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Behavioral Symptoms, Functional And Cognitive Recovery Post-Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Seema Nasser

Dissertations

Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) accounts for 80–90% of the nearly two million traumatic brain injuries (TBI) that occur each year. The psychological consequences of MTBI can be extensive and can persist well beyond the acute injury, profoundly impacting the lives of the individual, their families, and society. A substantial number of MTBI patients suffer depressive mood, fatigue, and poor sleep (i.e., behavioral symptoms) for weeks and months post-injury. These symptoms reduce quality of life and delay the return to previous cognitive and functional status. Behavioral symptoms of depressed mood, fatigue, and poor sleep commonly co-occur and thus may constitute …

Frnk Regulatory Complex Formation With Fak Is Regulated By Erk Mediated Serine 217 Phosphorylation, Taylor J. Zak

Dissertations

Focal adhesion kinase related non-kinase (FRNK) is an endogenous inhibitor of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) that has traditionally been used to inhibit FAK signaling in a variety of experiments and is also an important endogenous regulator of FAK signaling. More recently, FRNK has been shown to be of increasing importance in some pathologic conditions. Despite the increasing importance of FRNK, the molecular mechanism by which it functions remains unclear. In addition, FRNK contains several phosphorylation sites with unknown importance and function. Here I hypothesize that FRNK can inhibit FAK by binding directly to FAK within focal adhesions. Furthermore, I propose …

Los Recién Llegados: Construyendo Collaborative Relationships Between Recently Arrived Salvadoran Parents And Educators In The Nation's Capital, Ingrid Tamara Colon

Dissertations

This qualitative study explored recently arrived Salvadoran parents in Washington, D.C. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to learn the perspectives that recently arrived Salvadoran parents have about their children's education to build and sustain collaborative relationships in schools. This study holds implications for schools, school administrators, teachers, teacher preparation programs, policy makers, and educational researchers serving recently arrived Salvadoran immigrants. Specifically, this dissertation calls for educators and stakeholders to directly learn from recently arrived Salvadoran parents to identify and address the unique needs of their children in U.S. schools.

This dissertation examined the following question: What perspectives do …

Narrative Medicine And Health Care Ethics: Religious And Literary Approaches To Patient Identity And Clinical Practice, Tara Flanagan Tracy

Dissertations

This dissertation examines practices of narrative medicine and moral identity for end-of-life patients, with special attention given to Aristotle's Poetics and the work of Paul Ricoeur. While noting the genuine value of narrative medicine for clinicians, I examine the limits of self-narration for patients who are unable to offer a linear, coherent narrative of their lives due to cognitive deficits such as Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, the premise of narrative medicine, that being a close reader of texts can develop the ability to attend closely to patients, remains useful. When the sources used in narrative medicine are expanded to include those …

Social Support And Well-Being Among Foster Care Youth: Self-Concept As A Mediator, Anne Kathleen Fuller

Dissertations

Youth in the child welfare system frequently undergo a variety of adverse experiences, including maltreatment, living in poverty, placement changes, school changes, and relationship disruptions. As a group, these youth exhibit poorer psychosocial functioning (e.g., elevated rates of mental health difficulties, poorer social and academic competence) than their peers, yet there is also evidence that a number of youth in foster care are functioning relatively well and can be perceived as demonstrating resilience. The present study examined self-concept as a mediator of hypothesized associations between social support and four domains of psychosocial functioning: internalizing problems, externalizing problems, social competence, and …

Heterocycles Via The Pd-Catalyzed Heterofunctionalization Of Alkylidenecyclopropanes, Phillip Roman Lazzara

Dissertations

Natural compounds are often used as inspiration for novel chemical structures that provide medicinal benefits to human health. The unique 3-dimentional structures of these molecules make the majority of them synthetic challenges for organic chemists. While there is great diversity among these molecules, many of these carbon-based compounds exhibit similar key structural features. One of the most common features amongst biologically active molecules is a rigid carbon ring bearing nitrogen or oxygen atoms, which are known as heterocycles. The structural rigidity of heterocycles helps properly align key interactions of the molecule with those of a specific protein, which causes the …

