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The Neuropsychological Profile Of Older Adult Musicians And Non-Musicians : Implications For Cognitive Reserve In Late Life., Jessica Vemich Strong,

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Published literature studying children and adults musicians suggests significant differences in neuroanatomy, in brain regions that include the auditory and motor cortices, language centers, and frontal regions and tracts. Studies examining cognitive correlates to these neuroanatomical differences have consistently found that children and adult musicians have better cognitive abilities in the domains of language, verbal or non-verbal memory and executive function. Only one study has examined the differences in cognitive performance between older adult musicians and non-musicians to see how normal age-related cognitive changes may affect these differences. The current study compared cognitive test performance among older adult non-musicians, low-activity …

Temporal Information Processing Across Primary Visual Cortical Layers In Normal And Red Light Reared Tree Shrews., Wenhao Dang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Visual neuroscience research has benefitted from decades of efforts of comparative studies of different species, since exploring and understanding the diversity of functional properties of visual system in different species has helped us identify both general organization rules and unique traits of certain species. In this study, spatio-temporal receptive fields (STRFs), together with some other functional properties (etc. stimulus preference to different visual stimuli, orientation tuning, temporal frequency tuning and the F1/F0 ratio of responses to sine-wave grating stimuli), of primary visual cortex (V1) cells were measured in normally reared and red-light reared tree shrews (Tupaia), a species considered the …

Synthesis, Optimization, And Degradation Of A Fish Glue/Plga Polymer., Adam T. Schworer 1989-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biomaterials used for tissue engineering, specifically polymers, come from either naturally occurring, like gelatin or collagen, or synthetic sources, such as polyesters. Often times, it is advantageous to combine biomaterials in order to maximize certain material properties, such as cellular adhesion and degradation. The purpose of this study is to provide direction for the synthesis, characterization, and a combination of a combination biomaterial between fish glue (FG), a natural source polymer, and poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), a synthetically made polyester. First, FG is characterized for molecular weight via Gel Permeation Chromatography, GPC. Two combination methods to mix FG/PLGA solutions are then …

Identification Of Genes Required To Synthesize An Antibiotic-Like Compound From The Soil Bacterium Rhodococcus Sp. Mtm3w5.2, Amber L. Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rhodococcus is a soil bacterium, member of the Actinobacteria, and a close relative of the prolific small molecule producer Streptomyces. Recent interest in Rhodococcus as an under investigated source of possible bioactive secondary metabolites is sparked by the discovery of many polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase genes of unknown function from sequenced Rhodococcus genomes. Rhodococcus species strain MTM3W5.2 was recently shown to produce a strong inhibitory compound with activity against most strains of Rhodococcus and closely related genera. A goal of this investigation is to discover the gene(s) required to synthesize this inhibitory molecule. The engineered Rhodococcus …

Metabolic Profiles Of Household Pseudomonas Species Groups., Ogochukwu S. Onyiri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Resources influence the distribution, behavior, growth and reproduction of bacterial species. Understanding how closely related species utilize resources will shed light on the ecological traits or principles that shape biogeographic patterns and promote coexistence of species. Twelve Pseudomonas strains isolated from a single human home and PA01, the standard laboratory strain were evaluated in Luria Bertani media to understand whether their growth traits are influenced by their species group and/or their environment of isolation. Total growth, growth rate, early cumulative area under the growth curve (CUC) over 48 hours and viability (viable bacteria count per ml) at 24 and 48 …

An Analysis Of The Interaction Of Methylphenidate And Nicotine In Adolescent Rats: Effects On Bdnf, Elizabeth D. Freeman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This investigation was an analysis of the interaction of adolescent exposure to methylphenidate (MPH; trade name: Ritalin) on nicotine sensitization and conditioned place preference (CPP) in a rodent model and underlying mechanisms of this effect. Animals were treated IP with 1 mg/kg MPH or saline using a ―school day‖ regimen of five days on, two days off, from postnatal day (P) 28-50. During the final two weeks of MPH treatment, animals were either behaviorally sensitized to nicotine (0.5 mg/kg free base) or saline for 10 days, or conditioned to nicotine or saline using the CPP behavioral paradigm. In addition, three …

