Digital Commons Network^™

Formal And Informal Academic Language Socialization Of A Bilingual Child, Hyonsuk Cho

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This ethnographic case study examines a bilingual child’s academic socialization in both formal and informal academic communities. The study follows a high-achieving, bilingual student in a public US elementary school, who paradoxically is seen as a slow learner in her Korean-American Sunday school. From the academic socialization and community of practice perspectives, 360 contextual, interactional, and interview events gathered from both communities over the course of one year are analyzed. The findings indicate that explicit norms and peer collaboration have a considerable effect on a child’s socialization in a formal academic school context, and furthermore, that the lenient, undisciplined environment …

The N-Terminus Of Type Iii Secretion Needle Protein Yscf From Yersinia Pestis Functions To Modulate Innate Immune Responses, Patrick Osei-Owusu

Theses and Dissertations

The type III secretion system is employed by many pathogens, including the genera Yersinia, Shigella, Pseudomonas, and Salmonella, to deliver effector proteins into eukaryotic cells. The injectisome needle is formed by the polymerization of a single protein, e.g., YscF (Yersinia pestis), PscF (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), PrgI (Salmonella enterica SPI-1), SsaG (Salmonella enterica SPI-2), or MxiH (Shigella flexneri). In this study, we demonstrated that the N termini of some needle proteins, particularly the N terminus of YscF from Yersinia pestis, influences host immune responses. The N termini of several needle proteins were truncated and tested for the ability to induce inflammatory responses …

Tracking Star Formation In Dwarf Cluster Galaxies, Cody Millard Rude

Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of galaxies in dense environments can be affected by close encounters with neighboring galaxies and interactions with the intracluster medium (ICM). Dwarf galaxies may be especially susceptible to these effects due to their low mass. The goal of my dissertation research is to look for signs of star formation in cluster dwarf galaxies by measuring and comparing the r- and u-band luminosity functions of 15 low redshift Abell galaxy clusters using archival data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Luminosity functions, dwarf-to-giant ratios, and blue fractions are measured in four cluster-centric annuli from stacked cluster data. To account for …

Nonword Repetition And Sentence Repetition In Preschool Children: A Comparison Of Speech And Language Screening Measures, Rachel Therrien

Theses and Dissertations

Nonword repetition tasks and sentence repetition tasks have been shown to accurately differentiate children with speech and/or language disorders from their typically developing peers (Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998; Archibald & Gathercole, 2006). Additionally, they provide information on semantic, syntactical, and phonological processing as well as memory and acoustic perceptual skills (Vance, Stackhouse, & Wells, 2005). Despite their utility as a screening measure, their use in clinical practice has been minimal. Instead, practicing speech-language pathologists often choose to use publisher-provided screening measures or their own developed measures, rather than using research-based screening methods that have recognized differential diagnosis ability (Nash, Leavett, …

The Relationship Between Interrogative Suggestibility And Decision-Making, Darci Van Dyke

Theses and Dissertations

Interrogative suggestibility is the individual's tendency to yield to misleading questions and negative feedback. Individuals who exhibit this tendency have been found to be more likely to falsely confess to a crime, a decision with often severe negative consequences. Many individual differences in cognition, emotion, and personality have been linked with interrogative suggestibility. These individual differences have also been found to be related to an individual's decision-making ability. However, the relationship between interrogative suggestibility and decision-making has not been investigated. The current project sought to determine how decision-making abilities, cognitive ability, memory, and anxiety predict variability in interrogative suggestibility. Results …

An Investigation Of Six Poorly Described Close Visual Double Stars Using Speckle Interferometry, Daniel B. Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

Continued observation of double stars is necessary for confirmation of binarity and to provide updates to astrometric data used to compute accurate binary orbital parameters, thereby more accurately informing stellar mass estimations – the critical parameter from which stellar models are derived. In October of 2013, six double stars from the Washington Double Star (WDS) catalog exhibiting close separations, as well as significant deviations from previously published orbits, were observed and imaged using the speckle interferometric technique on the 2.1-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Arizona. The observations of the six double stars occurred as part of …

