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Relationship Between The Experience Of Perceived And Physician Diagnosed Arthritis And The Presence Of Dsm-Iv Criteria-Based Major Depression (Mdd) Among Older, Ryan Neil Schmidt

Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to explore both positive screened MDD and the perception of being depressed (P) and the likelihood of either increasing if the patient suffered from arthritis (P/E), either perceived or evaluated by a physician. The study explored the univariate, bivariate, and multivariate relationships between MDD and depression (P) to better describe influencing characteristics and their prevalence, as related to MDD and depression (P).

METHODS: The study examined a cross section of patients 65 years and older (n=8,205) within the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NESARC) [2001-02] sponsored by the National Institute …

Modified Sodium Diuranate Process For The Recovery Of Uranium From Uranium Hexafluoride Transport Cylinder Wash Solution, Austin Dean Meredith

Theses and Dissertations

Uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) containment cylinders must be emptied and washed every five years in order to undergo recertification, according to ANSI standards. During the emptying of the UF₆ from the cylinders, a thin residue, or heel, of UF₆ is left behind. This heel must be removed in order for recertification to take place.

To remove it, the inside of the containment cylinder is washed with acid and the resulting solution generally contains three or four kilograms of uranium. Thus, before the liquid solution can be disposed of, the uranium must be separated. A modified sodium diuranate …

Structure-Function Relationship In Dual Function Hemoglobin/Dehaloperoxidase From Amphitrite Ornata, Chunxue Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Hemoglobin/dehaloperoxidase (DHP) from Amphitrite ornata, is the first discovered globin which in addition to the oxygen binding has an additional physiological function as an enzyme. In the ferric state it is a dehaloperoxidase, which dehalogenates a wide range of halophenols. DHP evolved from an ancestral oxygen carrier and acquired the peroxidase function in response to environmental pressures. The peroxidase activity of DHP is much higher than that of vertebrate myoglobins (Mb) yet lower than that of typical peroxidases. Also, DHP exhibits about 10-fold lower oxygen affinity than Mb.

The first aim of this research was to identify the halophenolic substrates …

Fundamental Experimental Studies In Scaling, Blast Mitigation And Material Processing, Xing Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

In this work, two separate research efforts are discussed. They include experimental studies in (1) Scaling and Blast Mitigation and (2) Scaling in Friction Stir Extrusion. In both studies, the primary experimental measurement method is three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC), a non-contacting full-field measurement method that is applicable for both high-rate loading and quasi-static loading conditions.

Scaling and Blast Mitigation Studies:

A series of properly scaled structures was subjected to buried blast loading conditions via detonation of a small explosive buried in saturated sand. Using high speed stereo-vision systems to record the deformations of selected regions on the upper surface …

Synthesis, Structural Variations And Trends In The Properties Of Unique Dinuclear And Polynuclear Complexes Of Bis(Pyrazolyl)Methane Ligands In Solid State And Solution, Andrea Eva Pascui

Theses and Dissertations

The semi-rigid ligands, p-[CH(pz)₂]₂C₆H₄, L_p, m-[CH(pz)₂]₂C₆H₂, L_m, and m-[CH(3,5-Me₂pz)₂]₂C₆H₄, L_m* (pz = pyrazolyl ring), link two bis(pyrazolyl)methane units into a single molecule by a rigid phenylene spacer and are used to study the structural variations and magnetic interactions in self-assembled first row, divalent transition metal complexes in polymeric, dinuclear and dinuclear metallacyclic settings. The formation of these architectures highly depend on the geometry of these ligands: anti, the …

Inequality And Opportunity At Themsa-Level: Investigating Place As A Structure Of Inequality Shaping Mobility And Earnings, Colby R. King

