Digital Commons Network^™

Financial Crisis And Future Securities Regulation, Mark Collins

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Observable: Examining Self-Reported Well-Being In People With Dementia, Wingyun Mak

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The well-being of people with dementia is not well understood. Researchers often measure their well-being through observational methods or via proxies, but self-report is rarely used. Recently there is evidence that people with mild to moderate dementia are able to give reliable reports of their well-being, but empirical work in this area is limited. Most dementia-specific measures focus on mood or life satisfaction, and there are few that gauge more existential aspects of well-being: e.g., purpose in life). This study tested the use of a non-dementia-specific well-being measure in people with mild to moderate dementia. The relationship between goal pursuit, …

A Thesis Towards Development Of An Occupational Therapy Game System For Stroke Patients, Emily Yang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Persons who have suffered from stroke participate in occupational therapy to help recover occupational functionality, but therapy is expensive and maximal recovery often depends on repetitive, tedious exercises to be done by patients both in therapy sessions and on their own. Often patients do not have the resources or motivation to complete the treatment required to give them the best results. This thesis is presented as part of a larger project in which we aim to enable occupational therapists to use the Looking Glass programming environment to create computer games for their patients that can be played inexpensively and effectively, …

Adaptive Middleware For Resource-Constrained Mobile Ad Hoc And Wireless Sensor Networks, Chien-Liang Fok

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Mobile ad hoc networks: MANETs) and wireless sensor networks: WSNs) are two recently-developed technologies that uniquely function without fixed infrastructure support, and sense at scales, resolutions, and durations previously not possible. While both offer great potential in many applications, developing software for these types of networks is extremely difficult, preventing their wide-spread use. Three primary challenges are: 1) the high level of dynamics within the network in terms of changing wireless links and node hardware configurations,: 2) the wide variety of hardware present in these networks, and: 3) the extremely limited computational and energy resources available. Until now, the burden …

The Spinster (2009), Hollins University

The Spinster

Yearbook of Hollins University (previously College)

Modeling And Identification Of Differentially Regulated Genes Using Transcriptomics And Proteomics Data, Thanura Elvitigala

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Photosynthetic organisms are complex dynamical systems, showing a remarkable ability to adapt to different environmental conditions for their survival. Mechanisms underlying the coordination between different cellular processes in these organisms are still poorly understood. In this dissertation we utilize various computational and modeling techniques to analyze transcriptomics and proteomics data sets from several photosynthetic organisms. We try to use changes in expression levels of genes to study responses of these organisms to various environmental conditions such as availability of nutrients, concentrations of chemicals in growth media, and temperature. Three specific problems studied here are transcriptomics modifications in photosynthetic organisms under …

Discovery Of Inactive E* Conformations In Thrombin And Other Vitamin K- Dependent Clotting Proteases, Alaji Bah

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Serine proteases of the chymotrypsin family play important roles in the regulation and function of numerous biological processes including digestion, blood coagulation, fibrinolysis, development, fertilization, apoptosis and immunity. For many of these proteases, activity unfolds when a zymogen is activated by limited proteolysis and the associated conformational changes result in the formation of a proper active site and oxyanion hole, both of which are required for efficient hydrolysis of peptide bonds. The transition from zymogen to active enzyme, E, thus provides critical temporal and spatial regulatory mechanism of protease function. Catalytic activity of serine proteases belonging to Vitamin K-dependent clotting …

Chinese Spirit, Russian Soul, And American Materialism: Images Of America In Twentieth-Century Chinese And Russian Travelogues, Rumyana Cholakova

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Chinese Spirit, Russian Soul, and American Materialism: Images of America in Twentieth-Century Chinese and Russian Travelogues This study is concerned with the process of understanding and representation of the Other in travel narratives and the role of the traveler's cultural tradition and ideological beliefs in this process. I explore the images of the United States in some of the most influential twentieth-century Chinese and Russian travelogues. There are deep cultural differences between China and Russia, yet their relationships with the West show certain similarities. The first important parallel is that the contacts with the West was a catalyst in the …

