Digital Commons Network^™

An Ecological Framework For Evaluating Map Errors Using Fuzzy Sets, John H. Lowry Jr., R. Douglas Ramsey, Lisa Langs Stoner, Jessica Kirby, Keith Schulz

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The use of fuzzy sets to assess uncertainty in land-use/cover maps provides a robust conceptual framework for examining unique characteristics of map error. By recognizing the possibility of gradations of error, fuzzy sets can be used to assess errors due to class similarity, or the sensitivity of the map legend to class boundaries. Building on the theoretical work of Gopal and Woodcock (1994), we present a practical methodology for assessing map errors using fuzzy sets. A key component of our methodology focuses on improving the decision-making process map experts assume when conducting a fuzzy set assessment of map errors. Using …

Sequence Alignment With Traceback On Reconfigurable Hardware, Scott Lloyd, Quinn O. Snell

Faculty Publications

Biological sequence alignment is an essential tool used in molecular biology and biomedical applications. The growing volume of genetic data and the complexity of sequence alignment present a challenge in obtaining alignment results in a timely manner. Known methods to accelerate alignment on reconfigurable hardware only address sequence comparison, limit the sequence length, or exhibit memory and I/O bottlenecks. A space-efficient, global sequence alignment algorithm and architecture is presented that accelerates the forward scan and traceback in hardware without memory and I/O limitations. With 256 processing elements in FPGA technology, a performance gain over 300 times that of a desktop …

Constitutional Secrecy: Aligning National Security Letter Nondisclosure Provisions With First Amendment Rights, Brian D. Eyink

Duke Law Journal

First created in the 1980s, national security letters and their nondisclosure provisions evaded judicial review until 2004. These secretive investigative tools allow federal agencies such as the FBI to compel disclosure of information about hundreds of thousands of people while also allowing the same agencies to unilaterally issue gag orders that can silence the people who receive these letters. This Note examines the nondisclosure provisions in the national security letter statutes. It argues that the nondisclosure provisions are unconstitutional prior restraints on speech and content-based speech restrictions. This Note then proposes a three-part solution that constitutionally balances the government's need …

Deregulating Guilt: The Information Culture Of The Criminal System, Alexandra Natapoff

Cardozo Law Review

The criminal system has an uneasy relationship with information. On the one hand, the criminal process is centrally defined by stringent evidentiary and information rules and a commitment to public transparency. On the other, largely due to the dominance of plea bargaining, criminal liability is determined by all sorts of unregulated, non-public information that never pass through the quality control of evidentiary, discovery, or other criminal procedure restrictions. The result is a process that generates determinations of liability that are often unmoored from systemic information constraints. This phenomenon is exemplified, and intensified, by the widespread use of criminal informants, or …

Toward Ethical Plea Bargaining, Erica Hashimoto

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Structure-Activity Relationship And Mechanistic Studies On The Chemopreventive Activity Of Dipyridamole And Its Analogues, Ja’Wanda Shavon Grant

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

There is an escalating demand in the area of cancer prevention and control for the development of novel agents and molecular targets that have potential to reduce the incidence of cancer. In this study, the JB6 mouse epidermal cell-culture based transformation model was used in efforts to identify novel chemopreventive agents and targets. The nucleoside transport inhibitor dipyridamole (DPM) showed potent chemopreventive activity against JB6 P⁺cells (tumor promotion sensitive). To probe the effects of DPM structural features on its antitumor promotion activity, the soft-agar colony forming efficiency assay was used to screen an in-house library of …

Investigation Of The Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Matrix Protein: Uncoating And Assembly, Chad E. Mire

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) is a simple, enveloped, nonsegmented negative-strand RNA virus and is the prototype rhabdovirus to study viral entry, transcription, replication, and assembly. The matrix protein (M) of VSV is a central component of the viral replication cycle. While being the smallest of the viral proteins it is multifunctional and is involved in uncoating, cytopathic effects (CPE), and assembly of the virus. M protein interactions involved in the uncoating and assembly of VSV have been examined in this dissertation.

