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Manufacturer Product Line Decisions In Growing Consumer Technology Markets: A Case Of Digital Cameras, Kyryl Lakishyk

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The objective of this dissertation is to deepen our understanding of competitive and demand drivers of manufacturer new product introductions in consumer technology markets.

Researchers in economics and marketing commonly view differentiated products as combinations of "attributes" that are located in multi-attribute space. In first study presented in Chapter 2 of this dissertation, I conform to this common view of products as multi-attribute bundles and, therefore, carefully construct both a multi-attribute product space, as well as, and even more importantly, product clusters within this multi-attribute product space. I focus on the early stages of US Digital Cameras category: 1998-2000). Operationalizing …

The Role Of Loneliness And Life Events: Comparing Avoidant And Borderline Personality Features And Their Relation To Depression, Janine Galione

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Personality disorders are theoretically and empirically linked to experiencing high negative affect, such as depression, and individuals with features from some personality disorders, such as borderline: BDL) and avoidant: AVD), are hyper-responsive to rejection. Loneliness has also been established as a vulnerability to the onset of depressive episodes and as an outcome to rejection sensitivity, however the relationship between personality pathology and loneliness is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to compare whether AVD and BDL features might be differentially associated with depression scores by analyzing the interaction with life events and loneliness. We studied a representative, community-based …

Labview Based Whispering Gallery Mode Microtoroid Coupling Pid Controller, Peiyao Li

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The aim of this thesis is to test the implementation of PID control algorithm for stabilization of coupling. Efficient and robust coupling is prerequisite in microcavity related applications. But surrounding environments, like temperature and airflow, could easily influence coupling condition. PID algorithm has been used for stabilization and control in industry for several decades. For this reason, the author decided to test further application, with the goal of proving the suitability for Whispering Gallery Mode coupling. The thesis first discusses the Whispering Gallery Mode microtoroid, especially its relative coupling regime. In a second stage, the LabVIEW and Arduino based real …

Separating Component Signals Of Episodic Simulation Using A Catch Trial Design, Adrian W. Gilmore

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Tasks that require mentally simulating events, such as remembering events from one’s past and imagining events from one’s future, have been shown to involve a highly overlapping set of brain regions. Across a growing number of studies, relatively few regions have been found that show differences in activity between remembered and imagined events. However, studies have not disambiguated neural activity related to task orientation: i.e., preparing to remember events from the past or imagine events in the future) from activity related simulating events, per se. The current experiment uses functional MRI and employs a catch trial design to test the …

Brain Structure In Older Adult Siblings, Nathaniel Lucena

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Considerable variability exists in patterns of brain aging within and across individuals. Quantifying familial contributions to brain structure in late life may help us understand this variability. We estimated heritability of gray and white matter volumes and cortical thickness in a sample of older adult full siblings: 2-4 individuals per pedigree; N = 75). Estimation of heritability was based on computation of intraclass correlations. Heritability estimates were higher for total cortical thickness compared to volumes. There was no evidence of overall laterality in heritability estimates, or differences between primary sensory and association regions. There was a tendency for lower estimates …

Effects Of Ownership Intuitions On Allocations In The Dictator Game, John Christner

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

People’s implicit assumptions about ownership might influence their decisions in Dictator Games: DG), leading to generosity. Two studies tested subjects’ intuitions concerning ownership in fictional situations structurally analogous to the DG. Subjects read a story about a ritual in which an old man: experimenter in DG) provided an endowment that Person 1: dictator in DG) had to allocate between self and Person 2: receiver in DG). Subjects were told that in some instances the ritual was interrupted before completion. As an assay of their intuitions regarding ownership, subjects were asked who owned the endowment and how it should be allocated …

Development & Testing Of Novel Atmospheric Chemistry Technologies, Peter Johnson Mellott

