Digital Commons Network^™

Investigation Of Iron Reduction By Green Tea Polyphenols For Application In Soil Remediation, Jacqueline S. Oakes

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Lateral Boundary Conditions On Regional Climate Projections Over West Africa, Jee Hee Kim

Master's Theses

Climate simulation and projections using regional climate models (RCMs) are sensitive to the choice of lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) which often are derived from global climate models (GCM). These LBCs used to drive RCMs describe the atmospheric conditions at the boundaries regarding atmospheric dynamics as well as atmospheric physics, including wind, atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity. Understanding the impact of each component of LBCs is important for understanding and reducing the uncertainty in and improving the accuracy of RCM climate simulations and projections. In this study, the ICTP Regional Climate Model Version 4 (RegCM4) is used to investigate the impact …

Maternal Reaction To Diagnosis: Examination Of Categorization And Methods Of Scoring, Alison Bradley

Master's Theses

This study examined the potential usefulness of a continuous rating system for the Reaction to Diagnosis Interview (RDI; Pianta & Marvin, 1992) compared to the already validated dichotomous coding system. Measures of family functioning, parent psychological well-being, and parental coping were also correlated with the continuous rating system. Participants were 116 young children (29 with asthma, 37 with diabetes, and 50 with cancer) and their primary caregivers. Parents were interviewed by a trained researcher and completed well-validated self-report measures of family functioning and parent psychological well-being and coping. Consensus conferencing for classification disagreements was discussed. Differences and similarities among subcategory …

Effects Of Increasing Temperature And Ocean Acidification On The Microstages Of Two Populations Of Saccharina Latissima In The Northwest Atlantic, Sarah Redmond

Master's Theses

Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus) C.E.Lane, C.Mayes, L.D. Druehl and G.W.Saunders, is the most widely distributed species of kelp in the western North Atlantic, occurring from the Arctic to Long Island Sound. The effects of global climate change on these ecologically and economically important cold temperate species at the southern range of their distribution are unknown. This study investigated the impact of the combined stressors of increased temperature (16, 19, 22, 25 & 28°C) and reduced pH (7.9, 7.8, 7.7, & 7.6) on the gametophyte and juvenile sporophyte stages of sugar kelp populations from Maine and Long Island Sound. Spore germination and …

Algorithms For Multisample Reads Binning, Gabriel S.I. Ilie

Master's Theses

Metatranscriptomics is the study of gene expression levels in uncultured microbial communities sampled directly from their environment. In cultured microbes, the sequencing data comes from a single clone, making assembly and annotation tractable. However, in metatranscriptomics, the data comes from communities with diverse microbial compositions, possibly containing thousands of species. The assembly of transcripts from these complex samples represents a serious computational challenge. The development of genome-independent methods is essential because of the lack of trusted reference genomes that can be used to guide the assembly process. The predominant assembly formalism used for short-read datasets is the de Bruijn graph. …

Practice And Patient Characteristics Associated With Primary Care Physicians’ Use Of Electronic Consults With Their Patients, Timothy Kenneth Eng

Master's Theses

Electronic consults (e-consults) are types of communications systems used between physicians and their patients to communicate outside the medical office. While nothing can replace the traditional face-to-face interaction, e-consults can be used to help manage patient queue, share non-urgent information, and provide an alternative avenue of communication while recording electronic copies. Literature reveals that lack of a standardized reimbursement system, uncertain workloads, and perceived risks to patient confidentiality are barriers to mainstream adoption of e-consult systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the practice and patient characteristics of the use of e-consults between primary care physicians (PCP) and …

Raindrop Imprints And Their Use In The Retrodeformation Of Carboniferous Trace Fossils, Meredith Fichman

Master's Theses

The Narragansett Basin of Massachusetts and Rhode Island is a Carboniferous terrestrial basin and is the only location within New England that preserves fossil evidence of early amphibians and reptilomorphs. Footprints and trackways constitute the only record of these early tetrapods, but deformation during the Alleghanian orogeny has distorted the traces. To improve identification, description, and comparison with non-distorted material, tracks from Plainville, Massachusetts were retrodeformed using raindrop imprints as strain markers.

