Digital Commons Network^™

Teacher And Administrator Perceptions Of Technology Use In Two West Virginia Middle Schools, Carrie E. Marcum

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The "digital natives" that are sitting in today's classrooms live their lives surrounded by technology. "The current crop of learners differs in significant ways from previous generations because, unlike their predecessors, they have literally grown up 'digital'" (Simpson & Clem, 2008, p. 2). Teachers and administrators often struggle to keep up with the technological world that students are used to. This mixed-methods study included West Virginia teachers and administrators from two middle schools. Teachers and administrators at the two schools were given surveys that addressed the following: frequency of technology use for personal and professional use, confidence level with various …

Tuning Of Pid Controller Based On Foraging Strategy For Pneumatic Position Control System, Amjad J.

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Pneumatic servo system has been applied in many industry fields. The system has many advantages, such as high speed, high flexibility and low price. However, the application of the system is restricted because the physical parameters have strong nonlinearity, inaccuracy and uncertainty, so that it is very difficult to find an optimal controller by means of traditional control theory. Proportional integral derivative (PID) control is one of the earlier control strategies; it has a simple control structure and can be easily tuned. Optimization of PID controller parameters is one of the recent control solutions; especially when the system is of …

The Sex Trade, Evil And Christian Theology, Glenn M. Harden

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Job Satisfaction Among Minnesota High School Principals, Steven Duwayne Heyd

Theses and Dissertations

It has been reported the demands of the high school principalship in the United States has deterred qualified candidates from accepting the position. The purpose of this study was to investigate levels of job satisfaction among Minnesota high school principals within a potentially dwindling supply of qualified candidates as reported in other studies.

Data were gathered fall 2010 using the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short-form to answer the following research questions: 1. What is the level of intrinsic job satisfaction, extrinsic job satisfaction, and general job satisfaction among current Minnesota high school principals; 2. What is the relationship, as perceived …

Out Of The Blue: A Mother's Memoir Of Our Family's Transgender Experience, Roxanne Moore

Theses and Dissertations

OUT OF THE BLUE: A MOTHER'S MEMOIR OF OUR FAMILY'S TRANSGENDER EXPERIENCE is a memoir about what it has been like to discover that the baby girl I gave birth to almost forty years ago, now identifies as a female to male transgender person. He began his transformation both physically and legally over five years ago. Though it is a story about our entire family's transformation, it focuses mainly on what this has been like for me as a mother and the relationship I have with my first-born child.

Noted psychologist, Arlene Ishtar Lev states in Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines …

Contamination Events And Linkages In World Rice Markets, Mana-Anya Iemsam-Arng

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Mana-anya Iemsam-arng, for the Master's degree in Agribusiness Economics, presented on November 9, 2010, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: Contamination Events and Linkages in World Rice Markets MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Dwight Sanders In August of 2006, genetically modified LibertyLink rice contaminated the supply of non-GMO rice in the United States, causing damage to the U.S. rice production sector's credibility in their export market. The damage to the United States' credibility included doubt as to whether or not they had the ability to separate GMO and non-GMO rice strains during planting and/or production. This …

The Effect Of Dividing Attention On The Maintenance Of Object Representations, Jillian Christine Mayer

Theses

Numerous theories have been developed in explanation of object perception, such as Feature Integration Theory, which posits that an object is perceived after two stages: a pre-attentive stage and a focused attention stage. It is during the focused attention stage that a representation of the perceived object is formed. Theories such as object file theory account for the maintenance of these object representations following their creation. Evidence for object file theory has been provided by studies of the object specific preview benefit. This thesis seeks to examine the effect that dividing attention has on the maintenance of object representations. Using …

Consequence Of Premature And Chronic Luteinizing Hormone Receptor Activation On Testicular Spermatogenic Cell Development, Jesse F. Roewer

Theses

Luteinizing hormone (LH), one of the two gonadotropin hormones released from the anterior pituitary gland, binds to its receptor (LHR) in the gonads to stimulate steroid hormone production, in addition to ovulation and gametogenesis. Mutations of the receptors amino acid sequence have the ability to either constitutively activate or inactivate it. All activating mutations result in male-limited precocious puberty. Males with this condition undergo puberty around 4 years of age, and have a premature elevation in testosterone levels and premature skeletal development. In order to understand how chronic ligand-mediated activation of the LHR affects gonadal development and function, a mouse …

Integrating Second Life Into A Chinese Language Teacher Training Program: A Pilot Study, Hsiu-Jen Cheng, Hong Zhan, Andy Tsai

