Digital Commons Network^™

Creating A Standardized Free-Response Burden Scale For Spousal Caregivers Of Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease, Kaitlyn P. Roland

Digitized Theses

Although some research has focused on the needs of caregivers for individuals with Parkinson’s disease, most has focused on the demands associated with the physical needs of the patient, and not on ‘mental burden.’ The present study utilized the repertory grid method to capture the full range of caregivers’ subjective experience, to quantify their perceptions, and to acquire information that might be useful in direction remediation attempts. Results suggest that the main concern of caregivers is spousal safety, as this requires continuous vigilance and constant worry. This demonstrates the strain of mental burden far outweighs the physical. Caregivers also report …

Mineralogy And Ir Spectroscopy Of The Tagish Lake C2 Chondrite And Enstatite Chondrites, Matthew Richard Mitsuomi Izawa

Digitized Theses

Sample-correlated X-ray diffraction (XRD) and diffuse-reflectance Fourier- transform infrared (DRIFTS) spectra were collected for seven samples of the Tagish Lake C2 chondrite and thirteen enstatite chondrites. A reconnaissance of the Tagish Lake chondrite was carried out using micro-XRD, SEM-EDX and EPMA. Modal mineral abundances were obtained from XRD data via Rietveld refinement. Grain densities were calculated for each sample based on the modal abundances. DRIFTS spectra are analogous to remote-sensing emission IR spectra, facilitating comparison with astronomical observations. Tagish Lake was found to be more varied in major mineralogy than has previously been reported. In addition to the documented carbonate-rich …

Ferrocenylmethylchalcogenolate Reagents For The Preparation Of Novel Group 11/16 Polynuclear Clusters, Siawash Ahmar

Digitized Theses

The preparation of Silylated ferrocenylmethyl chalcogen reagents CpFe(η5-

• C5H4CH2ESiMe3 [E = S (D, Se (2)] in good yield is presented. These ligands were designed to have an alkyl spacer between the cyclopentadienyl group of ferrocene and the chalcogen atom that would act as an insulating bridge. Reactions of (1) or (2) with group 11 metal salts afforded single crystals of [Cu3(SCH2Fc)3(PPh3)3] (3), [Ag48S6(SCH2Fc)36] (4), [Ag10(SCH2Fc)ι0(PPh3)4] (5) and [Ag8(SeCH2Fc)8(PPh3)4] (6) that were suitable for X-ray analysis.

Cyclic voltammetry experiments were conducted on {3) and (4) where single pseudo-reversible oxidation waves were observed at all scan rates and after repetitive cycles. …

Volume I (Ofii) Hockey Capital: Commerce, Culture, And The National Hockey League, 1917-1967, James Andrew Ross

Digitized Theses

This is a study of the institutional development of the National Hockey League, the most dominant institution of twentieth-century ice hockey. It focuses on the first fifty years of the league (1917-1967), a period characterized by war and peace, by economic stability and recessions, and by momentous technological and cultural changes. Particular attention is paid to the way in which the league and its clubs successfully negotiated internal relationships among clubs, entrepreneurs, executives, and players; as well as external relationships to other professional leagues, amateur hockey organizations, the media, consumers, and the state.

The dissertation argues that sports businesses like …

The Role Of The Proline-Rich Tyrosine Kinase 2 Protein In The Regulation Of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Signalling, Alexander A. Nicodemo

Digitized Theses

Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) - mGluRl and mGluR5 - are believed to contribute to neuronal death upon overstimulation and may be neuroprotective under other conditions. To develop treatment for mGluRs, we must identify proteins involved in their signalling. We have identified proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) as an mGluRl/5 interacting protein, and our objective was to investigate its contribution to the downstream activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) by Group I mGluRs. In HEK 293 cells, ERK1/2 phosphorylation is greater in cells co-expressing mGluRl and wild-type Pyk2 than in cells expressing the receptor alone, and blocked in cells …

The Effects Of Chromatin Regulators On Somatic Dna Double-Strand Break Repair, Kelly A. Weedmark

