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Virginia Academy Of Science, 2013, Fall Undergraduate Research Meeting

Virginia Journal of Science

Article about the 2013 Virginia Academy of Science Fall Undergraduate Research Meeting

Monarch, Jim Raper (Editor)

Monarch Magazine

Fall 2013 issue of Monarch, the Old Dominion University Magazine.

Subtitled: Lighthouse Retreat

Not A Hearing Loss, A Deaf Gain: Power, Self-Naming, And The Deaf Community, David J. Thomas

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Self-naming has long stood as the primary assertion of power for disenfranchised communities in the western world. While person first language (e.g. person who is deaf) has been the preferred language of disability and disability services for the last 20 years, members of the Deaf community have asserted their cultural capital, and indeed, their Deafhood, or defining the experience of being ‘deaf in the world’, through the power of self-naming. This research examines attitudes toward language, self-naming, and disability in the Deaf community and seeks to move toward a more attentive, sensitive, and responsive language policy in the academy.

Historically, …

Operation And Modification Of A B-Stage For Efficient Nitrogen Removal In An A/B Process Pilot Study, Ryder Bunce

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Hampton Roads Sanitation District's Chesapeake-Elizabeth Wastewater Treatment Plant is a High-Rate Activated Sludge (HRAS) plant with no primary clarifiers. The plant operates at an SRT of 1.5 - 2 days and does not perform biological nitrogen removal (BNR). By 2021 HRSD anticipates the plant will be included in a bubble permit, resulting in a total nitrogen (TN) effluent target of approximately 5-8 mg/L. Converting the plant to a conventional BNR process would require a significant increase in reactor volume. Capital costs for the upgrade are estimated at 125 -150 million dollars, with a dramatic increase in operating costs as well. …

Molecular Characteristics Of The Water Soluable Organic Matter In Size Resolved Aerosols Collected Over The North Atlantic Ocean, Sarah Catherine Gurganus

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Aerosol particulate matter is acknowledged to have effects on health and the environment and further investigation into the molecular characteristics of aerosols is necessary in order to fully understand the potential links between the molecular characteristics and the impacts that these particles have on health and the environment. Aerosols are often discussed with reference to their size because particles of different sizes can often be associated with different primary sources. This study presents a molecular-level chemical characterization of the water soluble organic matter fraction of 17 aerosol impactor samples representing 3 air mass influences (North American, North African, and marine) …

Phosphorus Cycling In Tropical Carbonate Sediment-Seagrass Systems, Zachary Howerton

OES Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents two studies focusing on phosphorus cycling in calcium carbonate sediments inhabited by seagrasses. Phosphorus is a major limiting nutrient for primary productivity in these sediments as well as in the overlying waters. In large part this is due to removal of phosphate from solution by adsorption and precipitation reactions.

In chapter II, the relationship between the size of the sedimentary phosphorus pool and the abundance of seagrass on the Great Bahama Bank, as well as the relationship between phosphorus content and grain size in the sediments, were examined to better understand the biogeochemistry of carbonate sediments and …

Micro-Scale Dielectric Spectroscopy Of Biological Cells, Arindam Ghosh

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In recent years microfluidics has become one of the most commonly used tools to investigate cellular biology and to provide a platform for novel biomedical devices. Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was formulated as a non-invasive and label-fi.ee method to investigate the dielectric and the structural properties of materials. Since the early 20th century, EIS and Dielectric Spectroscopy have been applied to measure the dielectric properties of biological cells and tissues. Information about the cell membrane, cytoplasm and the nucleus can be extracted by dielectric spectroscopy. This thesis focuses on the applicability of the analytical models, in particular the Maxwell-Wagner Interfacial …

Regulation Of Hyaluronate Lyase (Hyla) Expression By Regr A Transcriptional Repressor In Streptococcus Pyogenes, Alexis A. Kordis

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Streptococcus pyogenes, group A streptococci (GAS), causes diseases ranging from asymptomatic to life threatening. Some strains of S. pyogenes produce extracellular hyaluronate lyase (HylA), a potential virulence factor. HylA is an enzyme that degrades hyaluronic acid, which is found in the extracellular matrix of human tissues. The breakdown of the host tissue contributes to the spread of infection. The hylA gene is not constitutively expressed in vitro, which implies regulation.