Linkage Analysis And Compositional Studies Of Β-Glucan From Saccharomyces Cerevisiae And Compositional Studies Of Mannan From Candida Albicans, Clara Arthur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The efficacy of a novel carbohydrate extraction procedure was investigated with methylation analysis and alditol acetate method by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. A published extraction procedure for β-glucans was compared to one developed in house. Both procedures gave a dominant glucose peak in the Gas chromatogram indicative of successful β-glucan isolation. Further linkage studies showed four linkage positions for β-glucans isolated with the published method; terminal, 1,3-linkage, 1,6-linkage and 1,3,6-linkage, while β-glucans isolated using the new method showed six linkage positions; terminal, 1,3-linkage, 1,6-linkage, 1,4-linkage, 1,2,3-linkage and 1,3,6-linkage. Diminishing β-glucan linkage peaks in the chromatogram for the published method indicated structure …

Student Perceptions: Teaching And Learning With Open Educational Resources, Janet L. Rowell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze factors that may contribute to student perceptions of courses using Open Educational Resources (OER). Specifically, the 6 independent variables tested were the course discipline, age, gender, course delivery mode, enrollment status, and number of credit hours taken. The dependent variables were measured as mean scores of 6 OER perception dimensions: motivation to learn, quality of learning experience, value of OER, cognitive learning, affective learning, and course quality. A 27-item online survey was administered to gather data from students enrolled in a course that used OER in the fall semester, 2014. There was …

“The Great Speckled Bird”- Early Country Music And The Popularization Of Non-Secular Song, Kris R. Truelsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perhaps no melody in the country music canon has been as widely recognized and borrowed from as that of the song “The Great Speckled Bird.” This significant song has become resonant and representative of both country music culture and religious culture of the Protestant South.

Through this historiographical study, I have traced the influences that helped shape “The Great Speckled Bird” and in so doing have illustrated distinct movements that led to popularizing the non-secular song through commercial country music. The composer’s use of sentimentality, neo- traditionalism, and religious ideas made it appealing to a rural southern culture struggling with …

Model Of A Tubular Perfusion Bioreactor Using Computational Fluid Dynamics., Matthew James Robeson 1991-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through recent years, many novel bioreactor designs for tissue engineering have emerged. The Tubular Perfusion System (TPS) is one such bioreactor for bone and cartilage tissue engineering. The TPS is a perfusion type bioreactor, in which media flows through a bed of scaffold beads. The advantage of this system over similar designs is that it requires no special fabrication techniques and operates at low pressure. Experimental trials have shown increased osteoblastic differentiation and mineralization of bone tissue grown using the TPS versus static culture. The effectiveness of the TPS in promoting osteoblastic differentiation is believed to be due to enhanced …

Dinosaur Nat'l, Joe Lennon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a collection of tyranno-lyrical poems which force voice onto various absences and absurdities encountered in the project of constructing or deconstructing an American identity. The collection uses as a unifying conceit the personification of the four letters which have been replaced by the apostrophe in the abbreviation “NAT’L.” Iona appears as a speaking character in many of the poems, pulling an “I” character into conversation with her. Iona and I’s conversations rely on and mangle the poetic language commonly used to identify the nation and what does or doesn’t belong to it—especially the language of folk songs and …

Innovative Educational Design: The Development Of Autonomous Schools, Jennifer E. Arzberger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Innovative Educational Design: The Development of Autonomous Schools captures an educator’s journey in developing an economically integrated, urban Expeditionary Learning charter school, an autoethnography of an educator embracing an entrepreneurial spirit and traversing the years prior to opening a school and obtaining unanimous approval from the authorizing board of education. Autoethnography provides the researcher with an opportunity to turn scholarly interests inward, bringing personal experiences to center stage revealing the culture of founding school leaders. Similar to an ethnographer describing the culture of a group of people and learning what it is like to be a part of the group …

