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Quantum Physics And Welfare Policy?, Jack C. Straton

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Welfare policy is examined through the paradoxical logic of Nagarjuna’s tetralema, providing a lens through which wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics is then viewed. Through this process students are challenged to radically expand their critical-thinking horizons beyond conventional dualistic bounds. They learn not only this key property of quantum reality, but have to come to grips with the nature of knowledge itself, and the degree to which they censor their own awarenesses.

Stress And Anxiety In Adhd: Links To Sensory Over-Responsivity, Stacey E. Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations

Sensory Modulation Dysfunction (SMD) is characterized by an inability to consistently and accurately grade responses to sensory information. SMD, and specifically sensory over-responsivity (SOR), has been correlated with stress and anxiety in some developmentally delayed populations and has been associated with structures and functions of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Recent attention has been given to HPA functioning in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), with a majority of studies identifying blunted or diminished cortisol patterns. In contrast, elevated cortisol has been associated with anxiety and anxious behaviors in both animal and human studies. The purpose of this study …

An Evolutionary Programming Algorithm For Automatic Chromatogram Alignment, Bonnie Jo Schwartz

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Scientists use liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) instruments to measure metabolic responses to external stimuli. The data from these instruments can be distorted due to changes in the testing environment. Automating the removal of distortions is crucial in processing the data. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an algorithm that will automate the process.

The data produced by the LC/MS instrument were treated as images and image registration techniques were applied. A polynomial transformation function was assumed. An evolutionary programming algorithm was used to determine the coefficients of the polynomial. The data was manipulated to determine the best registration …

Designing Computer Agents With Personality To Improve Human-Machine Collaboration In Complex Systems, Sasanka V. Prabhala

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The dynamic nature of complex systems and the overwhelming amount of data that must be handled by human operators requires the development of smart systems that augment human capabilities. For these systems human-agent collaboration is part of the system dynamic. Unfortunately the computer agent is not typically perceived by the human operator as a collaborative team member. This research addressed the key question of how to develop and evaluate computer agents with personality to enhance human-machine collaboration. To move towards this goal three research objectives were established: (1) develop agents with personality, (2) validate that humans perceive these agents as …

Data Mining And Analysis On Multiple Time Series Object Data, Chunyu Jiang

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Huge amount of data is available in our society and the need for turning such data into useful information and knowledge is urgent. Data mining is an important field addressing that need and significant progress has been achieved in the last decade. In several important application areas, data arises in the format of Multiple Time Series Object (MTSO) data, where each data object is an array of time series over a large set of features and each has an associated class or state. Very little research has been conducted towards this kind of data. Examples include computational toxicology, where each …

Black Hole: The Role Of Black Aesthetics In Science Fiction, Thomas Leo Johnson

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The main purpose of this thesis is to answer the question of why the genre of science fiction permits African-American authors to expand their themes beyond African-American concerns and characters. This thesis puts forward the argument that science fiction provides African-American writers with the capacity to craft their works' central conflicts to include or exclude issues that affect the Black community. This thesis answers the question in four points, the first being a brief historical overview of the debate within the Black literary community on the prevalence of Black aesthetics. The overview also gives a summary of the debate over …

Oxidation Resistant Coatings On Microcelluar Carbon Foam Using Simple Scalable Techniques, Dakshinamurthy Sharma Nagalingam

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Carbon foam has many applications in the fields of thermal management, net-shape composites and electronic cooling due to its porous structure, low density, electrical and thermal conductivities. However it is prone to oxidation at high temperatures in air. Whereas some previous studies have reported oxidation protective coatings on other carbon structures such as graphite parts and fibers, there is very limited work on foam. Moreover, earlier methods have used vapor phase techniques such as Plasma Vapor Deposition (PVD) and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). There is no known study involving such coatings using simple scalable liquid phase method. This thesis reports …

Down At The Bowl: A Novel, Theresa Marie Evans

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Novel set in late-1970s Cincinnati, on its traditionally conservative, Catholic west side. Karen is a sheltered seventeen-year-old girl, who gets a job bussing tables at a bowling alley restaurant. Unlike the friends she has struggled to fit in with throughout high school, Karen finds she is immediately welcomed into the group of teenagers who work there. She tries to become more street smart like her new friends, but finds herself jolted by their casual attitudes towards drinking, drugs, and sex. Along with the coming-of-age theme, the story addresses issues of homosexuality in a time when gays were just beginning to …

Acute Toxicity And Immunotoxicity Testing Of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons In Aquatic And Terrestrial Organisms, Andrea Renee Handy

