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Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

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Does Video -Based And Live Attribution Training Improve College Freshman Performance On Academic -Based Tasks?, Tasneem Doctor May 2004

Does Video -Based And Live Attribution Training Improve College Freshman Performance On Academic -Based Tasks?, Tasneem Doctor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined the effects of attribution training (an intervention designed to increase motivation and achievement) on undergraduate students' effort and performance. The sample consisted of 93 undergraduate, freshman students enrolled in a study strategies course during the fall semester. The attribution training was varied for each student by attribution training mode (live, video, or control), time of semester (beginning or end), and gender of script reader (male or female). Other independent variables examined included gender of the participant (male or female) and ACT and SAT scores (low versus high). Change Scores (post minus pre) served as dependent variables for …

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Forensic Information Management System, Arunshankar Srinivasan May 2004

Forensic Information Management System, Arunshankar Srinivasan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The primary objectives of this project were to reduce the paper work, increase data reliability and reduce process turnaround time at the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory (WVSPFL) Charleston, WV. The objective was achieved by reengineering and automating various processes in the seven units of the laboratory. A software tool called Forensic Information Management System (FIMS) was developed. FIMS was implemented in Visual Studio.Net; MS-SQL server was used as the database. The FIMS can be accessed via the internet/intranet, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or a stand-alone desktop computer. The key benefits of FIMS are its ability to integrate information …

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Effects Of Drought On The Growth Of Young And Mature Temperate Forests In West Virginia, Nicholas R. Doner May 2004

Effects Of Drought On The Growth Of Young And Mature Temperate Forests In West Virginia, Nicholas R. Doner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recent research suggests that the temperate deciduous forests of the eastern United States may have played a significant role in the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last 100 years. However, little is known about the role of forest management and climatic variability on the productivity of these forests. The purpose of this study was to determine the variation in aboveground production between two different aged forest stands and to evaluate the effect of drought on inter-annual variation in productivity. Aboveground net primary production (ANPP) was compared with precipitation and the Palmer Drought Severity Index to determine the effects …

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Learning Styles Of Extension Agents Responsible For Pesticide Re-Certification Training Programs In West Virginia, Anne M. Custer-Walker May 2004

Learning Styles Of Extension Agents Responsible For Pesticide Re-Certification Training Programs In West Virginia, Anne M. Custer-Walker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As a condition of license renewal necessary for restricted-use pesticides, private pesticide applicators are required to accumulate five hours or 10 continuing education units (CEUs) every three years. These programs provide valuable experiential learning opportunities to adult learners. As a result, adult learning is a topic of research. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI) has been used in research for many years to determine learning style preferences of adults. The purpose of the study was to categorize each agent according to their learning style and to determine if relationships exist between learning style preferences and the agents' major program area, Extension …

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Knowledge And Dissemination Of Sustainable Agriculture Practices By County Extension Agents In Ohio, Pennsylvania, And West Virginia, Erin M. Hersman May 2004

Knowledge And Dissemination Of Sustainable Agriculture Practices By County Extension Agents In Ohio, Pennsylvania, And West Virginia, Erin M. Hersman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of knowledge and preparation that Extension educators possess concerning the numerous dimensions of sustainable agriculture. From this information, a relationship between the amount of education that Extension educators receive about sustainable agriculture and the amount of information that Extension educators offer to their clientele about this topic was determined. Part-time agriculturalists were perceived to attend workshops/meetings based on sustainable agriculture practices, use more fact sheets or publications on the concepts of sustainable agriculture, and, in turn, apply more concepts of sustainable agriculture. Full-time agriculturalists were attending the workshops and/or meetings …

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Development Of Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography For The Isolation And Selective Enrichment Of Phosphopeptides, Erica Sims Jackson May 2004

