Digital Commons Network^™

Protist Facilitated Transport In An Artificial Soil Micromodel, Rebecca L. Rubinstein

Master's Theses

The soil microhabitat contains a complex network of microbial, biochemical, and physical interactions, all of which have very important implications for remediation technologies as well as agriculture. As a result, observing and quantifying this environment has been of recurring interest to scientists and engineers, but by nature many of these processes are difficult if not impossible to observe in situ. To that end, we have developed techniques utilizing soil-structured microfluidic devices for direct observation of soil microbial processes. Specifically, natural soil protists were observed moving through fabricated artificial soil networks, and their impact on the spatial and temporal distribution …

John La Farge’S Stained Glass Windows At The Thomas Crane Memorial Library: Old Philosopher, Alpha, And Omega, Matthew P. Bowman

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Aiding And Abetting: The Illegality Of Morocco's Nationalist Expansion Into Western Sahara And Their Support From The United States, Rachid H. Yousfi

Master's Theses

This paper will address the illegality of Morocco’s nationalist annexation of Western Sahara and how the United States plays the accommodating role through the selling of arms, economic aid, and diplomatic support. Considered as Africa’s last colony, the Saharawi people have not experienced the basic human right to self-determination and the right for independence. These rights are continued to be withheld for the sake of Moroccan nationalism and their “rightful and ethnic” claims to the territory, disregarding the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s advisory opinion ruling in favor of Saharawi self-determination. It explores the chronology of the Saharawi population from …

Heterogeneous Effects Of Commodity Price Shocks On Inflation Rates. Evidence From A Panel Study., Odbayar Batmunkh

Master's Theses

Do commodity price shocks have heterogeneous effect on countries based on their export and import profiles? I address this question through a panel study of 142 countries using Export and Import Indexes aimed at differentiating the retail pass-through and fiscal balance channel of transmission of Commodity Price shocks on inflation. The results show that an increase in the Export Index leads to a decrease in contemporary inflation while an increase in the Import Index leads to an increase in inflation in the next year. Average causal mediating effect of the Export Index on Inflation through the Fiscal Balance was shown …

How Is Sectoral Fdi Affecting Firms’ Performance In Mozambique?, Nilza A. Abdurramane

Master's Theses

I study the effect of sectoral FDI on firms’ performance in Mozambique from 2007 to 2010 through productivity and efficiency functions, using comprehensive firm level data. Although foreign ownership has a positive effect on firms’ productivity, my results show that in general, sectoral FDI has a negative and statistically significant effect on Mozambican firms’ productivity. The findings of this study are similar to previous studies that argued that positive foreign spillovers were not automatic. Using a stochastic frontier model, to measure efficiency, I find that in general foreign firms tend to be more efficient than domestic firms. However, using this …

Learning Together: A Case Study Of A Cooperative School’S Approach To Education, Ariana M. Ali

Master's Theses

This thesis is based on an in-depth case study of one cooperative pre-preschool and preschool in San Francisco. Qualitative research methods, such as observation and one-on-one interviews, were used to study the structure, culture, and community at the school. Cooperative schools have not been well researched or documented in academic literature and this study hoped to shed some light on this model of school organization. The parent-initiated and community-oriented nature of cooperative schools make them stand out as unique among the large, bureaucratically-run schools and daycares typically found in the United States. The results of this study highlighted four themes …

Glass Foundation Chemosensor Synthesis And Functionality Analysis, Justin D. Dancer

Master's Theses

Chemosensors are created through a series of reaction steps on controlled pore class (CPG) and terminate with a Cu²⁺ metal binding site. Each monolayer of reactant insures that the metal binding site exposed to solution would serve as an indicator displacement assay (IDA) sensor. The purpose of this research is to create a molecular sensor with a high density of terminal metal sites to quantify bidentate substrates. To accomplish this, each synthetic step of the sensor is examined in order to test the effects of new linkers, ligands, and variously sized dendrimers to see if small structural changes could …

The Economic Impact Of Wheelchairs For The Disabled In Ethiopia, Justin L. Grider

