Digital Commons Network^™

Gene Expression Analysis Of Escherichia Coli O157:H7 At 10 And 37°C And Under Acidic Conditions Using High Density Oligonucleotide Microarrays, Kristina K. Carter

Doctoral Dissertations

This purpose of this investigation was to use DNA microarrays to study gene expression in E. coli O157:H7 under refrigerated and acidic conditions. Total RNA from E. coli O157:H7 grown to 7 log CFU/mL under control (37 °C, pH 7), refrigerated (10°C, pH 7), acid adapted (37°C, pH 5.5, then lowered to 3.5), and acid shocked (37°C, pH 7, then lowered to 3.5) conditions was extracted using an optimized Qiagen RNeasy procedure. Total RNA was converted to cDNA, labeled, and hybridized onto an Affymetrix GeneChip® E. coli Genome 2.0 Array. Results were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and a …

Levelising As A Quality Management Tool, Denise Lynn Gaskin

Doctoral Dissertations

Behavioral health organizations have new requirements to participate in quality improvement practices, thus prompting the need to proactively improve service delivery. A behavioral health team in western North Carolina embraced Levelising as a quality improvement tool. Levelising is an aspect of reflective practice that engages participants in multiple perspectives on ways of practicing. In this study, I used DATA-DATA, an action research model developed by Peters (2004), to reflect on and study an aspect of my practice as quality management director.

I taped recorded team meetings, conducted interviews, and wrote about my observations in a reflexive journal. Outside rater-observers listened …

A Theory Of Multi-Transitions And The Chinese Welfare State, Bo Li

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I introduce an institutional approach for the research of the Chinese welfare state and the measure of people’s welfare benefit. I demonstrate that multiple institutional transitions due to the economic reforms initiated in the early 1980s have since dramatically changed the Chinese welfare state and the way welfare benefits are distributed. Multiple institutional transitions discussed in this dissertation are structural changes associated with the state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms, the rapid industrialization, ever-growing urbanization, and large-scale decentralization of the fiscal system. Through the exploration of the data from the 1988 and 1995 Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP), I …

Characterization Of A Biomimetic Calcium-Deficient Hydroxyapatite-Bacterial Cellulose Composite, Stacy Hutchens

Doctoral Dissertations

Bone is the second most implanted tissue next to blood causing approximately 2.2 million people to receive bone grafts each year. Developing safe synthetic bone grafts allows quick and safe restoration of bone function while avoiding the surgical risks associated with bone autografting (self donation), and risks of disease transmission and immunogenic response associated with allografts (bone donated from other humans) and xenografts (grafts derived from animal tissue). This dissertation entails the study and development of a novel potential synthetic bone graft consisting of a composite of calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (CdHAP) biomimetically deposited in a bacterial cellulose (BC) hydrogel.

To determine …

A Study Of The Secondary Electrons, Yinghong Lin

Doctoral Dissertations

Slow secondary electrons (SEs) (E<50 eV) are those emitted from a sample as the result of bombardment by energetic particles. They are the most important signal source for SEM and for other advanced microanalysis techniques. SE yield δ and spectrum N(E) are the two important parameters evaluating the capability of a sample on producing SEs and the energy distribution of SEs generated from the sample respectively. Measuring δ and N(E) is not easy since SEs are easily affected by sample surface condition and by experimental configuration. Though SE has been studied since its first find in 1902, experimental date of it are inconsistent and unsystematic. Theoretical models on the SE production are not well established.

To better understand the secondary electrons, an optimization of a scattered experimental SE yield database was carried out by fitting the data to a semi-empirical universal curve and by a Monte Carlo simulation. The profiles of SE yield versus beam energy and the values of SE excitation energyε and mean SE escape depthλ were generated for 44 elements. An atomic shell filling effect was found on the maximum SE yields and the corresponding beam energies.