Uncoating of VSV involves dissociation of M from the ribonucleoprotein core (RNPs) of the virus. Current models of VSV …

Studies To Characterize The Requirements For The Binding And Release Of Erdj3, A Mammalian Er Dnaj Homolog, From Substrates, Yi Jin

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Heat shock protein 70s (Hsp70s) and their DnaJ co-factors exist in all organisms and in all eukaryotic organelles. These highly conserved chaperone pairs facilitate a large number of cellular processes. ERdj3 was identified as a soluble, lumenal DnaJ family member that binds to unassembled immunoglobulin heavy chains (HC) along with the BiP chaperone complex in the endoplasmic reticulum of mammalian cells. Here we demonstrate that ERdj3 binds directly to two unfolded substrates: immunoglobulin γHC and denatured firefly luciferase. Using mutagenesis studies on ERdj3 in both in vivo and in vitro binding assays, we defined ERdj3’s critical amino acids in domain …

Regulation Of The Human Parainfluenza Virus (Hpiv3) Fusion Protein, Amanda Ruth Chapman

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Paramyxoviruses include a number of important human pathogens, including measles virus, mumps virus, and the human parainfluenza viruses (hPIV) 1-4, as well as several animal pathogens, such as Sendai virus, Nipah virus and Hendra virus. The creation of effective drugs and vaccines against this family of viruses would play an important role in decreasing the prevalence of these viruses and contributing to the health of both humans and animals worldwide. The purpose of this work was to determine how the fusion (F) protein is regulated with a focus on the heptad repeat B (HRB) region of the F protein located …

C-Reactive Protein Polymorphism And Serum Levels As An Independent Risk Factor In Sickle Cell Disease, Elizabeth A. Chismark

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

This study explored the relationship of a dinucleotide repeat polymorphism in the intron of the CRP gene and serum CRP levels as independent risk factors for end-organ dysfunction (mild vs. severe) in adults with sickle cell disease. The pathogenesis of secondary complications of sickle cell disease is complex and poorly understood. Predicting the severity of these complications could assist in therapeutic decision-making.

The study measured serum CRP levels and the number of CA intron repeats located on the CRP gene in 29 adults (31.74 ± 11.54 years) with sickle cell disease The hemoglobin genotypes were distributed as Hgb SS 48.6% …

Role Of The Lpa2 Receptor In Protecting Against Apoptosis, Shuyu E

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a naturally occurring lipid mediator. It exists abundantly in biological fluids such as serum, saliva, follicular fluid, seminal fluid and malignant effusions and induces a vast array of biological responses affecting cell growth, survival, differentiation, migration and morphology. We recently identified lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) as a potent antiapoptotic agent for the intestinal epithelium. Based on computational modeling octadecenyl thiophosphate (OTP) was synthesized: a novel rationally designed, metabolically stabilized LPA mimic. OTP was more efficacious than LPA in reducing g-irradiation-, camptothecin-, or TNF-a/cycloheximide-induced apoptosis and caspase 3, 8 and 9 activity in the IEC-6 cell line. The …

The Role Of Fgf Signaling In Retinal Development, Abbie A. Hartge

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The development of the retina is a precise balance between intrinsic competence and extrinsic factors. This interplay is known to regulate the generation of cell types in the developing retina and similar mechanisms have been found in other regions of the CNS. In the developing retina, FGFs are a large family of secreted polypeptide growth factors. Fgf15 is the major Fgf expressed during retinal development in mice. Fgf15 is an example of an FGF that has been shown to control proliferation, cell fate specification, differentiation and migration during development. In this thesis I used analysis of specific genes throughout retinal …

Predictors Of Depressive Symptoms And Obesity In African American Women Transitioning From Welfare To Work, Mayola Rowser

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Depression and obesity are significant public health problems that adversely affect the health and quality of life of women in the United States, particularly female African American welfare recipients transitioning to work. African American women are twice as likely to experience depressive symptoms as women of other races. Fifty percent of African American women are obese. The prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms and obesity is higher among African American women who receive welfare benefits. These health conditions jeopardize their health status, ability to work, and chances to become self-sufficient. To ensure the successful transition of recipients to work, health …

The Tetraspanin Cd9 Localizes To Platelet-Platelet Contacts And Regulates Thrombus Stability, Sarah Kathleen Hill

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

CD9, a member of the tetraspanin family, is highly expressed on platelets (50,000-80,000 copies per platelet). Tetraspanins have been implicated in modulation of integrin function, and it is hypothesized that CD9 will modulate GPIIb-IIIa, the major platelet integrin.