Digitized Theses

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) occur frequently in mitotically-dividing cells and require appropriate repair. DSB are repaired by two conserved mechanisms in eukaryotes: non-homologous end-joining and homologous recombination. These pathways compete to repair a DSB, and proper modulation of the non-homologous end-joining and homologous recombination pathways is critical to ensure cell survival, maintain genome integrity, and prevent carcinogenesis. Recent evidence indicates that the chromatin context can influence DSB repair, yet many aspects remain unclear. Candidate chromatin regulator genes affecting somatic DSB repair in Drosophila melanogaster were identified using ionizing radiation challenge. Animals heterozygous for chromatin regulator gene mutations were exposed to …

Humor Used During Two Types Of Discussions Between Friends: Associations With Coping And Interpersonal Well-Being, Jennie R. Ward

Digitized Theses

Despite research and theory that suggest that humor is a social phenomenon, empirical

investigations in the field of humor have largely ignored the interpersonal context in which humor is expressed. Little is known about the relation between social uses of humor and indices of both personal and social well-being. As such, the primary aim of the present dissertation was to observationally rate humor styles exhibited during discussions between friends, and evaluate whether they are related to individuals’ ability to cope with stress and develop and maintain satisfactory relationships. In the three studies within this dissertation, humor was rated using the …

Real Time Process Optimization Using A Recursive Least Squares Impulse Weight Gradient Method, Yuanyuan Liu

Digitized Theses

The chemical industry is increasingly compelled to operate profitably in a very dynamic and global market. Real-time optimization plays an important role in plant operation because it is at the level of the control hierarchy at which business decisions are integrated into the operation. Model-based optimization schemes require accurate models which are sometimes hard to obtain in practice. The advantage of direct search optimization becomes obvious when an explicit model is unavailable. In this work, a new recursive least squares impulse weight, gradient based, feedback optimization method is developed and tested in both simulation and experimental applications. For a linearized …

Effective History: On The Genealogy Of Modern Rationality, Adam C. Parker

Digitized Theses

This thesis explores a contested issue in 20th century critical discourse: the nature and meaning of the historicity of rationality. It elaborates this issue in dialogue with the critical theory of Adorno and Horkheimer and the poststructuralist genealogy of Michel Foucault. For the Adomo and Horkheimer of the Dialectic of Enlightenment, the historicity of rationality manifests itself in the form of a development, the development of instrumental rationality. This development stretches from what they postulate as its origin in humanity’s pre-history to the present at which they write; it encompasses the vast diversity of Western modes of thought, subsuming and …

Cultural Codes Of Plagiarism In China: Custom, Law And Morality, Sheng Wu

Digitized Theses

Comparative and interdisciplinary in nature, this thesis decodes the Chinese concept of plagiarism from the perspectives of China’s 5000-year-old customs, its newly adopted copyright law, and its moral tradition, under the theoretical framework of Burton M. Leiser’s philosophical interpretation of social behaviour. Against the backdrop of globalization, this study adopts a new trans-cultural perspective to think about plagiarism in the context of a non-Western national literature and culture, in order to help break the silence in China’s study of plagiarism. It aims to break new ground in approaching the disputes around this subject ignited by some recent plagiarism cases within …

Effect Of Si02, Total Feo, Fe3+/Fe2+, And Alkalis In Basaltic Glasses On Mid-Infrared Spectra, Celeste D.M. Dufresne

Digitized Theses

This study examines a suite of basaltic glasses to determine how subtle compositional changes affect mid-infrared spectra. Glasses with varying SÌO2, FeOtotai, Fe3+/Fe2+, and total alkalis were synthesized in a gas-mixing furnace. The glasses were analyzed using micro-reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in the region of 650 to 5400 cm'1. The main feature of interest is the Si-0 asymmetric stretching vibrational feature located at -1200 - 800 cm'1. The location of the Si-O feature shifts to higher wavenumbers as SÌO2 content increases. The full width half maximum of the Si-0 feature decreases as total alkali content increases. FeOtotai and Fe …

Mould Spy: The Fabrication And Validation Of A Mould Sensor, Anna M. Sauer

Digitized Theses

Mould is a growing concern for homeowners, as it can cause extreme damage to houses, costing homeowners large sums of money. Mould is not only a concern due to its destructiveness, but also because it can cause serious health risks. Currently there is no effective way of monitoring the growth of mould. Therefore an optoelectronic sensor was designed, built, and tested to fill this need. The sensor was designed and built using off-the-shelf components. It is able to monitor mould growth in real time, through the change in light reflectance, while situated inside a wall cavity of a house. 16 …