Publications

Second Life (SL), a 3-D Multi-User Virtual Environment, has been found beneficial to foreign language education because of its immersive and interactive environments. This cross-continental study explored feasibilities of using Second Life to provide field experiences to pre-service Mandarin teachers in a program of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in Taiwan. This study also investigated pre-service teachers‘ insights of teaching Chinese in such a virtual environment, as well as the difficulties these teachers encountered when integrating Second Life in teaching Chinese. The study found that the more teaching experience the pre-service teachers gained in teaching Chinese in Second Life, …

Transcriptional Regulation Of Shigella Virulence Plasmid-Encoded Genes By Virb And Crp, Christopher Thomas Hensley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Shigella flexneri is a species of Gram-negative intracellular pathogens that causes bacillary dysentery in humans. Shigella relies on the precise transcriptional regulation of virulence genes, encoded by a large virulence plasmid, for invasion and infection of human colonic epithelial cells. The transcription of most identified virulence genes are regulated through a cascade controlled by the primary regulator of virulence genes, VirF, and the global transcriptional regulator, VirB. Currently, few studies have addressed how individual Shigella virulence genes are precisely regulated for optimal expression during specific stages of pathogenesis and within the constraints of the regulatory cascade. This work addresses how …

Physiological Implications Of Natural Versus Induced Arousal From Torpor, Jenifer C. Utz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

During the hibernation season, animals oscillate between periods of torpor and periods of interbout arousal (IBA). During torpor, body temperature is often near 0° C and metabolism is severely depressed. Oxygen consumption, a proxy for aerobic metabolism, may fall to 1% of active values. Many physiological processes including cardiovascular, respiratory, and cellular functions nearly cease. During the IBA, euthermic body temperature is restored and most systemic and cellular processes function at fully active levels. The transition period between these two physiologically dissimilar states is called arousal.

The rate of rewarming (RRW) during arousal was previously expected to progressively increase until …

Reconstructing Species Responses To Past Climatic Changes Using Niche Modeling And Genetic Data, Tereza Jezkova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Glacial – interglacial cycles have a pronounced impact on species distributions and genetic structure. Many species shift their distributions to lower latitudes and altitudes during the colder glacial periods and expand northwards and up the elevation during warmer interglacial periods. Some species however are capable of adapting to changing environment which allows them to persist in place despite climatic changes. I explored how climatic changes after the last glacial maximum (LGM) effected two species inhabiting the deserts of western North America: one mammal (Chisel-toothed Kangaroo Rat, Dipodomys microps) and one reptile (Desert Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma platyrhinos). I used …

Must Pay Now, David C. Perkins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

These poems attempt to stand amidst the towering shadows of Enlightenment. One of these pillars involves the newfound land from a collective western European vantage and these lands are called the Americas. This space is where these poems are located. They suckle at the monolithic breasts of Enlightened Romance as did Romulus and Remus to the She-Wolf. The poems in their own originality engage with writers such as Jonathan Edwards, Alice Notley, Susan Howe, Frank O’Hara, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, Christina Rossetti, William Blake, and John Cage. If there ever was such a thread in tradition, these people might …

Postmortem Examination Of Game Birds, David D. Frame

All Current Publications

The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide general guidance to producers in performing the necropsy procedure and to encourage them to perform regular postmortem examinations of their game bird flocks.

Wildlife Damage Management Series - Voles, Ben C. West, Terry A. Messmer

All Current Publications

Voles occupy a wide variety of habitats, depending on the species. Generally, voles prefer areas with heavy ground cover of grasses, grass-like plants, or litter. When two or more species inhabit an area, they generally occupy different habitats.

Hsp70 And Hsp40 Functionally Interact With Soluble Mutant Huntingtin Oligomers In A Classic Atp-Dependent Reaction Cycle, Gregor P. Lotz, Justin Legleiter, Rebecca Aron, Emily M. Sontag, Shao-Yi Huang, Cheping Ng, Charles G. Glabe, Leslie M. Thompson, Paul J. Muchowski

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Inclusion bodies of aggregated mutant huntingtin (htt) fragments are a neuropathological hallmark of Huntington disease (HD). The molecular chaperones Hsp70 and Hsp40 colocalize to inclusion bodies and are neuroprotective in HD animal models. How these chaperones suppress mutant htt toxicity is unclear but might involve direct effects on mutant htt misfolding and aggregation. Using size exclusion chromatography and atomic force microscopy, we found that mutant htt fragments assemble into soluble oligomeric species with a broad size distribution, some of which reacted with the conformation-specific antibody A11. Hsp70 associated with A11-reactive oligomers in an Hsp40- and ATP-dependent manner and inhibited their …

