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Development And Optimization Of Integrated Microwave Enhanced Extraction As A Sample Preparation Technique: Environmental, Clinical And Green Chemistry Applications, Sejal Iyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Authors describe the development of a novel technique, Integrated Microwave Extraction (IME), an enhancement for Microwave Assisted Solvent Extraction (MASE). Solvents are optimized for chemistry and microwave absorption is modified using secondary microwave absorbers enabling traditional solvent applications. The salient features of IME are its equipment integration and secondary heating technology, which are aimed at overcoming deficiencies of MASE. Comparative studies of IME with traditional extraction techniques were carried out. IME will thus prove to be a time saving method with the added advantages of being economical, safe and environmentally friendly process. The data indicates equivalent recoveries for both classes …

Middle School Teachers' Beliefs About How They Communicate Caring And Students' Perceptions Of Their Teachers' Caring Behaviors, Cynthia D. Kainaroi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was three-fold: to examine the behaviors middle school teachers use and believe communicate caring and students' perceptions of their caring behaviors; to determine if a discrepancy exists between the two; and to identify the nature of any discrepancies. Participants included 16 eighth grade teachers and 184 eighth grade students. Data were collected through the use of a teacher questionnaire and an anonymous student writing assignment. Teacher and student responses were grouped into emerging themes of caring. The methodology used in this study to analyze the results included calculating and comparing the percentage of teacher and …

Kidney Development In Eleutherodactylus Coqui With Relation To Edema Syndrome, Seung Yun Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vertebrates develop embryonic kidneys before the final adult kidney. Particularly for organisms with aquatic larvae such as frogs, the first embryonic kidney, the pronephros is essential for the larvae's survival. Those larvae with defective or without pronephroi exhibited pronounced edema. Edema is severe swelling of a body part as a result of fluid retention. To date, although the embryonic kidneys have been extensively studied in various model organisms, it has not been studied in Eleutherodactylus coqui. E. coqui is a direct developing frog and lacks a tadpole phase in its life cycle. I examined the kidney development in E. coqui …

Effects Of Emotional Intelligence Training On Incarcerated Adult Males Involved In Pre-Release Programming, Holly Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation summarizes a study conducted to explore the effectiveness of emotional intelligence (EI) training for adult male inmates. Acts of crime and violence cause psychological repercussions to crime victims and financial burdens on our society. Historically, those involved in the criminal justice system have strived to gather knowledge about criminal behavior in order to guide interventions. Furthermore, research on potential interventions has been encouraged in order to support evidence-based rehabilitative efforts that may ultimately impact recidivism. Emotional intelligence is a relatively new construct that may be related to social functioning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the …

Financial System In Economic Development: The Nature And Role Of A Robust Financial System In The Economic Transformation Of Uganda, Frederick Leo Nkwasibwe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Financial System in Economic Development: The Nature and Role of Robust Financial System in the Economic Transformation of Uganda is a thesis that treats the nature and role of the massive network of efficient as opposed to dysfunctional financial institutions and functions in the mobilization and allocation of financial resources for creative investment and economic transformation of Uganda.

The thesis suggests that a market-focused robust financial system utilizing a Rural Reach Refocus Financial Model (the 3-R Financial Model), spurs the entrepreneurial revolution, offers debt and equity financing, and enhances economic transformation. It also highlights the basic conditions for the success …

Structural And Functional Modifications Of Human Serum Albumin By Lipid Peroxidation By-Products, Amy Pollock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By-products of lipid peroxidation, specifically alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes, are known to modify nucleophilic amino acid residues, including lysine residues, in proteins. The produced alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes are stable enough to migrate from their site of origin, therefore allowing them to come in contact with a wide range of biomolecules in the system. Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant plasma protein. It contains 58 lysine residues that are distributed throughout the sequence and tertiary structure of the protein, several of which are surface exposed. The research presented herein explores the possibility that HSA provides an outlet of consumption for …

A Case Study Of The Impact Of Zero-Based Staffing And The Teacher Selection Process In The Improvement Of Academic Success Indicators In An Underachieving Elementary School In Maryland, David Reeder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This case study examined the process of zero-based staffing as a reform model for improving academic achievement at an underachieving elementary school in a county school system in Maryland. The process of zero-based staffing involved the involuntary transfer of all professional staff from the building. This study examined the zero-based process used to restructure the school, the teacher selection process, and the characteristics of the teachers selected for the school. A qualitative design methodology was employed to examine the processes through a naturalistic inquiry approach. Four semistructured interview instruments were utilized to gather data from the superintendent, principal, teachers, and …