Development Of Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography For The Isolation And Selective Enrichment Of Phosphopeptides, Erica Sims Jackson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Protein structure and function are often regulated by covalent modifications to the protein. One of the most important of these modifications is phosphorylation, which can control many cellular processes. The sites of phosphorylation must be determined to fully understand the protein's function and regulatory events, which can be challenging because of the low stoichiometry of the phosphorylated regulatory proteins.;Several strategies for enrichment of phosphopeptides prior to analysis have been developed, however, Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography (IMAC) is the most widely used method. Online IMAC-ESI-MS has been developed with ammonium hydroxide as the elutor. Gradient elution from the IMAC column demonstrates …

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Factors Affecting Iron Status Among Infants Age 6--24 Months, Christopher Melonas May 2004

Factors Affecting Iron Status Among Infants Age 6--24 Months, Christopher Melonas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Iron deficiency has been shown to have a multitude of negative effects on the growing infant. The diet plays a key role in alleviating iron deficiency within a younger population. The objective of this study was to search out specific nutrients in the diet that have some affect on iron status in a population of infants age 6 to 24 months.;This was a cross-sectional study that included 57 rural infants who participated in the WIC program. Dietary intake data was collected by 2 multiple-pass 24-hour intakes done 3 to 4 days apart. Blood was collected by venipuncture and analyzed for …

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Post-Flood Recovery And Distributions Of Fishes In The New River Gorge National River, West Virginia, David I. Wellman Jr. May 2004

Post-Flood Recovery And Distributions Of Fishes In The New River Gorge National River, West Virginia, David I. Wellman Jr.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The following thesis contains three chapters. The first chapter introduces and reviews literature on disturbances in streams (e.g. flood and drought), recovery of impacted lotic systems, introduced species and New River fish distributions. Chapter 2 provides a synthesis of native and nonnative fish distribution data of the New River Gorge National River (NRGNR). Sixty-two species were documented within or near the NRGNR. Thirty-one (50%) are considered nonnative. The third chapter consists of a study that estimated seasonal abundances of native and nonnative fishes in small tributaries of NRGNR during a 20 month time period following July 2001 floods, and examined …

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Brook Trout Bioenergetics And The Use Of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis For Proximate Composition, Marlin Keith Cox Ii May 2004

Brook Trout Bioenergetics And The Use Of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis For Proximate Composition, Marlin Keith Cox Ii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Three aspects of a bioenergetics model were examined for brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in the laboratory: (1) refinement of the metabolism parameter estimations, (2) calculation of activity rates and (3) subsequent validation of the brook trout model. An integral part of bioenergetics modeling is the initial inputs of predator and prey energy density from body composition estimations. We present bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) as a means of rapidly estimating body composition in fish and then adjusted variables that may affect these predictions. We also used this tool and applied it to a compensatory growth study. Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) were …

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Identification And Functional Characterization Of Cataract-Specific Gene Expression Changes Reveals Important Pathways For Human Lens Maintenance, Aging And Disease, John R. Hawse Iv May 2004

Identification And Functional Characterization Of Cataract-Specific Gene Expression Changes Reveals Important Pathways For Human Lens Maintenance, Aging And Disease, John R. Hawse Iv

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Human age-related cataract, and opacity of the eye lens, is a multifactorial disease with a poorly understood etiology and is the leading cause of world blindness and low vision. It has been estimated that any therapy that could delay the onset of age-related cataract by ten years would halve the number of individuals requiring surgery in their lifetime. To accomplish such a feat, it is essential to understand the molecular mechanisms and biological pathways associated with this disease. Here, I describe the global gene expression profiles of human age-related cataracts compared to clear lenses, differentiate these changes from those that …

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Molecular Modeling And Experimental Determination Of The Structure Of C8 -Arylguanine Modified Oligonucleotides That Preferentially Adopt The Z -Dna Conformation, Sue Ellen Heavner May 2004

