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2006

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Cerulean Warbler Selection Of Forest Canopy Gaps, Kelly A. Perkins May 2006

Cerulean Warbler Selection Of Forest Canopy Gaps, Kelly A. Perkins

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Forest canopy gaps are through to be an important component in Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea) habitat. This study examined the selection of forest canopy gaps within Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea) territories and in core areas of territories on the Lewis Wetzel Wildlife Management Area and surrounding properties in Wetzel County, West Virginia in 2004 and 2005. The study objectives were to (1) determine the use and selection of gaps according to type, size, and structure, (2) determine if gap size was related to gap density, total gap area (%), or perimeter amount, and (3) determine if distances of territories to …

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A Delphi Study To Identify Teaching Competencies Of Teacher Education Faculty In 2015, Sonhwa Na May 2006

A Delphi Study To Identify Teaching Competencies Of Teacher Education Faculty In 2015, Sonhwa Na

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to reach consensus on future course delivery modes and recommended teaching competencies that would be required for teacher education faculty in future course delivery environments. A three-round, online modified Delphi study was used to answer the following research questions (RQs): (a) RQ1: What course delivery modes will teacher education faculty of traditional colleges and universities be using in 2015?, and (b) RQ2: What competencies will teacher education faculty of traditional colleges and universities need to teach using these delivery modes? Course delivery modes and general teaching competencies were determined as a result of consensus …

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Intestinal And Systemic Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte And Humoral Immune Responses To Oral And Parenteral Reovirus Infection, Jonathan Reid Fulton May 2006

Intestinal And Systemic Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte And Humoral Immune Responses To Oral And Parenteral Reovirus Infection, Jonathan Reid Fulton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This work was undertaken to determine effects of routes of infection with reovirus induction of responder cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Further, this work concerns differential effects of age on humoral and CTL responses following oral and parenteral reovirus infection. Despite considerable knowledge about non-intestinal systemic viral immunity, intestinal immune response to viral infection is less understood, and it remains unknown what differences, may occur in CTL populations induced by local viral infections in the intestine or systemic periphery.;We infected mice orally or in hind footpads with reovirus, serotype 1, strain Lang (TIL), and utilized flow cytometry to assess T cell …

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Soluble Metals Of Residual Oil Fly Ash Alter Pulmonary Host Defense In Rats, Jenny Renee Roberts May 2006

Soluble Metals Of Residual Oil Fly Ash Alter Pulmonary Host Defense In Rats, Jenny Renee Roberts

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Incidences of high levels of air pollution have been correlated with increased morbidity and mortality in susceptible populations. Inhalation of the combustion-derived pollutant, residual oil fly ash (ROFA), has been shown to impair lung defense mechanisms in laboratory animals and susceptible populations. The hypothesis of these studies was that the soluble metals in ROFA would increase susceptibility to pulmonary infection in rats, and that the primary metal responsible for the increase is soluble Ni. To investigate the hypothesis, three specific aims were established: (1) determine if soluble metals in ROFA cause a decrease in bacterial clearance from the lungs of …

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Teaching Leadership Development At The Secondary Level: A National Study, Nathan Taylor May 2006

Teaching Leadership Development At The Secondary Level: A National Study, Nathan Taylor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of different leadership skills taught to agriculture students and FFA members at the chapter level, where students and members receive leadership training, the frequency of training, and identify the instructors that provide leadership training. This study was a descriptive survey research conducted with agricultural science instructors who serve as FFA advisors of chapters recognized in the National Chapter Awards Program at the 78th National FFA Convention. The 10 most important skills identified by agriculture science teachers were (in order of importance); teamwork, opportunities in FFA, being responsible, setting personal or …

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Reduction Of Toxic Air Contaminants (Tacs) And Particulate Matter Emissions From Heavy-Duty Natural Gas Engines, Hemanth K. Kappanna May 2006

Reduction Of Toxic Air Contaminants (Tacs) And Particulate Matter Emissions From Heavy-Duty Natural Gas Engines, Hemanth K. Kappanna

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Increasing urban pollution levels have driven the Federal and the local air control boards to impose stricter emissions regulations on heavy-duty engines earmarked for transit buses. This has made natural gas a promising fuel for reducing the emissions of oxides of nitrogen and predominantly particulate matter from heavy-duty transit buses. Recent research studies performed at WVU and elsewhere have showed that natural gas engines emit an order of magnitude lower PM emissions, on a mass basis, when compared to diesel engines without any exhaust aftertreatment devices. However, on a number basis the emissions from natural gas fueled buses were an …

