Digital Commons Network^™

Assessment Of The Chemical Mechanism Of Staphylococcus Aureus 5’-Methylthioadenosine/S-Adenosylhomocysteine Nucleosidase, A Novel Target For Drug Design, Kumari Vaijayanti Karn

Theses and Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus 5’-methylthioadenosine/S-adenosylhomocysteine nucleosidase (SaMTAN), a multiple substrate-specific enzyme that catalyzes the irreversible hydrolytic reaction by cleaving the glycosidic bond in different adenosine based metabolites and plays a key role in biofilm production regulated by bacterial quorum sensing (Mishra & Ronning, 2012). The reaction mechanism of SaMTAN has been suggested to be acid-base catalyzed hydrolysis. The active site of SaMTAN has five amino acid residues that are candidates for the general acid residues or the general base residues. It has been suggested that Glutamic acid 11, 171 and 173 (E11,E171 and E173) may play as the general base while Aspartic …

More Than Stories: Indigenous Environmental Reciprocity In The Poetry Of Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Rebecca Purse

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis brings to the forefront the traditional stories Marshallese poet, performer, and climate change activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner shares in her published poetry. Indigenous studies scholars agree that Indigenous stories have power--power to change, power to inform, and power to heal. The traditional stories in Jetñil-Kijiner's poetry reveal the power of the environment and the potential relationships that can exist between humans and natural beings. While these traditional stories work to disrupt the narrative that Indigenous perspectives, knowledges, and cultures are somehow inferior to their colonial neighbors', they also assert the need for a return to environmental reciprocit--or the establishment …

The Effects Of Shed Antler Hunting On Ungulate Movement, Space-Use And Resource Selection, Steven B. Bates

Theses and Dissertations

Shed antler hunting has increased in popularity during the past decade, but little is known about how this recreational activity affects ungulate movements and space use. We placed geographic positioning system (gps)-collars on 133 bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), bison (Bison bison), and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) to quantify their movements, space use, and resource selection during shed antler hunts on Antelope Island Utah, USA, from 2012 to 2015. In Chapter 1, we calculated means and 95% confidence intervals for distance moved during 90-minute segments (16 points/day); pre-event (control, seven consecutive days prior to event), event (one to two days), and …

The Effects Of Interspecific Competition And Predation On Survival Of Neonate Mule Deer, Daniel W. Sallee

Theses and Dissertations

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) populations are influenced by multiple factors, including interspecific competition and predation. Interspecific competition can affect resource acquisition and survival through altering space use and access to preferred habitat. Mule deer in some areas alter space use in the presence of competing species, including bison (Bison bison), cattle (Box taurus), elk (Cervus canadensis), and feral horses (Equus caballus), however the influence of competition on survival of mule deer during specific life history stages, such as birthing and rearing of neonates, is largely unknown. In addition to competition, predation can influence mule deer populations and even limit population …

Menaxhimi I Hipertensionit, Andris Pajaziti

Theses and Dissertations

Hyrje: Hipertensioni është sëmundja më e përhapur vdekjeprurëse e kontrollueshme në shekullin e sotëm dhe përbën një nga shkaqet më të zakonshme të kontrolleve tek mjeku i familjes dhe shtrimit në spital. Qëllimi i ketij studimi është vleresimi i krizës hipertensive, dhe komplikacioneve te saj dhe propozimin e masave për të kontrolluar këta faktorë.

Metodat: Për të realizuar këtë punim është përdorur metodologjia e rishikimit të literaturës në lidhje me menaxhimin e hipertensionit. Informacionet e paraqitura janë siguruar nga literatura të shumta shkencore kryesisht në 10 vitet e fundit në për Databaza të fushës së infermierisë.

Prezantimi dhe analiza e …

Zbulimi I Baktereve Listeria Monocytogenes Në Mostrat E Qumështit Në Rajonin E Prizrenit Sipas Metodës “Hytech Slide”, Vlera Dorambari

Theses and Dissertations

Në këtë studim, prania dhe prevalenca e Listeria monocytogenes u hetua në 10 mostrat e qumështit të lopës së papërpunuar të blerë nga tregjet e rrugëve në qendër të Prizrenit. Prania e L. monocitogjenes u zbulua duke përdorur metodën e Hytech Slide në L. monocitogjene u zbulua në 80% (8/10) të 10 mostrave të qumështit të analizuara.