Molecular Modeling And Experimental Determination Of The Structure Of C8 -Arylguanine Modified Oligonucleotides That Preferentially Adopt The Z -Dna Conformation, Sue Ellen Heavner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Thermal denaturation, circular dichroism, and NMR have been used extensively in conformational studies of oligonucleotides. Molecular modeling has become a powerful, if not essential, complement to these experimental techniques. To study the effects of C8-arylated purine adducts caused by carcinogenic aryl hydrazines we combined the two approaches. Two oligonucleotides were prepared, an unmodified oligonucleotide d(5'CGCGCGCGCG 3') and a C8-phenylguanine modified oligonucleotide d( 5'CGCGCG*CGCG3') (G* = 8-phenylguanine). These oligonucleotides were compared using thermal denaturation, circular dichroism, and NMR. The phenyl modification destabilizes the B DNA form and stabilizes the Z DNA form such that the B:Z ratio is near one under …

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Interaction Between Primary Alveolar Macrophages And Primary Alveolar Type Ii Cells Under Basal Conditions And After Lipopolysaccharide Or Quartz Exposure, Rania S. Kanj May 2004

Interaction Between Primary Alveolar Macrophages And Primary Alveolar Type Ii Cells Under Basal Conditions And After Lipopolysaccharide Or Quartz Exposure, Rania S. Kanj

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Evidence suggests that hyperproduction of reactive oxidants and inflammatory mediators plays a critical role in adverse pulmonary responses to silica or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The main objective of this study was to contribute to advancing the understanding of the role of AM's and type II (TII) cells in the induction of pulmonary inflammation and injury in response to silica and LPS, and improve our understanding of the interaction between AM's and TII cells which would occur in vivo. To reach this objective, three aims were put forth. (1) Determine the relative responsiveness of primary rat AM's, primary rat TII cells and …

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Origins And The Twentieth-Century Long Poem, Joe W. Moffett May 2004

Origins And The Twentieth-Century Long Poem, Joe W. Moffett

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The long poem is often seen by critics as beginning in the nineteenth-century with the publication of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. It is generally agreed, however, that the form did not come of age until the following century when it became a premier poetic endeavor. Although the long poem has been used to various ends, one theme identifiable among a variety of twentieth-century texts is a concern with origins. In this dissertation poets are seen as seeking to evaluate the societies in which they live by looking into the past to find originary cultures from which their own descend. …

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Mechanisms Of Retroviral Reverse Transcription And Assembly, Sara Kirsten Rasmussen May 2004

Mechanisms Of Retroviral Reverse Transcription And Assembly, Sara Kirsten Rasmussen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The work described in these dissertation studies examines three aspects of retrovirus replication and dissects the uncovered phenomena to increase understanding of how retroviruses thrive in complex host environments. The first aspect of replication discussed is the mechanisms behind minus-strand DNA transfer, a crucial step of reverse transcription. We proved for the first time that non-viral sequences can be utilized to carry out this step of the replication process, and that the minus-strand DNA transfer step can be exploited to reconstitute a functional gene in the infected host cell. This finding serves as a proof-of-principle for a new class of …

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Tests For Causes Of Rarity In Goldenseal (Hydrastis Canadensis L.), Suzanne Sanders May 2004

Tests For Causes Of Rarity In Goldenseal (Hydrastis Canadensis L.), Suzanne Sanders

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Hydrastis canadensis L. (goldenseal) is becoming more uncommon within the eastern deciduous forest. I performed a series of studies that tested hypotheses about population decline and causes of rarity. First, I assessed the time-trend of a natural H. canadensis population in an Indiana nature preserve which had been censused 26 years prior. We found a negative population trajectory between the two time periods. The second goal of this dissertation was to determine the breeding system of H. canadensis. The breeding system type appears unlikely to be a major factor limiting the distribution or abundance of H. canadensis. My third objective …

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Evaluation Of Time Out-Based Discipline Strategy To Manage Children's Noncompliance With Cystic Fibrosis Treatment, Catherine Bradford Mcclellan May 2004

