Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Divided Attention On Speech Motor, Verbal Fluency, And Manual Task Performance, Christopher Dromey, Erin Shim

Faculty Publications

Purpose: The goal of this study was to evaluate aspects of the functional distance hypothesis, which predicts that tasks regulated by brain networks in closer anatomic proximity will interfere more with each other than tasks controlled by spatially distant regions. Speech, verbal fluency, and manual motor tasks were examined to ascertain whether right-handed activity would interfere more with speech and language performance, because of the presumed greater demands on the left hemisphere.

Method: Twenty young adults completed a speech task (repeating a sentence), a verbal fluency task (listing words beginning with the same letter), and right- and left-handed motor tasks …

User Fees In Local Finance: Performance And Potential In Czech And Slovak Republics, Phillip J. Bryson

Faculty Publications

The Czech Republic and Slovakia, like other transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe, have given significant lip service to fiscal decentralization and engaged in public administration reforms. But the subnational governments of their public finance systems still lack relative autonomy, which could be addressed partly through developing independent revenue sources for their municipalities and regions. Currently, such independent revenue sources include the proceeds of a strictly nominal property tax as well as those of a small set of local user fees and taxes designed and approved by the central governments. Together they represent only about 5 percent of total …

Do High School Students Know What Practices Are Appropriate In Physical Education, David C. Barney, Brad Strand

Faculty Publications

The NASPE Appropriate Practices for High School Physical Education document was published for the purpose of "addressing key aspects of instructional strategies and practices that are essential to delivery of quality physical education to adolescents and young adults" [pg. 3]. The purpose of this study was to investigate high school student's knowledge of appropriate practices in high school physical education. Three hundred and sixty-nine high school students were surveyed regarding appropriate practices in high school physical education. It was found that picking teams in class was appropriate, that dressing out for class and attendance is a part of their grade …

Student Teachers' Interactions With Students During Middle School Physical Education Game Play, David C. Barney, Gary Liguori

Faculty Publications

Teacher/student interactions are a daily occurrence during a class period. What the teachers say, and how they say it, can affect student learning (Ring, 2002). The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of interactions student teachers had with the students during their middle school physical education game play. The subjects were two male senior physical education majors who were concluding their course work with their student teaching experience. For this study students wore a wireless microphone in order for the researcher to hear the types of interactions they had with their students during class time. It was …

Enhancing Special Educators' Knowledge And Understanding Of Hiv/Aids, Mary Anne Prater, Nancy M. Sileo, Thomas W. Sileo

Faculty Publications

HIV/AIDS continues to spread among children, youth, and young adults across all racial, ethnic, and cultural populations, including those with disabilities. This article considers information on HIV/AIDS such as individuals' health-risk behaviors, environmental circumstances, and perceptions that may contribute to HIV-infection; how disability characteristics, and cultural traits and values impact school-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs; and, culturally competent instructional considerations that acknowledge these variables.

The Online Journal Of Distance Education Reaches The 10-Year Mark: A Look Back Using Social Network Theory To Examine Its Collaboration Network, Steven J. Hite, Julie M. Hite, Scott L. Howell, Lenae Crandall

Faculty Publications

Happy 10th birthday to the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration! Who would have ever imagined that this online journal situated on the Web site of a smaller university in Carrollton, Georgia, U.S.A., (population about 20,000 and listed in 2002 as one of the 50 best small southern towns in the United States), and without the financial backing of a large national association, would emerge 10 years later as one of the field's premier journals? Not even the founding editor, Dr. Melanie Clay, quite envisioned the number of contributors and readers who would seek out her journal from all over …

Cuban Claims: Embargoed Identities And The Cuban-American Oedipal Conflict (El Grito De La Yuma), Jose M. Gabilondo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Vocal Tremor And Vibrato In The Same Person: Acoustic And Electromyographic Differences, Christopher Dromey, Marshall E. Smith

Faculty Publications

Summary. The goal of this case study was to measure and describe differences between vocal vibrato and essential tremor of the voice in one individual who exhibited both types of modulation. Recordings of spoken and sung vowels produced by the same individual at three effort levels were examined via analysis of acoustic and laryngeal electromyographic (LEMG) signals. Modulation rate, periodicity, and spectral measures of both audio and muscle activation signals revealed generally slower, more prominent, and more regular patterns in sung than in spoken conditions. There was not always a clear correspondence between LEMG and acoustic measures, but both showed …

Word Recognition Materials For Native Speakers Of Taiwan Mandarin, Shawn L. Nissen, Richard W. Harris, Alycia Dukes

