Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural Resilience--A Currency Of Social Capital: Counteracting Student Marginalization In Two Urban--Suburban High Schools, Marci A. Erby

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative research study began as an exploration of the central qualities of the lived experience of students in two urban-suburban high schools where, as an outcome of rapid demographic change, White students now represent the nontraditional racial minority and Black students represent the racial majority. Semistructured interviews, the primary method of data collection, were conducted with students who had graduated from the high schools under study and with adults who had significant ties to the district. Student informants, in particular, shared high school experiences of marginalization that included silence, rendered invisibility, stereotyping, and bias owing in large part to …

Socialization Of Undergraduate Engineering Students Into Work-Experienced Organizations And Occupational Roles Through A Cooperative Education Program, Chris Plouff

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated cooperative education as an organizational phenomenon using a qualitative approach. The objectives of this study were to 1) describe the experiences of students entering an organization through a cooperative education program; 2) describe the organizational processes used to introduce students into an organization and occupational roles through a work experience; 3) understand any common patterns or themes associated with these experiences; 4) develop a model or framework that describes the processes used in these settings; and 5) determine activities and processes that will better facilitate the student’s movement from the education to the work environment through a …

Recurrent Neural Network Based Predictions Of Elephant Migration In A South African Game Reserve, Parviz Palangpour, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Kevin Duffy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A large portion of South Africa''s elephant population can be found on small wildlife reserves. When confined to enclosed reserves the elephant densities are much higher than observed in the wild. The large nutritional demands and destructive foraging behavior of elephants threaten rare species of vegetation. If conservation management is to protect threatened species of vegetation, knowing how long elephants will stay in one area of the reserve as well as which area they will move to next is essential. The goal of this study is to train a recurrent neural network (RNN) to continuously predict an elephant herd''s next …

An Evolutionary Computation Approach To Optimization Of Isoelectric Point Prediction In Proteins, Chris Parkin

Theses

Computational biology has attacked the problem of isoelectric point prediction with little success, achieving a rough accuracy level of only 30%. In 2005, Matthew Conte performed a study focused on the relationship between sequence characteristics and isoelectric point prediction accuracy. Results indicated that charges between adjacent amino acids could have a significant impact on the overall predicted pi for the protein. In this study we introduce an evolutionary computation approach aimed at accounting for these problem dipeptides. For each possible dipeptide involving charged amino acids (7 chargeable groups -> 49 possibilities), the algorithm predicts a pKa value that, when included …

"Dr. Kyle Choe's Facial Plastic Surgery Patient Education Website", Eunju Park

Theses

Not Included

The Thiol Redox System In Oxldl-Induced Macrophage Injury, Yanmei Wang

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Macrophage death is likely to contribute to the transformation of fatty streaks into advanced atherosclerotic lesions. Previous work in the laboratory showed that OxLDL promotes cell death in human macrophages by a mechanism involving intracellular peroxide formation. Here we show that glutathione depletion induced by OxLDL occurs independent of peroxyl radical formation. Our data suggest that the depletion of glutathione is the fundamental defect that renders macrophages susceptible to OxLDL-induced cell injury, but alone is not sufficient to kill macrophages. We indicate that increased protein-Sglutathionylation is involved in OxLDL-induced macrophage death. A potentiation of OxLDL toxicity was observed in macrophages …

The Effects Of Thematic Importance On Recall Of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder And Comparison Children, Rebecca Alycson Flake

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

This study examined the recall of televised stories for younger (4-6 years) and older (7-9 years) children with and without ADHD under two different viewing conditions (toys present/toys absent). Each child watched two Rugrats television programs, once with toys present and once with toys absent. Immediately after viewing a program, the child completed a free recall of the observed story. Nonreferred childrens recall increased more than ADHD childrens as importance level increased, and older nonreferred children recalled more information overall than older children with ADHD. For the toys condition, children with ADHD had smaller correlations between the story units recalled …

Wear Tolerance Of Seeded And Vegetatively Propagated Bermuda Grasses Under Simulated Athletic Traffic, Theresa A. Bayrer

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The use of seed-propagated bermudagrasses [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.], particularly for athletic fields, is rapidly increasing. Recently developed seeded cultivars have been bred for improved turfgrass quality (finer texture, darker green color, etc.) and for increased cold tolerance, but their ability to tolerate wear has not been investigated. This study was conducted to determine if three seeded cultivars could tolerate simulated athletic wear as well as one vegetative cultivar commonly used in Kentucky. The seeded cultivars, Riviera, Princess 77 and Yukon were planted at 24.4 and 48.8 kg PLS ha-1 and the vegetative cultivar Quickstand was sprigged at 1250 and …