Aging In Place: Perceptions Of Older Adults On Low Income Housing Waitlists, Angela L. Lavery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many American older adults with low incomes wait years for affordable housing or housing assistance. Insight is needed on the concerns of older adults who need to move but cannot. In addition, within the study of aging in place, there is a paucity of research regarding older adults with low incomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of aging in place from the perspective of older adults with low incomes, and to understand the process in making the decision to move to agesegregated housing. The purpose incorporated an examination of potential oppressive factors that …

Moses And Liminality, David J. Krouwer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Marked by two significant water crossings, the Hebrew Bible establishes the wilderness period in the Pentateuch as a liminal period marking rites of passage for the Israelites. Using a narrative critical approach and an anthropological understanding of liminality, this paper shows that Moses was depicted with an abundance of liminal characteristics and these made him the ultimate transitional tool for God to use in the maturation rites of his people. Further, known Essene beliefs and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the texts of the religious community that inhabited the site of Qumran in the latter half of the second temple period, …

Undead Empire: How Folklore Animates The Human Corpse In Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Charles Hoge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores representations of the human corpse in nineteenth-century British literature and ephemeral culture as a dynamic, multidirectional vehicle used by writers and readers to help articulate emerging anxieties that were complicating the very idea of death. Using cultural criticism as its primary critical heuristic filter, this project analyzes how the lingering influence of folklore animates the human corpses that populate canonical and extra-canonical nineteenth-century British literature.

The first chapter examines the treatment of the human corpse through burial and mourning rituals, as specific developments within these procedures provide interpretive windows into how the idea of death was quickly …

Lipid-Coated Gold Nanoparticle As A Biosensor For Lipid-Protein Interactions, Yuheng Cai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gold nanoparticles have been intensively studied for their unique optical features. Due to surface plasmon resonance phenomenon, gold nanoparticles can respond to the refractive index change of the environment near the particles. This phenomenon gives gold nanoparticles the potential to become biosensors that detect the biological interactions at or near the particles. In this work, gold nanospheres were coated with phosphatidylcholine as the substrate for lipoxygenase. It is demonstrated, in our work, that lipid coated gold nanospheres can be used to detect the activity of lipoxygenase and provide more information of this reaction than common assays, like conjugated diene assay …

Social Network Analysis Of Partner Preference In Lemon Sharks, Negaprion Brevirostris, During The Introduction Of Unfamiliars To Familiar Groups, Bryan Keller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to understand what drives group formations and to predict spatial occurrences, investigations on individual preferences within the groups have proved to be very useful. Groups of sharks have been observed for centuries; however, there is a dearth of quantitative analyses on the mechanisms that drive their formation. In this study, we use controlled, semi-captive behavioural experiments to assess the potential role of familiarity in group formation and on social behaviour in a large marine vertebrate. Juvenile lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris, (n =23) in Bimini, Bahamas were captured, measured and tagged with external colour codes for individual identification and …

Development Of A Kinetic Model To Investigate The Effect Of Compositional Variation And A Processing Condition On The Solid-State Degradation Of Gabapentin, Akshata Nevrekar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gabapentin is used in the treatment of seizures and neuropathic pain. Gabapentin undergoes intra-molecular cyclization to form a γ-lactam. The product lactam is twenty times more toxic than gabapentin, causing seizures in animal models. The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) limits the content of lactam in gabapentin formulations to 0.4% w/w. A number of patents have been issued for solid dosage forms formulated to stabilize gabapentin. Despite these efforts, factors contributing to gabapentin’s poor stability in the solid-state have not been explored completely.

