Digital Commons Network^™

Variations In Sea Surface Roughness Induced By The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Tsunami, O. A. Godin, V. G. Irisov, R. R. Leben, B. D. Hamlington, G. A. Wick

CCPO Publications

Observations of tsunamis away from shore are critically important for improving early warning systems and understanding of tsunami generation and propagation. Tsunamis are difficult to detect and measure in the open ocean because the wave amplitude there is much smaller than it is close to shore. Currently, tsunami observations in deep water rely on measurements of variations in the sea surface height or bottom pressure. Here we demonstrate that there exists a different observable, specifically, ocean surface roughness, which can be used to reveal tsunamis away from shore. The first detailed measurements of the tsunami effect on sea surface height …

Enso And Variability Of The Antarctic Peninsula Pelagic Marine Ecosystem, Valerie J. Loeb, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck, Osmund Holm-Hansen, Warren B. White

CCPO Publications

The West Antarctic Peninsula region is an important source of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Southern Ocean. From 1980-2004 abundance and concentration of phytoplankton and zooplankton, krill reproductive and recruitment success and seasonal sea ice extent here were significantly correlated with the atmospheric Southern Oscillation Index and exhibited three- to five-year frequencies characteristic of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability. This linkage was associated with movements of the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front and Boundary, a changing influence of Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Weddell Sea waters, and eastward versus westward flow and mixing processes that are consistent with forcing by …

Southern Ocean Globec Research And The Future, Eileen Hofmann

CCPO Publications

(First paragraph) The International Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) Programme will end in early 2010, after almost 20 years. GLOBEC science has provided fundamental changes in our understanding of the scales of interactions in marine ecosystems, alternative views of marine food webs, and the influence of humans in marine ecosystem processes. Since Southern Ocean GLOBEC (SO GLOBEC) was one of the regional research programmes it is appropriate to reflect on i) its specific contributions, ii) how these might guide future Southern Ocean research, and iii) the key gaps for our future understanding of Southern Ocean ecosystems and the impact that …

Multiple Stable Reference Points In Oyster Populations: Biological Relationships For The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) In Delaware Bay, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klinck, Kathryn A. Ashton-Alcox, John N. Kraeuter

CCPO Publications

In the first of two companion papers, a 54-yr time series for the oyster population in the New Jersey waters of Delaware Bay was analyzed to develop biological relationships necessary to evaluate maximum sustainable yield (MSY) reference points and to consider how multiple stable points affect reference point-based management. The time series encompassed two regime shifts, one circa 1970 that ushered in a 15-yr period of high abundance, and a second in 1985 that ushered in a 20-yr period of low abundance. The intervening and succeeding periods have the attributes of alternate stable states. The biological relationships between abundance, recruitment, …

Encyclopedic History Of Utah State University, Robert Parson

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

From "A-day" to "Women's Athletics", this encyclopedic history of Utah State University by USU University Archivist Robert Parson covers people, buildings, programs, events, organizations, songs, school colors, traditions, and more.

Mathematical Aids Epidemic Model: Preferential Anti-Retroviral Therapy Distribution In Resource Constrained Countries, Nadia Abuelezam

HMC Senior Theses

HIV/AIDS is one of the largest health problems the world is currently facing. Even with anti-retroviral therapies (ART), many resource-constrained countries are unable to meet the treatment needs of their infected populations. ART-distribution methods need to be created that prevent the largest number of future HIV infections. We have developed a compartment model that tracks the spread of HIV in multiple two-sex populations over time in the presence of limited treatment. The model has been fit to represent the HIV epidemic in rural and urban areas in Uganda. With the model we examine the spread of HIV among urban and …

Leisure And Liberal Education: A Plea For Uselessness, John E. Jalbert

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

A liberal education informs a person in the proper use of leisure. Liberal education, as the word liberal suggests, is intimately connected with the idea of personal freedom.

