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Development Of Novel Protein-Based Mri Contrast Agents For The Molecular Imaging Of Cancer Biomarkers, Fan Pu

Chemistry Dissertations

Temporal and spatial molecular imaging of disease biomarkers using non-invasive MRI with high resolution is largely limited by lack of MRI contrast agents with high sensitivity, high specificity, optimized biodistribution and pharmacokinetics. In this dissertation, I report my Ph. D. work on the development of protein-based MRI contrast agents (ProCAs) specifically targeting different cancer biomarkers, such as grastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2). Similar to non-targeted ProCAs, these biomarker-targeted ProCAs exhibit 5 - 10 times higher r₁ and r₂ relaxivites than that of clinical MRI contrast agents. In …

Building Community In Schools: Narratives Of Possibilities And Limitations In Critical Friends Groups, Shannon Kersey

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

This study examined one particular type of Professional Learning Community (PLC) called a Critical Friends Group (CFG). School improvement experts strongly encourage educational leaders to cultivate Professional Learning Communities in schools; however, the problem arises in the assumption many school leaders hold that adults know how to learn together and how to effectively collaborate. Training for Critical Friends Groups is specifically designed to address this assumption as well as reveal to participants what the characteristics of a Professional Learning Community are and moreover what it requires to cultivate a true learning community. Therefore, the researcher examined how participants experienced a …

An Ethnographic Study Of Socio-Emotional Factors In Interpersonal Peer Relationships And Their Impact On The Academic Success Of African American High School Students In Mathematics, Alanna Johnson

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

Nationally, the outlook for African Americans in K-12 education is dismal. While gains are being made, African Americans still lag behind their White peers. The latest reports by the National Center for Education Statistics (2009) show a 31 point gap between 8^th grade African Americans and Whites in mathematics. While statistics such as these are in abundance, there are few accounts of stories of success (Berry, 2005; Jett, 2009; Stinson, 2004). Studies directly related to the role of socio-emotional interpersonal relationships and the means by which African American high school students negotiated that space in terms of successful math …

Teacher Beliefs And Practices In Designing And Implementing Problem Based Learning In The Secondary Mathematics Classroom: A Case Study, Umamaheswari Subramanian

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

Problem-based learning (PBL), an instructional approach anchored in the framework of the learning theory “constructivism,” is a shift toward student-centered learning; students build content knowledge and problem-solving skills by solving real world problems (Hmelo-Silver, 2004; Savery, 2006; Stepien & Gallagher, 1993). Most of the existing literature on PBL comes from the higher education setting. However, researchers (Hmelo-Silver, 2004; Maxwell, Mergendoller, & Bellisimo, 2005; Ravitz, 2009; Savery, 2006; Strobel & van Barneveld, 2009) have stressed the need for more PBL research that examines its effectiveness in the K through 12 classrooms. The purpose of this dissertation study was to examine the …

Language, Literacy, And Funds Of Knowledge: Somali Refugee Women In Clarkston, Georgia, Cassie Leymarie

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Somali refugee women experience language and literacy in their community of Clarkston, Georgia, and to identify their funds of knowledge (Gonzales, Moll, & Amanti, 2005), or unseen practices. The aim of this investigation is to strengthen and challenge their current modes of language socialization and to combat negative discourses that represent them as ‘vulnerable victims and cunning crooks’ (Horst, 2006). Clarkston, Georgia was chosen by private resettlement agencies as a refugee resettlement site in the early 1990s. In Clarkston, although there are several refugee serving agencies that focus on refugee education …

Maintenance Of Neuron Activity By Homeostatic Alterations In Receptors And Ion Channels In A Rett Syndrome Mouse Model, Max Oginsky

Biology Dissertations

Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a developmental disorder that affects numerous neuronal systems that underlie problems with breathing, movement, cognition and sleep. RTT is caused by mutations in the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (Mecp2) gene. MeCP2 is a ubiquitous protein that is found in all mature neurons and binds to methylated DNA to repress transcription; thus regulating protein expression levels in neurons. The mutations in Mecp2 affect a large number of proteins that are crucial for regulating neuronal activity. Despite the abnormal expression of many of these proteins, mice with a total loss of MeCP2 can live to adulthood and some …