To obtain more accurate and systematic SE yield data, a novel experimental method by collecting electron spectra on an AES …

Alkoxide Routes To Inorganic Materials, George Harrison Thomas

Doctoral Dissertations

An all alkoxide solution chemistry utilizing metal 2-methoxyethoxide complexes in 2-methoxyethanol was used to deposit thin-films of metal oxides on single-crystal metal oxide substrates and on biaxially textured metal substrates. This same chemistry was used to synthesize complex metal oxide nanoparticles. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy was used to study precursor solutions of the alkaline niobates and tantalates. Film crystallization temperatures were determined from X-ray diffraction patterns of powders derived from the metal oxide precursor solutions. Film structure was determined via X-ray diffraction. Film morphology was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Epitaxial thin-films of strontium …

Hardware-Efficient Scalable Reinforcement Learning Systems, Zhenzhen Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a machine learning discipline in which an agent learns by interacting with its environment. In this paradigm, the agent is required to perceive its state and take actions accordingly. Upon taking each action, a numerical reward is provided by the environment. The goal of the agent is thus to maximize the aggregate rewards it receives over time. Over the past two decades, a large variety of algorithms have been proposed to select actions in order to explore the environment and gradually construct an e¤ective strategy that maximizes the rewards. These RL techniques have been successfully applied …

Computationally Efficient Mixed Pixel Decomposition Using Constrained Optimizations, Lidan Miao

Doctoral Dissertations

Sensors with spatial resolution larger than targets yield mixed pixel, i.e., pixel whose measurement is a composite of different sources (endmembers). The analysis of mixed pixels demands subpixel methods to perform source separation and quantification, which is a problem of blind source separation (BSS). Although various algorithms have been proposed, several important issues remain unresolved. First, assuming the endmembers are known, the abundance estimation is commonly performed by employing a least squares criterion, which however makes the estimation sensitive to noise and outliers, and the endmembers with very similar signatures are difficult to differentiate. In addition, the …

A Finite Element Study Of The Contact Stiffness Of Homogenous Materials And Thin Films, Haitao Xu

Doctoral Dissertations

The applicability of the stiffness equation S=2E_ra to elastic and elastic-plastic homogeneous materials and thin films on substrates is studied by finite element techniques. It is found that the stiffness equation works well in all these materials provided that a correction factor β is included. For elastic homogenous materials, the correction factor is examined for different friction conditions, Poisson’s ratios, and indenter cone angles. In the case of elastic-plastic indentation with a 70.3° cone, the correction factor is very close to that for elastic indentation of a matching conical hole, which provides a convenient way to model the …

Felony Disenfranchisement Legislation: A Test Of The Group Threat Hypothesis, Angel Dawn Geoghagan

Doctoral Dissertations

The group threat hypothesis is part of the conflict theoretical perspective, which has been one of the most dominant and useful theories in the fields of criminology and criminal justice for decades. The usefulness of this perspective relates to the understanding it provides of how the law can be used by those in power as a measure of control. The use of law as a method of control has a long history in the US society, and there are many examples from which to pull. This project examines the use of one set of laws, felony disenfranchisement legislation, to determine …

Eight Karats Of Justice: Analysis Of The Grassroots Resistance Movement Against Goldmining In The Villages Of Bergama, Turkey, Banu Aysu Koçer

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores and analyzes the grassroots movement against goldmining in the villages of Bergama, Turkey. The struggle of Bergama villagers started out as a local ecological resistance movement in the early 1990s and gradually transformed into an environmental justice movement with national implications when activists adopted a rights-based discourse by incorporating into their claims the notions of justice, democratic participation, and citizenship rights.

Since goldmining investment in Bergama was a manifestation of significant shifts in the global corporate mining industry starting in the 1980s, and of changes in the world political economy, an account of these shifts is presented …

Methods For The Self-Consistent Determination Of Thermophysical Properties From Two-Phase Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Jared T. Fern

Doctoral Dissertations

There are many tools available to measure the thermophysical properties of compounds. Experimental measurements have been evolving for many years and are very accurate at determining the properties of most compounds. However, many of the measurements are unreliable when the compound of interest is thermally unstable.