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The acute toxicity and immunotoxicity of JP-8 jet fuel on Chironomus tentans, Hyallela azteca, Lactuca sativa, Eisenia foetida, and Lumbricus terrestris was assessed using standard USEPA acute toxicity and static renewal toxicity tests. Three methods of spiking test soil with jet fuel were evaluated. In one method acetone was utilized as a carrier and the soil was dried in the fume hood; in another the soil was spiked directly with jet fuel and also was dried; and in the last the soil was spiked directly without drying. There was low survival in C. tentans in all treatments, including controls. There …

Investigating The Role Of Subunit Iii In The Structure And Function Of Rhodobacter Sphaeroides Cytochrome C Oxidase, R. Ryan Geyer

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The role of subunit III (SIII) in cytochrome c oxidase structure and function was investigated using enzyme isolated from the bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Energy minimization calculations suggested that in the absence of SIII, subunit I (SI) adopted a more open conformation. This observation was tested through the use of limited proteolysis using, á-chymotrypsin. The results showed that in the absence of SIII the solution structures of wild-type and I/II oxidase were not significantly different, and that proteolysis occurred exclusively at the N and C-termini of SI. Upon inactivation of I/II oxidase by catalytic turnover, and subsequent digestion with the protease …

Angiotensin At1 Receptor Blockade Protects The Brain From Ischemic Damage, Madhuri Penchikala

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Angiotensin (Ang) AT1 receptors are considered to play an important role in ischemic stroke via degenerative processes leading to cell death. Recent clinical and basic studies show that systemic blockade of Ang AT1 receptors reduces brain lesion in ischemic stroke. In this study we evaluated whether blockade of central Ang AT1 receptors protects the brain from ischemia and inflammation during ischemic stroke. Adult male C57BL/6 mice were divided into two groups for chronic intracerebroventricular (ICV) infusion of a selective Ang AT1 receptor antagonist, losartan (Los, n=18, 2 ug/hr) or isotonic saline (Con, n=20) using osmotic minipump. Twelve days post infusion, …

Distribution Of Ground-Layer Plant Species In A Fragmented Landscape In The Corozal District, Belize, Central America, Divan Catzim

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In this study, I specifically looked at three major issues regarding 36 target plant species in a fragmented landscape in the Corozal district, Belize: 1) Determine woodlot characteristics that tend to favor the target species. 2) Determine plant characteristics that tend to favor the target species. 3) Determine whether age and size of a woodlot favors the presence of the target species. The study area was divided into three areas and each area had woodlots varying in sizes and ages. 36 plant species were sampled in all woodlots upon which woodlot characteristics and species characteristics were associated with the number …

Summaritive Digest For Large Document Repositories With Application To E-Rulemaking, Lijun Chen

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Large document repositories need to be organized and summarized to make them more accessible and understandable. Such needs exist in many applications, including web search, e-rulemaking (electronic rulemaking) and document archiving. Even though much has been done in the areas of document clustering and summarization, there are still many new challenges and issues that need to be addressed as the repositories become larger, more prevalent and dynamic. In this dissertation, we investigate more informative ways to organize and summarize large document repositories, especially e-rulemaking feedback repositories (ERFRs), so that the large repositories can be managed and digested more efficiently and …

Analysis Of Sex Reversal And Tra-2 Nucleotide Variation In Tropical And Temperate Clades Of Caenorhabditis Briggsae, Irene Zelepuhin

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Reproductive isolation results when members of the same species cannot reproduce due to either prezygotic or postzygotic mechanisms, therefore restricting gene flow between populations. A leading model describing reproductive isolation developed by J.B. Haldane (1922) states, "When offspring from two different animal species have one sex that is rare, absent, or sterile, that sex is the heterozygous (XO) or heterogametic (XY) sex". Haldane's rule is illustrated among various animal taxa regardless of which sex is heterogametic. To date, Caenorhabditis mating tests are the only example of Haldane's rule that is caused by sexual transformation and not gender specific lethality or …

Beneath The Invisibility Cloak: Myth And The Modern World View In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, Mary Elizabeth Noren

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J.K. Rowling, best selling author of the Harry Potter series, uses mythology to add layers of meaning to her own creative storylines, to provide insight into the characters and plot, and to subtly foreshadow events to come. Rowling reinvents the old myths referred to in her text by creating surprise twists that are a reversal of the reader's expectations. Ultimately, Rowling's reworking of established mythology reveals the author's own modern perspective about what makes a hero, the power of choice, and the nature of evil.

