Digital Commons Network^™

Creation Of Defined Single Cell Resolution Neuronal Circuits On Microelectrode Arrays, Russell Pirlo

All Dissertations

The way cell-cell organization of neuronal networks influences activity and facilitates function is not well understood. Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) and advancing cell patterning technologies have enabled access to and control of in vitro neuronal networks spawning much new research in neuroscience and neuroengineering. We propose that small, simple networks of neurons with defined circuitry may serve as valuable research models where every connection can be analyzed, controlled and manipulated.
Towards the goal of creating such neuronal networks we have applied microfabricated elastomeric membranes, surface modification and our unique laser cell patterning system to create defined neuronal circuits with single-cell precision …

Using Bald Eagles To Track Spatial And Temporal Trends Of Contaminants In Michigan's Aquatic Systems, Michael Ray Wierda

All Dissertations

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is an extensively researched tertiary predator. Studies have delineated information about its life history and the influences of various stressors on reproduction. Due to the bald eagles position at the top of the food web, it is susceptible to biomagnification of a wide array of xenobiotics. In Michigan the bald eagle population has recovered strongly since the population bottle-neck of the 1960s. In the 1960s when Michigan's eagle population was first being monitored less than 100 nests were occupied yearly (i.e., active breeding pairs existed). Today there are approximately 500 occupied nests each year and …

Didox Modulates Reactive Oxygen Species Production And Inflammatory Events Induced By Lipopolysaccharide (Lps) And Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (Ahr) Ligands In Raw 264.7 Murine Macrophages., Thabe Matsebatlela

All Dissertations

Aberrant activation of macrophages during inflammation results in oxidative burst release of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) which are widely accepted to participate in pathogenesis of cancer, cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, hypertension, ischemia/reperfusion injury, diabetes mellitus, neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease), rheumatoid arthritis, and ageing. It is demonstrated here that Didox (3,4-Dihydroxybenzohydroxamic acid) possesses antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties that can protect against inflammation and oxidative stress induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) ligands (PCB126, E804, and IO) in Raw 264.7 murine macrophages. In brief, it is demonstrated here that Didox inhibits LPS-induced oxidative stress, …

Understanding The Antioxidant Mechanism Of Inorganic Selenium, Oxo- Sulfur, And Polyphenol Compounds, And The Biological Implications Of Functionalized Nanoparticles, Ria Ramoutar

All Dissertations

Inorganic selenium, oxo-sulfur, and polyphenol compounds are found in foods and dietary supplements, and are recognized for their nutritional benefits and their potential to treat or prevent diseases caused by oxidative stress. In our experiments to determine the effects of inorganic selenium compounds on iron-mediated DNA damage, Na₂SeO₃3 and SeO₂ exhibit antioxidant and pro-oxidant activities depending on concentrations of both the compound and hydrogen peroxide. Additional experiments demonstrate that iron coordination is a novel mechanism responsible for the observed activities. In similar experiments, oxo-sulfur compounds prevent Cu+/ H₂O₂-mediated DNA damage significantly …

Therapeutic Benefits Of Nature Images On Health, Ellen Vincent

All Dissertations

This thesis is a journey that travels back in time, when nature and health were inseparable, and forward to a time when science was the impetus for separation between the natural landscape and healing (chapter two), then into the present when nature and health are being reunited, only through science (chapter three).
The research conducted in 2008-2009 is reported in the form of three journal articles. The first article (chapter four) developed a methodology using sequential methods to select the nature images that would be used in the experiment. Appleton's prospect refuge theory was the basis for four image categories. …

Effects Of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids On Multidrug Resistance And Dna Methylation In Human Cancer Cell Lines, Cheng-Yi Kuan

All Dissertations

Accumulating evidences indicate that dietary intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) can affect various cellular processes and improve response of cancer cells to chemotherapy. The mechanisms by which PUFAs affect this response are not well understood. P-glycoprotein (P-gp), encoded by the multidrug resistance gene MDR1, is a drug efflux transporter that plays an important role in the bioavailability of anti-cancer drugs. Effects of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids on MDR1 gene expression and functional activity in the human colon cancer cell line Caco-2 were studied in this research. Caco-2 cells were treated with different concentrations of three PUFAs: eicosapentaenoic acid …