A proposed regulator of hyaluronate lyase expression is RegR, a LacI/GalR like protein. A vector containing disrupted regR was electro-transformed into S. pyogenes M-type 22 strain 10403. Growth characteristics …

Dimensionless Criteria For Selecting Tidally-Influenced Advective-Dispersive Desalination Brine Mixing Plume Characterization Models, Alireza Shahvari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The very nature of requirements for implementing a desalination process is highly spatial due to the need to secure both a source for the operation and sink for brine dilution. Thus, the applicable coastal location is bound to natural tidal mixing characteristics and subjected to a near- or a far-field availability for source and sink. Mixing characteristics of coastal waters are very different from one point to another due to the spatiotemporal tidal characteristic in loco in a manner that it can vary from being highly advective to completely dispersive dominant. Once a location is identified, estimation of corresponding water …

Design And Implementation Of Software For Technological Forecasting And Modeling Technological Obsolescence, Gershom Kwaku Obeng

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In a world that is highly infused with technology, it is important that an organization knows how many resources such as manpower, equipment, and funding are needed at what time so that the organization does not suffer unnecessary risks. It is also important to know when to replace equipment. After examining different methods of forecasting, it was determined that manipulation of growth curves was the best way to determine the likelihood of device failure at a specific time. An approach in engineering economics was used to estimate the cost due to the failure of various devices or groups of devices. …

Denitrification And Biological Phosphorus Removal Using Focused, Pulse-Treated, Thickened Waste Activated Sludge As An Internal Carbon Source, Holly Anne Hillard

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Recent research shows that an internal carbon source, derived from the treatment of waste activated sludge (WAS), could be used as an alternative to external carbon sources for denitrification in biological wastewater treatment processes. In this study, a thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) treatment technology, developed by the company OpenCEL, was used to treat TWAS with pulsed electric fields (PEF) to transform it into an organic substrate for heterotrophic denitrification in a biological nutrient removal (BNR) system. If effective, this technique could significantly reduce the external carbon source demand.

To determine the utility of OpenCEL-treated TWAS as an internal carbon …

Optimization Of Demon® Sidestream Treatment And Potential For Anammox Mainstream Bioaugmentation, Andrea Lauren Nifong

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Anaerobically digested sludge dewatering liquors (e.g. centrate) can represent 15-25% of the total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) load on a typical municipal waste water treatment plant (WWTP). Sidestream nitrogen removal has been demonstrated to be an effective tool for improving nitrogen removal performance and reliability with a savings in aeration energy, chemicals (supplemental alkalinity and carbon), and sludge production.

Deammonification, partial nitritation by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) combined with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (AMX or anammox), provides near complete nitrogen removal with a 65% reduction in energy and 100% reduction in supplemental carbon and alkalinity requirements as compared to traditional nitrification-denitrification. The …

State Of The College Of Health Sciences, 2013: Voyaging To The Waypoint, Shelley C. Mishoe

Ellmer College of Health Sciences Reports and Documents

PDF of powerpoint presentation for the State of the College of Health Sciences Address on September 4, 2013. Includes "New Faculty & Staff Introductions and Welcome."

Graduate News, Office Of Graduate Studies, Old Dominion University

Graduate News

September 2013 issue of Graduate News from the Office of Graduate Studies (now, ODU Graduate School).

Effectiveness Of Old Dominion University's Fashion Merchandising Program, Christie Martin

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Old Dominion University Fashion Merchandising program in preparing students to enter the fashion industry as properly prepared employees.