Scheduling Policy Design Using Stochastic Dynamic Programming, Robert Glaubius

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Scheduling policies for open soft real-time systems must be able to balance the competing concerns of meeting their objectives under exceptional conditions while achieving good performance in the average case. Balancing these concerns requires modeling strategies that represent the range of possible task behaviors, and solution techniques that are capable of effectively managing uncertainty in order to discover scheduling policies that are effective across the range of system modes. We develop methods for solving a particular class of task scheduling problems in an open soft real-time setting involving repeating, non-preemptable tasks that contend for a single shared resource. We enforce …

The Changing Face Of Arab-Islamic Terror: 1936 - 2008, Andrew Glauberg

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Role Of Ict In Revolutionary Movements Of The Former Soviet Union, And Why There Are No Roses, Oranges, Or Tulips, In Russia, Andrei Skurtu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Investigations Into Building Block Structure And Method Of Preparation On The Properties Of Nanomaterials, Zicheng Li

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation research is primarily focused on the preparation of polymer-based nanostructures as potential diagnostic agents and therapeutics delivery vehicles. Various polymers, nanoparticles and conjugation techniques were developed to meet the specific requirements of each application. Shell crosslinked nanoparticles: SCKs) are characterized by their structural integrity and available functionality to attach multiple agents on the shell, such as receptor-recognizing or receptor-specific ligands, .imaging agents, Cell transduction components, etc. In this work, SCKs derived from amphiphilic poly(acrylic acid)-block-polystyrene: PAA-b-PS) have been studied as potential diagnostic and therapeutic agent delivery vehicles: Chapters 2 and 4). SCK nanoparticles bearing a cyclic KCRGDC peptide …

A Comparison Of Natural And Synthetic Speech: With And Without Simultaneous Reading, Krista Taake

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

The Applicability Of Simulated Network Attack Results On Small, Terrorist Networks, Stephanie Young

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Placing Federal District Courts In The Judicial Hierarchy, Christina Boyd

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Over forty years after Richardson and Vines: 1967) complained that federal courts have seldom been investigated as a system of interactions," the same problem continues to plague judicial scholarship, particularly concerning federal district courts. Viewed as the sum of its three essays, this dissertation project seeks to remedy this deficit. The project relies on the collection and coding of thousands of case dockets, opinions, and other court documents across multiple years: 2000-2006 for essay 1, 2000-2004 for essays 2 and 3), nearly 30 district courts, and numerous issues areas that together account for about 40 percent of federal district court …

Getting To The Point: Bridging The Gap Between Simple And Complex Catalytic Systems Using Temporal Analysis Of Products (Tap), Xiaolin Zheng

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

One of the key issues in the field of catalysis is to relate the catalyst structure/composition to its activity/selectivity. One way to understand this relationship is to understand the individual role each catalyst component plays in the chemical reaction. Industrial catalysts can be extremely complex in structure and to understand their reaction kinetics, researchers often study simpler surfaces such as single crystals using surface science techniques. This introduces a well-known problem in the field of catalysis commonly referred to as the "pressure and materials gap." Typically, industrial catalyst research is performed under process conditions, which means operating pressures of one …

Understanding Political Involvement Among Disadvantaged Adolescents, Suzanne Pritzker

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Understanding Political Involvement Among Disadvantaged Adolescents by Suzanne Pritzker Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work Washington University in St. Louis, 2009 Professor Amanda Moore McBride, Chairperson Following substantial concern in recent years about youth disengagement from the political arena, 2008 Presidential election data indicate that youth political participation is now on the rise. However, low-income and some ethnic minority youth are substantially less likely to participate and to hold positive attitudes about politics and government than their wealthier and/or White counterparts. This suggests a possible disconnect between ethnic minority or economically disadvantaged youth and the larger …