The Relationship Between Emotional Recognition And Personality Traits, Lyndon A. Mitchell

Theses

This study investigated the relationship between personality traits and the ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions. A sample of undergraduate and graduate students (n = 52) were administered the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire 5th Edition (16PF-5) (Cattell, 1993) and an abbreviated version of Ekman's Pictures of Facial Affect (Ekman & Friesen, 1976). Pearson product-moment correlations revealed that the personality trait, Apprehension, was associated with the accurate recognition of most of the emotions. Further, regression analyses revealed that the recognition of fear was best predicted by the 16PF factors Dominance, Self Reliance and Apprehension. Personality differences were also identified between …

Putting The Community Back Into Community Networks: A Content Analysis, Michael A. Horning

Theses

This study examines the role that community networks can take in fulfilling McQuail's call for a more democratic participant form of media. Community networks, which are grassroots organizations designed to promote local community initiatives, increased their presence on the Internet in the 1990s. However, in recent years their number has declined. Research suggests that community networks fail because they lack a unified identity, have not determined their specific purpose on the Web, and do not provide relevant information to network members. Findings suggest that community networks wishing to achieve sustainability should concentrate their efforts on developing social capital and fostering …

Graph Reconstruction Numbers, Brian Mcmullen

Theses

The Reconstruction Conjecture is one of the most important open problems in graph theory today. Proposed in 1942, the conjecture posits that every simple, finite, undirected graph with more than three vertices can be uniquely reconstructed up to isomorphism given the multiset of subgraphs produced by deleting each vertex of the original graph. Related to the Reconstruction Conjecture, reconstruction numbers concern the minimum number of vertex deleted subgraphs required to uniquely identify a graph up to isomorphism. During the summer of 2004, Jennifer Baldwin completed an MS project regarding reconstruction numbers. In it, she calculated reconstruction numbers for all graphs …

Modeling Radiated Emissions From Cables Attached To Printed Circuit Boards Driven By Power Bus Noise, K. Morishita, N. Kobayashi, T. Harada, H. Ke, Todd H. Hubing

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes a two-step technique for modeling the radiated electromagnetic emissions from a printed circuit board with attached cables when the source of the emissions is noise between the board's power and ground planes. the first step calculates the electric fields at the edges of the power-ground plane pair. the second step replaces the power plane with equivalent sources embedded within the ground plane structure. Examples are provided that demonstrate the accuracy of this approach. © 2006 IEEE.

Graph Reconstruction Numbers, Jennifer Baldwin

Theses

One of the most important open questions in graph theory is the graph reconstruction conjecture, first proposed by P. J. Kelly and S. M. Ulam in 1941. The conjecture states that every graph with at least 3 vertices is reconstructible if there exists some multi-subset of vertex-deleted subgraphs that reconstructs G uniquely up to isomorphism. This project computes the existential and universal reconstruction numbers for all graphs of order at most nine. The existential reconstruction number is the number of vertex-deleted subgraphs, or cards, required to reconstruct G uniquely up to isomorphism. The universal reconstruction number is the minimum num- …

Tuple Board: A New Distributed Computing Paradigm For Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Chaithanya Bondada

Theses

In this project, we introduce a new distributed computing paradigm called "tuple board" which is based on the tuple space abstraction originated by Gelernter and the blackboard architecture popular in distributed artificial intelligence. Most prominent implementations of tuple space systems including JavaSpaces and T-Spaces follow a centralized architecture where the space itself resides on a server, akin to a database server. Recently, researchers have attempted to develop decentralized architectures for tuple space systems. Some work includes LIME and PeerSpaces. In our opinion, the traditional implementation of tuple spaces is not well suited for ad hoc networks where devices frequently lose …

Real-Time Scheduling Algorithms, Task Visualization, Kevin Churnetski

Theses

Real-time systems are computer systems that require responses to events within specified time limits or constraints. Many real-time systems are digital control systems comprised entirely of binary logic or a microprocessor dedicated to one software application that is its own operating system. In recent years, the reliability of general-purpose real-time operating systems (RTOS) consisting of a scheduler and system resource management have improved. In this project, I write a real-time simulator, a workload generator, analysis tools, several test cases, and run and interpret results. My experiments focus on providing evidence to support the claim that for the Rate Monotonic scheduling …

The Study Of Ramsey Numbers R(C_K, C_K, C_K), Yan Li

Theses

The Ramsey number r(C_k, C_k, C_k), denoted as r_3(C_k), is the smallest positive integer n such that any edge coloring with three colors of the complete graph on n vertices must contain at least one monochromatic cycle C_k. In this project, most literature on the Ramsey numbers r_3(C_k) are overviewed. Algorithms to check if a graph G contains any specific path or cycle and to construct extremal graphs for cycle C_k are developed. All good 3-colorings of complete graph K_10 are constructed to verify the value of Ramsey number r_3(C_4). Ramsey number value of r_3(C_3) is verified by direct point …