Judicial Case Management: Caught In The Crossfire, Steven S. Gensler

Duke Law Journal

For thirty years, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have relied on active Judicial case management to combat undue cost and delay The complaints about cost and delay have not gone away, but few blame the case-management rules for that Indeed, lawyers continue to view active judicial case management as one of the best ways of reducing cost and delay, and most of the reforms being urged today seek even greater Judicial case management for that reason But some think the rulemakers took a wrong turn thirty years ago and that each round of rulemaking that places more reliance on …

Donepezil And Galanin Interactions In An Animal Model Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Jonathan J. Sabbagh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder marked by a progressive loss of cognitive function. One of the neurobiological hallmarks of AD is a progressive loss of cholinergic neurons and a decrease in the amount of acetylcholine in the brain. Pharmacological therapies have targeted the cholinergic system, specifically first-line, palliative treatment using acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors, such as donepezil. Donepezil has been shown to increase cholinergic tone and ameliorate some of the cognitive deficits in AD patients. Galanin, a neuropeptide that inhibits the evoked release of several neurotransmitters including acetylcholine as well as modulates seveal intracellular cascades, is overexpressed in AD …

Modeling And Fuzzy Logic Controller Design For Laboratory Scale 3dof Uotcs Helicopter, Waladin K., Mothena Fakhri Shaker

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

The UOTCS (University Of Technology Control System) helicopter system is a laboratory scale experimental platform developed primarily for teaching system dynamics and control engineering principles to undergraduate students. It also provides an excellent research platform for control and mechatronics postgraduate students. This paper is concerned with the modeling and controllers design for the UOTCS helicopter to mimics its motion. The kinematics model was derived following the Denavit-Hartenberg theory while the dynamic model was based on Euler-Lagrange equations of motion. The helicopter mathematical model includes the inertias of the counterweight, the beams and the propeller motors. This model was found competent …

Equine Assisted Activities And Therapies, Carol C. Petitto

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation is composed of three essays in which each carefully examines an important aspect of the field of equine assisted activities and therapies (EAAT). In the first essay, I review how equine assisted activities and therapies should be considered as an early intervention to help facilitate communication skills in children with autism. The majority of participants in NARHA programs have autism, and therefore it is critical to appraise the validity of EAAT as a positive intervention. Respondents of NARHA centers to a survey on their use of assessments in tracking the progress of their participants indicated that only 7% …

Mythscapes: Violent Spaces In Postmodern Literature And Culture, Jonathan R. Harvey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This project focuses on British and American speculative novels written between the 1960s and the 2000s that position the reader to critique the contemporary world. Depictions of violent, fictional spaces, or what I call mythscapes, are playing an influential role in literary, political, religious, and even scientific discourses. The mythscape can initiate introspection on real issues by suggesting possible alternatives, conjecturing about potential consequences, and posing compelling comparisons. I define "mythscape" as an imagined space that features: a setting that is nonrealistic and radically different from, yet implicitly contrastive with, material reality; a rhetorical stance, which is inevitably grounded in …

Exploring The Utility Of A Giscience Approach To Modeling Invasive Species: A Case Study Of Ailanthus Altissima, Arthur Elmes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis investigated the potential for integration of remotely sensed and GIS data into an agent-based modeling environment in order to model seed dispersal and subsequent establishment of windborne seeds. In order to explore the applicability of agent-based modeling to predicting seed dispersal, a case study was carried out using the representative example species Ailanthus altissima, an invasive tree found throughout North America's temperate regions. Seed movement was modeled in two stages, primary and secondary dispersal; primary dispersal was calibrated using existing field data, while secondary dispersal was calibrated only qualitatively. Establishment potential was accounted for probabilistically, based on landuse …

Ecology Of Trifolium Stoloniferum (Muhl. Ex A. Eaton), A Federally Endangered Vascular Plant, At The Fernow Experimental Forest In West Virginia, John Q. Burkhart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis presents work addressing the ecology of Trifolium stoloniferum, a federally endangered vascular plant species, in the Fernow Experimental Forest, West Virginia. In this thesis, I describe the historical ecology of this species and make a case that at one time it occurred in great abundance in association with trails created by large mammals and humans that intersected rich, open forests. Similar conditions exist at the Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia, but instead of large mammals, the requisite soil disturbance, control of competing vegetation, and canopy perforation are created by timber-harvesting related disturbances, particularly gap creation by tree …