Colloidal Cdse Quantum Nanowires: Synthesis, Photo-Induced Photoluminescence Enhancement And Fabrication Of Core/Shell, Water-Dispersible Structures, Rui Tang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Solution-liquid-solid: SLS) mechanism is applied to the growth of colloidal CdSe quantum wires. The synthetic conditions are optimized to control the morphology and optical properties of the quantum wires. The effects of the impurities of solvent TOPO during the synthesis were also explored. Photo-induced photoluminescence enhancement phenomenon is observed and studied for the CdSe nanowires. The quantum yield of the ensemble CdSe quantum wires can reach up to 10% after photo-enhanced. Type-I CdSe/CdS core/shell structures were synthesized to improve the emission efficiency of the nanowires. Polymer or silica coated CdSe nanostructures were also synthesized to achieve the water-dispersibility.

An Oversampled Analog To Digital Converter For Acquiring Neural Signals, Grant Williams

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

A third order delta-sigma modulator and associated low-pass digital filter is designed for an analog to digital converter: ADC) for sensing bioelectric phenomena. The third order noise shaping reduces the quantization noise in the baseband and the digital lowpass filter greatly attenuates the out of band quantization noise, increasing the effective number of bits. As part of a neural signal acquisition system designed by The BrainScope Company to capture Electro-Encephalogram: EEG) and Automated Brainstem Response: ABR) signals, this paper describes the design of a third order Delta-Sigma modulator which meets or exceeds the low noise specifications mandated by previous BrainScope …

French Accompanied Keyboard Music (1738-1760): A Study Of Texture And Style Mixture, Nga-Hean Ong

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

French accompanied keyboard music published between the late 1730s and early 1760s generally contains a written-out keyboard part with one or more accompanying instruments. In this genre we find, for the first time, that the keyboard plays an equal, if not the more dominant, role in ensemble chamber music. This repertory has been largely misunderstood and underappreciated because it has frequently been evaluated, not on its own terms, but in terms of accompanied collections from other regions and also in terms of the substantial and substantially different repertories of keyboard music with optional accompanying instrument(s) that flooded the market during …

Targeting The Dimerization Of Erbb Receptor Tyrosine Kinases, Rob Yang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The epidermal growth factor receptor: EGFR) is a membrane receptor tyrosine kinase whose over-activation has been implicated to cause many human cancers. Novel strategies to inhibit the activation of EGF receptors other than the conventional antibody-based and tyrosine kinase inhibitors are virtually non-existent but could provide benefits both in the laboratory and clinical settings. In an effort to expand the current approaches, this thesis focused on targeting the homodimerization of the EGF receptors themselves and the heterodimerization of EGF receptors with the related ErbB2 receptor. Three sub-projects were completed in the process. The first project explored the feasibility of inhibiting …

Women's Labor Markets In Costa Rica, Kelsey Rinehart

Honors Program Theses

In this paper I explore the factors affecting women's labor force participation and wages in Costa Rica. First, I will investigate the role of education in women's labor markets. Second, I address the impact of dual labor markets and government policies on the participation and earnings of women. Finally, I recommend possible policy changes for Costa Rican labor law to benefit women.

The Effect Of Homocysteine On Development Of Contractions And Expression Of Β-Catenin In Chick Embryo Precardiac Mesoderm, Michelle Lee Formanek

Honors Program Theses

In the chick embryo, homocysteine (Hcys) is teratogenic at elevated levels, causing neural tube defects and cardiac malformations. There is evidence for several Hcys mechanisms of action, including inhibition of cyclin A and cdk2 in the cell cycle, increasing cytosolic calcium levels, and acting as a calcium chelator within adhesion molecules. Elevated Hcys also promotes detachment of endothelial cells, increases migration and proliferation of trunk neural crest cells, and acts as an antagonist to the NMDA receptor that mediates sympathetic pathways to the cardiovascular system. Elevated Hcys' effects on the cell cycle, intracellular and blood calcium levels, and cell proliferation …