The association between CD9 and GPIIb-IIIa was analyzed using immunoprecipitations and confocal microscopy. These two proteins were found to associate with each other, particularly at areas of platelet-platelet contact and at the periphery. Confocal analysis revealed CD9 localization was most intense at platelet-platelet contact, as well as in platelet filopodia and lamellipodia, but there is a lack of CD9 at areas of …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Tetramic Acids As Antimicrobial Agents, Jason B. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

As bacterial infectious diseases are a major cause of morbity and mortality throughout the world, and many causative organisms are resistant to currently available antibiotics, the motivation for the development of new drugs is readily apparent. A number of natural products exhibiting antimicrobial activity possess a tetramic acid (2,4-pyrrolidinedione) functional group. As their antibacterial mechanism of action is different from that of many of the currently available antibiotics, these compounds have potential to serve as a basis for a pharmacophore in synthetic compounds. However, toxicity to eukaryotic cells is frequently a problem with currently known tetramic acids. The purpose of …

Factors Affecting Long-Term Outcomes Following Intensive In-Home Services, Sarah Hurley

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Intensive in-home services (IIHS) work with families toward building skills and resources to better manage their children with behavioral difficulties. Factors that impact long-term outcomes following IIHS are not well understood. This study examined the relative importance of youth demographic and clinical characteristics, family history variables, characteristics of program participation, and organizational-level factors in explaining placement stability, educational progress, and contact with legal authorities one year following discharge from IIHS.

The sample included all youth who received IIHS, were discharged between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2006, and completed a follow up at one-year post-discharge (n = 2,649) from …

Studies Of Entry, Reverse Transcription, And Regulation Of Splicing In Retroviruses, Timothy A. Sullivan

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The study of retroviruses and their lifecycle has contributed immensely to our knowledge of the world of biology and medicine. The central dogma of the basic flow of genetic information was shattered when the discovery that retroviruses copy their RNA genome into DNA was made. The same enzyme that performs this step, reverse transcriptase (RT), also revolutionized molecular biology when it was used as a tool to generate full length cDNA clones of expressed genes. The impact of retroviruses on the medical field has been extremely exciting as the ideas of using retroviral vectors to deliver genes providing long term …

Use Of Compliant Interbody Force Sensing Grafts To Compare Load Sharing Properties Of Unidirectional And Bidirectional Multilevel Dynamic Translational Anterior Cervical Plates, Jason Roscoe Roberson

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

INTRODUCTION: Pseudoarthrosis is a relatively rare complication following anterior cervical arthrodesis, and is felt to be related to stress shielding. To address this, dynamic anterior cervical plates have emerged to maintain load sharing as an arthodesis matures. Dynamic plates can translate bidirectionally (allow translation in compressive and tensile loads), or unidirectionally (allow translation in compression, but maintain its position under tensile loads). The objective of this study was to compare the graft load mechanics between three plated conditions during settling using compliant interbody load cells: A static (fixed, non-moving) plate, a unidirectional multi-level translational plate design, and a bidirectional two-level …

Structure- And Ligand-Based Design Of Novel Antimicrobial Agents, Kirk Edward Hevener

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The use of computer based techniques in the design of novel therapeutic agents is a rapidly emerging field. Although the drug-design techniques utilized by Computational Medicinal Chemists vary greatly, they can roughly be classified into structure-based and ligand-based approaches. Structure-based methods utilize a solved structure of the design target, protein or DNA, usually obtained by X-ray or NMR methods to design or improve compounds with activity against the target. Ligand-based methods use active compounds with known affinity for a target that may yet be unresolved. These methods include Pharmacophore-based searching for novel active compounds or Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) studies. …

A Kinematics-Based Testing Protocol To Study The Mechanics Of The Human Lumbar Spine, Nephi A. Zufelt

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The objective of this work was to develop a new kinematics-based testing protocol to quantify the axial and shear force components and rotational moment properties of the human cadaveric lumbar motion segment unit (MSU) in response to specific kinematic inputs. Modern, non-fusion spinal devices claim to treat degenerative disc disease better than traditional fusion surgery. Though there have been many biomechanical studies completed on these devices, there is still a debate over their efficacy. Conventional testing methods provide insight into the rotational properties of the MSU but lack the sensitivity or capacity to quantify lumbar MSU’s mechanical properties including shear …

Torsina And The Pathophysiology Of Dyt1 Dystonia, Yu Zhao

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The goal of my dissertation work was to examine the systems biology of torsinA, a DYT1 dystonia-associated protein, by using rodent model systems. TorsinA is a putative ATPase associated with a variety of cellular activities (AAA+). Deletion of glutamic acid residue 302/303 in TOR1A is causally associated with many cases of early-onset primary dystonia.

