Digital Commons Network^™

Genome Based Cell Population Heterogeneity Promotes Tumorigenicity: The Evolutionary Mechanism Of Cancer., Christine J. Ye, Joshua B. Stevens, Guo Liu, Steven W. Bremer, Aruna S. Jaiswal, Karen J. Ye, Ming-Fong Lin, Lesley Lawrenson, Wayne D. Lancaster, Markku Kurkinen, Joshua D. Liao, C. Gary Gairola, Malathy P. V. Shekhar, Satya Narayan, Fred R. Miller, Henry H. Q. Heng

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Cancer progression represents an evolutionary process where overall genome level changes reflect system instability and serve as a driving force for evolving new systems. To illustrate this principle it must be demonstrated that karyotypic heterogeneity (population diversity) directly contributes to tumorigenicity. Five well characterized in vitro tumor progression models representing various types of cancers were selected for such an analysis. The tumorigenicity of each model has been linked to different molecular pathways, and there is no common molecular mechanism shared among them. According to our hypothesis that genome level heterogeneity is a key to cancer evolution, we expect to reveal …

The Effect Of Lipids On Recognition Thresholds And Intensity Ratings Of The Five Basic Tastes, Jennifer Ellen Thurgood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In addition to the contribution of lipids to food texture and aroma, the effect of lipids on taste perception is now commonly studied. It has been found that lipids may affect taste perception through lipid composition (i.e., cis-polyunsaturated fatty acids).

This study assessed the effect of lipid composition on the recognition thresholds of the basic tastes (i.e., sour, umami, bitter, salty, sweet) in emulsion model systems as well as taste intensities perceived at low suprathreshold concentrations. Taste thresholds and intensities in corresponding aqueous systems were determined for comparison. To evaluate the effect of lipid chemical composition on tastant detection, …

Sustaining The Allideghi Grassland Of Ethiopia: Influences Of Pastoralism And Vegetation Change, Almaz Tadesse Kebede

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Allideghi Wildlife Reserve in the Amibara District of Afar Regional State, Ethiopia, has international significance for harboring endangered Grevy's Zebra and other wildlife dependent on grasslands. The reserve is increasingly used by pastoral people and their herds. Impacts of livestock on native vegetation include direct effects of grazing and indirect effects from livestock-facilitated dispersal of an invasive plant, Prosopis juliflora. The main research objective was to determine effects of pastoralism and vegetation change on prospects for sustaining the Allideghi Wildlife Reserve as grassland habitat for Grevy's Zebra. Methods included use of driving surveys to quantify resource use by …

Architecture And Urban Design As Influences On The Communication Of Place And Experience In Graphic Design, Candice Reese

Theses

Most architects and urban designers are challenged to design schemas and structures to create a particular experience and sense of place. It is through the manipulation and design of actual three-dimensional spaces that they are able to achieve this. How then is a three-dimensional experience of a place conveyed in two dimensions? Distilling an actual experience into a graphic solution can be exceptionally challenging, but graphic designers may need to accomplish this for particular clients. Examining the ideologies and methodologies of architecture and urban design may offer new and thoughtful approaches for graphic interpretations of three-dimensional experiences. This thesis first …

United States Food Law Update: Pasteurized Almonds And Country Of Origin Labeling, A. Bryan Endres

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The last six months of 2008 found the nation occupied with a heated presidential election campaign and the transition to a new party's control of the executive branch. The outgoing president, as is often the case in the waning months of an administration's time in office, attempted to finalize several policy initiatives. This version of the Food Law Update will discuss two major developments with significant long-term impact on the law of food: the implementation of mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) for most unprocessed agricultural commodities; and the increasing use of the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural …

Population Reconstruction Model To Analyze Harvest And Banding Data For Mourning Doves In South Carolina, Christopher Chumbley

