Digital Commons Network^™

A Fractal Analysis Of Estrogen, Estrogen-Receptor Interactions And Estrogen Metabolism In Two Related Species Of Catfish, Harshala D. Butala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Soil Biogeochemical Properties And Seed Bank Dynamics Of Timber Harvested Lands In Lafayette And Calhoun Counties, Mississippi, Lisa Chambers-Strong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Using Microarray Data To Analyze Biological Pathways, Liang Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Protein Folding And Misfolding Mechanisms - Pathological Implications, Detection And Modeling, Nigil Satish Jeyashekar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Smoking Prevention Television Advertisements By Middle School Youth: Effects Of Gender, Ethnicity, And Grade Level, Anne Bongiorno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smoking is the number one preventable cause of cancer deaths, yet more than 3,000 children start smoking each day (United States Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2001). There is a growing body of evidence that smoking behaviors in youth can be changed through effective health communication but little is known about how to systematically design and evaluate messages to achieve this outcome (Hornik, 2002). The literature is sparse about how messages are evaluated by youth. No published literature was found about how the ethnicity of featured actors in tobacco prevention television advertisements (spots) influenced youth evaluation of spots …

Follow-Up Of College Students With A History Of Developmental Speech Disorders, Christine Buchheit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined 16 college students with a childhood history of an articulation disorder involving isolated "residual" phoneme errors (RE) and 16 control subjects. Subjects were administered an experimental battery designed to tax the phonological system. Measures included conventional and pseudo-word spelling, syllabification, nonsense word repetition, and expository writing. Subjects also responded to questions assessing student adjustment and academic performance. Results revealed that the RE subjects performed comparably to controls on all of the experimental and academic/adjustment measures (p < .05). Two subjects in the RE group were still producing noticeable articulation distortions as adults. One of these subjects had highly favorable outcomes, whereas the other subject performed relatively poorly on several of the experimental and student adjustment measures. These findings suggest that some individuals who make persistent articulation distortion errors as adults may display subtle phonological and or social deficits that should be explored in future research.

"All Hayll, All Hayll, Both Blithe And Glad": Direct Address In Early English Drama, 1400-1585, Michelle Markey Butler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines direct address in English drama from 1400 to 1585. All 91 non-fragmentary plays from this period were used in order to enable a comprehensive understanding of the technique. While direct address is widely acknowledged as a fundamental technique in early English drama, it is almost never studied, its effects and functions being assumed to be 'obvious' and 'natural,' and therefore neither requiring nor meriting focused consideration. This study shows that direct address was used systematically in early drama, and its effects could be quite sophisticated. To see this, it is crucial to consider the use of rhetorical …

Regulation Of Steroid Sulfatase In Human Breast Cancer Cells And Screening Of Human Tissues For Steroid Sulfatase Status, Abhinav Chandra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer in women and is the second leading cause of death. About 40% of breast cancers are hormone-dependent and require estrogen for their growth. The steroid sulfatase pathway is an important means of converting local inactive estrogens to their active forms, thus supporting tumor growth. A substantial amount of research has been performed in the design of steroid sulfatase inhibitors, but the regulation of steroid sulfatase has been largely overlooked. My goal was to study the regulation of steroid sulfatase by different steroid hormones, using two human breast cancer cell lines the hormone-dependent …

Statistically Designed Spheronization And Scale-Up Of Ibuprofen Microparticulates Using The Rotor Disk Fluid-Bed Technology: Coating For Prolonged Release And Hard Gelatin Encapsulation Of Microparticulates, Beatrice Chukwumezie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim was to develop uncoated and coated ibuprofen microparticulates in a one-step fluid-bed machine with rotor-disk insert, for immediate and prolonged drug delivery. Feasibilty studies using ibuprofen: Avicel (RC-581; 50:50), sodium lauryl sulfate (1%) as surfactant and water as binder in FLM-15 Vector Flo-coater with 12" stainless-steel and waffle-disk inserts showed that amount of binder, plate type and the presence of surfactant affected most of spheroid characteristics. These variables were used in a 2x2x3 full factorial (replicated) experiment. Blocking was used to study batch-to-batch reproducibility of the process and product variables. Our results confirmed that the binder amount, plate-type …

Isolation Of Intragenic Suppressor Mutations Of A Dominant-Negative Ftsz Allele, Carla Ciccone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Streptomyces coelicolor, a gram-positive bacterium containing division genes that are dispensable for growth and viability. ftsZ encodes the earliest acting cell division protein in prokaryotes. In S. coelicolor a mutation at codon 275 in ftsZ (ftsZ25), changes an alanine to a valine causing a block in division. Using a homology model of the crystal structure of FtsZ, I hypothesized that changing another amino acid having direct interaction with amino acid 275 might restore function. The structure-directed mutation changed a leucine to a valine at codon 259. The double mutation did not restore division to the organism; this change alone also …

