Digital Commons Network^™

Protein Folding And Misfolding Mechanisms - Pathological Implications, Detection And Modeling, Nigil Satish Jeyashekar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

What Is Evolution? A Response To Bamforth, Michael J. O'Brien, R. L. Lyman, R. D. Leonard

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Douglas Bamforth's recent paper in American Antiquity, "Evidence and Metaphor in Evolutionary Archaeology," charges that Darwinism has little to offer archaeology except in a metaphorical sense. Specifically, Bamforth claims that arguments that allegedly link evolutionary processes to the archaeological record are unsustainable. Given Bamforth's narrow view of evolution: that it must be defined strictly in terms of changes in gene frequency: he is correct. But no biologist or paleontologist would agree with Bamforth's claim that evolution is a process that must be viewed fundamentally at the microlevel. Evolutionary archaeology has argued that materials in the archaeological record are phenotypic in …

The Trajectory Of "Normal" After 9/11: Trauma, Recovery And Post-Traumatic Societal Adaptation, Joel B. Eisen

Law Faculty Publications

I shall evaluate some of the wide-ranging psychological effects of 9/11 to further flesh out the concept that 9/11 is a "national trauma," in pursuit of a more sophisticated understanding intended to supplant the traditional concept of "trauma" so often associated with events of this caliber. Before 9/11, most people thought posttraumatic stress was something Vietnam veterans (or perhaps rape victims) suffered. As I describe in Part I, this is squarely at odds with recent research that shows such trauma is common. I will discuss current literature reflecting on post-traumatic stress and the associated disorder (post-traumatic stress disorder, or "PTSD"), …

Authoritarianism As An Agent Of Status Quo Maintenance: Women’S Careers And Family Lives, Lauren Duncan, Bill E. Peterson, Erin E. Ax

Psychology: Faculty Publications

We examined how right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) influenced career and family plans and life outcomes in 2 samples of educated women. In the college-aged sample, participants who planned to earn professional degrees scored higher on RWA than those who planned to earn graduate degrees in the humanities or social sciences. RWA was also positively related to the expression of preferences for male partners who possess masculine characteristics. In the midlife sample, RWA scores were higher for participants with traditional career and family outcomes at midlife. For midlife participants following a nontraditional career path, RWA was positively related to compartmentalizing career and …

Last Chance To See: An Imaginative Scientific Art Installation, Colette Palamar

School of Art Graduate Exhibitions, Portfolios, and Theses

No abstract provided.

Mcnair Research Journal

Georgia Southern University McNair Scholars Journal (Archived)

Full issue of the Georgia Southern University McNair Journal presented by the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program at Georgia Southern University.

• Fifty Years of Brown: An analysis of the impact of Brown on the educational system in Statesboro, Georgia Reece Anthony
• The Use of Natural Transformation in Actinobacillus pleuropnemoniae to Generate Confirmatory Mutants in a Stereotype 1 Strain Leandra D. Burwell
  
• Global outsourcing: A study of attitudes held by Georgia Southern Students Patricia Dugan
  
• A Comparison of Theweleit's Red Nurse/White Nurse Figures with the Jezebel/Mammy figures of African Slave Women in the Southern, Ante-Bellum Plantation System Aziza el-Shair
  
• The …

Testimony In Support Of The Congaree National Park Act Of 2003, William L. Graf

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Predictors For Readiness To Engage In Low-Risk Hiv Behaviors In Men Who Have Sex With Men, Steven Lee White

Open Access Dissertations

The main purpose of this research was to investigate Transtheoretical Model (TTM) predictors of condom use in a sample of sexually active young men who have sex with men (MSM). A secondary purpose was to investigate the applicability of specific Multifaceted Model of HIV Risk (MMOHR) predictors of condom use and other interpersonal predictors of condom use in this sample of young MSM. A third purpose was to explore the impact of various behavioral factors and psychoattitudinal factors on condom use in this sample of young MSM. The sample (N = 185) was young men aged 18 to 30 who …

Client Perceptions To Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Symptoms And Responses Over Time, Mary Findeisen

Open Access Dissertations

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major public health problem that affects millions of Americans. Adherence to treatment regimens is of critical importance to reduce disease progression and disability. This is particularly true in the early stages of COPD when symptoms are insidious not only in the late stages when symptoms are severe. Health care providers generally assume that once a treatment regimen is prescribed it will be followed. Yet it is not uncommon, particularly in chronic illnesses, for individuals to ignore or abandon treatment regimens. The purpose of this study was to: (1) describe and explore the process …