Circulation, Vol. 18, No. 3, Center For Coastal Physical Oceanography, Old Dominion University, Tal Ezer, Larry P. Atkinson

CCPO Circulation

Summer 2013 issue of CCPO Circulation featuring article "The Connection Between Local Sea Level Rise, Climate Change and Ocean Circulation" by Tal Ezer and Larry P. Atkinson

Old Dominion University Climate Change And Sea Level Rise Initiative, Summer 2013, Larry P. Atkinson (Editor), Hans-Peter Plag (Editor)

CCSLRI Newsletters

Summer 2013 Newsletter of the Old Dominion University Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative

Fish Species Distribution In Seagrass Habitats Of Chesapeake Bay Are Structured By Abiotic And Biotic Factors, Jason J. Schaffler, Jacques Van Montfrans, Cynthia M. Jones, Robert J. Orth

OES Faculty Publications

Seagrass habitats have long been known to serve as nursery habitats for juvenile fish by providing refuges from predation and areas of high forage abundance. However, comparatively less is known about other factors structuring fish communities that make extensive use of seagrass as nursery habitat. We examined both physical and biological factors that may structure the juvenile seagrass-associated fish communities across a synoptic-scale multiyear study in lower Chesapeake Bay. Across 3years of sampling, we collected 21,153 fish from 31 species. Silver Perch Bairdiella chrysoura made up over 86% of all individuals collected. Nine additional species made up at least 1% …

Monarch, Jim Raper (Editor)

Monarch Magazine

Summer 2013 issue of Monarch, the Old Dominion University Magazine.

Subtitled: Assignment: French Polynesia

Monster Of Mourning, Ritual Of Remembering: Ishirô Honda’S Gojira, Sigmund Shen

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

It is widely accepted among scholars that Ishiro Honda’s Gojira (1954) contains an allegory for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Scenes involving Dr. Serizawa, the scientist who destroys the monster and commits suicide, reveal a combination of ambivalent affect, psychological defenses, and ritualistic body language that are inadequately explained by the nuclear metaphor, and suggest a more deeply repressed subtext. I argue that these moments allude to regret over the Meiji Era westernization of Japanese culture and guilt for an “open secret” of wartime biological weapons research and human experimentation conducted by the Japanese Imperial Army.

At The Full And Change Of The Moon: The Passing Down Of Cultural Memory In The Black Diaspora, Anh Hua

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Referring to the Holocaust, James Young argues that historians mistakenly make a forced distinction between memory and history, where history is defined as that which happened and memory as that which is remembered of what happened. This leaves no room for the survivor’s voice and the survivor’s memory of the events, whose value is lost to the historians. James Young is interested in bridging the gap between a survivor’s “deep memory” and historical narrative, how to remember the past as it passes from living memory to history (276-277). Historical inquiry, for Young, is understood as “the combined study …

Review Of The Warcraft Civilization, By William Sims Bainbridge, Anthony T. Sansone

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The evolving complexity of video games in narrative, gameplay and technology has steadily pulled researchers from game studies and other disciplines into examinations of games and what they say about our culture. Some examine what games say about players and what their activity says about them as part of society. Others explore what the game itself reflects about our culture; how a specific game can, could or does affect our society.

The 2002 National Security Strategy: The Foundation Of A Doctrine Of Preemption, Prevention, Or Anticipatory Action, Troy Lorenzo Ewing

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, initiated a strategic shift in American national security policy. For the United States, terrorism was no longer a distant phenomenon visited upon faraway regions; it had come to America with stark brutality.1 Consequently, the administration of President George W. Bush sought to advance a security strategy to counter the proliferating threat of terrorism.

The ensuing 2002 National Security Strategy articulated the willingness of the United States to oppose terrorists, and rogue nation-states by merging the strategies of "preemptive" and "preventive" warfare into an unprecedented strategy of "anticipatory action," known as the Doctrine of …

The Transformation Of The Pkk (Kurdistan Workers' Party): Exploring Domestic, Regional, And Global Dynamics, Akin Guneri

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The main purpose of this study is to explore the underlying factors behind the political and ideological transformation of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) since its foundation. Through the detailed analysis of the role of Turkey's internal versus external factors on the evolution of the PKK over time, this work finds that changing political developments in the Middle East were more influential than Turkey's shifting domestic political environment. Hypothesis testing revealed that the 1991 Gulf War, 2003 Iraq War, changing political dynamics of the Middle East following Syria's Arab Spring, and policy changes worldwide implemented after the 9/11 terrorist attacks …