Evaluation Of The Design, Development, And Implementation Of The School Performance Network Portal And Communication Institute, Josephine Crame

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The School Performance Network (SPN) Portal was envisioned during the formation stage of SPN as the primary mechanism for K-12 educators and SPN partners, to communicate and to collaborate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the design, development, and implementation of the SPN Portal and Communication Institute as they demonstrate fidelity to SPN's mission: to connect educators with resources and ideas to improve teaching and learning resulting in a change of the culture of education in South Western Pennsylvania. This study investigated the formative stages of the design, development, and implementation of the School Performance Network (SPN) Portal …

Culture Care Of Puerto Rican Elderly In A Community Setting, Rosemary Schleicher Fliszar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this ethnonursing study was to discover the culture care meanings, beliefs, expressions, and practices of urban elderly Puerto Ricans residing in a mid-sized community. The Culture Care Theory was used as the guiding framework in studying the domain of inquiry: the discovery of the meanings and practices of generic care and professional health care of elderly community dwelling Puerto Ricans. The qualitative research method used for this study was the ethnonursing research method. Twelve key informants and twenty-one general informants were interviewed. Four themes were extracted from analysis of the data, and patterns to support the themes …

Feeding Identity: The Critical Hermeneutics Of Contemporary Kleinian Psychoanalytically Oriented Psychotherapy From The Perspective Of A Novice, David M. Greco-Brooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Clinical supervision is required for every graduate student pursuing a clinical track in psychology. Yet empirical research has focused almost exclusively on identifying efficacious supervision techniques in terms of altering "trainee characteristics" rather than investigating in depth the effects of supervision as changes in the characteristics of the trainee's communicative behavior. Moreover, the question of how the specialized communicative behavior practiced by the trainee works to facilitate change for the client/patient has not been addressed by quantitative empirical studies of supervision or psychotherapy process. This study addresses these problems by asking: (1) What characterizes the author's specialized communicative competence after …

The Influence Of Stigma On Help Seeking Attitudes For Depression, Margaret Jordan Halter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Major depression is a common, debilitating, and life threatening illness, and its treatment may be hampered by stigma. There have been a limited number of studies that link stigma and help seeking attitudes for depression. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to identify the relationship between stigmatizing attitudes and help seeking behavior. Also of interest was the impact of person-level variables that may be associated with a person's desire to seek help. Goffman's Stigma Theory and Weiner's Attribution Theory served as theoretical foundations. Data were collected by questionnaires distributed to patients (N = 117) waiting to be seen …

The Use Of Speech Disfluency As An Indicant Of Paradigm Development In Pharmacy's Academic Subdisciplines, Erin Renee Holmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study compared speech disfluency rates within five subdisciplines of pharmacy to estimate their paradigm development, and identified alternative factors associated with differing rates. Rates were observed in randomly selected courses. Lecturers completed a modified version of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation survey and a self-rated anxiety measure. Ten percent of recordings were randomly selected for analysis by two judges to determine inter-reliability. An ANCOVA was conducted on the frequency of lecture disfluencies, with the frequency of interview disfluencies serving as the covariate. The overall mean disfluency rate in lectures was 2.11 disfluencies/minute. Average dislfuency rates among the five …

Nitrogen Metabolism In Iron-Respiring Bacteria, Ching (Tony) Lung Hsieh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen metabolism was investigated in three species of iron respiring bacteria Geobacter metallireducens, Geobacter sulfurreducens, and Sulfurospirillum barnesii. G. metallireducens and G. sulfurreducens were shown to grow in medium containing N2, NO3-, or NH4 but nitrite inhibited growth. BLAST analysis of the draft genomic sequence of G. metallireducens revealed only Nar, Nrf, and Nif homologues but no assimilatory genes (i.e., Nas). Two nar operons were identified, narCGHJIK1K2, and narCGHI. A putative CAP/CRP recognition binding site was found upstream and two molybdenum biosynthetic genes were found downstream of the large operon. Both operons contain a novel cytochrome c (NarC) that has …

Changes In Islamic Hermeneutics And Social Evolution: A Comparative Study Of Turkey And Algeria, Sadik Kirazli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In comparing the evolution of the current struggle between religious challengers and the ruling class in Algeria and Turkey, this paper examines why and how Algerians became involved in a civil war which has continued almost six years, and why Turkey was not like Algeria. In order to carry out this investigation, the following research questions are developed: What key factors favored or discouraged the use of violence in both countries?