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A Cross-Cultural Design Pattern: Chinese Modern Design, Feifei Fan May 2006

A Cross-Cultural Design Pattern: Chinese Modern Design, Feifei Fan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Chinese graphic designers are gaining more visibility and earn awards in various international poster competitions, shaping a new visual frontier in Chinese graphic design. These successes are based on their special cross-cultural design principle, which combines Chinese traditional culture with the imported Western modern design theory. In this paper, Modern Chinese design history, development and characteristics are reviewed. Meanwhile, some existing principles are demonstrated and something new is experimented through the series posters design.

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Micro_Cosmos, Rachael E. Freyman Brown May 2006

Micro_Cosmos, Rachael E. Freyman Brown

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This exhibition thesis and its accompanying exhibition invite the viewer to contemplate large and small connections to nature in our lives. How are backyard gardens a metaphor for the way our culture thinks of or treats nature and the environment? Do we have personal or spiritual connections to the land, plants, and the ecosystem, or do we see them merely as products for our use? The work in micro _COSMOS is an attempt to balance and unite paradoxes: the spiritual within the everyday, the natural and the constructed, and to come to terms with the constant cycle of regeneration in …

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Comparative Pollen Foraging Of Africanized And European Honeybees In A Non-Agricultural Environment, Ruben Ruiz May 2006

Comparative Pollen Foraging Of Africanized And European Honeybees In A Non-Agricultural Environment, Ruben Ruiz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

With the advent of the Africanized honeybee, ways to differentiate it from the European honeybee have been greatly sought in attempts to better understand the role of Africanized bees in pollination. Pollen collecting strategies for both honeybee subspecies have been explored in attempts to exploit their pollinating capabilities. This project examined pollen collected by honeybees from feral and managed European and Africanized colonies in a relatively isolated site. Paired European and Africanized honeybee colonies were used to obtain pollen foragers. Through acetolysis (series acidified Acetic Anhydride washings); the collected pollen from the individual foragers was treated and observed with light …

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The Needs Of Patients In A Rural/Frontier Setting With Renal Insufficiency, Nancy A. Carda May 2006

The Needs Of Patients In A Rural/Frontier Setting With Renal Insufficiency, Nancy A. Carda

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify any needs patients with renal insufficiency living in a rural/frontier setting may have. A chart review was conducted in a rural health care facility of all patients with diagnostic code 593.9. The following questions were asked: What are the characteristics of the patients in this rural/frontier setting? What is the difference in their levels of renal insufficiency? What risk factors are related to the level of renal insufficiency? In what ways do their risk factors compare with those identified in literature? The results of this study were compared to what is stated …

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Object-Oriented Shipboard Electric Power System Library, Ram Praveen Saladi May 2006

Object-Oriented Shipboard Electric Power System Library, Ram Praveen Saladi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this thesis is to explore the powerful capabilities of using an object-oriented modeling language to model and simulate an all electric Naval Shipboard Power System. Modelica has been used to model and simulate the shipboard power system which acts as an alternative simulation tool. The shipboard system is developed using the concept of packages. Different components like the buck converter, inverter, and AC machines have been modeled as a part of the library to develop the power system. The shipboard system has been simulated as two decoupled systems, the AC and DC systems. This research further focuses …

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The Mythical Speech Of Janine Antoni, Patrick L. Jones May 2006

The Mythical Speech Of Janine Antoni, Patrick L. Jones

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The confrontation of societal myths has been a major concern of many female artists since the 1960s. However, confronting the ideological construction of myth is not enough to discredit it. The semiology of myth, according to Roland Barthes (1915-1980), simply absorbs this confrontation by placing the artist in the position of a signifier of the myth itself. Paradoxically, in order to discredit myth the artist must "speak the myth," in order to empty the ideological content of the myth through the adoption of mythical speech. This produces a counter-myth. Language as a vehicle of feminist expression has been a permeating …

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Diesel Fuel Extender From Animal Waste, Laura S. Eddy May 2006