R(W5 , K5) = 27, Joshua Stinehour

Theses

The two-color Ramsey number R(G , H) is defined to be the smallest integer n such that any graph F on n vertices contains either a subgraph isomorphic to G or the complement of F contains a subgraph isomorphic to H. Ramsey numbers serve to quantify many of the existing theorems of Ramsey theory, which looks at large combinatorial objects for certain given smaller combinatorial objects that must be present. In 1989 George R. T. Hendry presented a table of two-color Ramsey numbers R(G , H) for all pairs of graphs G and H having at most five vertices. This …

Development Of Single Nanoparticle Optical Assays For Imaging Single Living Cells, William John Brownlow

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Multi-drug resistance (MDR) has been reported in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes; the pathogenic gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa can extrude a variety of structurally and functionally diverse substrates via a number of membrane transport systems leading to MDR. We have developed a novel nanoparticle assay to characterize both the membrane transport system composed of the MexAB-OprM efflux pump and the membrane permeability induced by antibiotics. Gold (Au) and silver (Ag) nanoparticles were investigated for use as probes to explore membrane transport in P. aeruginosa.

The surface plasmon absorption (color) of Au nanoparticle solutions was found to change in the presence …

Diverse Effects Of Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields On Mammalian Cells, Jody Anne White

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

The continuing effort to manipulate cell-signaling pathways for therapeutic benefit has lead to the exploration of electric field effects on cells. Current electric field applications include electroporation of the plasma membrane for introduction of drugs, genes, or other macromolecules into cells. Modeling of how these pulsed electric fields affect cells depicts the cell as an excitable circuit. In this model, the electric fields, administered in short pulses to a cell, charge the plasma and internal membranes, which act as dielectric layers, and between these the cytoplasm acts as a conductive medium. The pulse lengths of this treatment are traditionally in …

Streak Detection In Mottled And Noisy Images, Hector Santos

Theses

This thesis describes an algorithm for detecting streaks in printed images using adaptive window-based image projections and maximization of mutual information. To this effect, projections are computed across the entire image at different window sizes. The traces collected from the projections are correlated using maximization of mutual information to pinpoint streak locations and widths using a peak detection algorithm. Finally, for a given peak, the window size is changed adaptively to identify and locate the intensity and length of the corresponding streak while maximizing signal to noise ratio. Results on synthetic and real-life images are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness …

Cost-Effective, Structural Stay-In-Place Formwork System Of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer For Accelerated And Durable Bridge Deck Construction, Thomas E. Ringelstetter, Lawrence C. Bank, Michael G. Oliva, Jeffrey S. Russell, Fabio Matta, Antonio Nanni

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes research on the evolution of a cost-effective, structural stay-in-place (SIP) formwork bridge deck system with an integrated modular three-dimensional fiber-reinforced polymer (FRF) reinforcement cage. Recent research conducted at the University of Wisconsin is reviewed to show the evolution of the reinforcing system to include an integral FRP SIP form. the evolution occurred through laboratory testing, which was followed by the design and construction of two bridge structures owned by the State of Wisconsin. Each structure used different FRP reinforcement and formwork. These projects pointed out the need for a competitive SIP formwork to be used in conjunction …

Maxwell-Wagner Relaxations And Their Contributions To The High Permittivity Of Calcium Copper Titanate Ceramics, Wei Li, Robert W. Schwartz

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Calcium copper titanate ceramics were fabricated by cold isostatic pressing at various calcination and sintering conditions. Depending on fabrication condition, three electrical responses were observed in the combined modulus and impedance plots, indicating the presence of two Maxwell-Wagner relaxations. These electrical responses show different response to temperature and applied field. The activation energies, as well as the driving force factors, were calculated for these relations. The determined activation energy values are in the range of 0.57 to 0.65 eV. The contribution of Maxwell-Wagner relaxations to the high permittivity of CCTO and related materials is briefly discussed.

Plasma Modeling For Ultrashort Laser Ablation Of Dielectrics, Lan Jiang, Hai-Lung Tsai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In ultrashort pulse (<10 ps) laser ablation of dielectrics, affected materials are first transformed into absorbing plasma with metallic properties and, then, the subsequent laser-plasma interaction causes material removals. For ultrashort-pulse laser ablation of dielectrics, this study proposes a model using the Fokker-Planck equation for electron density distribution, a plasma model for the optical properties of ionized dielectrics, and quantum treatments for electron heating and relaxation time. The free electron density distribution of the plasma within the pulse duration is then used to determine the ablation crater shape. The predicted threshold fluences and ablation depths for barium aluminum borosilicate and fused silica are in agreement with published experimental data. It is found that the significantly varying optical properties in time and space are the key factors determining the ablation crater shape. The effects of fluence and pulse duration are also studied.