The central role of the liberal or liberating arts is to free us, if only for short periods of time, from mundane affairs, from the need to subordinate our lives, wills, and intellects to external demands, from the need—whether real or merely felt—to place ourselves under the sway of the marketplace in order to make a living. After all, human excellence requires more than the material ends that are procured through labor, …

Blood Culture And The Problem Of Decadence, Jeffrey P. Cain

English Faculty Publications

This paper examines the commodification of hunting practices via the deterritorializing function of capitalism described by Deleuze and Guattari. It also studies counter trends-- predicted by or consistent with Deleuzean theory--that indicate a subtending authenticity displayed by certain hunting practices apparently resistant to commercial exploitation. "Blood culture" is my term for inauthentic hunting activity--a distinction drawn directly by Deleuze in his televised interviews with Claire Parnet. Aspects of "becoming-animal" and other transversal and cross-disciplinary flows of thought are also of course in play. As in some of my former work, I again argue for a Deleuzean cultural mechanics of the …

Achievement Of Boys And Girls In Single-Gender Kindergarten Classrooms At One Elementary School In Western Michigan, Celeste L. Diehm

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The impact of single gender classrooms on kindergarten students’ acquisition of literacy skills was investigated in this research project. A sample of 144 kindergarten students in one public school district in western Michigan participated in this quasi-experimental, quantitative study during the 2008-09 school year.

The development of reading skills is important for a child’s success throughout his or her educational career and is influenced by many factors. This study explored the impact of the variables of age, developmental readiness, socioeconomic status, family structure, and teacher experience on the acquisition of literacy skills among children in different classroom compositions including all-girls, …

Vigilance Behavior And Land Use By Sandhill Cranes (Grus Canadensis), Trevor Eldred

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

I investigated how vigilance in sandhill crane time budgets changed with behavioral, climatic, and anthropogenic factors. I measured two different postures that could be interpreted as vigilance. Cranes significantly altered the time spent in the alert investigative posture with differences in gender and modal non-vigilant behavior. They significantly altered the time spent in the tall alert posture with differences in gender, breeding status, time of day, traffic on the nearest road, and human disturbances. The southern Michigan populations of sandhill cranes nest closer to roads and houses than they have in the past and do not preferentially avoid them. They …

Animals As Vulnerable Subjects: Beyond Interest-Convergence, Hierarchy, And Property, Ani B. Satz

Animal Law Review

This Article presents a new paradigm, premised on the equal protection principle, for the legal regulation of human interactions with domestic animals: Equal Protection of Animals (EPA). EPA combines the insights of vulnerability theorists with the equal protection principle and capability theory to create a mechanism for recognizing the equal claims of human and nonhuman animals to protections against suffering. Under such an approach, domestic animals—like humans—have claims to food, hydration, shelter, bodily integrity (including avoiding pain), companionship, and the ability to exercise and to engage in natural behaviors of movement.

Existing animal welfare and anti-cruelty laws, despite their stated …

The Thrifty Gene Hypothesis: Considering The Significance Of A 47-Year Old Theory, William Graham

Quill & Scope

The thrifty gene hypothesis suggests that a unique genetic profile passed down from our hunter-gatherer predecessors has contributed to the increased incidence of diabetes and obesity in particular Western populations. This highly contentious theory has been met with both support and skepticism from the research community. Debate surrounding the identification of particular 'thrifty genes has been ongoing, and alternative theories have been presented to debunk or refute the hypothesis. I argue that such discussions have distracted from the understanding of the significance of the hypothesis, and propose some alternative options for settling the debate.

Vindicating Vaccines, Poonam Kaushal

Quill & Scope

Autism, an atypical complication of vaccines, has single-handedly created a public health controversy regarding the overall efficacy of vaccinating children. While experts battled out their positions in newspaper articles and TV talk shows, measles cases have been on the rise, cumulating in 2008 with the most cases since 1996. The public controversy coupled with landmark federal cases have allowed the layperson to think that vaccines are indeed harmful and as such has seemingly discouraged their use in health maintenance. Emphasis has shifted away from the appropriate scientific criterion that determines the relationship, or lack thereof, between vaccines and autism. In …

Media Misinterpretation, James Naples

Quill & Scope

There have been a great number of news articles that focus on clinical health issues that manifest themselves as a result of a faulty genome. The media's interpretation and translation of scientific research aimed at understanding the human genome may be inappropriately presented to the lay public. In its presentation the media seems to have created a public that is unwilling to accept responsibility for their personal health, particularly in regards to the diagnosis of ADHD and obesity. This article explores the ramifications of media influence on public perception of these two diseases.

