Digital Commons Network^™

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

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Superpixel Segmentation Of Outdoor Webcams To Infer Scene Structure, Rachel Tannenbaum

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Understanding an outdoor sceneΓÇÖs 3-D structure has applications in several ∩¼üelds, including surveillance and computer graphics. Scene elementsΓÇÖ time-series brightness gives insight to their geometric orientation; and thus the 3-D structure of the overall scene. Previous works have studied the time-series brightness of individual pixels. However, there are limitations with this approach. Pixels are often quite noisy, and can require a lot of memory. This thesis explores the use of superpixels to address these issues. Superpixels, an approach to image segmentation, over-segment a scene but attempt to ensure that each segment lies on only one scene element. Applying superpixels to …

Getting Out Of Wonderland: Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, And Anne Sexton, Jessica Mccort

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This project examines the appropriation of children's literature, particularly Grimm's and Andersen's fairy tales and Lewis Carroll's Alice books, by Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, and Anne Sexton. Influenced by the cultural fixation on the child and the increasing popularity of Freudian discourse in American culture, the rise of confessional poetry, and second-wave feminist interest in female socialization, Bishop, Plath, Rich, and Sexton pursued in their poetry and prose an investigation of self and social formation that was simultaneously rooted in the public exhumation of the personal past and the personalized exploration of the dominant narratives of girlhood purveyed …

Identification And Characterization Of A Xylosylphosphotransferase Of Cryptococcus Neoformans, Morgann Reilly

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Cryptococcus neoformans is an environmental yeast and an opportunistic pathogen capable of causing a meningoencephalitis in human hosts. The organism produces an extensive polysaccharide capsule that is unique among pathogenic fungi and absolutely required for its virulence. Work in the Doering laboratory on the capsule and other glycoconjugates of C. neoformans has focused on the identification of glycosyltransferases, enzymes that catalyze the transfer of a sugar moiety from an active donor to a specific acceptor, creating a particular linkage. Previous work demonstrated that xylose residues, derived from the nucleotide sugar UDP-xylose, are necessary for cryptococcal virulence. An assay to detect …

Developing New Methodologies For Crosslinked Polymeric Nanostructure Syntheses, Chemoselective Modifications, And Applications As Imaging And Delivery Agents, Guorong Sun

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The overall emphasis of this dissertation research includes the syntheses of amphiphilic block copolymers bearing functional groups through controlled radical polymerization techniques, followed by the aqueous assembly of these block copolymer precursors to construct polymeric nanostructures with different sizes and morphologies. Further chemical modification of the nanostructures afforded functional crosslinked nano-objects with reporting probes for imaging and biocompatible "stealth" materials for tuning the in vivo fate of nanostructures. Amphiphilic block copolymers poly(acrylic acid)-block-polystyrene: PAA-b-PS) with well-defined structures were prepared through nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization: NMP). Using novel pre-functionalization strategies, these block copolymer precursors were functionalized with DOTA for chelating 64Cu and …

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 …

Generation And Circuit Development Of Zebrafish Retinal Horizontal Cells, Philip Williams

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The construction of functional neuronal circuits requires proper coordination of many developmental processes. Neurons must be generated in the proper number and migrate to their mature locations within the nervous system. Upon completion and sometimes during neuronal migration, neurons must elaborate complex dendritic and axonal arbors and then form precise synaptic connections in the background of a plethora of possible synaptic partners. Glial cells must also establish specialized associations with a number of neuronal structures including synapses and axons. In order to create a detailed understanding of how a neuron progresses through all of these stages of development, I have …

Development Of Shell-Crosslinked Knedel-Like Nanoparticles As Intracellular Delivery Vehicles And Gene Regulation Agents, Ke Zhang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation focuses on the development of polymer-based nanomaterials, termed shell-crosslinked knedel-like: SCK) nanoparticles, as vehicles to carry specific guest molecules or guest structures into the cell. Detailed synthetic procedures for and characterization of well-defined block copolymers, as well as the nanostructures resulted from their self-assembly are reported. The nanoparticles exhibited different but controlled sizes and shapes, depending on the conditions for their preparation. To incorporate functionality into these materials, both pre- and post-particle functionalization methods, as well as their combination, were used. The nanostructures involved in this dissertation include protein transduction domain: PTD)-functionalized SCK, folate-functionalized SCK and cationic SCK: …

Correlating Orphaned Windows Registry Data Structures, Damir Kahvedžić, Tahar Kechadi

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Recently, it has been shown that deleted entries of the Microsoft Windows registry (keys) may still reside in the system files once the entries have been deleted from the active database. Investigating the complete keys in context may be extremely important from both a Forensic Investigation point of view and a legal point of view where a lack of context can bring doubt to an argument. In this paper we formalise the registry behaviour and show how a retrieved value may not maintain a relation to the part of the registry it belonged to and hence lose that context. We …

Telecommunications Liberalisation In Africa: Proposed Regulatory Model For The Sadc Region, Z. N. Jobodwana