Fast Rendering Of Forest Ecosystems With Dynamic Global Illumination, Jay Steele

All Dissertations

Real-time rendering of large-scale, forest ecosystems remains
a challenging problem, in that important global illumination effects,
such as leaf transparency and inter-object light scattering, are
difficult to capture, given tight timing constraints and scenes
that typically contain hundreds of millions of primitives.
We propose a new lighting model, adapted from
a model previously used to light convective clouds and other
participating media,
together with GPU ray tracing, in order to achieve these global illumination
effects while maintaining near real-time performance. The lighting
model is based on a lattice-Boltzmann method in which
reflectance, transmittance, and absorption parameters are
taken from measurements …

Expanding 4-H Horizons Livestock Leader Guides, Doug Hart, Alexa Lamm, Connie Cecil, Jim Wilson

Journal of Youth Development

What does a 4-H volunteer do when a child asks to start a project they don’t know anything about? The Expanding 4-H Horizons Swine Leader Guide offers information and activities that can be used by anyone in a club or clinic setting. A team of western regional extension professionals have created and piloted a user friendly tool that can be utilized by 4-H leaders and state/county extension staff. The swine specific manual is the first of four being created that will eventually offer information and activities for the beef, sheep and goat projects. This series of leaders guides are being …

Errands Into The Metropolis: New England Dissidents In Revolutionary London, Jonathan Beecher Field

Publications

Errands into the Metropolis offers a dramatic new interpretation of the texts and contexts of early New England literature. Jonathan Beecher Field inverts the familiar paradigm of colonization as an errand into the wilderness to demonstrate, instead, that New England was shaped and re-shaped by a series of return trips to a metropolitan London convulsed with political turmoil. In London, dissidents and their more orthodox antagonists contended for colonial power through competing narratives of their experiences in the New World. Dissidents showed a greater willingness to construct their narratives in terms that were legible to a metropolitan reader than did …

Carbon Trading: Opportunities, Challenges, And Distributional Effects In The United States, 2009 July, G. Michael Mikota

Publications

No abstract provided.

New Designs For Participatory Research: Modified Photoethnography And The Personal Resource Systems Management (Prsm) Model, Cindy Beacham, Barbara Mcfall

Journal of Youth Development

Learning environments significantly influence student behaviors, academic success, school attendance and participation, all of which are problematic today. Less than half of high school students surveyed in 2005 would select the same high school again if given the opportunity, and only 38% agreed that the support they get at school encourages them to learn more. Pursuing increased educational effectiveness, this paper discusses a study that gathered and evaluated middle and high school students’ concepts of ideal student-centered learning environments in selected classrooms. This multi-method, participatory approach put cameras in student hands and ask them to photograph elements desired in their …

The Trichoptera World Checklist, John C. Morse

Publications

The Trichoptera World Checklist (TWC) is a project of the successive International Symposia on Trichoptera, with the responsibility for its policy and maintenance assigned to the international Trichoptera Checklist Coordinating
Committee. The TWC originated 20 years ago and has been available on the worldwide web for over 11 years, providing ready access to data regarding caddisfly taxa. Security is assured by daily backup of the database. Trichoptera scientists everywhere are urged to continue sending their published research to the Editor. As of June 2009, the TWC included records for 13,574 valid, extant species and 308 valid, extant subspecies in 609 …

From The Highlands To A Low Country: Assimilation Of Scottish Highland Settlers To Local Vernacular Building Traditions In North And South Carolina, Bridget Jean O'Brien

Master of Science in Historic Preservation Terminal Projects

In recent years several early Scottish dwellings in North and South Carolina have been lost by fire, neglect, or dismantlement. Several buildings of this nature were saved by local preservation groups and private citizens and have since been stabilized and restored. Eight early farm dwellings of Scottish settlers in North and South Carolina were chosen to be studied and analyzed to determine if Scottish vernacular building types were brought to the American colonies in the late 18th and early 19th century.

Before looking at Scottish dwellings in North and South Carolina a study of traditional Highland architecture is necessary to …

Design, Construction, And Testing Of A New Class Of Mobile Robots, Ivan Siles

All Theses

This thesis introduces a novel mobile robot design concept aimed at exploration of subterranean spaces. The key innovation is the combination of highly maneuverable body elements with wheel/leg elements (Whegs). This combination offers performance not possible with conventional 'monolithic' wheeled or tracked mobile robots, or with current robot snakes. The thesis covers four design iterations of the concept, concentrating on describing the overall design process and results from field tests. Additionally a kinematic analysis of the fourth prototype and implications for future designs is presented.

The Dreamer Deepe: A Two-Act Play In The Lovecraft Horror Mythos, Nicholas Mazzuca

All Theses

One full-length, two-act play comprises this creative thesis, which has been submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Arts in English literature. This manuscript showcases a creative work that fuses two separate genres: literary horror and dramatic theory. I take my vocabulary from a preexisting body of work so that I may generate something vital and new. May the words I write honor those who have gone before me and inspire as I have been inspired.

