Digital Commons Network^™

An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Unannounced Safety Inspections Versus Announced Inspections In Academic Research Laboratories That Utilize Biological Hazards, Holley M. Trucks

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Inspections are integral to comprehensive biosafety programs at academic research institutions that use a wide variety of infectious agents. However, there is no standardization of biosafety inspection procedures from institution to institution. This study analyzed results of 2,098 documented inspections conducted from January 2012 through December of 2016 performed by biosafety staff at a large Research I land grant institution in order to evaluate the effectiveness of an unannounced versus the more traditional announced approach to inspection procedure. Results demonstrated that: a) more findings were noted during unannounced inspections, therefore more accurately informing biosafety staff of the true day to …

Examining The Efficacy Of Co-Teaching At The Secondary Level: Special Educators' Perceptions Of Their Productivity As Co-Teachers, Kera B. Ackerman

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

For decades, federal legislation has mandated the education of students with disabilities to be in their least restrictive environment. Nationally, this has resulted in more than 60% of students with disabilities receiving the majority (80%) of their education in the general education environment. To provide special education services in the general education environment, co-teaching, commonly defined as two educators with distinct expertise providing instruction in a common setting, is often used. The purpose of this non-experimental cross-sectional survey study was to examine special educators’ perceptions of their productivity in co-taught settings and the degree to which their perceptions were related …

Effects Of Power Cards On Conversational Skills For High Schoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Molly K. Mcgee

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This study employed a multiple probe across settings design to evaluate the effectiveness of Power Cards, as they were originally designed by Gagnon (2001), on the conversational behaviors for two high school students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Data were collected on the percentage of conversational behaviors engaged in per session, as well as the number of times the participants accessed their Power Card during conversations, and the frequency of additional questions or comments made by the participants. Results of this study indicated that Power Cards improved conversational behaviors for both participants in their first setting. While covariation occurred across …

Influence Of Ergot Alkaloids On Rumen Motility: Time And Concentration Of Ergovaline + Ergovalinine Required To Impact Reticulorumen Motility, Kara Riccioni

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Fescue toxicosis is problematic for ruminant livestock, causing weight loss and low productivity when fed endophyte-infected forages. Complete underlying mechanisms of toxicosis are unknown therefore; the objective of the study was to determine if ruminally dosed ergot alkaloids impact rumen motility. Cannulated steers were pair-fed a forage diet and ruminally dosed with endophyte-free (E-) or endophyte-infected (E+) tall fescue seed. An 8-h period of rumen motility collection began 4-h after feeding by monitoring pressure change via a wireless telemetry and transducer system. In experiment 1, steers were paired by weight and assigned to E- or E+ treatment. Overall, E+ steers …

Assessment Of Bovine Vascular Serotonin Receptor Populations And Transport Of Ergot Alkaloids In The Small Intestine, Miriam A. Snider

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Prior work using a contractility bioassay determined that the serotonin (5-HT) receptor subtype 5-HT_2A is present in bovine lateral saphenous veins and plays a role in ergot alkaloid-induced vascular contraction in steers grazing endophyte-infected (Epichloë coenophiala) tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum). A study was conducted to determine what 5-HT receptors are involved in vasoconstriction of bovine gut vasculature. The findings of this study indicate that 5-HT_2A is present and may play a role in ergot alkaloid induced vasoconstriction. A second study was conducted to determine if ergot alkaloids were transported in the small intestine. The …

Comparison Of Conception Rates In Beef Cattle Inseminated With Either Sexedultra™ Sex-Sorted Semen Or Conventional Semen In Fixed-Time Artificial Insemination (Ftai) Protocols, Benjamin R. Crites

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Estrous synchronization and artificial insemination (ESAI) are reproductive technologies that cattlemen can use to improve the reproductive performance of their herds. Controlling the gender ratio of the calf-crop can also improve the opportunity for increased revenue and profit. Producers are able to shift and/or control the gender ratio of their calf crop by incorporating sex-sorted semen into their AI programs. However, decreased conception rates to AI have been previously observed when sex-sorted semen was used in comparison to conventional semen of the same sires. The objective of the first study was to determine if conception rates will differ …