The Rq-Tech Methodology: A New Paradigm For Conceptualizing Strategic Enterprise Architectures, Christine Ann Hoyland

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to develop and apply a system-theoretic based methodology and corresponding model for Enterprise Architecture development. Enterprise Architectures can assist managers by illustrating the systemic relationships within an organization and the impact changes to the organization could make. Unfortunately, today's modeling practices are proprietary, time-consuming, and generally ineffective as tools for understanding the consequences of strategic-level planning decisions across all levels of the enterprise. This research supports the conclusion that system-specific solutions produce islands of technology and can be prevented by employing better enterprise change planning.

This research combined the practice of Enterprise Architectures with …

Effect Of Health-Related Fitness Knowledge On Adolescent Interest And Participation In Physical Activity, Melissa Leonetti

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effect of health-related knowledge on adolescents· interest and participation in physical activity. Specifically. the researcher employed a quasi-experimental design with repeated measures to examine the implementation of a health-related curriculum unit (Physical Best) on adolescent knowledge. interest, and physical activity participation, in comparison with students in comparison group who learned the traditional school district curriculum. The researcher used pre and posttests to collect adolescents· health-related fitness knowledge. personal interest. and physical activity participation. The sample size was 90 participants. with 41 adolescents in the experimental group, and 49 in the comparison group. The researcher …

In Vitro Selection Of Chloroquine Tolerant Plasmodium Falciparum Parasites, Daniel A. Daley

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Malaria is among the most devastating human diseases, and a majority of lethal cases are caused by the protozoan parasite, Plasmodiumfalciparum. The emergence of multi-drug resistant P.falciparum is a major obstacle to malaria control and is highlighted by the abandonment of chloroquine (CQ) as a first-line treatment of P.falciparum infections worldwide. Chloroquine resistance (CQR) is associated primarily with mutations in the transmembrane digestive vacuole protein, PfCRT. However, CQR P.falciparum parasites harboring the same mutant pfcrt allele vary in their CQ response, suggesting the CQ response is multigenic in nature. No gene outside of pfcrt is completely associated with CQR. Thus, …

Protein Loop Length Estimation From Medium Resolution Cryoem Images, Andrew R. Mcknight

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

In the post-genomic era, proteomics research presents a new frontier in life science. Proteins play roles in virtually every biological process, and understanding their atomic structures is the key to unraveling how they carry out their work. Compared to the over half million protein sequences in UniProt, only around 25,000 unique sequences have been atomically modeled and deposited to PDB (Protein Databank). Cryoelectron Microscopy (cryoEM) is an important biophysical technique that produces 3D subnanometer resolution images of molecules not amenable to past approaches like x-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance. De novo modeling is becoming a promising approach to derive …

Optimization Of Solar Cell Arrays Using The Fibonacci Search Algorithm, Felicia Tyyan Farrow

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In our energy hungry world, there is a growing demand to develop creative mechanisms to extract, conserve, and use energy from different resources. The use of solar cells to extract and convert solar energy into electrical energy is a growing and popular field of study because solar energy is clean, free, and renewable. One limitation for photovoltaic (PU) or solar technology is its loss in efficiency and availability as a result of shading or partial shading. Shading or partial shading decreases the total capable output power that the PV system can produce because the array is receiving irradiation from the …

Effects Of Ankle Immobilization On Lower Extremity Joint Coupling Variability, Kristin M. Gundy

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Human movement is a complex system that encompasses several factors within the body to create coordination. It is not fully understood how the many degrees of freedom (DOF) of the body organize to create movement. Both internal and external influence how the DOF problem works to produce varying movement goals.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the organization patterns of the body by eliminating a DOF. The ankle joint was immobilized to determine if there were differences at the hip and knee joint couplings. It was hypothesized that there would be an increase in movement variability at …