Although Rowling draws from a variety of mythologies, including Arthurian legend, ancient Egyptian mythology and …

Neurodegeneration And Neuroinflammation In A Mouse Model Of Sarin Exposure, Molly Elizabeth Davidson

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Sarin is an organophosphorus (OP) ester chemical warfare agent (CWA) that has been used in past terrorist attacks. It remains a threat today because of its ease of manufacture and dispersal. Sarin acts by irreversibly inactivating acetylcholinesterase and interfering with neurotransmission by allowing acetylcholine to build up at neuro-effector junctions, where it continuously elicits a response. Symptoms of sarin toxicity include seizures, hypersecretions, respiratory distress and death in extreme cases. Previous studies on OP poisoning indicate that sarin exposure causes neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation in conjunction with seizure activity. In order to determine the mode of neuronal death and the extent …

Impact Of Land Use On Water Quality In The Indian Lake Watershed: An Integrated Geographic Information Systems Approach, Michael Belke

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Geology and land use and land cover are the most important factors that influence water quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate how these factors operate in a rural watershed. Specifically, this thesis tests the feasibility of a proposed formula to relate how land use affects surface water quality and to infer hydrogeochemical reactions that control water chemistry through hydrogeochemical speciation and mineral stability relationships. Samples were collected from Indian Lake and its watershed in West-Central Ohio. BASINS, produced by the USEPA, was then used to delineate sub-watersheds and find the land use areas of these watersheds. The …

Characteristics Of A Foamy Virus-Derived Vector That Allow For Safe Autologous Gene Therapy To Correct Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency Type 1, Ryan Matthew Mcnichol

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The hematopoeitic stem cell is a prime target for gene therapy in the attempt to correct a number of single gene inherited genetic defects that affect the immune system. In persons affected by leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 (LAD-1) the gene for the Beta-2 subunit of the integrin molecule is mutated. This autosomal recessive gene defect yields a phenotype with little or no beta-2 integrin expression on leukocytes. Beta-2 integrin expression is essential for leukocytes to travel from the blood to the tissues to fight infection. Persons with this disease have lowered leukocyte counts in the tissues and as a …

Analysis Of Very Large Scale Image Data Using Out-Of-Core Technique And Automated 3d Reconstruction Using Calibrated Images, Chandrashekara Hassan Raju

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Analysis of large scale volumetric data sets is very important from the researcher's and technological point of view as it helps in understanding and analyzing the original data. For example, when analyzing volumetric images from cast arteries of pigs, it is essential to apply a suitable segmentation in order to retrieve morphometric data from the scanned image. Due to improved scanning technology, such as MicroCT, these scanned images can get as large as several gigabytes in size. In order to analyze such large scale data sets on common desktop computers is a challenge due to limited main memory. By using …

Hsv-1 Infection Of C3h Central Nervous System Cell Lines, Lauren Kay Van Buren

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Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) can infect the nervous system, resulting in a disease known as herpes encephalitis (HSE). Herpes encephalitis affects thousands of people each year; many cases are fatal or permanently debilitating. Approximately two thousand known cases occur in the United States each year alone (Neuroland online source). Acyclovir has been the drug of choice used to treat herpes encephalitis. Even after the administration of acyclovir, permanent neurological damage and/or death often results. Thousands of individuals would benefit by the discovery of drugs that are more effective at preventing lasting HSE damage and death. Knowledge concerning HSE …

Immunological And Developmental Effects Of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (Pbdes) And 2,3,7,8-Tetrachloro-P-Dioxin (Tcdd) In Birds, Randy T. Stetzer

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This thesis contains two separate and distinct research projects with a common overall theme - the study of immunotoxicity associated with the developmental exposure of young birds to halogenated chemicals posing environmental concern. These chemicals share many chemical characteristics, including environmental ubiquity and longevity, one has been studied extensively since the 1970s, and one is a relatively new environmental contaminant with few studies pertaining to toxicological affects on humans or wildlife. Specific summaries of each study begin each project chapter. The first study was entitled Developmental and Immunological Effects of a Commercial Mixture of PBDE Flame Retardants in Chicken Embryos. …

The Effects Of Representational Format And Discourse Principles On The Comprehension And Production Of Temporal Order, Louise J. Rasmussen

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In the present study I examined the role physical representations play in supporting distributed planning and scheduling. Specifically, I investigated the implications of different representational formats for the production of discourse as well as the later comprehension of text relating to temporal order. In the first part of the study, pairs of participants created schedules for constructing a house with the aid of either a numeric, list format, or a graphical, Gantt chart format. Participants completed the task in a non-collocated fashion, without shared visual access. In the second part of the study, after completing their schedule, the same participants …

The Role Of Popular Culture In Language Borrowing Between French And English, Marianne Elizabeth Broadwater

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This thesis proposes that popular culture often derives from the privileged upper classes and that popular culture established by the elite has played an important role in linguistic exchange throughout history between French and English. Focusing on the time periods 1066 AD to 1500 AD and the twentieth and twenty first centuries, it describes the manner of exchange and development of French and English lexicons and analyzes in detail the histories of one French word and one English word. Additionally, the examples given in this thesis illustrate the flow of popular culture from the high-ranking and powerful members of society …

