Digital Commons Network^™

Christ's Entry "Within The Veil" In Hebrews 6:19-20: The Old Testament Background, Richard M. Davidson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Externality Of Victim Care, Alan J. Meese

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Improved Hopfield Networks By Training With Noisy Data, Fred Clift, Tony R. Martinez

Faculty Publications

A new approach to training a generalized Hopfield network is developed and evaluated in this work. Both the weight symmetricity constraint and the zero self-connection constraint are removed from standard Hopfield networks. Training is accomplished with Back-Propagation Through Time, using noisy versions of the memorized patterns. Training in this way is referred to as Noisy Associative Training (NAT). Performance of NAT is evaluated on both random and correlated data. NAT has been tested on several data sets, with a large number of training runs for each experiment. The data sets used include uniformly distributed random data and several data sets …

Site-Directed Mutagenesis Of Atp Binding Residues Of Biotin Carboxylase: Insight Into The Mechanism Of Catalysis, Valerie Sloane, Carol Z. Blanchard, Frankie Guillot, Grover L. Waldrop

Faculty Publications

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase catalyzes the first committed step in fatty acid synthesis in all plants, animals, and bacteria. The Escherichia coli form is a multimeric protein complex consisting of three distinct and separate components: biotin carboxylase, carboxyltransferase, and the biotin carboxyl carrier protein. The biotin carboxylase component catalyzes the ATP-dependent carboxylation of biotin using bicarbonate as the carboxylate source and has a distinct architecture that is characteristic of the ATP-grasp superfamily of enzymes. Included in this superfamily are D-Ala D-Ala ligase, glutathione synthetase, carbamyl phosphate synthetase, N⁵-carboxyaminoimidazole ribonucleotide synthetase, and glycinamide ribonucleotide transformylase, all of which have known three-dimensional …

Fibers. A Model For Studying Cell Differentiation, Cell Elongation, And Cell Wall Biosynthesis, R. Zhong, D. H. Burk, Z. H. Ye

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Law And The Danger Of Freedom, Steven D. Paulson

Faculty Publications

Proposing a “third use of the law”—a law for Christians after faith—arises from a fear of freedom. It is finally a christological problem, since Christ put an end to the law not only in himself but also in us.

Classroom Influences On First-Grade Students’ Oral Narratives, Judy A. Abbott, Sarah J. Mccarthey

Faculty Publications

As apart of a longitudinal project examining first-grade reading instruction in 4 districts across the state of Texas, this study explored the nature of students' oral narratives and the connections between teachers' instructional practices and students' narratives. Using an adaptation of Hudson & Shapiro's (1991) narrative categories, we examined 166 narratives generated by firstgrade students, categorizing each as an event-script, a less-developed narrative, a well-developed narrative, or an "other" An exemplar narrative from each of the 4 categories and 2 other narratives that represented the diversity of student responses and the complexity of the relationships between student performance and teacher …

Embryonic Stem Cell Research As An Ethical Issue: On The Emptiness Of Symbolic Value, Kevin Quinn

Faculty Publications

The ability to generate a wide variety of stem cell lines (in relatively renewable tissue cultures) opens up a whole new world of breathtaking possibilities for science and medicine. The possibilities include: "in vitro studies of normal embryo-genesis, human gene discovery, and drug and teratogen testing and as a renewable source of cells for tissue transplantation, cell replacement, and gene therapies." But it also opens up a world of complications.

Human EG and ES cells must be recovered from aborted fetuses or live embryos. Because primordial gonadal tissue is removed from fetuses after their death, the derivation of EO cells …

Experimental Evaluation Of Vitellogenin As A Predictive Biomarker For Reproductive Disruption, Ann Oliver Cheek, Thea Hoexum Brouwer, Suzanne Carroll, Steve Manning, John A. Mclachlan, Marius Brouwer

Faculty Publications

Vitellogenin (VTG) synthesis in male oviparous vertebrates is used as an indicator of environmental estrogen exposure, but the relationship between elevated VTG levels and the effects of environmental estrogens on reproductive success are poorly understood. To examine whether altered VTG expression predicts reproductive impairment, we exposed medaka (Oryzias latipes) for 2 or 8 weeks posthatch to 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, and 7.5 ppb of the environmental estrogen o,p ' -DDT. Fish were sampled 2, 4, and 8 weeks after hatch to examine VTG expression and gonad development. After exposure, fish were transferred to clean water, grown to sexual maturity, and …

Bioavailability: On The Frontiers Of Science And Law In Cleanup Methodologies For Contamination, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

When Lochner Met Dolan: The Attempted Transformation Of American Land Use Law By Constitutional Interpretation, Ronald H. Rosenberg, Nancy Stroud