Master's Theses

Abstract: How do wheelchairs impact income and the possible channels of employment status and time allocation for the physically disabled? In order to improve opportunities for people with disability, it is imperative to know the effect that a wheelchair has on the lives of the disabled. Estimates from 261 participants across Addis Ababa, Ethiopia were taken to estimate a wheelchair’s impact across numerous time, economic and distance variables. I demonstrate how nearest neighbor covariate matching methods can be used to estimate how wheelchair beneficiaries would have fared had they not been given a wheelchair. Results show that current wheelchair users …

Fdi And Technical Efficiency In Manufacturing Firms: A Stochastic Frontier Approach, Yue Zhou

Master's Theses

In this paper, firm-level data from manufacturing sector in five African countries is obtained to estimate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on firm’s technical efficiency. Unbalanced panel data over period of 1991-2003 shows that the existence of FDI has a significant impact on domestic firms’ technical efficiency. The results remain robust after controlling for country and year fixed effect. Other determinants of technical efficiency are investigated as well and the results show that firm size and export behavior increases efficiency while firm age lowers efficiency

Impact Of Mobile Money Usage On Microenterprise Evidence From Zambia, Laura I. Frederick

Master's Theses

Mobile money payment systems have spread rapidly around the world in the last decade. Given developing countries are powered by informal economies that traditionally have had limited access to information technologies, mobile payment system infrastructure has the potential to transform the way microenterprises conduct business. Through a pilot study in Livingstone, Zambia, I examine the effect of mobile money usage on microenterprise profits. I employ an instrumental variable strategy using the type of mobile operator as the instrument to address the selection bias in adoption, as mobile money services are available to everyone. In this urban context, I find initial …

Typhoons And Lower Birth Weight In The Philippines, Sarah Morrow

Master's Theses

Do typhoons impact birth weights of infants exposed to a typhoon while in utero? This research exploits the exogeneity and randomness of typhoons in the Philippines to estimate the impact of typhoon exposure as determined by wind speed on birth weights. Using four waves of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from the Philippines combined with temperature, precipitation, and rainfall data from the Philippines, I can empirically estimate the impact of a 1 m/s increase in wind speed on birth weights. I find that for certain subgroups of the population, specifically children born to mothers with primary education or …

Matrilineal Asset Inheritance, Female Bargaining Power, And Household Welfare In Malawi, Nicholas T. Garcia

Master's Theses

Matrilineal inheritance practices in Malawi exogenously determine female land holdings at the time of marriage, allowing for the identification of the effect of increased female bargaining power on household consumption decisions. I use the matrilineal ethnicity of the head of household as an instrument for the share of total household land inherited by the female head or male head’s wife. I find that child’s height-for-age decreases with female assets, and evidence suggesting increased consumption from households’ own production. Since the food basket from own consumption is high in carbs but not nutritious, long-term child health suffers despite receiving more resources …

Directional Selective Neurons In Awake Lgn: Response Properties And Modulation By Brain State, Xiaojuan Hei

Master's Theses

Directionally selective (DS) neurons are found in the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of rabbits and rodents. In rabbits, LGN DS cells project to primary visual cortex. Here, we compare visual response properties of LGN DS neurons with those of layer 4 simple cells, most of which show strong direction/orientation selectivity. The response properties of these populations differed dramatically, suggesting that DS cells may not contribute significantly to the synthesis of simple receptive fields: (a) whereas the F1/F0 ratios of LGN DS cells are strongly nonlinear, those of simple cells are strongly linear, (b) whereas LGN DS cells have …

Can Community Water Projects Combat Child Diarrhea? Results From The Solomon Islands, Thomas G. Sackman

Master's Theses

There is a vast amount of existing literature that has empirically scrutinized whether or not community water projects have the ability to mitigate diarrheal disease. A strong and persistent belief thinks that community water projects do have the means, however, over the decades empirical work commonly finds this to simply not be true. This study expands the research question to the Solomon Islands. The research tests the hypothesis using a differences-in-differences identification strategy by utilizing the government’s staggered timing rollout of community water subprojects with whether or not a village received a community water subproject to test for a program …

The Determinants Of Urban Land And Property Values: The Case Of Rwanda, Pierre Kolowe

Master's Theses

Abstract: The paper seeks to determine the factor of urban housing values and their effects on the well-being of urban residents in terms of access to potable water, quality sanitation and other housing amenities. The study uses a total of 36 variables on structural, environmental and neighborhood attributes from the 2010-2011 survey data on income, expenditures and living conditions for the Rwandan urban households. With the use of the semi-log form of the hedonic price model and the survey data, factors of urban properties are determined and quantitative estimates of the Willingness-to-pay for environmental amenities are determined. The analysis of …