Sleep-Wake Disturbances In Adolescents With Spina Bifida: Prevalence And Associations With Bio-Neuropsychosocial Functioning, Caitlin Beth Murray

Dissertations

Sleep is a critical component of healthy development during adolescence, and when disrupted, has been linked to difficulties with physical status, psychological health, family functioning, neuropsychological symptoms, and academic performance. The overarching goal of this project was to examine sleep-wake disturbances in association with bio-neuropsychosocial functioning in a vulnerable pediatric population of adolescents with spina bifida (SB). Specifically, this study aimed to 1) examine sleep-wake patterns in adolescents with SB using a multimodal sleep assessment, 2) identify daily temporal associations between sleep and pain as well as sleep and mood, and 3) identify the relationship between sleep-wake disturbances and bio-neuropsychosocial …

Characterization Of Quorum-Quenching Lactonases And Plp-Dependent Aminotransferases: Structure, Mechanism And Alternative Turnover, Romila Nina Mascarenhas

Dissertations

Cell-to-cell communication by bacteria is essential for the regulation of gene expression important in colonization, biofilm formation, virulence and other processes. This communication is called "quorum-sensing" and is mediated by small molecules called autoinducers. One major class of autoinducers used by gram-negative bacteria is N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHL's). Enzymes capable of disrupting this communication are called "quorum-quenching" catalysts and have proven to be invaluable biochemical tools for understanding quorum-sensing pathways. Quorum-quenching enzymes hold promise for application in anti-biofouling, agriculture, aquaculture, bioremediation and other synthetic biology settings. However, the mechanisms that these enzymes use to recognize and process their substrates are …

Husserl And Community, Sean Stephen Petranovich

Dissertations

This dissertation is on Edmund Husserl's concept of personal community. I argue that Husserl's concept of community is based on his formal theory of parts and wholes. More specifically, it is argued that the terms Husserl uses to describe features of community in his later writings are already established early in his philosophical career. The first three chapters of the dissertation focus on Husserl's unique conception of community in general. The final two chapters turn to political communities from a Husserlian standpoint.

In the first chapter, I investigate how Husserl's account of the ontological structure of community is tied to …

Maintaining And Improving Academic Achievement In The Midst Of Significant Demographic Change: A Case Study Analysis, Aaron Raatjes

Dissertations

The research of Mei Jiun Wu (2013) indicates that demographic change greater than 1% has significant impact on the achievement performance of school districts. This study analyzes a single district that experienced an average of 1.25% demographic change per year consisting of an increase of non-White students from 2002 to 2015. Despite this compounding change, the district was able to maintain and improve academic achievement. This study utilizes Marzano and Waters' (2009) framework for school leadership as well as Lindsey, Nuri-Robins, and Terrell's (2009) Framework for cultural proficiency to better understand how the district was able to maintain and improve …

The Master And The Midwife: Levinas And Plato On Teaching, Rebecca Glenn Scott

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the concept of teaching as it appears in the work of Emmanuel Levinas. In particular, I show how Levinas's notion of teaching arises out of both a retrieval and a critique of Platonic thought. On the one hand, Levinas embraces the transcendence of Platonism, but at the same time, he is often quite critical of Socratic education. I argue, contrary to Levinas, that Socratic education is, in fact, consonant with Levinas's philosophy, particularly when we recognize that Levinas's notion of a primordial teaching must involve a relation both with "absolute" alterity and with what he …

Role Of Jagged1 In The Enrichment Of Cancer Stem Cells In Her2+ Breast Cancer, Deep Shah

Dissertations

Purpose: Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2) positive subtype of breast cancer is driven by a subpopulation of cells possessing stem cell properties of self-renewal and differentiation, known as Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs). CSCs are implicated in tumor growth as well as radiotherapy and chemotherapy associated resistance. Notch receptors promote breast CSCs survival and self-renewal, and overexpression of Notch ligand Jagged1 predicts poor prognosis. We showed previously that Notch could be an important target in trastuzumab/lapatinib resistant HER2+ breast cancer.