Regulation Of Empa Metalloproteinase Expression In Vibrio Anguillarum, Steven Michael Denkin

Open Access Dissertations

The effect of salmon gastrointestinal mucus on protease activity in Vibrio anguillarum M93Sm was investigated. Cells grown to stationary phase in nine salts solution plus mucus (NSSM) exhibited ninefold-greater protease activity than cells grown in Luria-Bertani broth plus 2% NaCl (LB20). Induction of protease activity in stationary phase cells occurred 60 min after addition of mucus and was ≥70-fold greater than protease activity measured in cells incubated in any other condition. Southern analysis and PCR confirmed that V. anguillarum M93 contained empA. An empA mutant of V. anguillarum did not exhibit protease activity after exposure to mucus, but did grow …

Predation On The Early Life History Stages Of Winter Flounder (Pseudopleuronectes Americanus) By The Sand Shrimp (Crangon Septemspinosa), David Lenox Taylor

Open Access Dissertations

Winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) stock complexes have been heavily exploited in the recent past, consequently decreasing abundances to record low levels. Despite management efforts to reduce further stock losses due to fishing mortality, discrete sub-populations of flounder continue to decrease for reasons that are unknown. Predation on the early life history stages of flatfish is recognized as the most important factor regulating year-class formation and recruitment. Winter flounder eggs and juveniles possess few morphological qualities that benefit the species in predator defense. Subsequently, survival of the early life stages of winter flounder depends on the effectiveness of spatial and temporal …

Regulation Of Steroid Sulfatase In Human Breast Cancer Cells And Screening Of Human Tissues For Steroid Sulfatase Status, Abhinav Chandra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer in women and is the second leading cause of death. About 40% of breast cancers are hormone-dependent and require estrogen for their growth. The steroid sulfatase pathway is an important means of converting local inactive estrogens to their active forms, thus supporting tumor growth. A substantial amount of research has been performed in the design of steroid sulfatase inhibitors, but the regulation of steroid sulfatase has been largely overlooked. My goal was to study the regulation of steroid sulfatase by different steroid hormones, using two human breast cancer cell lines the hormone-dependent …

Statistically Designed Spheronization And Scale-Up Of Ibuprofen Microparticulates Using The Rotor Disk Fluid-Bed Technology: Coating For Prolonged Release And Hard Gelatin Encapsulation Of Microparticulates, Beatrice Chukwumezie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim was to develop uncoated and coated ibuprofen microparticulates in a one-step fluid-bed machine with rotor-disk insert, for immediate and prolonged drug delivery. Feasibilty studies using ibuprofen: Avicel (RC-581; 50:50), sodium lauryl sulfate (1%) as surfactant and water as binder in FLM-15 Vector Flo-coater with 12" stainless-steel and waffle-disk inserts showed that amount of binder, plate type and the presence of surfactant affected most of spheroid characteristics. These variables were used in a 2x2x3 full factorial (replicated) experiment. Blocking was used to study batch-to-batch reproducibility of the process and product variables. Our results confirmed that the binder amount, plate-type …

Isolation Of Intragenic Suppressor Mutations Of A Dominant-Negative Ftsz Allele, Carla Ciccone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Streptomyces coelicolor, a gram-positive bacterium containing division genes that are dispensable for growth and viability. ftsZ encodes the earliest acting cell division protein in prokaryotes. In S. coelicolor a mutation at codon 275 in ftsZ (ftsZ25), changes an alanine to a valine causing a block in division. Using a homology model of the crystal structure of FtsZ, I hypothesized that changing another amino acid having direct interaction with amino acid 275 might restore function. The structure-directed mutation changed a leucine to a valine at codon 259. The double mutation did not restore division to the organism; this change alone also …

Phylogenomic Identification Of Five New Human Homologs Of The Dna Repair Enzyme Alkb, Michal A. Kurowski, Ashok S. Bhagwat, Grzegorz Papaj, Janusz M. Bujnicki

Wayne State University Associated BioMed Central Scholarship

Abstract

Background

Combination of biochemical and bioinformatic analyses led to the discovery of oxidative demethylation – a novel DNA repair mechanism catalyzed by the Escherichia coli AlkB protein and its two human homologs, hABH2 and hABH3. This discovery was based on the prediction made by Aravind and Koonin that AlkB is a member of the 2OG-Fe²⁺ oxygenase superfamily.

