Digital Commons Network^™

The Rewilding Of New York's North Country: Beavers, Moose, Canines And The Adirondacks, Peter Aagaard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project examines the restoration histories of beavers (Castor canadensis), moose (Alces alces americana), and wild canines (Canis spp.) within the Adirondack Highlands of northern New York. Devastated by the depredations of nineteenth century woodsmen, the populations of these large mammals rebounded during the twentieth century. Numbering fewer than ten in 1895, the Adirondacks’ remnant beaver population recolonized the region’s lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers over the next twenty-five years, assisted by the presence of prime habitat, a state-enforced moratorium on beaver trapping, and timely reinforcements. Hunters shot the last of the Adirondacks’ moose near Raquette Lake in 1861. Moose …

Spatial Variability In Forest Fuels: Simulation Modeling And Effects On Fire Behavior, Russell Andrew Parsons

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Forests in the western United States and elsewhere face a growing crisis arising from global warming, changes in fuel beds and an increasing human population. Fire management policy emphasizes fuel treatments, such as thinning and prescribed burning, to remedy this situation because fuels are the one component of the problem that we can directly affect through management action. At present, however, the tools we have for the evaluation of fuel treatments are inadequate because they do not describe the fuel bed, or effects of modifications to the fuel bed on fire behavior in sufficient detail. The work described here presents …

Structure Activity Relationships For Intracellular Loop 2 Of The 5ht1a Serotonin Receptor, Brian Patrick Hall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hall, Brian, Ph.D., May 2008 Pharmacology/Pharmaceutical Sciences

Structure Activity Relationships for Intracellular Loop 2 of the 5HT1A Serotonin Receptor

Chairperson: Dr. Keith Parker

The human (H) serotonin (5-hydroxytrptamine; 5HT) 1a receptor (R) has been implicated in various physiological processes such as mood regulation, vascular and temperature control, anxiety, depression, and migraine headache. This seven transmembrane domain (7TMD), G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) is negatively coupled to adenylyl cyclase (AC). This work was designed to better understand the coupling and activation requirements of intracellular loop 2 (ic2) with Gi in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. 10 MER peptides that are derived from …

Synthesis Of Higher Molecular Weight Poly(D-Glucaramides) And Poly(Aldaramides) As Novel Gel Forming Agents, Tyler Nations Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Poly(alkylene D-glucaramides) with higher molecular weights than previously reported were prepared through a multi-step process beginning with 1:1 alkylenediammonium D-glucarate salts. These salts set a precise stoichiometric equivalence between co-monomers, a necessary requirement for higher molecular weight condensation polymers. The salts were prepared by treating monopotassium D-glucarate with H+ form ion exchange resin to give D-glucaric acid, which was then reacted with a diamine. The glucarate portion of the salt was activated for polymerization through esterification in HCl/methanol. Polymerization was initiated by basification of the resulting mixture. The molecular weights of the polymers showed strong dependence on the base used …

Remember Gay Victims: An Exploration Into The History, Testimony, And Literature Of The Persecution Of Homosexuals By The Third Reich And Their Effect On A Queer Collective Consciousness, Paul D. Vestal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis under National Socialism during the Second World War has historically been ignored and almost completely erased. However, within the past two and a half decades a significant number of historical, academic, sociological, and literary inquiries and works have uncovered this once forgotten past. Because of these investigations, the anti-homosexual actions inflicted upon gay men by the Third Reich have the ability to impact the continual creation of a queer collective memory and consciousness. Unfortunately, many queers do not know the historic connotations and denotation of the pink triangle—a symbol worn by homosexual males …

Role Of Scavenger Receptor Marco In Particle Uptake And Lung Inflammation, Sheetal A. Thakur