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The liberalisation of the telecommunication industry in Africa, and the further development of the region’s physical infrastructure was accompanied by the further development of Africa’s information, communication and technology infrastructure. Competition within the industry stimulated heavy economic investment in other sectors of the economy. The outcome of liberalisation also included the establishment of community-based structures that continue to enable communities to manage their own development and gain access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in an unprecedented manner. The telecommunication infrastructure further stimulated the fast development of other related services, for example, ecommerce and mobile commerce (m-commerce), e-government, internet banking, …

Computational And Experimental Investigation Of Allosteric Communication In The Transcriptional Regulator Nikr, Michael Bradley

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The Ni2+ and DNA binding protein NikR is involved in nickel regulation in Escherichia coli through transcriptional repression of the NikABCDE nickel permease. NikR is a homotetramer and each chain contains both a DNA binding ribbon-helix-helix: RHH) domain and a Ni2+ binding regulatory ACT: aspartokinase, chorismate mutase, TyrA) fold. Work herein combines computational modeling of NikR structure with experimental studies aimed at understanding allosteric communication between the ACT and RHH domains. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry shows a Ni2+ specific NikR conformational change relative to bound Cu2+, Co2+, and Zn2+. Concurrent coordination geometry and in vivo repressor function studies show that …

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 …

Optimization Strategies For Electrospun Silk Fibroin Tissue Engineering Scaffolds, Kristopher Kubow

Selected Works

No abstract provided.

‘What’S Fair Is Foul?’: Understanding Fair Use In The Classroom, Traci Zimmerman

Selected Works

No abstract provided.

Viral Marketing In Tertiary Level Educational Establishments, Vicky O'Sullivan

Theses

Technological evolutions, principally developments in electronic and digital social media, have introduced new marketing paradigms, such as viral marketing. Viral marketing is a relatively new phenomenon which offers marketing practitioners significant opportunities to reach target audiences in a credible and attention grabbing way.

Students have rapidly adopted new social technologies, and they use these media to enrich existing offline personal relationships that they have with friends within their tertiary level environment. Students have a predilection to forward messages to friends, and value messages they receive from friends. This is because students trust friends, and also believe that friends will know …

Through A Scanner Darkly: The Use Of Fmri As Evidence Of Mens Rea, Teneille Brown, Emily R. Murphy

Journal of Law and Health

Tonight we are pleased to host an event exploring fMRI and its legal significance. Although [neuroimaging] is still an emerging technology, it has proven to be very consequential in at least one situation. In September 2008, the New York Times reported that a court in India allowed the use of brain scan images in a criminal case, which ultimately led to the conviction of an Indian woman accused of poisoning her fiance. To this day, the Indian woman maintains her innocence. Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford Law School and a colleague of our speakers, commented on the verdict, [characterizing …

Double-Edged Sword: Russia’S Use Of Energy As Leverage In The Near Abroad, Alexander M. Visotzky

Honors Papers

This work explores Russia’s use of energy as leverage in the near abroad. This work argues that different strategies of using energy, such as moderation or aggression, lead to different outcomes in the near abroad. The current work on Russian foreign policy fails to provide an explanation for the wildly different outcomes of Georgia and Ukraine – this work seeks to fill in those gaps.

A Baseline Greenhouse Gas Inventory For Oberlin: Stepping Up To The Challenge Of Climate Neutrality, Nathaniel Flaschner Meyer

Honors Papers

The City of Oberlin joined the International Council for Leadership in Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) in 2007, committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through ICLEI's five-milestone process. As the first official step in this process, I conducted greenhouse gas inventories for the years 2001 and 2007 for community-wide and municipal operations emissions. I found that the community emitted 174,400 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007, more than half of which was associated with the consumption of coal-intensive electricity. This amounts to 20.9 tons CO2e per resident annually. Of the community's overall emissions, the commercial sector, including all Oberlin College properties, …

Second Class Citizens: Illinois' Rural Uninsured And The Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act, Bill Metzinger

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Coal Ash Waste: A History Of Legislative Inaction, Jessica Lienau

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

California Bans Gay Marriage By Simple Majority Vote, Clay Rehrig

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Illinois Schools Face Up To Facebook: Mandating Internet Safety Instructions In Illinois Public Schools, Lauren Rafferty

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

New Illinois Internet Grooming Law: When Individual Rights Collide With Public Policy, Jeremy Moorehouse

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Chicago 2016 Olympics: Legislative Impact On Construction, The Public And The Affordable Housing Market, Chantal Kazay

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Chicago's School Reform: No "Miracles" Here, Michael Klonsky

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Advocacy And Obstacles In The Education Of Homeless Children And Youth In Illinois, Laurene M. Heybach

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

U.S. To Aid In Fight Against Iran's Internet Censorship, Brian Patient

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Civil Rights Movement In 1968, George C. Wright

President Emeritus George C. Wright Speeches

No abstract provided.

Relational Being: Beyond Self And Community, Kenneth J. Gergen

Psychology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Davis V. Fec: Closing The Road To Washington For Joe The Plumber, Sameer Vadera

Maryland Law Review Online

No abstract provided.