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how the new urban economy has transformed the structures that impact individual earnings opportunities across place. Using data from the 1990 and 2000 Census, this study is based on two multi-level data sets, each reporting characteristics for approximately 2 million individuals nested within more than 200 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). This study examines how inequality varies across MSAs in the US. Associations between MSA-level characteristics, including proportion of employment in new economy sectors, earnings, educational attainment, and inequality, are tested. Strong evidence is found demonstrating strong and statistically significant correlations between new economy indicators and MSA-level inequality, …

The Parasitic Oligarchy? The Elites In Trinidad And Tobago, Alison Mc Letchie

Theses and Dissertations

The existence of an elite class within societies is often a topic of research in the study of inequality of power and influence. Researchers, however, acknowledge that the nature and composition of the elite varies. Trinidad and Tobago, with its colonial history and diverse population has had to confront issues surrounding access to power by various groups within the society. One driving force of the 1970s Black Power Revolution was the practice of color discrimination in the banking industry. Informed by Mills' (1956) elite theory and rooted in Beckford's (1972) economic theory, this project surveys the elite of Trinidad and …

El Rol De La Cultura Visual En El Desarrollo De Una Nueva Espacialidad En La Literatura Argentina, Maria Paula Rivero

Theses and Dissertations

This work explores the use of visual culture in Horacio Quiroga's 'La c├â┬ímara oscura', Julio Cort├â┬ízar's 'Apocalipsis de Solentiname', and Rodolfo Walsh's 'Fotos', focusing on its role in the development of a new conceptualization of the argentine space. The visual culture in these short stories, represented through the art of photography, gives the reader a new way of access into a national space that has been historically established by a politically dominated narrative. While the past rhetoric has been characterized by recognizing the territory as empty and assigning it the preferred meaning, these short stories revert such mechanism by developing …

Models And Software Development For Interval-Censored Data, Chun Pan

Theses and Dissertations

Interval-censored time-to-event data occur naturally in studies of diseases where the symptoms are not directly observable, and periodic clinical examinations are required for detection. Due to the lack of well-established procedures, interval-censored data have been conventionally treated as right-censored data, however, this introduces bias at the first place. This dissertation focuses on methodological research and software development for interval-censored data. Specifically, it consists of three projects. The first project is to create an R package for regression analysis and survival curve estimation of interval-censored data based on several published papers by our research team. In the second project, a Bayesian …

The Effect Of Αct-1 Peptide On Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Following Injury, Adam Clay Vandergriff

Theses and Dissertations

Connexin43 (Cx43) is a component of gap junctions and is involved in intercel- lular signaling following injury to tissues. The carboxyl terminus of Cx43 binds to the PDZ2 domain of ZO-1 in order to form gap junction plaques and connect to the cytoskeleton. A biomimetic peptide known as αCT-1, replicating the last 9 amino acids found in the carboxyl terminus of CX43, has been shown to improve wound healing by preferentially binding to the PDZ2 domain of ZO-1. A possible mecha- nism for its action is through the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transformation (EMT). Scratch assays were performed on rat bone marrow stromal …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Surrogate Fuel Particles Using The Spark Erosion Method, Kathryn Elizabeth Metzger

Theses and Dissertations

In light of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, the Department of Energy's Advanced Fuels Program has shifted its interest from enhanced performance fuels to enhanced accident tolerance fuels. Dispersion fuels possess higher thermal conductivities than traditional light water reactor fuel and as a result, offer improved safety margins. The benefits of a dispersion fuel are due to the presence of the secondary non-fissile phase (matrix), which serves as a barrier to fission products and improves the overall thermal performance of the fuel. However, the presence of a matrix material reduces the fuel volume, which lowers the fissile …

(Mis)Classification And Creole Identity In Alice Dunbar-Nelson's The Goodness Of St. Rocque, Jillian Weber

Theses and Dissertations

particular, it examines The Goodness of St. Rocqueand New Orleans as a site of racial and ethnic confluence. Dunbar-Nelson deals closely with racial and ethnic identities of Creoles in New Orleans during the late nineteenth-century and attempts to show the ways in which markers of ethnicity and connections to other countries upset the black-white racial binary being forced upon residents of New Orleans by outside forces. Dunbar- Nelson uses spatial and sociocultural characteristics of space to comment on the ways in which classification is imposed upon her characters, but shows the disruptive and often dangerous consequences of this imposition. Through …