Peg-Based Fluorescent Hydrogel For Glucose Biosensing, Gayathri Srinivasan

Master's Theses

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder caused due to lack of insulin production by pancreatic islet cells (Type I) or underutilization of insulin produced in the pancreas (Type II). Complications arising due to this disease can be minimized by vigilant monitoring of blood glucose levels. In this study, a fluorescent enzymatic hydrogel was designed for rapid glucose detection. The glucose-responsive hydrogel was formed by polymerizing multi-arm poly (ethylene glycol), glucose oxidase and serum albumin with aminomethylcoumarin as fluorophore. The sensing mechanism relies on enzymatic catalysis of glucose, that protonates the pH sensitive aminomethylcoumarin, resulting in a fluorescence “turn-on” response. …

Impact Of Typhoons On Children's Human Capital Investments In Filipino Households, Kate Zitelli

Master's Theses

Typhoons are a unique type of natural disaster affecting both developing and developed countries, causing both short and long-term destruction. Typhoons are random both in intensity and frequency, making them difficult to predict their strength and when they will strike. With global climate change, typhoons are expected to increase in both frequency and magnitude, making it important to understand their impacts. This study uses DHS data from the Philippines and a unique Filipino typhoon data set covering they years 1989-2008 to explore how typhoons affect household allocation of basic human capital investments, such as breastfeeding duration. Using OLS estimation and …

High Order Statistics Of Natural And Manmade Sounds, Rahul Narayan

Master's Theses

Environmental sounds, both man-made and natural, vary on multiple time and frequency scales generating a large range of temporal, spectral and amplitude modulations that are evident in the high-order statistics of the sound spectrogram. Healthy hearing humans perceive high-order statistical regularities and use this information to categorize and discriminate sounds. This paper tests the hypothesis that biologically motivated sound statistics can enable/enhance discrimination and identification of sound categories from a computational standpoint. A large catalogue of natural and man-made sounds and their associated high-order contrast and intensity statistics were developed, and the information carrying content of each statistic for sound …

The Influence Of Geographic Location On Sexual Behaviors Related To The Transmission Of Hiv In Mainland Tanzania, Ashley E. Robinette

Master's Theses

Purpose of the Research:

The purpose of this study is to identify how differences in sexual behaviors related to HIV/AIDS are influenced by geographic location, specifically urban and rural regions of Tanzania. By analyzing populations from urban and rural areas, the social factors associated with the regions are hypothesized to influence HIV/AIDS-related behaviors differently with varied outcomes.

Methods Used:

This study used data from the 2011-12 Tanzania HIV/AIDS and Malaria Indicator Survey (THMIS). The data includes both individual and household responses concerning knowledge and attitudes about HIV/AIDS, access to health care and risky sexual behaviors. The sexual behaviors/practices included in …

Effects Of Post-Race Nutritional Intervention On Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness And Return To Activity In Ironman Triathletes, Jun Hashiwaki

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a post-race nutritional intervention on DOMS and ability of triathletes to return to activity. Thirty-six triathletes participated in this study. Subjects were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group by finish time. The intervention group received recovery shakes (540 kcal, 90g carbohydrate, 40g protein, 16g fat) both 1-hour and 3-hours post-race. DOMS was measured with a 100mm-visual analogue scale (VAS) and 11-point global rating of change (GRC) in standing position (static) and sitting-to-standing motion (active). DOMS was evaluated at 11 time points (pre-race, 1h, 3h, 12h post-race, …

Early Life Rainfall And Later Life Human Capital Outcomes In Bangladesh, Thomas Dreesen

Master's Theses

How does early life rainfall impact later life human capital outcomes in Bangladesh? This paper examines the effect of exogenous rainfall shocks that occur during individuals early-life on later life health, wealth and education outcomes of Bangladeshi women born between 1952-1988. I link historical rainfall for each woman’s birth year and Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) cluster of birth with current outcomes from the 1999/2000, 2004 and 2007 survey rounds of the DHS. This study finds that rural women with 20% higher than mean rainfall in their year and cluster of birth are on average 0.24 cm taller and score …

Design Of Biomechanical Sensor System For Laboratory- And Field-Based Measurements Of Hand-Arm Vibration Exposures And Palm And Finger Forces, Simon Kudernatsch

