Digital Commons Network^™

Chemistry Of Dithiolenes And Their Nickel And Molybdenum Complexes, Archana Nigam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A new class of dithiolene ligand containing a pyran ring that mimics a biologically important MPT (molybdopterin) have been proposed and the key reactions have been established to synthesize this ligand. Along with that, new dithiolene complexes of nickel [Ni(dt)2]n, where dt=dithiolene ligand, n=charge, have been synthesized and characterized by several spectroscopic techniques. A characteristic low energy charge transfer band in UV-visible spectra is found to be the good indicator of purity as well as the anionic states of the nickel complexes.

A ligand exchange reaction using neutral nickel complexes and molybdenum carbonyl complexes has been utilized to synthesize (LN2)MoO(dt) …

Examining The Perspectives Of An Interdisciplinary Treatment Team Regarding The Implementation Of A Sensory Motor Group Trauma Curriculum In A Child And Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program, Barbara Peck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A trauma curriculum was introduced at a child and adolescent partial hospitalization program. This study examined (a) the impact of the trauma curriculum on the partial hospitalization program; (b) the perspectives of the multi-disciplinary treatment team--teachers, teacher aides, trauma clinicians for the children and adolescents in the partial program, parents/caregivers, the facility's psychiatric nurse, the facility's medical director, and county program specialists--and a panel of expert practitioners toward the curriculum, and (c) any changes in the perspectives of the multi-disciplinary treatment team concerning the concept of trauma and its effects. To answer the research questions of this qualitative study, an …

Evaluating Human Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells And Mg-63 Cells On Vitoss, Chronos Granulat And Chronos For Use In Bone Tissue Engineering, Hina Qidwai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The delivery of human adult mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSC) using bone void fillers is a novel approach for use in bone tissue engineering. The evaluation of hAMSC and osteoblast-like MG-63 cell activity on three β-tricalcium phosphate-based bone void fillers (Vitoss, ChronOS Granulat and ChronOS) has not been carried out. Human osteosarcoma cells (MG-63 cells), as well as hAMSCs, readily seed over 90% of the available biomaterials under static culture conditions, and the attached cells proliferate to extensively cover the biomaterials as seen by DAPI staining and LIVE/DEAD viability staining. The attached cells are over 90% viable after 7 days in …

Development, Research And Validation Of Environmental Speciation Methods; And Evaluation By Speciated Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry In Mercury And Chromium Speciation Analysis, G. M. Mizanur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The toxicity of an element depends upon its chemical forms, which also gives vital information for samples and their relevance. A sequential extraction method for mercury speciation in soil and sediments was established based on the mobility and toxicity of different mercury species and was proposed as a draft US EPA Method 3200. In order to finalize the method, an interlaboratory validation study was performed, and the final results verified the applicability of the method. Some of the widely used mercury speciation methods were evaluated during this study and the results were compared with those obtained from EPA draft Method …

A Comparison Of The Behavioral Adjustment Of First-Grade Students That Attended A Full-Day Kindergarten Program And First-Grade Students That Attended A Half-Day Kindergarten Program, Denise Shaffer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated and compared the behavioral adjustment of first-grade students that participated in a full-day kindergarten program and first-grade students that participated in a half-day kindergarten program. The researcher also examined gender interactions between the two groups. The study was conducted in two elementary schools in western Pennsylvania. Participants in the study included 10 first-grade teachers. Participants completed a total of ninety-three behavioral questionnaires. Student's t-tests and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. Results of the study showed no statistically significant difference in overall behavioral adjustment, impulsive acting out behaviors, passive-aggressive behaviors, impulsive overactive behaviors, repressed …

Functional Characterization Of The Csp Homologs Of E. Coli K-12, Christina Ventrice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

E. coli K-12 contains nine csp paralogs, cspA --cspI. Although the csp paralogs are conserved sequences that produce highly similar proteins, expression of each of these genes requires a different means of induction. While cspA, cspB, cspG, and cspI are induced by cold shock, cspC and cspE are constitutively expressed. cspD is induced by stationary phase. The type of induction, if any, needed for cspF and cspH is not known. Studies of CspE have demonstrated that the overexpression of this protein can confer a 10-fold resistance to the DNA decondensing agent, camphor, and upregulates the E. coli rcsA gene by …

Assessment Of Differences In The Balanced Emotional Empathy Among Beginning, Practicum And Graduating Students In A Counselor Education Program, Frank Yesko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was a quantitative analysis that investigated balanced emotional empathy differences among master's degree counseling students as they progressed through and graduated from a CACREP approved counselor education program.