Results

In this article, we report identification and sequence analysis of five human members of the (2OG-Fe²⁺) oxygenase superfamily designated here as hABH4 through hABH8. These experimentally uncharacterized and poorly annotated genes were not associated with the AlkB family …

Danger At The Edge Of Chaos: Predicting Violent Behavior In A Post-Daubert World, Erica Beecher-Monas, Edgar Garcia-Ril

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Heuristics, Biases, And The Importance Of Gatekeeping, Erica Beecher-Monas

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Culture Care Of Puerto Rican Elderly In A Community Setting, Rosemary Schleicher Fliszar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this ethnonursing study was to discover the culture care meanings, beliefs, expressions, and practices of urban elderly Puerto Ricans residing in a mid-sized community. The Culture Care Theory was used as the guiding framework in studying the domain of inquiry: the discovery of the meanings and practices of generic care and professional health care of elderly community dwelling Puerto Ricans. The qualitative research method used for this study was the ethnonursing research method. Twelve key informants and twenty-one general informants were interviewed. Four themes were extracted from analysis of the data, and patterns to support the themes …

Feeding Identity: The Critical Hermeneutics Of Contemporary Kleinian Psychoanalytically Oriented Psychotherapy From The Perspective Of A Novice, David M. Greco-Brooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Clinical supervision is required for every graduate student pursuing a clinical track in psychology. Yet empirical research has focused almost exclusively on identifying efficacious supervision techniques in terms of altering "trainee characteristics" rather than investigating in depth the effects of supervision as changes in the characteristics of the trainee's communicative behavior. Moreover, the question of how the specialized communicative behavior practiced by the trainee works to facilitate change for the client/patient has not been addressed by quantitative empirical studies of supervision or psychotherapy process. This study addresses these problems by asking: (1) What characterizes the author's specialized communicative competence after …

The Influence Of Stigma On Help Seeking Attitudes For Depression, Margaret Jordan Halter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Major depression is a common, debilitating, and life threatening illness, and its treatment may be hampered by stigma. There have been a limited number of studies that link stigma and help seeking attitudes for depression. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to identify the relationship between stigmatizing attitudes and help seeking behavior. Also of interest was the impact of person-level variables that may be associated with a person's desire to seek help. Goffman's Stigma Theory and Weiner's Attribution Theory served as theoretical foundations. Data were collected by questionnaires distributed to patients (N = 117) waiting to be seen …

The Use Of Speech Disfluency As An Indicant Of Paradigm Development In Pharmacy's Academic Subdisciplines, Erin Renee Holmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study compared speech disfluency rates within five subdisciplines of pharmacy to estimate their paradigm development, and identified alternative factors associated with differing rates. Rates were observed in randomly selected courses. Lecturers completed a modified version of the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation survey and a self-rated anxiety measure. Ten percent of recordings were randomly selected for analysis by two judges to determine inter-reliability. An ANCOVA was conducted on the frequency of lecture disfluencies, with the frequency of interview disfluencies serving as the covariate. The overall mean disfluency rate in lectures was 2.11 disfluencies/minute. Average dislfuency rates among the five …

Nitrogen Metabolism In Iron-Respiring Bacteria, Ching (Tony) Lung Hsieh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen metabolism was investigated in three species of iron respiring bacteria Geobacter metallireducens, Geobacter sulfurreducens, and Sulfurospirillum barnesii. G. metallireducens and G. sulfurreducens were shown to grow in medium containing N2, NO3-, or NH4 but nitrite inhibited growth. BLAST analysis of the draft genomic sequence of G. metallireducens revealed only Nar, Nrf, and Nif homologues but no assimilatory genes (i.e., Nas). Two nar operons were identified, narCGHJIK1K2, and narCGHI. A putative CAP/CRP recognition binding site was found upstream and two molybdenum biosynthetic genes were found downstream of the large operon. Both operons contain a novel cytochrome c (NarC) that has …