The Role Of The Pseudomonas Aeruginosa 1244 Pilin Glycan In Virulence, Jennifer Roguskie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The pili of P. aeruginosa 1244 are involved in a post-translational modification in which an acidic carbohydrate moiety structurally similar to the lipopolysaccahride (LPS) O-antigen is covalently attached to the pilin protein. It has been shown that this associated glycan is evenly distributed over the entire surface of the pilus. Because of its prime location along the pilus, experiments were conducted to determine if the pilin glycan contributed to the virulence of P. aeruginosa. Initial studies involved the assessment of LD50 values to demonstrate that acquisition of the exoU gene increased the virulence of PA1244. Interestingly, the LD50 studies suggested …

Expresson Of The Endodermal Marker, Ecsox17, During Embryogenesis Of The Direct Developing Frog, Eleutherodactylus Coqui, Srikanth Singamsetty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the model amphibian, Xenopus laevis, the HMG box transcription factor, Sox17, is expressed throughout the vegetal region that forms the endoderm. It is both necessary and sufficient for the endoderm formation. In order to study endoderm formation in the direct developing frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui, its Sox17 orthologue EcSox17 was cloned by Sean Willamson. To look at the expression of EcSox17, I designed primers and did RT-PCR on whole embryos. EcSox17 was expressed from cleavage to hatching of free-living froglet. EcSox17 RNA was present in the ovaries, an expression which has not been reported in any other vertebrate. Whole mount …

Childhood Fire-Setting: A Contextual Understanding, Andrew Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research on fire-setting has been either totally theoretical or has been based on limited contact with individuals who set the fires. This dissertation accessed fire-setting through interviews with three male adults who set fires as children. Background information was acquired from the participants to construct the context in which each instance of fire-setting occurred. The purpose of this project was to understand each individual's life as a child in relation to his fire-setting behavior.

The initial goal of this project was to gain access to the actual experience of setting a fire; however, this proved to be an elusive …

Whiteness And The Return Of The "Black Body", George Yancy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation project is to theorize and understand Black embodiment within the context of white hegemony, that is, within the context of a white racist anti-Black world. I theorize the Black body as a site of lived historicity vis-á-vis whiteness as the transcendental signified or as that which takes itself to be "unconditioned." I theorize how the Black body, under the power of the white gaze, which is linked to cultural, symbolic, and material power, undergoes what I refer to as a "phenomenological return." Examples were taken from the work of Ralph Ellsion, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B Du …

Spatial And Temporal Variation In Phytoplankton Community Characteristics In A Southeastern Reservoir / By Engela Sthapit, Engela Sthapit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Stereo Propaganda : Re-Imagining The South Through Stereographic Photography And The History And Photographs From The African-American Community Of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

City On A Hill : John Mccrady's Oxford, Mississippi, Teresa Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coverage Path Planning And Control For Autonomous Mobile Robots, Mohanakrishnan Balakrishnan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coverage control has many applications such as security patrolling, land mine detectors, and automatic vacuum cleaners. This Thesis presents an analytical approach for generation of control inputs for a non-holonomic mobile robot in coverage control. Neural Network approach is used for complete coverage of a given area in the presence of stationary and dynamic obstacles. A complete coverage algorithm is used to determine the sequence of points. Once the sequences of points are determined a smooth trajectory characterized by fifth order polynomial having second order continuity is generated. And the slope of the curve at each point is calculated from …

Synthesis Of Alkylthiol-Containing Fluorene Derivatives For Gold Nanoparticle Functionalization, Sriram Mukundarajan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel synthetic methodology has been developed for attaching fluorene derivatives, containing different types of electron donating and accepting groups at the 2 and 7 positions, to gold nanoparticles of different sizes by exploiting the affinity of the thiol functional group for gold. The distance between the dye and nanoparticles was varied by introducing two alkyl chains containing different number of carbon atoms at the 9 position on the fluorene ring system. The methodology that was developed gave enough scope for performing Radiative Decay Engineering (RDE) studies, in order to investigate the impact of gold nanoparticles on the singlet oxygen …

