Digital Commons Network^™

Sci-Tech Book News Reviews, Susan Fingerman

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Web Reviews, Lisa Johnston

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Patient Throughput Time At Kosair Children's Hospital Emergency Room., Elizabeth Gentry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kosair Children’s Hospital Emergency Department in Louisville, KY has been reporting low patient satisfaction, which could result in a decrease in revenue and patients for the hospital. Patient throughput times in Kosair’s emergency room have a significant effect on patient satisfaction. This thesis will evaluate the emergency room at Kosair Children’s Hospital through a time study. The time study analyzes value added time and non-value added time in the emergency room. The majority of the patient throughput time is non-value added time and needs to be minimized. Solutions to minimize the nonvalue added time and future studies to continuously improve …

News From Hope College, Volume 41.3: December, 2009, Hope College

News from Hope College

No abstract provided.

Pelikan’S Antidisambiguation: What Fools These Mortals Be!, Michael P. Pelikan

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Standards Column - Journal Article Supplementary Materials: A Pandora’S Box Of Issues Needing Best Practices, Todd Carpenter

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Indirect Discourse In German, Russian, And English, Henry Whittlesey Schroeder

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Indirect Discourse in German, Russian, and English" Henry Whittlesey Schroeder analyzes the different tenses of indirect discourse in these three languages. Indirect discourse in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century adopts a different time in English, German and Russian. English indirect discourse reports in the preterit; German indirect discourse hovers in the subjunctive; Russian indirect discourse speaks in the present. The transposition of English indirect discourse allows the character's discourse to surface in a tense identical to the narration. Consequently, the character can corrupt the narration, undermining the narrator's narration and commentary on that narration. German indirect …

Space In Cardinal's Au Pays De Mes Racines And Goytisolo's Coto Vedado, Laura Dennis

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Space in Cardinal's Au Pays de mes racines and Goytisolo's Coto vedado" Laura Dennis discusses the ways in which two memoirs of the late twentieth century treat exile and diverse spaces as part of a quest for a place in which to live fully and freely. Juan Goytisolo's Coto vedado and Marie Cardinal's Au Pays de mes racines constitute particularly rich treatments of space and exile and the ways in which these intersect with questions of culture, gender, and power. Dennis uses Henri Lefebvre's theories of abstract and differential space together with Gillian Rose's feminist study of …

Adams's Quest For The Unity Of Knowledge, Karl Shaddox

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In "Adams's Quest for the Unity of Knowledge," Karl Shaddox discusses Henry Adams's lesser known work, The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, as a continuation of the historian's attempt at unifying knowledge in The Education. Whereas unification in The Education was proposed by historicizing force, whether religious or molecular, Adams's effort in The Degradation employed a scientistic approach to history. Using Josiah Gibb's research on the equilibrium of heterogeneous substances, Adams felt he had provided a natural explanation of social and historical change — and thus the elemental connection between matter and mind. Critical opinion has not been receptive to …

Population Ecology And Reproductive Biology Of The Diamondback Watersnake, Nerodia Rhombifer (Serpentes: Colubridae), In Southernmost Texas, Ruben D. Zamora

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Nerodia rhombifer is a polytypic, semi-aquatic snake with a broad geographical distribution ranging from the American Midwest southward to Chiapas, Mexico. Although relatively abundant throughout much of its range, few ecological studies of the species have been conducted. This study provides basic population ecology information in a subtropical habitat. Population data were obtained in a mark-recapture study at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Hidalgo County, Texas, from August 1995 to December 1998. Specimens taken elsewhere in Hidalgo County provided information on the reproductive biology. This study provides the first absolute density estimates from anywhere within the species’ range. Quantitative information …

A Quest For Understanding Finding My Way Back, Juan Saenz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

My work reflects my place in nature and how through its documentation I have been given the opportunity to mend family ties. In my paintings I capture the essence of those things that bring me peace of mind and good health. The aim of my work is not solely for the purpose of self reflection but also an attempt to bring my viewers back to a different time in their lives. The following works are an example of my direction and experimentation.

Tortured Souls: Unhappy Lawyers Viewed Through The Medium Of Film, Lance Mcmillian

Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law

No abstract provided.