Uncoiling The Gut Of Eleutherodactylus Coqui: Characterization Of The Anatomical Development And Proliferation Pattern, Carrie Elizabeth Langer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the frogs there are two forms of development: biphasic and direct. Xenopus laevis, a biphasic developer, develops from an embryo into a tadpole, and then metamorphoses into an adult frog. Eleutherodactylus coqui is a direct developer, meaning that it lacks a tadpole stage. The embryo develops directly into the adult form. Comparing development between these two frogs provides insight on the evolution of these groups. I present an anatomical description of the gut development of E. coqui, and compare my findings to the development of X. laevis. E. coqui does not have a highly coiled gut like that of …

Regulation Of Vitellogenin And Other Serum Proteins By Estrogen And Xenobiotic Estrogens In Salamanders, Lisa Marie Nespoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental estrogens pose potential health risks to humans and wildlife by disrupting physiological and developmental processes; therefore, our laboratory has been designing in vivo bioassays on induction of the egg-yolk precursor protein vitellogenin. I have provided information on vitellogenin induction by estrogens in tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum), spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum), hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), Morelet's crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii), and developed vitellogenin immunoassays in these species. Salamanders were estrogen-injected; blood was collected at intervals. Estrogen exposed male salamanders of all species, produced substantial quantities of a 200-kDa protein, the approximate size of vertebrate vitellogenins. Sequencing of estrogen-induced proteins showed substantial homology …

The Importance Of Male Staff As Role Models In Residential Childcare: Men Can Care!, Niall C. Mcelwee, David Parslow

Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies

A 'crisis of masculinity' reached fever pitch in the British media in the mid 1990's when it was widely reported that female pupils were achieving better school results and outstripping their male counterparts in locating employment in the diminishing youth labour market (Mac an Ghaill, 1994; Connell, 1995). We had a more reserved debate in Ireland at that time but it is now gathering in momentum once again. This paper is written partly as a response to the two papers by Mark Smith (2003) and Mike Burns (2003) published in the last volume of the Relational Journal of Child and …

African-Americans Within The Context Of International Oppression, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Ginko Biloba On Memory In Rats For Maze Tricks, Christopher Deleon

Modern Psychological Studies

Previous studies have investigated the effects of an extract of ginkgo biloba on acquisition, performance and retention in rats. It has been suggested that ginkgo increases mental precision by increasing blood flow to the brain. To determine whether ginkgo is a memory enhancer two female Sprague Dawley rats were tested for maze performance during four stages. Stages included four days of maze performance and four days of no maze performance. Subjects were tested in each stage with or without ginkgo in their water supply. It was predicted that subjects would show improved maze performance as measured by a decrease in …

Crime And Violence In Men With Schizophrenia: A Literature Review, Bianca Dijulio

Modern Psychological Studies

This literature review examines the strength of the relationship between schizophrenia and violence, symptoms associated with violence in schizophrenics, and two drug treatments associated with treating violence in schizophrenia. In terms of the relationship between schizophrenia and violence, schizophrenia does not surpass other mental illnesses in its association with violence; however, just as other mental illnesses do, it surpasses the normal population in levels of violence. Two symptoms, hostility and suspiciousness, are common in violent schizophrenics. In contrast, antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy have not been clearly associated with violent schizophrenics, most likely due to methodological problems. Similarly, hallucinations, delusions, …

Infant Mortality After Takeovers In Wild Ethiopian Hamadryas Baboons, Larissa Swedell, Teklu Tesfaye

Publications and Research

In this paper, we report the first observational evidence of infanticide in wild hamadryas baboons. The study group inhabits the lowlands of the northern Rift Valley in Ethiopia and has been under observation for over 1200 hours, on and off, since October 1996. Here we report observations from August and September 2002 of the consequences of two takeovers of known females with black infants. After the first takeover, the respective infant disappeared and was presumed dead within eleven days of the takeover. After the second takeover, the infant incurred repeated severe aggression from its mother’s new leader male and eventually …

Should China Provide Intellectual Property Protection For Genetically Modified Animals?, Ke Geng

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The advent of recombinant genetic engineering techniques has revolutionized biotechnology. The biomedicine and biotechnology industries have extensively employed these techniques to improve the quality of agricultural crops and livestock and to create genetically modified organisms ("GMOs") in order to produce drugs. Since as much as twenty-five percent of the world's intellectual property-related trade involves biotechnology, many countries have realized the importance of providing intellectual property protection for biotechnological technologies, including GMOs. In the past decade, China's booming economy has helped make its biotechnological market the fastest growing market in the world. To stimulate innovation and attract private investment in its …