Digital Commons Network^™

Forage Adaptability Trials For Forage And Seed Production In Bolivia; Effect Of 5 Herbicides On 7 Native Utah Forbs, Joshua C. Voss

Theses and Dissertations

The harsh environmental and poor economic conditions of the Bolivian Altiplano require intervention to assist many of those that live there to become economically self-sufficient. We attempted to find introduced dry season reserve forage grasses that could produce enough biomass to be useful as feed for livestock, and that could also produce enough seed to distribute to farmers. While some of the grasses produced reasonable amounts of biomass, none produced seed in quantities that would be even close to being economically viable. The most likely cause of this is that the timing of resources that the grasses need to flower …

Using Social Network Analysis To Investigate Potential Bias In Editorial Peer Review In Core Journals Of Comparative/International Education, Biao Cheng

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores potential bias in the editorial peer-review system within the context of the field of comparative and international education. Assuming the role as “Guardian of Science” and “social status judge” (Zuckerman & Merton, 1971), peer-review, the quality control system of science, directly affects the growth of science, scientists' academic career and their institutions. The very basic tenet of the peer review system is its assumed objectivity. Bias in editorial peer review process, however, is inevitable. The constitution of the blind peer review mechanism is itself a simply undeniable acknowledgement of that fact. Therefore, this study investigated potential peer-review …

Effects Of Aspartame Consumption On Cognitive Function, Fang Ye

Theses and Dissertations

The FDA estimates that 35% of Americans regularly consume aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in diet drinks and other sugar-free food items. Some anecdotal reports indicate the substance has been associated with health, behavioral, and cognitive concerns. The FDA and other regulatory agencies indicate it is safe for use up to 50mg/kg/day. They further advise individuals with metabolic phenylalanine disorders not to consume this product. This conflicting advice has caused confusion for consumers and practioners. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aspartame consumption on cognitive functioning of healthy adults.

Orem's theory of Self-Care guided …

The Experience Of Transition By Baccalaureate Nursing Graduates, Linda R. Pettersen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the transition experience of new baccalaureate-prepared graduates entering nursing practice as registered nurses. Participants were a convenience sample of six graduates from a midwestem university who were employed as registered nurses from eight to twelve months in acute care nursing practice. Transition theory was used as a guide in designing interview questions. Participants were interviewed and the audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and then analyzed for codes, categories, and themes.

Four themes emerged from analysis of the data. Theme One: Lack of experience contributes to self-doubt for the new graduate nurse. Although …

Ogimah Ikwe: Native Females And Their Path To Leadership, Denise K. Lajimodiere

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to discover leadership patterns in the paths of Native female leaders and their experiences. The study explores the path that current Native female leaders walked on that lead them to their positions of leadership. The study speaks to the challenges, conflicts and obstacles faced by Native women working toward professional goals that demand a balance of traditional and contemporary leadership strengths and roles and focuses on the experience, perceptions, beliefs and meaning of the women interviewed. The study gives a voice to five of today’s Native female leaders—five Brave-Hearted Women.

The participants’ …

Roadblocks To Success: What Is Preventing The Literacy Achievement Of Mexican-American Students?, Barbara J. Ross

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Funny Ha-Ha Or Funny Strange: The Structure And Meaning Of Laughter In Conversation, Linda Houts-Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Although laughter has been studied for centuries, the work has occurred in several different fields, and the lack of an interdisciplinary approach has hindered the integration of results. Work in philosophy has focused on why we laugh but has lacked a basis in empirical data, resulting in ungrounded theories. Studies in neuroscience and linguistics rest on empirical data, but stop short of a full description of the phenomenon of laughter, focusing on when and how we laugh, but not why. This study seeks to describe the phenomenon of laughter more fully, to describe both the nature of the laughable and …

The Lived Experiences Of Three Student Teachers In A Birth-Third Grade Teacher Licensure Program, Kathleen A. Sonsteng

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover themes in the experience, behavior, and attitude of three students in a Birth-Third Grade Teacher Licensure Program, at a specific midwestern university, as the students were involved in their primary-level student teaching experience. In looking at the lived experiences of these three student teachers, the focus was on their level of confidence and preparedness before, during, and after student teaching.