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Religion And The First Amendment: Some Causes Of The Recent Confusion, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court is surely guilty of making the matter of religion and the First Amendment harder than it ought to be. But it is others who have kept the debate over church/state relations either poisoned with culture-war rhetoric or so shrouded in mystery that seemingly only experts can untangle the juris-prudential snarls. By surrounding this venerable Amendment with a pseudocomplexity concerning the matter of religion these disinformation specialists create confusion, and confusion begets opportunities for further distortion and manipulation. Disagreements over the free exercise of religion and the no-establishment thereof are far simpler to resolve than these …

Molecular Diversity, Structure And Domestication Of Grasses, Edward S. Buckler Iv, Jeffry M. Thornsberry, Stephen Kresovich

Faculty Publications

Over the last 10,000 years, crop domestication has been the single most important human cultural development. Grasses are prominent among these crops, and provide the vast majority of the world's food. Similar traits have been selected during the domestication and breeding of these critically important grasses, and since they share a similar complement of genes, the same set of genes may have been selected. Even though the process of domestication occurred over the same 5000 to 10,000 year period, the domesticated grasses have major differences in genome structure, diversity, and life history. Molecular investigations of grass domestication have succeeded in …

Chloropigment Distribution And Transport On The Inner Shelf Off Duck, North Carolina, Eurico J. D'Sa, Steven E. Lohrenz, James H. Churchill, Vernon L. Asper, John L. Largier, Albert J. Williams Iii

Faculty Publications

The distribution and movement of chloropigments (chlorophylls and associated degradation products) in the bottom boundary layer near Duck, North Carolina, were examined during July and August 1994. Time series of chloropigment fluorescence, current velocity, and surface wave properties were acquired from instruments mounted on a bottom tripod set at 20 m depth. These data were combined with moored current meter measurements, meteorological data, and shipboard surveys in a comparative assessment of physical processes and chloropigment distribution over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Two dominant scales of chloropigment variation were observed. On numerous occasions, small-scale (order m) structure …

Controls On Floc Size In A Continental Shelf Bottom Boundary Layer, Paul S. Hill, George Voulgaris, John H. Trowbridge

Faculty Publications

Simultaneous in situ observations of floc size, waves, and currents in a continental shelf bottom boundary layer do not support generally accepted functional relationships between turbulence and floc size in the sea. In September and October 1996 and January 1997, two tripods were deployed in 70 m of water on the continental shelf south of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. On one a camera photographed particles in suspension 1.2 m above the bottom that had equivalent circular diameters larger than 250 um, and on the other, three horizontally displaced acoustic current meters measured flow velocity 0.35 m above the bottom. The …

Group I Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors Are Expressed In The Chicken Retina And By Cultured Retinal Amacrine Cells, Kathryn M. Kreimborg, Martha L. Lester, Kathryn F. Medler, Evanna L. Gleason

Faculty Publications

Glutamate is well established as an excitatory neurotransmitter in the vertebrate retina. Its role as a modulator of retinal function, however, is poorly understood. We used immunocytochemistry and calcium imaging techniques to investigate whether metabotropic glutamate receptors are expressed in the chicken retina and by identified GABAergic amacrine cells in culture. Antibody labeling for both metabotropic glutamate receptors 1 and 5 in the retina was consistent with their expression by amacrine cells as well as by other retinal cell types. In double-labeling experiments, most metabotropic glutamate receptor 1-positive cell bodies in the inner nuclear layer also label with anti-GABA antibodies. …

Of Manatees, Mangroves, And The Mississippi River: Is There An Estuarine Signature For The Gulf Of Mexico?, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

Important parameters of estuarine variability include morphology, flushing times, nutrient loading rates, and wetland: water ratios. This variability both reflects and disguises underlying relationships between the physics and biology of estuaries, which this comparative analysis seeks to reveal, using the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) estuaries as a starting point. A question used to focus this analysis is: are the GOM estuaries unique? The GOM receives the Mississippi River, a uniquely large, world-class river, which dominates the freshwater and nutrient inflows to the GOM continental shelf, whose margins include 35 major estuarine systems. These GOM estuaries have 28% and 41% of …

Social Influence On Paranormal Beliefs, Barry N. Markovsky, Shane R. Thye

Faculty Publications

In spite of strong public expressions of skepticism from the scientific community, polls show that more than nine out of ten American adults profess belief in paranormal phenomena. Some scientists view this as a social problem, directing much blame (but little research) at a variety of sources including lack of critical thinking skills, fads, need for transcendent experiences, failure of the educational system, and cultural cycles. Social impact theory provides an alternative focus: it views paranormal beliefs as a natural consequence of social influence processes in interpersonal settings. In this study, subjects in a laboratory experiment were informed that some …

Experience And Legal Ethics Teaching, James E. Moliterno

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Problem With Training-And-Visit Extension, Sarah Kimakwa

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Relationships Among The Non-Byzantine Manuscripts Of 2 Peter, Terry Dwain Robertson