The data was gathered through the assessment of the balanced emotional empathy levels of (a) students entering the counselor education program, (b) students participating in the practicum field experience aspect of their training and (c) students graduating from the counseling program. The assessment instrument that was utilized in collecting the data is Albert Mehrabian's Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES).

The results indicate there is no significant difference among beginning, practicum …

Coed Adolescent Soccer Players In A Competitive Learning Milieu: An Ethnographic Assessment Of Gender Attitudes, Perceptions And Sport Specific Component Testing, Francis O'Donnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The history of association soccer dates back to the 1800's, and all indications are that prospects for the female athlete was scarce in all sports. The researcher has arranged an environment where young females can train with males in a soccer setting that has all the necessary elements for the athletes to learn, improve and compete with their own gender as well as opposite gender. The female group has been noticeable underachievers in this sport and is not aware of their potential. The research methodology is ethnographic in nature and study could easily be related to a traditional way to …

The Use Of Pyrosequencing For The Analysis Of Y Chromosome Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, Jeremy Charles Fletcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The potential value of the Y chromosome for forensic applications has been recognized for some time with the current work dedicated to Short Tandem Repeat analysis and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) discovery. This study examined the ability of two different SNP analysis methods to determine if they could be utilized in forensic applications and ultimately be developed into an established system for Y chromosome SNP analysis. This study examined two principle SNP analysis systems: single base extension and Pyrosequencing. Pyrosequencing was determined to be superior to single base extension, due to the wealth of information provided with sequencing and the …

Nonlinear Adaptive Estimation Andits Application To Synchronization Of Lorenz System, Yufang Jin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Synchronization and estimation of unknown constant parameters for Lorenz-type transmitter are studied under the assumption that one of the three state variables is not transmitted and that transmitter parameters are not known apriori. An adaptive algorithm is proposed to estimate both the state and system parameters. Since Lorenz system shows the property of sensitivity to initial conditions and evolves in different mode with parameter variation, an equivalent system is introduced. The adaptive observer is designed based on this equivalent system without any requirement on initial conditions of the observer. It is shown by Lyapunov arguments and persistent excitation analysis that …

Female Sexual Offenders-An Underexamined Population, Creaig Anthony Dunton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sex crimes are considered to be among the most damaging and heinous forms of social deviance in existence. Besides the acts perpetrated by the offenders, the social stigma attached to being victimized is often just as injurious to the victim. Society sees males as the sole perpetrators of acts of sexual abuse, but this is not the case. The extant literature shows that women, while fewer in number, also perpetrate acts of sexual abuse and assault against other adults and children. This thesis is a preliminary typology that classifies female sexual offenders based upon the acts perpetrated, using cases presented …

Method For Determination Of Singlet Oxygen Quantum Yields For New Fluorene-Based Photosensitizers In Aqueous Media For The Advancement Of Photodynamic Therapy, Wade William Grabow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been investigated over the past three decades and is currently an approved therapeutic modality for skin cancer, the treatment of superficial bladder, early lung and advanced esophageal cancers, and age-related macular degeneration in a number of countries. In PDT, the absorption of light by a chromophore generates cytotoxic species such as reactive singlet oxygen, leading to irreversible destruction of the treated tissue. The measurement of the singlet oxygen quantum yield is an important determinant used to evaluate the efficiency of new photodynamic therapy agents developed in the laboratory, to screen potential photosensitizers in aqueous media.The singlet …