Evaluation Of Time Out-Based Discipline Strategy To Manage Children's Noncompliance With Cystic Fibrosis Treatment, Catherine Bradford Mcclellan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a chronic, terminal illness that requires intensive, time-consuming, and sometimes painful treatment for optimal health and longevity. Given the complex and aversive nature of treatment, children with CF frequently develop avoidance behaviors resulting in noncompliance to parents' treatment requests. The purpose of this study was to use a single-subject reversal design to compare children's compliance with parents' typical strategies to children's compliance when a time out based discipline strategy is in effect. Participants were two children who displayed noncompliant behavior to their parent's treatment requests. Outcome measures included parent and child behaviors as assessed by an …

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Advisors' Attitudes Toward Developmental Placement And The Academic Performance And Perceived Success Of Their Underprepared Community College Advisees, June Elizabeth Bracken May 2004

Advisors' Attitudes Toward Developmental Placement And The Academic Performance And Perceived Success Of Their Underprepared Community College Advisees, June Elizabeth Bracken

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Open admissions policies pose a critical challenge to retention at community colleges because, on average, over one third of the students enter unprepared to meet the academic demands. Faced with the shocking first-year attrition rate of over fifty percent at public community colleges (McCabe, 2000), taxpayers, legislators, and college officials have become embroiled in debate over the high cost of remediation and the "human capital" (Shaffer, 1997, 1998) costs of pitting access against excellence. Previous research has established that mandatory basic skills assessment and mandatory placement into developmental courses leads to lower attrition rates and higher grade point averages for …

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Teachers' Perceptions Of The Goals Of Secondary Schools Physical Education In State Of Kuwait, Obaid Alshammari May 2004

Teachers' Perceptions Of The Goals Of Secondary Schools Physical Education In State Of Kuwait, Obaid Alshammari

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of the Kuwait physical education teachers relevant to the goals of the physical education program for secondary schools. Data were collected from a sample consisting of 200 (n = 200) physical education teachers teaching in six provinces in Kuwait. For data collection, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, named "Kuwaiti Physical Education Goals" (KPEG) was designed. The instrument asked the participants to indicate the level of agreement with four categories of physical education goals. In addition, differences in teachers based on gender between physical education teachers' perceptions were investigated. An examination …

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Leadership Styles Of Department Chairs And Faculty Utilization Of Instructional Technology, Tongshan Chang May 2004

Leadership Styles Of Department Chairs And Faculty Utilization Of Instructional Technology, Tongshan Chang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined the relationship between the leadership styles of academic department chairs of Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Leadership Studies, Teacher Education, and Educational Psychology in Colleges of Education at doctoral/research public universities by Carnegie Classification and faculty utilization of instructional technology in teaching. Two-stage random sampling was used to sample the population. The instrument of Faculty Utilization of Instructional Technology was sent to 93 chairs and 843 faculty, respectively. Bolman and Deal's Leadership Orientation (other) was also sent to 843 selected faculty. Thirty-seven chairs and 230 faculty responded to the survey. Descriptive statistics. Chi-square test, t test, ANOVA, MNOVA, …

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Physical Mechanism Of Calcium Ion-Atpase Regulation By Phospholamban., Jason Robert Waggoner Jan 2004

Physical Mechanism Of Calcium Ion-Atpase Regulation By Phospholamban., Jason Robert Waggoner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The goal of this research project was to elucidate the physical mechanism of Ca2+-ATPase regulation by phospholamban in cardiac muscle. The Ca2+-ATPase transports calcium into the sarcoplasmic reticulum in order to promote muscle relaxation. Phospholamban regulates the Ca 2+-ATPase in the heart by decreasing the apparent calcium affinity of the Ca2+-ATPase, resulting in an inhibition of Ca 2+-ATPase activity. At present, the physical mechanism by which phospholamban regulates the Ca2+-ATPase is unknown. Our central hypothesis was that phospholamban disrupts the Ca2+-ATPase conformational transition from the low Ca2+ affinity state (the E2 intermediate) to the high Ca2+ affinity state (the E1 …

