Digital Commons Network^™

Physical And Computational Models Of Human Lung For Optimizing Respiratory Drug Delivery, Mohammed Ali

Theses and Dissertations

Respiratory drug particles aerosolized from the commercially available drug delivery devices may charge electrostatically. Investigations of the relevance of this charge on deposition in the human lung are just quite a few and they started early eighties though the aerosol science study is a decade old discipline. Additionally, the localized deposition of drug particles at desired sites such as inflamed tissue and appropriate receptors has been recognized by clinical investigators as being critical factors for the effective administration of respiratory drugs. To accomplish these tasks, it is imperative to undertake in vitro and in silico studies of medicinal drug aerosol …

Physicians' Communication With Older Patients, Particularly Older African American Women, About Sexual Health And Sexual Risk Behaviors For Human Immunodeficiency Virus (Hiv) And Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids)*, Regina Vaughn Gibson

Theses and Dissertations

HIV/AIDS is rising among people age 50 and older in the U.S. but primary care physicians may not be talking to their older patients about sexual health and high-risk sexual behaviors nor routinely testing them for HIV/AIDS. Do primary care physicians in Arkansas obtain sexual histories on their older patients? Are primary care physicians in Arkansas knowledgeable enough about HIV to impart risk-reduction information to their older patients? These are but two of the questions this research seeks to answer. Contrary to what the medical or general population believes, many older persons remain sexually active throughout their lifetime. The problem …

Psycho-Sexual Politics Of Life On The Streets: Narratives Of Homeless Women And Women Who Experienced Homelessness As Children, Jane Stallcup Rampona

Theses and Dissertations

Eleven homeless women and eleven providers of homeless services were administered qualitative surveys asking about the experience of homelessness for women. Both groups were asked, “Is it possible for a woman to be safe while on the streets?” Most homeless women emotionally and vehemently answered, “No!” Most providers also answered, though less passionately, that it was impossible for women to be safe on the streets. When asked, “What was the worst thing that happened to you while on the streets?” Most of the women spoke of rape and gang rape. The other eighteen per cent became suddenly uncommunicative regarding the …

Skilled Workers In Little Rock's Building Trades, Manufactories, And Railroads From 1871 To 1890, James Anthony Metrailer, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the character of skilled workers in Little Rock, Arkansas during the late nineteenth century. Skilled workers have not been the focus of study in any historical work on Arkansas. According to Dr. Carl Moneyhon, this class is “perhaps less known than any social group in Arkansas”. Nationwide discussion of skilled workers during this period is also limited and often fragmentary. This thesis addresses this void by comparing Little Rock's skilled workers to members of this class in other American cities, namely Atlanta and Chicago. This work describes the character of Little Rock's skilled workers through the use …

The Effect Of Locus Of Control, Motivation And Learning Style On Retention In Online Community College Courses, Vondra O. Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations

Literature is replete with the uniqueness of the community college student as it relates to remediation, persistence, and academic success; yet very little literature exists on the community college and retention in online courses. The purpose o f the study was to examine the effect of student characteristics, locus of control, motivation, and learning style on retention in online community college courses. The descriptive discriminant function analysis revealed one function that was primarily defined by age and ethnicity, locus of control was not supported, while motivation and learning style preference were predictors of retention to a lesser degree. Completers tended …

The Effects Of School Climate On Teacher Efficacy And Retention In High-Poverty Schools, Debbie Lambeth

Theses and Dissertations

High-poverty schools must have teachers who believe they can make a difference in the lives of the students. Teachers with high self-efficacy tend to have the desire to make that difference in the life of a child and persist in the face of adversity. School climate plays an important role in building teacher efficacy and persistence in high-poverty schools. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the school climate created by a comprehensive school reform model, teacher efficacy and teacher persistence in high-poverty schools. The findings revealed a statistical significance between teacher efficacy and teacher persistence. …

The Integrated Implementation Of Surgical Simulations Through Modeling By Means Of Imaging, Comprehension, Visualization, Deformation, And Collision Detection In Virtual Environments, Sinan Kockara

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in information technology based applications in medicine and biology help to improve the conventional methods of delivering health services by enhancing and complementing traditional approaches of medical education, diagnostic techniques, intra-operative assistance, and pre/post operative services etc. Individualized medical training by virtual simulations and the use of advanced visualization techniques in cell biology will impact the way medicine is practiced and biological processes are understood. Although enhancing visualization and presenting the unreality in a form of blended virtuality is exceedingly accepted in medicine and biology, it brings many challenging but intriguing and intertwined multi disciplinary problems that are required …