Human Cloning, Stem Cell Research. An Islamic Perspective., Aida I. Al-Aqeel

Saudi Medical Journal

The rapidly changing technologies that involve human subjects raise complex ethical, legal, social, and religious issues. Recent advances in the field of cloning and stem cell research have introduced new hopes for the treatment of serious diseases. But this promise has raised many complex questions. This field causes debate and challenge, not only among scientists but also among ethicists, religious scholars, governments, and politicians. There is no consensus on the morality of human cloning, even within specific religious traditions. In countries in which religion has a strong influence on political decision making, the moral status of the human embryo is …

The Hidden Legacy Of Holy Trinity Church: The Unique National Institution Canon, Anita S. Krishnakumar

William & Mary Law Review

This Article explores an underappreciated legacy of the Supreme Court’s (in)famous decision in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States. Although Holy Trinity has been much discussed in the academic literature and in judicial opinions, the discussion thus far has focused almost exclusively on the first half of the Court’s opinion—which declares that the “spirit” of a statute should trump its “letter”—and relies on legislative history to help divine that spirit. Scholars and jurists have paid little, if any, attention to the opinion’s lengthy second half. In that second half, the Court tells a detailed narrative about the country’s …

Self-Realizing Inventions And The Utilitarian Foundation Of Patent Law, Alan Devlin, Neel Sukhatme

William & Mary Law Review

Unlike other forms of intellectual property, patents are universally justified on utilitarian grounds alone. Valuable inventions and discoveries, bearing the characteristics of public goods, are easily appropriated by third parties. Because much technological innovation occurs pursuant to significant expenditures—both in terms of upfront research and subsequent commercialization costs—inventors must be permitted to extract at least part of the social gain associated with their technological contributions. Absent some form of proprietary control or alternative reward system, economics predicts that suboptimal capital will be devoted to the innovative process. This widely accepted principle comes with an important corollary: namely, that canons of …

Incomplete Concerted Evolution In The Non-Hybrid Diploid Clematic Fremontii S. Watston (Rananculaceae), Meredith C. Montgomery

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Clematis fremontii S. Wats. (Ranunculaceae) is a diploid perennial forb with strict habitat requirements that occurs in isolated populations in the cedar glades of Missouri and the mixed-grass prairies of Kansas and Nebraska. Based on geographical isolation and morphological differences, this species was formerly subdivided into two varieties, the autonymic prairie variety and the glade variety, C. fremontii var. riehlii Erickson. Interestingly, two disjunct populations of C. fremontii inhabit cedar glades have been recently located in Rome, GA and Chattanooga, TN. Initially, the focus of my research was to gain insight into whether the two eastern populations are recent introductions …

The Impact Of Captivity On The Behaviour Of Mute Swans (Cygnus Olor), Jessica Guyon

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The mute swan (Cygnus olor) is a large water fowl species widely distributed in Great Britain. They are residential and territorial so often there is no interchange between groups. Swans face many injuries in the wild so are brought into wild life centres for treatment and rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to see if their captive behaviour differed from the behaviour of wild conspecifics. This was achieved by performing observations of captive and wild mute swans. From this it was found that several behaviours were more common in captivity these were standing, standing whilst preening or feeding, lying, …

The Effect Of Imipramine Hcl On Haemolysis Of Horse Erythrocytes, Tamara Esther Farrant

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The mechanism of action of tricyclic antidepressant (TCAs) is not fully understood. The effect of the TCA imipramine on the haemolysis of erythrocytes was investigated, focussing on dosage and incubation time. The method used a drug free red blood cell (RBC) haemolysis assay (Watts & Handy, 2007) comparing experimental drug concentrations ranging from 0.0904 mg/ml – 90.4 mg/ml. Incubation time effects were also investigated, and haemolysis increased with decreasing osmolarity. Compared with the control the percentage haemolysis increased significantly with higher concentrations of imipramine, but was reduced by 0.0904 mg/ml imipramine. Haemolysis also increased with longer incubation time in both …