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Alveolar macrophages (AM) form the first line of defense against chronic inflammation caused by occupational exposure to environmental particulates such as crystalline silica (CSiO2). The chronic inflammatory process triggered by CSiO2 is known to culminate into a fibrotic response called silicosis in the human lungs. Previous studies have indicated the role of membrane glycoproteins called scavenger receptors in binding of environmental particles. The scavenger receptors are classified into different classes (A-H) based on their structure and function. Class A scavenger receptors are critical in uptake of variety of ligands such as bacteria, acetylated lipoproteins and are typically found on macrophages, …

The Role Of Dignity In Canadian And South African Gender Equality Jurisprudence, Andrew Foster

Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

This paper analyzes the use of dignity in the formation of tests for gender equality in the constitutional jurisprudence of Canada and South Africa. Recent gender equality cases in both countries are reviewed and considered in light of various critiques of the notion that dignity is a concept capable of underlying equality and determining instances of discrimination. A comparison between Canadian and South African commentators reveals many of the same concerns about a dignity-centered test for equality, concerns which often transcend national boundaries apply with equal force to gender equality cases in the other jurisdiction. While courts in both countries …

Gone In Sixty Milliseconds: Trademark Law And Cognitive Science, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Trademark dilution is a cause of action for interfering with the uniqueness of a trademark. For example, consumers would probably not think that "Kodak soap" was produced by the makers of Kodak cameras, but its presence in the market would diminish the uniqueness of the original Kodak mark. Trademark owners think dilution is harmful but have had difficulty explaining why. Many courts have therefore been reluctant to enforce dilution laws, even while legislatures have enacted more of them over the past half century. Courts and commentators have now begun to use psychological theories, drawing on associationist models of cognition, to …

The National Environmental Policy Act In The Urban Environment: Oxymoron Or A Useful Tool To Combat The Destruction Of Neighborhoods And Urban Sprawl?, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To some, applying the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to decisions affecting land use in an urban or built environment is an oxymoron. Cities have historically not been seen “as natural entities but as foreign impositions upon the native landscape,” places where the physical environment is already largely destroyed or reduced to insignificant remnants. Moreover, detecting the required federal presence to trigger NEPA may initially seem difficult when decisions affecting urban resources appear to be principally made by local or state agencies.

At the Institute for Public Representation (IPR) at the Georgetown University Law Center, the author has learned that …

Moral Intuitions And Organizational Culture, Milton C. Regan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Many efforts to understand and respond to a succession of corporate scandals over the last few years have underscored the importance of organizational culture in shaping the behavior of individuals. This focus reflects appreciation that even if an organization has adopted elaborate rules and policies designed to ensure legal compliance and ethical behavior, those pronouncements will be ineffective if other norms and incentives promote contrary conduct. Responding to the call for creating and sustaining an ethical culture in organizations requires appreciating the subtle ways in which various characteristics of an organization may work in tandem or at cross-purposes in shaping …

Capitalization Of Environmental Amenities And Wildfire In Private Home Values Of The Wildland Urban Interface Of Northwest Montana, Usa, Kyle Matthew Stetler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last decade, the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Forest Service) has been increasingly tasked with protecting wildland urban interface (WUI) neighborhoods from wildfire. In addition to fire suppression duties, the Forest Service has attempted to mitigate the wildfire risk posed to the WUI through prescribed burning and other types of fuels reduction projects. But rising suppression costs and diminishing social acceptability of fuel management treatments are putting pressure on the Forest Service to economically justify its wildfire and fuel management decisions. Economic models employed by the Forest Service to support decisions about the allocation of wildfire …

Kings And Courtesans: A Study Of The Pictorial Representation Of French Royal Mistresses, Shandy April Lemperle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores the development in the pictorial representation of four important French royal mistresses. It looks at works depicting Agnès Sorel, mistress to Charles VII; Diane de Poitiers, mistress to Henri II; Gabrielle d’Estrées, mistress to Henri IV; and Madame de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV. By placing the portrayals of these women within a historical context, it becomes apparent that there are links between the strength of the crown and the depictions of the mistresses. This thesis traces the development of the imagery associated with these women and demonstrates that as the crown became more and more powerful, …