All Theses

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) call count indices for South Carolina indicate a negative trend over the past 42 years (1.2% decline per year, p < 0.05). Total harvest estimates in the state increased from 2003-2007. Banding data from doves banded in South Carolina and data from annual examinations of harvested mourning dove wings during 2003-2007 were collected and analyzed. Data sets used contained 6,600 banded doves and 21,240 harvested dove wings. Survival estimates from band recovery analyses for adult and juvenile doves were 0.44 (± 0.04 SE) and 0.35 (± 0.06 SE), respectively. Survival rates were constant from year to year while recovery rates differed annually for adults and juveniles. The average natural mortality estimates for adults and juveniles in the presence of hunting were 0.45 ± 0.122 and 0.47 ± 0.189, respectively, during the study period. The average harvest and kill rates for adults and juveniles were also estimated. Age-at-harvest ratios adapted from annual wing examinations during the harvest were used with recovery rates to derive estimates of annual productivity in the population. Linear regression analysis of productivity estimates found a significant decline in productivity during 2003-2007 (-0.21, p < 0.10). The average productivity estimate was 1.43 (± 0.33 SE) juveniles per adult and the estimated productivity required to maintain a stable population was 1.60 (± 0.30 SE). The effects of constant survival rates, varying hunting mortality estimates and declining productivity estimates were discussed in relation to breeding populations in rural areas of South Carolina.

Forage Species Alters Animal Performance, Carcass Quality, And Fatty Acid Composition Of Forage-Finished Beef Produced In Summer Months, Jason Schmidt

All Theses

The objective of this study was to evaluate how forages grazed during the summer months alter live animal performance, carcass quality, consumer acceptability and fatty acid composition in finishing beef cattle. Angus-cross steers (n=60) were finished on alfalfa (AL), bermudagrass (BG), chicory (CH), cowpea (CO), and pearl millet (PM) during this two year trial. Using a complete randomized block design, ten 2-ha paddocks were blocked and assigned to forage species (2 reps per species). Each year, steers (n=3) were randomly assigned to paddocks and grazing began when adequate forage growth for individual species was present. Put and take grazing techniques …

The Effect Of Hydrostatic Pressure On Bladder Smooth Muscle Cell Function, Margaret Drumm

All Theses

Previous research has demonstrated that bladder smooth muscle cells (BSMC) respond to various forms of mechanical stimuli, including stretch and hydrostatic pressure, by increases of cell proliferation, activation of intracellular signaling pathways, and alteration of contractile and synthetic marker protein expression. These cellular/molecular level changes are all indicative of a BSMC phenotypic shift that can negatively impact the bladder function at the tissue and organ level. The objective of the present study is to test a hypothesis that bladder SMCs shift their phenotype from contractile to synthetic in response to elevated hydrostatic pressure. Rat bladder SMC cultures were exposed to …

A Pulsatile Bioreactor For Conditioning Tissue Engineered Heart Valves, Leslie Sierad

All Theses

Tissue engineered constructs with autologous adult stem cells capable of self-repair and growth are highly desired replacements for diseased heart valves. However, the current approaches have inadequate mechanical properties to withstand in vivo implantation. Therefore, our group hypothesized that an in vitro environment of physiological intra-cardiac pressures and flow will stimulate stem cells to differentiate and remodel valvular scaffold constructs before implantation.
The group developed a pneumatic-driven conditioning system (Aim I) consisting of a three-chambered heart valve bioreactor, a pressurized compliance tank, a reservoir tank, one-way valves, pressure-retaining valves, and pressure transducers. The system can be sterilized using conventional autoclaving …

Ocular Vergence Response Over Anaglyphic Stereoscopic Videos, Brian Daugherty

All Theses

The effect of anaglyphic stereographic stimuli on ocular vergence response is examined. An experiment is performed comparing ocular vergence response induced by anaglyphic stereographic display versus standard monoscopic display. Two visualization tools, synchronized three-dimensional scanpath playback and real-time dynamic heatmap generation,
are developed and used to subjectively support the quantitative analysis of ocular disparity. The results of a one-way ANOVA indicate that there is a highly significant effect of anaglyphic stereoscopic display on ocular vergence for a majority of subjects although consistency of vergence response is difficult to predict.