Statistically Steady Measurements Of Rayleigh-Taylor Mixing In A Gas Channel, Malcolm J. Andrews, Arindam Banerjee

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel gas channel experiment is described to study the development of high Atwood number Rayleigh-Taylor mixing. Two gas streams, one containing air and the other containing a helium-air mixture, flow parallel to each other separated by a thin splitter plate. The streams meet at the end of a splitter plate leading to the formation of an unstable interface and of buoyancy driven mixing. This buoyancy driven mixing experiment allows for long data collection times, has short transients, and is statistically steady. The facility was designed to be capable of large Atwood number studies (At~0.75). We describe initial validation work …

Magnetically Filtered Faraday Probe For Measuring The Ion Current Density Profile Of A Hall Thruster., Joshua L. Rovey, Mitchell L. R. Walker, Alec D. Gallimore, Peter Y. Peterson

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The ability of a magnetically filtered Faraday probe (MFFP) to obtain the ion current density profile of a Hall thruster is investigated. The MFFP is designed to eliminate the collection of low-energy, charge-exchange (CEX) ions by using a variable magnetic field as an ion filter. In this study, a MFFP, Faraday probe with a reduced acceptance angle (BFP), and nude Faraday probe are used to measure the ion current density profile of a 5 kW Hall thruster operating over the range of 300-500 V and 5-10 mg/s. The probes are evaluated on a xenon propellant Hall thruster in the University …

Explaining Disparities In Asylum Claims, Ming Hsu Chen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Vitamin E, L-Arginine, N-Nitro L-Arginine Methyle Ester And Forskolin On Endocrine And Metabolic Changes Of Rats Exposed To Acute Cold Stress, Laila Y. Al-Ayadhi, Aida A. Korish, Ali S. Al-Tuwaijri

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: It is a well documented fact that under stress conditions the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) are stimulated. This results in a series of neural and endocrine adaptations known as the stress response. The current study assessed the effects of acute cold stress on adrenomedullin (ADM) levels in plasma and peripheral tissues (kidneys and heart) of rats, as well as on blood glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), total proteins both before and after intraperitoneal administration of each of the following: vitamin-E, L-arginine, forskolin and L-NAME. METHODS: The current study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, …

Ramadan Fasting Induces Modifications Of Certain Serum Components In Obese Women With Type 2 Diabetes, Boumediene M. Khaled, Malika Bendahmane, Slimane Belbraouet

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of fasting during Ramadan on certain serum components such as fasting serum glucose (FSG), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), high density lipoproteins (HDL-C), and low density lipoproteins (LDL-C) parameters in obese women patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: We conducted the study in Petit-Vichy Diabetology Center, Sidi-Bel-Abbes, Algeria from October 2003 to March 2004, on 60 obese outpatient women (BMI = 35.41 ± 3.64 kg/m2), aged 51 ± 10 years, who had diabetes for 5 ± 2.5 years. The patients followed no specific diet, on medications, and presenting no degenerative complications. We …

Echocardiographic Study Of Aortic Root Diameter In Healthy Children, Piraye Kervancioglu, Mehmet Kervancioglu, Cudi M. Tuncer

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: Echocardiography is commonly used to measure the internal diameter of aortic root, which provides the evaluation of aortic root dilatation. Aortic root dilatation provide information concerning prognosis of aortic regurgitation and predisposition to aortic root dissection or rupture. The purpose of the study was to create normal values for aortic root diameters by using echocardiography in healthy children. METHODS: We obtained the aortic root diameters in 229 normal children, aged one day to 15 years by using M-mode echocardiography. We performed the echocardiograms from the Department of Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratory, Medical Faculty, Dicle University, Turkey. We divided the children …

Prevalence Of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases Among Enterobacteriaceae Isolated From Blood Culture In A Tertiary Care Hospital, Noura A. El-Khizzi, Saadia M. Bakheshwain

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase among Enterobacteriaceae isolated from blood culture in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: We carried out this study at the Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the period between January 2003-December 2004. We tested a total of 601 isolates of the family Enterobacteriaceae from blood culture for the prevalence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) production by the standardized disc diffusion method and confirmed by the ESBL E test strips. RESULTS: Ninety-five (15.8%) of the isolates were ESBL producers. Among these, 48.4% were Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) followed by15.8% of …