Telos: An Interactive Platform For Broadcast Management, Andrew L. Knight

Honors Program Theses

The following thesis project is an attempt to consolidate a number of media management tools under a single interface, allowing for a streamlined, yet powerful, approach to the organization and distribution of multimedia content. The Total Electronic Listing Operations Suite, or Telos, is the main component of the thesis and the result of over a year of research and development. The two adjunct components are this review article (a commentary on the process, design, and implementation of the software), and the product overview, available at http://www.uni.edu/unitv/guide.html

Treatment Options For Neuropathic Pain, Sara Akre

Honors Program Theses

Neuropathic pain is caused by injury to or disease of the nervous system. It affects many people around the world and is a symptom of several diseases. In the United States, it is estimated that up to 3% of Americans have neuropathic pain, which costs the healthcare system $40 billion annually (Gilron et al. 2006). It is, unfortunately, difficult to ameliorate or eliminate due to the complexity of the nervous system and its plasticity and is, therefore, a chronic condition. Health care professionals continually struggle to treat patients' pain and, since tolerance to painkillers is easily built up, this often …

How Do Beginning Administrators Navigate Through Their First Year Of The Middle School Principalship?, James D. Cryer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In an effort to understand the positive and negative experiences that principals encounter as they navigate through their first year of administrative duties at the middle school level, this research study examined what events happened during their first year that encouraged the individual to stay in the position or discouraged the individual to leave the position. This study focused on problems and difficulties that arose, specifically associated with the middle school setting. To accomplish this study, three first year middle school principals were interviewed multiple times throughout the year. By collaboratively working with these participants in a phenomenological study, the …

Legal Aspects Of Prior Informed Consent On Access To Genetic Resources, Kuei-Jung Ni

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has been in force, national implementation of the access to and benefit-sharing (ABS) requirement on genetic resources has been flourishing. A requirement of prior informed consent (PIC) by the people controlling access to genetic resources constitutes a major instrument to deter illegal bioprospecting and to ensure fair access to genetic resources.

This Article aims to analyze the continuing global lawmaking on PIC and to conduct a comparative study on how genetically rich nations implement the PIC requirement with a view to examining whether the genuine mandate of the CBD has been fulfilled.

This …

Advertising Obesity: Can The U.S. Follow The Lead Of The Uk In Limiting Television Marketing Of Unhealthy Foods To Children?, David Darwin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Childhood obesity has tripled in the U.S. since the 1970s, and television advertisement of unhealthy foods has been linked to the unhealthy eating habits of children. The United Kingdom, facing a similar problem, promulgated regulations in 2007 banning the advertisement of foods high in fat, sodium, and sugar during programming directed at children below age 16.

In the U.S., industry representatives, public policy advocates, and government officials are debating whether to rely on self-regulation efforts or to implement government-established guidelines. Industry representatives argue that government guidelines would do little to solve the childhood obesity problem and that the UK regulations …

Beyond Economics: The U.S. Recognition Of International Financial Reporting Standards As An International Subdelegation Of The Sec's Rulemaking Authority, Jacob L. Barney

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A final rule promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2008 allowing foreign private securities issuers to prepare SEC-required financial disclosures under international financial reporting standards (IFRS) as promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (LASB) is a highly significant event for U.S. and global capital markets. However, surprisingly few questions have been asked regarding the SEC's legal authority to take such an unprecedented step.

This Note assesses the recent SEC action with regard to IASB from two perspectives--traditional administrative law, with particular emphasis on delegations by government entities to private parties, and international law, with particular emphasis …

Strengthening International Regulation Through Transnational New Governance: Overcoming The Orchestration Deficit, Kenneth W. Abbott, Duncan Snidal

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A new kind of international regulatory system is spontaneously arising out of the failure of international "Old Governance" (i.e., treaties and intergovernmental organizations) to adequately regulate international business. Nongovernmental organizations, business firms, and other actors, singly and in novel combinations, are creating innovative institutions to apply transnational norms to business. These institutions are predominantly private and operate through voluntary standards. The Authors depict the diversity of these new regulatory institutions on the "Governance Triangle," according to the roles of different actors in their operations. To analyze this complex system, we adapt the domestic "New Governance" model of regulation to the …