Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing And Reducing Energy Requirements For Membrane-Based Algal Biomass Harvesting, Muriel M. Steele, Daniel Carey, Pooja Mistry, David A. Ladner

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Parenting Practices That Can Prevent Or Reduce Childhood Obesity, Galen Eldridge, Wesley Lynch, Sandra Bailey, Carrie Benke

Journal of Youth Development

Overweight in children is more prevalent than ever before. What can parents do to try to promote health and prevent obesity in their own children? The present paper reviews research related to parenting and childhood obesity. The review describes what food-related parenting practices may be helpful: modeling healthy eating behaviors, making time for family meals, making sure healthy food is available and accessible, becoming aware of appropriate portion sizes, encouraging children to eat breakfast, and limiting soda and fast food intake. The paper also discusses food-related parenting practices that may not work to help prevent obesity: pressure to eat, food …

Clemson Trustees Minutes, 2011 May 12, Clemson University Board Of Trustees

Minutes

Minutes: Meeting of the Clemson University Board of Trustees. Executive Board Room, Madren Conference Center, Clemson, SC. 4:00 p.m.

Electronic Resources & Libraries Report, No. 1

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Nominations And Elections

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

2011 Election Results

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Electronic Resources & Libraries Report, No. 2

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

May 2011 Full Issue

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

In Silico And In Vitro Investigations Of The Mutability Of Disease-Causing Missense Mutation Sites In Spermine Synthase, Zhe Zhang, Joy Norris, Charles Schwartz, Emil Alexov

Publications

Background

Spermine synthase (SMS) is a key enzyme controlling the concentration of spermidine and spermine in the cell. The importance of SMS is manifested by the fact that single missense mutations were found to cause Snyder-Robinson Syndrome (SRS). At the same time, currently there are no non-synonymous single nucleoside polymorphisms, nsSNPs (harmless mutations), found in SMS, which may imply that the SMS does not tolerate amino acid substitutions, i.e. is not mutable.

Methodology/Principal Findings

To investigate the mutability of the SMS, we carried out in silico analysis and in vitro experiments of the effects of amino acid substitutions at the …

Reviewed Work(S): Casi Divas By Issa López, Salvador Oropesa

Publications

No abstract provided.

Un/Composing (Visual) Rhetorics: A (Strange) Comic(S) View Of Writing In The Age Of New Media, Sergio Figueiredo

All Dissertations

This dissertation finds its exigency in 'The 9/11 Commission Report,' and specifically its claim that 'a failure of imagination' that dismisses possibilities relates to the work currently in focus within rhetoric and composition studies as it relates to writing (with) new media. My argument relies on the underdeveloped concept of `imagination' in composition as a way to argue for an alternate theoretical framework for addressing what writing (with) new media entails as a growing form of art. As such, I take up Geoff Sirc's invitation to `remake' his English Composition as a Happening with all of its references to avant-garde …

You Belong Here: An 'Interpellative' Approach To Usability, Alicia Hatter

All Dissertations

Given the participatory, immersive Web 2.0 culture that characterizes digital experiences today, what is traditionally understood as 'usability' is insufficient to drive the engagement Web 2.0 audiences both crave and have come to expect from best-in-class interfaces. Thus, this dissertation presents a 'constructivist' vision of usability that helps designers 'speak' to audiences who demand excellence, and who will leave when confronted with mediocrity. The constructivist practice of usability occurs through what I call 'interpellative design.'
Interpellative design is both a complement to, and a critique of, 'accommodationist' approaches to usability (Howard, 2010a) which tend to be associated with technical problem …

Identification And Characterization Of Polychlorinated Biphenyl Dechlorinating Microorganisms From Lake Hartwell, Sc, Tess Brothersen

All Dissertations

To date, all attempts to isolate PCB dechlorinators using traditional isolation techniques have failed. In addition, the study of PCB dechlorinating organisms has been hampered because researchers were unable to grow the organisms in sediment-free, defined media. Three microbial species capable of reductive dechlorination of polychlorinated biphenyls have been identified. These three species are from two phylogenetically distinct branches, Dehalococcoides (Bedard et al., 2007) and the DF-1/o-17 group (Wu et al., 2002a; Cutter et al., 2001). The three cultures from which polychlorinated biphenyl dechlorinators have been identified used similar strategies to 'wean' the microbes from the sediments. In this research, …

Clemson Commencement Program, May 2011, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

A Quantitative, Technology Independent, Fidelity Metric For Evaluating Bioprinted Patterned Co-Cultures, Matthew Pepper

All Theses

The study of cell-cell interactions is crucial in the understanding of cell behaviors such as tumor genesis, proliferation, migration, metastasis, and apoptosis. To break down the complex web of signals in vivo, researchers must replicate some parts of this environment with in vitro tissue test systems, composed of multiple cell types arranged close enough to communicate with their neighbors, i.e. high-resolution co-culture patterns. The field of bioprinting is specifically focused on creating co-culture patterns for the purposes of cell studies, but the sample resolutions of most bioprinting systems are still too coarse to permit cell communication. No way currently exists …