Faculty Publications

One of the ongoing discussions in NT text-critical studies involves the methodology for classifying manuscripts into families and text-types.' This study focuses on the text of 2 Peter, following a three-step method. First, all the manuscripts in the study were compared and tentatively grouped through hierarchical cluster analysis. Next, based on these tentative groupings, profiles of non-majority text readings were created. Then, working with and refining these profiles, the groupings were finalized. A short profile of test readings is also provided for each group to aid in the quick identification of other manuscripts. With the groupings in hand, the next …

Simultaneous Capture And Mineralization Of Coal Combustion Flue Gas Carbon Dioxide (Co2), Morris D. Argyle, Katta J. Reddy, Sanil John, Hollis Weber, Pradip Bhattacharyya, David T. Taylor, Mikol Christensen, Thomas Foulke, Paul Fahlsing

Faculty Publications

The mineral carbonation, a process of converting CO2 into stable minerals (mineralization), has been studied extensively to capture and store CO2. However, most of the mineral carbonation studies have been largely investigated at lab scale. Preliminary and pilot scale studies for accelerated mineral carbonation (AMC) were conducted at one of the largest coal-fired power plants (2120 MW) in the USA by reacting flue gas with fly ash particles in a fluidized bed reactor. In the preliminary experiments, flue gas CO2 and SO2 concentrations decreased from 13.0 to 9.6% and from 107.8 to 15.1 ppmv, respectively during the first 2 min. …

A Speech Interface To Genealogical Data, Deryle W. Lonsdale

Faculty Publications

This talk presents an interface that has been developed to enable users to access genealogical information via speech. Whereas the more traditional approaches for accessing data are prevalent in today’s commercial genealogical products (e.g. windows, icons, and point-and-click methods), hands-free access to information is becoming increasingly popular. There would seem to be a potential demand for speech-based access to genealogical information, particularly among enthusiasts who might require mobile access, or those who are uncomfortable with or unable to use manual methods. Yet software to perform this function for genealogical access does not appear to be widely available yet.

Anything To Act Crazy: Cajun Women And Mardi Gras Disguise, Carolyn E. Ware

Faculty Publications

As women play an increasingly prominent part in many Cajun Mardi Gras runs, they bring their own styles of roleplaying and masking to the celebration. A handful of creative women have taken the lead in commodifying the rural tradition, making and marketing Mardi Gras suits and masks on a large scale. This article looks at Cajun women's disguises as a way of understanding their larger influence on the festival.

Expression Characteristics Of The Transfer-Related Kilb Gene Product Of Streptomyces Plasmid Pij101: Implications For The Plasmid Spread Function, G. S. Pettis, N. Ward, K. L. Schully

Faculty Publications

Intermycelial transfer of Streptomyces plasmid pIJ101 occurs prior to cellular differentiation and is mediated by plasmid functions that are also required for production of zones of growth-inhibited recipient cells (i.e., pocks) that develop around individual donors during mating on agar medium. Several other pIJ101 functions, including that of the kilB gene, whose unregulated expression on pIJ101 is lethal, are required for normal pock size and so have been postulated to mediate intramycelial spread of the plasmid throughout recipient cells. Using antibodies raised against a KilB fusion protein expressed in Escherichia coli, native KilB protein was detected throughout development of pIJ101-containing …

Opening The Front Door: Designing A Usable Library Web Site, Andrew Keck

Faculty Publications

The library website is a significant access point to a library’s collections, resources, and services. A website can and should provide information about the library in a way that can be efficiently navigated and used by all library patrons. The usability of a library website can be improved through changes in organization and design informed by the experiences of real users. User expectations should be primary in determining the content, purpose, organization, and design of the site.

Life Projects (Chapter 5 Of The Book Between Gay And Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation), Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

“Life Projects” is Chapter 5 of the book Between Gay and Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation (AltaMira Press, 2001). The timeframe spans from the fall of 1996 to January 1997. I’m taking a course on life history, and I ask a member of my research community, Gordon Bernstein, to participate in my project. During our interviews, Gordon teaches me about the ongoing process of coming out—to oneself, to other gay men, and to coworkers, friends, and family. Later, I grapple with elements of this network of gay male friends that can be unsettling, especially for women. I bemoan its …

Media Literacy As A Support For The Development Of A Responsible Imagination In Religious Community, Mary E. Hess, Mary E. Hess

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Academic And Personal Selves (Chapter 4 Of The Book Between Gay And Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation), Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

“Negotiating Academic and Personal Selves” is Chapter 4 of the book Between Gay and Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation (AltaMira Press, 2001). Here I show how my relationships with the gay men of my research community alter how I position myself in graduate courses, how I practice research, how I write, and how I teach my classes. As a student, I delve into new projects on sexual orientation and identity; as an instructor, I alter course reading lists, assignments, and activities. This chapter also moves through my increasingly problematic encounters with associates who identify as heterosexual. My new consciousness …

Does Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Excavation Of Resin Wells Increase Risk Of Bark Beetle Infestation Of Cavity Trees?, Richard N. Conner, Daniel Saenz, D. Craig Rudolph, W. G. Ross, David Kulhavy, Robert Coulson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.