Diversity: How Is Aall Doing?, James M. Donovan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This paper describes the possible approaches to encouraging diversity within the workplace that are available to all professional organizations, including the American Association of Law Libraries [AALL]. Part I reviews the basic terms: discrimination, bias, and diversity. Reasons for pursuing diversity in the workplace are discussed in Part II. Two instrumental justifications and one intrinsic rationale reveal the range of motivations behind these projects. Each rationale supports its characteristic form of diversity: reflective, substantive, and cognitive. Because the kind of diversity determines the anticipated outcome, disagreement over progress may be the result of expecting different kinds of diversity. Clarity on …

The Effect Of Haptic Interaction And Learner Control On Student Performance In An Online Distance Education Course, Marty J. Park

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Today’s learners are taking advantage of a whole new world of multimedia and hypermedia experiences to gain understanding and construct knowledge. While at the same time, teachers and instructional designers are producing these experiences at rapid paces. Many angles of interactivity with digital content continue to be researched, as is the case with this study.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant difference in the performance of distance education students who exercise learner control interactivity effectively through a traditional input device versus students who exercise learner control interactivity through haptic input methods. This study …

Center Of Pressure Excursion During A Single Leg Standing Test In Ambulatory Children With Cerebral Palsy, Ryan Thomas Callahan

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common disabling motor disorder found during childhood, occurring in 2.1-3.2 of every 1,000 births. Motor functionality of children with CP is commonly compromised and is classified with a gross motor function classification score (GMFCS) and with the gross motor function measure (GMFM). Balance ability has typically been assessed using single leg stance test (SLST) time but more recently, center of pressure excursion (COPE) has shown to be a more valid measurement in populations with altered motor abilities. However, COPE has not been used to test balance in the CP population, yet. This study …

Differences In The Muscle Activity For Baseball Hitters Of Varying Skill, Ethan M. Stewart

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

INTRODUCTION: Muscle activity and timing of the swing phases may contribute to the differences we see in athletes at different skill levels. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences between mean muscle activity, peak muscle active and time to peak muscle activity for select muscles in the lower extremity as well as the differences between start times for swing phases and bat velocity prior to impact for a skilled and recreational group. METHODS: Twelve healthy subjects were split into two groups based on competitive level and analyzed hitting off of a tee. RESULTS: No significant differences were …

Campus As Home: An Examination Of The Impact Of Student Housing At The University Of Kentucky In The Progressive Era, James W. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This dissertation explores how student housing impacted the college campus of the University of Kentucky in the Progressive Era. Student housing has long been part of the college ideal but lacked full engagement by many administrators. Through three examinations, housing will be shown to have directly influenced the administrative, social, and staffing elements of the college campus. The role student housing played in the interaction of political, rural, and sociological changes on the campus during the time period allows exploration in detail while addressing the changes within those areas of the state as well. While housing was an afterthought by …

By Need And By Name: School Leaders Fostering Environments For Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Rebecca G. Roach

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Children raised by their grandparents are a steadily growing demographic in schools throughout the United States. When parents are unable to care for their children, grandparents sometimes assume the role of primary caregiver. This is especially true when they are faced with the threat of placing their grandchildren in the foster care system. More often than not, these grandparents are not adequately prepared for the challenges of raising children who have lost their parent through death, drug abuse or incarceration and few resources exist to guide elementary school principals to engage this demographic. Regardless of the growing numbers of caregiving …

Quantifying The Effects Of Hydrostatic Pressure On Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Binding By The Human Endothelium, Taylor R. Mckenty