Decoding Prmt1: Studies On The Catalytic Mechanism, Regulation, Inhibition, And Crosstalk Of Prmt1-Dependent Methylation, Heather L. Rust

Theses and Dissertations

Arginine methylation is catalyzed by the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family of enzymes, which transfer a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to the guanidinium group of an arginine residue. This reaction first produces monomethylated arginine (MMA) that can then be further methylated to produce either asymmetrically dimethylated arginine (ADMA) or symmetrically dimethylated arginine (SDMA). There are nine PRMT family members described to date, with PRMT1 as the predominant member, suggested to be responsible for ~85% of asymmetric dimethylation. In addition, PRMT1-dependent methylation likely plays a significant role in a plethora of diseases (e.g., cancer, heart disease, and ALS). These observations …

Essays On Food Banks: Operational Issues And The Role Of Supply Chain Integration, Cigdem Ataseven

Theses and Dissertations

ood banks are humanitarian aid organizations that collect, organize, and deliver food to the communities in need. In pursuit of achieving their social goal of alleviating hunger, food banks work with other non-profit member agencies such as soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters. Matching supply of funds and donated food with demand in this context is subject to unique challenges, which remain unaddressed in operations and supply chain literature. This dissertation presents three essays to gain deeper insights into critical operational and supply chain issues influencing the performance of food banks, and the impact of supply chain integration on food …

Coloring Pythagorean Triples And A Problem Concerning Cyclotomic Polynomials, Daniel White

Theses and Dissertations

One may easily show that there exist $O( \log n)$-colorings of $\{1,2, \ldots, n\}$ such that no Pythagorean triple with elements $\le n$ is monochromatic. In Chapter~\ref{CH:triples}, we investigate two analogous ideas. First, we find an asymptotic bound for the number of colors required to color $\{1,2,\ldots ,n\}$ so that every Pythagorean triple with elements $\le n$ is $3$-colored. Afterwards, we examine the case where we allow a vanishing proportion of Pythagorean triples with elements $\le n$ to fail to have this property.

Unrelated, in 1908, Schur raised the question of the irreducibility over $\Q$ of polynomials of the form …

The Effects Of Attentional Focus Cues And Feedback On Motor Skill Learning In Children, Melanie Elizabeth Perreault

Theses and Dissertations

Considerable research over the past decade has produced overwhelming evidence to support the motor learning advantage associated with an external focus of attention. Despite this robust finding, very few studies have investigated attentional focus effects with children. This is surprising given that considerable information processing differences exist between children and adults that have the potential to influence motor performance and learning. Therefore, two studies were conducted to determine the effect of attentional focus cues and feedback on motor learning in children. In the first study, 42 children ages 9 to 11 were recruited from an afterschool program and randomly assigned …

High Resistivity Amorphous Selenium Alloy Semiconductors For Radiation Detection Applications, Abhinav Mehta

Theses and Dissertations

High resolution noninvasive tools of diagnosis has always derived and enabled scientific and medical research to probe and better understand subtleties of matter, intangible to the human eye. Radiation detection systems are highly dependent on advancements in materials and devices with front-end electronics. There are various discrete applications of these radiation detectors and each application imposes certain requirements so there is no single optimum radiation detector.