Experimental Design: Here, we sought to …

Romantic Ends: Death And Dying, 1776-1835, Andrew J. Welch

Dissertations

Romantic Ends reinterprets of the origins and legacies of romantic death, the cultural spectacle exemplified by the dramatic deaths of young poets like John Keats. Against the widespread belief that romanticism ushered in a uniquely theatrical vision of death, Romantic Ends traces a long history of death as rhetorical performance, from the early modern ars moriendi ("art of dying") to the neoclassical obsession with the good death. The poetic deaths of the romantic period established a new repertoire of tropes and figures out of these longstanding and disparate deathbed traditions, set within the emerging discursive arena of "poetry." Yet while …

Towards Improving Visqol (Virtual Speech Quality Objective Listener) Using Machine Learning Techniques, Joseph Mcnally

Dissertations

Vast amounts of sound data are transmitted every second over digital networks. VoIP services and cellular networks transmit speech data in increasingly greater volumes. Objective sound quality models provide an essential function to measure the quality of this data in real-time. However, these models can suffer from a lack of accuracy with various degradations over networks. This research uses machine learning techniques to create one support vector regression and three neural network mapping models for use with ViSQOLAudio. Each of the mapping models (including ViSQOL and ViSQOLAudio) are tested against two separate speech datasets in order to comparatively study accuracy …

An Exploration Study Of Using The Universities Performance And Enrolments Features For Predicting The International Quality, Aeshah Althagafi

Dissertations

Quality ranking systems are crucial in the assessment of the academic performance of an institution because these assessment systems give details about how different learning institutions deliver their services. Education quality is also of paramount importance to the students because it is through quality education that these students develop skills that are needed in the job market. Besides, education enhances a student's academic and reasoning capacities. When universities are subjected to ranking systems, they are likely to improve their quality to be ranked high in the system. When the university administrators are exposed to ranking, competition gears up. Through competition, …

The Influence Of Sensor-Based Intelligent Traffic Light Control On Traffic Flow In Dublin, Katja Rademacher

Dissertations

With growing cities and the increased use of vehicles for transportation purposes, there is a demand to make the traffic management in cities smarter. An intelligent traffic light control that dynamically adapts to the existing traffic conditions can help reduce traffic congestion and CO2 emissions. This thesis reviews the popular traffic light control approaches - static, actuated and adaptive – based on their influences on recorded traffic conditions in Dublin. The Irish capital relies heavily on busses for public transport adding to the number of already moving vehicles in the city centre. Using vehicle count data from inductive loop detectors …

Application Of Supervised Machine Learning To Predict The Mortality Risk In Elderly Using Biomarkers, Priyanka Sonkar

Dissertations

The idea of long-term survival amongst older individuals has been a major medical and social concern. A wide range of biomarkers have been identified to prospectively predict disability, morbidity, and mortality outcomes in older adult populations. The machine learning techniques applied with clinically relevant biomarkers provide new ways of understanding diseases and solutions to tackle challenges to the health of the aging population. This paper describes two supervised machine learning techniques, Logistic Regression (LR) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) which are used in the prediction of the mortality in elderly people. LR is one of the traditionally used predictive modeling …

Modeling Mortgage Assessment With Computational Argumentation Theory And Defeasible Reasoning, Henrik Szucs

Dissertations

In the mortgage lending business of a bank, a key focus area is risk analysis, which supports the mortgage awarding process and the prediction of the risk of defaulting (repayment issues). The standard risk assessment method at most banks is a scorecard calculation. A new way of predicting the defaulting is proposed using Defeasible Reasoning (DR) and computational Argumentation Theory (AT), areas of interdisciplinary research, in the discipline of Articial Intelligence (AI). Argumentation is formalised by reasoning models which are inspired by human reasoning. For a more realistic representation AT employs DR which is a non-monotonic reasoning process, meaning that …

Cyber Bullying Among Irish Primary School Pupils, Eret Haava

Dissertations

Most research on cyber bullying has been carried out at a secondary school level among older children. Because of the sensitive nature of cyber bullying, there is very little research done at primary school level, however more and more it is starting to affect younger children. As all parents know from their own experiences, children’s lives nowadays are influenced by different electronic communication devices and the Internet. In addition to this, year on year they gain access and own them at earlier ages.