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in global atmospheric chemistry and climate and have a detrimental impact on human health. Advancements in measurement technologies allow for better monitoring of atmospheric composition and dynamics, creating better predictive models and understanding of atmospheric chemistry and physics. Gas and particle atmospheric oxidation is poorly understood. In order to create a better understanding of atmospheric oxidation, the following equipment was developed: 1) a Potential Aerosol Mass: PAM) flow reaction chamber was developed to create reproducible steady-state oxidation of organic species in a controlled laboratory setting, 2) a custom combustion chamber for introduction of realistic …

Three Essays In Comparative Political Economy, Ugur Ozdemir

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This thesis consists of three chapters. The first two chapters offer game theoretical models for different linkages between political parties and the citizens: programmatic linkage and clientelistic linkage. Empirical implications of these models are discussed using real world data on Turkey and USA through statistical analysis and simulation. The last chapter steps back from the specific strategies of political agents to examine in a more general context the concepts of institutional maintenance and institutional change.

Shallow Thrust And Outer Rise Earthquakes In Northwestern Pacific Subduction Zones And Their Role In Subduction Zone Water Budgets With Special Focus On The Mariana Islands, Erica Lynn Emry

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation utilizes accurate earthquake locations and focal mechanisms to examine two distinct regions within shallow subduction zones: the shallow plate interface and the subduction zone trench and outer rise. In particular, I focus on the shallow plate interface and outer rise of the Mariana Subduction Zone and then expand the focus to examine the outer rise at other Northern and Western Pacific Subduction Zones. By understanding where earthquakes occur in these regions, we hope to obtain a better understanding of the cycling of water through subduction zones, mineralogical changes in the presence of water, and the effects of water …

Regional Rarity: Consequences Of Dispersal Limitation And Strategies For Reintroduction, Steven James Kroiss

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Understanding factors that limit species distributions within restored habitats has been a longstanding goal of restoration ecology, particularly with respect to differences between rare and widespread species. Numerous mechanisms have been proposed to contribute to rarity, including species traits, propagule limitation, ecological requirements, and population level processes such as demographic and environmental stochasticity. Yet, our understanding of species rarity remains limited since few studies have examined how these factors act in concert. This dissertation examines how these mechanisms may interact to influence the distribution and population establishment of plant species in restored xeric glades in the Missouri Ozarks: USA). First, …

Organization Of The Streptococcal Exportal And Its Interaction With Cationic Antimicrobial Peptides, Luis Alberto Vega

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Streptococcus pyogenes and other Gram-positive pathogens are highly dependent on secreted virulence proteins for their ability to colonize a host and evade the immune effectors that act on pathogens to prevent this. Unlike eukaryotes and Gram-negative bacteria, all Gram-positive pathogens lack a cellular compartment dedicated to folding and processing secreted proteins once they have been translocated across the cytoplasmic membrane. S. pyogenes and other Gram-positive organisms overcome this challenge by clustering the secretory translocons at a defined anionic lipid microdomain of the cytoplasmic membrane that is enriched for accessory factors needed for protein biogenesis, referred to as the ExPortal. The …

Functional Interactions Between Par-1b Protein Kinase And Rnf41 E3 Ubiquitin Ligase, Katherine Terese Vega

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The Par-1 family of serine/threonine protein kinases functions to regulate cell polarity and is conserved from yeast to humans. Par-1 is encoded by one of six Par: partitioning-defective) genes: Par-1-6) originally identified in a genetic screen conducted in Caenorhabditis elegans: C. elegans). The mammalian Par-1 family is comprised of four members: Par-1a, b, c and d). Par-1 kinases are regulated by two arms of the Protein Kinase C: PKC) pathway. Atypical Protein Kinase C: aPKC) phosphorylates Par-1b on a conserved threonine residue: T595) and I participated in studies demonstrating that novel Protein Kinase C: nPKC) activates Protein Kinase D: PKD) …