Numerical Mixing Plane Studies With Validation For Aero-Engine Centrifugal Compressor Design, Jason A. Bourgeois

Digitized Theses

The unsteady high-speed flow in centrifugal compressor stages tests current limitations of modeling techniques due to high degrees of curvature, adverse pressure gradients, and three-dimensional turbulent boundary layers. The current study presents experimental and numerical validation studies of predictions for a centrifugal compressor stage with a tandem impeller and fish-tail discrete passage diffuser using the mixing plane approach presently used for the design of these stages. Assessments are made of predictions with a more accurate geometry representation than has been modeled previously and with a number of turbulence closure models including the k — e, SST, SST-RM, and RSM-SSG models. …

Parental Childrearing Attitudes And Their Relations With Social, School, And Psychological Adjustment In Urban And Rural-Migrant Chinese Children, Jia Chen

Digitized Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine parenting attitudes and their relations with social, school, and psychological adjustment in Chinese urban and rural-migrant children. A sample of 162 urban children and 221 rural-migrant children from grade 3 to grade 6 and their parents participated in the study. Data on children’s social, school, and psychological adjustment were collected from multiple sources. Information concerning paternal and maternal childrearing attitudes was obtained from parents’ self-reports. It was found that urban parents reported higher parental warmth and encouragement of independence and lower parental power assertion than rural-migrant parents, after controlling for family income …

Parp-Mediated Structural Alterations In Diabetic Cardiomyopathy, Jane Chiu

Digitized Theses

Diabetic cardiomyopathy is characterized structurally by fibrosis and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Chronic hyperglycemia leads to increased oxidative stress and results in DNA strand breaks. This activates poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in an attempt to repair the damage and may also regulate transcription through transcriptional co-activator p300. We hypothesized that increased activity of PARP from oxidative stress and DNA damage may lead to transcriptional alterations and structural changes in the heart in diabetes. Two in vivo models of diabetic complications were examined utilizing two methods of PARP inhibition; genetic ablation and pharmacological inhibition with 3- aminobenzamide. The findings were confirmed in an …

Betwixt And Between: Virtuality, Liminality, Media And Memory, Slavica Panic

Digitized Theses

Using the concept of liminality found in the work of anthropologist Victor Turner, this thesis explores connections among experiences of media, memory, and the virtual. I examine how these phenomena influence and inform everyday life, and especially how they play out in experiences of displacement, exile and migration. I analyze them as forms of contemporary ritual which play a key role in the construction of our identities in a globalized world. The thesis discusses displacement and its relationship to the concept of “home”, paying particular attention to media representations of home and mediated experiences of home. I look to the …

Causes And Consequences Of Roost Switching By The Bat Myotis Formosus (V Espertilionidae), Ying-Yi Ho

Digitized Theses

Group living is widespread among animals. Theory predicts that animals should aggregate if the benefits associated with group living outweigh the costs. Benefits associated with group living could arise passively (e.g. aggregate independently to exploit a patchily distributed resource) or actively (e.g. cooperation). Some forest-dwelling bat species switch roosts frequently, but maintain an association among specific individuals, and therefore are fission-fusion societies, the temporary splitting of colonies into several subgroups. Normally, movements between alternative roosts are costly. Fission-fusion societies might overcome the costs by providing benefits associated with large subgroup size or cooperation. In addition, sociality could influence the movements …

Representations Of Horizontal Head-On-Body Position In The Primate Superior Colliculus, Benjamin Nagy

Digitized Theses

To further elucidate the role of the superior colliculus (SC) in the control of gaze, I recorded from neurons within the primate SC while altering head-on-body position. I rotated the torso under a head fixed in space to determine whether proprioceptive information from neck muscles affected gaze-related neural activity. 50 of 60 movement-related neurons showed movement-related activity that was linearly modulated as a function of head-on-body position, with an average change in discharge rate of 0.89 spikes per second per degree of body rotation. Many neurons with visual and delay activity also exhibited head-on-body position-dependant modulation. The results of this …