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Fluid pressures regulate endothelial cell (EC) tubulogenic activity involving fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) and its receptor, FGF receptor 2 (FGFR2). Our lab has recently shown that sustained 20 mmHg hydrostatic pressure (HP) upregulates EC sprout formation in a FGF2-dependent fashion. This upregulation of sprout formation may be due to enhanced FGF-2 / FGFR2 interactions in the presence of 20 mmHg HP. We hypothesize that exposure of ECs to 20 mmHg sustained HP enhances FGF-2 binding kinetics. We used a custom hydrostatic pressure system, immunofluorescence, and FACS to quantify FGF-2 binding by ECs in the absence or presence of a …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Poly(Simvastatin) - Incorporated Copolymers And Blends For Bone Regeneration, Theodora Asafo-Adjei

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Common biodegradable polyesters such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) are used as drug delivery vehicles for tissue regenerative applications. However, they are typically bioinert, with drug loading limitations. Polymerizing the active agent or precursor into its respective biodegradable polymer would control drug loading via molar ratios of drug to initiator used for synthesis. Simvastatin was chosen due to its favorable anti-inflammatory, angiogenic, and osteogenic properties. In addition, its lactone ring lends itself to ring-opening polymerization and, consequently, the synthesis of poly(simvastatin) with controlled simvastatin release.

Simvastatin was first polymerized with a 5kDa methyl-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) …

Segment-Based Reliability Assessment For Water Distribution Networks, Erika Hernandez Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

In recent years, water utilities have placed a greater emphasis on the reliability and resilience of their water distribution networks. This focus has increased due to the continuing aging of such infrastructure and the potential threat of natural or man-made disruptions. As a result, water utilities continue to look for ways to evaluate the resiliency of their systems with a goal of identifying critical elements that need to be reinforced or replaced. The simulation of pipe breaks in water reliability studies is traditionally modeled as the loss of a single pipe element. This assumes that each pipe has an isolation …

Tunable Nanocomposite Membranes For Water Remediation And Separations, Sebastián Hernández Sierra

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Nano-structured material fabrication using functionalized membranes with polyelectrolytes is a promising research field for water pollution, catalytic and mining applications. These responsive polymers react to external stimuli like temperature, pH, radiation, ionic strength or chemical composition. Such nanomaterials provide novel hybrid properties and can also be self-supported in addition to the membranes.

Polyelectrolytes (as hydrogels) have pH responsiveness. The hydrogel moieties gain or lose protons based on the pH, displaying swelling properties. These responsive materials can be exploited to synthesize metal nanoparticles in situ using their functional groups, or to immobilize other polyelectrolytes and biomolecules. Due to their properties, these …

The Reflection And Reification Of Racialized Language In Popular Media, Kelly E. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This work highlights specific lexical items that have become racialized in specific contextual applications and tests how these words are cognitively processed. This work presents the results of a visual world (Huettig et al 2011) eye-tracking study designed to determine the perception and application of racialized (Coates 2011) adjectives. To objectively select the racialized adjectives used, I developed a corpus comprised of popular media sources, designed specifically to suit my research question. I collected publications from digital media sources such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Fortune by scraping articles featuring specific search terms from their websites. This experiment seeks …

Linguistic And Conceptual Metaphors Of ‘Heart’ In Learner Corpora, Aurora Mathews Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This corpus-based study examined English and Spanish learner language for ‘heart’ metaphors. Gutiérrez Pérez (2008) compared ‘heart’ metaphors across five languages and that study served as a reference framework for the work presented here. This work intended to find evidence of metaphor transfer and/or new metaphor learning in second language writing. Conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) and linguistic or lexical metaphors (Falck, 2012) from both languages were considered in the analysis. This work analyzed ‘heart’ metaphors taken from two learner corpora, the Cambridge Learner Corpus and the Corpus de Aprendices de Español. Results were compared to the findings of …

Ionic Regulation Of Critical Cellular Processes In Non-Excitable Cells, Brandon M. Franklin

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

There are long-standing hypotheses that endogenous ion currents act to control cell dynamics in development, wound healing and regeneration. However, the mechanisms employed by cells to detect the electric field (EF) and translate it into a discernable message to drive specific cell behaviors, such as migration, proliferation and differentiation, are not well understood. A better understanding of how cells are able to sense EFs and react to them is vital to understanding physiological mechanisms are involved in regeneration. Ion channel signaling provides a reasonable suspect for mediating these effects based on their documented involvement in proliferation, migration and differentiation.