Identifying Data Exchange Congestion Through Real-Time Monitoring Of Beowulf Cluster Infiniband Networks, Michael James Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to gather data from many types of new information sources has grown quickly using new technologies. The ability to store and retrieve large quantities of data from these new sources has created a need for computing platforms that are able to process the data for information. High Performance Computing Cluster systems have been developed to fulfill a role required for fast processing of large amounts of data for many difficult types of computing applications.

Beowulf Clusters use many separate compute nodes to create a tightly coupled parallel HPCC system. The ability for a Beowulf Cluster HPCC system to …

Performance On The Repeatable Battery For The Assessment Of Neuropsychological Status (Rbans) In A Mild Traumatic Brain Injured Sample, Autumn Rose Arch

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of individuals are believed to recover within several months following a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). However, some individuals may continue to experience persistent symptoms including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems. This study compared the performance of college students with self-reported MTBI to non-head injured peers on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) index and subtest scores using independent-samples t-tests. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) were also used to compare symptoms of depression, anxiety and alcohol use between groups. The results of this …

Geothermal Regime Of The Williston Basin In North Dakota, Faye N. Ricker

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the thermal regime of a large intracontinental basin such as the Williston Basin can be enhanced by analysis of the relationships among radiogenic heat production, surface heat flow, formation temperatures, and gravity and magnetic anomaly patterns. Digital processing of the spatial and causal relationships gives insight into the effect of basement heat production on the thermal state of the basement rocks and the overlying sedimentary successions. These relationships provide valuable insight on the radioactive heat contribution to heat flow, heat flow from the lower crust, composition of the upper crust, and the potential for geothermal power generation. The specific …

Characterization Of Dopamine Transporter Palmitoylation, Danielle Elizabeth Rastedt

Theses and Dissertations

The dopamine transporter (DAT) is an integral membrane protein that mediates the reuptake of synaptic dopamine and thus regulates the spatio-temporal dynamics of dopaminergic neurotransmission. DAT is also the target of powerful addictive psychostimulants, including cocaine and methamphetamine that resulted in dysregulation of dopaminergic signaling. Complex control of DAT is exerted by various regulatory processes, including posttranslational modifications. We previously found that DAT is palmitoylated via the addition of a 16-carbon palmitic acid moiety to Cys 580. Pharmacological and mutagenic studies determined that depalmitoylation conditions led to reductions in Vmax and transporter levels, suggesting palmitoylation controls one or more functions …

The Stratigraphy And Depositional History Of The Deadwood Formation, With A Focus On Early Paleozoic Subsidence In The Williston Basin, Anthony Henry Sarnoski

Theses and Dissertations

The Deadwood Formation is an assemblage of siliciclastic, carbonate, and evaporite sedimentary rocks in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. The majority of the lateral extent of the Deadwood Formation is in the subsurface of the Williston Basin, where it is the basal lithostratigraphic unit. Deposition began roughly 501 million years ago, as the Sauk sequence reached the exposed Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock of the North American Craton.

Six identifiable and widespread gamma ray markers occur in the well logs, dividing the formation into six informal units, label members A through F in ascending order. The …

Development Of A High Performance Mosaicing And Super-Resolution Algorithm, Debabrata Ghosh

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, a high-performance mosaicing and super-resolution algorithm is described. The scale invariant feature transform (SIFT)-based mosaicing algorithm builds an initial mosaic which is iteratively updated by the robust super resolution algorithm to achieve the final high-resolution mosaic. Two different types of datasets are used for testing: high altitude balloon data and unmanned aerial vehicle data. To evaluate our algorithm, five performance metrics are employed: mean square error, peak signal to noise ratio, singular value decomposition, slope of reciprocal singular value curve, and cumulative probability of blur detection. Extensive testing shows that the proposed algorithm is effective in improving …