This qualitative study used a phenomenological research approach. The phenomenon in this particular study is the primary-level student teaching experience. This study sought understanding of what this student teaching experience was for …

Once Upon A Time In A Single-Parent Family: Father And Daughter Relationships In Disney's The Little Mermaid And Beauty And The Beast, Ashli A. Sharp

Theses and Dissertations

Fairy tales are adapted to fit the needs of each generation, reflecting the unique challenges of that society. In the 1980s and 1990s of the United States, issues of what constituted a family circulated as divorce increased and fatherhood was debated. At this time, Disney released two animated films featuring a father and daughter: The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Both films are adaptations of fairy tales, and they incorporate changes that specifically reflect concerns of the United States in the late-twentieth century. In the original narrative of "The Little Mermaid" the heroine is primarily raised by her …

Challenging Gender Stereotypes In The Classroom: How Students Respond To "Dreamworlds", Angela Bailly

Theses and Dissertations

Students do not arrive in our classrooms as blank slates. When we, as Iructors, attempt to challenge them with a new wav of thinking about a topic, it's often difficult to know the impact of that exposure. It is even more difficult to cjliscover how students integrate the new information. This study explores the integration of Dreamworlds II: Desire/Sex/Power in Music Video into the lives of nineteen undergraduates. Dreamworlds II is a film concerning music videos and how they present images of women. It challenges the viewer to think about the cortsequences of these images and the alternatives that could …

Autocad/Art: A Happy Medium, Christopher Grisby

Theses and Dissertations

Many artistic students struggle in computer-aided drafting (CADr) courses because they are unable to relate to the software and/or assignments, while technical students miss out on their own design and inventiveness because of the same software and assignments. This independent study is a project design with the purpose to demonstrate how AutoCAD® can be used as an artistic tool in creating two-dimensional portraits. Auto Desk's AutoCAD® is a standard program used in drafting courses to produce mechanical and architectural drawings. The specific goal of the study was to produce a practical model outlining the details of the AutoCAD@/art project so …

Man Down South, Joseph B. Plicka

Theses and Dissertations

In this novella the main character, David Crumm, is getting older and decides not to wait around and die on his frozen ranch, but to retire to warmer climates. He leaves everything with his daughter, gets in his truck and drives south with his dog. In Florida, he accidentally hits and kills a migrant woman on her bicycle. The woman has a young son who survives the accident and, through a number of converging factors, David is compelled to personally take the boy back to his relatives in Nicaragua. The book then deals with David's experiences as he heads farther …

Fgf4 And Wnt5a/Pcp Signaling Promote Limb Outgrowth By Polarizing Limb Mesenchyme, Keri Lynn Low

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this study was to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms whereby fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) mediate outgrowth of the limb. Specifically, we examined the epistatic relationship between FGF and Wnt/Planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling in establishing cell polarity as a mechanism for outgrowth. By implanting beads into embryonic limbs and lateral plate mesoderm, we established that FGF activates Wnt5a in a gradient fashion. Once it was established that Wnt5a was expressed at the right time and place to turn on PCP signaling, we investigated the ability of Wnt5a to influence cell migration and/or cell polarity. Our analysis …

Effects Of Cheatgrass Control On Wyoming Big Sagebrush In Southeastern Utah, Daniel Blaine Eddington

Theses and Dissertations

Critical mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) winter ranges in southeastern Utah dominated by Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata var. wyomingensis [Beetle and A. Young] Welsh) have developed dense cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) understories. These communities are currently characterized by predominately mature to decadent stands of sagebrush with few perennial grasses and forbs. Sagebrush seedlings and perennial grasses compete for limited resources with annual grasses and forbs. To determine the affects of cheatgrass control on sagebrush growth and reproductive characteristics, imazapic (PLATEAU®, AC 263,222) herbicide was sprayed at 438.5 ml/ha with water and methylated seed oil during active fall growth of cheatgrass …

The Role Of Boron In The Regulation Of Inflammation: Studies In Vivo And In Vitro, Kelly Ann Durick

Theses and Dissertations

I demonstrated here that the presence of physiological amounts of boron was able to prevent the onset of and ameliorate ongoing collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). I also show a mechanism for boron's anti-inflammatory properties, in that boron was able to down regulate a number of pro-inflammatory mediators, all of which are under transcriptional control of NF-κB. Boron-supplemented diets, 2.0 mg B/kg and 12 mg B/kg, rendered CIA susceptible mice significantly more resistant to the onset of clinical arthritis, compared to mice fed boron-deficient chow, or commercial rodent chow. Dietary boron supplementation was also shown to prevent the onset of experimental autoimmune …

