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Modifiable Risk Factors For Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy Among Latina Women, Shannon Renee Turzanski Fortner

Open Access Dissertations

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy affect approximately 8% of pregnancies, and can lead to serious complications for both mother and child. While Latinas are at two-fold increased risk of preeclampsia relative to non-Latina white women, little research on hypertension in pregnancy has been conducted in this population. Furthermore, there are few modifiable risk factors for hypertensive pregnancy. Therefore, we examined associations between psychosocial stress, physical activity, and pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy using data from the Latina GDM Study, a prospective cohort study of 1,231 women. The first study evaluated the association between perceived stress …

A Program Evaluation Of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support In An Alternative Education Setting, Elana Rachel Weinberger

Open Access Dissertations

The current program evaluation of school-wide positive behavior support (PBS) in an alternative education setting was conducted in three phases (Phase 1: initial evaluation; Phase 2: intervention; Phase 3: follow up evaluation). The purpose of the evaluation was to identify strengths and weaknesses of the PBS program and to implement changes to improve program effectiveness and positive outcomes for students. An exploratory case study design was used to achieve an in-depth understanding of the program through the use of quantitative and qualitative data collection. The evaluation was completed within one school year, between November 2007 and May 2008. The participants …

Spatial Ecology, Population Structure, And Conservation Of The Wood Turtle, Glyptemys Insculpta, In Central New England, Michael T. Jones

Open Access Dissertations

Abstract (Summary) Wood turtles ( Glyptemys insculpta ) are of conservation interest rangewide. Anecdotal accounts demonstrate that some populations have been decimated since 1850, and recent studies demonstrate that declines are still underway. From 2004-2008 I investigated the ecology of wood turtles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I obtained between one and five years of annual home range data for 150 turtles, and evaluated population structure at 31 sites in five major watersheds. Seasonal floods displaced 7% of wood turtles annually in one watershed, and accounted for elevated mortality. Twelve wood turtles were displaced < 16.8 km, and two were displaced over a 65-foot dam. Several turtles overwintered at their displacement site and two returned successfully, indicating that floods are a mechanism of population connectivity. Several homing turtles ended up in new areas. Turtles occupied stream segments with gradient < 1%, lower than generally available. Agricultural machinery accounted for most observed mortality, followed by automobiles and mammals. Female turtles exhibit smaller home ranges in agricultural areas. Older turtles move farther from the river than do young turtles, possibly reflecting their familiarity with a former landscape. Population density ranged from 0-40.4 turtles/river-kilometer. The highest densities occur in central New Hampshire and lower densities occur in the Housatonic watershed. Population density is negatively correlated with agriculture at both riparian and watershed scales, and responds unimodally to forest cover. Wood turtle populations in western Massachusetts are declining by 6.6-11.2% annually. I estimated ages of turtles by assessing shell-wear rates from photographs. Wood turtles regularly achieve ages over 80 years, and like related species, do not exhibit clear signs of senescence. Old wood turtles are reproductively dominant, and their survival rates are twice as high as young turtles. Carapace scutes appear to require 80 years to become worn. Population modeling indicates that wood turtle populations are declining in New England due to anthropogenic and natural factors. Conservation efforts must address the effects of agriculture on adult survival. Climate change may negatively affect northeastern wood turtles through increased flooding. Populations in mountainous areas may be likely candidates for conservation because they don't occupy prime agricultural land, but may be more susceptible to floods.

The Use Of Item Response Theory In Developing A Phonics Diagnostic Inventory, Cynthia A. Pirani-Mcgurl

Open Access Dissertations

This study was conducted to investigate the reliability of the Phonics Diagnostic Inventory (PDI), a curriculum-based, specific skill mastery measurement tool for diagnosing and informing the treatment of decoding weaknesses. First, a modified one-parameter item response theory model was employed to identify the properties of potential items for inclusion in each subtest to then inform the construction of subtests using the most reliable items. Second, the properties of each subtest were estimated and examined. The test information and test characteristic curves (TCC) for the newly developed forms are reported. Finally, the accuracy and sensitivity of PDI cut scores for each …

Operating System Support For Modern Applications, Ting Yang

Open Access Dissertations

Computer systems now run drastically different workloads than they did two decades ago. The enormous advances in hardware power, such as processor speed, memory and storage capacity, and network bandwidth, enable them to run new kinds as well as a large number of applications simultaneously. Software technologies, such as garbage collection and multi-threading, also reshape applications and their behaviors, introducing more challenges to system resource management. However, existing general-purpose operating systems do not provide adequate support for these modern applications. These operating systems were designed over two decades ago, when garbage-collected applications were not prevalent and users interacted with systems …

The People And Me: Michael Moore And The Politics Of Political Documentary, Jon Scott Oberacker