Rezultatet e hulumtimit zbuluan se qumështi i papërpunuar i shitur në tregjet e rrugëve në qendër të Prizrenit mund të jetë burim i ndotjes me L. monocitogjene dhe të paraqesë një kërcënim të mundshëm për shëndetin publik.

Transit Mobility And Premature Birth In New York City: A Population-Based Study, Ross B. Maddux

Theses and Dissertations

Transit mobility has been recognized as an essential element to economic attainment, environmental sustainability, and as a vital part of public health⁠. Social and economic disparities paired with elusive and inefficient public transit present real barriers for the ability of efficient planning and use of time⁠. Lengthier commutes and generally less efficient travel contribute to stress during a pregnancy and limit the ability to access work and prenatal care. In survey studies of women utilizing clinics as their prenatal care provider, nearly 25% listed transportation as a barrier to accessing care.

Prior research has not linked directly premature birth and …

"Out Of The Living Rock": The Assemblage Of Ruins In H. Rider Haggard's She, Rachel E. Rackham

Theses and Dissertations

H. Rider Haggard's imperial gothic novel, She, A History of Adventure (1887), is a narrative of ruins that speak of a vanished past and presage ends: of empire, of history, of culture. Haggard's novel follows two British adventurers as they travel to Africa in search of a mysterious woman that a potsherd--a ruin in miniature--tasks them with killing. There, they encounter ruin after ruin: pots, roads, caves, canals, sculptures, and more. These ruins serve as sentinels, as walkways, and as homes; they signal, warn, resist, witness, remind, and--not least--exist in a landscape that is anything but empty. Though seemingly inert, …

Of Zoos And Tools: Conceptual Metaphor Theory In The Language Of Incarcerated People And Correctional Officers, Chloe Rampton

Theses and Dissertations

Prison language is heavily influenced by its environment and is noteworthy for its use of metaphor and metonymy. This study examined the use of metaphor and metonymy, including metaphtonymy, in prison language and how they are influenced by aspects of the environment. The metaphoric and metonymic expressions were selected from the language of incarcerated people and of correctional officers (COs). Data for this study was collected from the podcast Ear Hustle that is produced from inside San Quentin State Prison in California, USA and has been qualitatively analyzed using grounded theory. Additionally, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) was used to identify …

South Sudanese Women In Cairo: The Making And Re-Making Of Life Under Precarious Conditions, Nour Abdulhak

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses how South Sudanese women mobile subjects who choose domestic work as a livelihood navigate life in the city of Cairo. The thesis unpacks how these women’s precarious conditions and different individual and structural factors or policies affect the way they make and re-make their lives in Cairo. While it is common for South Sudanese women to do domestic work in Egypt, this population has been neglected by academia and policy makers. Due to the academic limitations on this topic, interviews with experts were conducted alongside the ethnographic study of these women’s lives to attain the closest depiction …

Developing A Basic Formal Supply Chain Ontology To Improve Communication And Interoperability, David Morrow

Theses and Dissertations

Information is crucial to supply chain performance because it is used to make decisions and trigger actions. Organizations across world-class supply chains increasingly use information technology to analyze and process supply chain data. However, supply chain management lacks a common language, making information exchange difficult. An ontology can provide a standardized framework that organizes a given knowledge domain. This research proposes a common language for developing a supply chain ontology that can be built into a basic formal ontology understood by both humans and computers. According to current research, an established and widely used supply chain framework is a good …

Translation In And Of Philosophy, Hussein Barrada

Theses and Dissertations

Paul Ricoeur in his essay The Paradigm of Translation, presents an understanding of translation that is found between two positions that are irreconcilable. These two positions represent on the one hand, the difference that exists between languages and on the other hand, the common ground that languages must have for them to be translatable into one another. Following Ricoeur’s paradigm, the thesis will aim to unpack an understanding of translation as a tension that occurs between its theoretical impossibility and the reality of its everyday practice. The theoretical impossibility of translation lies in the fact that for one language …

Impact Of Covid Responses On Brand Performance, Emy Rezkalla

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study is to understand and evaluate whether COVID responses have a significant positive impact on brand performance. Accordingly, the proposed conceptual model focused on the top four COVID-19 responses: donations in cash, donations in kind, customer service, and employers/suppliers and evaluated the impact of each proposed response on brand value, brand growth, and brand ranking in 2020 versus 2019.