Recent Advances In Marine Microbiology - A Selection Of Critical Evaluations Of Research Papers, Colin Munn, Heather Guy, Grace Phillips, Elizabeth Robertson

The Plymouth Student Scientist

This collection of articles features examples of coursework submitted by three students taking the module BIOL3309 „Marine Microbiology – Ecology & Applications‟ as part of the BSc Hons Marine Biology degree at Plymouth. In this module, students discuss recent research papers in regular seminars, and keep a portfolio of critical evaluations of papers that they have studied. This subject is arguably one of the fastest moving fields in marine science and recent discoveries, made possible by the application of new techniques (especially metagenomics and rapid DNA sequencing) have revolutionized our understanding of ocean processes and the interactions of microbes with …

Landscape Patterns And Patch Dynamics In Hamilton County Over A Forty Year Period: Applicability To The Conservation Of The Eastern Box Turtle, Marie Colson

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Exurban development is the fastest growing form of land use in the southeastern US and the primary driver of habitat and biodiversity loss. Species with long generation times such as the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) can persist in an urbanizing environment but have higher mortality than in forested habitat and show a response lag which delays detection of population decline. I quantify land use and land cover change over a forty year period by photo interpreting historic imagery that is orthorectified using a direct linear transformation model. A GIS database is created for three study sites and landscape …

Applying Palaeoecology To Conservation: A Long-Term Perspective For Informed Management Of A Fynbos Nature Reserve, James Macpherson

The Plymouth Student Scientist

This investigation proposes that long-term perspectives are essential in ecological conservation/restoration. Such a perspective is particularly important for fynbos, which has been substantially altered by an unspecified level of anthropogenic disturbance. Fossil pollen and micro-charcoal deposits are used to establish a proxy record for ecosystem state that can be applied to conservation. This is carried out at a nature reserve in the Langeberg Range, Western Cape, South Africa. Modern pollen-vegetation relationships are also examined to reduce inaccuracies in the fossil record. Three distinct phases are identified for the reserve over a period extending up to ~1000 years before present (BP). …

Can Children Use Similarity Between Actions To Learn Grammar?, Fiona Anning

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The present study was a replication and extension of Casenhiser and Goldberg (2005). Children aged 5;0 to 7;6 were assigned to one of two training conditions, either they were only taught novel verbs in a novel construction paired with appearance scenes or they were additionally trained on novel verbs in the transitive construction. All participants were assessed on both word orders with new novel verbs using a forced-choice comprehension test. The children in both conditions performed significantly worse on the appearance items than the causative trials, which fails to replicate the original study. The translation post-test responses suggest that poor …

Conservation Genetics And Systematics Of Several Turtles Species In The Southeastern United States, Joshua Robert Ennen

Dissertations

Chelonians (i.e., turtles) are an imperiled group of reptiles with about 66% of the recognized species listed as threatened by the IUCN. Most chelonian species have a unique set of life history traits (i.e., longevity, delayed sexual maturity, and low juvenile survivorship), which makes their populations exceedingly sensitive to increases in adult and juvenile moralities. With numerous anthropogenic effects (e.g., habitat alteration, exploitation, and over harvesting) negatively influencing mortality rates, chelonians have experienced global precipitous declines and extinctions.

This dissertation focuses on species within two chelonian genera, Gopherus and Graptemys. Although these two genera are vastly different ecologically, they are …

The Effect Of The Alabama Mathematics, Science, And Technology Initiative (Amsti) On Middle School Students' Scores In Mathematics And Science, Toni Boyd Ramey

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the application of the Alabama Mathematics, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) program in middle schools reduced the gaps found between students' CRT scores; specifically, did the gaps found in the CRT scores within the respective subgroups race, gender, SES, and special/regular education narrow? The subject areas considered by this study were mathematics and science. Student-level data were collected and examined for longitudinal changes over a three year period in which the AMSTI program was implemented at two participating public middle schools. The dependent variables used were mathematics and science CRT scores …

Teaching Science In Light Of World View: The Effect Of Contextualized Instruction On The Scientific Compatibility Of Religious College Students' World Views, Paula Rae Gossard

