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Optimal Resource Management In The Presence Of A Deleterious Alien Species: A Stochastic Model For An Orchard, Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Peter Nijkamp

Articles

Various plants and resources such as orchards are vulnerable to the detrimental effects of successful invasions by alien animal or plant species. To outline an appropriate policy response, we first use renewal theory to construct a stochastic model of optimal orchard management in the presence of a deleterious alien species. Next, we derive the orchard manager’s long run expected cost (LREC) of orchard management per unit time. Finally, we show that when confronted with a successful biological invasion, the optimal number of trees that need to be removed and replanted in order to keep the orchard under study sustainable in …

Review Of Sacramental Commons: Christian Ecological Ethics By John Hart, Jame Schaefer

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparing Dynamic Risk-Based Scheduling Methods With Mrp Via Simulation., Li Sun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is one of the earliest production scheduling approaches that utilizes computers. MRP is still regarded as one of the most widely used systems for production scheduling. Even though MRP has made contributions, there are some fundamental problems (i.e. the assumption of infinite capacity and fixed lead times) which make the MRP system vulnerable to effects of uncertainty. To overcome this fundamental flaw, there was a trend towards the development of detailed finite-capacity scheduling systems (i.e. MRP II, ERP, and APO). All these MRP-based systems still ignore variability and randomness and are inherently push systems. Instead of …

Neuropsychiatric Features Of Parkinsonian Tauopathies And Alpha-Synucleinopathies., Megan Rayne Thompson 1985-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to determine if neuropsychiatric features can differentiate parkinsonian patients with: tauopathies from those with alpha-synucleinopathies and explore caregiver distress. Three hundred and four patients (62 with tauopathies and 242 with alpha-synucleinopathies) diagnosed according to published diagnostic criteria were evaluated using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). To control for between-group differences a subsample of 235 patients were analyzed. Patients with tauopathies had significantly higher NPI total scores, more apathy, less hallucinations, lower MMSE scores and higher UPDRS scores than those with alpha-synucleinopathies. Hallucinations and delusions …

The Expression And Localization Of Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding Proteins In The Retina., Xiangping Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current status of our knowledge of synaptic plasticity comes largely from studies of the hippocampus and the context of learning and memory. We remain largely ignorant of plasticity in other neural systems and contexts. The molecular basis of plasticity has recently been given new impetus due to the discovery of a local control mechanism which can regulate protein synthesis at stimulated synapses. This involves the use of cytoplasmic polyadenylation binding proteins (CPEBs) to regulate translation. The studies presented here attempt to show that these molecular components are present in the retina, a part of the central nervous system that …

A Comparison Of Faculty And Administrator Perceptions Of The Merger Of Kentucky's Community Colleges And Vocational/Technical Institutes., Jason Douglas Warren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most nationally-recognized, two-year legislative reform initiatives in the U.S. began in Kentucky with the passage of the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 (HB1). This exploratory, cross-sectional, correlational study was administered at the 10-year anniversary of the HB1-legislated formation of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), which originally combined 13 community colleges formerly governed by the University of Kentucky and 25 vocational/technical institutes previously governed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Workforce Development. This dissertation examined faculty and administrator perceptions of the merger of Kentucky's community colleges and vocational/technical institutes that resulted from HB1. Two …

Energy Efficient Geographic Routing For Wireless Sensor Networks., Gang Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A wireless sensor network consists of a large number of low-power nodes equipped with wireless radio. For two nodes not in mutual transmission range, message exchanges need to be relayed through a series of intermediate nodes, which is a process known as multi-hop routing. The design of efficient routing protocols for dynamic network topologies is a crucial for scalable sensor networks. Geographic routing is a recently developed technique that uses locally available position information of nodes to make packet forwarding decisions. This dissertation develops a framework for energy efficient geographic routing. This framework includes a path pruning strategy by exploiting …

Focused Image Search In The Social Web., Zhiyong Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, social multimedia-sharing websites, which allow users to upload, annotate, and share online photo or video collections, have become increasingly popular. The user tags or annotations constitute the new multimedia "meta-data". We present an image search system that exploits both image textual and visual information. First, we use focused crawling and DOM Tree based web data extraction methods to extract image textual features from social networking image collections. Second, we propose the concept of visual words to handle the image's visual content for fast indexing and searching. We also develop several user friendly search options to allow users to query …