The Role Of Meis1 In Hematopoietic Development, Mi Cai

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Previous work has identified Mesp1 as an important regulator of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition: EMT) and of cardiovascular cell fate in differentiating embryonic stem cells: ESCs). To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the actions of Mesp1, we sought to identify transcription targets of Mesp1. Mesp1 rapidly induced expression of PDGFRα in differentiating ESCs and directly bound to evolutionary conserved E-boxes within the PDGFRα promoter. This result suggested that PDGFRα could be a direct target of Mesp1. However, we found that PDGFRα was not sufficient for the induction of EMT in ESCs or the induction of Flk1+ mesoderm, but that it may …

Reading Your Own Mind: Dynamic Visualization Of Real-Time Neural Signals, Zachary V. Freudenburg

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Brain Computer Interfaces: BCI) systems which allow humans to control external devices directly from brain activity, are becoming increasingly popular due to dramatic advances in the ability to both capture and interpret brain signals. Further advancing BCI systems is a compelling goal both because of the neurophysiology insights gained from deriving a control signal from brain activity and because of the potential for direct brain control of external devices in applications such as brain injury recovery, human prosthetics, and robotics. The dynamic and adaptive nature of the brain makes it difficult to create classifiers or control systems that will remain …

Analysis Of Die5 And Lia5 Reveals The Importance Of Dna Repair In Programmed Dna Rearrangement Of Tetrahymena Thermophila, Wan-Yi: Annie) Shieh

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During its somatic nuclear differentiation, the single cell eukaryote Tetrahymena thermophila undergoes genome-wide programmed DNA rearrangement to eliminate transposon-like elements from its future soma. This process involves small RNA-directed heterochromatin formation followed by extensive nuclear reorganization to form subnuclear domains. While more has been known about small RNAs and heterochromatin, the mechanisms and players involved in the process of nuclear reorganization and the subsequent removal of transposon-like elements from the somatic genome are just starting to unravel. My thesis work centers on the study of two novel nuclear proteins Die5p: Chapter 2) and Lia5p: Chapter 3) and their roles in …

Interstitial-Scale Modeling Of Packed-Bed Reactors, Daniel Parks Combest

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Packed-beds are common to adsorption scrubbers, packed bed reactors, and trickle-bed reactors widely used across the petroleum, petrochemical, and chemical industries. The micro structure of these packed beds is generally very complex and has tremendous influence on heat, mass, and momentum transport phenomena on the micro and macro length scales within the bed. On a reactor scale, bed geometry strongly influences overall pressure drop, residence time distribution, and conversion of species through domain-fluid interactions. On the interstitial scale, particle boundary layer formation, fluid to particle mass transfer, and local mixing are controlled by turbulence and dissipation existing around packed particles. …

Silencing Through Heterochromatin Formation: The Role Of Piwi In Transposon Targeting, Hsiming Wang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Heterochromatin packages a large portion of the genome in eukaryotes, and plays important roles in mitosis, telomere homeostasis, and transposon: TE) control, all necessary to ensure genome stability. A precisely controlled mechanism to designate which regions of the genome should be so packaged is critical to the fitness of an organism. Mis-localized heterochromatin can lead to mis-regulation of nearby and even distant genes, with pleotropic consequences. How cells: and hence organisms) precisely control the location and extent of heterochromatin formation is an intriguing question. Models involving small RNAs, epigenetic inheritance of histone modifications, DNA binding proteins targeting specific motifs, and …

Targets Of Heterochromatin Assembly In Drosophila Melanogaster, Monica F. Sentmanat

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Heterochromatin is classically defined as densely staining regions of the genome; these domains are typically late replicating and show little recombination. Correct assembly of heterochromatin is critical for chromosome stability. Assembly begins with histone deacetylation and H3 lysine 9 di- and trimethylation: H3K9me2/3); the methylated H3 is typically bound by Heterochromatin Protein 1a: HP1a). Heterochromatin predominates at pericentric and telomeric domains --regions abundant in transposable elements: TEs) and satellite repeats. Transcription of these TEs has been found to generate a platform for assembly of heterochromatin through RNAi in S. pombe and A. thaliana, and may play a critical role in …