Consumer Preferences: The Role Of Food Emotions In Food Choice, Jessica Glass

All Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the driving factors in food choice. The Flavor Pyramid, introduced by Steven Kaun, indicates that the foundation of consumer food choice is emotional (Kaun, 2005). This study serves as a preliminary means to validate the role of the emotional component of food choice in today's market. Four gingerbread formulas, one from 1430, 1861, 2004, and a new product, were evaluated in a sensory panel in order to collect preliminary data on the role that food emotions play in consumer preference. Nearly sixty-six percent of all panelists chose the 2004 recipe as the …

Hi Honey I'M Home, Clarke Stuart Curtis

All Theses

My work is generated from an internal struggle which arises from the transition of my youth to my adulthood. Through my experiences, I have come to believe that there is a significant deficit in what signifies the transition to adulthood in contemporary society. I view that our contemporary rites of passage differ greatly from historical cultures and wish to conjoin the two with my personal mythology and through contemporary and pop culture to possibly shed light on my seeming sense of arrested development. I am interested in depicting my own fantastical rites as if I lived in both cultures overcoming …

Contracting In The Pharmaceutical Industry: Predicting Payments In Strategic Alliances, Jonathan Altman

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT
This paper empirically analyzes how circumstances affect the creation of strategic alliances in the pharmaceutical industry, and the form these alliances take. The models introduced in this paper use the cost of capital and monitoring costs to predict the timing of the deal, which in turn allows the prediction of the deal type. The deal type is then used to predict payment types used in the deal. Deals are characterized by five payment types; upfront, royalty, milestone, equity, and research payments. Deals are also characterized by one of five deal types; co-development, license, acquisition, outsource, and asset purchase. Each …

The Animated Work Environment: A Vision For Working Life In A Digital Society, Henrique Houayek

All Dissertations

Dramatic transformations in the nature, place and organization of working life due to increasing sophistication and access of information technologies in the United States suggest a redesign of the work environment as a socially and technologically responsive system occupying both home and office.
This thesis examines the process of creation of an 'Animated Work Environment' [AWE]. A space in the scale of a cubicle envisioned as an environment-as-responsive-robot; an articulated, programmable interior accommodating a range of digital technologies across fluid assemblages of people working with both printed and digital materials in a variety of locations and settings, searching for a …

Biology And Ecology Of Wild Radish (Raphanus Raphanistrum), Mayank Malik

All Dissertations

Wild radish ( L.), a facultative winter annual is a troublesome weed in small grain crops of the Southeastern United States. Besides being a weed, it may also be used as a cover crop for weed management due to its production of glucosinolates. Studies were conducted to evaluate the biology and ecology of wild radish as well as its glucosinolate production and its weed management possibilities.
Wild radish emerging in fall months formed a rosette of leaves which aided its winter survival. Plants emerging from December through March that did not form a rosette had minimal survival. Wild radish life …

Development Of Basic Meat Science Curriculum Standards For Secondary Agricultural Education: Delphi Model, John Duke

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to develop basic meat science topics and standards for secondary agricultural education. A Delphi panel was used to develop the instrument. The Delphi panel was composed of four members from academia and industry and four
from the top ten national meat FFA Career Development Events coaches from 2000 to 2005. Two Delphi rounds were used to develop the survey instrument. The modified Delphi started with an outline of basic meat science topics developed by an expert panel
from 16 university basic meat science syllabi. The Delphi panel added or deleted topics, topics were …

The Effects Of Wastewater Effluent On A Fish And Amphibian Species, Anthony Sowers

