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Inference For General Parametric Functions In Box-Cox-Type Transformation Models, Zhenlin Yang, Eden Ka-Ho Wu, Anthony F. Desmond

Research Collection School Of Economics

The authors propose a simple but general method of inference for a parametric function of the Box-Cox-type transformation model. Their approach is built upon the classical normal theory but takes parameter estimation into account. It quickly leads to test statistics and confidence intervals for a linear combination of scaled or unscaled regression coefficients, as well as for the survivor function and marginal effects on the median or other quantile functions of an original response. The authors show through simulations that the finite-sample performance of their method is often superior to the delta method, and that their approach is robust to …

Western Corn Rootworm, Erin Hodgson

All Current Publications

Western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, is one of the most devastating corn insect pests in the United States. In some years, corn rootworms can cause up to $1 billion in yield loss and control costs. In Utah, western corn rootworm has been detected in at least 13 counties (Fig. 1), but likely can be found throughout the state wherever corn is grown.

What Is Education For?: A Review Essay, Delmar Vander Zee

Pro Rege

Reviewed Titles: Orr, David W. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect (Island Press, 1994; 2004); Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World (SUNY, 1992); and The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Photoactive Supramolecular Cyclodextrin Assemblies, Muath Atmeh

Doctoral

Ligands with a macrocyclic host unit attached to a photoactive metal core are of interest across a range of applications from luminescent or electrochemical sensors, light harvesting and energy-collection purposes. Their versatile properties and possibility of associating cyclodextrins with other molecules both covalently and non-covalently mean that these macrocyclic ligands can be employed in the design and the formation of supramolecular complexes. A particularly attractive proposition is to combine the selective inclusion capabilities of CD with luminophores which may act as reporters of binding or other interactions at the cyclodextrin cavity. Ruthenium, osmium, and iridium polypyridyl complexes are particularly attractive …

Bronchial Circulation Angiogenesis In The Rat Quantified With Spect And Micro-Ct, Christian Wieholt, David L. Roerig, John B. Gordon, Steven Thomas Haworth, Robert C. Molthen, Anne V. Clough

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction

As pulmonary artery obstruction results in proliferation of the bronchial circulation in a variety of species, we investigated this angiogenic response using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and micro-CT.

Materials and methods

After surgical ligation of the left pulmonary artery of rats, they were imaged at 10, 20, or 40 days post-ligation. Before imaging, technetium-labeled macroaggregated albumin (^99mTc MAA) was injected into the aortic arch (IA) labeling the systemic circulation. SPECT/micro-CT imaging was performed, the image volumes were registered, and activity in the left lung via the bronchial circulation was used as a marker of bronchial …

Biomechanical And Radiographic Evaluation Of An Ovine Model For The Human Lumbar Spine, Nina E. Easley, M. Wang, Linda M. Mcgrady, Jeffrey M. Toth

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

While various species of animal models have been used in preclinical investigations of spinal implant devices to assess their biological adaptation and biomechanical performance, few studies have made comprehensive comparisons to validate their suitability of modelling the human spine. The purpose of this study was to assess essential biomechanical behaviours and disc morphology of the ovine lumbar model. Flexibility testing was conducted on the spines (L3—L4 and L4—L5) of nine skeletally matured sheep. Segmental rotation and intradiscal pressure were measured and load sharing between the intervertebral disc and posterior elements were calculated on the basis of a simplified parallel spring …

Absolute Seduction: The Faustian Motif In Balzac And Valéry, Scott Shinabargar

The Coastal Review

This article analyzes ways in which the "quest for the absolute" is treated in two works: Balzac's novel, of the same name (La Recherche de l'absolu), and Valéry's Monsieur Teste. Both texts involve a paradoxical narrative device, by which the genius of the protagonist is communicated to the reader, not by the representation of his thoughts, but by a veiling of them--an impenetrable interiority that suggests communion with the absolute. This device is successful, to the degree that it plays upon our own desires for transcendent knowledge. Under closer scrutiny, however, we find that such texts must eventually …

Optical Tweezers Calibration And Bacterial Adhesion, Nakia Wheeler, John Sharpe

Honors Undergraduate Research Journal

In this project, we will be measuring the forces of the binding of bacteria. We will be working with Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, Lactobacillus gallinarum 33199, Lactobacillus ruteri 23272, and Bifidobacterium. These bacteria are lactic acid bacteria and are used as probiotics. We also reviewed literature on the bacterial cell wall constituents and the properties of adhesion applicable to these organisms.