Chemical Structure - Nonlinear Optical Property Relationships For A Series Of Two-Photon Absorbing Fluorene Molecules, Joel Mccajah Hales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on the investigation of two-photon absorption (2PA) in a series of fluorenyl molecules. Several current and emerging technologies exploit this optical nonlinearity including two-photon fluorescence imaging, three-dimensional microfabrication, site-specific photodynamic cancer therapy and biological caging studies. The two key features of this nonlinearity which make it an ideal candidate for the above applications are its quadratic dependence on the incident irradiance and the improved penetration into absorbing media that it affords. As a consequence of the burgeoning field which exploits 2PA, it is a goal to find materials that exhibit strong two-photon absorbing capabilities. Organic materials are …

Communication Modality And After Action Review Performance In A Distributed Immersive Virtual Environment, Jason P. Kring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technological innovations in data transfer and communication have given rise to the virtual team where geographically separate individuals interact via one or more technologies to combine efforts on a collective activity. In military, business, and spaceflight settings, virtual teams are increasingly used in training and operational activities; however there are important differences between these virtual collaborations and more traditional face-to-face (FTF) interactions. One concern is the absence of FTF contact may alter team communication and cooperation and subsequently affect overall team performance. The present research examined this issue with a specific focus on how communication modality influences team learning and …

Evolutionary Optimization Of Support Vector Machines, Fred Gruber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Support vector machines are a relatively new approach for creating classifiers that have become increasingly popular in the machine learning community. They present several advantages over other methods like neural networks in areas like training speed, convergence, complexity control of the classifier, as well as a stronger mathematical background based on optimization and statistical learning theory. This thesis deals with the problem of model selection with support vector machines, that is, the problem of finding the optimal parameters that will improve the performance of the algorithm. It is shown that genetic algorithms provide an effective way to find the optimal …

A Comparative Static Analysis For Invasive Species Management Under Risk Neutral Preferences, Pamela Safford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the optimal ex-ante mix of self-protection and self-insurance technologies employed to reduce the risk of biological invaders in the presence of exogenous variables within the probability and damage functions. This is accomplished by using a theoretical endogenous risk model that extends previously developed frameworks. This thesis contributes to the previous work in two ways. (1) Employing a general framework with simultaneous decision making over self-protection and self-insurance, this thesis analyzes how each parameter including income, the costs of each activity, an exogenous factor that affects only the probability of an invasion, and a separate exogenous factor that …

The Proteomics Approach To Evolutionary Computation: An Analysis Of Pr, Ivan Garibay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the complexity of our society and computational resources increases, so does the complexity of the problems that we approach using evolutionary search techniques. There are recent approaches to deal with the problem of scaling evolutionary methods to cope with highly complex difficult problems. Many of these approaches are biologically inspired and share an underlying principle: a problem representation based on basic representational building blocks that interact and self-organize into complex functions or designs. The observation from the central dogma of molecular biology that proteins are the basic building blocks of life and the recent advances in proteomics on analysis …

Design, Fabrication And Testing Of A Shape Memory Alloy Based Cryogenic Thermal Conduction Switch, Vinu Bala Krishnan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) can recover large strains (e.g., up to 8%) by undergoing a temperature-induced phase transformation. This strain recovery can occur against large forces, resulting in their use as actuators. The SMA elements in such actuators integrate both sensory and actuation functions. This is possible because SMAs can inherently sense a change in temperature and actuate by undergoing a shape change, associated with the temperature-induced phase transformation. The objective of this work is to develop an SMA based cryogenic thermal conduction switch for operation between dewars of liquid methane and liquid oxygen in a common bulk head arrangement …

Synthesis And Polymerization Of Bifunctional Five-Membered Cyclic Dithiocarbonates And Their Use As Stabilizers For Magnetic Nan, Mohammed Daoudi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Novel bifunctional five-membered cyclic dithiocarbonates (1,3-oxathiolane-2-thione)s were synthesized by the reactions of the corresponding bifunctional oxiranes (epoxides) with carbon disulfide at room temperature with lithium bromide as catalyst. Full characterization of these monomers was performed including elemental analysis, proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy, and Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The polyaddition polymerization of 1,3-oxathiolane-2-thione with 1,4-diaminobutane at room temperature resulted in a poly(thiourethane) material. The latter undergoes crosslinking due probably to the autooxidation of the product and formation of disulfide linkages. The five-membered cyclic dithiocarbonate, 5-decyl-1,3-oxathiolane-2-thione, was used a model to demonstrate the usefulness …