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Critical Thinking And Web-Based Education In Maryland Community Colleges: How The Medium Promotes Development., George E. Perry Jan 2004

Critical Thinking And Web-Based Education In Maryland Community Colleges: How The Medium Promotes Development., George E. Perry

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Surveys have found that employers want today's community college graduates to be able to work in teams, make decisions, and critically assess job situations. In short they want the students to think critically. Due to the changing demographics, web-based education has become a larger part of college curriculum in the past several years. This research project explored critical thinking in web-based courses offered at Maryland community colleges to determine what courses were being offered by the different academic disciplines, the methods used to promote critical thinking, and the types of critical thinking assessment used in these web-based courses. The content …

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Sawtooth: Learning From Huge Amounts Of Data., Andres Sebastian Orrego Jan 2004

Sawtooth: Learning From Huge Amounts Of Data., Andres Sebastian Orrego

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Data scarcity has been a problem in data mining up until recent times. Now, in the era of the Internet and the tremendous advances in both, data storage devices and high-speed computing, databases are filling up at rates never imagined before. The machine learning problems of the past have been augmented by an increasingly important one, scalability. Extracting useful information from arbitrarily large data collections or data streams is now of special interest within the data mining community. In this research we find that mining from such large datasets may actually be quite simple. We address the scalability issues of …

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Methamphetamine Toxicity: Thermal Degradation, Cyp450-Mediated Metabolic Activation And Cytotoxic Epoxide Formation., Madhu Sanga Jan 2004

Methamphetamine Toxicity: Thermal Degradation, Cyp450-Mediated Metabolic Activation And Cytotoxic Epoxide Formation., Madhu Sanga

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Methamphetamine hydrochloride and other drugs of abuse undergo thermal degradation upon smoking. Pyrolytic degradation products of cocaine, phencyclidine and methamphetamine laced on tobacco have been identified in simulated smoking experiments. However, thermal degradation products of methamphetamine hydrochloride alone are not known. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to simulate smoking conditions and to thermally degrade methamphetamine hydrochloride. trans-1-Phenyl-1-propene was one of the major thermal degradation products identified. In pooled human liver microsomes, trans-1-phenyl-1-propene was converted to trans-1-phenylpropylene oxide ( trans-2-methyl-3-phenyloxirane) and cinnamyl alcohol (3-phenyl-2-propen-1-ol). Epoxide formation in pooled human liver microsomes showed an apparent K m of 110 ± 16 μM …

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The Relationship Between Pre-Enrollment Factors And Promise Success., Jimmy R. Stemple Jan 2004

The Relationship Between Pre-Enrollment Factors And Promise Success., Jimmy R. Stemple

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to determine which pre-enrollment factors in high school contribute to PROMISE success in the West Virginia PROMISE Scholarship Program, using the 2002–2003 inaugural class of PROMISE scholars at West Virginia University. PROMISE success was achieved if a scholar attained at least a 2.75 grade point average and passed at least 30 hours during the fall and spring semesters of his or her freshman year. PROMISE scholars who accomplished both of these requirements were eligible to retain the scholarship for the following year. This investigation examined high school transcripts, standardized test scores, college grade point …

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Surrogate Mothers Use Of Online Messaging: A Study Of Social Support., Shauna Lively Aurelio Jan 2004

Surrogate Mothers Use Of Online Messaging: A Study Of Social Support., Shauna Lively Aurelio

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

People faced with challenging life events, such as pregnancy, need social support for well being. Traditionally, this support has been given via face-to-face contact in communities. It is known that online messaging promotes effective social support among people with disabilities or illnesses, and during life events such as pregnancy and parenting. It has been further suggested that surrogate mothers, women who contract with another person or a couple to bear a child, receive less social support from their families than other mothers. What is not known is how effective online social support is for surrogate mothers and how much they …

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Watershed-Scale Thermal Regimes And The Distribution Of Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis) And The Smallmouth Bass ( Micropterus Dolomieui) In The Cheat River Watershed, West Virginia., Roy Worth Martin Jan 2004