Design Of A Dynamic Focusing Microscope Objective For Oct Imaging, Supraja Murali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a novel optical imaging technique that has assumed significant importance in bio-medical imaging in the last two decades because it is non-invasive and provides accurate, high resolution images of three dimensional cross-sections of body tissue, exceeding the capabilities of the current predominant imaging technique –ultrasound. In this thesis, high resolution OCT is investigated for in vivo detection of abnormal skin pathology for the early diagnosis of cancer. The technology presented is based on a dynamic focusing microscopic imaging probe conceived for skin imaging and the detection of abnormalities in the epithelium. A novel method for …

An Assessment Of Mental Health Counseling Services Provided By Florida Public Community Colleges And Universities, Tito Jovan Benjamin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess mental health counseling services provided by Florida public community colleges and universities. The researcher of this study designed the Counseling Center Questionnaire instrument. This instrument consisted of two different questionnaires, one for community colleges and the other for universities. The questionnaires were developed to ascertain information regarding mental health services provided by higher education institutions. The questionnaires yielded information pertaining to (a) which Florida community colleges and public universities were offering mental health counseling services to students, (b) the types of mental health counseling services provided, (c) the types of problems/issues students …

Discrete Wave Propagation In Quadratically Nonlinear Media, Robert Iwanow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discrete models are used in describing various microscopic phenomena in many branches of science, ranging from biology through chemistry to physics. Arrays of evanescently coupled, equally spaced, identical waveguides are prime examples of optical structures in which discrete dynamics can be easily observed and investigated. As a result of discretization, these structures exhibit unique diffraction properties with no analogy in continuous systems. Recently nonlinear discrete optics has attracted a growing interest, triggered by the observation of discrete solitons in AlGaAs waveguide arrays reported by Eisenberg et al. in 1998. So far, the following experiments involved systems with third order nonlinearities. …

The Effects Of A Single Exercise Bout On Plasma Leptin Concentration In Obese Males, George Kyriazis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent findings suggest that leptin may be regulated in response to abrupt changes in energy homeostasis. Therefore, it is conceivable that transient changes in energy balance induced by exercise may also regulate leptin synthesis and secretion. As such, we hypothesized that acute increases energy expenditure (i.e. exercise), may regulate leptin concentrations in obese individuals. Fifteen healthy obese males underwent either a single exercise session of moderate intensity (58.4 % ± 4.0 of VO2max) for 60 min (n=8), or served as controls (n=7). The exercise session elicited an energy expenditure of 567±80 Kcal. No significant changes in plasma leptin (pre 23.5± …

Effects Of Reduced Ras And Volume On Anaerobic Zone Performance For A Septic Wastewater Biological Phosphorous Removal System, Daniel Magro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Enhanced Biological Phosphorous Removal (EBPR) performance was found to be adequate with reduced Return Activated Sludge (RAS) flows (50% of available RAS) to the anaerobic tank and smaller than typical anaerobic zone volume (1.08 hours hydraulic retention time or HRT). Three identical parallel biological nutrient removal (BNR) pilot plants were fed with strong, highly fermented (160 mg/L VFAs), domestic/industrial wastewater from a full scale wastewater treatment facility (WWTF). The pilot plants were operated at 100%, 50%, 40% and 25% RAS (percent of available RAS) flows to the anaerobic tank with the remaining RAS to the anoxic tank. In addition, varying …

Compressed Pattern Matching For Text And Images, Tao Tao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The amount of information that we are dealing with today is being generated at an ever-increasing rate. On one hand, data compression is needed to efficiently store, organize the data and transport the data over the limited-bandwidth network. On the other hand, efficient information retrieval is needed to speedily find the relevant information from this huge mass of data using available resources. The compressed pattern matching problem can be stated as: given the compressed format of a text or an image and a pattern string or a pattern image, report the occurrence(s) of the pattern in the text or image …

Couple Play As A Predictor Of Couple Bonding, Physical Health And Emotional Health, Linda Vanderbleek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditional couple counseling research focused on why people end relationships, with research only recently addressing what factors contribute to relationship satisfaction and stability. Yet, throughout this research, minimal attention has been paid to the role of play in couple counseling. The research available on play in couple counseling had varied definitions of couple play and was not based on current couple counseling theory. The research and anecdotal data on couple play proposed a strong relationship between couple play and the factors that predict successful, long-term couple relationships, individual physical health and emotional health. This study applied current couple counseling theory …