All Dissertations

Wastewater effluents have been shown to contain a variety of anthropogenic compounds, many of which have endocrine-disrupting properties. While multiple laboratory studies have shown the effects of such compounds on an individual basis at elevated concentrations, little research has attempted to characterize the effects of exposure to environmentally relevant mixtures of endocrine disruptors. The current study examined the effects of long-term exposure to graded concentrations of wastewater effluent on the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas, and the northern leopard frog, Rana pipiens. Fathead minnows were exposed from the larval stage through sexual maturity, while northern leopard frogs were exposed as eggs …

Recovery Of Fathead Minnows (Pimephales Promelas) Following Episodic Copper Exposure: A Biochemical, Physiological, Individual, And Population Perspective, Holly Zahner

All Dissertations

The US EPA utilizes the Biotic Ligand Model (BLM) when developing site-specific water-quality criteria for copper. The BLM was calibrated using toxicity data from fixed duration continuous exposures (48 or 96h LC50). However, exposures of copper in natural aquatic systems typically vary in concentration, duration, and may occur multiple times over the life-span of an organism. Additionally, organisms will experience periods in copper free water, potentially allowing them to detoxify and recover homeostasis. Yet, the BLM framework does not consider brief exposures (<24h), multiple exposures, latent responses, or organism recovery, potentially resulting in an inaccurate assessment of exposure toxicity. A recently proposed physiologically-based addition to the BLM will extend the applicability of the framework to brief, multiple pulse copper exposures. Thus, the overall goal of this research was to characterize the recovery of larval Pimephales promelas following episodic copper exposure at a biochemical, physiological, individual, and population level.
The response of whole-body sodium, whole-body Na+/K+-ATPase, and whole-body carbonic anhydrase in larval P. promleas was quantified …

Taxonomic Revision Of Species Of The Genus Monoecocestus (Cestoda: Anoplocephalidae), Terry R. Haverkost

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

My dissertation research is an important contribution to the taxonomy of anoplocephalid cestodes. Almost all research conducted for these chapters was done by staining, mounting, and measuring anoplocephalid cestodes from the Bolivian Biodiversity Survey conducted in Bolivia from 1984-2000. These specimens were collected and processed in the field and deposited in the Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology. I was particularly interested in species of the genus Monoecocestus Beddard, 1914 that parasitize caviid and sigmodontine rodents. In all instances, the material studied has lead to the description of new species or the redescription of existing species of Monoecocestus. In …

Gamma Sigma Delta Newsletter - Nebraska Chapter, Issue #37, May 2009

Gamma Sigma Delta, Nebraska Chapter: Newsletters

President’s Message -- Clayton Kelling
GAMMA SIGMA DELTA COMMITTEES ‐ 2009 OUTSTANDING SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2008‐2009
Kelly Ingram -- Outstanding Gamma Sigma Delta Underclassman
Lindsay Calhoon -- Outstanding Gamma Sigma Delta Senior
2008 GAMMA SIGMA DELTA NEW MEMBERS
2008 INITIATION AND AWARDS BANQUET: Dr. Martin Massengale received the 2008 Gamma Sigma Delta International Distinguished Achievement in Agriculture Award.
Excellence in Extension Award: Dr. Rick Rasby
Excellence in Teaching Award: Dr. Bryan Reiling
Excellence in Research Award: Dr. Andrew Benson
IN MEMORIAM: James V. Drew, Rose Marie Tondl, Wallace W. Wilhelm
Renewal of Active Membership / Dues for 2009

Mate-Odour Identification By Both Sexes Of Evarcha Culicivora, An East African Jumping Spider, Fiona R. Cross, Robert R. Jackson

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Evarcha culicivora is an unusual salticid spider because each sex actively courts the other and both sexes make distinctive mate-choice decisions. Here we use olfactometer experiments for investigating the ability of each sex to identify potential mates on the basis of odour alone. Test spiders spent more time in the vicinity of opposite-sex conspecific source spiders, regardless of whether or not these source spiders had previously mated, when the alternatives were conspecific individuals of the same sex, juveniles or a control (no odour source). This trend held regardless of the test spider's and source spider's age after reaching maturity and, …