Characterization Of Drrab Complex From Streptomyces Peucetius As A Multidrug Transporter, Wen Li

Biology Dissertations

The soil bacterium Streptomyces peucetius produces two widely used anticancer antibiotics doxorubicin and daunorubicin. Present within the biosynthesis gene cluster in S. peucetius is the drrAB operon which codes for a dedicated ATP-binding cassette type transporter for the export of these two closely related antibiotics. DrrAB system was believed to be the single-drug transporter due to its dedicated nature; however, our study demonstrated under both in vivo and in vitro conditions that DrrAB system can transport not only doxorubicin but also Hoechst 33342 and ethidium bromide. Moreover, many other well-studied multi-drug resistance proteins substrates (including verapamil, vinblastine and rifampicin) inhibit …

The Olig Family Member Hlh-17 Controls Animal Behavior By Modulating Neurotransmitter Signaling In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Chaquettea Felton

Biology Dissertations

In vertebrate and invertebrate systems, the role of glia-neuron interactions during development and behavior is becoming apparent. Recent studies have been aimed at characterizing glial-expressed proteins that affect the modulation of activities traditionally thought to be regulated by the neuron itself. The soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has recently emerged as an important invertebrate model to study glial roles in nervous system function and development. My dissertation work focuses on the characterization of HLH-17, a C. elegans basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor that is strongly and constitutively expressed in the glial cells that associate with four of the cephalic (CEP) neurons in …

A Simulation Study Comparing Two Methods Of Evaluating Differential Test Functioning (Dtf): Dfit And The Mantel-Haenszel/Liu-Agresti Variance, Charles Hunter

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

This study uses simulated data to compare two methods of calculating Differential Test Functioning (DTF): Raju’s DFIT, a parametric method that measures the squared difference between two Test Characteristic Curves (Raju, van der Linden & Fleer, 1995), and a variance estimator based on the Mantel-Haenszel/Liu-Agresti method, a non-parametric method enabled in the DIFAS (Penfield, 2005) program.

Most research has been done on Differential Item Functioning (DIF; Pae & Park, 2006), and theory and empirical studies indicate that DTF is the summation of DIF in a test (Donovan, Drasgow & Probst; 2000, Ellis & Mead, 2000; Nandakumar, 1993). Perhaps because of …

Beyond Your Perception: An Exploratory Study Of Black Parent-Daughter Relationships And Hip Hop Influences On Adolescent Girls, Sherell A. Mcarthur

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

ABSTRACT

BEYOND YOUR PERCEPTION: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF BLACK PARENT-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS AND HIP HOP INFLUENCES ON ADOLESCENT GIRLS

by

Sherell A. McArthur

This study is situated at the nexus of three bodies of literature and research and sought to contribute to all three: the socialization of Black girls, hip hop as a pedagogical tool and critical media literacy. My research explored how might the Black parent-daughter relationship serve as a vehicle by which the girls come to understand, submit to, and/or resist the stereotypical images prevalent in the hip-hop culture? I co-created a critical media literacy collective with high school, …

Patterns Of Interaction In Peer Response: The Relationship Between Pair Dynamics And Revision Outcomes, Audrey P. Roberson

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

Sociocultural researchers in SLA consider the interface between the social dynamics of pair interactions and language learning. Using Storch’s (2002) patterns of interaction coding scheme, studies have found that students who adopt a collaborative pattern are more successful in using language as a learning tool. SLA theorists, however, have suggested research projects that further analyze peer interaction and learning outcomes, including writing development, in ecologically valid settings (Swain, 2002; Ortega, 2012). Peer response is a pedagogical practice where focus on pair dynamics in relation to learning is particularly relevant. Despite its popularity and the theoretical argument for peer response, not …