Simple Descriptors For Modeling The Solubility Of Gases, Alcohols, And Halogenated Hydrocarbons In Water, Sule Sidigu

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The Statmost, QSARIS, Excel, and SAS programs were used to model the solubility of gases, alcohols, and halogenated hydrocarbons in water using simple physical and topological descriptors. The alcohols were well-modeled using measures of the number of carbons, terminal methyls, and steric hindrance about the hydroxyl group. Molecular mass, boiling point, and critical volume or critical pressure were the best descriptors for the halogenated hydrocarbons. Critical pressure was the most applicable single descriptor for the gases. Molecular mass and boiling point also yielded good results for the gases and halogenated hydrocarbons when regressed together.

Gpu-Assisted Rendering Of Large Tree-Shaped Data Sets, Pallavi Ramachandra Mangalvedkar

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Due to their complexity, medical data sets can easily comprise of several gigabytes in size. For example, geometric representations of a coronary arterial tree spanning vessels from the large proximal coronary arteries down to the capillary level consist of 6 gigabytes or more of geometry data, depending on the accuracy of the geometric representation. Visualization of such large data sets using the CPU alone can be inefficient and time consuming since they require special out-of-core techniques due to the size of the data set. The usage of the GPU can help render such data sets faster compared to CPU-based implementations …

Role Of Angiotensin Converting Enzymes Ace And Ace2 In Diabetes Induced Cardiovascular Dysfunction, Keerthy Kanakamedala

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Cardiovascular disease is a long term complication of diabetes, which remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. There is recent evidence for activation of the Renin angiotensin system (RAS) in diabetic animals and humans. Emerging evidence shows that the vasoconstrictor actions of Ang II may be opposed by formation of the vasodilator, Ang (1-7). There is limited data on blood pressure in murine models of type 2 diabetes. The aim is to study the role of angiotensin converting enzymes ACE and ACE2 in diabetes induced cardiovascular dysfunction using type 2 diabetic murine mouse models (db/db mice). Both db/db mice …

Modulation Of The 3'Igh Regulatory Region (3'Igh Rr), A Prospective In Vitro Screening Tool For Identifying Potential Immunotoxicants, Rebecca Anne Henseler

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The immune system is critical to human survival. However, assessing alterations of immune function by potential immunotoxicants is complicated by the diffuse nature of the immune system, which is composed of various effector cells each with differing effector functions. Current immunotoxicity testing is limited to animal studies. We have developed a model, which may provide an in vitro alternative to animal studies in identifying immunotoxicants that specifically target B cell function (i.e., alteration of immunoglobulin (Ig) or expression and antibody secretion). This model consists of a well-characterized B cell line, CH12.LX, which appears to appropriately model primary B cell function. …

Oral Ld50 Of Botulinum Toxin Serotype A In Guinea Pigs, Christina Marie Wilhelm

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As a disease, botulism is a neuroparalytic illness resulting from the action of a potent neurotoxin produced by C. Botulinum. Of the seven distinct C. Botulinum neurotoxin serotypes: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, only serotypes A, B, E and F cause human disease. The duration of action of the seven toxin serotypes varies with serotype A having the most sustained action (i.e. months vs. days in serotype E). This study was performed due to recently identified critical gaps in our food safety procedures. The goal of this study was to assess whether fresh 2% milk provided protective …

Discovery Of New Antimicrobial Agents Using Combinatorial Chemistry, William I. Northern

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Combinatorial chemistry has become an important aspect of medicinal research due to its flexibility and the ability to produce large numbers of potential therapeutic agents. Once compounds are made, they must be screened to determine if there is any biological activity. This research project focused on developing a screening method for chemical agents produced by a graduate student in the chemistry department at Wright State University. After an acceptable screening method was found, the goal of the project was to determine if compounds produced had either antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, or both. Seven compounds exhibited biological activity. Two of these …

The Processing Of Β-Endorphin In Morphine Treated Rats Using Seldi-Tof Mass Spectrometry, Jennifer Y. Edwards

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Endocrine glands secrete peptide hormones that bind to specific receptors, and elicit a response. In the pituitary, prohormone convertases (PC) PC1/3 and PC2 convert inactive prohormones into biologically active peptide hormones. Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) is a precursor molecule that proteolytically cleaves at paired basic residue sites, and produces smaller biologically active peptides, such as adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), and β-endorphin. β-endorphin is an endogenous opioid peptide hormone that plays a vital role in the body's physiological response to stress, fear, and anxiety. Morphine is an exogenous opioid, used for the treatment of moderate to severe pain and competes …