The Proficiency Of English As A Second Language Students At A U.S. Metropolitan University: A Survey Of The Beliefs And Perceptions Of Core-Course Instructors, Pamela Henline Villines

Theses and Dissertations

The success of English as a Second Language (ESL) students at university level in the United States depends upon their ability to perform at a level of language proficiency deemed adequate by university core-course instructors. This writing begins with the historical derivation of “language proficiency,” and continues on to examine the curricular demands of the Intensive English Language Program (IELP) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). ESL students, both IELP graduates and IELP non-affiliates, may enroll in the core courses required to earn a degree from UALR. This thesis is based on the results of a survey …

Using Data Envelopment Analysis To Assess The Technical Efficiency Of Public School Districts In Arkansas, Douglas Stephen Adams

Theses and Dissertations

The study calculated the relative technical efficiency of public school districts in the State of Arkansas utilizing an output oriented variable returns to scale data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the school year 2005-2006 and found over 80% of the schools districts were inefficient to a certain extent. The elimination of the relative technical efficiency could generate potential savings of $250,000,000. The study also found significant variances in relative technical efficiency and average effectiveness for school districts with similar concentrations of poverty students. Additionally, the study found significant variances in average effectiveness among school districts that were fully efficient. Finally, the …

Virtual Environments And Their Applications In Surgical Training, Tansel Halic

Theses and Dissertations

The advances in the application of Virtual Environments (VE) in medicine help to improve the conventional methods of delivering health services by enhancing and complementing traditional approaches of medical education, diagnostic techniques, intraoperative assistance, pre-post operative services etc. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are two forms of VEs that revolutionize medical training and fill the deficiencies in the traditional teaching/learning methods in medicine. Although presenting the unreality in a form of blended virtuality is exceedingly accepted in medicine, it brings many challenging but intriguing and intertwined multi disciplinary problems that are required to be addressed. This thesis proposal …

Visual Powerpoint: Photographic Principles To Revitalize Slides, Amy M. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

“Visual PowerPoint: Photographic principles to revitalize slides” describes and demonstrates how Microsoft PowerPoint users can incorporate four principles of photography into their slides to enhance their presentation purposes and add visual appeal to their slides. Potential users of the trade book are experienced PowerPoint users who wish to improve their slides. Accompanying the manuscript is an analytic cover piece.

Integrity And Integration: An Exploration Of The Personal, Professional, And Pedagogical In The Professoriate, Laurie R. Matthias Ed.D., Ruth-Anne Wideman Ed.D.

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This paper seeks to explore the connections between the concepts of integrity and integration within the professoriate in Christian higher education. Specifically, it examines commonalities and intersections in the definitions of terms, the gaps between rhetoric and reality, and the reasons for those gaps. Implications for a professor’s inner life, scholarship, and teaching are also discussed, and suggestions for closing the gaps are offered.

Frontmatter (The Christian Librarian 51:3)

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Being A Christian Librarian: A Partial Definition, Robert E. Kaehr

The Christian Librarian

In this essay, the intent is partially to define the meaning of the phrase, Christian librarian. Because of journal limits on the length of an article, only a partial definition is possible. As literature about Christian librarianship accumulates, I hope a clearer understanding will emerge. Gregory A. Smith’s Christian Librarianship: Essays on the Integration of Faith and Profession (2002) has given a good start to defining Christian librarianship.

Purification And Crystallization Of A Non-Glur2 Ampa-Receptor Ligand-Binding Domain: A Case Of Cryo-Incompatibility Addressed By Room-Temperature Data Collection, Avinash Gill, Dean R. Madden

Dartmouth Scholarship

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. Among the cognate ionotropic glutamate receptors, the subfamily selective for AMPA (alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid) is responsible for most fast excitatory synaptic signaling and plays key roles in synaptic plasticity. AMPA receptors (AMPA-Rs) have also been implicated in a number of neurological disorders. To investigate subunit-specific differences in the ligand binding and activation of AMPA-Rs, the GluR4 AMPA-R ligand-binding domain (LBD) was crystallized in complex with full and partial agonists. This is the first non-GluR2 AMPA-R LBD available for structural analysis. Standard cryoprotection protocols yielded high-resolution diffraction from flash-cooled crystals of the …

The Power Of Tv: Women's Status In India And The Role Of Cable Television, Emily Oster