Theoretical And Practical Utility Of Gene Sequences In Phylogenetic And Phylogeographic Analysis, Robert Aaron Makowsky

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Phylogenetics, or the study of evolutionary relationships among organisms, is a rapidly changing field due primarily to the dramatic increase in available molecular characters and increasingly sophisticated theoretical and computational methods. Current phylogenetic methods, though, poorly handle such large datasets due to the extremely large number of calculations required. In this dissertation, I focus on a method that can reduce datasets with a large number of molecular characters and at the same time optimize the performance of phylogenetic methods. Chapter 1 provides background information about phylogenetic methods, with a specific emphasis on Bayesian phylogenetic methods. MrBayes is the most common …

Essay: Telling Stories Of Shareholder Supremacy, Daniel J.H. Greenwood

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

At its core, corporate law, like most law, is a morality play. Its internal structure is not determined by logic, justice, or efficiency. Instead, doctrine and action alike flow from a highly contested argument over status and position. Holmes had it partly right: "[t]he life of the law has not been logic." But it has not "been experience," a non-reflective naive pragmatism or a mere superstructure passively reflecting underlying class struggle, either. The law is a conflict of narratives. The stories it tells have independent power that can influence, as well as be influenced by, the struggles that create it …

2008 Patent Law Decisions Of The Federal Court A Review Of Recent Decisions Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit: Area Summaries, Todd Zubler, Nina Tallon, Jamie Wisz, Jamaica Szeliga

American University Law Review

The United States Supreme Court took a slight breather from patent-law issues in 2008. After issuing three patent-law decisions in 2007 (including KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc.), the Court issued just one patent-law decision in 2008—Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. Despite the Supreme Court’s slower pace, however, the Court’s influence loomed large in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2008. In a number of cases, the Federal Circuit continued to work through the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent precedents, most notably KSR and the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay Inc. …

Towards A Greener Future: Gc-Ms Analysis Of Poly-3-Hydroxybutyrate (P3hb) Content In Panicum Virgatum., Adesh Seuraj

Theses & ETDs

Plastic production has increased markedly over the last hundred years. With greater consumption rates today, than ever before, serious attention to the consequential and fringe effects of the plastic industry has provoked the scientific interests of ecologically minded individuals. A non-polluting alternative is the use of plants to produce plastics that are biodegradable, easily commercialized, and specialized for aesculapian applications. In the formulation of a more benign product, the performance integrity and properties of traditional plastics remains uncompromised. Butanolysis is a primary screening technique for the presence of poly-3- hydroxybutyrate in the early life cycles of a plant. At Metabolix, …

Reading The Signs: Techniques Of Conservation Genetics Applied To Bobcats (Lynx Rufus) And Pumas (Puma Concolor), Eldridge Wisely

Theses & ETDs

Species determination of the origin of scats is a useful technique in the field of carnivore conservation and monitoring. Because most felids are cryptic and dangerous to study, methods of non-invasive monitoring are commonly used. Better, more standardized methods of species determination of scats could vastly improve conservation efforts for these animals. This pilot study examines the new universal primer and sequencing technique by applying it to scat samples from five pumas and five bobcats. An identification success rate of 80% was obtained for pumas and 75% for bobcats. Nucleotide BLAST alignments were created for each successfully sequenced sample, and …

Temporal Sequence Analysis Of Bottlenose Dolphin Vocalizations, Joshua T. Abbott

Theses & ETDs

This investigation explores the usefulness of statistical language processing methods for analyzing structure in sequences of vocalizations produced by Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). The inherent difficulties underlying such a process are examined and a suite of methods is established for the desired analysis. To date, few studies have addressed all the categories of dolphin vocalizations within a single analysis or the sequences in which they are produced. A protocol was developed to identify categories spanning the dolphin vocal repertoire and to define sequences of vocalizations. Varying datasets were constructed from an identified corpus to discriminate between differences in potential …

Pervasive Hitchhiking At Coding And Regulatory Sites In Humans, James J. Cai, J. Michael Macpherson, Guy Sella, Dmitri A. Petrov

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Much effort and interest have focused on assessing the importance of natural selection, particularly positive natural selection, in shaping the human genome. Although scans for positive selection have identified candidate loci that may be associated with positive selection in humans, such scans do not indicate whether adaptation is frequent in general in humans. Studies based on the reasoning of the MacDonald–Kreitman test, which, in principle, can be used to evaluate the extent of positive selection, suggested that adaptation is detectable in the human genome but that it is less common than in Drosophila or Escherichia coli. Both positive and purifying …

Undergraduate Bulletin 2009-2010, John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

College Bulletins

No abstract provided.