Developing A Cellular Assay For Screening Inhibitors Of Stat4 Phosphorylation, Vivian Marcela Suarez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In order to design better therapeutic strategies, scientists work on understanding the interactions that take place at cell level and have an effect on the immune system. In order to identify a few possible inhibitors that may be up-regulated in tumor environment and that may affect T-cell action, a cellular assay was designed. An Interleukin-12 (IL-12)-responsive murine Th1 cell clone called 2D6 was used as cellular model to study the effects of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), insulin, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) on the phosphorylation of Signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4), a key element in IL-12 signaling. Cells were …

Consumers' Attitudes Towards Traceability Of Food And Meat Products, Kulmani Rana

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to survey consumers on their support for Radio Frequency Identification tags on fruit and vegetable containers and their willingness to pay for traceability of meat products. Ironically, there is no single universally accepted definition of traceability. There is evidence that the US has fallen behind its major trading partners in terms of implementing a nationwide food traceability system. Researchers in the past have concluded that consumers' WTP for traceability increases significantly when bundled with additional assurances. There is real concern among consumers about implementation of traceability systems in food as well as meat products. …

The Mglur2/3 Agonist Ly397268 Improves Morphometric And Behavioral Outcomes In R6/2 Huntington's Disease Mice, Dennis Craig Lafferty

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

A prominent theory for the pathology of Huntington's Disease (HD) is the excitotoxic injury to the striatum. Continual exposure of ionotropic NMDA receptors to glutamate from the cortex can be excitotoxic in HD and leave striatal neurons vulnerable to damage. Activation of presynaptic mGluR2/3 by an agonist dampens glutamate release from corticostriatal terminals. Treatments that target excitoxicity and oxidative stress thus may improve some of the symptoms in HD patients and it is therefore logical to pursue therapies aimed in this direction. LY379268 is an inviting mGluR2/3 agonist that has been shown to be neuroprotective in hypoxic and ischemic injuries …

Mitochondrial Regulation Of Arterial Contractility, Damodaran Narayanan

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Rationale: Physiological functions of mitochondria in contractile arterial smooth muscle cells are poorly understood. Mitochondria can uptake calcium (Ca²⁺), but intracellular Ca²⁺ signals that regulate mitochondrial Ca²⁺ concentration ([Ca²⁺]_mito) and physiological functions of changes in [Ca²⁺]_mito in arterial smooth muscle cells are unclear.

Objective: Identify Ca²⁺ signals that regulate [Ca²⁺]_mito, examine the significance of changes in [Ca²⁺]_mito, and test the hypothesis that [Ca²⁺]_mito controls functional ion channel transcription in smooth muscle cells of resistance–size cerebral arteries.

Methods …

Therapeutic Gene Delivery To Human Pancreatic Islets For Treatment Of Diabetes And The Effect Of Tfo On Liver Fibrosis Induced By Bile Duct Ligation, Ravikiran Panakanti

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Ex vivo gene transfer can improve the outcome of islet transplantation for treating Type I diabetes. Earlier we have shown co‑expression of human vascular endothelial growth factor (hVEGF) and human interleukin‑1 receptor antagonist (hI‑1Ra) after transfection of plasmid DNA encoding these two genes. Due to poor transfection efficiency of plasmid DNA and the better known islet transduction efficiency of adenoviral (Adv) vectors, in this study, we constructed Adv‑hVEGF‑hIL‑1Ra by cloning hVEGF and hIL‑1Ra coding sequences and polyA signal under separate cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoters in Adenoquick plasmid (Ad 13.1). There was dose and time dependent expression of these genes after transduction …

Development And Evaluation Of Therapeutics In The Setting Of Radiation Injury, Karin Emmons Thompson

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The possibility of an incident involving radiation exposure is at the forefront of public attention in the current global environment. With a greater number of entities possessing nuclear weapons and increased demand for nuclear power, the concern for uncontained exposure to radiation is increasing. In light of these developments, the need for treatments that may be easily stored and administered to large numbers of people who have been exposed to high doses of total body irradiation (TBI) is more urgent than ever before.

Our goal was to identify and develop novel, drug-like small molecules that would exhibit radiomitigating activity for …

The Role Of Pkd1 In Mouse Inner Ear Hair Cells, Katherine Ann Steigelman

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The polycystic kidney disease-1 (Pkd1) gene encodes a large transmembrane protein (polycystin-1 or PC-1) that is reported to function as a fluid flow-sensor in the kidney. As a member of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family, PC-1 has also been hypothesized to play a role in the elusive mechanoelectrical transduction (MET) channel in inner ear hair cells based on PC-1 role of fluid flow sensing and calcium uptake into renal epithelial cells. However, two independent mouse lines with PC-1 mutations exhibit normal MET channel function despite hearing loss and ultra-structural abnormalities of stereocilia that remain properly polarized at …