Clemens Lecture Series

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Teaching And Learning: Integrating Technology And Nursing Education, Kellie Smith, Edd, Rn, Elizabeth Elkind, Rnc, Msn, Mba, Phd(C)

College of Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations

Enhancing teaching and learning: Integrating technology and nursing education. Jefferson School of Nursing Faculty Development Day: Understanding scholarship: The Boyer model and career development. Philadelphia, PA (podium)

15 PowerPoint slides.

Mechanistic Investigations Of The Trans Excision-Splicing And Trans Insertion-Splicing Reaction, Perry Patrick Dotson Ii

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Group I intron-derived ribozymes are catalytic RNAs that have been engineered to catalyze a variety of different reactions, in addition to the native self-splicing reaction. One such ribozyme, derived from a group I intron of Pneumocystis carinii, can modify RNA transcripts through either the excision or insertion of RNA sequences. These reactions are mediated through the trans excision-splicing (TES) or trans insertionsplicing (TIS) reaction pathways. To increase our current understanding of these reactions, as well as their general applicability, a mechanistic and kinetic framework for the TES reaction was established. Furthermore, additional ribozymes were investigated for their ability to …

Zinc Deficiency And Mechanisms Of Endothelial Cell Dysfunction, Huiyun Shen

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease thought to be initiated by endothelial cell dysfunction. Research described in this dissertation is focused on the role of zinc deficiency in endothelial cell activation with an emphasis on the function of the transcription factors nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR), and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which all play critical roles in the early pathology of atherosclerosis. Cultured porcine aortic vascular endothelial cells were deprived of zinc by the zinc chelator TPEN and/or treated with the NF-κB inhibitor CAPE or the PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone, followed by measurements of PPARα expression, cellular …

Electrical Detection Of The Temperature Induced Melting Transition Of A Dna Hairpin Covalently Attached To Gold Interdigitated Microelectrodes, Greg P. Brewood, Yaswanth Rangineni, Daniel J. Fish, Ashwini Bhandiwad, David R. Evans, Raj Solanki, Albert S. Benight

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The temperature induced melting transition of a self-complementary DNA strand covalently attached at the 5' end to the surface of a gold interdigitated microelectrode (GIME) was monitored in a novel, label-free, manner. The structural state of the hairpin was assessed by measuring four different electronic properties of the GIME (capacitance, impedance, dissipation factor and phase angle) as a function of temperature from 25 degrees C to 80 degrees C. Consistent changes in all four electronic properties of the GIME were observed over this temperature range, and attributed to the transition of the attached single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) from an intramolecular, folded …

The Cis-Δ2,3-Double Bond Of Phoslactomycins Is Generated By A Post-Pks Tailoring Enzyme, Nadaraj Palaniappan, Mamoun M. Alhamadsheh, Kevin A. Reynolds

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The antifungal phoslactomycins (PLM A-F), produced by Streptomyes sp HK803, are structurally unusual in that three of their four double bonds are in the cis form (Δ^12,13, Δ^14,15, Δ^2,3). The PLM polyketide synthase (PKS) has the predicted dehydratase catalytic domain in modules 1,2 and 5 required for establishing two of these cis double bonds (Δ^12,13Δ^14,15), as well as the only trans Δ^6,7double bond. By contrast, the formation of the cis Δ^2,3 in the unsaturated lactone moiety of PLMs has presented an enigma because the predicted dehydratase domain …

Addressing Challenges Encountered By Leadership Teams In Five Mentoring Programs, Gary M. Kilburg, Eloise Hockett

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This study is the third stage in a continuation of research by Kilburg and Hancock (2006) that investigated 149 mentoring teams in four school districts over a two year period. The current study is differentiated from the published study in that it identifies challenges encountered by mentoring program planning committees, coordinators, and administrators from five school districts over a six-year period. In the last two years of this present study, Critical Friends Group Coaches were added to one school district’s leadership team.

Fostering Resilient Characteristics In Individuals With Learning Disabilities, V. Shelly Dugle, Peggy Grigorenko

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Educational resilience is an important term for teacher candidates in Christian institutions to understand. Resilience can be nurtured and instilled in the lives of individuals with learning disabilities, and teacher candidates can play a vital role in that process. To assist in this course of action, a look at the definition and common characteristics of resilience are discussed. In addition, a closer look at four resilient individuals with learning disabilities is provided. Concrete suggestions on ways to incorporate resilient characteristics into students with learning disabilities are shared.

