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Obscurant Oil Characterization Produced Through Vaporization By Exhaust Gas Of Mini-Jet Turbine Engine, Hossein Daniel Bahaghighat

Masters Theses

"Obscurants have been used for centuries to conceal and protect military assets from direct enemy attack, or as a signal between units. Obscurants still play a significant role in protecting soldiers on the battlefield. This research was geared towards development of highly efficient man portable obscurant generation system to demonstrate its use with biogenic oils as the obscurants. The research reported in the thesis was directed evaluating the performance of a mini-jet based generator in the laboratory and field with two different obscurant oils, Fog Oil (FO) the oil used by the US Army at present and potential replacement oil …

Unf Journal Winter 2008, University Of North Florida

UNF Journal

A university periodical for alumni and friends of the University of North Florida.

Animal Microrna Target Prediction By Incorporating Diverse Sequence-Specific Determinants, Yun Zheng, Weixiong Zhang

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

More recent evidence has shown that access of animal microRNAs (miRNAs) to their complementary sites in target mRNAs is determined by more sequence-specific determinants than the seed regions in the 5' end of miRNAs. Although these factors have been shown to be related to the repressive power of miRNAs and used, in separate programs, to predict the efficacy of miRNA complementary sites, it remains unclear whether these factors can help to improve miRNA target prediction. We develop a new miRNA target prediction algorithm, called Hitsensor, by incorporating more sequence-specific features that determine complementarities between miRNAs and their targets, in addition …

How Scientist/Founders Lead Successful Biopharmaceutical Organizations: A Study Of Three Companies, Lynn Johnson Langer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine how the leadership of scientist/founders of biopharmaceutical companies affects the success of their organization. Over half of all biotechnology firms are founded by scientists, yet for every start-up biotech firm that succeeds, 15-20 fail and eight out of 10 drugs fail in clinical trials (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2007; Stanford Graduate School of Business, n.d.; Zhang & Patel, 2005). To bring a biopharmaceutical product from the research bench to the consumer costs more than $800 million (Tufts, 2007). This dissertation research explored the leadership practices of three successful scientist/founders and how …

Poetic Leadership, A Territory Of Aesthetic Consciousness And Change, R. Amrit Kasten-Daryanani

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Poetic leadership is a new theoretical construct that views leadership as an activity that unites a lyrical intellect with keenly felt emotion for the purpose of producing changes in the consciousness of self and others. This change begins within the interiority of self, moving surely to broader realms of one's surroundings and society, provoking movement that impacts the developing potential of the individual and the cultural milieu in which they exist. Emotion is the primary trace into consciousness used in this dissertation, which serves to unite experiences of the heart with experiences of the mind. The unification of these disparate …

On Being A Nonprofit Executive Director, Janet Elizabeth Rechtman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In describing the course of change in a dynamic field such as the nonprofit sector, neo-institutional theorists argue that isomorphic forces such as replication of best practices tend to increase the homogeneity of actors. This interplay of structure and agency creates what is known as the structuration of an institutional field. These theorists have little to say about the people who influence and are influenced by these dynamics. This study explores this personal experience at the micro level of the nonprofit field executive leadership. It focuses on their challenges related to the isomorphic pressures resulting from: (1) socio-economic roles, (2) …

How Are Nasa Engineers Motivated? An Analysis Of Factors That Influence Nasa Goddard Engineers’ Level Of Motivation, Howard Eric Kea

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

NASA is an organization known for pushing the envelope of engineering and scientific achievement. It can be argued that engineers working for NASA are intrinsically highly motivated due to the nature of the work and the mission of NASA. This study explores how supervisor behaviors, both intrinsic and extrinsic and demographic factors influence motivation of NASA Goddard engineers in their current environment. Recent Congressional and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policies, such as full cost accounting, levy strict oversight of project spending. As a result of these policies, NASA engineers must now focus their attention on getting assigned work …

Portraits: Discovering Art As A Transformative Learning Process At Mid-Life, William Scott Wallace

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explores art as a transformative learning process at mid-life. As adults individuate as they develop into middle age and move towards integration, they may experience transformative learning, a process that can lead to a much broader and deeper life view. Most studies have viewed transformative learning as a process that occurs through critical reflection, (Mezirow, 1991, 2000), possible disorienting dilemmas, (Mezirow, 1991, 2000, and Daloz, 2000), influence of personality type (Cranton, 1994), soulfulness (Dirkx), and other means of awareness. While researchers acknowledge the possibilities of experiencing transformative learning through the arts, a review of the empirical literature reveals …

Roots And Remedies Of Ginseng Poaching In Central Appalachia, Randi Jeannine Pokladnik

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Ginseng, panax quinquefolius, is a perennial plant found in the understory growth of mesophytic forests of Appalachia. Illegal harvesting of the plant from both wild and cultivated populations has become very problematic for public land managers and private landowners engaged in cultivation of the species. Techniques aimed at curtailing the incidents of poaching have only been moderately successful. Given the economic value of the plant, its cultural significance, and the dramatic decrease of wild plant populations, it has become increasingly important to address this problem.