Diesel Fuel Extender From Animal Waste, Laura S. Eddy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An increase in the quantity of food is required to meet the demand of an increasing in the population. The agricultural industry continues to grow to meet this demand. This thesis focuses on a new method to deal with the increasing amount of animal waste that is produced as a result of the increasing food demand. By reacting animal waste with an aqueous solution and diesel fuel, a major fraction of the waste becomes a diesel fuel extender. The extended diesel fuel contains no ash and has a viscosity similar to conventional diesel fuel. The extended diesel fuel contains 20% …

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Knowledge And Attitudes Of West Virginia Extension Agents And High School Agricultural Educators With Regard To Meat Goats And The Meat Goat Industry, Angela L. Kirk May 2006

Knowledge And Attitudes Of West Virginia Extension Agents And High School Agricultural Educators With Regard To Meat Goats And The Meat Goat Industry, Angela L. Kirk

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes on meat goats and the meat goat industry in West Virginia by West Virginia Extension agents and high school agricultural teachers. A descriptive research design was selected for the study. A mailed questionnaire was sent to 51 Extension agents and 88 agriculture teachers who were the accessible population. Of the 139 agriculture educators 99 responded to the survey, for a response rate of 71.2%. A majority (67.1%) of Extension agents and high school agricultural teachers have noticed an increase in the meat goat industry in their areas and …

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Mechanisms Of Environmental Carcinogenesis And Metal -Induced Cellular Signaling, Jacquelyn Jo Bower May 2006

Mechanisms Of Environmental Carcinogenesis And Metal -Induced Cellular Signaling, Jacquelyn Jo Bower

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Low dose chronic exposure to environmental carcinogens is a major cause of human cancers. More than 375 known or suspected environmental carcinogens have been identified, many of which are transition metals or metal containing compounds (IARC, updated to 2004, http://www-cie.iarc.fr/monoeval/crthall.html). Although much research has focused on the ability of these metals to induce reactive oxygen species formation (ROS), DNA damage, and apoptosis, less effort has been put forth to examine the cellular signaling mechanisms responsible for these effects. Our experimental research has focused on the signaling pathways induced in response to arsenic exposure. Arsenic is a highly interesting transition metal …

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Chemotherapy Disrupts Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Function, Suzanne Davis Clutter May 2006

Chemotherapy Disrupts Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Function, Suzanne Davis Clutter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A variety of bone marrow microenvironment derived signals influence steady state hematopoiesis as well as hematopoietic recovery following bone marrow transplantation. Bone marrow stromal cells found in this unique anatomical niche influence hematopoiesis, in pail, through production of soluble cytokines and chemokines. Developmental signals are also initiated by physical interaction of hematopoietic progenitor cells with stromal cells which are mediated by binding of their integrins to receptors on the stromal cell surface. Finally, the extracellular matrix, including many components produced by stromal cells, provides structure as well as a scaffold on which hematopoietic growth factors can be concentrated and stabilized …

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Oxidative Stress In Skin Induced By Chemical And Physical Agents, Ashley Rebecca Murray May 2006

Oxidative Stress In Skin Induced By Chemical And Physical Agents, Ashley Rebecca Murray

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Free radicals threaten various tissues and are involved in the development and progression of many pathological states and diseases. More than other tissues, the skin is exposed to a variety of chemical, environmental, and physical agents which are capable of inducing radical formation resulting in the development of oxidative stress. The skin possesses an elaborate antioxidant network to deal with reactive oxygen species (ROS); however, excessive exposure and/or radical production can overwhelm the antioxidant capabilities of the skin causing oxidative damage to proteins, DNA, and lipids. The central hypothesis of these studies is that exposure to oxidizible chemicals and/or environmental …

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High Frequencies Of Hiv-1 Recombination And The Evolutionary Potential Of A Hybrid Retrovirus, Terence D. Rhodes May 2006

High Frequencies Of Hiv-1 Recombination And The Evolutionary Potential Of A Hybrid Retrovirus, Terence D. Rhodes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Retroviruses have a great capacity to evolve in order to over come selection pressures in the environment. Such evolutional power comes from the high mutation rate and the high viral titers that can ensue during an infection. Mutation generates variation in the viral genome. In addition, previous reports found that retroviruses recombine at a relatively high rate. These sources of variation can then be exploited by the population to ensure the presence of advantageous mutations, which become amplified during virus propagation. Because the adaptability is based on the evolutionary potential of the virus, it is essential to study the mechanisms …