Open Access Dissertations

Perhaps no one has had more influence on the role of political documentary in the contemporary public sphere than filmmaker Michael Moore. His unique melding of committed political arguments with an ironic reflexive style have changed the very look and feel of documentary film, contributing significantly to the form's newfound popularity. Furthermore, his steadfast commitment to progressive politics has given the issue of socioeconomic "class" the kind of attention it rarely receives within the mainstream media. However, Moore's films have also been the recipient of viscous attacks from his political opponents, and subject to some of the most contentious public …

Modulation Of Macrophage Responses To Borrelia Burgdorferi In Acute Murine Lyme Carditis, Chris Martin Olson

Open Access Dissertations

The Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi is the only known human pathogen that directly activates invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells. The number and activation kinetics of iNKT cells vary greatly among different strains of mice. Here, we report the role of the iNKT cell response in the pathogenesis of Lyme disease using C57BL/6 (B6) mice, a strain with optimal iNKT cell activation that is resistant to the development of spirochetal-induced inflammation. During experimental infection of B6 mice with B. burgdorferi , iNKT cells localize to the inflamed heart where they are activated by CD1d-expressing macrophages. Activation of iNKT cells …

The Conformational Gymnastics Of The Escherichia Coli Seca Molecular Machine And Its Interactions With Signal Sequences, Jenny Lynn Maki

Open Access Dissertations

Protein secretion is a selective and regulated process that is essential in all organisms. In bacteria the preprotein translocase SecA, either free in the cytosol or associated with the SecYEG translocon, recognizes and binds most post-translational secretory proteins containing an N-terminal signal sequence. In Gram-negative bacteria, the molecular chaperone SecB binds many of the preproteins to keep them in a translocation-competent state. Subsequently, SecB delivers the preproteins to the translocon-associated SecA, which binds the signal sequence and also interacts with mature regions of the preprotein. After the preprotein/SecA/SecYEG complex has formed, the energy derived from ATP hydrolysis by SecA coupled …

Atomic-Scale Analysis Of Plastic Deformation In Thin-Film Forms Of Electronic Materials, Kedarnath Kolluri

Open Access Dissertations

Nanometer-scale-thick films of metals and semiconductor heterostructures are used increasingly in modern technologies, from microelectronics to various areas of nanofabrication. Processing of such ultrathin-film materials generates structural defects, including voids and cracks, and may induce structural transformations. Furthermore, the mechanical behavior of these small-volume structures is very different from that of bulk materials. Improvement of the reliability, functionality, and performance of nano-scale devices requires a fundamental understanding of the atomistic mechanisms that govern the thin-film response to mechanical loading in order to establish links between the films' structural evolution and their mechanical behavior. Toward this end, a significant part of …

Developing Reactive Molecular Dynamics For Understanding Polymer Chemical Kinetics, Kenneth D. Smith

Open Access Dissertations

One of the challenges in understanding polymer flammability is the lack of information about microscopic events that lead to macroscopically observed species, and Reactive Molecular Dynamics is a promising approach to obtain this crucially needed information. The development of a predictive method for condensed-phase reaction kinetics can provide significant insight into polymer ammability, thus helping guide future synthesis of fire-resistant polymers. Through this dissertation, a new reactive forcefield, RMDff, and Reactive Molecular Dynamics program, RxnMD, have been developed and used to simulate such material chemistry. It is necessary to have accurate description of chemical kinetics to describe quantitative chemical kinetics. …

Detrimental Effects Of Inactivity On Insulin Action, Brooke Rene Stephens

Open Access Dissertations

Inactivity reduces insulin action. Energy surplus causes similar reductions to insulin action. Unless energy intake is reduced to match low energy expenditure during inactivity, a concurrent energy surplus may account for the lower insulin action. This study evaluated the effect of inactivity (sitting) with and without energy surplus on insulin action. Fourteen young (26.1 ± 4.5 years (M ± SD)), lean (23.7 ± 7.1% fat), fit (VO 2peak = 49.1 ± 3.3 ml*kg -1 *min -1 ) men (n=7) and women (n=7) completed each of 3, 24-hour conditions: an active condition (i.e. high energy expenditure with energy intake matched to …

Numerical Modeling Of Fracturing In Non-Cylindrical Folds: Case Studies In Fracture Prediction Using Structural Restoration, John Ryan Shackleton

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis contains several distinct studies aimed at better understanding fracturing in compressional fault-cored folds. At outcrops of growth strata in the Oliana anticline in the Spanish Pyrenees, the relationship of two joint sets may reflect changing mechanical properties (i.e. via diagenesis) during the folding process. Using a Schmidt hammer, I assess the rigidity contrast between the individual units and suggest that late-stage, throughgoing joints formed in strata with conditions similar to those of the present day and that early, bed-contained joints formed when the rigidity contrast between beds was significantly greater than the present day contrast. Modeling algorithms that …