Some Apocalypse, David Hehn Jr.

All Theses

This creative thesis is comprised of three pieces of traditional fiction, three pieces of flash fiction, and one work that is neither traditional nor flash but positioned somewhere beneath the wide umbrella of creative writing. As partial fulfillment for the degree Master of Arts in English literature, these selections display a solid understanding of the principles of creative fiction and English literature as well as a desire to experiment with form and push the parameters of creative writing. These selections seek to entertain and to become active in the general discourse of literature.

One-Way To Two-Way Street Conversions As A Preservation And Downtown Revitalization Tool: The Case Study Of Upper King Street, Charleston, South Carolina, Meagan Baco

All Theses

In the first half of the twentieth century, historic urban areas in America were retrofitted to accommodate a mass amount of automobile traffic. These retrofits came in the form of highways, thruways, and one-way streets. Many historic commercial streets in American downtowns were converted to one-way streets, because of traffic engineers' narrow perspectives. After decades of decline, largely linked to automobile dominance, downtown economic revitalization emerged in the 1990s. One technique that appears to be remarkably successful is the re-conversion of one-way streets to two-way streets.
One-way streets allow for greater traffic capacity and higher automobile speeds, while two-way streets …

Clemson Commencement Program, May 2009, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Deus Ex Machinima: A Rhetorical Analysis Of User-Generated Machinima, Sean Callot

All Theses

Beginning with corporate demonstrations and continuously evolving into today, machinima has become a major expressive art form for the gamer generation. Machinima is the user-centered production of video presentations using pre-rendered animated content, as generated from video games. The term 'machinima' is a combination of 'machine' (from which the video content is derived) and 'cinema' (the ultimate end product). According to Paul Marino and other members of the machinima community, Hugh Hancock, the creator of Machinima.com, first coined the term in 2000. Video productions of this kind have been used in various capacities for the past several years, including instruction …

Intersexed, Intertext: A Critique Of Limited Gender Identity In Herculine Barbin And Middlesex, Allison Andrew

All Theses

Relying on the work of poststructuralists Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Judith Halberstam for their findings on gender and sexuality, as well as the sociological study of intersexed individuals by Sharon Preves, this thesis will show the identity construction of the intersexed both before and after intervention by closely charting their plight as it is presented in Michel Foucault's Herculine Barbin (1980) and Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex (2003). These texts vary greatly in historical significance, genre, and audience, but nevertheless suggest the same argument regarding the construction of identity. Ultimately, it is the self whose definition is of the greatest importance. …

Intergenerational Leadership Communication In The Workplace, Gayle Ruddick

All Theses

For the first time in history there are four generations in the workforce: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Generation Y, the emergent working generation, has a vastly different way of communicating, a different perspective on work, and a different set of needs and values than those who dominate the current workforce. When Traditionalists and Baby Boomers retire Generation Y will be placed into professional positions they may not be prepared for. With the current trend of young people frequently changing jobs and feeling unfulfilled by the work they do, Generation Y needs guidance, leadership, and mentoring in …

Color Rhetoric: The Social Construction Of Neutrality In Real Estate Design, April Davis

All Theses

Many interior designers believe that the key to selling a house is using conventionally labeled neutral colors. Yet, in relying solely on what convention dictates as a universal real estate rule, designers are promoting an ideology that privileges conventional standards to audience analysis, and consequently, call into question the usefulness of their own careers. Using Lloyd Bitzer's rhetorical situation principles, this thesis will analyze pictures taken from homes on the real estate market. Examining these pictures will establish the concept of neutrality as a rhetorical social construction that is shaped within historical, social, and cultural contexts. Moreover, this thesis presents …

Homegrown Rhetoric: Rhetorical Vision In States' Marketing Of Local Foods, Joni Lea Hoke

All Theses

Beginning in the late 1940s, concerns arose about the enlarging scope of the industrial American food system. Subsequent analysis revealed a continuing pattern of expansion throughout the 1970s and 1980s. A countermovement developed with the aim of altering food production and distribution to create more regionalized food systems. Eventually, individual states came to create their own marketing programs to promote locally grown foods. Private interests also developed initiatives to promote eating locally. By 2007, the term coined to describe one who strives to eat local foods, "locavore," had become New Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year. The states' efforts are …

Potential For Introduced-Range Expansion Of Chinese Tallow Tree (Triadica Sebifera) In The Southeastern United States, Isaac Park