Detecting Sexual Assault Perpetration And Victimization : Effect Of Sexual Experiences Survey Item Wording, Elizabeth Diane Kolivas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Atmospheric Soluble Dust Records From A Tibetan Ice Core: Possible Climate Proxies And Teleconnection With The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, B. Grigholm, P. A. Mayewski, S. Kang, Y. Zhang, Susan Kaspari, S. B. Sneed, Q. Zhang

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

In autumn 2005, a joint expedition between the University of Maine and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research recovered three ice cores from Guoqu Glacier (33°34′37.8″N, 91°10′35.3″E, 5720 m above sea level) on the northern side of Mt. Geladaindong, central Tibetan Plateau. Isotopes (δ¹⁸O), major soluble ions (Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻), and radionuclide (β‐activity) measurements from one of the cores revealed a 70‐year record (1935–2005). Statistical analysis of major ion time series suggests that atmospheric soluble …

The 2009 Revision To The Phrma Code On Interactions With Healthcare Professionals: Challenges And Opportunities For The Pharmaceutical Industry In The Age Of Compliance, Howard L. Dorfman

Campbell Law Review

This Article will describe the basic tenets of the 2009 PhRMA Code, how the 2009 PhRMA Code has been relied upon by at least one state in crafting its own response to the industry-healthcare professional debate, and it will conclude with a brief overview of pending activity apart from the self-policing guidance of the 2009 PhRMA Code with an outlook on the future of the compliance debate.

Arresting Development: A Call For North Carolina To Expand Its Forensic Database By Collecting Dna From Felony Arrestees, John Maddux

Campbell Law Review

For nearly twenty years, state and federal law enforcement agencies have turned to DNA databases as a means of identifying offenders, generating leads in cold cases, and on occasion, exonerating the innocent. Naturally, the larger the database, the more likely it is that a new DNA profile entered into the system will generate a match. Currently, fifty states maintain DNA databases, and of those, forty-seven-including North Carolina-collect and store DNA profiles from all persons convicted of any felony offense. Statutes requiring the collection of DNA profiles from convicts are a positive step toward improving the database tools; however, by only …

Quality Instruction Creates Higher Student Learning, Kelly Jan Austin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Many agree that science education is in need of reform, due to the fact that America is falling behind other industrialized nations in measures of science performance. In order to revolutionize the direction of this discipline is it up to the educators to implement changes in their classroom. It seems that our educational settings know what needs to be done in order to reach higher standards of achievement, however it is concerning that schools aren’t taking the steps necessary to reach these levels. In trying to enhance student learning, there are several methods in science education that are targeted at …

Isolation Of A 3-Methylindole-Producing Bacterium From A Swine Waste Lagoon, Michelle L. Fusting

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

With an increase in animal production closer to populated areas, odorants from animal waste are a rapidly rising concern. 3-Methylindole (3-MI) is an odorant produced from the biodegradation of L-tryptophan by bacteria in animal waste. Currently, no 3-MI producing bacterium has been isolated from swine waste, and isolation of such an organism would provide insight into production and regulation of 3-MI. Therefore, an experiment was designed to isolate a 3-MI producer based on previous work which indicates the presence of Fe(III) increases 3-MI levels. An Enterococcus sp. was isolated from WKU's primary swine waste lagoon in rich, anaerobic medium plus …

Effects Of Drought The Lipid Content In Fundulus Catenatus, Angelena Edwards

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

During severe drought, small streams often dry to small isolated pools with subsequent high densities of fishes. Under such conditions, fish may be stressed by high temperatures, low food availability, and lack of refugia from predators. I was interested in whether fish restricted to isolated pools burn more calories than they take in, resulting in a loss of storage lipids (high energy molecules) in their bodies. During the 2007 drought, I collected Fundulus catenatus (northern studfish) from small stream communities in the Drake’s Creek watershed in south central Kentucky. I examined storage lipid content by processing each fish through a …

Reactions Of Cisplatin Analogs With Selenomethionine, Rebekkah Lively

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Cisplatin is a well-known anti-cancer drug that is effective, but also has some severe and unwanted side effects. Analogs of cisplatin were reacted with the nonstandard amino acid selenomethionine (SeMet), and the products were characterized by 1H and 195Pt NMR spectroscopy and HPLC. In previous studies, SeMet was found to react faster than methionine (Met) with a representative platinum complex (Pt(dien)Cl2), therefore SeMet is said to react faster kinetically. Thus, while only a subset of proteins have selenium-containing amino acids, platinum complexes could target them kinetically. Cisplatin analogs with two leaving groups have also been studied. Pt(Me4en)(NO3)2 (Me4en = N,N,N’,N’-tetramethylethylenediamine) …