Survey Of Southern Amazonian Bird Helminths, Kaylyn Patitucci

Theses and Dissertations

Very little is known about the diversity, distribution, and host associations of avian helminths in southern Amazonia. The majority of avian species, families and even orders in the region have not been examined for parasitic worms so far. At the same time, the expected helminth diversity is high, given that Amazonian birds are extremely diverse and their fauna is characterized by a high level of endemism. In this work, we studied helminth fauna of birds from the westernmost region of endemism, Inambari and from the easternmost region, Belém. Two hundred and thirty-four birds belonging to 9 orders were examined for …

Syntheses And Characterization Of Bis(Amino)Cyclodiphosphazane Complexes Of Group 4- And -15 Elements, Mathew Etang Otang

Theses and Dissertations

In the first part of this work, the interaction of sodium tert-butoxide and sulfur with Group 4 metal bis(tert-butylamido)cyclodiphosph(III)azanes dichlorides, {[tBuNP)2tBuN)2]MCl2}, where M is Zr or Hf, is reported. The reaction of two equivalents of NaOtBu with {[tBuNP)2tBuN)2]MCl2}, M = Zr, Hf, resulted in the isolation of the first metal alkoxide complexes {[tBuNP)2tBuN)2]M(OtBu)2}, 35 (M =Zr) and 36 (M = Hf) of cyclodiphosphazanes. The oxidation of compounds 35 and 36 with elemental sulfur yielded {[tBuNP=S)2tBuN)2]M(OtBu)2}, 37 (M = Zr) and 38 (M = Hf), respectively. Similarly, the oxidation of {[tBuNP)2tBuN)2]MCl2}, M = Zr, Hf, with elemental sulfur led to the …

Phylogenetic Analysis Of Mitochondrial Genomes Of Filarial Nematodes In The Subfamily Waltonellinae, Sarina Marie Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

The family Onchocercidae is a group of parasitic vector born nematodes that are split up into eight subfamilies. Although the subfamilies containing species that parasitize humans and livestock (e.g., Onchocercinae) have been well-studied, there is a considerable lack of information for the lesser studied subfamilies in Onchocercidae (e.g. Waltonellinae). This uncertainty leaves some doubt as to the phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships among the different taxonomic groupings of filarioid nematodes.

I worked with two species of the subfamily Waltonellinae, Foleyellides n. sp. and F. flexicauda. The primers used in this study for polymerase chain reactions (PCR) and DNA sequencing reactions were …

Synchrophasor Technology And Applications: Benefits Over Conventional Measurements, Andrew Michael Berg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the benefits of synchrophasor technology in bulk power system measurements. To accomplish this task, multiple methods of investigation and analysis have been conducted. First, a better understanding of the synchrophasor power measurement systems was achieved through a literature review. The review provided some perspective on the differences between these systems and the conventional systems of power measurements.

Then, some utility grade data was acquired and analyzed. In this process, there were some aspects of confidentiality, and that required an added layer of discretion. However, the process made it possible to analyze a …

The Effects Of Caffeine Supplementation On Vertical Jump Performance, Lucas Paul Bloms

Theses and Dissertations

The Effects of Caffeine Supplementation on Vertical Jump Performance. Introduction: Caffeine enhances performance of many types of exercise, but its effects on vertical jump are unclear. Purpose: To investigate the effects of caffeine on vertical jump tests on a force platform. Methods: The study was a single-blind, randomized, crossover design. Participants consumed either caffeine (5 mg/kg body weight) or placebo. After a sixty-minute waiting period participants performed three squat jumps and three countermovement jumps separated by 30 seconds each while standing on a force platform. There were two minutes of rest between the two different types of jumps. Results: In …

Improving Student Relatedness Through An Online Discussion Intervention: The Application Of Self-Determination Theory In Synchronous Hybrid Programs, Nikolaus Theodor Butz