Since religion in and of itself does not lead to intolerance, what are the key factors that nourished the deviant interpretation? What is the impact of the sociopolitical cultural …

Uncoiling The Gut Of Eleutherodactylus Coqui: Characterization Of The Anatomical Development And Proliferation Pattern, Carrie Elizabeth Langer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the frogs there are two forms of development: biphasic and direct. Xenopus laevis, a biphasic developer, develops from an embryo into a tadpole, and then metamorphoses into an adult frog. Eleutherodactylus coqui is a direct developer, meaning that it lacks a tadpole stage. The embryo develops directly into the adult form. Comparing development between these two frogs provides insight on the evolution of these groups. I present an anatomical description of the gut development of E. coqui, and compare my findings to the development of X. laevis. E. coqui does not have a highly coiled gut like that of …

An Evaluation Of The Wider Horizons Program In Pittsburgh Form 1989 To 2002, Breandan Gearard Magee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research was an evaluative study of the Wider Horizons program in Pittsburgh from 1989 to 2002. This program offers young unemployed Irish and Northern Irish adults the opportunity to live and work in the USA for up to eight weeks.

A sample population of 44 past participants partook in qualitative interviews to help determine if the Wider Horizons program had achieved its three stated goals. The three dependant variables in this study were, one securing employment upon return to Ireland, secondly one returning to further education upon to Ireland, and finally a recorded increase in one's ethno-religious tolerance upon …

Regulation Of Vitellogenin And Other Serum Proteins By Estrogen And Xenobiotic Estrogens In Salamanders, Lisa Marie Nespoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental estrogens pose potential health risks to humans and wildlife by disrupting physiological and developmental processes; therefore, our laboratory has been designing in vivo bioassays on induction of the egg-yolk precursor protein vitellogenin. I have provided information on vitellogenin induction by estrogens in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum), spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum), hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), Morelet's crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii), and developed vitellogenin immunoassays in these species. Salamanders were estrogen-injected; blood was collected at intervals. Estrogen exposed male salamanders of all species, produced substantial quantities of a 200-kDa protein, the approximate size of vertebrate vitellogenins. Sequencing of estrogen-induced proteins showed substantial homology …

Socratic Encounters: Plato's Alcibiades, Andre Archie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to situate our reading of the Platonic dialogue Alcibiades Major among both ancient and modern readings of the dialogue. Since the nineteenth century the issue of authenticity has preoccupied most modern commentators of the dialogue, but from all reasonable evidence, commentators from the ancient world had no such qualms about attributing the authorship of Alcibiades Major to Plato. Our reading of Alcibiades Major is in line with modern commentators who take both the dialogue's dramatic features and educative value seriously, while not ignoring that in some quarters Alcibiades Major's authorship is still in dispute. …

Interart Studies From The Middle Ages To The Early Modern Era: Stylistic Parallels Between English Poetry And The Visual Arts, Roberta Aronson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops and applies interart studies, an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of literature. The four chapters are unified by an interart analytic methodology intended either to bring a new insight to an unresolved topic in literary interpretation or to offer a new interpretation of a major poem in English literature. The approach is best characterized as "synchronic," a term that Murray Roston uses to designate the interrelation of the visual and literary arts of the same era. The synchronic approach demands that parallels drawn between the visual arts and a literary work be stylistically and thematically clear and …

Propensity To Engage In Interracial Dialogue On Race: A Descriptive Study Of Participants And Contributing Factors, Rebecca Willow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This hermeneutic inquiry examines factors that contribute to the self-selection of participants in interracial dialogue on race and the implications of the findings. This study was conducted within the socio-cultural context of race relations in the United States where the problem of racism has defined the national character, has arguably been the most divisive force in the country's consciousness, and remains its central social problem. Throughout U.S. history, a great deal of national energy has been generated and invested in racially influenced movements followed by efforts to make amends for such movements (e.g., slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil …

Frederick Douglass And The Gospel Of Zarathustra / By Neil Segars, Neil Segars

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Natural Disasters On Congressional Elections / By Henry Alfred Sumrall, Ii, Henry Alfred Sumrall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Drag Force On Emergent Vegetation / By Sandeep R. Vittalam, Sandeep R. Vittalam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

American Shame : The Psychodynamics Of Willa Cather's The Song Of The Lark, Stephen Monroe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Sexual Aggression And Impulsivity : An Examination Of Impulsivity As A Moderating Variable In Sexual Aggression, Hillary Hunt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Looking Inside : Autobiographical Reflections Of Five Mississippians, Anne M. Mueller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Part 1 : Synthesis, Characterization, And Oxidation Reactions Of Mono- And Dinuclear Ferrocene Complexes Part 2 : Preparation Of Methylethylimidazolium Nonoachloroditungstate (Iii), Jacob Joseph Eftink

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.