The axial ratios of 354 raindrop imprints found on 12 slabs were analyzed using the Rf/Φ technique. Strain ratios for slabs ranged from 1.33 to 1.93, with individual …

Pretreatment Predictors Of Weight Loss In A Comprehensive Behavioral Weight Loss Program, Erin M. Lenz

Master's Theses

There is considerable variability in response to behavioral weight control treatment. Identifying pretreatment health behaviors that predict an individual’s weight loss success has the potential to assist with assignment into more appropriate treatment settings (i.e., standard behavioral program versus comprehensive home environment program) that are likely to yield greater weight loss outcomes over time. Participants (N= 201; 48.9 ± 10.5 years; 78.1% women) enrolled in a study comparing a standard behavioral weight loss program (BWL; n=99) to a home-environment focused weight loss program (BWL+H; n=102) completed baseline questionnaires assessing individual control variables (i.e., dietary restraint, self-weighing) and control over the …

Water Column Carbon Dynamics In The New River Estuary, Nc, Jenay Guardiani

Master's Theses

Estuaries transform and exchange various forms of dissolved and particulate carbon within the water column prior to exportation to the open ocean, efflux to the atmosphere, and/or sedimentation. Three bulk fractions of carbon: particulate organic carbon (POC); dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC); and dissolved organic carbon (DOC); and the stable isotopic (δ¹³C) composition of POC and DIC were measured for samples collected along the New River Estuary (NRE), NC to evaluate the sources, processing, and transport of carbon within the system. Conservative mixing curves for each parameter were analyzed to examine the changing character of the carbon pools throughout …

Comparison Of Marine Sampling Methods For Organic Contaminants: Passive Samplers, Water Extractions, And Live Oyster Deployments, Kristin B. Raub

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Varying Frequencies Of Mechanical Vibration On The Rate Of Orthodontic Tooth Movement In Mice, Thomas G. Dobie

Master's Theses

Objective: The aim of this study is to utilize the Orthodontic Tooth Movement (OTM) model in a mouse in order to study the mechanical vibrational effects in bone. Specifically, we wish to test various frequencies of vibration under an orthodontic force to determine whether or not an increase in OTM is seen. We also intend to further investigate the role of osteoclasts in OTM and how they interplay with increasing tooth movement.

Materials and Methods: Fifty-eight male CD1 mice were randomly placed into 1 of 8 groups. Three of these groups were part of the experimental subset which all received …

Evidence And Implications Of Weight Clustering Among Adolescents, Jennifer C. Acker

Master's Theses

Both obesity and eating disorders (ED) are increasingly conceptualized from an ecological model of health, which emphasizes the importance of individual and contextual variables. The peer context is particularly important for understanding adolescents’ weight related attitudes and behaviors; however, specific peer processes that impact obesity and EDs are unclear. Because social comparison is common during adolescence, how teens view their body in comparison to the body size of their close friends may be influential. The purpose of this study is to examine how adolescents’ perceptions of their friends’ body sizes relate to their weight-related cognitions, behaviors, and mental health symptoms, …

The Effects Of Poor Maternal Nutrition On Muscle Development In Lambs, Joseline Raja

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Terror As A Social Movement Tactic: Applying The Multi-Institutional Politics Approach To The Case Of The Abu Sayyaf Group, Erika Mae Lorenzana Del Villar

Master's Theses

Solely equating terrorism with criminality discounts the social, political, cultural, and historical motivations that drive people to employ violence as a strategy for collective action. Using the multi-institutional politics approach to social movements (Armstrong and Bernstein 2008), this study explores the choice of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the Philippines to employ terror and violence as the primary social movement tactic to pursue their Islamic separatist cause. Analysis of archival and open-source data, together with original interviews, reveal that the problem is multi-institutional – developmental, cultural, historical, social and political all at the same time. The choice of violence …

Dense Recordings Reveal Typical And Atypical Development Of Tense Productivity In A Child Previously Diagnosed With Asd, Iris Chin

Master's Theses

Research on tense development has found that typically developing (TD) children are productive with tense morphology starting between two to two-and-a-half years old. Research findings on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, have been mixed. To better understand how tense development may differ between TD children and children with ASD, we examined the speech of two children, one TD [Cleo] and one that previously presented symptoms of ASD [Audrey]. This study is novel in its use of the Speechome Recorder, which collects dense audio-video recordings of children’s speech in home environments. We found that both children were productive with …