The research question of this paper is, Do COVID responses (customer service, employers/suppliers, donations in kind, and donations in cash) have a significant positive impact on brand performance (brand value, brand growth, and brand ranking vs. …

Effect Of Schematic Congruence On Mnemonic Discrimination In The Hippocampal Subregions, Ariana M. Hedges-Muncy

Theses and Dissertations

Two experiments are presented in this dissertation to investigate the effect a schema may have on mnemonic discrimination. We developed stimuli composed of a foreground item on a background that was either schematically congruent or incongruent. For the encoding phase of both experiments, these stimuli were presented to 98 participants, who were tasked with determining the congruency of each foreground-background pair. Next, the two experiments diverged for the retrieval phase, where participants were presented with either the same object as before (Target) or one that was similar (Lure). Forty-six participants in Experiment 1 saw stimuli with the same background as …

Our House, Alina Mogollon-Volk

Theses and Dissertations

Our House is a documentary short film about the role personal archives play in our lives and how they are used to remember lost loved ones. Kevin Volk lost his father, Ernest, when he was just three years old. For years, his questions about Ernest were greeted with platitudes such as, “He would give the shirt off his back,” but very little substance. The film explores how family artifacts have given a window into the man who died of a heart attack at 46 years old and how it helped his son deal with the grief. The things we collect …

A Self-Tunable Piezoelectric Energy Harvester, Ashraf Hussein

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, a new technique to harvest energy using inertial vibration energy harvesters is introduced. A triple-layer piezoelectric beam with a self-tunable frequency was developed in order to respond to variable-frequency excitations, thereby maintaining the beam in a state of resonance for maximum power output. The tuning mechanism managed to change the natural frequency of the beam in the range of 2.27 ���� to 6.25 ����. In this case, the output voltage could be raised from 12�� to 23��.

A mathematical model was developed to investigate the natural frequency, the output voltage, and the output power of the beam …

Computational Modelling Of Drugs For Alzheimer’S Disease (Ad) And Applications On Artifical Neural Network Systems (Nets), Nouf Masarweh

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible and progressive disease that affects neurons and their connections in parts of the brain specifically the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. The purpose of this research is to modify current medications used for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease utilizing computational modelling. The medications chosen to be modified are the most common drugs used in AD patients to treat mild to severe symptoms. The modifications are concluded to increase the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value which is the concentration needed for the drug to inhibit a specific biological function. Drug design throughout this research has …

Metabolites Profiling Of Coffee Seeds In Context To Their Origin, Processing And Gut Microbiota Interaction, Amr Abdelwareth

Theses and Dissertations

Coffee is among the most consumed beverages worldwide, with the present study to focus on the aroma and non-volatiles composition associated with coffee seeds processing, brewing methods and gut microbiota interaction. The study uncovered a large number of primary and secondary metabolites in diverse coffee products consumed in the Middle East in the context of its origin, roasting, and blends and microbiota mediated biotransformation products. First, aroma of authentic coffee specimens of Coffea arabica and Coffea robusta alongside with commercial products consumed in the Middle East were analyzed using HS-SPME coupled to GC-MS and modelled using multivariate data analyses (MVA). …

Faculty Perspectives On Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Integration: A Descriptive Study From The American University In Cairo, Sondos Mohamed Moshtohry

Theses and Dissertations

The interdisciplinary approach and the science of the brain are successfully wedded. Globally, neuroscience is expanding and offering substantial advances and versatile applications within various domains affirming the worthiness of its investments; however, nationally, a similar engagement with the field is not evident. This study proposes the integrative research cloud model as a framework for interdisciplinary engagement. The American University in Cairo (AUC) is known for its forward-looking strategy and belief in interdisciplinarity that is why it was chosen as the setting for this study. Accordingly, the opinions and perspectives of its faculty from the different schools and departments on …