Regulation Of Vascular Smooth Muscle Actin Polymerization: Pathophysiological Implications And Relations To Portal Hypertensive Conditions, Xuesong Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic portal hypertension is an end-state clinical condition associated with cirrhosis and other diseases that elevate portal vascular resistance. An intriguing vascular consequence of chronic portal hypertension is impaired vasoconstrictor function which favors a chronically vasodilated condition. This vasoconstrictor dysfunction has been linked to prolonged activation of protein kinase A (PKA). However the cellular mechanism(s) responsible for the altered vasoconstrictor function is still not clear. The present studies tested my hypothesis that PKA mediates impaired vasoconstrictor function by affecting the actin filament dynamics via two small heat shock proteins, HSP20 and HSP27. Studies were conducted in isolated small mesenteric arteries …

Defining The Components Of Academic Self-Efficacy In Navajo American Indian High School Students, Thomas R. Golightly

Theses and Dissertations

The academic difficulties experienced by a majority of Navajo American Indian students are well documented. Past research has focused on a variety of internal and external factors which possibly explain some of these difficulties. Low levels of academic self-efficacy (ASE) has been identified as one of the factors possibly contributing to lower than expected rates of academic achievement and low post-secondary education retention rates in this population. This investigation sought to further define the component structures of ASE using theoretical structures postulated by Bandura (1977a, 1997), namely: past success, modeling, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. Information about grade point averages …

On-Line Electronic Document Collaboration And Annotation, Trev R. Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

The Internet provides a powerful medium for communication and collaboration. The ability one has to connect and interact with web-based tools from anywhere in the world makes the Internet ideal for such tasks. However, the lack of native tools can be a hindrance when deploying collaborative initiatives, as many current projects require specialized software in order to operate. This thesis demonstrates, with the comparably recent advances in browser technology and Document Object Model (DOM) implementation, a web-based collaborative annotation system can be developed that can be accessed by a user through a standards-compliant web browser. Such a system, demonstrated to …

Determining Multiple Intelligences In The Preschool Aged Child, Jill Elizabeth Capie

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research study was to explore whether valid Multiple Intelligence profiles could be created for preschool children. This study was conducted over a three month period and included 16 preschool-aged participants. Research strategies included surveys (teacher, paraprofessional, and parent), naturalistic observations, and participant interviews. There were four key findings in this study. First, the teacher, the paraprofessional, and the parents had differing perceptions about which intelligences were dominant for each participant. Second, participants appear to have multiple, equally dominant intelligences. Third, participant's views related to their own dominant intelligences frequently differed from those reported by the teacher, …

Fusion Of Imaging And Inertial Sensors For Navigation, Michael J. Veth

Theses and Dissertations

The motivation of this research is to address the limitations of satellite-based navigation by fusing imaging and inertial systems. The research begins by rigorously describing the imaging and navigation problem and developing practical models of the sensors, then presenting a transformation technique to detect features within an image. Given a set of features, a statistical feature projection technique is developed which utilizes inertial measurements to predict vectors in the feature space between images. This coupling of the imaging and inertial sensors at a deep level is then used to aid the statistical feature matching function. The feature matches and inertial …

Construction Of A Col11a1 Transgene Vector, Cameron Mckell Beck

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Cartilage disorders affect millions of people in the United States alone, with effects ranging from poor skeletal development and joint pain to shortened lifespan and perinatal lethality. Many of these disorders have their root in defects of collagen, type XI collagen being among the most important. A mouse model of such a type XI collagen defect is the chondrodysplasia (cho) mutant. Mice homozygous for this null mutation in the Col11a1 gene do not express the α1 chain of type XI collagen. This results in a functional knockout of type XI collagen, leading to insufficient skeletal development and perinatal lethality. …

Vision-Based Rendering: Using Computational Stereo To Actualize Ibr View Synthesis, Kevin L. Steele

Theses and Dissertations

Computer graphics imagery (CGI) has enabled many useful applications in training, defense, and entertainment. One such application, CGI simulation, is a real-time system that allows users to navigate through and interact with a virtual rendition of an existing environment. Creating such systems is difficult, but particularly burdensome is the task of designing and constructing the internal representation of the simulation content. Authoring this content on a computer usually requires great expertise and many man-hours of labor. Computational stereo and image-based rendering offer possibilities to automatically create simulation content without user assistance. However, these technologies have largely been limited to creating …

Ferritin: Mechanistic Studies And Electron Transfer Properties, Bo Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Ferritins are ubiquitous iron storage proteins in living systems. Although much is known about the iron deposition process in ferritin and a mechanism has been developed, several important issues still remain unknown. One lingering question is the less than stoichiometric quantities of hydrogen peroxide detected in previous studies on animal ferritins. Extensive experimental data on identifying the species in competition for peroxide equivalents point to a surprising conclusion that H2O2 generated in the ferroxidase reaction is consumed by amine buffers that are commonly employed in in vitro ferritin studies, while non-nitrogen containing buffers, such as acetate, phosphate, and carbonate, do …