Several studies have linked illegal wildlife harvesting to economic problems, inadequate policies or laws, and …

Beyond The Debate: Exploring The Underlying Values And Assumptions Of Biodiversity Conservation In Protected Areas, Leon-Charl Malan

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation examines the current disagreement among scientists and scholars about best practices for biodiversity conservation in protected areas. There is no clear consensus among the scientific community about the most effective approach to conserve biodiversity and several conflicting positions form part of an ongoing debate in the field. Most disagreements and conflicts are based on differences in the underlying values and assumptions of the parties involved in the conflict. The more we know and understand those underlying values, the more constructive the dialog, and the more likely acceptable policy decisions will be developed. This study, presented in three parts, …

Integration Of Analysis And Deliberation To Evaluate Biodiesel Occupational And Environmental Exposures, Nora M. Traviss

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Many U.S. organizations interested in a renewable and domestic source of energy are considering switching from petroleum diesel to biodiesel blends for transportation and heavy-duty equipment use. Biodiesel is a fuel made from vegetable oils or waste grease. While there is a considerable body of evidence on the negative health effects of petroleum diesel exhaust exposures in occupational and urban settings, there has been little research examining the impact of biodiesel fuel on occupational and environmental exposures. This dissertation combined a collaborative exposure assessment of B20 (20% soy-based biodiesel/80% diesel) at a rural recycling center with a policy intervention to …

The Ecology Of Paradox: Disturbance And Restoration In Land And Soul, Rowland S. Russell

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This heuristic study explores environmental disturbance and ecological restoration in several North American settings in order to uncover epistemological, philosophical, aesthetic and ethical considerations revolving around those place-based processes. With fire as one of the central metaphors of this work, the initial place-based chapter examines Northern New Mexico's Pajarito Plateau to explore the region's fire ecology. The study then moves to the Pacific Northwest to draw restoration practice that attempt to restore wild salmon to urban Seattle habitat. The third place-based chapter focuses on the Midwest grass and farmlands in order to investigate the seeming contradictions between commodity and diversity …

Dwelling, Walking, Serving: Organic Preservation Along The Camino De Santiago Pilgrimage Landscape, Mercedes Chamberlain Quesada-Embid

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study is an exploration of the people and the landscape of the well-known Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Although there are many routes that make up the entirety of the pilgrimage, this research is specifically focused on the landscape of the Camino Francés, or French Route, in northern Spain. The path has been written about in many ways and for a myriad of reasons since it became affiliated with the Christian tradition in the early ninth century. This research, however, is different. By way of an environmental history and hermeneutic approach, an investigation of the interrelated and overlapping human …

Imagery And Strength Of Craving For Eating, Drinking, And Playing Sport, Jon May, Jackie Andrade, David Kavanagh, Lucy Penfound

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Annual Report 2006-2007, Connie Jan Maraan

SDRC Publications

No abstract provided.

Dirty Dancing: The Fda Stumbles On The Chevron Two-Step, Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Lars Noah deserves much credit for exposing some of the myriad ways in which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has consistently sought to expand its authority through questionable, and perhaps in some cases abusive, legal practices.' As Professor Noah observes, there are signs that the federal courts' century-long honeymoon with the FDA may be ending 2 -and perhaps the FDA never deserved the solicitude that it has traditionally received from both the judiciary and Congress. 3 If Professor Noah can hasten the onset of a more realistic legal and public attitude toward the FDA, he will have performed …

Preemption And Products Liability: A Positive Theory, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

In a large number of products liability lawsuits, sellers assert that plaintiffs' claims should be rejected because their products fall under some federal regulatory regime, and that the regulatory statute takes precedence over or preempts state tort law. This paper is an attempt to set out a positive theory of the doctrine on preemption of products liability claims. The federal case law is largely consistent with an approach that seeks to minimize the costs of erroneous decisions to preempt tort lawsuits. In particular, two factors explain many of the outcomes of the preemption cases in federal courts: agency independence and …