It was hypothesized, that physicochemical properties of the excipients and compaction pressure will accelerate the solid-state degradation of …

Development Of A Surrogate Bruising Detection System To Describe Potential Bruising Patterns Associated With Common Childhood Falls., Raymond Dsouza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Child abuse is a leading cause of fatality in children aged 0-4 years. An estimated 1,700 children die annually as a result of child abuse of which threequarters (75.7%) of the children were younger than 4 years old1. Infants (younger than 1 year) had the highest rate of fatalities among the group. Many of the serious injuries and fatalities could have potentially been prevented if clinicians and child protective services were able to better distinguish between injuries associated with abuse versus those caused by accidents. Missed cases of child abuse have been shown to be as high as 71% of …

Charitable Activities Reported By Tax-Exempt Hospitals In Kentucky., Alexander Aldridge Kerns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: This dissertation is the first attempt to elucidate and analyze charitable activity expenditures reported on Internal Revenue Service Form 990 and Schedule H by 501(c)(3) and dual status tax-exempt general acute care hospitals located within the state of Kentucky. The study also represents the first attempt to examine the charitable activity expenditures reported by a constant set of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt hospitals over multiple fiscal years. Purpose: The dissertation’s primary research question: At what level were community benefit and certain other expenses reported on Internal Revenue Service Form 990 and Schedule H by 501(c)(3) and dual status tax-exempt general acute …

Shape Analysis Of The Human Brain., Matthew Joseph Nitzken 1987-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Autism is a complex developmental disability that has dramatically increased in prevalence, having a decisive impact on the health and behavior of children. Methods used to detect and recommend therapies have been much debated in the medical community because of the subjective nature of diagnosing autism. In order to provide an alternative method for understanding autism, the current work has developed a 3-dimensional state-of-the-art shape based analysis of the human brain to aid in creating more accurate diagnostic assessments and guided risk analyses for individuals with neurological conditions, such as autism. Methods: The aim of this work was to assess …

An Island-Based Approach For Rna-Seq Differential Expression Analysis., Abdallah Eteleeb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High-throughput mRNA sequencing (also known as RNA-Seq) promises to be the technique of choice for studying transcriptome profiles, offering several advantages over old techniques such as microarrays. This technique provides the ability to develop precise methodologies for a variety of RNA-Seq applications including gene expression quantification, novel transcript and exon discovery, differential expression (DE) and splice variant detection. The detection of significantly changing features (e.g. genes, transcript isoforms, exons) in expression across biological samples is a primary application of RNA-Seq. Uncovering which features are significantly differentially expressed between samples can provide insight into their functions. One major limitation with the …

Glycine Receptor Alpha Subunit (Glyra) Specific Inhibition Contributes To Ganglion Cell Signaling In Mouse Retina., Chi Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the retina, numerous types of neurons are wired together in a highly specific albeit complex pattern. This sophisticated retinal network allows extraction and encoding of more than 20 representations of the visual scene in its output neurons, the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Within the inner plexiform layer (IPL) of retina, glycine receptors (GlyRs) are expressed on different cell classes and modulate RGC visual activity to light onset (ON RGCs) and to light offset (OFF RGCs), for example, their temporal precision and gain control. There are four GlyR alpha subunits (GlyRα1-4) with differential expression patterns in IPL. Each mediates spontaneous …

Characterizing The Neuropeptide Pathways Between The Forebrain And The Pons., Ali Al-Magableh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many current health problems including obesity, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and type 2-diabetes can be attributed to diet. One powerful determinant of food selection is how good or bad a food 'tastes' (e.g. affective value), and is ranked highly by consumers as their top reason for choosing a food (e.g. preference). Learning plays an important role in the establishment and strengthening of food preference and, thus in guiding food choice and calories consumed. The basis of such learning is provided, in part, by limbic system modulation of gustatory neural processing at lower levels in the medulla and pons. I hypothesize …