Flat panel x-ray imagers have gained high demand in the past decade because of exponential improvement in readout electronics. We have synthesized and investigated stabilized amorphous selenium (a-Se) alloys suitable for high resolution flat …

The Weierstrass Approximation Theorem, Larita Barnwell Hipp

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we will consider the work began by Weierstrass in 1855 and several generalization of his approximation theorem since. Weierstrass began by proving the density of algebraic polynomials in the space of continuous real-valued functions on a finite interval in the uniform norm. His theorem has been generalized to an arbitrary compact Hausdorff space and the approximation with elements from more general algebras of continuous real-valued functions. We will consider proofs that use brute force and proofs based on convolutions and approximate identities, trudge through probability and the use of the Bernstein polynomials, and become intimately close to …

The Effect Of Cancer Cachexia Severity And Eccentric Muscle Contractions On Selected Myofiber Metabolic Properties In Mouse Skeletal Muscle, Joshua Earl Mangum

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer cachexia is a complex syndrome that induces skeletal muscle wasting and dysregulation of skeletal muscle metabolism. Alterations in area of myofibers and myofiber metabolic properties can significantly impact the function of skeletal muscle. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cachexia severity and resistance exercise training on frequency and area of selected myofiber metabolic characteristics during cachexia-induced myofiber atrophy. Male ApcMin/+ (Min) mice were studied during the progression of cachexia (16-20 weeks of age) and stratified into groups based on the severity of cachexia. For the second study, male Min mice performed resistance exercise (RE) …

Tidal Variability Of Waves And Currents On A Caribbean Barrier Reef, Chelsea Wegner

Theses and Dissertations

The modern framework of Caribbean coral reefs is a product of resilient structures that have survived extreme variations in sea level for the past 18,000 years. However, the added influences of anthropogenic pressures, including ocean acidification, overfishing, pollution and bleaching make the future response to sea level rise uncertain. Carbonate production in the Caribbean is no longer at these historic rates and reefs may not be able to keep pace with the projected increases in sea level. This could have dramatic impacts on the hydrodynamics in coral reef environments, as reef morphology strongly influences these processes. Coral reefs are regarded …

Tectonics Of The South Georgia Rift, David Michael Heffner

Theses and Dissertations

Triassic rifting of the supercontinent Pangea left behind numerous basins on what is now the eastern North American margin. The South Georgia Rift (SGR) was thought to be the best preserved of these basins having been capped by thick basalt flows of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) and later buried beneath the Cretaceous and younger Coastal Plain. Because it is buried beneath the Coastal Plain, the SGR is only known through sparse drilling and geophysical methods. Despite this limited dataset, the SGR is the only one of the eastern North American Triassic basins known to overlie the ancient Alleghanian …

Understanding The Early Stages Of Development Of A Global Health Partnership, Wendy Raquel Gonzalez Navarrete

Theses and Dissertations

Maternal and child undernutrition contributes to more than one-third of child deaths. Global Health Partnerships (GHP) have emerged as a response to undernutrition and other pressing health problems. GHPs promote joint decision-making among donors, multilateral agencies, and country partners. Despite their positive impact on health problems, GHPs have generated unintended negative effects on country partners. This study aimed to understand the factors, strategies, and processes conducive to the establishment of an effective GHP in the context of a cooperative regional effort to reduce undernutrition and improve maternal and child health in eight countries in Latin America, Regional Health Initiative (RHI). …

Cortisol And Working Memory In Boys With Fragile X Syndrome, Jessica F. Scherr

Theses and Dissertations

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder and the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability. Although FXS is associated with global cognitive impairments, specific deficits in working memory have been reported in young males with FXS. Working memory is an important cognitive process that involves the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information over a short period of time. Deficits in working memory can negatively impact an individual's academic, behavioral, and social functioning. Chronic stress can adversely influence working memory performance and can be measured physiologically through salivary cortisol. It is important to study the complex relationship of …

Lessons In Success: A Multi-Campus Study Of Factors Influencing Academic Accomplishment Among High-Achieving African American Students At Private Liberal Arts Colleges, Ryan Andrew Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the academic experiences of highly successful African-American male graduates of small, private liberal arts colleges using a qualitative approach. Fourteen highly successful alumni from selective, private colleges were purposefully selected for the study, including seven African-American males and seven white males. In semi-structured interviews, participants retrospectively described positive experiences they associated with their academic success in college. The study observed the importance of the small college in creating a deep sense of connection across the campus, empowering students to take risks that helped them succeed academically. This research also explored the idea …