All Theses

The potential for populations of invasive plants to differ in their response to stressful environmental conditions or in their invasiveness is an underexplored issue in determining introduced species' range limits. Introduced genotypes might differ in their response to freezing temperatures, soil type, or differing biotic factors within their introduced range. We examined the potential of Chinese tallow tree seeds (Triadica sebifera (L.) Small) collected from two genetically distinct areas of its introduced range in the United States (North Carolina and South Carolina) as well as from the northern and southern portions of its native range in China to germinate and …

High-Rate Channel Catfish Fingerling Production In The Partitioned Aquaculture System, Tim Wells

All Theses

The objective of this 4-year research project was to evaluate the performance of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) fingerling production in the Partitioned Aquaculture System (PAS). The goal was to demonstrate production of 80-gram minimum sized fingerlings in a single growing season, allowing for 100% market-size fish production after one additional season in the grow-out PAS.
A series of 2-inch airlift pumps fed by a single 3-hp low-head blower was found to be capable of supplying sufficient water flow-rate (in 2005, 2006, and 2007) of gpm per container to 9 cohorts. A series of 0.75-hp axial flow pumps (in 2005, 2006, …

Rammed Earth Architecture's Journey To The High Hills Of The Santee, Jessica Golebiowski

All Theses

Rammed earth, a form of earthen architecture and construction that has been used for thousands of years, has gone through periods of resurgence and decline. Its modern era rediscovery through practice and publications during the late 18th and early 19th century was fueled by writers and practitioners who disseminated the ideas of pisé starting in France extending to England and eventually to other European countries and the United States. Once these ideas reached America, farmers and intellectuals alike were interested in this simple yet durable means of construction.

Rammed earth ideas, while intellectualized in Europe, originated from practice in Africa …

Effect Of Molecular Weight Reduction By Gamma Irradiation On The Antimicrobial Activity Of Chitosan, Ebuel Sirmats

All Theses

The antimicrobial effectiveness of lower molecular weight (LMW) chitosan solutions was tested against Listeria innocua inoculated on TSA and MOX agar plates by the direct droplet method. The chitosan solutions were prepared by dissolving chitosan in 1% (v/v) acetic acid at concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 2.0% and irradiating with Co60 gamma rays ranging from 1 to 20 kGy. MW measurements of chitosan were determined by using HPSEC-MALLS-RI. The MW of chitosan varied from 114.8 kDa to 17.4 kDa and decreased with increasing irradiation dosages. Plate counts on TSA agar from shaker flask assays showed no significant differences among chitosan …

Management Strategies To Improve Development Of Replacement Heifers Utilizing Tall Fescue-Based Systems, Margaret Miller

All Theses

Research was conducted to determine the effect of tall fescue and alternative management regimens on reproduction in replacement beef heifers. Angus _ Simmental heifers (n = 48; 318 ± 4.99 kg initial BW) stratified by weight and pubertal status were assigned to one of three replicated grazing treatments: (1) toxic endophyte-infected tall fescue (TF); (2) toxic endophyte-infected tall fescue with a soybean oil supplement (TFO); or (3) mixed winter annual species (cereal rye, annual ryegrass, crimson clover and hybrid turnip) (M). Tall fescue endophyte infection level was between 74 and 94%. Pastures were grazed from December 12 to April 24. …

Water Quality Guidelines And Water Quantity Analysis With Application To Construction Of A Pilot-Scale Wetland Treatment System, Minh Phung Pham

All Theses

A searchable database consisting of compiled water reuse guidelines was created as a screening tool for decision-analysis for potential beneficial reuse in 1) irrigation, 2) livestock watering, 3) aquaculture, and 4) drinking (potable) water. Data compiled from literature for the four water reuses (FWR) yielded guideline values for over 50 water quality parameters, including concentrations of inorganic and organic constituents as well as general water chemistry parameters. These water quality guidelines can be used to identify constituents of concern in water, to determine levels to which constituents must be treated for water reuse applications, and to assess the suitability of …

Testing The Individual Effective Dose Hypothesis, Hung Vu

All Theses

The assumption of the individual effective dose is the basis for the probit method used for analyzing dose or concentration – response data. According to this assumption, each individual has a uniquely innate tolerance expressed as the individual effective dose (IED) or the smallest dose that is sufficient to kill it. An alternative to IED, stochasticity suggests that individuals do not have uniquely innate tolerance; deaths result from random processes occurring among similar individuals. While the probit method has been used extensively in toxicology the underlying assumption has not been tested rigorously. The goal of this study was to test …