigate qualities of the stimuli that lead to these cases. A dot motion experiment was performed where participants were asked to judge the direction of the motion and report their subsequent confidence in the decision. The motion of the dots was varied in two ways: the strength of signal was controlled by adjusting the tilt difference and the noise of the signal was controlled by adjusting the coherence of the motion. It was discovered that in cases with high coherence and low or medium tilt, confidence was higher, but accuracy was lower than cases with low or medium coherence and high tilt. From this it was concluded that coherence has more of an effect on confidence while tilt has more of an effect on accuracy, causing a dissociation between accuracy and confidence. These findings are important because they provide insight into cases of over and under confidence that can allow for us to better gauge the validity of the confidence judgement as it relates to accuracy depending on the qualities of signal strength and noise.
Characterizing Excitatory and Inhibitory Neuron Responses to Dark and Bright Stimuli in the Visual Cortex of Awake Mice

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-08) Meyer-Baese, Lisa

An increased understanding in mouse primary visual cortex (V1) will allow us to better characterize the internal electrical and neural circuit mechanisms of the visual process. So far, most studies directly recording single neurons have been mainly performed in anesthetized animals. This study is novel in that it aims to extend these findings to the awake visual cortex, and to multiple retinotopic locations in V1 of mice. To characterize how excitatory and inhibitory neurons in V1 respond to bright and dark visual stimuli the mice were presented with input stimulus of different colored bars, ranging in luminance defined by Michelson Contrast. Their response to these stimuli was recorded using multi-shank probes that were placed in V1. Once neurons were identified as being inhibitory and excitatory, their response properties were then be tied back to the different input stimuli. Results do not indicate any statistically significant differences between the response of the two classes.
An Empirical Analysis of IoT Malware Infection Techniques

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-05) Joaquin, Nicholas

The rise of insecure Internet of Things (IoT) on the Internet is problematic because they are easily compromised. IoT vendors are trying to push products to market as quickly as possible resulting in a significant amount of security issues. This work explores the attacks vectors used by malware to gain privilege control of IoT devices. We achieve this by performing two experiments – a static binary analysis that checks for specific patterns and identifies a binary to a publicly disclosed vulnerability, and a dynamic binary analysis focusing on linking program behavior to malicious actions. We further extend upon this by analyzing ELF section metadata of “tagged” binaries to determine if we can link specific ELF section sizes and entropies to malicious binaries. Through our work, we see that a large portion of vulnerabilities occurs due to improperly validated inputs, followed by weak credentials and improperly secured files. Moreover, we have also found that we are unable to link ELF section metadata to malicious binaries, as a result of anti-analysis efforts by malware authors. Our intention with this work is to understand how malware attacks IoT devices, thereby highlighting the specific security areas that must be prioritized in IoT device development.