Paleostress Inversion Of Post-Alleghanian Brittle Faults In Paleozoic Accreted Terranes And The Early Mesozoic Higganum Dike, Eastern Connecticut, Mark R. Smith

Master's Theses

The passive margin of eastern North America contains reverse faults and folds in early Mesozoic basin-fill that are not characteristic of extension in the lithosphere during rifting. These observations deviate from the classical understanding of a passive margin and indicate other states of stress since rifting. To strengthen these observations, brittle faults were studied from the crystalline bedrock that is east of the Hartford Basin in Connecticut.

Fault-slip data from 1,060 faults were collected from the Gander cover and Avalon terranes and from the early Mesozoic Higganum dike. Because the dataset is large and heterogeneous, it was first processed using …

Modeling The Emergence Of Natural Language Lexicons, Russell Richie

Master's Theses

It is largely acknowledged that natural languages emerge from not just human brains, but also from rich communities of interacting human brains (de Boer, 2000; Galantucci et al., 2012; Senghas, 2005). Yet the precise role of such communities and such interaction on emergence of core properties of language has largely gone uninvestigated in naturally emerging systems, leaving the few existing computational investigations of this issue (de Boer, 2000, i.a.) somewhat ungrounded. Here we take a step towards investigating the precise role of community structure in the emergence of linguistic conventions with both naturalistic empirical data and computational modeling. We first …

The Steps To Growing Up Healthy Study: Barriers To Initial Behavior Change In A Primary Care Based Obesity Prevention/Reversal Program For Young Children, Dominica B. Hernandez

Master's Theses

BACKGROUND: Children of color are disproportionately affected by obesity creating a need for effective prevention/reversal programs. This study investigated a first dose response to a pediatric primary care-based obesity prevention program (Steps to Growing Up Healthy) targeting Hispanic and Black children. We examined whether mothers experienced barriers to behavior change and if maternal, child, environmental, or intervention variables predicted barrier status.

METHODS: Hispanic and Black mothers and their children (N=234; 51%F; 88.9% Hispanic; 35.4±8.7months) were recruited from an urban pediatric primary care clinic. The intervention utilized brief motivational counseling delivered by clinicians and nurses with the goal of …

Coalescence Kinetics Of Lipid Based Bicelles, Andrew Hu

Master's Theses

Uniform nanodisc structures can be self assembled from mixtures of different phospholipids. This study focuses on the theoretical and experimental growth kinetics of phospholipid based nanodiscs. Motivation for this project comes from the nanodisc’s small size and their potential use as a carrier for drug delivery. It was observed that at high total lipid concentration the nanodiscs are stable at approximately 10 nm in radius and can remain stable for a long period of time. However, growth of these nanodiscs are observed at relatively low total lipid concentration. The observed growth mechanism is not well understood. In this thesis dynamic …

Workplace Incivility At The Daily Level: The Effects Of Rumination On Performance And Revenge Motives, Jenna Shapiro

Master's Theses

Ruminating about stressful experiences at work may have negative effects for employees and the organization, but has been widely overlooked in organizational research. In order to address this gap, I examined the process by which incivility affects performance and revenge motives in the workplace. A meditational model was tested, in which stress reactive rumination mediates the relationship between incivility and performance, as well as between incivility and revenge motives. These mediated relationships were examined at the intra-individual level, such that data-points were nested within employees over time. I surveyed 108 healthcare professionals daily over a two-week study period. The data …

Secondary Wood Producers’ Attitudes And Opinions Regarding Locally Grown Wood Material, Nathaniel G. Cyrus

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Marine Snow As A Pathway For Mercury Uptake In The Blue Mussel Mytilus Edulis, Veronica L. Ortiz

Master's Theses

Bioaccumulation of mercury (Hg), especially as methylmercury (CH₃Hg), in the aquatic food web is a continuing public health concern. Extensive research has been conducted regarding the uptake of Hg by various aquatic animals via three main vectors: sediment, bioseston, and water, but virtually no research exists with respect to uptake of CH₃Hgor inorganic mercury (Hg(II)) associated with marine snow. Marine snow composed of various organic and inorganic materials has been studied as an effective vertical transporter of nutrients and metals scavenged from the euphotic zone to the benthos. As various aquatic species utilize marine aggregates as …