Rules For Donations To Tissue Banks: What Next?, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Michael Crichton's Next is a fictional creation of multiple catastrophes emanating from the real-life case of John Moore, in which the California Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that Moore did not own his cells after they were removed from his body. As human tissue has become commercially useful, and as tissue banks storing and providing samples for research have flourished, the question of who owns the tissue has become more vital. Next got mixed reviews, but even many scientists, such as Michael Goldman, who reviewed the book in Nature, agree with Crichton that it is imperative that we “establish clear …

Decentralized Responses To Good Fortune And Bad Luck, Richard A. Epstein

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Most forms of egalitarian theory impose on government (and through it other people) to redress the inequalities of fortune that result from bad luck. This Article takes issue with the various forms of this large claim, and argues that decentralized forms of assistance are likely in the long run to do better by the very standards by which egalitarians justify their own program. The alleviation of poverty depends in the first instance on increases in wealth that can only come through private innovation and technological advances. These have in fact produced major improvements in overall well-being, with disproportionate advances for …

Diversity Of Archaea And Eubacteria In Constructed Wetland In California, Paula B. Matheus-Carnevali

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Infant Feeding Practices And Beliefs Among Women In Podor, West Africa, Heather Lyn Schwartz

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Status Of The American Badger In The San Francisco Bay Area, Chris Lay

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Ecological Consequences Of Morphological Variability In A Habitat-Forming Alga, Jennifer Piper Jorve

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Asian Models In Advertising After The Movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Helen Wu

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Stray Men, Steven P. Wood

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of The Nuremberg Doctors' Trial To American Bioethics And Human Rights, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

In this lecture I argue that modern bioethics was born at the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial, a health law trial that produced one of the first major human rights documents: the Nuremberg Code. Accepting this conclusion has significant consequences for contemporary American bioethics generally, and specifically in the context of our continuing global war on terror in which the United States uses physicians to help in interrogations, torture, and force-feeding hunger strikers.

The primary force shaping the agenda, development, and current state of American bioethics has not been either medicine or philosophy, but law, best described as health law. Like bioethics, …

A Watershed Moment: Reversals Of Tort Theory In The Nineteenth Century, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

This article offers a new assessment of the stages in the development of fault and strict liability and their justifications in American history. Building from the evidence that a wide majority of state courts adopted Fletcher v. Rylands and strict liability for unnatural or hazardous activities in the late nineteenth century, a watershed moment turns to the surprising reversals in tort ideology in the wake of flooding disasters.

An established view of American tort law is that the fault rule supposedly prevailed over strict liability in the nineteenth century, with some arguing that it was based on instrumental arguments to …

The Scope Of Executive Power In The Twenty-First Century: An Introduction, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

This is a revised version of introductory remarks to a panel entitled The Scope of Executive Power held on October 12, 2007, at Boston University Law School's symposium, The Role of the President in the 21st Century. It focuses on an argument advanced by Charlie Savage, among others: that the Bush administration has forged a breathtakingly robust view of the scope of executive power by combining (1) the original Unitary Executive thesis, which insists on the "exclusivity" of certain plenary presidential powers; with (2) a new Unitary Executive thesis, which insists on a vastly expanded vision of the "scope" of …

Cell Surface Expression Of The Vaccinia Virus Complement Control Protein Is Mediated By Interaction With The Viral A56 Protein And Protects Infected Cells From Complement Attack, N. M. Girgis, Brian Dehaven

Biology Faculty Scholarship

The vaccinia virus (VACV) complement control protein (VCP) is the major protein secreted from VACV-infected cells. It has been reported that VCP binds to the surfaces of uninfected cells by interacting with heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). In this study, we show that VCP is also expressed on the surfaces of infected cells and demonstrate that surface localization occurs independently of HSPGs. Since VCP does not contain a transmembrane domain, we hypothesized that VCP interacts with a membrane protein that localizes to the infected-cell surface. We show that the VACV A56 membrane protein is necessary for the cell surface expression of …

Mainstream And Alternative News In Seattle: A Comparative Media Frame Analysis Of Wto Protest Coverage, Richard Feffer S.

Master's Theses - Sociology and Anthropology

Seattle was the site of one of the largest protests in recent American history. In 1999, tens of thousands of demonstrators representing a multitude of causes gathered in downtown Seattle to protest the meetings of the World Trade Organization and the larger issue of globalization. While many of the protest events consisted of peaceful marches and demonstrations with isolated incidents of violence, research on the media coverage of these events found that the mainstream media often minimized the contributions of the protesters, portrayed them as violent and disruptive, and showed support for the ability of the police to maintain order. …