Throughout the years molecular simulation techniques have been developed to understand the thermophysical properties of thermally unstable compounds. There are primarily two methods to study Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium by molecular simulation Gibbs Ensemble Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics. MD is a technique that allows one to simulate the vapor and the liquid in the same …

The Social Ecology Of Parenting: Systematically Modeling The Antecedents Of Supportive And Intrusive Parenting, Julie A. Schluterman

Doctoral Dissertations

One of the significant contributions of this study is its inclusion of the role of social contextual factors in determining parenting. I built on the ecological model proposed by Belsky (1984). As such, the parenting model tested in this dissertation included individual level determinants of parenting: 1) parent characteristics (e.g., developmental history), and 2) child characteristics (e.g., behavior problems). Yet, rather than include a social context domain as described by Belsky, I distinguished between within family context (e.g., interparental hostility) and external to family context (e.g., work-family conflict, neighborhood disorganization) as social contextual sources of stress and support to the …

Groundwater: A Community’S Management Of The Invaluable Resource Beneath Its Feet, Nancy D. Brannon

Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the impact of human decisions on vital resources is a core task of environmental sociology, which studies the interaction between human society and the environment. The overarching theme of this research is the economicenvironmental relationship in U.S. public policy, using a case study of a specific environmental resource problem in a specific region. It fuses basic assumptions of two economic growth models (treadmill of production and the urban growth machine) to examine the extent to which these assumptions permeate the worldviews of policymakers and those who advise them. When the growth imperative is a priority in their …

Algorithms For Multi-Sample Cluster Analysis, Fahad Almutairi

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, we develop algorithms to solve the Multi-Sample Cluster Analysis (MSCA) problem. This problem arises when we have multiple samples and we need to find the statistical model that best fits the cluster structure of these samples. One important area among others in which our algorithms can be used is international market segmentation. In this area, samples about customers’preferences and characteristics are collected from di¤erent regions in the market. The goal in this case is to join the regions with similar customers’characteristics in clusters (segments).

We develop branch and bound algorithms and a genetic algorithm. In these algorithms, …

It’S Not What They Do, It’S How They Do It: Athlete Experiences Of Great Coaching, Andrea J. Becker

Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout the history of sport, a select number of individuals have emerged from their peers as superior coaches. We have come to know these individuals as the coaching greats: Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers, Pat Summitt of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, and John Wooden of the UCLA Bruins to name a few. The context of sport lends itself to the study of coaching greatness; however, no studies have directly explored this phenomenon. More often than not, society identifies coaches as “great” based on two criteria: win/loss records and public attention that is garnered through the media. This narrow …

Boron And Metal Halides In Organic Synthesis, Scott T. Borella

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation summarizes the recent use of organoboron and metal halides to form new carbon-carbon bonds. Several novel reactions have been discovered. These include the halovinyl alkenylation of alkoxides with alkenylboron dihalides; alkynylation of alkoxides with alkynylboron dihalides; boron trichloride and ferric chloride-mediated allylation of alkoxides. The results of these studies strongly imply a cationic mechanism, and prompted a reinvestigation of the boron trihalide mediated alkyne-aldehyde coupling reaction. The olefin stereochemistry of the resultant 1,5-dihalo-1,4-pentadienes can be influenced by controlling the reaction temperature and the sequence of reagent addition. The reaction methodology of the research described herein can be characterized …

Synthesis And Reactivity Of Titanium Amido Complexes With Relevance To Olefin Polymerization, Michael A. Blanchard

Doctoral Dissertations

Ziegler-Natta catalysts are well known in the chemical industry. They are responsible for the production of more than half of the HDPE and HDPP worldwide annually. Ziegler-Natta catalysts exist in many forms, both in homogeneous and heterogeneous types as well as both with early and late transition metal basis. While Ziegler-Natta catalysts can exist in various forms, all polymerize via the same general mechanism. Dissecting the known mechanism(s) results in three items that must be in place for polymerization to occur. First, the active metal center must be highly Lewis acidic, enough to allow coordination of approaching olefins. Second, a …