Effects Of Microenvironment On Growth And Differentiation Of Human Dental Pulp Cells, Laura Datko

All Theses

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have recently been described as a potential stem cell source for various regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications. They appear to be multipotent, however more characterization is necessary to determine the true potential of these cells. An important aspect of using DPSCs, or any stem cell type, tissue engineering application is the microenvironment within the construct. The microenvironment could include construct mechanical properties, construct composition, and 3D dynamic conditions in vivo. This work aims to study those specific microenvironment effects on DPSCs. To determine the effects of mechanical properties of the substrate on DPSCs, they …

Simultaneous Optimization Of Macronutrient Factors In Plant Tissue Culture Using Turmeric (Curcuma Longa L.) As A Model, Sean Halloran

All Theses

Murashige and Skoog 1962 performed one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) experimentation in order to regenerate tobacco callus on semi-solid agar medium. This work became an established medium for tissue culture micropropagation and experimentation. Micropropagation is done in niche markets with herbaceous perennials, among other crops, and the optimization of various inputs to produce maximal responses is a necessary step towards process development. This current study of macronutrient factors simultaneously altered media volume, amount of tissue (plants per vessel), sucrose, nitrogen (as NO3- and NH4+ ions), and K+ in a d-optimal design space with only 55 experimental units (including 5 true replicates). The first …

Gis And Web Technologies For Assessing Sediment Pollution From Abandoned Developments, Joshua Werts

All Theses

The economic crisis that occurred at the time of this research left numerous residential developments in the Southeastern United States in various stages of construction, creating a potential source of sediment runoff to waterways. Sediment runoff is potentially damaging to aquatic ecosystems and lakes. The objectives of this research include identifying these developments in upstate South Carolina through GIS/remote sensing analysis and implementation of an integrated webGIS framework. Residential development locations with significant bare soil areas were identified through GIS analysis involving Landsat 5 TM classification and aerial photograph verification. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was used in …

Joule Heating Effects On Electrokinetic Transport In Constriction Microchannels, Sriram Sridharan

All Theses

Microfluidic technology involving multidisciplinary studies including MEMS, chemistry, physics, fluids and heat transfer has been developed into a promising research field in the recent decade. If offers many advantages over conventional laboratory techniques like reduced reagent consumption, faster analysis, easy fabrication and low chemical waste. Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices have been used to manipulate cells and particles like sorting, separating, trapping, mixing and lysing. Microfluidic manipulation can be achieved through many methods and insulator based dielectrophoresis (iDEP) is one of the highly used method in the recent years. In iDEP, both DC and AC voltages can be applied to the remote …

The Rhetorics Of Constructing Hiv/Aids In The United States And China: A Comparative Analysis Of Two Online Discussion Forums, Jingwen Zhang

All Theses

This thesis focuses on the cross-cultural comparison of the public rhetorics that construct HIV/AIDS in two online discussion forums from the United States and China. Social constructions of HIV/AIDS have previously been explored in specific countries and cultures; however, comparative studies have rarely been conducted, especially by applying rhetorical cultural analysis focusing on online discourses. Responding to these gaps in research, this study combines two underexplored dimensions -- comparative rhetorical analysis and online discourse -- to show how online communications, metaphors, and topoi identified in discussion forum posts reveal and construct the idea of HIV/AIDS in the public sphere for …

Implementing Transparent Compression And Leveraging Solid State Disks In A High Performance Parallel File System, David Bonnie

All Theses

In recent years computers have been increasing in compute density and speed at a dramatic pace. This increase allows for massively parallel programs to run faster than ever before. Unfortunately, many such programs are being held back by the relatively slow I/O subsystems that they are forced to work with. Storage technology simply has not followed the same curve of progression in the computing world. Because the storage systems are so slow in comparison the processors are forced to idle while waiting for data; a potentially performance crippling condition.
This performance disparity is lessened by the advent of parallel file …

Writing With Others: The Rhetoric Of Cloud Technologies In The Workplace, Sarah Garmon

All Theses

Communication scholars need to know more about how collaborative technology could change the workplace. Understanding the rhetorical situation of workplace communication helps explain the paradigm shift in the making between old technologies (e.g. Microsoft Office and PCs) and new technologies (e.g. Google docs and tablets). The study of two workplaces, Dr. Apparao Rao's physics lab at Clemson University and my freshman composition classroom, indicates that conventional forms of communication such as email, instant messaging, and voicemail may cause a gap workplace communication. Cloud-based solutions may fill that gap in communication as well as the gap between Carolyn Miller's dichotomy of …

Zadie Smith's Aesthetics, Christina Cook

All Theses

In this thesis, I argue that Zadie Smith builds guidelines for reading within her novels On Beauty and White Teeth. These guidelines suggest that it is through reading aesthetically that we can fuse the neutral and the personal in order to come to a method of analysis that is critically fair. I suggest that Smith's desire for such methods is a result of her reductive critical reception in the wake of White Teeth's publication and that her texts provide interpretational cues that clarify her aesthetic approach; these cues are, more specifically, references to Elaine Scarry's "On Beauty and …