In our work, transient forebrain ischemia and sciatic nerve transection were used as central and peripheral neural perturbations, respectively, to gain insight into the in vivo role(s) of torsinA. Moreover, transgenic mouse models that overexpress either human mutant torsinA (hMT) or wild-type torsinA (hWT) were used …

Interaction Of Bacteriophage Mu Middle Transcription Activator Protein Mor With Promoter Dna, Kartik Iyer

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Gene expression during lytic development of bacteriophage Mu is regulated by a

transcriptional cascade in three phases: early, middle and late. Transcription from the middle promoter Pm requires the 129-amino acid transcriptional activator Mor, a product of early transcription, and the Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. The Pm promoter has a recognizable -10 hexamer but lacks a -35 hexamer. Mor binds as a dimer to an imperfect dyad-symmetrical element containing two 6-bp inverted repeats and centered at -43.5 in Pm. The goals of this study were:

1. To test the prediction from the crystal structure of Mor that residues Y70 and …

The Consequences Of Compelled Self-Incrimination In Terrorism Investigations: A Comparison Of American Grand Juries And Canadian Investigative Hearings, Kent Roach

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Using Sport Science To Improve Coaching: A Case Study Of The American Record Holder In The Women’S Hammer Throw, Iain Hunter, Erin Gilreath, Larry W. Judge

Faculty Publications

Conclusions from biomechanical data can make a significant difference in the performance of athletes in the hammer throw if properly understood by coaches. By utilizing this scientific approach to the hammer throw event, the throws coach will be able to determine more accurate adjustments and devise training stimuli to better accommodate the athlete. In this case study, we have attempted to bridge the gap between the researcher and the coach in our approach to teaching the hammer throw, by integrating biomechanical analysis. We have employed the use of video analysis as an essential part of our coaching/teaching system. This USATF …

Growing Through Copying: The Negative Consequences Of Innovation On Franchise Network Growth, Robert J. Jensen, Gabriel Szulanski

Faculty Publications

We explore how copying more exactly a blueprint for establishing a franchise network in a new country influences franchising network growth. We test opposing hypotheses using panel data involving the transfer of franchising knowledge to 23 different countries, measuring the degree to which master licensees "copy exactly" knowledge concerning how to grow a network in their country and the effect that their approach has on subsequent network growth. We conclude that a strategy of copying more exactly seems to enhance growth and that the benefits of more exactly replicating knowledge in the first year of a local network's existence persist …

Controlled Release Of Insulin And Modified Insulin From A Novel Injectable Biodegradable Gel, Om Anand

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The objective of the study was to develop a controlled release dosage form of
insulin, which can provide basal concentrations of insulin in diabetic rats for 1 to 2 weeks after a single subcutaneous injection.
A biodegradable injectable drug delivery gel was prepared by dissolving a
biodegradable polymer, polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), in biocompatible
plasticizer(s), triethyl citrate (TEC) and/or acetyl triethyl citrate (ATEC). Insulin was
then loaded into the blank gel to form an insulin suspension in the polymer solution.
After the insulin-loaded gel was injected subcutaneously, the plasticizer(s) dissolved in the aqueous media and were gradually taken away from the …

Symposium: The Future Of Self-Incrimination: Fifth Amendment, Confessions, & Guilty Pleas

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Theorizing About Self-Incrimination, Ronald J. Allen

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Par Saistību Izpildes Ierobežojumu Noteikšanu Akciju Sabiedrībai "Parex Banka", Financial And Capital Markets Commission

Documents

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Elaboration On Responding To Situational Judgment Test Items, Filip Lievens, Helga Peeters

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although faking has been identified as a potential problem in situational judgment tests (SJTs), no studies have investigated proactive approaches for controlling faking in SJTs. Therefore, this study examined the impact of elaboration on responding to SJT items. Elaboration was operationalized as reason-giving. Two hundred and forty-seven master students were assigned to either an honest or a fake condition, and to a non-elaboration or an elaboration condition. Results showed that elaboration decreased the effect of faking for items with high familiarity. Elaboration on familiar items also decreased the percentage of fakers in the top of the distribution. Next, participants in …