Emaricdulfe By E. C. Esquier (1595): Materials Toward A Critical Edition, Georgia Chapman Caver

Doctoral Dissertations

E. C.’s Emaricdulfe (1595; STC2 4268) is a collection of forty English sonnets introduced by a brief dedicatory epistle addressed “to my very good friends, John Zouch and Edward Fitton, Esquiers.” The book was printed by Joan Orwin for bookseller Matthew Law. Two copies of the original text survive, one in the Huntington Library, the other in the Folger Shakespeare Library. In both subject matter and poetic aspiration, the collection answers to the conventions of the sonnet sequence, a genre that captivated English poets great and small during the last decades of the sixteenth century. The subject of E. C.’s …

Development Of An Integrated Opto-Electric Biosensor To Dynamically Examine Cytometric Proliferation And Cytotoxicity, Chang Kyoung Choi

Doctoral Dissertations

My doctoral research has focused on the development of microscale optical techniques for examining micro/bio fluidics. Preliminary work measured the velocity field in a microchannel, by optical slicing, using Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM). Next, Optical Serial Sectioning Microscopy (OSSM) was applied to examine thermometry by detecting the free Brownian motion of nano-particles suspended in mediums at different temperatures. An extension of this work used objective-based Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM) to examine the hindered Brownian motion of nano-particles that were very close to a solid surface (within 1 mm).

An optically transparent and electrically conductive Indium Tin Oxide …

Comparison Of Developmental Assets Of Early Adolescents In Two Urban Youth Programs, Keesha Yvette Chapman

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the presence of developmental assets of youth participating in two programs that have similar goals but are organized differently. One program was structured around a theoretical and empirical model of youth development (i.e., developmental asset framework) and one program was not organized around this framework. Gender was examined to determine if differences in reports of developmental assets existed across programs in relation to gender.

Data were obtained from 40 youth between the ages of 10 and 14 participating in both programs. A 47-item questionnaire was administered to participants in small groups at …

Becoming Tied: A Theory Of Adolescent Maternal-Infant Interaction, Melinda K. Sprinkle Collins

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the interaction that occurs between adolescent mothers and their newborns while situated together in the immediate postpartum period. The researcher sought to determine: 1) What are the interactive process (es) that occur between adolescent mothers and their newborns while situated together in the immediate postpartum period, 2) What categories emerge from the adolescents’ descriptions of the mother infant situation?, and 3) How do the emergent categories relate?

Ten primiparous adolescent mothers age 17 years or less were purposively sampled to participate in this qualitative Grounded Theory study. Face to face interviews about …

Supply Chain Leadership, Charles Clifford Defee

Doctoral Dissertations

The complexity found in supply chains draws on the combined capabilities of multiple firms. Success in this environment requires the coordinated efforts of both a supply chain leader organization, and one or more supply chain follower organizations. Supply chain leadership has traditionally been ascribed to the most powerful, dominant organization in the supply chain. The theory of supply chain leadership presented in this dissertation redefines leadership in the supply chain context as a relationship between leader and followers described by the behaviors exhibited through each organization’s actions. The theoretical model was developed from literature in the leadership, logistics, and strategic …

Past Fire Regimes Of Table Mountain Pine (Pinus Pungens L.) Stands In The Central Appalachian Mountains, Virginia, U.S.A., Georgina Deweese

Doctoral Dissertations

Table Mountain pine is an Appalachian endemic that occurs in a patchy distribution from Georgia to Pennsylvania and is prolific at sites with a history of fire disturbance. The purpose of this dissertation was to reconstruct the fire regimes of Table Mountain pine stands in the Jefferson National Forest, Virginia. Sections from firescarred Table Mountain pines were collected at four sites to analyze fire history, while increment cores and stand composition information were collected from macroplots within each fire history site to investigate the possible influence of fires that were more ecologically severe. Results show that fire was frequent before …