Optical Low Coherence Reflectometry Applications To Meat Tenderness Testing, Matthew Schlutz, Dennis Derickson

Honors Undergraduate Research Journal

The goal of this research project is to develop an optical low coherence reflectometry (OLCR) system for use in testing meat tenderness. This system will use a precision reflectometer that sends out infrared light to a sample and collects the reflections from the outer layers of the meat to plot a structural representation of the sample in a reflectivity-over-distance measurement. Tenderness is correlated to the relative densities of proteins and connective tissues in the meat, which this technique may be able to image. In the winter of 2007, a system was constructed for testing purposes. In the spring of 2007, …

Robotic Fingerspelling Hand For The Aid Of The Deaf And Blind, Alan Tepe, Saeed Niku

Honors Undergraduate Research Journal

This quarter, work continued on the design and construction of a robotic fingerspelling hand. The hand is being designed to aid in communication for individuals who are both deaf and blind. In the winter quarter, research was centered on determining an effective method of actuation for the robotic hand. This spring 2008 quarter, time was spent designing the mechanisms needed to mimic the size and motions of a human hand. Several methods were used to determine a proper size for the robotic hand, including using the ManneQuinPro human modeling system to approximate the size of an average male human hand …

Contributing Students

Honors Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

O Positivismo No Ensino De Ciências Naturais Na Escola Secundária Brasileira: 1890-1900 [Positivism And The Teaching Of The Natural Sciences In The Brazilian Secondary School: 1890-1900], Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Known Facts About The Epidemiology Of Porcine Proliferative Enteropathy, Roberto M. C. Guedes

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

The amount of new information of the last seven years regarding Lawsonia intracellularis sensitivity to antimicrobial drugs, prevention/control based on treatment and vaccination, diagnosis and, finally, genome is amazing. Nevertheless, not much is known about the epidemiology of the disease, mainly regarding the source of infection, resistance of the bacteria in the environment and possible biological vectors that could spread the infection among farms. It was learned that as few as 1,000 to 10,000 bacteria are enough to induce infection and fecal shedding two to three weeks after inoculating susceptible pigs. It was also learned that L. intracellularis organisms can …

Disaster Preparedness And Professional And Personal Challenges Of County Extension Faculty During The 2004 Florida Hurricane Season, Ricky Telg, Tracy Irani, Nick Place, Abbe R. Degroat

Journal of Extension

The purpose of the study reported here was to determine how well University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension faculty were prepared to deal with professional demands, job expectations and clientele needs, while coping with personal hardships as a result of the 2004 hurricane season. Results indicate that respondents were not well prepared to deal with professional challenges and the emotional symptoms of clientele during the hurricane season. Respondents reported needing training in disaster preparedness, in applying subject matter expertise in disaster situations, and in assisting coworkers to cope with stress.

Examining 4-H Robotics And Geospatial Technologies In The Learning Of Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics Topics, Bradley S. Barker, Gwen Nugent, Neal Grandgenett

Journal of Extension

The study reported here investigated the use of educational robotics, paired with GPS and GIS geospatial technologies, as a context for learning selected concepts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics within a 4-H camp setting. The study involved 38 students between the ages of 11 to 15. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used in the study, with a 29-question multiple-choice instrument targeting various academic topics. The results of the study suggest that the 4-H robotics and geospatial summer camp program is a promising approach for supporting STEM-related learning, as represented by a significant increase of means from pretest to posttest.

About My Families And Me, Nancy Recker, Lois Clark, Ruth Anne Foote

Journal of Extension

About My Families and Me is a program for children living in a stepfamily. This innovative curriculum addresses stepfamily issues and helps children share, understand, and work through feelings. By participating in journaling, gaming, and discussion, children feel more positive about living in a stepfamily.