Theses and Dissertations

Students' feelings of relatedness (i.e., feeling connected to others) are crucial for success in both asynchronous and synchronous learning environments; however, courses taught in these formats often limit relatedness development, either by removing spontaneous interaction (e.g., asynchronous delivery) or by introducing seemingly incompatible online and on-campus factions (e.g., synchronous delivery). As such, it was hypothesized that the strengths of one delivery mode could offset the weaknesses of the other. The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate an online discussion board intervention designed to scaffold relatedness development. Deci and Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory (SDT) was adopted as the …

Determination Of Aldehydes In Particulate Matter Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Manikyala Rao Chintapalli

Theses and Dissertations

A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method has been developed for the determination of a broad range of aldehydes (including, hydroxylated and aromatic aldehydes) in particulate matter (PM). In this method, the aldehydes are derivatized with O-2, 3, 4, 5-pentafluorobenzyl hydroxylamine hydrochloride (PFBHA) using various solvents for extraction and derivatization including acetonitrile, water, methanol, and acetonitrile/dichloromethane/methanol. An ACN/DCM/MeOH mixture with sonication was shown to be optimal as it increased the derivatization efficiency in addition to efficient extraction for all tested aldehydes. The optimal derivatization conditions were determined and then tested on a variety of oxy-PAHs which resulted in a complete derivatization …

Are Larger Recalls More Damaging For Shareholders? Evidence From U.S. Automotive Recalls, 2005-2014, Christopher J. Crow

Theses and Dissertations

Motor vehicle recalls occur frequently in the United States. The number of motor vehicles being recalled has been increasing substantially over time. This paper examines whether the number of vehicles recalled per month has an effect on the shareholder’s monthly abnormal return. Monthly abnormal return is the return which cannot be explained by the overall movement of the market. Five major auto manufacturers are included in this analysis with data ranging from April 2005 to December 2014. Two techniques are used in this paper; first, I use a series of ordinary least squares models followed by a series of mean …

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Wing Color Pattern Development In Vanessa Cardui And Evolution Of The Polycomb Repressive Complex 2, Heidi Connahs

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present four papers. Three explore different aspects of wing color pattern development in the painted lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui; while the fourth examines the evolution of an epigenetic silencer complex across invertebrate animals. In the first paper, I used transcriptomics to identify patterning genes from the Drosophila wing gene regulatory network (GRN) in larval and pupal wings of V. cardui and to examine how temporal expression dynamics of this gene network correspond to expression of ommochrome and melanin pigment genes. This study identified key developmental periods of gene upregulation and highlights the temporal separation between peak …

Geochemical Modeling Of Electron Donors For Denitrification In The Oruanui Ignimbrite Near Lake Taupo, Nz, Laura Ann Gelles

Theses and Dissertations

Lake Taupo, a lake in New Zealand valued for its clear blue waters, is increasingly under the threat of degraded water clarity. Understanding the fate of nitrate entering the lake from surrounding pastoral lands is critical to maintaining the water quality.

Electron donor contributions to denitrification in the Oruanui ignimbrite were estimated using an in situ mesocosm, water quality data, and the geochemical modeling software PHREEQC. The geochemical results were modeled using denitrification reactions for electron donors and compared to measured water quality data. A successful model was defined as the best match of measured and modeled values of major …

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Graduate Students' Experiences Of Plagiarism By Their Professors, Kimberly Dawn (Hanson) Becker

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study expands the inquiry on perceived academic misconduct by investigating the experiences of graduate students who have reported a professor’s misattribution of their work. The participants include five graduate students who formally reported a violation of academic integrity because they believed a faculty member had misattributed their work. During the incident, the faculty and students both participated in an academic setting in one or more of the following types of relationships: committee chair–advisee, committee member–student, classroom professor–graduate student, and research supervisor–graduate assistant. Two central research questions frame this study: How do graduate students who have reported that their …