The Consciousness Of Damnation : A Hermeneutical Phenomenology Of The Fall Of The Self In Matthew Lewis's "The Monk"., Becky Lee Meadows

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When Ambrosio in Matthew Lewis's 1796 gothic masterpiece, The Monk , signs a contract relegating his soul to Satan and eternal damnation, he has reached the culmination of 442 pages of mental anguish, of his self wrestling with his conscience to overcome what philosopher Paul Ricoeur terms the "servile will" (The Symbolism of Evil 151). In the novel, Ambrosio, a monk the reader discovers has become the pawn of Satan, hurls himself down a path to damnation in consciousness, a phenomenological path that leads to the damnation of his own self. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore this …

Redox-Regulated Ethylene Binding To A Rhenium-Thiolate Complex., Kagna Ouch 1983-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reports the reactivity of the rhenium-thiolate complex, tris(2-diphenylphosphinobenzenethiolato)rhenium(III), [Re(DPPBT) 3 ] ( 1 ) and its oxidized derivatives with ethylene. The reactivity has been studied by electrochemical, spectroelectrochemical, and chemical methods. Based on the cyclic voltammetric data, ( 1 ) shows two reversible one electron oxidations and a single reduction. The three redox events are observed at potentials of 420, -340 and -1620 mV versus a ferrocene reference. The events span formal oxidation states from Re(II) to Re(V) although significant ligand participation in the redox events makes these formal assignments misleading with respect to the electronic structure of …

Experiences Influencing Degree Completion Articulated By Doctoral Students In Education Administration., David Lee Barnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational literature indicates that approximately half of all doctoral students persist to degree completion. The literature indicates persistence rates among the social sciences are even lower. This study examined factors influencing doctoral student persistence in education administration programs. Tinto's theory of graduate student persistence framed four research questions: Do the demographics of doctoral students persisting to degree completion in education administration differ from those not completing their programs? Do doctoral students in education administration programs articulate experiences of academic integration as influencing their persistence? Do doctoral students in education administration programs articulate experiences of social integration as influencing their persistence? …

Altered Developmental Programming Of The Mouse Mammary Gland In Female Offspring Following Perinatal Dietary Exposures : A Systems-Biology Perspective., Caleb Deen Bastian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mishaps in prenatal development can influence mammary gland development and, ultimately, affect susceptibility to factors that cause breast cancer. This research was based on the underlying hypothesis that maternal dietary composition during pregnancy can alter developmental (fetal) programming of the mammary gland. We used a computational systems-biology approach and Bayesian-based stochastic search variable selection algorithm (SSVS) to identify differentially expressed genes and biological themes and pathways. Postnatal growth trajectories and gene expression in the mammary gland at 10-weeks of age in female mice were investigated following different maternal diet exposures during prenatal-lactational-early-juvenile development. This correlated a decrease in expression of …

Playing House., Tracey Bennett 1979-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of mothers, the constitution of families, and the power of their stories are the bedrock of my thesis, which is the first 90 pages of a novel entitled Playing House . In it, I hope to investigate the denotation and connotation of the words mother and family , in order to investigate the tension between the two. I hope to complicate society's assumption that a womb makes a woman a mother, and the lack of one prohibits it. Many times, we are mothered by someone other than our biological mother--sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Sometimes to …

Op Art : Perceptions Of Reality., Christine Michelle Humphrey 1982-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis and exhibition examine the connection between neurobiology and Op Art. Neurobiological explanations of Op Art's effects are explored as a means to offer insight into the processes of the human mind and eye, and to provide explanations for the optical phenomena that were of interest to the Op artists. The initial chapter provides an overview of Op Art that is intended to offer the viewer a context for understanding the works. It also includes an explanation of the works included in the exhibition. The exhibition showcases examples of Op Art from the University of Louisville's collections as well …