Treasure, Women, And Agency: Exploring Objectification In A World Of Living Objects, Alexa Parker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the poems Beowulf and Judith with a focus on the ways in which peaceweavers and treasure objects are portrayed. In Old English texts, such as Beowulf, peaceweaving women have been compared to the role of treasure, with claims that peaceweavers act in the same way and perform the same duties as objects of exchange: they bring peace between men. By using an object-oriented perspective to examine the relationships between these agentive objects and the women objectified as such, I argue that a more nuanced understanding of women’s agency and power in early medieval England can be reached. …

Clams Clams Clams Clams Clams Clams Clams Clams Clams Clams, Ella Boureau

Theses and Dissertations

CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS CLAMS is a multilingual retrofuturist couscous western starring two eco-militant sisters living on a polluted Mediterranean beach.

The Adobe Frontier, Christopher J. Gauthier

Theses and Dissertations

The Adobe Frontier is a documentary film about Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello—together known as “Studio Rael San Fratello” —and their work connecting contemporary technology with the legacy of pottery making and adobe architecture in the Southwest United States.

Be The Hammer, Jonathan M. Novick

Theses and Dissertations

John Young is an accomplished athlete, he has run marathons, long distance triathlons and other impressive feats all at the height of 4 feet 3 inches tall. Jon Novick, a fellow little person athlete, journeys into Young’s story sidestepping played out themes of inspiration and plunging into something deeper.

Fractured Selves, Gearoid Dolan

Theses and Dissertations

Fractured Selves is a self-portrait that examines the histories and points of conflation and diversion of my four public personas. In the style of a Zoom meeting, they chat with a host against animated backgrounds. Interactivity creates non-linear consuming of the content and user directed navigation through four timelines

Signal To Noise: Harmonic Temperaments And Patterns Of Interference, Dylan A. Marcheschi

Theses and Dissertations

An audio/visual exploration of historical tuning systems. Most contemporary Western audiences will seldom if ever encounter harmony outside of post-Renaissance tuning conventions. This presentation highlights some of those pre-orthodox harmonic relationships which existed throughout most of history. The corresponding paper documents correlates in recent advances of acoustic ecology.

Wildfires In The Uncanny Valley, Jenna Beasley

Theses and Dissertations

My work considers our affectual relationship to a rapidly changing environment through ideas about the philosophy and representation of nature, materiality, and the uncanny. In this text, I trace my artistic explorations of notions of apocalypse and catastrophe as they lead me to a deepened ecological viewpoint.

Posthumous Painting: On Pigment And Binder, Jameson G. Magrogan

Theses and Dissertations

Modernism brought about a logical culmination of painting, an epoch where logic and reason can no longer attempt to account for or speculate its behavior. This paper considers the perpetuation of painting from an ontological standpoint, documenting its inherent aporia, its relationship to meaning, and its function in contemporary society.

Creating Home, Ludovic Nkoth

Theses and Dissertations

My work explores and conceptualizes the idea of a world where my people were never colonized, a world where we are still existing with our culture, our powers and the idea of voodoo. I place myself, friends, and family in positions of power, in spaces the world took away from us due to the color our skin. This is the world my practice aims to create.

Searching For Sapphistries: An Archive Of Felt Photographs, Lauren Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Using the holdings of the Peter J. Cohen Collection in New York City as a platform from which to engage the queer impulse of feeling backward, this thesis posits that vernacular photographs can be included in sapphistry through the creation of a counterarchive of “felt photographs,” where a reading of photographs is animated by a queer positionality and knowing.

An Infinite Horizon: Space, Time, & Mind In The American Imaginary From Thomas Cole To Agnes Pelton, 1825-1961, Jason Friedman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how artists, intellectuals, spiritual seekers, and industrialists represented the American horizon across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The purpose of this inquiry is to show how art transmuted ideological and religious beliefs across time and to demonstrate the interdependence of esoteric self-perceptions and American hegemonic power.