Synthesis Of A Novel Family Of Amide Derivatives Of Podocarpic Acid, Dao Nguyen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a class, amides are of great interest in biological studies and pharmaceutical application. In this work, podocarpic acid, a natural tricyclic diterpene, derived from Podocarpus species, has been employed to form a novel family of amide derivatives which will later be studied for their potential as new drug leads. Novel amide derivatives of podocarpic acid were synthesized from podocarpic acid in three steps. The first step involved methylation with dimethylsulfate to form methyl-O-methylpodocarpate. This step was followed by iodination with iodine to give iodomethyl-O-methylpodocarpate. Finally amidation with various aliphatic amides using a copper catalyst yielded four amide derivatives of …

Affordances In The Design Of Virtual Environments, David Charles Gross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human-computer interaction design principles largely focus on static representations and have yet to fully incorporate theories of perception appropriate for the dynamic multimodal interactions inherent to virtual environment (VE) interaction. Theories of direct perception, in particular affordance theory, may prove particularly relevant to enhancing VE interaction design. The present research constructs a conceptual model of how affordances are realized in the natural world and how lack of sensory stimuli may lead to realization failures in virtual environments. Implications of the model were empirically investigated by examining three affordances: passability, catchability, and flyability. The experimental design involved four factors for each …

Effect Of Source Water Blending On Copper Release In Pipe Distribution System: Thermodynamic And Empirical Models, Weizhong Xiao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on copper release in drinking water. Qualitative and quantitative assessment of Cu and Fe corrosion by process water quality was assessed over one year in a field study using finished waters produced from seven different treatment process and eighteen pilot distribution systems (PDSs) that were made from unlined cast iron and galvanized steel pipes, and lined cement and PVC pipes taken from actual distribution systems. Totally seven different waters were studied, which consisted of three source waters: groundwater, surface, and simulated brackish water designated as G1, S1, and RO. With certain pre-established blending ratios, these three waters …

Folding, Mita Maity

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Acoustic Waves In Lithium Niobate Plates, Ashwini Almad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Repression Unbound : Validation Of The Index Of Self-Regulation Of Emotion, Mark Christopher Clayton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Phytochemical And Biological Investigation Of Alkaloids From Zanthoxylum Syncarpum Tull Leaves, Mounirah A. Al-Azeib

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Connections Between Gendered Constructions And Women's Lived Experiences In Light Of Feminist Awareness: An Empirical Hermeneutic Study, Erin Danto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored two women's gendered identities in an effort to elucidate oppressive aspects of patriarchal gender constructions. Gender was conceptualized in feminist post-structural terms, which meant that it was seen as an identity conferred upon women in the service of creating a hierarchical discourse. Since feminist post-structural theories are rarely explored empirically and women's experiences have often been overlooked, both of these issues were explored in the current study.

Participants' awareness of oppression and ability to dialogue with theory was addressed by soliciting women who had taken a gender-focused college course. The methodology was perspectival and co-participatory. The researcher's …

Whiteness As Experienced By People Of Color: An Empirical Phenomenological Study, Darryl Mars

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Racism against non-white people continues to be a significant problem as we enter the twenty-first century. While slavery and other objectionable racist practices may be in the past, subtle yet powerful racism remains. This study explores racism against non-white people in the present by examining the meanings of the signifier, whiteness, for three people who participated in this study.

The three participants are adults, one male and two females, who responded to a poster requesting non-white people to participate in this study. The participants provided written descriptions of situations in which they encountered whiteness, and they agreed to expand upon …

The Evolution Of Fire-Stimulated Flowering In The Genus Pityopsis, Amy K. Gowe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Establishing The Tougaloo College Art Collections : New York School Abstract Expressionists, Artists For Core, And The Art Committee For Tougaloo College, Susan Lloyd Mcclamroch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.