Protein Turnover In Trained Male Endurance Runners Following Exercise, Jeffrey Del Favero

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Analysis And Comparison Of Parallel Plate Flow Chambers To Determine Consistency Of Fluid Forces On Cells, Sampat S. Nidadavolu

Master's Theses

Biological cells are constantly exposed to fluid forces inside the body. These fluid forces aid in certain physical and chemical reactions that cells need to maintain physiological function. To observe these forces in vitro, parallel plate flow chambers (PPFC) are used, where cells are placed inside the chamber and a fluid medium runs through the device exposing the cells to fluid forces to initiate a response. This has aided in proving that fluid forces influence cell function and are factors in various disease and physiological processes, such as the development of atherosclerotic plaque in blood vessels or bone growth. Many …

The Effects Of Poor Maternal Nutrition On Postnatal Growth And Development Of Lambs, Kristen N. Peck

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Solution Behavior Of The Translational Gtpase Bipa Using Molecular Dynamics, Gilman L. Dionne

Master's Theses

BipA is a conserved prokaryotic GTPase necessary for securing bacterial survival and successful invasion of the host. Structural and biochemical studies indicate that GTP and ppGpp compete for binding to BipA to promote differential association of BipA to either the 70S or 30S ribosomal species. Exactly how guanine nucleotide binding to BipA prompts a change in the association of this protein with the ribosome is not understood. Crystallographic models show local structural rearrangements occur near the nucleotide-binding pocket but unexpectedly the overall domain arrangement, and therefore intramolecular contacts are similar in the various guanine nucleotide bound states. One explanation is …

Carbonate Production Selectivity In A Room Temperature Carbonate Fuel Cell Using Pt/C, Co(Ii)Pc, And Synthesized Tobermorite As Orr Catalysts, Gregory L. Crettol

Master's Theses

Room temperature anion exchange membrane fuel cells perform better when transporting carbonate vice hydroxide ions. Carbonate anions provide long-term membrane stability and improved oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics at the cathode and hydrogen oxidation kinetics at the anode, while also showing membrane conductivity comparable to hydroxide exchange membranes. Researchers have investigated potential non-platinum catalysts that have physical and electrochemical properties that favor the adsorption of CO₂ over H₂O, thereby, promoting the direct electrochemical formation of carbonate, which prevents membrane degradation caused by OH^- attack. This thesis introduces an in situ pulsed Galvanostatic technique that parallels analytical …

Comparative Gene Analysis And Prediction Of Innate Immunity And Apoptosis Machinery In Hydrothermal Vent Tubeworms, Corey M. Bunce

Master's Theses

Siboglinid tubeworms are an emerging model system for symbiosis in extreme conditions. At deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, they harbor a chemoautotrophic symbiont in a specialized organ, the trophosome, where the bacteria carry out primary production via oxidation of reduced sulfur compounds. The trophosome of siboglinid worms is suggested to be tightly regulated, symbiont-responsive, and developmentally homeostatic. The purported mechanism involves a cellular proliferative or apoptotic response to bacterial signals, environmental cues, or nutrition. Though these processes are well understood in more amenable model systems, there has been little work uncovering the tubeworm’s genetic potential for sensing and …

The Forgotten Space: Between Discourse, Document, And The Deck Of A Ship, Talia B. Shabtay

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Distinct Roles Of First Impressions And Physiological Compliance In Establishing Effective Teamwork, Andrea M. Bizarro

Master's Theses

Objective measures of team dynamics would be valuable complementary tools for researchers and practitioners to use along with subjective measures when deciding which individuals work together most effectively as a team, or when designing training or task environments to promote more effective teams and teamwork. Consistent with control theory, the present study investigates how first impressions and physiological compliance early during team formation impact team effectiveness outcomes including: team satisfaction, work-related flow experiences, team processes, and performance outcomes. In a theory-driven attempt to objectively measure the extent of mutual control during teamwork, physiological compliance was calculated as root-mean squared (RMS) …