Synthesis Of Amphiphilic Pegylated Poly([Alpha]-Amino Acid) Tercopolymers And The Impact Of Molecular Architecture On Their Use As Gene And Drug Delivery Vectors, David J. Ulkoski

Dissertations

Poly(α-amino acid)s (PAAs) are a diverse class of polymers that can be synthesized or biologically derived. PAAs have been widely used for biomedical applications due to their biodegradability and biocompatibility. Living polymerization through ring opening polymerization of amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides using a nucleophilic initiator provides the potential to manipulate polymer architecture and physiochemical characteristics. In this study, we investigate the use of amphiphilic block and random PAA tercopolymer constructs that contain ionic and hydrophobic components. The amphiphilic character for each tercopolymer allows for the formation nanoparticles that can be used in gene and drug delivery. Each tercopolymer component provides a …

Discrete Time Structured Models And Their Dynamics For Interactive Wild And Sterile Mosquitoes And Malaria Transmissions, Yang Li

Dissertations

Mosquito-borne diseases, including malaria, transmitted between human beings by blood-feeding mosquitoes, have been big concerns for the public health. No vaccines are available. An effective way to prevent such diseases is to control the amount of mosquitoes. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is indeed a method of biological control. Mathematical models have proven useful in gaining insights into challenging questions in population dynamics and epidemiology. The objectives in this dissertation is to formulate new models for interactive wild and sterile mosquitoes so that the dynamics are relatively simpler and mathematically more tractable, but the fundamental model features are snatched. Instead …

Novel Methods In Harvest Of Microalgae And Extraction Of Lipids From Dilute Microalgal Suspension For Biofuel, Chen Zhang

Dissertations

A method of using organic solvent (hexane, 1-butanol, ethyl acetate) to harvest freshwater microalgae Nannochloropsis sp. by tuning microalgal cell surface hydrophobicity with low pH was reported. Harvesting experiments were performed with culture suspension of 60 mL with biomass concentration of 0.35 g/L and 0.85 g/L. Due to cell surface hydrophobicity, microalgal cells attach to the organic solvent and water interphase after separation. Suspension pH of 3 resulted in the highest harvesting efficiency (92-99%) depending on the organic solvent with processing time of 3 min. This method is efficient, cost-effective and eco-friendly as the supernatant can be reused as growth …

A Model Of Distress Tolerance In Self-Damaging Behaviors: Examining The Role Of Emotional Reactivity And Learned Helplessness, Brittany Kay Sommers

Dissertations

Problem

Although the literature is clear that low emotional distress tolerance is associated with a myriad of self-damaging behaviors, very little is known about individual difference factors in distress tolerance. Both theoretical and empirical support suggest that emotional reactivity and learned helplessness may be individual difference factors in distress tolerance. Specifically, individuals with high emotional reactivity and high learned helplessness may be at risk for low distress tolerance. Further research was needed to clarify the role of emotional reactivity and learned helplessness in distress tolerance in the context of self-damaging behaviors.

Method

Participants completed surveys which measured their (a) emotional …

Emotional Intelligence And Decision-Making As Predictors Of Antisocial Behavior, Melina Sample

Dissertations

Problem

Antisocial behaviors in the general population are not well understood and little studied, however, their acceptance is becoming more normalized and accepted by society. This present study intended to focus on the contributing factors of emotional intelligence and decision-making to the presence of antisocial behaviors, and how these contributions vary by gender.