Quantifying The Costs And Benefits Of Product Variety On Key Performance Measures-A Simulation Study., Trivikram H. Rao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's market customers are increasingly demanding a greater number of options in the products they purchase. Offering products in greater variety helps industries cater to a wider range of customers. However, at the same time, this product proliferation is creating new problems for manufacturers. The effect of an increase in the variants of a product on the supply chain and production operations is largely unknown. Understanding this affect along with the benefits of increased product variety on the company's market share would greatly assist industries in making a return on investment analysis. In this thesis, we develop a simulation …

African American Grandmothers Providing Extensive Care To Their Grandchildren: Socio-Demographic And Health Determinants Of Life Satisfaction, Dorothy Smith-Ruiz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The article explores the relationships between grandmothers' socioeconomic and health characteristics in relation to life satisfaction. Reasons for caregiving, assumption of the caregiver role, and grandmothers'attitudes and experiences in custodial caregiving were discussed qualitatively from data gathered in detailed interviews of a convenience sample of 99 custodial African American grandmothers caringf or one or more grandchildreny ounger than 18 in North Carolina. Most grandmothers in this sample reported mixed feelings toward custodial caregiving, both as a burden as well as a blessing. They also reported a weak support system and relied on their faith more than family and friends to …

Policy Mandated Collaboration, Jan Ivery

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This exploratory study examined the collaborative strategy used by Tri Cities Partnership (TCP) to facilitate the collaborative process required by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to receive Continuum of Care funding. The study examined partner perceptions of TCP's leadership, organizational structure, benefits and drawbacks of participation, and relationships with partners. A follow-up survey and key informant interviews explored themes related to organizational affiliation with TCP, benefits and drawbacks of participation, relationships with partners, challenges impacting the ability of TCP to facilitate collaboration and strategies for involving key stakeholders. The study also identified factors that motivate …

Rethinking Social Work's Role In Public Assistance, Julie Cooper Altman, Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article presents an argument for revisiting social work's relationship to public assistance in the wake of 10 years of welfare reform. Three case studies drawn from a mixed-method study of the quality of life of former TANF recipients illustrate the range, depth and complexity of the needs of persons while they are on the welfare rolls, transitioning off and living without cash relief. The article briefly traces the history of social work's commitment to and provision of social services for this population and argues that it may be time to revisit the profession's role in public assistance. In light …

Review Of Citizen Lobbyists: Local Efforts To Influence Public Policy. Brian Adams. Reviewed By Michael Woodford., Michael Woodford

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Brian Adams, Citizen Lobbyists: Local Efforts to Influence Public Policy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2007. $71.50 hardcover, $25.95 papercover.

A Boiling Pot Of Animosity Or An Alliance Of Kindred Spirits? Exploring Connections Between Native Americans And African Americans, Hilary N. Weaver

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The relationship between indigenous people and people of African heritage in the United States is a long and complex one. An examination of historical and contemporary connections between indigenous persons and African Americans not only clarifies complex and frequently overlooked parts of American history but sets the stage for examining future possibilities. It is useful for helping professionals to understand these relationships since this history may serve as the basis for positive connections or animosities between clients and professionals. This article begins with a discussion of selected historical intersections between these populations that highlight the complex and varied nature of …

Review Of Wives Without Husbands: Marriage, Desertion And Welfare In New York, 1900-1935. Anna R. Igra. Reviewed By Laura Curran., Laura Curran

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Anna R. Igra, Wives without Husbands: Marriage, Desertion, and Welfare in New York, 1900-1935. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. $19.95 papercover.

The Politics, Economics, And Culture Of Mexican-Us Migration: Both Sides Of The Border. Edward Ashbee, Helene Balsev Clausen, And Carl Pedersen, Editors., James Midgley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Edward Ashbee, Helene Balsev Clausen and Carl Pedersen (Eds.), The Politics, Economics, and Culture of Mexican-US Migration: Both Sides of the Border. New York: Palgrave, 2007. $79.95.