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Effects Of Environmental Factors On The Paternal Brood Pouch And Sound Production In Two Sympatric Pipefish Species From The Chincoteague Bay, Virginia, Jennifer L. Ripley May 2006

Effects Of Environmental Factors On The Paternal Brood Pouch And Sound Production In Two Sympatric Pipefish Species From The Chincoteague Bay, Virginia, Jennifer L. Ripley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Pipefishes and seahorses of the family Syngnathidae are important inhabitants of diminishing grass beds threatened by excessive nutrient loads, sedimentation, and chemical contaminants. This research examined the influence of these environmental factors on two sympatric pipefishes from the Chincoteague Bay, Virginia. Syngnathids are characterized by a unique mode of reproduction in which the male carries developing embryos in a placenta-like ventral brood pouch until the fry are free-swimming. Interspecific comparisons revealed differences in parental nutrient allocation to embryos. In Syngnathus fuscus, females produce nutritionally poor eggs and males implant developing embryos adjacent to blood vessels. The loose connection between eggs …

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Nesting Ecology, Chick Survival, And Juvenile Dispersal Of Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa Umbellus) In The Appalachian Mountains, Brian W. Smith May 2006

Nesting Ecology, Chick Survival, And Juvenile Dispersal Of Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa Umbellus) In The Appalachian Mountains, Brian W. Smith

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) populations have been declining throughout the Appalachian Mountains for several decades. From 1996--2002, state natural resources agencies in the region initiated the Appalachian Cooperative Grouse Research Project (ACGRP) to investigate potential factors limiting Ruffed Grouse populations. At the onset, nest success, nest predation, and brood survival were identified as potential limiting factors, and numerous other aspects of grouse ecology (e.g., dispersal) in the Appalachians were poorly understood. Therefore, I designed my ACGRP project to examine (1) nest predation and factors that influence nest success, (2) cause-specific mortality and survival rates for chicks 2--4 days posthatch to …

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Colorectal Cancer: Cost-Effectiveness Of Screening And Chemoprevention In Average Risk Males, Jarrett W. Coffindaffer May 2006

Colorectal Cancer: Cost-Effectiveness Of Screening And Chemoprevention In Average Risk Males, Jarrett W. Coffindaffer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study is an economic evaluation of currently recommended colorectal cancer (CRC) screening procedures, and strategies that incorporate chemopreventive options such as aspirin or a cycooxygenase-2 inhibitor. A decision analysis model was constructed to compare alternative CRC screening strategies. A Markov model was employed to simulate the natural history of CRC. Quality adjusted life years were used as the primary outcome measure. The base case analysis represents the overall cost and effectiveness associated with each screening strategy. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were calculated for each screening strategy. One-way sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the factors that have the greatest …

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An Assessment Of Impacts Of Mute Swans (Cygnus Olor) On Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (Sav) In Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, Ketan Shrikant Tatu May 2006

An Assessment Of Impacts Of Mute Swans (Cygnus Olor) On Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (Sav) In Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, Ketan Shrikant Tatu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) contribute to the localized decline in Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) through foraging in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. I assessed intensity of feeding activity of 868 Mute Swans in non-breeding flocks and breeding pairs through focal sampling during 2003 and 2004. I also assessed SAV reduction due to Mute Swan herbivory by measuring difference in percent cover, shoot density, and canopy height among 2 year controls (n = 54), 2 year exclosures (n = 54), and 1 year exclosures (n = 54) at 18 sites on the eastern shore during the same time period. Analyses of the …

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The Reggio Emilia Approach To Education And Its Relationship To Art Education, Debra N. Hart May 2006

The Reggio Emilia Approach To Education And Its Relationship To Art Education, Debra N. Hart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This project deals with the concept of the Reggio Emilia approach to education. This open-ended, child-centered method of teaching is coming into light as a methodology used to educate children in a positive and nurturing manner. From its basic philosophy and its guiding principles, the Reggio Emilia approach to education has a strong foundation. Its background, historical context, and existing literature on educational psychology support the use of this method. Current practices in art education and national and state standards make it difficult to envision the implementation of the Reggio Emilia approach to education, since it would require a dramatic …

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A Study Of The Concept Of Interactivity As It Applies To Online Newspapers, Bradley Thomas Pedersen May 2006

A Study Of The Concept Of Interactivity As It Applies To Online Newspapers, Bradley Thomas Pedersen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This project examines how frequently a sampling of online newspapers incorporates interactive features into online content. The newspapers for the study represent the eastern, western and central regions of the United States. The analysis focused on the amount of links and their destination, opportunities for feedback and the use of images, video and audio. The study found that the sampled newspapers do not frequently use links, images, video and audio or give users opportunities to give feedback.