Transcendental Idealism, Transcendental Realism, And The Possibility Of Objective Reference, Eric Dane Walker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The goal of my thesis is to understand why Kant thinks that transcendental idealism can secure empirical realism, the idea that there really exists an objective world that we can come to know through experience. I maintain that, according to Kant, the possibility of coming to know objective reality depends upon the possibility of referring to objects, which itself, Kant thinks, can be explained by transcendental idealism. The transcendental idealist worldview is supposed by Kant to explain the possibility of referring to objects because it recognizes that objects must conform to cognition and not the other way around. Therefore, I …

Using 3-D Geometric Morphometric Techniques To Further Understand The Relationship Between Neanderthals And Homo Sapiens, Jolen Anya Minetz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The relationship between hominids in the middle and late Pleistocene has been a heated subject of debate since Neanderthals were first recognized. Neanderthals are either a distinctly separate species from Homo sapiens that were replaced by Homo sapiens without any genetic interaction, which supports the taxonomical title for Neanderthals as Homo neanderthalensis, or there was at least a minimal genetic interaction between contemporaneous Neanderthals and early humans, designating Neanderthals as a subspecies with a taxonomic title of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The purpose of this research was to further explore this issue by conducting a quantitative analysis on several aspects of …

Xylaric Acid, D-Arabinaric Acid (D-Lyxaric Acid), L-Arabinaric Acid (L-Lyxaric Acid), And Ribaric Acid-1,4-Lactone; Synthesis And Isolation - Synthesis Of Polyhydroxypolyamides Therefrom, Michael Raymond Hinton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation describes the nitric acid oxidation of the pentoses D-xylose, L-arabinose, D-arabinose, and D-ribose to produce xylaric acid, L-arabinaric acid (L-lyxaric acid), D-arabinaric acid (D-lyxaric acid), and ribaric acid, respectively, or salts therefrom. Isolation of the aldaric acids from nitric acid has proven difficult in prior reports and an improved nitric acid oxidation and isolation method for each aldaric acid is described.

Aldaric acids are the starting monomers for a class of polymers known as polyhydroxypolyamides (PHPAs) or "hydroxylated nylons," produced through condensation polymerization of the esterified aldaric acid and a diamine of choice. In an effort to obtain …

Sex-Specific Investment In Incubation And The Reproductive Biology Of Two Tropical Antbird Species, Brian A. Schwartz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Paternal care has been neglected in behavioral studies because it is rare among most animals. Birds express wide variation in male care across a broad life-history gradient, but such variation among species remains poorly explored. At the same time, contributions of male assistance with incubation have been largely overlooked with the assumption that incubation is a time of low parental energy expenditure. We compared male versus female biparental incubation effort between two tropical antbird species in the northern Andes of Venezuela. We found that males and females apportion reproductive effort differently between these two species, but that male contributions of …

The Traditional Wilderness Conception, Postmodern Cultural Constructionism And The Importance Of Physical Environments, Matthew Adam Gray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recently, a heated debate has emerged between advocates of the traditional wilderness concept and those who believe that this concept is merely a cultural construction. The traditional wilderness conception viewed wilderness as an objective place separate from humans that is defined by being primarily shaped by natural forces, possessing natural origins and being free of human inhabitants and structures. This view culminated in the definition of wilderness featured in the 1964 Wilderness Act. A postmodern critique of the traditional wilderness conception began in the 1980s. In this view, the traditional wilderness conception is thought to be a product of Euro- …

The Vesicular Glutamate Transporter (Vglut): Heterologous Expression, Proteoliposome, Computational And Mass Spectral Studies, Chih-Kai Chao

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs) are integral membrane proteins that uptake glutamate into synaptic vesicles and are involved in glutamatergic neurotransmission. Since VGLUTs were identified and cloned, efforts have been made to characterize their functional roles. However, due to experimental limitations, the structural features of VGLUT protein remain unclear. In an attempt to better understand VGLUTs, computational and biochemical approaches were employed to characterize them. Plasmid DNA encoding rat VGLUT1 was constructed, amplified and expressed in Pichia pastoris to produce VGLUT1 protein. Immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) was employed to purify the protein for structural analysis by mass spectrometry and to …