Modeling Surfaces From Volume Data Using Nonparallel Contours, Ross Taylor Sowell

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Magnetic resonance imaging: MRI) and computed tomography: CT) scanners have long been used to produce three-dimensional samplings of anatomy elements for use in medical visualization and analysis. From such datasets, physicians often need to construct surfaces representing anatomical shapes in order to conduct treatment, such as irradiating a tumor. Traditionally, this is done through a time-consuming and error-prone process in which an experienced scientist or physician marks a series of parallel contours that outline the structures of interest. Recent advances in surface reconstruction algorithms have led to methods for reconstructing surfaces from nonparallel contours that could greatly reduce the manual …

Franco's Children: Representations Of Franco-Era Childhood In Contemporary Spanish Literature And Cinema, Miaowei Weng

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This study explores the politicization of "Franco's children" in El sur : 1981;1983), El florido pensil : 1994), Habíamos ganado la guerra: 2007), and La gloria de los niños: 2007). The phrase "Franco's children," on the one hand, implies the status of the authors and filmmakers as those who survived the early Franco regime as children and recall their childhood as adults; on the other hand, it refers to the child protagonists in the selected works that are set in wartime and the post-War period. The aim of the present study is to explore different strategies - both rhetorical and …

Mobile Ideas And (Im)Mobile Subjects: Women Writers And Women's Fashion Magazines In Nineteenth-Century Germany And Austria, Ruxandra Marcu Looft

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation explores how gender, class, and national identity were constructed and presented in three prominent nineteenth-century women's magazines: Der Bazar, Illustrirte Damenzeitung, La Mode Illustrée, Journal de la Famille, and Harper's Bazar), as well as in the works of three women writers of the time: Louise Otto, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, and Rosa Mayreder) through the lens of social, physical, and geographical mobility for women.

At a time of increasing industrialization and communication between countries of the Western world, the discourse on women's roles, as intersecting with their class and national belonging, was in many ways formed on an international …

Calcium Cycling Disturbances And Arrhythmogenesis, Namit Gaur

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this work, a detailed multiscale computational model of Ca cycling and action potential in a ventricular myocyte is developed and used to study mechanisms of arrhythmias associated with mutations in the ryanodine receptor (RyR). The multiscale ventricular myocyte model reproduces experimentally observed Ca dynamics both at the local dyadic scale and at the global whole-cell scale, while also simulating the action potential (AP) shaped by membrane ionic currents. The model represents stochastic activation of L-type Ca channels (LCCs) and RyRs in the dyads and simulates random generation of Ca sparks both during excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) and during diastole. The …

The Pathophysiological Importance Of Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase As A Key Nad Biosynthesis Enzyme In Metabolic Homeostasis, Myeong Jin Yoon

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase: NAMPT) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the NAD biosynthesis pathway in mammals. Interestingly, NAMPT has intra- and extracellular forms: iNAMPT and eNAMPT, respectively), and eNAMPT is secreted from adipose tissue as one of the adipokines. However, the mechanism underlying the regulation of eNAMPT secretion has not been fully understood yet. Here, we have demonstrated that deacetylation on NAMPT by SIRT1 controls its secretion from adipocytes. iNAMPT is acetylated in both brown and white adipose tissues, and the level of acetylation of iNAMPT is decreased during fasting when Sirtuins are activated. We also found that enhancement of eNAMPT secretion …

Dna And Peptide Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles For Biological Imaging And Transfection, Ziyan Zhang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation focuses on the development of DNA and peptide functionalized gold nanoparticles. Three nanoparticle systems have been developed:: 1) nucleic acid-directed self-assembly of a gold nanoparticle PET imaging agent;: 2) cationic peptide functionalized gold nanoparticles;: 3) gold nanoparticle templated peptide nanoshells.