The Artistry And Activism Of Shirley Graham Du Bois: A Twentieth Century African American Torchbearer, Alesia Elaine Mcfadden

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation traces the early origins of Shirley Graham Du Bois, a well known Negro achiever in the 1930s and 1940s, from the decades preceding her birth in 1896 up through the mid-twentieth century when she has reached mid life and achieved a number of successes. It attempts to reclaim from obscurity the significant cultural production that Shirley Graham contributed to American society. Her artistry and activism were manifested in many ways. As a very young woman she conducted, throughout the northern and eastern parts of the U. S., musical concerts extolling the beauty and significance of spirituals. While attending …

The Adoption Of Shamanic Healing Into The Biomedical Health Care System In The United States, Lori L. Thayer

Open Access Dissertations

Following cultural anthropological inquiry, this dissertation examines the adoption of shamanic healing techniques into Western medicine and the resultant hybrid modality of health care fostered by two disparate healing traditions. As the U.S. populace increasingly turns to alternative forms of healing in conjunction with, or in lieu of, conventional Western medicine, shamanic healing has been added to the list of recognized non-conventional therapies. Shamanism, once prevalent throughout most of the world in various cultural forms, is purported to be the oldest healing modality, dating back to the Upper Paleolithic in Siberia. Historical excoriation and extermination from religious and political dogma …

Liberation At The End Of A Pen: Writing Pan-African Politics Of Cultural Struggle, Anthony James Ratcliff

Open Access Dissertations

As a political, social, and cultural ideology, Pan-Africanism has been a complex movement attempting to ameliorate the dehumanizing effects of "the global Eurocentric colonial/modern capitalist model of power," which Anibal Quijano (2000) refers to as "the coloniality of power." The destructive forces of the coloniality of power--beginning with the transatlantic slave trade--that led to the dispersal and displacement of millions of Africans subsequently facilitated the creation of Pan-African political and cultural consciousness. Thus, this dissertation examines diverse articulations of Pan-African politics of cultural struggle as a response to racist and sexist oppression and economic exploitation of Afro-descendants. I am specifically …

Structured Topic Models: Jointly Modeling Words And Their Accompanying Modalities, Xuerui Wang

Open Access Dissertations

The abundance of data in the information age poses an immense challenge for us: how to perform large-scale inference to understand and utilize this overwhelming amount of information. Such techniques are of tremendous intellectual significance and practical impact. As part of this grand challenge, the goal of my Ph.D. thesis is to develop effective and efficient statistical topic models for massive text collections by incorporating extra information from other modalities in addition to the text itself. Text documents are not just text, and different kinds of additional information are naturally interleaved with text. Most previous work, however, pays attention to …

Reaching The Poorest Through Microfinance: Learning From Saving For Change Program In Mali, Mukul Acharya

Open Access Dissertations

This study used secondary data to analyze the Saving for Change (SfC) program of Oxfam America in Mali. SfC uses a model of microfinance that is based on education and savings-led approach and self-help methodology. The program teaches the poorest women how to form and manage a group to handle savings and credit related needs. The group learns to systematically collect savings from its members; lend the money to its members with interest and keep a record of all transactions. SfC has created an oral recordkeeping system which is helpful for groups that have mostly or all illiterate women. The …

Oligopeptide-Functionalized Graft Copolymers: Synthesis And Applications In Nucleic Acid Delivery, Rebecca Boudreaux Breitenkamp

Open Access Dissertations

Utilizing the diverse functionality of amino acids, a new class of amphiphilic graft copolymers has been synthesized, characterized, and explored for applications in biomaterials and nucleic acid delivery. This thesis research focused on the syntheses of oligopeptide-functionalized polyesters and polyolefins. Polyester functionalization was geared towards applications in biomaterials, tissue engineering, and drug delivery by incorporating sequences that promote cell-adhesion. These polyester- graft -oligopeptide materials were prepared by a 1,3-Huisgen cycloaddition reaction, "click" chemistry, of an azide-terminated oligopeptide (prepared by Fmoc-based solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS)) and alkyne-containing polyester (synthesized by ring-opening polymerization). Following the syntheses of these materials, they were …

Polymer Confinement And Translocation, Chiu Tai Andrew Wong

Open Access Dissertations

Single polymer passage through geometrically confined regions is ubiquitous in biology. Recent technological advances have made the direct study of its dynamics possible. We studied the capture of DNA molecules by the electroosmotic flow of a nanopore induced by its surface charge under an applied electric field. We showed theoretically that the DNA molecules underwent coil-stretch transitions at a critical radius around the nanopore and the transition assisted the polymer passage through the pore. To understand how a polymer worms through a narrow channel, we investigated the translocation dynamics of a Gaussian chain between two compartments connected with a cylindrical …

Synthesis And Interfacial Behavior Of Functional Amphiphilic Graft Copolymers Prepared By Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization, Kurt E. Breitenkamp