Co-Occurring Disorders: An Outpatient Latent Class Analysis, Kathleen H. Darby

Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past 20 years researchers and health care practitioners have come to realize in addition to high prevalence rates, individuals with co-occurring disorders did not represent a homogeneous group (Drake, et al., 1998: 2001; Lehman, et al., 1994: 2000; Mueser, et al., 2000). It is essential to consider the heterogeneity of co-occurring disorders when considering new treatment modalities. Thus, it becomes pivotal to identify these differences for treatment approaches and program goals. Research shows that heterogeneity of treatment populations can be reduced through empirically-derived homogeneous groups based on multivariate analysis (Ries, et al., 1993; Lehman et al., 2000; Mueser, …

Characterization Of The Role Of Mouse Nell1 Gene In Osteogenesis And Chondrogenesis During Mammalian Fetal Development, Jayashree Basavaraj Desai

Doctoral Dissertations

The mammalian Nell1 gene encodes a PKC-β1 binding protein that belongs to a new class of cell-signaling molecules controlling cell growth and differentiation. Overexpression of NELL1/Nell1 in the developing cranial sutures in both human and mouse induces craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of cranial sutures. This study describes the characterization of Nell1^6R (102DSJ), a recessive, neonatal-lethal point mutation in the mouse Nell1 gene, induced by N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU). The generation and sequencing of the mouse full-length cDNA (2862 bp) revealed that the Nell1 gene has an open reading frame of 2433 bp and encodes an 810 amino acid protein …

L’Enseignement De La Langue Française Dans Les Universités Yéménites, Son Passé Et Son Avenir. Étude Historique, Sociale, Analytique Et Critique, Nesrine Abdullah El-Zine

Doctoral Dissertations

This research addressed teaching the French language as a foreign language in Yemen. The research investigated the historical development of teaching French in Yemen and analyzed the methodologies used in teaching the French language.

Several research methods were used in collecting data for the analysis of this research. Methods included a survey, interviews with faculty members and students, lectures, attendance at the French department the University of Sana’a, Yemen. All the methods helped tremendously in conducting this research. They helped specifically to answer the following research problem statement:

- How were foreign languages introduced to the Yemeni society?
- How …

Bat Population Dynamics: An Individual-Based Model Approach, Paula Federico

Doctoral Dissertations

Temperate zone bats are subject to serious energetic constraints due to their high surface area to volume relations, the cost of temperature regulation, the high metabolic cost of flight, and the seasonality of their resources. To my knowledge, there are no individual-based mathematical models for any bat species. The model developed here for a female bat is primarily based on life history and energetics. It describes the growth of an individual female bat using a system of differential equations modeling the dynamics of two main compartments: storage (lipids) and structure (proteins and carbohydrates). The model is parameterized for the little …

How Adult Students Experience Having Their Beliefs Challenged In An Undergraduate Religion Class: A Phenomenological Analysis, Steven Blake Frye

Doctoral Dissertations

The challenging of one’s existing ideas has long been acknowledged as an integral component of the learning experience. In a university classroom, challenges are often inherent to the process. When challenges address personal beliefs, there is potential for the experience to be unsettling. The current study is designed to gain a deeper look into this phenomenon.

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of adult students in a college religion class who have encountered questions about and challenges to their previously held beliefs. The study was conducted with adult non-traditional students who have participated in an academically-focused …

A Team-Based Approach To Social Learning Research In Natural Resource Management, Jonah Malachai Fogel

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis responds to the need to quantify social learning and its outcomes as it relates to natural resource management. Social learning enables individuals engaging in collective action to understand each other’s perspectives, encourages integration of diverse knowledge bases, and the creation of new knowledge (Keen, Brown, & Dyball, 2005). However, the concept currently lacks a clear operational definition in natural resource management. The lack of an operational definition for social learning has stymied attempts to validate its espoused ability to improve civic discourse and, ultimately, resource governance (Pahl-Wostl & Hare, 2004). This report is composed of three papers that …