To …

Sexual Dimorphism In The Moss Bryum Argenteum And Its Implications For Sex Ratio Bias, Jonathan David Moore Iii

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

In dioecious plants, selection due to sex function differences has produced sex-specific life histories, morphologies, and physiologies. In many dioecious seed plants, dimorphisms and population sex ratios have been plausibly linked, but similar links are not yet apparent in dioecious bryophytes. Population sex ratio bias is often expected to favor the sex with lower investment in sexual reproduction, especially in resource-poor environments. Unlike in seed plants, bryophyte males may have higher average reproductive investment than females, which typically have low offspring production rates due to sperm limitation. However, traits aside from reproductive investment such as shoot and leaf arrangement may …

Examining The Role Of Host Use On Divergence In The Redheaded Pine Sawfly, Neodiprion Lecontei, Across Multiple Spatial Scales, Robin Kimberly Bagley

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Phytophagous insects make up over one quarter of described species on Earth, and this incredible diversity seems directly linked to feeding on plants. Comparative studies of sister groups have shown shifts to herbivory are consistently associated with increased species diversity in insects, but the reasons for this diversification remain unclear. While other explanations, such as decreased extinction rates or influences on population structure, exist, one prominent hypothesis suggests shifts and subsequent adaptation to novel host plants can lead to the evolution of reproductive barriers.

Given their extreme specialization on host plants in the genus Pinus and intimate, life-long association with …

Characterization Of A Large Vertebrate Genome And Homomorphic Sex Chromosomes In The Axolotl, Ambystoma Mexicanum, Melissa Keinath

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Changes in the structure, content and morphology of chromosomes accumulate over evolutionary time and contribute to cell, developmental and organismal biology. The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is an important model for studying these changes because: 1) it provides important phylogenetic perspective for reconstructing the evolution of vertebrate genomes and amphibian karyotypes, 2) its genome has evolved to a large size (~10X larger than human) but has maintained gene orders, and 3) it possesses potentially young sex chromosomes that have not undergone extensive differentiation in the structure that is typical of many other vertebrate sex chromosomes (e.g. mammalian XY chromosomes …

Fluvial-Lacustrine Processes Shaping The Landforms Of The Distal Paraguay Fluvial Megafan, Edward Limin Lo

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Tropical wetlands such as the Pantanal help regulate global biogeochemical cycles, but climate change is modifying these environments. Controls on environmental changes can potentially be assessed from ancient, well-dated lacustrine sedimentary records. An integrated field and laboratory approach was undertaken to study the limnogeology of Lake Uberaba in the northern Pantanal, and test whether the lake has preserved a reliable record of environmental change in its strata. This study was designed to understand how the basin accumulates sediment and to assess its sensitivity to hydroclimatic variability. The data showed that modern Lake Uberaba is a highly dynamic, freshwater fluvial-lacustrine basin. …

Effects Of Hydrologic Connectivity And Land Use On Floodplain Sediment Accumulation At The Savannah River Site, South Carolina, Jeremy E. Eddy

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Floodplains, and the sediment accumulating naturally on them, are important to maintain stream water quality and serve as sinks for organic and inorganic carbon. Newer theories contend that land use and hydrologic connectivity (water-mediated transport of matter, energy, and/or organisms within or between elements of the hydrologic cycle) play important roles in determining sediment accumulation on floodplains. This study hypothesizes that changes in hydrologic connectivity have a greater impact on floodplain sediment accumulation than changes in land use. Nine sediment cores from seven sub-basins were collected from the Savannah River Site (SRS), South Carolina, and processed for grain-size, radionuclide dating …