Essays On Market Dominance And Price Discovery, James Michael Lockwood

Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay, I examine the burden of cross-listing prices to adjust to changes in exchange rates. Using a 3-system vector moving average model, I measure the effects of exchange rate shocks on cross-listing stock prices in the home and U.S. markets. My sample consists of 46 cross-listings on the NYSE from Canada, Brazil, and Mexico. Findings indicate that New York prices bear roughly 60% of the adjustment to exchange rates for Canadian and Mexican securities, and roughly 45% for Brazilian securities. The NYSE burden of adjustment varies considerably across firms, ranging from 7% to 100% for Canada, 10% …

A Qualitative Study Of An Urban Community Garden: Creating Healthier Neighborhood Environments, Lauren Workman

Theses and Dissertations

Neighborhoods influence population level health; the places where people live, work, and grow are an essential setting for health promotion interventions. In efforts to create healthier neighborhood environments, there is a movement to better understand neighborhood social characteristics. The neighborhood social environment potentially includes social relationships (including trust and cohesion), networks, norms, and the resources that may be generated from relationships. In addition, more work is needed to learn about how people may become engaged in neighborhood initiatives. Community gardens are a 1) potential strategy to promote health at community and individual levels 2) mechanism to involve community members in …

Parsing The Effects Of Physical Microenvironmental Cues On Stem Cell Adhesion And Lineage Specification, Greg M. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Tissue engineering is a broad field geared toward improving or replacing biological material and comprises an immense collection of biological nuances to consider before strategies for clinical applications can be fully realized. Physical and biochemical signals are responsible for making up a cell's microenvironment to guide morphology and function through cell-extracellular matrix signaling, cell-cell signaling, and soluble signaling. In particular, a deeper understanding of these cell-extra cellular matrix factors guiding stem cell adhesion, spreading, and differentiation is crucial to harnessing the potential to develop tissue for regenerative purposes. Mounting evidence suggests that physical cues are a key to understanding the …

The Glass Cliff: An Examination Of The Female Superintendency In South Carolina, Blanche Boyd Bowles

Theses and Dissertations

South Carolina public school districts are confronted with a series of difficult circumstances and rely more on female superintendents than the national average. The investigation of female South Carolina superintendents was guided by the glass cliff conceptual framework. The glass cliff represents situations where females are promoted over males to risky or precarious leadership positions where the chance of failure is high

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to examine the relationship between the sex of South Carolina public school superintendents to (a) self-reported transformational leadership behaviors and (b) select district indicators indicative of the difficult circumstances confronted …

The Financial Nexus Of College Choice And Persistence At For-Profit Institutions, Benjamin James Bryan

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined student persistence to attainment at for-profit institutions of higher education using the financial choice-persistence nexus theoretical framework (St. John, Paulsen, & Starkey, 1996). Nexus theory predicts that when students' experiences are not consistent with expectations, students perceive that their implicit contract with the institution has been violated and may choose to leave. This phenomenon has not previously been studied in the for-profit sector. This study examined how students' expectations of college, related to their choice of institution, subsequently impact their persistence decisions at for-profit schools, and how students' expectations affect the way that financial influences such as …

Differential Gene Expression Patterns In Hpv-Positive And Hpv-Negative Oropharyngeal Carcinomas, Swati Tomar

Theses and Dissertations

Head and neck (HN) cancer is the fifth most prevalent malignancy worldwide with 90% of them categorized as squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). Carcinomas of the oropharynx, pharynx and the oral cavity, comprise a subset of HNSCC and are referred to as oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCC). Up to 60% of OPSCC and 25% of HNSCC are positive for high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV), primarily HPV16. HPV positive and HPV negative OPSCC’s are molecularly and biologically distinct with differences in risk factors, age of presentation and clinical behavior. The precise molecular signatures of each have been well studied with respect to gene …