Dissertations

Authors of recent science reform documents promote the goal of scientific literacy for all Americans (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989, 1993). Some students, however, feel apprehensive about learning science due to perceptions that science is antagonistic to their world views (Alters, 2005; Esbenshade, 1993). This study investigated the effect of an introductory science course taught in the context of a Christian, theistic world view on the scientific compatibility of religious college students' world views. For the purposes of this study, students' understanding of the nature of science, affective attitudes toward science, and beliefs regarding creation were used …

Source-Message-Receiver In Integrated Marketing Communication: A Study Of U.S. Institutional Advancement, Sharee Leblanc Broussard

Dissertations

Because integrated marketing communication (IMC) research has traditionally been problematic, this study used an existing scale to determine that higher educational institutional advancement (alumni, marketing-communications, development) is an appropriate venue to study the process model. Responses from practitioners representing every department within advancement, every regional accrediting body and each of the baccalaureate to doctoral Carnegie Classification levels indicated the IMC process model is both understood and its tenets practiced by practitioners at all sizes and levels of institution. The study was of interest to the practitioners as more than half of the respondents requested a copy of the results. Additionally, …

Il-4(-/-) Mice With Lethal Mesocestoides Corti Infections--Reduced Th2 Cytokines And Alternatively Activated Macrophages., A. E. O'Connell, L. A. Kerepesi, G. L. Vandergrift, D. R. Herbert, T J. Van Winkle, D. C. Hooper, E J. Pearce, D. Abraham

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Protection against Mesocestoides corti, a cestode that invades vital organs, is dependent on the production of IL-4, as IL-4(-/-) mice were found to have higher parasite burdens when compared with wild-type mice. The goal of this study was to investigate the role of IL-4 in immunity to M. corti, focusing on the immunological profile and on potential mediators of pathology. IL-4(-/-) mice infected with M. corti showed 100% mortality by 32 days, whereas wild-type mice survived for approximately 1 year. Parasite burdens were significantly increased in the liver, peritoneal, and thoracic cavities of IL-4(-/-) mice, associated with impaired recruitment of …

Inactivation Of The Fliy Gene Encoding A Flagellar Motor Switch Protein Attenuates Mobility And Virulence Of Leptospira Interrogans Strain Lai, Sumei Liao, Ai-Hua Sun, David M. Ojcius, Senlin Wu, Jinfang Zhao, Jie Yan

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Background: Pathogenic Leptospira species cause leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease of global importance. The spirochete displays active rotative mobility which may contribute to invasion and diffusion of the pathogen in hosts. FliY is a flagellar motor switch protein that controls flagellar motor direction in other microbes, but its role in Leptospira, and paricularly in pathogenicity remains unknown.

Results: A suicide plasmid for the fliY gene of Leptospira interrogans serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae serovar Lai strain Lai that was disrupted by inserting the ampicillin resistance gene (bla) was constructed, and the inactivation of fliY gene in a mutant (fliY-) was confirmed by PCR and …

The Sound-Symbolic Expression Of Animacy In Amazonian Ecuador, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

Several anthropologists of Amazonian societies in Ecuador have claimed that for Achuar [1] and Quichua speaking Runa [2,3,4] there is no fundamental distinction between humans on the one hand, and plants and animals on the other. A related observation is that Runa and Achuar people share an animistic cosmology whereby animals, plants, and even seemingly inert entities such as rocks and stones are believed to have a life force or essence with a subjectivity that can be expressed. This paper will focus on Quichua speaking Runa to seek linguistic evidence for animacy by examining the sound-symbolic properties of a class …

The Un International Commission Of Inquiry On Darfur: New And Disturbing Findings, Samuel Totten

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Following a US referral of the Darfur crisis to the United Nations, the UN under- took the UN Commission of Inquiry into Darfur. In late January 2005, following an analysis of the data collected by the UN’s COI team, the UN declared that while it found crimes against humanity had been committed by the government of Sudan (GoS) and the Janjaweed (Arab militia), it did not find evidence that the GoS had perpetrated genocide. Herein, Samuel Totten, argues that a correct analysis of the data collected by the COI team would have been genocide. In addition to offering a critique …