An Experimental Investigation Into The Effects Of High Free-Stream Turbulence On Full Coverage Shaped Hole Film Cooling In An Accelerating Boundary Layer, Joseph Kingery

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to experimentally investigate the effects of high free stream turbulence on shaped hole film cooling and heat transfer in an accelerating boundary layer. Film cooling is one of most widely used techniques in cooling high pressure turbine blades and endwalls, whether they are land based power turbines or those used for aircraft propulsion. In the section immediately after the combustor, there is very high turbulence and acceleration, and adequate cooling must be implemented to ensure that components do not prematurely fail. This study is able to apply high turbulence intensities to a test section …

Does Sleep Affect Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (Doms) In Olympic Hockey Players?, Monique Edith Lamoureux

Theses and Dissertations

A quantitative study was conducted on the 2014 USA Women’s Olympic Hockey Team. Data was collected from the participants asking for the hours of sleep they got the previous night and how sore they were from the training on the previous day. These numbers were then analyzed to see if athletes who got less sleep reported higher soreness ratings. Results showed that two days in Training Cycle 1 had two significant p-values that coincided with the two strongest negative correlations. Training Cycle 3 had one significant p-value trending in the opposite direction of the proposed hypothesis. The hours of sleep …

Climate Driven Hillslope Degradation Of Mono Basin Moraine, Eastern Sierra Nevada, California, Usa, Risa Madoff

Theses and Dissertations

Regolith transport within the uppermost 30-50 cm of Earth's surface is responsive to shifts in climate. Rates of surface change affect accumulation rates of sediment and nutrients, thereby affecting ecology, surface stability, and the ability to date landform surfaces. However, little is known about the quantitative effects past climates have had on the long term evolution of the landscape. A space-for-time substitution method was used to study this knowledge gap. Known degradation rates from widely varying climates were used to generate a transfer function where published paleo-temperature records from the Death Valley sediment core (DV93-1) were applied to derive paleo-degradation …

Designing Fiction-Based Close Reading Experiences For The High School English Language Arts Classroom, Aubrey Jean Mcnary

Theses and Dissertations

The Common Core State Standards are forcing educational professional to develop high-level literacy skills and habits in a student population that is indisputable diverse and generally ill prepared for the demands of the secondary classroom. The practice of close reading is a means of literacy instruction that continually pushes students back into the text to answer text-dependent questions of varying, yet higher, levels of thinking. A variety of lesson plans and text-dependent questions were generated for three pivotal novels to demonstrate close reading as a means of achieving CCSS-level reading and thinking in the general secondary ELA classroom.

Sensory Processing And Conducive Study Environments, Katrina Kotta

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Clustering And Control Of Streaming Synchrophasor Datasets, Anupam Mukherjee

Theses and Dissertations

With the large scale deployment of phasor measurement units (PMU) in the United States, a resonating topic has been the question of how to extract useful “information” or “knowledge” from voluminous data generated by supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), PMUs and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

With a sampling rate of 30 to as high as 120 samples per second, the PMU provide a fine-grained monitoring of the power grid with time synchronized measurements of voltage, current, frequency and phase angle. Running the sensors continuously can produce nearly 2,592,000 samples of data every day. This large data need to be …

Critical Evaluations Of Modis And Misr Satellite Aerosol Products For Aerosol Modeling Applications, Yingxi Shi

Theses and Dissertations

The study of uncertainties in satellite aerosol products is essential to aerosol

data assimilation and modeling efforts. In this study, with the assistance of ground- based observations, uncertainties in Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) collection 5 Deep Blue (DB), Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) version 22 aerosol products, and the newly released collection 6 Dark Target over-ocean and DB products were evaluated. For each product, systematic biases were analyzed against observing conditions. Empirical correction procedures and data filtering steps were generated to develop noise and bias reduced DA-quality aerosol products for modeling related applications.

Special attention was also directed at the …