Women Of The Apocalypse: Afrospeculative Feminist Novelists, Bianca L. Spriggs

Theses and Dissertations--English

“Women of the Apocalypse: Feminist Afrospeculative Writers,” seeks to address the problematic ‘Exodus narrative,’ a convention that has helped shape Black American liberation politics dating back to the writings of Phyllis Wheatley. Novels by Zora Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, and Alice Walker undermine and complicate this narrative by challenging the trope of a single charismatic male leader who leads an entire race to a utopic promised land. For these writers, the Exodus narrative is unsustainable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because there is no room for women to operate outside of the role of …

(B)Ordering Texas: The Representation Of Violence, Nationalism, And Masculine Archetypes In U.S.-Mexico Borderland Novels (1985-2012), Joshua D. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

The present project explores the narrative construction of masculinities, violence, and nationalism in three U.S.-Mexico borderland novels written by U.S., Mexican, and Mexican-American writers: Caballero (1930s-40s, pub.1996) by Jovita González and Eve Raleigh; Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac McCarthy; and Texas: La gran ladronería en el lejano norte (2012) by Carmen Boullosa. Through the scope of masculinity, gender, and (post)colonial studies, this project examines how these authors incorporate hegemonic masculine archetypes and their attendant forms of violence (physical, economic, and epistemic) so as to interrogate claims to identity and national belonging along the Texas-Mexico border, against the backdrop of war …

Bluegrass Capital: An Environmental History Of Central Kentucky To 1860, Andrew P. Patrick

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation traces the long-term evolution of the Inner Bluegrass region of central Kentucky with a focus on the period between the first Euro-American incursions into the area and the Civil War era. Utilizing an agroecological perspective that analyzes cultivated landscapes for their ecological features, it explores the ever-shifting mix of cultural and natural influences that shaped the local environment. Most prominently, it reveals the extent to which intertwined strands of capitalism and slavery mingled with biology to produce the celebrated Bluegrass agricultural system.

It begins with an appraisal of the landscape before white men like Daniel Boone arrived, emphasizing …

On Supposing, Imagining, And Resisting, Eric M. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

My research focuses on the philosophy of imagination. Within the analytic tradition, there recently has been a growing interest in imagination. The current research lies at the crossroads of various sub-disciplines of philosophy, including aesthetics, moral psychology, ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind. My work joins this choir as a voice from within philosophy of mind.

My dissertation addresses two questions within philosophy of imagination. What I call the Relation Question asks what is the proper relation between supposition and imagination, and what I call the Unification Question asks what is the imagination. With regards to the Relation Question, …

A Portable Sensor For Measuring Gas Emissions From Dairy Compost Bedded Pack Barns, Katharine Wolf

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The objective of this study was to develop a gas measurement chamber for the comparison of emissions from different dairy manure storage facilities. Compost bedded pack (CBP) barns are a loose housing system in which cows rest on an intensely managed compost pack. Sawdust is the primary material added to the system, along with manure and urine inputs from the cows, and the pack is stirred one to two times daily. Maintaining a high level of aerobic microbial activity in the pack is critical for cow health. Previous dairy emissions work has not included compost bedded pack barns; it was …

Fractionation And Characterization Of Lignin Streams From Genetically Engineered Switchgrass, Enshi Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Development of biomass feedstocks with desirable traits for cost-effective conversion is one of the main focus areas in biofuels research. As suggested by techno-economic analyses, the success of a lignocellulose-based biorefinery largely relies on the utilization of lignin to generate value-added products, i.e. fuels and chemicals. The fate of lignin and its structural/compositional changes during pretreatment have received increasing attention; however, the effect of genetic modification on the fractionation, depolymerization and catalytic upgrading of lignin from genetically engineered plants is not well understood. This study aims to fractionate and characterize the lignin streams from a wild-type and two genetically engineered …