The first functionalized gold nanoparticles were constructed by assembling ODN: oligodeoxynucleotide)-derivatized gold nanoparticles with functionalized complementary PNAs: peptide nucleic acids). The PNAs were conjugated with DOTA for chelating chelating 64Cu for PET imaging, PEG for conferring stealth properties, and Cy5 for fluorescent imaging. The resulting functionalized nanoparticles showed good stability both in vitro and in vivo and had …

Effective 1d Language For Fractional Quantum Hall States, John Flavin

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect, much attention is paid to the correspondence between fractional quantum Hall wave functions and conformal blocks in certain rational conformal field theories (CFT). This correspondence is powerful, enabling the calculation of the fractional statistics of a state that would be difficult if not impossible to calculate directly from the wave functions. But it is, in general, conjectural, remaining without microscopic justification in many cases of interest, and involves heavy mathematical machinery. We detail an alternative method to calculate Abelian and non-Abelian fractional statistics, the coherent state method. The method relies on …

A Ranksum Statistics Based Framework To Decipher Transcription Regulation, Iuan-Bor Chen

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The unbiased generation of specific and meaningful hypotheses from the deluge of data generated by modern genomic methods remains a challenge. These datasets require increasing level of expertise to analyze fully, and are often underutilized even in the originating lab. It would be desirable to have a computational strategy that is easy to implement, robust against outliers and missing data, and broadly applicable to diverse experimental designs. In this dissertation, I present a set of ranksum statistics-based analytical methods as a framework to extract testable hypotheses from large and complex datasets. To illustrate its utility, this framework was applied to …

Perceived Alcohol Stigma And Treatment For Alcohol Use Disorders, Joseph Edwin Glass

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Despite the availability of effective treatments, the overwhelming majority: 85%) of individuals suffering from alcohol use disorders: AUDs) never receive help for their problems. AUDs include the disorders of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence. An objective of Healthy People 2020 is to increase the number of individuals diagnosed with AUDs who receive alcohol treatment. The extent to which one believes that stigmatizing attitudes towards those with AUDs exist is defined as "perceived alcohol stigma": PAS). Although it is known that persons with AUDs who have higher levels of PAS are at an even greater risk of not receiving treatment, the …

Mechanisms Mediating Adaptive Presynaptic Muting Induction, Devon Christine Crawford

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Neurons are responsible for information processing within the nervous system, so strong perturbations of neuronal function have far-reaching consequences within the neural network. Damage in response to excess excitation, as occurs during stroke or seizure, is known as excitotoxicity. One method utilized by neurons for reducing excitotoxicity within an overly activated neuronal network is to arrest excitatory neurotransmitter release from presynaptic terminals. The mechanisms responsible for inducing this presynaptic silencing: or "muting"), however, have been elusive. In order to elucidate the signals responsible, I used molecular techniques in defined networks of cultured neurons from the mammalian hippocampus, a well-studied brain …

Using Mice With Conditional Deletion Of The Ifng Receptor To Identify The Cellular Targets Of Ifng During Development Of Anti-Listeria Immune Responses, Sang Hun Lee

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Host responsiveness to IFNg is critical for resolution of Listeria infection, but the identities and roles of IFNg responsive cells that initiate this process remain unclear. In this thesis, unique mice displaying conditional loss of the IFNg receptor: Ifngr1f/f mice) in different tissues have been generated and used to explore the role of this cytokine in initiating the anti-Listeria response.

Whereas Ifngr1f/f mice displayed normal cellular levels of IFNGR1 and normal resistance to Listeria infection, Vav-icre+Ifngr1f/f mice lacking IFNg responsiveness selectively in hematopoietic cells exhibited highly increased susceptibility to Listeria infection comparable to that of Ifngr1-/- mice. In contrast, Itgax-cre+ …

Bayesian Bidimensional Regression And Its Extension, Haeri Lee

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.