Best They Forget: Challenging Notions Of Remembering And Forgetting, Chris Baird

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

In Jeremiah 31:34 the LORD declares, “No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest… For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (The NIV Study Bible, 1995, p.1170). It is not the intention of this paper to enter into a theological discussion as to whether or not God is capable of forgetting; however, at very least He chooses the metaphor of forgetting to display his forgiveness for his people. This seems to …

Volume 57 (2007-2008)

ELJ Masthead Archive

No abstract provided.

Labor Market Segregation And The Wage Differential Between Resident And Migrant Workers In China, Ruosi Lu

Lingnan Theses

This thesis looks at the effect of industrial and occupational segregation on the wage differential between resident and migrant workers in China. It extends the work of Meng and Zhang (2001) by considering the possible employment segregation of resident and migrant workers by both industry and occupation. I contend that industry segregation is at least as important as occupational segregation for Chinese migrant workers, as most migrant workers in China have come from the countryside to fuel the booming labor-intensive manufacturing and construction industries in the cites. Due to the hukou policy (a household registration system) in China, migrant workers …

The Effect Of Online Consumer Reviews On New Product Sales : A Study Of Amazon.Com, Xiaoning Guo

Lingnan Theses

In recent years, online word-of-mouth (WOM) communication in the form of online consumer reviews has become a major information source for consumers planning to purchase a new product. With the help of online reviews, consumers can access diverse opinions from others who have bought or used the new products before making their purchase decisions. This study compares the impact of online reviews on the sales of two types of new products (experience vs. search products) over time, in terms of the volume and valence of online consumer reviews. Using the data collected from Amazon.com over a period of nine months, …

Firm Ownership, Institutional Environment, And Audit Collusion : Empirical Evidence From A Transitional Economy, Rui Wang

Lingnan Theses

Motivated by the renewed interest in, but insufficient empirical evidence of, collusion between auditors and corporate management, I examine this issue in the unique environment of China, which is characterized by a high level of government control over listed companies and auditors, strong competition for audit clients, and uneven economic and legal development across the country. In contrast to prior studies, I employ a two-stage regression approach to study the determinants of audit collusion in China. In the first stage, I develop an audit opinion prediction model of Big 4 auditors (viewed as “typical” auditors) that corrects for self-selection bias. …

Party Controls In National Central University And Nanjing University Before And After 1949, Zhendong Xu

Lingnan Theses

In 1898, with the foundation of the Metropolitan University of the Qing Dynasty (Jingshi da xuetang) in Beijing, the modern higher education system was established in China. After the Qing Dynasty, China has been ruled by two political parties before and after 1949: Kuomintang (KMT) dated from 1911 to 1949 and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)1 dated from 1949 to present.

The history of Nanjing University (NJU) can be traced back to Sanjiang Normal School founded by the Qing government in 1902. The NJU witnessed the development of modern higher education in China. The Nanjing city used to be the capital …

翻译研究的对话性路径 : 巴赫金思想与翻译研究, Bo Li

Lingnan Theses

翻译研究已经成为一门独立的学科，研究领域逐渐扩大，研究方法也在不 断完善；与此同时，巴赫金研究在世界范围内，也吸引了越来越多的目光和注 意力，为语言学、文学、文化研究、哲学等相关或相邻学科提供了丰富的理论 资源。在这样一个大背景下，本项研究采取了跨学科的研究模式，概念分析与个案研究相结合，力图说明巴赫金思想对翻译研究的适用性，在二者之间寻找理论挪用的契合点。

本文在回顾以往研究的基础上，提出了新的研究问题和假设，充分借鉴巴赫金思想，分析和解释与翻译相关的诸多问题和现象。本文提出从基于表述的主体间言语交际来看翻译过程，从杂语的角度来分析原文和译文，从声音的角 度来看译者的叙述在场及其主体性实现，从对话的角度来看翻译中涉及主体之间的主体间性，从声音和杂语的角度来思考翻译与身份认同的问题，从而对于我们理解翻译过程的实质、理解翻译过程的艰难、理解翻译中译者的主体性与翻译中的主体间性、理解翻译与身份认同的关系等等，试图提供可行的分析模 式和有意义的思考路径。在这个意义上来说，本项研究对于推进翻译研究具有一定的理论贡献。同时，本文借助文学翻译、电影字幕翻译等实际个案 (特别是台湾作家王祯和的长篇小说《玫瑰玫瑰我爱你》英语译本)，印证本文提出的分析模式的有效性和可行性。