Novel Roles Of The Endocannabinoid System In Modulating Synaptic Plasticity, Alicia Ninet Angell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Learning and memory formation are invaluable processes in human life; however, the cellular mechanisms that control these phenomena are largely unknown. Synaptic plasticity, which is the ability of the synapse between two neurons to change in strength based on activity, is believed to be a key process in the formation of memories and learning. Endocannabinoids (eCB) have recently emerged as important modulators of synaptic plasticity but their precise roles and mechanisms are not well understood and many contradictions exist in the current literature. We have investigated the roles of eCBs and their primary receptor, the CB1 receptor, in the central …

Oxidative Stress And The Guanosine Nucleotide Triphosphate Pool: Implications For A Biomarker And Mechanism Of Impaired Cell Function, Celeste Maree Bolin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Oxidation of the guanosine (G) moiety, yielding the oxidized lesion 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (oxo82dG), in DNA has become a hallmark biomarker in assessing cellular outcomes induced by oxidative stress. It is well established that the guanosine nucleotide triphosphate pool is also susceptible to oxidative stress and suggested to be more available for oxidation than DNA due to the lack of protective histones and robust repair mechanisms for reducing the levels of all the products of oxidation. The oxidation of guanosine in the nucleotide triphosphate pool, resulting in oxidized guanosine 5'-triphoshate (oxo8GTP), has been overlooked due to the lack of a reliable method. …

Probing Structural Differences Of Recombinant Prion Isoforms Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Jessica Louise Gilbert

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conversion of prion protein (PrP) from its normal, cellular isoform, PrPC, to an infectious, misfolded, fibrillar isoform, PrPSc, is responsible for various neurodegenerative diseases in a variety of mammalian hosts. Although the structure of PrPC is well studied, the structure of PrPSc is not known. Obtaining structural information on the misfolded isoform of prion may lead to preventative therapies and treatments of prion diseases. In this study, six single-tryptophan mutants of recombinant PrP were expressed, purified, and refolded into PrPC or two misfolded isoforms of prion, PrPb and PrPF. Solvent accessibilities of the six tryptophan residues were probed among the …

Fifty Years Of Memory Of College Grades: Accuracy And Distortions, Harry P. Bahrick, Lynda K. Hall, Laura A. Da Costa

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

One to 54 years after graduating, 276 alumni correctly recalled 3,025 of 3,967 college grades. Omission errors increased with the retention interval, and better students made fewer errors. Accuracy of recall increased with confidence in recall. Eighty-one percent of commission errors inflated the actual grade. Distortions occur soon after graduation, remain constant during the retention interval, and are greater for better students and for courses students enjoyed most. Confidence in recall is unrelated to distortion. Courses that were not freely recalled, but had to be cued, were recalled less accurately and with less distortion. The data support a supplementary theory …

Water Marketing As An Adaptive Response To The Threat Of Climate Change, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Whereas there has been substantial research on the potential effect of climate change upon water resources, there has been relatively little consideration of the role of institutional arrangements in mitigating (or exacerbating) the potential effects of warming-induced changes in water supplies. Climate change increases the urgency with which water managers and policymakers must address water supply concerns, moving toward water supply institutions and policies that are sufficiently flexible, adaptive, and robust to deal with the uncertain water future. As the LPCC has concluded, "changes in water management practices will have a very significant impact on how climate change affects the …

Age At Death Estimation From The Sacral Side Of The Sacroiliac Joint, Misty Marie Keahi Rego

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis presents a new method of age estimation in adult human skeletal remains based on age related degenerative changes of the sacral side of the sacro iliac joint. It is inspired by the existing method of aging based on age related degenerative changes of the iliac side of the sacro iliac joint developed by Lovejoy et al. (1985). This new method uses a ten-year-wide incremental scale of age estimation. The development and testing of this method was done using the Documented Collection from the University of New Mexico's Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Results suggest that utilizing sacral deterioration to …