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis describes the synthesis and application of a new series of amphiphilic graft copolymers with a hydrophobic polyolefin backbone and pendent hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) grafts. These copolymers are synthesized by ruthenium benzylidene-catalyzed ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of PEG-functionalized cyclic olefin macromonomers to afford polycyclooctene- graft -PEG (PCOE- g -PEG) copolymers with a number of tunable features, such as PEG graft density and length, crystallinity, and amphiphilicity. Macromonomers of this type were prepared first by coupling chemistry using commercially available PEG monomethyl ether derivatives and a carboxylic acid-functionalized cycloctene. In a second approach, macromonomers possessing a variety of PEG …

Synthetic Ethical Naturalism, Michael Rubin

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a critique of synthetic ethical naturalism (SEN). SEN is a view in metaethics that comprises three key theses: first, there are moral properties and facts that are independent of the beliefs and attitudes of moral appraisers (moral realism); second, moral properties and facts are identical to (or constituted only by) natural properties and facts (ethical naturalism); and third, sentences used to assert identity or constitution relations between moral and natural properties are expressions of synthetic, a posteriori necessities. The last of these theses, which distinguishes SEN from other forms of ethical naturalism, is supported by a fourth: …

Effect Of Loading And Process Conditions On The Mechanical Behavior In Sebs Thermoplastic Elastomers (Tpes), Mohit Mamodia

Open Access Dissertations

Styrenic block copolymer thermoplastic elastomers are one of the most widely used thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) today. The focus of this research is to fundamentally understand the structure-processs-property relationships in these materials. Deformation behavior of the block copolymers with cylindrical and lamellar morphologies has been investigated in detail using unique techniques like deformation calorimetry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), combined in-situ small angle x-ray and wide angle x-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS). The research involves the study of structural changes that occur at different length scales along with the energetics involved upon deformation. The structural changes in the morphology of these systems on deformation …

The Role Of Stellar Feedback In Galaxy Evolution, Li Zhiyuan

Open Access Dissertations

Aiming at understanding the role of stellar feedback in galaxy evolution, I present a study of the hot interstellar medium in several representative galaxies, based primarily on X-ray observations as well as theoretical modelling. I find that, in the massive disk galaxies NGC2613 and M104, the observed amount of hot gas is much less than that predicted by current galaxy formation models. Such a discrepancy suggests a lack of appropriate treatments of stellar/AGN feedback in these models. I also find that stellar feedback, primarily in the form of mass loss from evolved stars and energy released from supernovae, and presumably …

Degenerating Variations Of Mixed Hodge Structures, Eric C. Gaze

Open Access Dissertations

Pure Hodge structures degenerating along a normal-crossings divisor determine variations of mixed Hodge structures on the latter, whose properties as described by the Orbit theorems are well known. We are interested in extending these results to more general variations of mixed Hodge structures.

Representing The Biblical Judith In Literature And Art: An Intertextual Cultural Critique, Peggy L. Curry

Open Access Dissertations

The Biblical Judith was written over 2,000 years ago and has become elemental material for artists and writers who struggle with male and female identity. Questions about how beauty has been defined, and who has defined it, as well as the subject of violence as gender-specific territory arise out of the intertextual study of the many reworkings of Judith and Holofemes' "romance."

A rich array of Judith characters are developed by artists and writers that reveal cultural values about women. Judith as chaste widow is visually presented in the stone archivolt of the Chartres Cathedral and in Alfred Stevens Victorian …

Bayesian Estimation Of Surface Information From Radar Images, Keith David Hartt

Open Access Dissertations

The dissertation presents a method for deriving the shape of a surface from a radar image of the surface. An appropriate model of radar image formation is derived from physical principles. A Bayesian formulation of the inversion problem is developed upon which a computational strategy is based. Theoretical results on random surfaces relevant to the prior distribution are presented, and convergence and optimality properties of a new sampling algorithm are described. The technique is applied to Magellan data of Venus.

The Analytical Modeling Of The Thermometric Performance Of Total Temperature Thermocouple Probes, Leroy Bertram Butler

Open Access Dissertations

A total temperature thermocouple probe immersed in a moving gas stream undergoes thermal energy exchange by means of forced convection between the thermocouple wires and the flowing gas stream, conduction along the thermocouple wires to the probe mount, and radiation between the thermocouple junction wires and any surrounding structure. In general, the thermocouple junction does not indicate the true (stagnation) temperature of the gas stream, thus necessitating the calibration of total temperature probes to obtain correct temperature measurements.

Two models are developed to predict the temperature indicated by a total temperature probe (utilizing type K thermocouple wire) for a given …

Classical Conditioning As A Function Of The Motivational History Of The Cs, Suzanne Elizabeth Kwaterski

Open Access Dissertations

No abstract provided.