Corruption Of Religion And The Establishment Clause, Andrew Koppelman

William & Mary Law Review

Government neutrality toward religion is based on familiar considerations: the importance of avoiding religious conflict, alienation of religious minorities, and the danger that religious considerations will introduce a dangerous irrational dogmatism into politics and make democratic compromise more difficult. This Article explores one consideration, prominent at the time of the framing, that is often overlooked: the idea that religion can be corrupted by state involvement with it. This idea is friendly to religion but, precisely for that reason, is determined to keep the state away from religion. If the religion-protective argument for disestablishment is to be useful today, it cannot …

Evaluating The Sign Language Phonology Of Sight Words Used To Support Deaf /Hard Of Hearing Students' Literacy Development In Idioma De Señas De Nicaragua, Julie A. Delkamiller

Student Work

Over the past 30-years linguists have been witnessing the birth and evolution of a language, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua, in Nicaragua, and have initiated and documented to date the syntax and grammar of this new language. The purpose of this naturalistic comparative exploratory field study was to evaluate preprimer and primer Dolch sight words and sign language frequency and phonology—location, handshape, and movement—used to support deaf/hard of hearing students’ literacy development in Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua compared to American Sign Language. The research focused on the word and sign frequency and phonology or individual components of a Nicaraguan …

Policy, Uniformity, Discretion, And Congress’S Sentencing Acid Trip, Mark Osler

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Theories Of Poverty/The Poverty Of Theory, Barbara Stark

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deliberative Constitutionalism, John J. Worley

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Changes” In The Country Of The Mind: Seamus Heaney’S Revision Of William Wordsworth’S “Tintern Abbey”, Trenton B. Olsen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For almost thirty years, critics have been interested in William Wordsworth’s influence on Irish poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney.

“Out Of Many, One People” : A Comparative Analysis Of Short Fiction By Michelle Cliff, Jennifer Nicole Laster

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis is a comparative analysis of six of Michelle Cliffs short stories where I discuss the aspects of class, race, and self-alienation present in her work. In formulating and gathering the appropriate research for this project, I discovered that like most short fiction, Cliffs has not received criticism equal in comparison to her full-length novels. Therefore, the aim of this project is to present an in-depth critique of Cliffs short fiction using black feminist, post-colonial, and queer theory approaches to produce close readings her work to reaffirm her importance as a contemporary Caribbean author.

Chapter One juxtaposes the theme …

Development Of An In-Vitro Tissue Engineered Blood Vessel Mimic Using Human Large Vessel Cell Sources, Dimitri E. Delagrammaticas

Master's Theses

Tissue engineering is an emerging field that offers novel and unmatched potential medical therapies and treatments. While the vast aim of tissue engineering endeavors is to provide clinically implantable constructs, secondary applications have been developed to utilize tissue-engineered constructs for in-vitro evaluation of devices and therapies. Specifically, in-vitro blood vessel mimics (BVM) have been developed to create a bench-top blood vessel model using human cells that can be used to test and evaluate vascular disease treatments and intravascular devices. Previous BVM work has used fat derived human microvascular endothelial cells (EC) sodded on an ePTFE scaffold. To create a more …

Implementation Of Physiologic Flow Conditions In A Blood Vessel Mimic Bioreactor System For The Evaluation Of Intravascular Devices, Marc Cody Dawson

Master's Theses

The prevalence and devastating nature of cardiovascular diseases has led to many advancements in the therapies used to treat the millions of patients that suffer as a result of these conditions. As coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common of these cardiovascular conditions, it is a major focus of research among the medical industry. Although lifestyle changes and drug therapies can treat early CAD, more advanced cases often require more definitive interventions. In conjunction with angioplasty, stenting of an occluded vessel has shown significant success in preventing restenosis. However, as with nearly every therapeutic process in the medical field, …