Age, Health, And Driving Ability: Perceptions Of Older Adults, Celeste Selwyn

Gerontology Theses

This paper presents the results of a focus group study exploring older individuals' perceptions of older drivers. The study extends the stereotype research of Joanisse, Gagnon, and Voloaca (2012b), further investigating the terms used to describe older drivers. Also explored were the ways older adults perceive age versus health in their considerations of driving. Three focus groups (N=24) were conducted with former and current drivers, 64 years and older, living in Asheville, North Carolina. Participants showed positivity in their descriptions of older drivers as "slow" and "cautious" and believed they adapted their driving behavior as aging demanded. Participants showed heterogeneity …

The Impact Of Environmental Factors On Caregiver Perception For Caregiving Dyads, Ashley Harrill

Gerontology Theses

Data from the CG ASSIST program were evaluated to investigate whether modifying shared environmental factors within caregiving dyads influences caregiver perceptions. Revisions to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework for cohabitating care-partners are proposed to emphasize the entwined connections between caregivers and care recipients. Eleven older Veteran care-recipients and their informal caregivers participated in a randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether an in-home training intervention with assistive technology influenced how caregivers perceived the level of assistance they provided and the level of care needed by their care-recipients. Caregivers who received the training (Training Group, n=6) perceived …

Evaluation Of The Laughactive Program: A Pilot Study, Celeste M. Greene

Gerontology Theses

Despite health benefits of physical activity (PA) and risks of physical inactivity, many older adults do not accumulate sufficient levels of PA to achieve associated health benefits. Lack of PA enjoyment may be a barrier to PA participation. This pilot study posited that by combining endurance-enhancing laughter yoga exercises with a moderate-intensity strength, balance, and flexibility PA program, LaughActive would increase health and self-efficacy for PA among older adults residing in 4 assisted living facilities (ALFs). The 12-week wait list control study used pre- and 6-week post-intervention comparisons among and between groups (n=27) who participated in twice-weekly LaughActive classes. Significant …

Assessing The Prevalence, Participants, And Predictors Of Coproduction: The Case Of Atlanta, Georgia, Kelechi Uzochukwu

Public Management and Policy Dissertations

In municipalities across the globe, traditional forms of governance are being supplemented by collaborative arrangements between governments and their constituencies toward jointly produced public services. Since the late 1970s, this phenomenon known as coproduction has been utilized in efforts to survive severe budget cuts, improve performance, increase accountability, and welcome traditionally silenced voices. However, no study to date has undergone a citywide assessment of coproduction to determine its breadth and depth in a city. Additionally, there is practically no empirical study that examines what citizen characteristics and perceptions are associated with participation in coproduction. The present study represents a first …

Essays On Multiple Job Holding Across Local Labor Market, Muhammad Mudabbir Husain

Economics Dissertations

Essays in this dissertation address three research questions. (1) What types of persons hold dual jobs and what are their motives for doing so? In essay 1, I investigate multiple factors that affect the decision to hold more than a single job. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the first essay documents the characteristics of second jobs and multiple job holders in the U.S. I characterize the types of people who hold dual jobs and use additional information from the BLS to find out workers’ motives for holding multiple jobs. I examine how multiple job holding differs with …

Conserved Androgenic Differentiation Pathways Are Repurposed During The Evolution Of Adult Sexual Plasticity, Eric Schuppe

Biology Theses

Early exposure to androgens is necessary to organize male phenotype, and inhibition of androgen signaling adversely affects external genitalia development. Nonetheless, vertebrates that remain sexually plastic as adults require mechanisms that induce changes and prevent fixation of genital morphology. In Lythrypnus dalli, a highly social hermaphroditic fish, sex differences in genitalia morphology are maintained in the absence of dimorphic levels of potent fish androgen 11-ketotestosterone. Since a functional androgen receptor (AR) is critical to the masculinization of phenotype across all vertebrates, local differences in the AR may be one mechanism to maintain dimorphic genitalia in this species. We demonstrate …

Gabaergic And Glutamatergic Connections In The Social Neural Network, Ashleigh Burns