Relationship Among Engagement In Health Promoting Behaviours, Perceptions Of Health Related Quality Of Life, And Personality, Stacy L.M. Miller

Digitized Theses

This study examined health promoting behaviours in healthy, normal functioning adults to investigate the relationships among engagement in health promoting behaviours, perceptions of health-related quality of life, and personality. Three tests were used, including a 20-item Mini-International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP), 26-item World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) measure, and an 81-item measure of Health Promoting Behaviours (HPB). Results based on 50 graduate students indicate that the HPB measure has good internal consistency for the full scale (Cronbach’s alpha = .884) and acceptable consistency for individual subscales. Correlations between HPB and WHOQOL subscales ranged from .052 to .821; correlations …

Electrical Microstimulation Of The Monkey Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Impairs Antisaccade Performance, Stephen Peter Wegener

Digitized Theses

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been implicated in response suppression. This function is frequently investigated with the antisaccade task, which requires suppression of the automatic tendency to look toward a flashed peripheral stimulus (prosaccade) and generation of a voluntary saccade to the mirror location. To test the functional relationship between DLPFC activity and antisaccade performance, we applied electrical microstimulation to the DLPFC of two monkeys while they performed randomly interleaved pro- and anti-saccade trials. Microstimulation increased the number of direction errors and slowed saccadic reaction times (SRTs) on antisaccade triais when the visual stimulus is presented on the side …

Enhanced Detection Of Visual Targets On The Hand And Familiar Tools, Kai-Ling Kao

Digitized Theses

Bimodal visuotactile neurons respond to both visual and tactile stimuli presented near the hands, arms, and face. The recruitment of bimodal cells centred on the hand may account for findings of enhanced visual processing of stimuli presented on or near thehand. Thisstudyinvestigatedwhetherornotthisfacilitatoryeffectdiffersbetween the two sides of the hand with respect to speeded detection of visual stimuli and whether ornotdetectiononnon-bodypartsisimprovedwithtraining. Participantsperformeda speeded visual detection task to targets presented on either side of their own hand, a fake hand and a tool. Also, they were trained to use either the fake hand or the tool. The

results showed that participants initially responded …

Integrated Blood Separation And Blood Tests On A Microfluidics-Based Lab-On-Cd Device, Jinlong Zhang

Digitized Theses

As the development of microfabrication technology, Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) devices have been extensively explored for practical biological and chemical applications. One fast growing research area of MEMS is the development of portable, all-in-one, point-of-care Lab-On-a-Chip devices. Lab-On-CD device is one of the most important branches of Lab-On-a-Chip technology through implementing experiments on a rotating disk. In this thesis, a microfluidics-based Lab-On-CD device has been developed where the whole process of blood separation and blood tests can be performed automatically and sequentially in one experiment. This Lab-On-CD device was fabricated using microfabrication techniques. The centrifugal force is adopted as the …

Oxygen And Carbon Isotope Geochemistry Of Late Ordovician Brachiopods From Anticosti Island, Quebec, Deana M. Schwarz

Digitized Theses

The δ13C and δ180 values and elemental compositions of 29 Late Ordovician (Hirnantian Stage) shells from eight different brachiopod species from the Ellis Bay Formation, Anticosti Island, Quebec, were measured to evaluate their fidelity of chemical and isotopic preservation. Three groups of Mendacella shells from three separate Hirnantian time periods were also analyzed to provide δ C and δ O curves for this time interval. Significant differences in δ C and δ 0 values among species, shells of the same species, and within individual shells from early to late growth stages suggest that original isotopic compositions were retained. Differences in …

Modeling The Dynamics Of Infectious Diseases With Latency In Spatially Heterogeneous Environments, Jing Li

Digitized Theses

Assuming that an infectious disease has a fixed latent period and latent individuals in the population may disperse in a spatially heterogeneous environment, we derive three new models of SIR type, which are more realistic than the existing related ones. The first one considers a 2-patch environment and ignores the demographic structure. The model is given by a system of delay differential equations (DDEs). It is a generalization of the classical Kermack-McKendrick SIR model, and it preserves some properties that the Kermack-McKendrick model processes. We show that the ratio of final sizes in two patches is fully determined by the …