Extension Efforts Enhance Lowcountry South Carolina Conservation Forestry, Thomas J. Straka, Robert M. Franklin

Journal of Extension

Conservation forestry involves the use of low-cost forest management practices to enhance biodiversity. It must be accomplished at the landscape level (over large areas of land). We report on a program to encourage conservation forestry on South Carolina's coastal plain. Extension foresters developed three major conservation forestry strategies to encourage conversion to longleaf pine, prescribed fire, and better bottomland hardwood management. Forest owners expect financial returns, so each strategy was analyzed for financial results; all three showed favorable returns. Extension foresters set up demonstration areas and used workshops to educate natural resource professionals and forest owners on these practices.

The Role Of Short Term Synamptic Plasticity In Temporal Coding Of Neuronal Networks, Lakshmi Chandrasekaran

Dissertations

Short term synaptic plasticity is a phenomenon which is commonly found in the central nervous system. It could contribute to functions of signal processing namely, temporal integration and coincidence detection by modulating the input synaptic strength. This dissertation has two parts. First we study the effects of short term synaptic plasticity in enhancing coincidence detecting ability of neurons in the avian auditory brainstem. Coincidence detection means a target neuron has a higher firing rate when it receives simultaneous inputs from different neurons as opposed to inputs with large phase delays. This property is used by birds in sound localization. When …

Roles Of Gap Junctions In Neuronal Networks, Joon Ha

Dissertations

This dissertation studies the roles of gap junctions in the dynamics of neuronal networks in three distinct problems. First, we study the circumstances under which a network of excitable cells coupled by gap junctions exhibits sustained activity. We investigate how network connectivity and refractory length affect the sustainment of activity in an abstract network. Second, we build a mathematical model for gap junctionally coupled cables to understand the voltage response along the cables as a function of cable diameter. For the coupled cables, as cable diameter increases, the electrotonic distance decreases, which cause the voltage to attenuate less, but the …

Appropriation Of Privacy Management Within Social Networking Sites, Catherine Dwyer

Dissertations

Social networking sites have emerged as one of the most widely used types of interactive systems, with memberships numbering in the hundreds of millions around the globe. By providing tools for their members to manage an ever-changing set of relationships, social networking sites push a constant expansion of social boundaries. These sites place less emphasis on tools that limit social boundaries to enable privacy.

The rapid expansion of online social boundaries has caused privacy shockwaves. Privacy offline is enabled by constraints of time and space. Online, powerful search engines and long term digital storage means private data have no expiration …

Signal Transmission In Epithelial Layers, Filippo Posta

Dissertations

Cell signaling is at the basis of many biological processes such as development, tissue repair, and homeostasis. It can be carried out by different mechanisms. Here we are focusing on ligand mediated cell-to-cell signaling in which a molecule (ligand) is free to move into the extra-cellular medium. On the cell layer surface, it can bind to its molecule-specific receptors located on the cell plasma membrane. This mechanism is the subject of many experimental and theoretical studies on many model biological systems, such as the follicular epithelium of the Drosophila egg, which motivates this work.

Here, we present a general mathematical …

Removal And Recovery Of Fermentation-Produced Volatile Organic Compounds By A Novel Liquid Membrane-Based Pervaporation Technique, Atsawin Thongsukmak

Dissertations

Pervaporation is an energy -- efficient alternative to distillation for removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from water especially solvents from their dilute solutions in a fermentation broth. Liquid membranes have high selectivities for removing solvents from aqueous solutions compared with polymeric membranes or ceramic membranes; however liquid membranes have stability problems due to various losses. The loss of liquid membrane (LM) to the feed solution leads to toxicity for the organisms in a fermentation broth. A new liquid membrane based pervaporation technique has been developed to achieve high selectivity, ensure stability and prevent contamination of the fermentation broth. Trioctylamine (TOA) …

Nucleus 2008: Diversity, Creativity, Integrity, Community, Vitaility, Ability, Opportunity, Individuality, Activity, Identity, University, New Jersey Institute Of Technology

Yearbooks

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the New Jersey Institute of Technology Nucleus.

Commencement Of The Class Of 2008, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Ceremony

No abstract provided.