Modeling The Relationship Between Air Quality And Intelligent Transportation System (Its) With Artificial Neural Networks., Dinesh Kumar Gupta 1965-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental or air quality impacts of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are very difficult to measure. Some researchers have attempted to quantify the effects of individual ITS application on emissions; yet, the effects of ITS as a whole on ambient air quality have not been investigated. The objective of this research was to model the relationship between ITS and ambient air quality. The multiple Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) training with the data yielded a model for predicting the air quality. In addition, the ANN made the measurement of the effect of ITS on air quality possible. Data pertaining to sixty US …

The Role Of Hsp90 In Pc-12 Cell Survival., Christina Blume Clark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The chaperone heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) regulates physiologically and pathological cellular processes, by binding and stabilizing kinases involved in basal cellular functions and in cellular responses to stress, respectively. I hypothesize that Hsp90 binding to kinases Akt and Raf-l and to co-chaperone Cdc37 and Akt-dependent phosphorylation of Hsp90 regulate PC-12 cell survival. Hsp90 binding was inhibited using the classical Hsp90 inhibitor, Geldanamycin (GA). Disruption of Hsp90 binding by GA correlated with similar cell death at normoxia (RA) and at 0.1 % O2 sustained hypoxia (SH), suggesting that Hsp90 binding plays a role in cell survival. Indeed, GA cytotoxicity is …

Ut Arlington Library Notes, V.14, No.1, Fall 2008, University Of Texas At Arlington Library

UT Arlington Library Notes

Former publication of the UT Library intended to foster community support and appreciation for Library Programs and services and to spotlight grants and contributions. It was published during the 1990s and 2000s.

Analyzing Leaders’ Perceptions To Enhance The Use Of An Employee Engagement Survey, Shelley A. Berg

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this evaluation study was to explore how a non-profit health insurance provider responds to the results of its annual employee engagement survey. According to most definitions, an engaged employee is a high-quality performer who takes personal responsibility to work toward the success of the organization. This study was designed to answer three questions: (1) What do leaders at HealthXYZ do with the data collected from the annual employee engagement survey? (2) How do leaders perceive the usefulness of the annual employee engagement survey? (3) What actions, if any, do leaders take as a result of the data …

The Day We All Became Hokies: An Exploratory Uses And Gratifications Study Of Facebook Use After The Virginia Tech Shootings, Sabrena Michelle Carter

Masters Theses

Facebook has been incorporated into the regular activities of over 100 million users. After the Virginia Tech Shootings, individuals began interacting with Facebook in a unique way. This exploratory project analyzed uses and gratifications of Facebook use in the time following the Virginia Tech shootings. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with seven college students whose Facebook profiles acknowledged the event in at least one area.

The study found preliminary evidence of Blumler's categories of Surveillance, Diversion, Personal Identity, and Personal Relationships. The category of Curiosity was not substantiated in the findings. New categories were suggested based on the results. These …

Marketing Local Foods To Gourmet Restaurants: A Multi-Method Assessment, Kynda R. Curtis, Margaret W. Cowee, Michael Havercamp, Robert Morris

Journal of Extension

The study reported here examines the gourmet restaurant market for local agricultural products in Nevada. A multi-method assessment was implemented to collect data for the study. Study results indicate that both local producers and gourmet chefs lack appropriate information concerning production possibilities and gourmet chefs' needs and preferences. Chefs indicated preferences for high-quality products and viewed quality and freshness as positive aspects of purchasing locally. Chefs desired small quantities of unique and specialty products. The impacts of the study have been positive, in that gourmet restaurant purchases of local products expanded in both the Reno and Las Vegas markets.

Historic Maps Meet Google Maps : The University Of Louisville's Kentucky Maps Collection., Terri L. Holtze, Rachel I. Howard

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Online access to historic maps, enhanced by JPEG2000 format and, in some cases, Google Maps, has proved popular with scholars, students, community members, and librarians. This article will discuss the planning, scanning, metadata creation, and Google mapping of the University of Louisville's Kentucky Maps Collection (http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/maps/).

Music And Literacy: Current Trends And Common Approaches Of Music Therapists In Early Childhood And School Settings, Julie A. Palmieri

Masters Theses

Reading and writing is the key to all learning, and providing children with effective literacy practices is one of the primary goals of educational systems. The purpose of this study was to identify the current trends and common approaches of professional music therapists who incorporate literacy learning into their practice. A total of 192 participants responded and completed the survey entitled Music and Literacy: Current trends and common approaches of music therapists. The study investigated if music therapists address the specific areas of literacy (vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, and phonics) that had been identified through a review of literature. …