Perceptions Of Research Administrators On The Value Of Certification, Thomas Joseph Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived value of certification to research administration professionals and demographic characteristics. This study sought to determine whether those who have attained the Certificate in Research Administration (CRA) perceive a benefit to their careers and why most research administrators do not attempt certification. The primary research question studied is concerned with the relationship between perceived value of the CRA to research administration professionals and demographic characteristics. The survey instrument, Research Administrator Survey, was electronically distributed to 277 research administrators based in the Southeast region of the National Council of University Research Administrators …

Ritual, Myth, And Symbol In The Field Of Nuclear Posturing, Sean Noah Walsh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since their inception, the actual use of nuclear weapons in conflict is extremely limited. There have been only two documented occurrences which were committed exclusively by the United States. By contrast, however, state posturing with nuclear weapons occurs with regularity transcending historical situations, national wealth, military power, or even the actual possession of nuclear weapons. Rationalist arguments that depict nuclear posturing as a means of deterrence appear insufficient given its tendency to unbalance perceptions of equilibrium, and the public nature in which it occurs. Instead, I examine nuclear posturing by the United States during the Cold War as a form …

Empirical Modeling Of A Marijuana Expectancy Memory Network In Children As A Function Of Age And Marijuana Use, Jacqueline Alfonso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present investigation modeled the expectancy memory organization and likely memory activation patterns of marijuana expectancies of children across age and marijuana use. The first phase of the study surveyed 142 children to obtain their first associate to marijuana use. From their responses, the Marijuana Expectancy Inventory for Children and Adolescents (MEICA) was developed. The second phase of the study administered the MEICA to a second sample of 392 children to model marijuana expectancy organization and probable memory activation paths of marijuana users versus never-users. Results indicated that irrespective of age, adolescents who have used marijuana tend to emphasize positive-negative …

The Development Of A Fuzzy Model To Quantify Training Andeducational Factors And The Resulting Impact On Student Successand Lear, Chandre Butler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The utilization of fuzzy mathematical modeling for quantification of the quality of training and educational delivery is an innovative application that can result in measurable and repeatable results. This research was designed to apply proven quantification techniques and Industrial Engineering methodologies to a nontraditional environment. The outcomes of this research provide the foundation, initial steps and preliminary validation for the development of a systematic fuzzy theoretical model to be applied for the quantification of various areas within training and education delivery. The test bed for this methodology is Orange County Public School system, the twelfth largest school district in the …

Messenger Rna Profiling: A Prototype Method For Body Fluidand Tissue Identification, Jane Juusola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conventional methods of body fluid identification use labor-intensive, technologically diverse techniques that are performed in a series, not parallel, manner and are costly in terms of time and sample. Furthermore, for some frequently encountered body fluids, such as saliva or vaginal secretions, no confirmatory technique exists. Terminally differentiated cells, such as blood lymphocytes or epithelial cells lining the oral cavity, have a unique pattern of gene expression, which is evinced by the presence and relative abundance of specific mRNA species. If the type and abundance of mRNAs can be determined in a stain or tissue sample recovered at the crime …

Non-Silicon Microfabricated Nanostructured Chemical Sensors For Electric Nose Application, Jianwei Gong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A systematic investigation has been performed for "Electric Nose", a system that can identify gas samples and detect their concentrations by combining sensor array and data processing technologies. Non-silicon based microfabricatition has been developed for micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) based gas sensors. Novel sensors have been designed, fabricated and tested. Nanocrystalline semiconductor metal oxide (SMO) materials include SnO2, WO3 and In2O3 have been studied for gas sensing applications. Different doping material such as copper, silver, platinum and indium are studied in order to achieve better selectivity for different targeting toxic gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide etc. Fundamental issues like sensitivity, …

Synthesis, Characterizations, And Evaluation Of New Reactive Two-Photon Absorbing Dyes For Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence Imaging Applications, Katherine J. Hales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent, cooperative advances in chemistry, biology, computing, photophysics, optics, and microelectronics have resulted in extraordinary developments in the biological sciences, resulting in the emergence of a novel area termed 'biophotonics'. The integrative and interdisciplinary nature of biophotonics cuts across virtually all disciplines, extending the frontiers of basic cellular, molecular, and biology research through the clinical and pharmaceutical industries. This holds true for the development and application of the novel imaging modality utilizing multiphoton absorption and its extraordinary contribution to recent advances in bioimaging. Intimately involved in the revolution of nonlinear bioimaging has been the development of optical probes for probing …