Method

This study used the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire – Short Form, and the General Decision Making Style Inventory to explore the relationships between the three variables. A structural equation model was developed to examine the theoretical covariance matrix proposed in comparison …

Mindset, Academic Motivation, And Academic Self-Efficacy As Correlates Of Academic Achievement Among Undergraduate Students In Communication Sciences And Disorders Programs, Heather Loraine Ferguson

Dissertations

Problem

Higher education serves many stakeholders including students, parents, faculty, staff, university administrators, and other contributors. Those stakeholders are all linked with one purpose: the success of the student. That success or failure is most commonly measured by achievement through grade point average (GPA). The academic demands within the college/university setting is high. Limited academic achievement can result in academic failure, being placed on academic probation, even losing scholarships and grants. Students enter college, progress through college, and often graduate without having a real understanding for what it truly takes to be academically successful and what factors may contribute to …

Toward The “Better Than Well” Cultural Ideal: Understanding Changing Conceptualizations Of Illness And Wellness And North American Parenting, Pedagogy, And Education Policy (19th-21st C.), Nicole Ortegon

Dissertations

In the history of the United States, dominant conceptualizations of mental illness and wellness have been informed by scientific discourses situated in somatic and psychogenic-based paradigms – each affecting parenting, pedagogy, and education policy. From the late nineteenth through twentieth century, the field of psychiatry would come to endorse a primarily psychogenic rather than somatic-based approach to mental health, conceiving of the mind rather than body as the primary locus of illness and wellness. This resulted in a shift from a problem-focused paradigm of mental illness to prophylactic-focused paradigm of mental wellness. Secondary scholarship on the history of psychology and …

Site Specific Isotopic Labeling Of Phenylalanine And Tyrosine : Application To Pth1, Bhargavi Ramaraju

Dissertations

Structural insight into biological macromolecules furthers understanding of function and provides a variety of information about cellular processes. Though NMR spectroscopy can be utilized to provide such insight, limitations, including size, are significant barriers. Site specific isotope labeling can be used to provide information on a variety of systems including large, slow tumbling systems and membrane proteins that are not amenable to study by traditional means. In effect, site specific isotope labeling increases the size barrier and thereby number of macromolecular systems able to be studied by NMR spectroscopy. Methyl labeling has been established as a leading method for site …

The Effects Of Wing Flexibility On The Flight Performance And Stability Of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles, James Edward Bluman

Dissertations

Insect wings are flexible. However, the influence of wing flexibility on the flight dynamics of insects and flapping wing micro air vehicles is unknown. Most studies in the literature consider rigid wings and conclude that the hover equilibrium is unstable. This dissertation shows that a flapping wing flyer with flexible wings exhibits stable natural modes of the open loop system in hover, never reported before. The free-flight insect flight dynamics is modeled for both flexible and rigid wings. Wing mass and inertia are included in the nonlinear equations of motion. The flapping wing aerodynamics are modeled using a quasi-steady model, …

Quantum Dot Photoluminescent Dynamics And Exciton-Plasmon Coupling In The Presence Of Dielectrics, Metal Oxides, And Metallic Nanoparticles, Waylin J. Wing

Dissertations

Nanomaterials such as quantum dots (QDs) and metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) play an important role in physics and engineering, especially for applications such as next-generation display devices or computer processors. When used simultaneously, QDs and MNPs can couple together through a mechanism called exciton-plasmon coupling. This dipole-dipole coupling yields increased control over the optical properties of the combined system, such as enhanced emission, polarization selectively, and directionality of light. In this dissertation, a new method by which to increase the strength of exciton-plasmon coupling is presented which can boost the emission efficiency of QDs beyond the currently known plasmonic channels. This …

Gradient Coverslip (Gcvsl) : A Novel Way To Culture Cells Under Hypoxia, Brenda Smith Wright

Dissertations

Solid tumors can have areas of hypoxia. Hypoxia is associated with changes in tumor cell metabolism, with radiation therapy resistance, with chemotherapy resistance, and with tumor aggressiveness. Yet most cell culture research and drug studies are based on cell lines grown in atmospheric oxygen (normoxia). Our hypothesis was that differences in protein levels, differences in mitochondrial morphology, and differences in killing of cells by drug compounds in normoxic and hypoxic conditions would be observed. Normoxic conditions were achieved by culturing cell lines in humidified incubators supplemented with 5% CO2. Hypoxic conditions were achieved by culturing cells in a culture chamber, …