Master's Theses

Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is a disease commonly experienced by workers exposed to vibrating hand-held tools. A hand-held adapter approach to quantify vibration exposures at the palm of the hand is the most prevalent method recommended in the International Standards: ISO 10819 and ISO 5349. Due to the differences in the biodynamic responses of the palm and fingers, it is important to differentiate between palmar and finger exposure measurements, where the occurrence of HAVS may be more dominant. Grip and feed forces are influential factors of vibration exposure and the ability to reliably measure these forces may provide helpful insight …

Impact Of Natural Disaster Exposure On Prosocial Preferences And Public Goods Provision: Evidence From The Solomon Islands, Heather Belfor

Master's Theses

Natural disaster exposure can impact prosocial preferences, which indicate the level of social capital, as well as create a shift in investments from public to private goods. Both are important mechanisms to study in order to create optimal climate change adaptation policies. This study evaluates the impact of natural disaster exposure on prosocial preferences and public goods provision in the evaluated communities. The data used in this research comes from a process evaluation that was carried out in the Solomon Islands on the Rural Development Program (RDP) and a Structured Community Activity (SCA) experiment, which took place in 80 villages …

Social And Environmental Risk Factors For Anemia And Malnutrition Among Adolescent Girls In Mumbai, India, Dylan E. Graetz

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Attitudes And Beliefs Regarding The Collection Of Race, Ethnicity And Primary Language Information In Healthcare Settings, Roberto A. Henry

Master's Theses

Public health researchers, practitioners and policy makers are increasingly trying to uncover, quantify and address health disparities, which are differences in health outcomes among population subgroups (Nepaul et al., 2007). Health disparities are understood to be the consequences of differences in care, the health services infrastructure, and information systems available to persons by virtue of their gender, race, ethnicity, education level, etc. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011; Institute of Medicine, 2009). In the United States, we commonly study health disparities occurring across racial and ethnic groups, requiring the collection of race, ethnicity and language data in order …

Wmost Case Study For Uconn’S Storrs Campus To Optimize Water Purchases From Connecticut Water Company, Joseph D. Albani

Master's Theses

The University of Connecticut currently provides potable water to its Storrs campus and Mansfield from groundwater pumps in the Willimantic and Fenton River Wellfields capable of producing 1.48 MGD and 0.8442 MGD, respectively. In 2005, sections of the Fenton River ran dry as a result of low flows and overuse. Since that time, the University has undertaken successful efforts to understand and manage its water resources. The wellfields’ supply is currently inadequate for the 15% margin of safety for peak monthly demands. Additionally, UConn is planning expansions bringing 6,500 more students to campus, with the facilities to accommodate them. UConn …

The Stress Response To An Acute Heavy Resistance Exercise Protocol, Adam J. Sterczala

Master's Theses

Exercise has been shown to induce significant stress and a subsequent inflammatory response characterized by changes in circulating leukocyte populations and inflammatory cytokines and has been well documented following aerobic exercise. Research in regards to the effects of resistance exercise on the stress induced inflammatory response is less prevalent and has shown divergent results, likely due to differences in the exercise protocols used, the time points measured and the subjects involved. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to analyze the stress response to an acute heavy resistance exercise protocol (AHREP) in resistance-trained men. Specifically, we examined effects on circulating …

Biocompatible Fluorescent Hydrogel Fiber For Glucose Monitoring, Srilaya Mopidevi

Master's Theses

Diabetes mellitus is one of the leading incurable diseases which may lead to severe health complications due to elevated blood glucose levels. This is mainly caused due to lack of insulin secretion by pancreas (Type I) or when the cells in the body become resistant to insulin (Type II). The key for diabetes treatment is regular monitoring and maintenance of blood glucose levels in the body. We present herein an optical glucose biosensor for glucose monitoring, where a fluorescent enzymatic hydrogel is incorporated with fluorescein, polyethylene glycol and glucose oxidase. Glucose oxidase catalyzes oxidation of glucose to gluconic acid that …

Prescription Opioid Abuse: A Gateway To Abuse Of Other Prescription Medications?, Christian Acharte

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Connecticut Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Parental Attitudes About Reproductive Health Education Based On Racial Ethnic Backgrounds, Elizabeth M. Chasse

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.