Faculty Publications

Purpose: To select, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate word recognition materials that can be used to measure the speech perception abilities of native speakers of Taiwan Mandarin in quiet. Method: Frequently used bisyllabic words produced by male and female talkers of Taiwan Mandarin were digitally recorded and subsequently evaluated using 20 native listeners with normal hearing at 10 intensity levels (–5 to 40 dB HL) in increments of 5 dB. Results: Using logistic regression, 200 words with the steepest psychometric slopes were divided into 4 lists and 8 half-lists that were relatively equivalent in psychometric function slope. To increase …

Acoustic Characteristics Of English Lexical Stress Produced By Native Mandarin Speakers, Shawn L. Nissen, Yanhong Zhang, Alexander L. Francis

Faculty Publications

Native speakers of Mandarin Chinese have difficulty producing native-like English stress contrasts. Acoustically, English lexical stress is multidimensional, involving manipulation of fundamental frequency F0, duration, intensity and vowel quality. Errors in any or all of these correlates could interfere with perception of the stress contrast, but it is unknown which correlates are most problematic for Mandarin speakers. This study compares the use of these correlates in the production of lexical stress contrasts by 10 Mandarin and 10 native English speakers. Results showed that Mandarin speakers produced significantly less native-like stress patterns, although they did use all four acoustic correlates to …

Marriage And Finance, Jeffrey P. Dew

Faculty Publications

This chapter reviews interdisciplinary research concerning the association between marriage and personal finances. The first section of the chapter discusses financial practices within marriage and the financial differences between married couples and other family types. The second section reviews the research on the ability of financial factors to predict marital formation, satisfaction/conflict, and dissolution. The chapter also suggests future research avenues.

Retail Investor Remedies Under Rule 10b-5, O'Hare Jennifer

Faculty Publications

This paper assesses the private remedies available under Rule 10b-5 to retail investors who have been defrauded by false corporate disclosures. After comparing the treatment received by retail investors to the treatment received by institutional investors, I identify several areas in which the federal securities laws disfavor retail investors who have been defrauded by false corporate disclosures, including the creation of a two-tiered system of investor remedies for securities fraud. Institutional investors are permitted to pick and choose which law and forum offers them the most attractive chance for recovery, but retail investors typically do not have this opportunity. They …

Homeownership Risk Beyond A Subprime Crisis: The Role Of Delinquency Management, Melissa B. Jacoby

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity: American Law In Light Of East Asian Developments, Holning S. Lau

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Globalization: Putting The Race To The Top In Perspective, Holning S. Lau

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ellen G. White And Mental Health, Merlin D. Burt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Macroh2a1 Knockdown Effects On The Peg3 Imprinted Domain, Jung Ha Choo, Jeong Do Kim, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

Background: MacroH2A1 is a histone variant that is closely associated with the repressed regions of chromosomes. A recent study revealed that this histone variant is highly enriched in the inactive alleles of Imprinting Control Regions (ICRs). Results: The current study investigates the potential roles of macroH2A1 in genomic imprinting by lowering the cellular levels of the macroH2A1 protein. RNAi-based macroH2A1 knockdown experiments in Neuro2A cells changed the expression levels of a subset of genes, including Peg3 and Usp29 of the Peg3 domain. The expression of these genes was down-regulated, rather than up-regulated, in response to reduced protein levels of the …

Regional Body Composition In College-Aged Caucasians From Anthropometric Measures, Robert T. Davidson, Cameron B. Ritchie

Faculty Publications

Quantitating fat and lean tissue in isolated body regions may be helpful or required in obesity and health-outcomes research. However, current methods of regional body composition measurement require specialized, expensive equipment such as that used in computed tomography or dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Simple body size or circumference measurement relationships to body composition have been developed but are limited to whole-body applications. We investigated relationships between body size measurements and regional body composition. Methods Using DEXA technology we determined the fat and lean tissue composition for six regions of the body in predominantly Caucasian, college-aged men (n = 32) …

Fractionation Of The Rice Bran Layer And Quantification Of Vitamin E, Oryzanol, Protein, And Rice Bran Saccharide, Rebecca Schramm, Alicia Abadie, Na Hua, Zhimin Xu, Marybeth Lima

Faculty Publications

Value-added processing with respect to rice milling has traditionally treated the rice bran layer as a homogenous material that contains significant concentrations of high-value components of interest for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications. Investigators have shown that high-value components in the rice bran layer vary from differences in kernel-thickness, bran fraction, rice variety, and environmental conditions during the growing season. The objectives of this study were to quantify the amount of rice bran removed at pre-selected milling times and to correlate the amount of rice bran removed at each milling time with the concentration of vitamin E, gamma-oryzanol, rice bran saccharide, …