Critical Insights Into The Pathogenesis Of Clinical Isolates Of Pandemic Influenza A(H1n1) 2009 Virus In Mouse And Ferret Models., Jeremy V. Camp 1980-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a minus-sense, segmented, single-stranded RNA virus that infects the respiratory tract of humans and can cause severe illness. Novel IAV variants perpetually emerge on every continent, and the emergence of variants with increased transmissibility and/or pathogenesis in the human population is a serious concern for global public health. Infection with IAV typically causes an acute, self-limiting upper respiratory tract disease. However, severe IAV disease is characterized by infection of the lower respiratory tract which can lead to pneumonia and may result in the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Viral and host contributions to …

Early Host Response And Immune Signaling To 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1n1) Viruses In Primary Cell Culture Models., Rachael Lask Gerlach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Influenza A virus (IAV) subtypes and even genotypes within subtypes can show differences in tropism (host, cell type), magnitude of infection, immune response and progression of illness. My dissertation focused on the development and use of two in vitro physiologically-relevant human cell culture models, well-differentiated normal human bronchial epithelial (wdNHBE) cells and human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) for the study of early IAV-host interactions. These models have given new insight into early host responses to seasonal H1N1 (BN59) and two pandemic A(H1N1)2009 viruses or H1N1pdm herein. The H1N1pdm are clinical isolates from a fatal (A/KY/180/10) and nonfatal (A/KY/136/09) case. In the …

The Citizen Police Academy : Rational Myths, Legitimization, And Emotion Work : The Effects Of Emotion On Acceptance Of Rational Myths., Michael Wayne Littrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The citizen police academy (CPA) is an example of how police departments around the United States are bridging the gap between the police and the community in which they work. The operation and curriculum of the citizen police academy are open to examination by police managers and community-relations officers and the public. This work adds to the existing literature on citizen police academies, community oriented policing, and institutional organizational theories by providing an in-depth qualitative look at participants’ experiences with a citizen police academy and addresses why police agencies adopt these groups into their outreach programming. This work does that …

“A Polished, A Practical, Or A Profound Education” : (Gendered) Rhetorical Literacies And Higher Learning In Louisville’S First Free Public High Schools, 1856-1896., Amy Jean Lueck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This archival project investigates the first public high schools in Louisville as they negotiated the means and ends of providing higher education to an increasingly diverse and expanding body of learners. Drawing on primary documents from the schools’ first four decades of operation—particularly school board reports, newspapers, and student writing—I foreground the interplay and overlap between regional and institutional identities and histories, which contribute to a rich and complex picture of “higher education” in the nineteenth-century US. Each chapter of the dissertation explores a distinct but overlapping aspect of the curriculum—including “practical” education, women’s education, and manual or industrial education—that …

William Faulkner And Alcoholism : Distilling Facts And Fictions., Quintin Thomas Chipley 1956-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Opinions about alcoholism as a construct, and opinions about William Faulkner’s alcoholism as a fact, have varied. By considering carefully the role alcohol plays in human society, and by looking at these matters of concern through several different lens models, we can explain both why Faulkner was attracted abnormally to alcohol and why others around Faulkner have responded ambivalently to him, to his drinking and to his fiction. Faulkner’s alcoholism was rumored and denied during his life (1897-1962), evaded and contested after his death, and consistently affirmed after 1980. Attention to David Minter and Joseph Blotner, biographers, reveals much about …

The Evolution And Ecology Of Individual Specializations Amongst A Group Of Dietary Generalists., Carl S. Cloyed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines individual diet specializations (IS) in a group of ecologically similar and evolutionarily related frogs and toads. Individual specialization is known to have widespread ecological and evolutionary effects. In an initial literature review (Chapter 2) I build a comprehensive theoretical framework showing how different types of population diversity can help, halt, or hinder sympatric speciation. I argue that IS can be maintained indefinitely in populations yet fail to lead to speciation because it is influenced by ecological conditions that may change. Additionally, IS can potentially aid niche partitioning among similar species, increasing species coexistence and resulting in less …