An Experimental Demographic Approach To Exotic Plant Success: Cynoglossum Officinale In Its Native And Introduced Ranges, Jennifer Lynn Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Invasive species often face novel abiotic and biotic environments with different selective regimes where they are introduced. How these changed conditions influence individual life-history traits, and what particular factors spur increases in population abundance in the introduced versus native range, are not well understood. I conducted parallel experiments in both the native and introduced ranges of a widespread plant invader in North America, houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale). I combined these experimental results with demographic monitoring in each range, and population modeling, to explore how introduction has affected houndstongue demography and life-history evolution, and to determine the role of specialist …

Anthropometric Variation In California: A Study Of Native American Populations, Catherine R. Mahoney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Physical anthropologists study the patterns of human morphology to observe the influence of genetics and environment on cranial form. The following study compares cephalic and nasal index means from four Native American populations using modern statistical methods, including one-way ANOVA tests and Games-Howell comparison tests. The individuals used were of only Native American ancestry, over the age of seventeen when the data was collected, and were divided into male and female samples. The climatic conditions of each of the regions are compared to examine the relationship between the mean cranial and nasal indices and the environments in which the populations …

Causes And Consequences Of Displacement Decision-Making In Banhine National Park, Mozambique, Chad Edward Dear

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Decision-making is looming regarding the displacement of people resident in and reliant on resources in strict protected areas around the world. This research investigated the causes and consequences of displacement decision-making in Banhine National Park (BNP), Mozambique. I investigated causes using political-economic, actor-centered, and post-structural perspectives on power. I investigated consequences using the Impoverishment Risk and Reconstruction (IRR) framework. Methods included interviews, focus groups, and observations involving BNP-area residents; park staff; district, provincial, and national-level government employees from various sectors; NGO and World Bank staff; and private consultants. I also analyzed numerous government and donor policies, plans, reports, and legal …

Causes And Consequences Of The Postfire Increase In Deer Mouse (Peromyscus Maniculatus) Abundance, Rafal Pawel Zwolak

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wildfire triggers an increase in deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) abundance. Here, I describe this phenomenon, investigate its causes, and explore the consequences of the postfire increase in mice for conifer recruitment in burned forest. I documented a shift in small mammal communities away from more specialized species such as red-backed voles (Myodes gapperi) and shrews (Sorex spp.) and towards greater abundance of generalist deer mice after a wildfire in montane forest. I conducted a meta-analysis of published studies on the abundance of small mammals in disturbed versus undisturbed forests and established that the pattern of increased deer mouse abundance holds …

Changes In Osteoarthritis Of The Elbow And Shoulder Joints In Women When Trasitioning From Hunting And Gathering To An Agricultural Subsistence, Kirsten Anne Green

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Changes in bone morphology have always been a concern of physical anthropologists who are trying to explain a culture's everyday activity. These types of changes, including arthritic and musculoskeletal, are based on subjective observation of the researcher and therefore subject to observer error. I used three samples; the Indian Knoll sample, the Nutwood and Rosedale Mound sample, and a control sample from the Terry collection I was able to employ a scoring method based on Hawkey (1988). This current research uses the scoring method for arthritic changes in women to test for changes in patterns of distribution and/or severity when …

Chronic Low-Level Pb Exposure During Development Alters Proteins Involved In Energy Metabolism In Auditory Neurons Of The Brainstem, John Prins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Low level lead (Pb) exposure is a risk factor for neurological dysfunction including ADHD. How Pb produces these behavioral deficits is unknown, but low-level exposure during development is associated with auditory temporal processing deficits, even though hearing remains normal. Pb disrupts cellular energy metabolism and efficient energy production is crucial for auditory neurons to maintain their high rates of synaptic activity. The voltage dependent ion channel (VDAC) is an ion channel involved in the regulation of mitochondrial physiology and is a critical component in controlling mitochondrial energy production. No studies to date have investigated the effect of Pb on VDAC, …