Towards An Understanding Of Salient Neighborhood Boundaries: Adolescent Reports Of An Easy Walking Distance And Convenient Driving Distance, Natalie Colabianchi, Marsha Dowda, Karin A. Pfeiffer, Dwayne E. Porter, Maria João Ca Almeida, Russell R. Pate

Faculty Publications

Numerous studies have examined the association between the surrounding neighborhood environment and physical activity levels in adolescents. Many of these studies use a road network buffer or Euclidean distance buffer around an adolescent's home to represent the appropriate geographic area for study (i.e., neighborhood). However, little empirical research has examined the appropriate buffer size to use when defining this area and there is little consistency across published research as to the buffer size used. In this study, 909 12th grade adolescent girls of diverse racial and geographic backgrounds were asked to report their perceptions of an easy walking distance and …

Towards An Understanding Of Salient Neighborhood Boundaries: Adolescent Reports Of An Easy Walking Distance And Convenient Driving Distance, Natalie Colabianchi, Marsha Dowda, Karin A. Pfeiffer, Dwayne E. Porter, Maria João C. A. Almeida, Russell R. Pate

Faculty Publications

Numerous studies have examined the association between the surrounding neighborhood environment and physical activity levels in adolescents. Many of these studies use a road network buffer of Euclidean distance buffer around an adolescent's home to represent the appropriate geographic area for study (i.e., neighborhood). However, little empirical research has examined the appropriate buffer size to use when defining this area and there is little consistency across published research as to the buffer size used. In this study, 909 12^th grade adolescent girls of diverse racial and geographic backgrounds were asked to report their perceptions of an easy walking distance …

Mobile Dna Elements In Primate And Human Evolution, Jinchuan Xing, David J. Witherspoon, David A. Ray, Mark A. Batzer, Lynn B. Jorde

Faculty Publications

Roughly 50% of the primate genome consists of mobile, repetitive DNA sequences such as Alu and LINE1 elements. The causes and evolutionary consequences of mobile element insertion, which have received considerable attention during the past decade, are reviewed in this article. Because of their unique mutational mechanisms, these elements are highly useful for answering phylogenetic questions. We demonstrate how they have been used to help resolve a number of questions in primate phylogeny, including the human-chimpanzee- gorilla trichotomy and New World primate phylogeny. Alu and LINE1 element insertion polymorphisms have also been analyzed in human populations to test hypotheses about …

Polymer Microfluidic Chips With Integrated Waveguides For Reading Microarrays, Feng Xu, Proyag Datta, Hong Wang, Sitanshu Gurung, Masahiko Hashimoto, Suying Wei, Jost Goettert, Robin L. Mccarley, Steven A. Soper

Faculty Publications

A microfluidic chip with an integrated planar waveguide was fabricated in poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, using a single-step, double-sided hot-embossing approach. The waveguide was embedded in air on three sides, the solution being interrogated on the fourth. DNA probes were covalently attached to the waveguide surface by plasma activating the PMMA and the use of carbodiimide coupling chemistry. Successful hybridization events were read using evanescent excitation monitored by an imaging microscope, which offered high spatial resolution (2 μm) and a large field-of-view (20 mm diameter field-of-view), providing imaging of the entire array without scanning. The application of the microfluidic/waveguide assembly was …

Impact Of Energy Intake, Physical Activity, And Population-Wide Weight Loss On Cardiovascular Disease And Diabetes Mortality In Cuba, 1980-2005, Manuel Franco, Pedro Orduñez, Benjamín Caballero, José A. Tapia Granados, Mariana Lazo, José Luís Bernal, Eliseo Guallar, Richard S. Cooper

Faculty Publications

Cuba's economic crisis of 1989-2000 resulted in reduced energy intake, increased physical activity, and sustained population-wide weight loss. The authors evaluated the possible association of these factors with mortality trends. Data on per capita daily energy intake, physical activity, weight loss, and smoking were systematically retrieved from national and local surveys. National vital statistics from 1980-2005 were used to assess trends in mortality from diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and all causes. The crisis reduced per capita daily energy intake from 2,899 calories to 1,863 calories. During the crisis period, the proportion of physically active adults increased from 30% …

Density Gradient Enrichment Of Escherichia Coli Conditional Msba Mutants, William T. Doerrler