What Attracts Older Nurses To Organizations? Psychological Moderators Of The Impact Of Flexible Scheduling And Mentoring Opportunities, Sarah Dubose

All Theses

The current study investigated two psychological moderators (generativity and occupational stress) of the impact of flexible scheduling and mentoring opportunities on the attraction and application intentions of older nurses of bridge employment age. Of the 600 registered nurses who were contacted via postal mail, 101 responded. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six conditions in which a hypothetical job advertisement was manipulated with varying levels each of flexible scheduling (input vs no input into the schedule) and mentoring opportunities (formal, informal, and none). Input was found to have a main effect on organizational attraction, but main effects were not …

Epigeic Spider (Araneae) Diversity And Habitat Distributions In Kings Mountain National Military Park, South Carolina, Sarah Stellwagen

All Theses

This study examined the epigeic spider fauna in Kings Mountain National Military Park. The aim of this study is to make this information available to park management for use in the preservation of natural resources. Pitfall trapping was conducted monthly for one year in three distinct habitats: riparian, forest, and ridge-top. The study was conducted from August 2009 to July 2010. One hundred twenty samples were collected in each site. Overall, 289 adult spiders comprising 66 species were collected in the riparian habitat, 345 adult comprising 57 species were found in the forest habitat, and 240 adults comprising 47 species …

A Survey Of Heterologous Expression Systems For The Production Of Bovine Follicle Stimulating Hormone And Luteinizing Hormone, Marcia Hesser

All Dissertations

Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) are glycoprotein gonadotropins from the anterior pituitary gland that are involved in reproductive functions. They are heterodimeric proteins that share a common α-subunit that is highly conserved amongst mammalian species, and is also conserved across this family of proteins. The β-subunit confers receptor specificity and is distinct. Recombinant gonadotropin expression would be an important advance for the bovine superovulation industry, as there are a number of disadvantages associated with the currently used pituitary-derived gonadotropins. For example, these pituitary products are contaminated with other proteins including hormones, exhibit batch-to-batch inconsistencies, and harbor the …

Regulation Of Trypanosoma Brucei Hexokinase 1 And 2 On Multiple Levels: Transcript Abundance, Protein Expression And Enzyme Activity, Heidi Dodson

All Dissertations

Trypanosoma brucei, a unicellular eukaryotic parasite, is the causative agent of African sleeping sickness in sub-Saharan Africa. The parasite encounters two main environments as it progresses through its life cycle: the tsetse fly and the mammalian
bloodstream. Nutrient availability is distinct in the two environments, requiring the parasite to utilize diverse metabolic pathways to efficiently produce ATP for survival. Bloodstream form parasites (BSF), residing in a glucose rich environment, rely solely on
glycolysis for energy, while procyclic form (PF) parasites metabolize readily available proline and threonine in addition to glucose.
T. brucei expresses two hexokinases, the first enzyme in the …

Individual And Situational Moderators Of The Willingness To Engage In A Workplace Romance, Jessica Doll

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT
The purpose of the current study was to propose amendments to Pierce, Byrne, and Aguinis' (1996) model of workplace romance. Specifically, based on prior research and theory, moderators of the relation between the desire to engage in a workplace romance and the willingness to engage in a workplace romance were examined. Additional consequences of engaging in workplace romances were also proposed. Data were collected from both student (N = 347) and employee (N =172) samples at a mid-sized southern university. Additional employee data were collected from a small technical college and an on-line professional networking site. Using a 2 …

Ecosystem Responses To Fuel Reduction Treatments In Stands Killed By Southern Pine Beetle, Aaron Stottlemyer

All Dissertations

Heavy fuel loads were created by multiple southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Ehrh.) outbreaks throughout the southern Piedmont between 1999 and 2002. Prescribed burning and mechanical mastication are proposed to reduce fuel loading in beetle-killed pine (Pinus L. spp.) stands in the upper South Carolina Piedmont, but their ecological impacts are unknown. Prescribed burning reduced fuelbed continuity by consuming litter (Oi) and fine (1- and 10-hr timelag size classes) woody fuels immediately after the treatment. Duff (Oe + Oa) layer thickness also decreased and mineral soil was exposed in some areas. Mastication resulted in a thick, continuous layer of shredded …

The Ethics Of Obstruction, Joshua Abboud

All Dissertations

This work engages the film The Five Obstructions (2003) as a configuration for multimodal composition. It explores a theory of general composition as a matter of confronting obstructions or creative constraints as a process of collaborative revision and pedagogy. Writing in this context constitutes ethical responses to the shifting constraints of communication and signification. The obstructions performed by the film as a series of revisions offer sources of proliferating rhetorical invention and play grounded on negotiated fields of operations.
The first two chapters explore the relations between image and ethics in a pedagogy of revision, while the third considers the …