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Science, Humanity, And Atrocity: A Lawyerly Examination, Steven D. Smith May 2006

Science, Humanity, And Atrocity: A Lawyerly Examination, Steven D. Smith

Michigan Law Review

Joseph Vining's reflection on (as the subtitle indicates) the claims of science and humanity begins with a terse but disturbing recitation of these and similar scientific experiments conducted on human beings during the twentieth century in Manchuria, Nazi Germany, and Pol Pot's Cambodia. The incidents are conveyed through quotations, sometimes of the coldly clinical prose that the researchers themselves chose as most suitable for their purposes. These quotations are juxtaposed against others from an array of distinguished scientists and philosophers explaining the naturalistic cosmology that, in the view of these thinkers, modern science has given us: it is a stark, …

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Herbert Hart Elucidated, A. W. Brian Simpson May 2006

Herbert Hart Elucidated, A. W. Brian Simpson

Michigan Law Review

There are a number of good biographies of judges, but very few of individual legal academics; indeed, so far as American legal academics are concerned, the only one of note that comes to mind is William Twining's life of Karl Llewellyn. Llewellyn was, of course, a major figure in the evolution of American law, and his unusual life was a further advantage for his biographer. In this biography, Nicola Lace has taken as her subject an English academic who also had an unusual career, one whose contribution was principally not to the evolution of the English legal system but to …

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What Nobody Knows, John C. P. Goldberg May 2006

What Nobody Knows, John C. P. Goldberg

Michigan Law Review

By meditating on displays of cunning in literature, history, and current events, Don Herzog in his new book isolates and probes difficult puzzles concerning how to understand and evaluate human conduct. The point of the exercise is not to offer a system or framework for resolving these puzzles. Quite the opposite, Cunning aims to discomfit its academic audience in two ways. First, it sets out to show that some of the central dichotomies of modem thought-those between means and ends, reason and desire, self-interest and morality, fact and value, virtue and vice, knowledge and politics, authenticity and artifice, and appearance …

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Light During Darkness And Cancer: Relationships In Circadian Photoreception And Tumor Biology, Samar A. Jasser, David E. Blask, George C. Brainard May 2006

Light During Darkness And Cancer: Relationships In Circadian Photoreception And Tumor Biology, Samar A. Jasser, David E. Blask, George C. Brainard

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

The relationship between circadian phototransduction and circadian-regulated processes is poorly understood. Melatonin, commonly a circadian phase marker, may play a direct role in a myriad of physiologic processes. The circadian rhythm for pineal melatonin secretion is regulated by the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Its neural source of light input is a unique subset of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells expressing melanopsin, the primary circadian photopigment in rodents and primates. Action spectra of melatonin suppression by light have shown that light in the 446–477 nm range, distinct from the visual system’s peak sensitivity, is optimal for stimulating the human circadian system. …

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Impact Of Assistive Technology Devices And Services For Students With Learning Disabilities And An Academic Need In Writing, Carol Hankins Olson May 2006

Impact Of Assistive Technology Devices And Services For Students With Learning Disabilities And An Academic Need In Writing, Carol Hankins Olson

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the impact of assistive technology (AT) devices and services on 165 students (134 male, 31 female) with learning disabilities who had needs in the academic area of writing. Outcomes data collected through the Assistive Technology Infusion Project (ATIP) were analyzed to explore demographics of students in this population, relationships between various factors on writing goals, and differences in contributions of various interventions prior to and after attainment of the AT devices. Two classifications of AT devices were developed for use in this study. The first was used to determine the most common AT devices used (word prediction …

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Final Project Report: Plan For A Model Pims, Christopher J. O'Leary, Lillian Vesic-Petrovic May 2006

Final Project Report: Plan For A Model Pims, Christopher J. O'Leary, Lillian Vesic-Petrovic

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

Development of the performance information and management systems (PIMS) to monitor labor market outcomes of program participants, and guide program management of active labor market programs (ALMPs).

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