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The Effects Of Gender And Elicitation Method On The Prosodic Cues Used By 7- To 11-Year-Old Children To Signal Sentence Type, Lacey Ann Powell Aug 2011

The Effects Of Gender And Elicitation Method On The Prosodic Cues Used By 7- To 11-Year-Old Children To Signal Sentence Type, Lacey Ann Powell

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the prosodic cues used by 7 to 11 year-old children to signal questions and declarative statements in terms of changes in fundamental frequency (F0), duration, and intensity. Additional aims were to evaluate how children's use of prosody changes as a function of gender and method of elicitation. A group of 16 children participated in three different types of elicitation tasks (imitative, reading, and naturalistic). An acoustic analysis revealed that the participants produced the different sentence types using a variety of acoustic cues. Not only do children vary the mean of F0 and …


Opioid Addiction Treatments During Pregnancy And Their Effects On Axonal Growth And Myelination In The Developing Central Nervous System, Manisha Magar Jul 2011

Opioid Addiction Treatments During Pregnancy And Their Effects On Axonal Growth And Myelination In The Developing Central Nervous System, Manisha Magar

Theses and Dissertations

Treatment with buprenorphine represents a promising alternative for pregnant opioid addicts but there is a need to understand potential effects on nervous system development. We previously showed effects of perinatal exposure to buprenorphine on axonal caliber and myelination in 26-day-old rat corpus callosum. These changes, detected at the end of rapid brain myelination and accompanied by earlier oligodendrocyte maturation, suggested interference with mechanisms coordinating axonal growth and myelination. To better understand buprenorphine actions and to establish whether these effects extend to the spinal cord, we analyzed the corpus callosum and corticospinal tract at 16 days of age, just before the …


Growing Up Lesbian In The Rural Deep South: "I Only Knew I Was Different", Lorraine Kay Gaddis Apr 2011

Growing Up Lesbian In The Rural Deep South: "I Only Knew I Was Different", Lorraine Kay Gaddis

Theses and Dissertations

Lesbians have historically lived in obscurity and isolation because living outwardly as a lesbian carried with it the almost certain loss of social standing, family, and friends (Blando, 2001). For lesbians who grew up in the Deep South, isolation and the pressure to conform was greater than anywhere in the United States (Barton, 2010). Most Deep Southerners were homophobic, especially in rural areas where people were deeply religious and had little exposure to sexual minorities. The researcher used a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore the meaning and significance of growing up lesbian in the rural Deep South. The sample included …


A Study On The Biochemical And Cellular Effects Of Enviormental Tobacco Smoke On Adult And Developing Rat Brain Biochemistry, Brian Fuller Jan 2011

A Study On The Biochemical And Cellular Effects Of Enviormental Tobacco Smoke On Adult And Developing Rat Brain Biochemistry, Brian Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has been recognized as a significant health risk for adults and children. In adults, ETS exposure has been linked to increased incidences of cardiovascular disease and dementia. In children, exposure has been linked to behavioral and cognitive deficits. Studies on the effects of ETS in the brain have been largely epidemiological, and have lacked a defined explanation of the molecular/biochemical effects of ETS. The present dissertation aims to test whether ETS exposure leads to altered biochemistry in the adult and developing mammalian brain. A rat ETS exposure model was employed to investigate changes at …


Novel Role Of Mecp2 In Developing Oligodendrocytes And Myelination, Daniel Moore Jan 2011

Novel Role Of Mecp2 In Developing Oligodendrocytes And Myelination, Daniel Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2 is) is an epigenetic regulator that binds to methylated DNA. Initially identified as transcriptional repressor, MeCP2 also binds to different proteins functioning as gene activator. Importantly, MecCP2 gene mutations and changes in MeCP2 levels are associated to several forms of mental retardation and autism-related disorders; including Rett, a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting primarily girls. While brain MeCP2 was considered to be exclusively neuronal, this regulator is also present in glia. We found that oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells of the central nervous system (CNS), express particularly high MeCP2 levels at a developmental stage that precedes their final maturation. …