Watershed-Scale Thermal Regimes And The Distribution Of Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis) And The Smallmouth Bass ( Micropterus Dolomieui) In The Cheat River Watershed, West Virginia., Roy Worth Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

I examined relationships between landscape physiographic factors and summer stream temperatures in the Cheat River watershed, WV and developed statistical models to characterize thermal patterns at the stream segment and watershed scales. I also examined the influence of modeled thermal regimes on the distribution of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in this system. The objectives of this study were to (1) develop and verify an empirical model to predict stream temperature at the stream segment scale in the Cheat River basin, (2) quantify the geography of thermal regimes within the basin at the segment and watershed …

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Screening Urine Cytology: The Addition Of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization For Detecting Genetic Abnormalities Associated With Urothelial Neoplasia., Jasen Lee Wise Jan 2004

Screening Urine Cytology: The Addition Of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization For Detecting Genetic Abnormalities Associated With Urothelial Neoplasia., Jasen Lee Wise

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The use of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has been shown to be efficacious in the evaluation of urine specimens from patients with a history of urothelial neoplasia. To explore a new clinical setting, we performed a prospective study using sequential urine specimens from patients without a previous history of urothelial neoplasia. The FISH probe set included centromere enumeration probes for chromosomes 3, 7, and 17, and a cosmid probe 9p21, which contains the p16 tumor suppressor gene. A total of 113 urine specimens were tested. Genetic changes associated with urothelial neoplasia were identified in 5% of the negative and …

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A Microbiological And Clinical Assessment Of Orthodontic Patients With Poor Oral Hygiene., Brett Eckley Jan 2004

A Microbiological And Clinical Assessment Of Orthodontic Patients With Poor Oral Hygiene., Brett Eckley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Hypothesis: There is no statistically significant difference between counts of Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola, and Bacteroides forsythus, organism morphotypes, and probing depths and plaque scores in orthodontic patients with poor oral hygiene. Thirteen patients were included in the study. Before orthodontic appliances were placed (as baseline) and for four months a BANA test, plaque score, probing depths, and microscopy analysis were performed. Data were analyzed with ANOVA and Tukey HSD. Significant differences were found among patients for the BANA and plaque score. Significant differences were found among visits for the BANA, plaque score, and probing depth. There was an increase …

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The Diversity Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: Functional And Ecological Responses To Stressful Soil Conditions., Charlene N. Kelly Jan 2004

The Diversity Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: Functional And Ecological Responses To Stressful Soil Conditions., Charlene N. Kelly

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi mediate interactions between plants and soils, and are important where nutrient or metal concentrations limit plant growth. Variation in fungi in response to edaphic conditions and the fungal community composition may influence the effectiveness of the plant-mycorrhizal associations in some soil environments. For this thesis, I performed two studies to investigate the diversity of AM fungi: 1) Intraspecific variation among fungal species to confer Al tolerance to a host plant and 2) Shifts in population structure of AM fungi following succession in a serpentine grassland. Results of the first study demonstrate functional differences across three AM …

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The Effects Of Environmental Chemicals On Glioblastoma Cell Growth., Rebecca L. Merritt Jan 2004

The Effects Of Environmental Chemicals On Glioblastoma Cell Growth., Rebecca L. Merritt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a malignancy known for its rapid progression. During tumor invasion, the breakdown of brain tissue releases lipid-associated foreign contaminants. This study assesses the growth response of two human glioblastoma cell lines, T98G and U138-MG, to environmental chemicals stored within the brain. Proliferative or cytotoxic responses to treatment were determined using an MTS [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5- (3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium] metabolic activity assay and morphological analysis. Although cytotoxic effects were seen in both T98G and U138-MG cells, proliferative responses occurred only in the T98G cell line. DDT, DDE, and PCB 153 were cytotoxic in both lines, while PCB 81 caused cell death …

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