Faculty Publications

Insight into the mechanism of lipid transport to the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria has been hampered by the lack of an effective genetic screen for defective mutants. This work demonstrates an enrichment of conditional mutants defective in lipopolysaccharide export by Ludox density gradient centrifugation and selection for detergent resistance. New temperature-sensitive mutants with lipid export defects were isolated with single missense mutations in msbA. The results demonstrate the power of this approach for the study of lipid export in Escherichia coli. Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Objectively Assessed Associations Between Physical Activity And Body Composition In Middle-School Girls: The Trial Of Activity For Adolescent Girls, June Stevens, David M. Murray, Chris C. Baggett, John P. Elder, Timothy G. Lohman, Leslie A. Lytle, Russell R. Pate, Charlotte A. Pratt, Margarita S. Treuth, Larry S. Webber, Deborah Rohm Young

Faculty Publications

Declining levels of physical activity probably contribute to the increasing prevalence of overweight in US youth. In this study, the authors examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between physical activity and body composition in sixth- and eighth-grade girls. In 2003, girls were recruited from six US states as part of the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls. Physical activity was measured using 6 days of accelerometry, and percentage of body fat was calculated using an age- and ethnicity-specific prediction equation. Sixth-grade girls with an average of 12.8 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day (15th percentile) were 2.3 times (95% …

Implications Of The Medicaid Undercount In A High-Penetration Medicaid State, R. Kirby Goidel, Steven Procopio, Douglas Schwalm, Dek Terrell

Faculty Publications

Research Objective. This study investigates the impact of misreporting by Medicaid recipients on estimates of the uninsured in Louisiana, and is based on similar work by Call et al. in Minnesota and Klerman, Ringel, and Roth in California. With its unique charity hospital system, culture, and high poverty, Louisiana provides an interesting and unique context for examining Medicaid underreporting. Study Design. Results are based on a random sample of 2,985 Medicaid households. Respondents received a standard questionnaire to identify health insurance status, and individual records were matched to Medicaid enrollment data to identify misreporting. Data Sources. Data were collected by …

Evalution Of The Efficacy Of The Photosystem Ii Inhibitor Dcmu In Periphyton And Its Effects On Nontarget Microorganisms And Extracellular Enzymatic Reactions, Steven N. Francoeur, Audrey C. Johnson, Kevin A. Kuehn, Robert K. Neely

Faculty Publications

We examined the efficacy of the photosystem II inhibitor 3-(3,4-diclorophenyl)-1,1-dimethyl urea (DCMU) for inhibition of algal photosynthesis in periphyton associated with submerged decomposing litter of Typha angustifolia. We also investigated the possible nontarget effects of DCMU exposure on heterotrophic microorganisms (i.e., bacteria and fungi) and extracellular enzyme activity associated with decaying litter. Standing-dead Typha leaf litter was submerged for 34 and 73 d, returned to the laboratory, and used for controlled laboratory experiments that examined the effect of DCMU on algal ([¹⁴C]bicarbonate, pulse-amplitude modulated fluorometry), bacterial ([³H]leucine), and fungal ([¹⁴C]acetate) production. Simultaneous assays …

A Statistical Appraisal Of Disproportional Versus Proportional Microbial Source Tracking Libraries, Brian J. Robinson, Kerry J. Ritter, Rudolph D. Ellender

Faculty Publications

Library-based microbial source tracking (MST) can assist in reducing or eliminating fecal pollution in waters by predicting sources of fecal-associated bacteria. Library-based MST relies on an assembly of genetic or phenotypic "fingerprints" from pollution-indicative bacteria cultivated from known sources to compare with and identify fingerprints of unknown origin. The success of the library-based approach depends on how well each source candidate is represented in the library and which statistical algorithm or matching criterion is used to match unknowns. Because known source libraries are often built based on convenience or cost, some library sources may contain more representation than others. Depending …

Effect Of Endothelin 1 Genotype On Blood Pressure Is Dependent On Physical Activity Or Fitness Levels, Tuomo Rankinen, Timothy S. Church, Treva Rice, Nathan Markward, Arthur S. Leon, Dabeeru C. Rao, James S. Skinner, Steven N. Blair, Claude Bouchard

Faculty Publications

Contributions of the DNA sequence variation at the endothelin 1 locus to the risk of hypertension and to endurance training-induced changes in blood pressure were investigated in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study and the Health, Risk Factors, Exercise Training and Genetics Family Study cohorts. We identified 586 normotensive control subjects and 607 incident hypertensive case subjects from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study cohort (all whites) who were normotensive and healthy at their first clinical visit. The case subjects were diagnosed with hypertension during an average follow-up of 9.5 years, whereas the control subjects remained normotensive. The allele and genotype frequencies …