Modeling And Testing Of An Instantaneous Overcurrent Relay Using Vtb And Vtb-Rt, Daxa Patel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the application of the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) and its real-time extension, VTB-RT, for protective relay modeling, simulation, and testing. An instantaneous overcurrent relay model was developed in VTB for a transmission line protection. The same relay model was built in Matlab/Simulink for validation purposes. Both models were tested for various fault conditions on a radial power system and results were compared. Moreover, a low cost real-time Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation platform was implemented for relay model testing using VTB-RT and public domain software packages such as Real-Time Application Interface (RTAI), Comedi, and Comedilib, and notebook computer hardware. …

Mechanobiology Of Soft Tissue Differentiation: Effect Of Hydrostatic Pressure, Joon Wan Shim

Theses and Dissertations

This study was motivated by a theoretical formulation on mechanobiology of soft and hard skeletal tissue differentiation. To prove this formulation experimentally, I hypothesized that cartilaginous phenotype can be induced in vitro in a seemingly non-cartilaginous cell source from fibrous tissue. In testing this hypothesis, I have focused on cartilage as a target and fibrous tissue as an origin or the source of cell. Four different trials were pursued with one supposition in common, i.e. hydrostatic pressure is one of the main driving forces for chondroinduction in vitro. The first and second trials pertained to the influence of a relatively …

Adsorption Of Water Contaminants Onto Kenaf Fibers, Stephen Douglas Tolar

Theses and Dissertations

In this research, the adsorptive capacities of kenaf in the forms of chopped whole stalk, chopped core, and bast materials were evaluated for the removal of lead, zinc, and toluene from contaminated synthetic waste streams using traditional adsorption isotherm techniques. The effect of surface oxidation using ozone was observed with respect to the adsorption of metals. Hydraulic conductivity experiments were conducted to evaluate the head loss associated with packing a column with kenaf fibers and to determine the suitability of its use in dynamic packed column systems. B.E.T. surface areas were determined as well. Under increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, even …

The Mass Housing Dilemma: An Industrial Design Process In Architecture, Shaima Ghazi Al Arayedh

Theses and Dissertations

World population growth and global warming are accentuating the long recognized problem of housing for the masses; millions are homeless, live in inadequate shelter, or as in the US Manufactured Housing market that is the focus of this thesis, live in nondurable poor quality ?manufactured? houses that are detrimental to health, at best, or during extreme weather events, suffer catastrophic damages often resulting in death to occupants. In this thesis, we have reviewed the role of the architect in the US Manufactured Housing industry; additionally, we identified the major problems that plaque the US Manufactured Housing Industry. Further, we have …

Utilization Of Deionized Water And Non-Meat Adjuncts To Combat Quality Issues In Boneless Cured Ham Associated With Using Pale Raw Material, Jonathan Wilbourn

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of deionized water and PSE pork percentage on the quality of smoked deli ham and retorted pouched ham with and without non-meat adjuncts were evaluated. Product quality was determined through evaluation of water holding capacity, cooked color, protein-protein bind, and sensory quality. A randomized complete block design with either three or four replications was utilized to test treatment effects in three separate experiments. The retorting process showed the potential to reduce the effect of PSE meat on color that is present in raw material and smoked deli ham. In retorted ham, modified food starch and soy protein concentrate …

Intercultural Communication Needs Of Mississippi Agricultural Students, Employers, And Hispanic Workers, Rosa Elena Vozzo

Theses and Dissertations

As the inclusion of Hispanic labor in the Mississippi workforce increses, it is necessary to prepare our students to communicate with these workers. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitude toward Spanish speakers, their culture, and the study of Spanish among agricultural students at Mississippi State University. The study also sought to discover cultural differences that could affect communication between American managers and the Hispanic workforce.The Friedman (1997) questionnaire was administered to 204 students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Additionally, open interviews were conducted with 10 participants: four Mexican Hispanci workers, two community leaders, …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Directed-Discovery Teaching Methods And Weekly Quizzes In A Standardized Introductory Earth Science Laboratory Course, Julia Gail Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

A study was conducted to determine the effects of directed discovery-based teaching methods (hands-on learning) and weekly quizzes on short-term learning and long-term retention of course material in an introductory geosciences laboratory course. Assessment of learning was accomplished using percentages of correct responses to questions on two tests, using percentages from the first semester of the study as a baseline to which data from each subsequent semester were compared to determine the effects of the study variable that was introduced. Student evaluations of value, meaning, and enjoyment of the course were also investigated through the use of an essay question …