The Use Of Intramuscular Temperature As An In-Vivo Proxy Measure Of Skeletal Muscle Force Production In Rat Gastrocnemius Muscle, Marie Claire Bourque

Digitized Theses

There is currently no feasible way to directly quantify in-vivo force production in individual skeletal muscles. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the use of intramuscular temperature (IMT) as a proxy measure for muscle force production. The hind-limbs of ten anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats were fixed to immobilize the knee joint and allow the foot to dorsi/plantarflex about the ankle joint. An intramuscular temperature probe (IT-18, Woodland Hills, California) was implanted into the lateral gastrocnemius muscle. In each animal, IMT and muscle force production were collected during 22 contractions of varying stimulation intensities and externally applied loads. …

The Physiologic And Biophysical Consequences Of Surfactant Alterations In Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury, Daniel W. Vockeroth

Digitized Theses

The mechanisms by which mechanical ventilation (MV) contributes to the progression of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) were investigated in adult rats. The first study in this thesis investigated the physiologie consequences of early surfactant alterations during MV. It was hypothesized that surfactant alterations induced by MV contribute to physiologie dysfunction. The second study investigated the specific role of increased levels of cholesterol observed in VILI in the biophysical dysfunction of surfactant. It was hypothesized that cholesterol significantly inhibits surfactant function in VILI. Early surfactant alterations contributed to physiologie dysfunction that could be mitigated by restoring functional surfactant pools. Surfactant obtained …

Characterization Of A Mutant Of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii That Is Deficient In The Molybdenum Cofactor, Daniel R. Fingrut

Digitized Theses

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strain Dark Blue 6 (DB6) was isolated following random insertional mutagenesis, due to its inability to assimilate nitrate. DB6 lacks terminal nitrate reductase activity and xanthine dehydrogenase activity, indicating that it is deficient in the molybdenum cofactor (Moco) required for those two enzymes. The inability of DB6 to grow on a nitrate medium is partially rescued when it is cultured in a medium containing high concentrations of molybdate. This distinct attribute, termed molybdate repair, is typically associated with mutants defective in molybdate transport or the insertion of molybdenum into the Moco pterin precursor. The molybdenum content in DB6 …

Attaining And Maintaining Clarity As Self-Regulatory Goals: The Underlying Effects Of Uncertainty Orientation And Ego-Depletion, Pei-Shiuan L. Lin

Digitized Theses

According to the theory of uncertainty orientation, individuals differ in the ways in which they resolve uncertainty. Specifically, uncertainty-oriented individuals (UOs) prefer to attain clarity while certainty-oriented individuals (COs) prefer to maintain clarity. To investigate the roles cognitive resources may play in the connection between one’s uncertainty orientation and information processing style, the present study showed that active self-regulation (i.e., systematic processing) lead to impaired performances on a subsequent executive attentional task. In this experiment, participants read a counterattitudinal article which varied in personal relevance and argument strength. Following this manipulation, participants’ performances on the Stroop colour-naming task were examined. …

Cellular Mri: Tracking The Migration Of Metastatic Cancer Cells In The Lymphatic System, Tracey Y.M. Lui

Digitized Theses

The role of the lymphatics as a mode of tumor cell transport has been known for some time, and remains of critical importance since a majority of cancer deaths result from metastatic dissemination away from the primary tumor. In the studies performed in this thesis novel cellular MRI technology and a unique murine intranodal implantation model are used to track the movement of iron-labeled melanoma cells in vivo. With these methods we demonstrate, for the first time, that cellular MRI can be used to detect metastatic melanoma cells present at the implant site and in the draining lymph node and …

Confidence Interval Estimation For A Difference Between Correlated Intraclass Correlation Coefficients, Chinthanie Ramasundarahettige

Digitized Theses

The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), an index of similarity, plays an important role in a wide range of disciplines, for example in the assessment of instrument reliability. In this case, the study design may involve recruiting a sample of subjects each of whom are assessed severe^ times with a new device and the standard. The ICC estimates for the two devices may then be compared using a test of hypothesis. However it is well known that conclusions drawn from hypothesis testing are confounded by sample size, i.e., a significant p-value can result from a sufficiently large sample size. In such …