Biology Theses

A conserved network of brain regions is responsible for mediating social behavior; however, the chemical nature (GABAergic or glutamatergic) of the connectivity in this network is unknown. One node in this network, the medial amygdala (MA), is known to process social stimuli and facilitates appropriate social responses. We hypothesized that a GABAergic population in the posterior MA is responsible for processing both male and female stimuli. In contrast, we hypothesized that both excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the anterior MeA would discriminate between different stimulus types. We estimated the percentage of GABAergic and glutamatergic MA neurons activated by either salient …

Specific Patterns Of Motor Neuron Loss In Cnd-1 Mutants Affect Backward Locomotion In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Anela Biscevic

Biology Theses

In complex organisms, genes determine cellular fates and functions. By studying gene networks during development, we can learn how cellular networks emerge. With only 302 neurons, the C. elegans nervous system is ideal to study these two types of networks. A mutation in the gene cnd-1 was previously found to cause a variable loss of embryonic ventral nerve cord (VNC) motor neurons. cnd-1 is homologous to the mammalian neuroD1 gene that is necessary in establishing neuronal cell fates. Our goal was to understand the role of cnd-1 by focusing on the cell lineages of the embryonic VNC motor neurons. By …

Phenotypic Effects Of Predicted Sigi On Virulence In Bacillus Anthracis, Jenny Gi Yae Kim, Adam Christopher Wilson

Biology Theses

Alternative sigma factors play a key role in the physiology of Bacillus anthracis by regulating the transcription of the appropriate genes required for adaptation and survival. Under specific conditions, alternative sigma factors activate transcription by binding to the promoter of the genes relevant to the condition and initiate synthesis of RNA. Here we report that the transcription of predicted sigI gene in B. anthracis, BAS3231, is induced by elevated temperatures and involved in the regulation of virulence gene expression. We show that BAS3231 is required for cell viability at elevated temperatures. We have also demonstrated that mutation in the …

Making It In America: How Charles Dickens And His Cunning Manager George Dolby Made Millions From A Performance Tour Of The United States, 1867-1868, Jillian Martin

Communication Theses

Charles Dickens embarked on a profitable journey to the United States in 1867, when he was the most famous writer in the world. He gave seventy-six public readings, in eighteen cities. Dickens and his manager, George Dolby, devised the tour to cash in on his popularity, and Dickens earned the equivalent of more than three million dollars. They created a persona of Dickens beyond the literary luminary he already was, with the help of the impresario, P.T. Barnum. Dickens became the first British celebrity to profit from paid readings in the United States. This research thesis asks how Dickens earned …

Comparative Modalities Of Network Neutrality, Kyle Wrather

Communication Theses

This project examines the ongoing debate over internet content discrimination, more commonly referred to as network neutrality. It offers a new approach to examining this issue by combining a critical, political economy approach with Lawrence Lessig’s four modalities of regulation: policy, architecture, markets, and norms. It presents a critical, comparative case study analysis of how architecture, markets and norms have shaped United States policy along with comparative examples from select international case studies facing similar regulatory issues. Its findings suggest that while each of the four modalities plays a significant role in the regulation and persistence of network neutrality, there …

Synthesis Of Pyridyl Ethyl Amides As Potential Antitrypanosomal Agents, And Synthesis Of Arylimidamide-Azole Hybrids As Potential Antileishmanial Agents, Jennifer Draper

Chemistry Theses

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) and Leishmaniasis are protozoal parasitic infections. Designated neglected tropical diseases and global in their impact, these diseases afflict the poorest people in the world. Treatments have remained essentially unchanged for decades and have poor efficacy and questionable safety profiles. In the first study, seventeen novel 2-[2-acylamidoethyl]-6(phenyl)pyridine analogues were designed using a ‘hit to lead’ strategy, synthesized and submitted for evaluation in vitro against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (T. b. r.) for potential treatment against second stage HAT. Eight compounds gave T. b. r. IC₅₀ values of 100nM or less; the best three compounds exhibited …

Towards "The World House": Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'S Gobal Vision Of Peace And Justice, 1956-1968, Bryan Terry