Altered Brain Activity In Autistic Children Versus Healthy Controls While Performing Simple Tasks Using Fmri, Donald Martin Adams Jr.

Theses

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies dealing with Autistic children have primarily been concerned with cognitive facial recognition. Recent studies have demonstrated that Autistic children, when compared to healthy matched controls, exhibit higher neuronal activity when identifying patterns or objects, but lower levels of activity in regards to facial recognition.

The objective of this study was to examine both facial and object recognition and compare them to simple sensorimotor tasks. All subjects were administered 5 stimuli each lasting 320 seconds. Subjects were instructed to use a button press box to identify between a Person/Object and an Arrow/Object. They were then …

Thermal And Morphological Analysis Of Collagen-Plla Electrospun Blends, Angana Banerjee

Theses

Electrospinning of bovine Type I collagen and Poly (L-lactic acid) produces blended nanofiber scaffolds that may have application in tissue engineering, wound dressing and drug delivery.

The goal of this research work was to produce and characterize blended nanofibers of a protein, collagen, and a synthetic polymer, poly (L-lactic acid). This study focuses on the in-depth analysis of the appearance of the structural relaxation occurring at the glass transition temperature of PLLA in the collagen-PLLA blended electrospun mats. It is speculated that occurrence of this thermal event is more prominent in PLLA with high molecular weight due to the presence …

The Synergistic Effect Of Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields And Demineralized Bone Matrix On The Osteogenic Differentiation Of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, John Manocchio

Theses

Orthopaedic bone grafting continues to be a mainstay in the treatment of non unions and other difficult to heal bone defects. Tissue engineering strategies have focused on providing bone graft materials that are osteoconductive, osteoinductive and osteogenic in order to achieve optimal bone healing. Furthermore, electrical stimulation technologies such as pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) have been used to enhance the effectiveness of bone graft materials. PEMP has been shown to have a synergistic effect with BMP-2 and it was hypothesized that PEMF would have the same effect with demineralized bone matrix (DBM). In the present study human mesenchymal stem cells …

A Comparative Study Of Common Crosslinking Agents For Electrospun Collagen Scaffolds, Pallavi Masih

Theses

Cartilage injury is one of the leading causes of knee pain in the world. Over two million Americans suffer from cartilage injury every year, resulting in swelling, pain or joint impairment, causing it difficult to maintain an active life style. Synthetic grafts are used extensively to restore tissue functions. The major drawback limiting successful incorporation of synthetic grafts in body is their lower ability to integrate to natural tissue, poor biocompatibility which often results in triggering immunogenic responses, causing graft rejection. Collagen is thus studied and used excessively as a successful implantable material. The reason being that it is natural …

Process-Structure-Property Relationships Of Resorbable Desamino Tyrosine Derived Polymers : Effect Of Backbone Chemistry And Assembly On Drug Delivery, Pinar Nebol

Theses

The selection the correct biomaterial for a specific medical application plays an important role for the success of both application and the device. Since different applications require different properties, investigation and improvement of biomaterials with different properties are very important. L-tyrosine derived polymers enable the manipulation of the properties of the material by changing backbone or pendent chain structure. L-tyrosine derived polyarylate is one of the class of these materials.

This study investigates the behavior of the tyrosine derived polyarylates under in vitro conditions. The change of structure caused by incubation in phosphate buffer solution and the effect on the …

Mutational Studies In The Dntp Binding Pocket Of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Reverse Transcriptase, Smita Shukla

Theses

It was earlier postulated that Gln 91 of HIV-1 RT stabilizes the side chain of Tyr 183 via hydrogen bonding interaction between 0(H) of Y1 83 and CO of Q91 (Harris et al., BIOCHEMISTRY 37: 9630, 1998). In an attempt to understand the function of Gln 91 in the catalytic mechanism, mutants of this residue (Gln91 - -> Ala and Gln91 - ->Asn) were generated and subjected to an in-depth analysis. The efficiency of reverse transcription of natural U5-PBS HIV-1 RNA template was severely impaired by both conservative and non-conservative substitutions from Gln—>Asn and Gln—> Ala, a result …