History Theses

In his last book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote about the “world house.” This thesis explores the development of King’s ideas about the relationship between the struggle for civil and human rights in the U.S. and global contests like decolonization in Africa and Asia and the war in Vietnam, which ultimately brought him to the notion of a world house and to forthright opposition to U.S. militarism and neocolonialism. This thesis looks at King’s changing understanding and shift of focus of the role of the U.S. government in the nation …

A Mathematical Model For Population Dynamics Of Antibiotic Treatment, Siyu Tian

Mathematics Theses

The objective of the thesis is to model the behavior of the reaction between two species of bacteria and antibiotics by building an ordinary differential equation (ODE) system under a list of assumptions. With the ODE, we analyze equilibrium points and the stability of these equilibrium points to forecast the trend of each species of bacteria and antibiotics. We test the validity of the model assumptions. Based on these outcomes, we show that: 1. Both equilibrium points and eigenvalues differ in orders of magnitude. 2. Some figures which were generated using different initial values do not make any sense. 3. …

Jackknife Empirical Likelihood Inference For The Pietra Ratio, Yueju Su

Mathematics Theses

Pietra ratio (Pietra index), also known as Robin Hood index, Schutz coefficient (Ricci-Schutz index) or half the relative mean deviation, is a good measure of statistical heterogeneity in the context of positive-valued data sets. In this thesis, two novel methods namely "adjusted jackknife empirical likelihood" and "extended jackknife empirical likelihood" are developed from the jackknife empirical likelihood method to obtain interval estimation of the Pietra ratio of a population. The performance of the two novel methods are compared with the jackknife empirical likelihood method, the normal approximation method and two bootstrap methods (the percentile bootstrap method and the bias corrected …

A Comparison Of Two Modeling Techniques In Customer Targeting For Bank Telemarketing, Hong Tang

Mathematics Theses

Customer targeting is the key to the success of bank telemarketing. To compare the flexible discriminant analysis and the logistic regression in customer targeting, a survey dataset from a Portuguese bank was used. For the flexible discriminant analysis model, the backward elimination of explanatory variables was used with several rounds of manual re-defining of dummy variables. For the logistic regression model, the automatic stepwise selection was performed to decide which explanatory variables should be left in the final model. Ten-fold stratified cross validation was performed to estimate the model parameters and accuracies. Although employing different sets of explanatory variables, the …

Data Mining Analysis Of The Parkinson's Disease, Xiaoyuan Wang

Mathematics Theses

Biological research is becoming increasingly database driven and statistical learning can be used to discover patterns in the biological data. In the thesis, the supervised learning approaches are utilized to analyze the Oxford Parkinson’s disease detection data and build models for prediction or classification. We construct predictive models based on training set, evaluate their performance by applying these models to an independent test set, and find the best methods for predicting whether people have Parkinson’s disease. The proposed artificial neural network procedure outperforms with the best and highest prediction accuracy, while the logistic and probit regressions are preferred statistical models …

Philosophical Pessimism: A Study In The Philosophy Of Arthur Schopenhauer, Cameron Smith

Philosophy Theses

Schopenhauer argues, strikingly, that it would have been better if life had not come into existence. In this essay I consider this pessimistic judgment from a philosophical perspective. I take on the following three tasks. First, I consider whether such judgments, apparently products of temperament rather than reason, can be the subject of productive philosophical analysis. I argue that they can be, since, importantly, we can separate arguments for such judgments that establish them as plausible from those that do not. Second, I evaluate Schopenhauer’s arguments for pessimism. I argue that although we must reject Schopenhauer’s main argument for pessimism, …

A Sticky Space Model For Explanation And Individuation Of Anchoring Effects, Robert Hatcher

Philosophy Theses

Current explanations for anchoring phenomena seem to be unable to account for the diversity of effects found by 40 years of research. Additionally, the theories do not have much to say about the processes that make anchors so resilient to modification. I argue that by focusing on the mechanisms involved in spatial representation, we can account for most anchoring effects which have spatial components.